Dr Alison Barnes - Graphic heritage: Politics, power & placemaking

IAS Residential Fellow Dr Alison Barnes delivers a seminar on their research - Retail streets are full of graphic communication such as signage, imagery, pattern, and colour. This can be defined as a form of everyday urban graphic heritage that not only enables people to experience or be informed about heritage, but also informs our understanding of, and relationship with, place. This seminar will primarily focus on two very different shopping areas within Walthamstow in London, one of which has, in part, been the recipient of a planned National Lottery funded Townscape Heritage Regeneration scheme. By applying a combination of detailed attention to the visual outcomes of design decisions while situating these in relevant broader theoretical, social, cultural, and political contexts the seminar will discuss how the power and politics inherent in these seemingly mundane design choices can impact on one’s experience of place. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias