Ms Maxine Beuret
Contact
- Email: k1703227@kingston.ac.uk
- Location: Kingston School of Art, Knights Park
- Faculty: Kingston School of Art
- School: School of Arts
- Department: Department of Film and Photography
- Personal website
Research project: ‘Two Pints Please': What is the cultural heritage of door-step milk delivery with electric milk floats in England in the early 21st Century? An inclusive and creative study (2005-2023).
Abstract
Working electric milk floats in England have stood the test of time to come back into fashion and have renewed relevance due to environmental concerns and the growth in the use of electric vehicles. Electric milk floats were first introduced during the 1930s, but the majority came into service after the Second World War. The term 'float' describes a flatbed trade vehicle. Because they were a common sight on Britain's roads from the 1940s until the 1990s (Gray, 2023), they are largely culturally associated with the extended 20th century post-war period. The research project was undertaken in collaborative partnerships with four independent and one corporate dairy, which, at the time, had working electric milk floats and The Transport Museum Wythall.
- Research degree: Practice-based PhD
- Title of project: ‘Two Pints Please': What is the cultural heritage of door-step milk delivery with electric milk floats in England in the early 21st Century? An inclusive and creative study (2005-2023).
- Research supervisor: Abbe Fletcher
- Other research supervisors:
Biography
Maxine Beuret is a creative cultural historian of the commonplace. She is drawn to unchanged places and objects that may be in danger of disappearing with no record of their tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Combining archival research with creative ethnographic exploration in partnership, she creates multidimensional data that simultaneously discovers and enables her to depict cultural heritage to share research outcomes with wider audiences. Two of her projects, 'Departure of the Slam-door Trains' and 'Familiar Interiors of Leicester', are part of permanent museum collections. She is the chairperson of Creative Oral History, a special interest group within the Oral History Society, and is currently studying for her PhD at Kingston University School of Art, looking at the Cultural Heritage of working electric milk floats in partnership with several dairies and the Transport Museum Wythall, who has the biggest collection of milk floats in the world.
Areas of research interest
- Cultural Heritage in the Commonplace
- Design History
- Public History
- Photography
- Digital Storytelling
- Creative Sensory Ethnography
- Phenomenology
- Aesthetics
- Humour
- Collaboration
Qualifications
- BA Applied Arts (First Class) , Middlesex University
- Post Graduate Certificate Photography, St Martins College of Art
- MA Photography, De Montfort University
Funding or awards received
- London Doctoral Design PhD Funding (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
- Arts Council England, Hastings Heritage Trail
- Arts Council England, A Nation of Shopkeepers