Michael Branthwaite on location

In the second in our series of blog posts celebrating the excellent research and artistic practice being undertaken by the Fine Art Teaching Team, we share the work of Senior Lecturer Michael Branthwaite, at an important moment in his research. Michael is this week away from the University undertaking research in Holland, Germany and Austria. As well as being course leader for the Foundation Year in Art and Design, Michael also uses his hands on skills as a creative practitioner to provide an important bridge for our students, as they move from F.E. and into H.E.

You can see more of Michael’s work via his website: http://www.michaelbranthwaite.com/

Michael Branthwaite’s research trip to Germany, Holland and Austria

‘During research at the site of Treblinka Extermination and Prison Camp carried out by the Centre of Archaeology at Staffordshire University a number of discoveries led to an opportunity to confirm and challenge the history of the extermination camp, and demands (from the public) to view the objects. In order to address these challenges and to ensure that a successful dissemination strategy was developed, myself  and archaeologist (Caroline Sturdy Colls) formed a collaboration. My role in this collaboration was to assist in two initiatives: (1) the development of a factual exhibition centred on the newly discovered remains at Treblinka. (2)  lead the production of the commissioning of artworks that responded to the archaeological findings. It was important during this process to find a balance between engaging visitors and opening up possibilities ‘without feeding people’s propensity to glorify war, stoking their macabre or voyeuristic fascination with terror, trivializing the event, and, above all, sacrificing the victim’s dignity – essentially making them victims for a second time’( Ehrenreich and Klinger 2014:113)

This project has led to a continued collaboration on the iC-ACCESS campscapes project that I’am currently working on which focuses on camps or mass-interment across Europe. At the moment I’am gathering research material from Kamp Westerbork in the Netherlands and Bergen-Belson in lower Saxony, Germany. ( see images) This will form part of a physical exhibition planned for the Open Society Archives Budapest and Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust Studien Vienna. The material will also be used by iC-ACCESS on its digital platform to expand the ways in which these sites can be discussed in relation the Europe traumatic past.’