Moose on the Loose Biennale of Research 2015: Archives in Time and Space

Curation of the 2015 Biennale of Research held at LCC, across UAL and externally. The programme included exhibitions, symposia, conferences, study days, film programme, and commissioned interventions.

Moose on the Loose explores the synergy and energy of research. Organized by the UAL Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC) at the London College of Communication,and curated by Val Williams, it took place across UAL and further afield. Moose is open and curious, with a sense of occasion and event. From discussions to symposiums, from archive displays to curated exhibitions, it celebrates research initiatives with wide ranging themes, from design activism to the intersection of poetry and film.

The 2015 Moose exhibition programme explored archives of time and place, from Paul Lowe’s panoramas of war-torn Bosnia, to Work Stations, Anna Fox’s chronicle of 1980s’ office life. From Tom Hunter’s Library Books and the wandering Museum of Reinvention, to archive objects from the Directory of British Photography Collections, the archive is mediated by contemporary curatorial vision.

As commentators discuss the resonance of the digital, emerging photographers revert to the analogue. Shadows, a symposium created by the London Alternative Photography Collective, explored this.

David Campany delivered the Moose 2015 Lecture, on the magazine work of Walker Evans, exploring the archives of this monumental figure. Once again, we worked with Alexander Cooper of LCC Letterpress, who has created a new set of works-Six Arctic Animals.

The archive has been the subject of major documentary films, and Moose Cinema is a major part of the 2015 Biennale. 'Finding Vivian Maier' uses archives to explore family and society and opened the Women and Wit Firecrackers symposium. In a new film 'To be destroyed', Sara Davidmann’s journey from archive to artwork is an extraordinary story. Film archive was explored via films by Len Lye and in a selection of British Council documentaries from the 1940s. The Martin Parr film season and screening presented films from the 1990s to the present, with Parr in conversation with Nicholas Barker. Pratap Rughani’s Justine was discussed in the context of contemporary social issues.

Study days explored topics current in theoretical and historical thinking: feminism in ‘70s photography and the synergy between photography and performance.

The People’s Bureau was in residence at LCC, sharing their community archive and inviting participation and collaboration at a time of immense change.

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