THURSDAY, 6TH AUGUST – Symposium
Descriptions of presentations
Panel 1 Heritage and gender
Shipyard is the woman: Her/stories of the shipyard workers and protest – Anna Miler and
Joanna Ilczyszyn
We have been collecting stories about the shipyard from Gdansk shipyard’s workers since
2012 as a part of Metropolitanka and “Stocznia jest kobietą” (Shipyard is a woman) projects.
We are especially kin on stories about women – their professions, work conditions, joining
family life and duties at work, social life and rituals. Up to now we have prepared maps for
visiting former shipyard’s area, audio guide, two audio books based on collected information.
Between 2015 and 2016 we are working on application, publication and next audio books,
which will popularize knowledge about female shipyard workers. Our aim is to change way of
thinking about shipyard as a men’s workplace and to reopen a discussion about former
shipyard’s area and its meaning for our city. We organize workshops for former female and
male shipyard’s workers. They are learning how to use new technologies. They try writing
down their own memories, digitalizing photos, communicating through various social media.
As a result of these workshops we are reactivating the shipyard community.
Meanwhile narratives: A creative investigation into the role of women in protest movements in
Govan – tara s Beall
This presentation will outline an ongoing, durational public art project I initiated in 2013 as part
of doctoral research with/in the Riverside Museum and partner organisations in Govan.
Creative research was undertaken by a team of Govanites and Glasgow Museum staff to
recover information on women's roles in the 1915 Rent Strikes, the 1971 Upper Clyde
Shipbuilder's Work-In, and the 1996 Kinning Park Sit-In. The team devised and led a 'guided
walk and public art action' on 28 Nov 2013, sharing some of what we found and highlighting
questions around what we didn't. Much of what we recovered was punctuated by gaps, where
little or no recorded information was available – and this absence became one of several core
thematics to our collaborative enquiry.
Representing women in protest in Govan and Glasgow: Screenings. Through feminist lens Prof. Katarzyna Kosmala
The presentation highlights invisibility of women histories and fragmentation of media
narratives with regard to women’s movements in the 20th C. Drawing on film, and in particular
Red Skirts on Clydeside (1984) by the Sheffield’s Film Co-op, the feminist lens on women in
protest will be reflected upon, including representation of the 1915 Rent Strike in Govan and
Glasgow, as well as women’s role in politics more generally.
Panel 2 Discourses of cultural and intangible heritage
The cultural and social concepts of memory
The aim of the presentation is to discuss the concepts of cultural and social memory in the
context of the shipyard demolishing and the attempts of protecting postindustrial heritage. In
general, social memory can be defined as socially constructed and modified knowledge
referred to the past of certain community. In case of Gdansk Shipyard this knowledge is strictly
connected with that place. Thus, there is a need to include spatial dimension by combining the
concept of social memory with the concepts of sites of memory.
In absence of memory: Odd numbers - Lee Ivett Baxendale
ODD NUMBERS is a participatory public art project delivered in collaboration with LoveMilton
in the north Glasgow community of Milton. Inspired through conversation with the people of
Milton; Nicola Atkinson [NADFLY] has created 365 unique stoneware creatures that give form
to peoples idea of themselves as a creature or animal. The creatures have been exhibited in
various locations across the community with local people being given the opportunity to select
and adopt a creature for a two week period. During this period the participant was tasked with
producing a creative response that acted as a record of their time with the creature; the
simplest response being to give it a name. The creatures, now with their own identities,
mythologies and character have been returned to the artists and will be buried within Milton to
create a future place of archaeology.
Real and imagined voices (pre-industrial, early industrial, heavy industrial): How they can be
heard? - Andrew McAvoy
Govan in organisational and democratic terms preexists the city that now encompasses it.
Through various stages of western Industrialisation it has pioneered and advanced at a rate
outweighing its size. It's geographical position has allowed for great prosperity and reinventing
itself again and again. With the demise of heavy Industry in Scotland Govan has been largely
raised to the ground and it has shown for several decades signs of mutiple deprivation. It's
relationship to Its administration in Glasgow does not allow for autonomy and the major
decisions being made about it are broad brush stroke infrastructure ones. It stands presently
to be overwritten as an independent geography.
Panel 3 Intangible heritage and post-industrial water heritage zones
Elements of intangible heritage in the Gdansk Shipyard - Dr Waldemar Affelt
Elements of intangible heritage in the Gdansk Shipyard Cultural heritage of technology
embodies intangible elements. They relate to specific skills and knowledge of broad variety of
production tasks in harmful and raw open air environment, to esprit de corps of workers team,
to certain places of social memory forming scene of meaningful historic events, to buildings
setting and spatial layout reflecting land formation in the past, and to the names of the places
given them for some reason. Moreover Technische Hochschule zu Danzig open in 1904
received rich decoration related to the maritime theme and through this to the Gdansk
shipyards.
The use of heritage in altering the perception of a place: The case of Leith, Scotland - John
Mullen
John will discuss various forms of representation of the heritage of Leith, why they were
installed and for what motives, and their effect on both the community and people on the
outside. He will focus on the heritage plaque project and the historically themed murals of
1981 onwards, to the recent installation of seemingly out of place objects and reinvented
place-names, and the notion of 'authenticity'.
‘Govan A Reconnection’ – A photo essay & investigations into place: Tom Manley
Govan so strongly associated with the industrialization of the river Clyde, yet today its heritage
becomes intangible because society’s mechanisms have changed leaving it ‘psychologically
disconnected from its raison d’etre. Using Photography in Govan as a tool to question and
analyze space, my investigations and conversations with a network of people in Govan have
sought to find appropriate and shared futures for the place, drawing on my background and
interest in architecture, regeneration areas and contested sites. Both Water Row and Govan
Graving Docks are sites strongly associated with the industrialization of the River Clyde. They
are complex, inspiring and offer a lot of potential to the ongoing regeneration of Govan.
Through photographs this presentation attempts to show an underlying physical and emotional
essence to the area, and incorporates some of an ongoing ‘Govan A Reconnection’ project
within supporting conversation around social cultural heritage, and how to create a shared
understanding about the future of contested spaces.
Panel 4 Intangible heritage and urban planning: Architectural re-use
Urban expectations towards buildings: The case of Toolmakers Street - Prof. Jacek Dominiczak
Urban planning & design practices are finally refocusing their attention from transport &
building services to habitable public spaces. It happens under open pressure of urban
communities who do not accept submissions of their open spaces to buildings’ needs
anymore, who smartly expect buildings to serve public spaces. Such change, when
considered professionally, switches the directions of primary expectations within design
processes. Now (and again) the urban planning & design sequences begin with formulating
the problems of local public space and then expect both old and new buildings to participate in
solving them. This seems to be the marker of contemporary advanced dialogue between cities
and their buildings, between planners and urban designers and architects as well as citizens.
The panoptic gaze: The case of Liverpool Docklands. Decoding and response through the
language of film - Dr Ben Parry
“Terminus” is a cinematic reflection of the transformation of the Liverpool docklands, from port
city to cultural city. The film acts as a portrait of the port as it is now that opens an imaginative
space for constructing both imaginary and physical borders. By recapturing the historical
journey of the former Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) 1893-1957, which towered above the
high boundary walls and offered tourists unobstructed panoramic views of the working life of
the port, the spaces of geographic dislocation and social absence are brought back to public
view.