Weaving Complex Historical Narratives Through Sonic & Visual Artistic Practice

This presentation, explores the interdisciplinary research collaboration on Drunk? Adventures in 16th Century Brewing, a practice-research based film engaging food historians, archaeologists, craftspeople, visual and sonic artists in documenting the experimental archaeological process to recreate and analyse the components of 16th century beer. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, this project is part of a wider study, FoodCult, exploring the period 1550-1650, one of major economic development and intercultural contact, but also of conquest, colonisation, and war. It focused on Ireland as a case-study for understanding the role of food and drink in as a site for the development of emergent ‘national’ food cultures. With unprecedented access to recent archaeological discoveries and evidence, the project developed a ground-breaking interdisciplinary approach, merging micro-historical analytical techniques with science, culinary history, experimental archaeology and creative filmmaking, to examine the consumption and exchange of food and drink, at a level of detail deemed impossible for Irish history, and moving well beyond the colonial narrative of Irish social and economic development. Behind the lens, the film crew themselves were drawn into the manuscripts, landscape, archaeology, crops, harvesting, brewing, beer tasting, adapting to the challenges of filming and communicating complex historical discoveries, and processes through film, sound design, animation and an original score. With a focus on meaning rather than measurement from the creative practice approach, this co-designed study demonstrates the benefits of ‘radical interdisciplinarity’. From untapped manuscripts, sourcing ingredients, building a brewhouse, to studying the results and challenging myths around drink culture, the speculative design approach of sonic and visual artistic practice foregrounded rigour, creativity and storytelling in weaving together theory and practice.

• https://www.foodcult.eu