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innovation in research & project management

I set up curator.ie in 2010 as a vehicle for innovative curatorial projects with a strong educational component and a collaborative ethos.

Groundbreaking work on the “Irish Headhunter Project” lead to a four year research and development contract with the Irish Research Council, Maynooth University, and Kimmage Development Studies Centre. This contract has covers two areas of practically oriented research. They are:

a detailed investigation of the records of the Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory, which operated out of he University Of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD) between 1891 and 1903.

placing this research into the public domain in a creative programme of public engagement on issues relating to body, image, and ethnicity.

The project is centred on a collection of photographic negatives that were discovered under the “Old” Anatomy Theatre in TCD in 2014. The photographs were taken by Andrew Francis Dixon during a fishing survey in 1890 but represent a foundational event in the development of the Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory and a politically radical form of visual ethnography.

The Haddon-Dixon photographs. The negatives were exposed in the Aran Islands in 1890 and were discovered on a shelf underneath the anatomy theatre in 2014, along with various pieces of photographic equipment.

The Team

Work commenced under Maynooth University in February 2015. TCD joined the project in 2016 and Kimmage Development Studies Centre came on board as enterprise partners later in the same year.

The management team was reorganised to include Dr Mark Maguire (Maynooth University), Prof. Martina Hennessy (School of Medicine, TCD), and Dr. Rob Kevlihan (Kimmage Development Studies Centre).

Kimmage DSC was absorbed into Maynooth University in 2018 and I became a fellow of the Shanahan Research Centre, which is funded by the Spiritan Order and managed by Dr. Rob Kevlihan.

The Academic Programme

The first year of the project was taken up with a taught MA in the Anthropology Dept of Maynooth University, a sort of crash course in anthropology for someone whose background was in the visual arts curation.

“Fieldwork” commenced in 2016 and, since then, has been split between work on the anthropological collections in the “Old” Anatomy Building in TCD and the Haddon papers in the Cambridge; mainly in Cambridge University Library but extending to the Haddon Library and the photographic collections of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Ciarán Walsh of www.curator.ie at work on 'Haddon in Ireland' in Cambridge University Library. — *Ciarán Walsh at work on ‘Haddon in Ireland’ in Cambridge University Library.*

*The Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory in 2015 and 1891. Many of the original instruments were found in 2015. The skulls were stored in a corridor at the back of the anatomy theatre.*

An Enterprise Partnership

The Irish Research Council funded this work under its programme of employment based research. A key part of the project has been to work with an enterprise partner to find innovative ways of placing the results of my research into the public domain in a way that engages the general public.

My work with KDSC focussed on the development of online educational resources using visual technologies and networks and this will feed into strategies for creative public engagement.

*Public engagement at work: BBC Northern Ireland recording an interview between Brendan Holland and Martina Hennessy for the a documentary entitled “The Giant Gene.” It was produced by Chris Nikkel and broadcast in June 2018.*

Aims and Objectives

The initial aim was s to reconstruct the archive of the laboratory and its survey and place it in the public domain. The research became focussed on two main areas;

dealing with the challenges posed by the dispersed nature of the archive

exploiting opportunities for access to and engagement with cultural resources generated by digital media and networks.

This has generated three main tasks. The first involve an extensive research into primary sources – mostly uncatalogued– in archives and libraries in Dublin, Cambridge, and London. The second involves building a chronology of events and the epistemic programme of the Laboratory. The third involves building a mediation programme that enables the general public to engage creatively with issues relating to anatomy, image, and ethnicity, which were so central to the work of the Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory.

*A glass plate negative of a photograph taken by Andrew Francis Dixon in the Aran Island in 1890.*

Current Status

The project is entering its final phase. I have spent 18 months conducting an extensive trawl of primary sources and integrating this with the published records of the various agencies involved. The last six months of the project will involve two main tasks; writing up the results of my research and, alongside that, developing a plan for creative engagement with the general public.

Work will also commence on a project with Cambridge University Library. This will involve re-uniting the visual archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey with manuscripts held in CUL, reconstructing key elements of the archive of the Dublin Anthropometric Laboratory as it were.

Ciarán Walsh, April 2019.