Abstract
The Millbank Atlas: Catalysing Practice-based Research in a Spirit of the Civic University
By Marsha Bradfield & Shibboleth Shechter, Chelsea College of Arts, UK
For too long, Chelsea College of Arts has operated in a bubble, sealed off from its surrounding neighbourhood in London, UK. The Millbank Atlas aims to buck this trend as an ongoing collaboration that convenes staff and student researchers based at the College with local residents and others. This paper considers the Atlas as a case study for unleashing practice-based research in cultural production beyond academia, the art world and the design sector. The spirit of civic learning for a civil society that animates this community-engaged cartographic project both exemplifies and challenges the new participatory paradigm that has marked the social, cultural, economic, technological and other dimensions of life in the UK in recent decades. In what follows we explore this participation as a catalyst for the Atlas as a community of practice/practice of community as it coordinates research in the local neighbourhood, embedding research in the curriculum and disseminating it as research outcomes. We conclude this presentation of the Atlas by underscoring its significance in relation to questions that propelled the 2017 conference of the Art of Research.
Author keywords
civic university, community engagement, cultural narratives, mapping, participatory paradigm, practice-based research in art and design, space