The mechanised lace–making industry has shaped the human and physical landscape of Nottingham. Since the mid-eighteenth century it has played a major role in forming family and community identities, that are particular to the Nottingham region, and remains part of the city’s fabric. The industry is now all but extinguished in the UK, and remaining former lace workers are of advanced age; keepers of very specific knowledge of social relationships, of techniques and embodied skills. (this will of course be reminiscent of other areas of textile manufacture across Europe)
The industry’s tangible, technical and material history has been represented mainly through approaches that have used authoritative versions of the more tangible history of lace in Nottingham. Developing new and novel ways of collecting and representing the hidden heritage of Nottingham’s lace (other aspects of textile manufacture) industry using new technologies could drive part of the project. This could bring to light the often undocumented, or casually-noted social histories of families and communities, vital to the formation and understanding of identity. It could provide ways for new audiences to engage with the past, both facilitated by technology, and feeding back into it. This should also include new methods for textiles to be shown digitally.
The project aims could be to: capture social histories (intangible) of participating communities through digital technologies alongside
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