To plant: to bring theoretical, live and creative reflexive practices to studies of groups, organisations and institutions.
To be planted: research that grows within living organisations, through people, ideas and their meetings.
To be a plant: researching in the liminal space between inside and outside, covert or overt; navigating and storytelling against/towards academic/practice positions.
Plant is a network to support embedded research within art, architectural and civic organisations. We investigate the creative spaces, objects, and practices surrounding, and produced through, embedded research projects.
This site is a collection of embedded research PROJECTS and associated RESOURCES.
Plant has been established to make the diversity of collaborative hosted relations within embedded research projects visible and explore connections between peer practices. The network aims to critically reflect on the different embedded research positions which have been adopted in relation to non-academic host organisations. With this in mind, a LEXICON of embedded research has started to emerge, allowing projects to be categorised by relationships, methods, collaborators, co-productions, and spaces.
Our working definition of embedded research︎︎︎
2024
To be planted: research that grows within living organisations, through people, ideas and their meetings.
To be a plant: researching in the liminal space between inside and outside, covert or overt; navigating and storytelling against/towards academic/practice positions.
Plant is a network to support embedded research within art, architectural and civic organisations. We investigate the creative spaces, objects, and practices surrounding, and produced through, embedded research projects.
This site is a collection of embedded research PROJECTS and associated RESOURCES.
Plant has been established to make the diversity of collaborative hosted relations within embedded research projects visible and explore connections between peer practices. The network aims to critically reflect on the different embedded research positions which have been adopted in relation to non-academic host organisations. With this in mind, a LEXICON of embedded research has started to emerge, allowing projects to be categorised by relationships, methods, collaborators, co-productions, and spaces.
Our working definition of embedded research︎︎︎
2024
Plant started as a series of open online meetings (2021 –
2022). For these, we picked a short reading/ resource/ provocation related
embedded research as a prompt for discussion. More
recently, our activities have been sporadic, and in response to specific invitations
and opportunities – such as a recent article for Sluice magazine.
Please get in touch if you have ideas or would like to do a project/event with Plant.
Please get in touch if you have ideas or would like to do a project/event with Plant.
LEXICON
Methods
archival
creative writing
curatorial
ethnography
interdisciplinary
international
mapping
narrative inquiry
participant-observation participation
practice-based
public programming
xeno-
archival
creative writing
curatorial
ethnography
interdisciplinary
international
mapping
narrative inquiry
participant-observation participation
practice-based
public programming
xeno-
The Personal Library
of Barbara Hepworth: A Case Study in the Curation and Interpretation of
Artists’ Libraries
Keywords: quasi-staff member, archival, curatorial, public programming, exhibitions, public programming, research workshops, interpretation, Wakefield, library, gallery
Artists’
libraries are generally an understudied area of the legacy of an artist and
have an uncertain status as to both value and use. Taking the case study of the
personal library of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, formerly housed at The
Hepworth Wakefield, this thesis combines archival research with a curatorial
intervention to demonstrate the value of such traditionally overlooked areas of
knowledge in the study of both Hepworth’s work, and that of artists more widely.
Integrated Knowledges, Integrated Publics: Classificatory Practices, Boundary Crossings, and Public Space at The Hive, Worcester
Keywords: observer, ethnography,creative writing, participant-observation, publications, staff briefings, library, public realm, West Midlands, academic realm
Thesis was a multi-layered ethnography (one year intensive with multiple catch-up visits over 4 years) of a joint-use academic and public library which used lived methods (including dwelling, doodling and ficto-critical description) to examine shifting conceptions and productions of space around hard and soft classifications (public/academic, belonging/non-belonging, private/public, valued/not-valued). The ethnography situated my experience as a “shy researcher” (albeit one with Shy Pride) and developed doodle practices that emphasised inhabiting (the library’s) rhythms rather than—necessarily—directly interacting with it.