|
The Indian Temple: Production, Place and Patronage |
Temples dominated the landscape of India between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Protected by kings and widely supported by endowments and other gifts, temples enjoyed ascendancy as centres of religious life, socio-economic power and artistic production. Although much research has been carried out on temple architecture since the late nineteenth century, important questions remain about how temples were patronised and constructed and the place they occupied in a medieval Indian polity. Three general themes, each with a corresponding question, have provided a framework for the research:
Production (Adam Hardy)- How were temples designed and built?
Place (Michael Willis - What was the social and political role of medieval Indian temples?
Patronage (Daud Ali)- What was the king’s role as a patron of architecture and Sanskrit letters?
In addressing these broad themes, one temple site, paradigmatic of medieval Indian in general, has been taken as the starting point for the project. This is the site of Bhojpur, near Bhopal in central India, where a gigantic temple was left unfinished in the mid-eleventh century. It is associated with King Bhoja, one of India's most notable monarchs. Around the temple are quarries with rock drawings and unfinished architectural parts, a unique survival providing insights into medieval processes of design and construction. Adam Hardy the explored these processes, fully documenting the Bhojpur site and making detailed measurements of numerous temples. The builder of the unfinished temple was King Bhoja, a renowned polymath who composed important works on art, philosophy, yoga and poetics. Daud Ali has examined Bhoja's literary output, and his post-medieval reputation as an ideal king. Temples of this period received land and other revenue as endowments. Michael Willis has analysed the origins of this system and has studied the geographical distribution of temples and their endowments, shedding light on the place of the temple in the society and economy of the medieval state.
|
|
Staging Exile, Migration and Diaspora in Hispanic Theatre and Performance Cultures |
The project focuses on Spanish Republican Exile (SRE) theatre and performance, aiming to recover, represent and help to preserve the full range of representation of the experience of exile in theatrical and performance texts and paratexts (histories, memoirs, reviews, criticism, photographs and audiovisual recordings), by contributing to the creation, updating and maintenance of the Centre for the Study of Hispanic Exile's bibliographical database and stand-alone web resource on SRE, and by bringing together key researchers on Spanish Exile Theatre and Performance in a series of panels within the conference on 'Geographies of Exile' to be held at the University of Birmingham in 2008, in order to publish an edited volume on 'Stages of Exile'. The Exile Remains database was created as part of a British-Academy project led by Professor Francis Lough, to provide an open access interactive searchable resource on Spanish Republican Exile culture. Researchers working on the 'Staging Exile' project have contributed entries on the biographies, works, reception and trajectories of 80+ dramatists, musicians and practitioners, including time-lines, google maps, full bibliographical data and records of performances. |
|
Women in Modern Irish Culture |
The database includes a whole range of publications, such as novels, articles, poems, memoirs, travel writing, essays, cookery writing, plays, films, etc. The database also provides biographical details, where available, such as birth dates, date of death, place of birth and death, places associated with a particular author, together with all known pseudonyms. Every known edition of a book, play, or film is listed, along with details of printers and publishers for each work. The project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, was led by Professor Maria Luddy of the University of Warwick and Professor Gerardine Meaney of University College Dublin and the database has been designed by Robert O'Toole of Elab, University of Warwick. |
|
An investigation into what constitutes a reproduction in the 20th Century, through the 19th Century collotype process |
This project challenged the notion of what constitutes a reproduction in the light of 21st Century digital technology and print output through an evaluation through visual and practical research into 19th Century photomechanical print processes, in particular the process of collotype. Whilst the contemporary half-tonal system is a commercially economical means of printing, the resulting images do not fully attain the same depth of colour or image clarity as those produced by either chemical photography or the screenless photomechanical printing processes in use at the end of the 19th century. The advent of digital technology has made it possible to emulate and improve some of the once difficult pre-press tasks conducted for the production of these early high-quality printing processes. The objective of the research was to make a thorough appraisal of the 19th century collotype process, define its position in the 21st century as a fine art reproduction or an original artwork and whether the collotype can be produced integrating 21st century technology. |
|
Out of the Wings |
Out of the Wings brings the untapped riches of the theatres of Spain and Spanish America to English-speaking theatre professionals – practitioners and researchers alike. The virtual environment will reveal the plays as well as the bodies of knowledge that inform and sustain professional practice within Hispanic cultures. In this way, users will be able to access the type of information that will open up the theatre to their interests and purpose.
Users will be able to search through a comprehensive database of Spanish-language plays (either generically under Golden Age, Modern Spanish and Spanish American or by key words – genre, type of play, number of characters, theme, etc.) to find the play or plays that are relevant to their own programming or research needs.
The entries of individual plays will all be contextualised through synopsis, sample translation, production notes, critical responses and performance history, and a final section will guide users towards a directory of theatre translators. |
