PhD Study : Surfaces, places, messages: constructing place and identity through urban mark-making

Summary

The materiality, variety and diversity of often unregulated traces and marks in the urban environment characterise the behaviour, expectations and conversations of societal groups, representing underpinning ideologies of place and identity. Urban artefacts may evoke the totality of a culture, expressing meaning beyond the object itself through relays of codes in the present, or referential indexing to the past. Cultural shifts and developments impact the way in which meaning is represented on urban forms.

Prior to broad-scale manifestation of the written word as an expression of language on modern signs, image-based artefacts embodied representational meaning. Visual artefacts alone bore the responsibility of indicating qualities, affordances, concerns and/or narratives of place. While these have now largely given way to written means of mark-making, primitive interpretative marks, often painted, placed, or carved onto urban surfaces, continue to be a source of value and curiosity. Visual grammar remains a valid means of representation and an effective signifier of underlying culture and place, despite, or perhaps due to, relatively informal rules for interpretation.

As urban environments are ever-evolving products of many makers, excavation of surface layers of meaning may also expose past practices, lives and evidence of industry and (sub-)culture. The discipline of archaeology increasingly deploys creative approaches to understand and record the rapid material flux associated with the recent or contemporary past.  Archaeological excavation of a surface or artefact may reveal a palimpsest, referencing previous conversations of place and identity, representative of wider cultural assumptions or priorities.

The visual language and layers of meaning on urban surfaces or artefacts may stimulate the senses and curiosity of the interpreter of meaning, or may encourage subversive, accumulative or aberrant interpretations and interventions. While some of these marks are relatively self-explanatory, others remain ambiguous, existing outside of mainstream cultural systems. Such marks ‘haunt’ certain locales, exerting a ‘seething presence’ through which we can sense the agency of those who are no longer there. Although often unsanctioned, these marks can confer a degree of social aliveness to a place or, indeed, a ‘non-place’. This is particularly true of Belfast, with its high density of walls offering ample opportunity for mark-making and site-specific expressions of identity.

This project will combine a study of urban culture and artefacts with the establishment of practice-based outcomes, as an expression of narratives, concerns, conversations and ideologies of place and identity. It will attempt to better understand the phenomenon of urban mark-making by cataloguing and establishing a typology of marks through systematic recording. It will also consider what role these practices play in place-making and the assertion of identities in Belfast and beyond, investigating to what extent there are commonalities across time and space.

This project will make an original contribution to knowledge by recording and raising awareness of these often over-looked and ephemeral forms of expression.

A range of practice-based outputs may include reinterpretation through a combination of graphic design practices, printmaking and exploration of the ceramic surface, resulting in new artefacts of material culture.

Essential criteria

Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree in a subject relevant to the proposed area of study.

We may also consider applications from those who hold equivalent qualifications, for example, a Lower Second Class Honours Degree plus a Master’s Degree with Distinction.

In exceptional circumstances, the University may consider a portfolio of evidence from applicants who have appropriate professional experience which is equivalent to the learning outcomes of an Honours degree in lieu of academic qualifications.

• Sound understanding of subject area as evidenced by a comprehensive research proposal
• A comprehensive and articulate personal statement

Desirable Criteria

If the University receives a large number of applicants for the project, the following desirable criteria may be applied to shortlist applicants for interview.

• Completion of Masters at a level equivalent to commendation or distinction at Ulster
• Practice-based research experience and/or dissemination
• Experience using research methods or other approaches relevant to the subject domain
• Work experience relevant to the proposed project

Funding and eligibility

The University offers the following levels of support:

Vice Chancellors Research Studentship (VCRS)

The following scholarship options are available to applicants worldwide:

• Full Award: (full-time tuition fees + £19,000 (tbc))
• Part Award: (full-time tuition fees + £9,500)
• Fees Only Award: (full-time tuition fees)

These scholarships will cover full-time PhD tuition fees for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance) and will provide a £900 per annum research training support grant (RTSG) to help support the PhD researcher.

Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Please note: you will automatically be entered into the competition for the Full Award, unless you state otherwise in your application.

Department for the Economy (DFE)

The scholarship will cover tuition fees at the Home rate and a maintenance allowance of £19,000 (tbc) per annum for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance).

This scholarship also comes with £900 per annum for three years as a research training support grant (RTSG) allocation to help support the PhD researcher.

• Candidates with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, who also satisfy a three year residency requirement in the UK prior to the start of the course for which a Studentship is held MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance.
• Republic of Ireland (ROI) nationals who satisfy three years’ residency in the UK prior to the start of the course MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance (ROI nationals don’t need to have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme to qualify).
• Other non-ROI EU applicants are ‘International’ are not eligible for this source of funding.
• Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Due consideration should be given to financing your studies. Further information on cost of living