Re:Interpretation: the representation of perspectives on slave trade history using creative media

Sobers, Shawn; Mitchell, Rob

Abstract

This chapter describes the process, production and context of Re:Interpretation, a participatory media project carried out by Firstborn Creatives in partnership with the National Trust. The brief was to explore the challenging subject of transatlantic slavery and its connection with National Trust properties, and the feelings and opinions of invited groups towards those histories. Delving into the National Trust’s own archives, Bristol Records Office and academic research, the invited groups (age ranged from approximately 10 through to 75 years old) produced a range of creative responses and commentary to their findings and also their own personal emotional responses and collective memory. The multi-layering design of the Re:Interpretation allowed for those dynamics to be explored and incorporated into the design structure to enrich the overall narrative, into an interactive exhibit.

The chapter discusses the direct and indirect responses to the history that was explored during the project by the participant groups, and the relationship to notions of identity and place in relation to subjective and objective narrative discourses. The project highlights the pivotal role creative media can play in research contexts, and approaches to participatory methodologies when working with sensitive subjects and themes of the legacy of historical events.

• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Sep 18, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 132-139
• Book Title: Slavery and the British Country House
• ISBN: 9781848020641
• Keywords: slavery, slave trade, participatory media, interactive documentary, British country houses, action research
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/930168
• Publisher URL: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/slavery-and-british-country-house/
• Contract Date: May 24, 2016