Visual and Material Culture Research Centre (VMCRC)

The Visual and Material Culture Research Centre is dedicated to advancing the study of modern and contemporary art, design, film and performance. Our researchers engage with diverse visual and material cultures, focusing on Europe, the Middle East, North America and Japan. Through collaboration with leading institutions and organisations, the Centre explores writing, curating, exhibition-making and performance as interconnected practices.

We focus on five key areas of research.

• Alternative modernities, transnational encounters and networks
• Mobilisation of archives and collections: publication, exhibition, film and digital platforms
• Sites of material and immaterial heritage
• Forms of intervention in social practice: art and cultural activism
• An expanded visual culture: histories and practices of urban culture, photography, performance and film.

Our researchers produce pioneering works funded by organisations such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), The Leverhulme Trust, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, The Wellcome Trust, The Henry Moore Foundation, The Henkel Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the British Academy, the British Council, Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Highlights include:

• Dr Chris Horrocks, The Joy of Sets: A Short History of the Television (2017) – Exploring the TV set as both a material object and image receiver.
• Dr Jonathan Black, Winston Churchill in British Art, 1900 to the Present Day: the Titan with many faces (2017) – Analysing Churchill's evolving image in visual art.
• Professor Stephen Barber, Pierre Guyotat: Revolutions and Aberrations (2016) – An exploration of the avant-garde writer's influence.
• Dr Natasha Adamou, Shade Between Rings of Air (2016) – Investigating architectural replication as sculpture.

War in the Sunshine: The British in Italy 1917–1918

In collaboration with the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, Dr Jonathan Black curated this exhibition featuring artworks by Sydney Carline and wartime photographers Ernest Brooks and William Joseph Brunell. The project cast new light on the British role in Italy during World War I.

Eadweard Muybridge: Pioneer Photographer and Moving Image Maker

Partnering with Kingston Museum, this AHRC-funded initiative celebrates Muybridge’s contributions to photography and motion studies. Publications include Muybridge: The Eye in Motion and Performance Projections: Film and the Body in Action.

The Art of Intervention: Critical Enquiries into Intersections of Private and Public Memory in Contemporary Japanese Art

This ongoing research project looks at contemporary performative art practices in Japan to explore how national and transnational identities are shifting. The work is in collaboration with Japan’s Kyoto Seika University and Keio University in Tokyo.