Topographies of the obsolete

Topographies of the Obsolete is an artistic research project conceived in 2012 by University of Bergen Professors Neil Brownsword and Anne Helen Mydland, in collaboration with six European HEI’s and the BritishCeramics Biennial. Emerging through two phases (2012-15; 2015-2020) it has to date engaged ninety-seven interdisciplinary artists, scholars, cultural commentators and students from thirteen countries. It has transformed participants’ practices, with works originating out of the initial research being celebrated on an international platform. Topographies of the Obsolete has received funding from a varietyof institutions, alongside its core support from the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (2013-15 & 2015-17), whose peer review system (2015)rated it as ‘exemplary… strengthening artistic research and its scope beyond potential communities of practitioners/researchers’. The project explores the landscape and associated histories of post-industry,with an initial emphasis on Stoke-on-Trent, a world-renowned ceramics capital that bears evidence of fluctuations in global fortunes. keywords: post-industry, landscape, visual art, SITE-SPECIFIC ART, British ceramics biennal, associated history, stoke on trent