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This exposition is drawn from the findings of Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre which is an artistic research project involving Sarah Bennett, Andrew Bracey, and Danica Maier. This exposition has been divided into two main sections and a Landing Page, which offers two choices to explore the exposition, through a controlled manner or through a rummage.

The Controlled Section introduces the project and its core concerns; the Rummage Section enables the visitor to explore the archive materials utilised and artworks created. We invite the visitor to engage with the exposition either through a controlled or rummage approach to navigation. Either approach will reveal a critical understanding of the research journey and our findings, as well as exposing the artworks created. The visitor can flip between the controlled and rummage sections by returning to the landing page at any point or using the tip and bummock icons found on both pages. 

Controlled Section: The introductory part of the exposition on this page guides you through the thought processes and workings of the Bummock project, similar to the familiar and visible tip of the iceberg. This page gives an overview of the project, the Tennyson Research Centre (TRC), our approach, our research methods, and an overview of the artworks. There is an indicated pathway offered by following the dotted guide or icons found to the side of text. Visitors are also invited to find their own path through this page by adopting a rummaging approach.

Rummage Section: Visitors can enter and explore this page via their own path, taking a non-linear route more reminiscent of rummaging through an archive. This approach is analogous to uncovering the metaphorical submerged and less clear bummock of the iceberg lurking in the depths. Visitors are encouraged to zoom in and out, move around, and explore items in the rummage section. This exploratory approach could also be applied to the controlled section. On this rummage page, visitors can navigate through each individual artistic researcher's critical responses to three themes — past, recent, and next — by moving diagonally downwards or by exploring thematically across Bennett, Bracey, and Maier's responses horizontally before moving down to the next theme. Additionally, a less-ordered, more spontaneous rummage can be undertaken through the research findings.

The Conclusion is found on the far right of the rummage page as a collective overview of findings derived from individual and collective critical responses. It takes into account the broader impact and potential applications beyond the scope of this specific project. Throughout the project, the three artists engaged in an ongoing dialogue with each other, and these conversations were captured and elaborated upon in a three-way recorded unpublished discussion before the exhibition that is referenced in this exposition. This dialogue is complemented by the publication of a book about the project—also titled Bummock: Tennyson Research Project (2022)—which includes interviews with each artist. [1] 

Why Tennyson Research Centre?

Maier and Bracey selected the TRC as an archive for the second iteration of Bummock: New Artistic Approaches to Unseen Parts of the Archive because they were already familiar with its uncommonly found open access policy, facilitated by the custodianship of Grace Timmins. The archive, found in Lincoln, England, is located twenty-five miles from the Victorian poet's birthplace and childhood home—the Rectory at Somersby, Lincolnshire, and holds a vast array of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's annotated manuscripts, correspondences, possessions, his library, as well as items and collected materials related to his extended family (in all, circa 13,000 items). Significantly, at the start of the five-year research project Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre, the main part of the archive, connected to Tennyson himself, was housed in the central dome of Lincoln City Library and was only partially catalogued—owing in part to the way in which it had been accumulated piece-meal over the years through bequests, purchases and donations. While the archival boxes relating to the wider family were held in storage rooms along the hallway and were only very partially and generically labelled, they at least verified that the archive was not the Alfred, Lord Tennyson Research Centre, and that it encompassed his extensive family—siblings, ancestors, and descendants, and this would prove of consequence when the artists embarked on their controlled rummage during their first residency at the TRC.

Bracey and Maier had envisaged that, for the overall research project, each selected archive would provide a distinct and particular archival context within which the artistic research would take place, and that this would enable comparisons to be made. For example, what would be the effects (if any) of an archive being relevant, or alternatively not relevant, to the extant research interests of the participating artists. As already stated, it was the specific circumstances of the TRC holdings—the atypical set-up and access arrangements—that had been the enticement for Bracey and Maier to include it in their longitudinal research project, and when they came together with co-artist Sarah Bennett and archive-holder Grace Timmins for their first shared encounter with the archive, there was a palpable sense of anticipation—of being on the brink of potentially tantalising encounters. Where might our glances fall? What digressions might materialise? Could apparent mundanity reveal (or conceal) rich strands of enquiry, i.e., substance that proves significant for the emergent artistic research? It was in that moment, as Grace Timmins began to share her informal, yet informed and abundant insights into the TRC, that the decision to work with the TRC was vindicated, despite all three artists admitting to an ambivalence towards this poet's oeuvre.

Prompted by the three artists' curiosity, Timmins revealed some of the 'tip' items that were stored in a fireproof safe, such as the original manuscript of In Memoriam, a personal letter from Queen Victoria to Alfred, the small scissors—deemed to have done 'everything' in Tennyson's bedroom as he lay on his deathbed. She also teasingly shared her own favourite items, one of which was a common book of Tennyson's poems with an exquisitely delicate and detailed fore-edge painting [2] of Farringford—Tennyson’s home on the Isle of Wight—the image being visible on the closed text-block of the book. She also disclosed that she would no longer be employed in the archive, as the archive was due to be moved from the library to the Lincolnshire Archives, where it would be fully catalogued and located between a storage facility and a dedicated TRC study space, the latter reflecting the historical status of Tennyson as Queen Victoria's Poet Laureate [3]. Objects would be catalogued separately from papers, manuscripts and correspondences, and access would require all the usual protocols, mediated through a digital catalogue system and requests enacted by trained archivists (which Timmins was not). Ironically, when the artists tried to find the book with the fore-edge painting in the newly situated TRC, the painting's existence appeared not to have been noticed or at least not recorded in the catalogue. They never found that book again.

The three artists spent time in the TRC at several points during the project, and the resulting practice outputs were shown in the Collection Museum, Lincoln, England in 2022, alongside key archival items central to the research such as the childhood notebooks of Emily and Alfred's eldest son, Hallam; the receipts for board, lodging, and attire spanning the fifty years that Edward, one of Alfred’s younger brothers, spent in a private 'mad-house' in York; a collection of flimsy patterns for embroidered dress collars, belonging to Alfred's daughter-in-law, Audrey; and personal photographs and letters sent to Fryn Tennyson Jesse—Alfred's great niece. The historical and contemporary sat together in a flat hierarchy of objects, ideas, thoughts, and entanglements made manifest. Crucially the exhibiting format is treated as an 'exhibition-laboratory' [4] to recognise that the research is still being tested at this stage, as opposed to representing final conclusions and further evidenced by work being publicly shown throughout the project. This approach to research recognises the importance of learning through doing and continuing dialogue. The knowledge gained from the whole process is then disseminated through future exhibitions, an accompanying publication (Bracey and Maier 2022), conference papers, and journal articles such as this exposition. 

The genealogy in a freshly created 'Tennyson Family Tree' was developed from one found in the TRC in an early research visit in 2017. The family tree was developed by the three artists both as a way of personally being able to work out the connections between the disparate family members, include extended family members, and illuminate connections within the artworks to the Maier family. Furthermore, the family tree is a way to help the audience of the exhibitions, and now this exposition to navigate the Tennyson family. Included on the family tree is a clear indication highlighted through a colour-coded system of the family members explored by each artist during the Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre artistic research project. Clarity on the 'bummock' of the Tennyson (and Maier) genealogy can be helpful when discovering more about the three artistic researchers' work, by referring back-and-forth to the family tree. 

Additional family information was sourced from the following websites: ancestors.familysearch.org, ancestry.co.uk, geni.com, livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk, myheritage.com, peoplepill.com, queenslandfamilytrees.com, thepeerage.com, wikidata.org, wikipedia.com, and wikitree.com (accessed November 2021).

Overview of Bummock: Artists and Archives

A bummock is the greatest mass of the iceberg located beneath the water's surface; similarly, archives contain more material than is regularly seen or accessed. Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre is part of an ongoing artistic research project entitled Bummock: New Artistic Approaches to Unseen Parts of the Archive (Bummock project) led by artistic researchers Andrew Bracey and Danica Maier, with art historian Dr Sian Vaughan. The first iteration took place in the Lace Archive, Nottingham (Barnett and others. 2019; Bracey and Maier  2020) and as a pilot project it established key priorities to be tested in future iterations. Like the bummock of an iceberg, the overall Bummock project is focused on the large part of archives submerged beneath the surface and on items selected from the vast array of material held within archives that are rarely brought out, sometimes forgotten, or not known to be held there. Often it is the significant items within archives and collections that are showcased to the public. Decision-making for deciding value and routes to access can often be subjectively decided by a narrow field of individuals. This alternative to the tip utilises and celebrates the hidden, unseen, and sometimes even uncatalogued items.

As artistic researchers, we examine how the approach to accessing archives can be different from the method of standard practice. Commonly, the researcher navigates the archive’s catalogue to narrow down and discover the specific material they want to call up for study (Alphen 2014: 53-57). In Bummock we choose to bypass the catalogue to engage with materials directly, establishing a 'controlled rummage' method as an alternative approach. The controlled rummage method allows for the unknown and not-knowing to take priority in the research enquiry. Bypassing the archive's catalogue and utilising other ways to find items in the physical archive encourages curiosity (the 'what is that?' moments abound) and shines a light on unseen, forgotten, or undervalued things. The archive is movable, cyclical, and not a fixed thing —much like when an iceberg turns, the bummock becomes the tip.

The latest development of the Bummock project explores, examines, and creates new artistic research from five years working with the TRC. A third artist researcher is invited to participate in each iteration of the Bummock project, to act as a variable element set against the consistent (control) involvement of Maier and Bracey.  This recent iteration in the TRC has seen artist researcher Dr Sarah Bennett join the project. Bummock: Tennyson Research Centre was initially based on a series of collective residency periods within the archive, followed by studio residency periods developing the artistic research at a distance from the TRC, as well as further individual studio time. We are grateful to our funders, Arts Council England, Nottingham Trent University, University of Lincoln, and the further support of Birmingham City University, Kingston University, The Collection and Usher Gallery, and Lincolnshire Archives, without which this project would not have been possible. See the project timeline for a graphical overview of how the project progressed by clicking on this link https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1576308/2474634#tool-2488646.

Controlled Rummage (verb) : 

The controlled rummage is a method of approaching research within an archive or collection taking direct engagement with the material as the primary access point. […] The controlled rummage works best through bypassing the catalogue and engaging directly with the space of the archive and the materiality of the items held within. This approach also uses the specialist knowledge of the archivist, to help identify what is the bummock of the individual archive.

(Bracey and Maier 2020: 13)

The Controlled Rummage

Architect and academic Markus Miessen previously researched alternative ways to enable archives to become productive. This was partly based on realising that: 'One of the notorious mistakes that one makes is to think that one already knows what one is looking for when approaching archives, or in fact to set up an archival structure this way' (Bailey and Miessen 2016: 23). This observation by Miessen is something echoed in Bummock's ethos from its inception and has cultivated our use of unconventional access routes to research within an archive, through the controlled rummage method. 

Olalquiaga states that research is:

'going through the "trash of history," as [Walter] Benjamin might have called it: rummaging through piles of dead stock, either fetishized as the objects of collections, formalized in the documents of archives, or scattered in those residues of experience we call memories. Reconstituting them provides us with the enormous pleasure of getting in touch with something that we thought forever lost, or even non-existent, but that was there all along.' (2008, 43)

The 'rummage' we perform is not a frantic fumble along the hallowed shelves, but a focused enquiry within the archive to identify and find the yet-to-be-appreciated parts of an archive.  This is achieved through dialogues with the archivist and direct engagement with the archive collections.

Ideally, the controlled rummage takes place through bypassing the catalogue, working directly within the physical space and materiality of the items held within the archive. [6] The archivist takes an active part in this method, using their specialist knowledge to help identify what is already the tip, or key known aspects, and what might be considered the bummock of their archive. While there may be a perceived risk by archivists and collection management professionals in allowing direct access to archives and collections, through a combination of discussion and trust in the artist researchers, these can be overcome. This is achieved through time spent building up good relationships with the archivist(s) before beginning a project. Vaughan observes that it is this 'sense of trust, responsibility and care that underpins the method of the controlled rummage that Bracey and Maier have developed as a way of working in the Bummock project' (2019: 78). Our key goal through the 'controlled rummage' method—within the context of artistic research—is to enable new readings and knowledge to be generated and to materialise in the form of artworks, thereby liberating the potential of the bummock of collections and archives to resonate as part of the tip. That items and themes can lie unnoticed within the 'bummock' reflects the anticipated organisation of a historical archive such as the TRC, commonly formed according to dominant partialities and biases, something that the Bummock project seeks to (re)address.  

Flip the iceberg from tip to bummock. Click on links to dip into the 'rummage' page and explore the journeys of the three artists and find out the conclusions from the controlled rummage in the TRC.