“A genealogy of transparent models (iii),” from Accidentology (I), screen print, acrylic paint on paper, 29x41cm, © Armelle Skatulski, 2023.
Simulation model representing the subterranean topography of the 1959 Sainte Fontaine coal mining disaster, France. From archival documents yielded by the former French National Coal Board to the Centre des Archives Industrielles et Technique de Moselle.
Artist Statement
The documentation of work accidents takes place in a tension between production and destruction, the archivable and the unarchivable, the biopolitical governing of labour and the speculative economics of capitalist extractivism. The work that I am presenting as part of the RCA Research Biennale is the outcome of research, led by practice, into the normalisation of work accidents through the study of photographic documents produced by a former coal mining corporation in the North of France. These are now deposited in the public archives of the Centre des Archives Industrielles et Techniques de Moselle (The Industrial and Technical Archives Centre of Moselle).
The research analyses how photographs of work accidents and of accidents simulations function in the archival-industrial complex of the corporation, as materially and logically correlated with the process of extraction. The relationship of the work accident to its photographic documentation is considered from the perspective of a biopolitical analysis of power and a dispositival interpretation of corporate archival practices.
By resorting to various processes for the transfer of photographic documents from their original archival form to various formats of reproduction - such as screen prints or digital composites - the research probes a tension between the infrastructural, logistical dimension of photographs and the unruliness and transformative power of an affective response to such documents by a viewer or an interpreter.
© Armelle Skatulski, 15 June 2023.
This research was undertaken with the support of the Arts & Humanities Research Council and exhibited as "Accidentology (i)" at the Hockney Gallery, Royal College of London, South Kensington, London, from May 2nd to May 5th 2023.
"Untitled" from Accidentology (I): Simulations, screen print on paper, 2022 © Armelle Skatulski.
Mres Resarch Journey 2023
About
The RCA Research Programmes Platform features the final and work in progress research projects by Royal College of Art Master of Research students, as well as MPhil and PhD students.
The MRes RCA is a dynamic, interdisciplinary degree that fosters innovative thinking and equips students for PhD-level study or professional industry research roles. By teaching processes and methods that are informed by art and design thinking, you will be introduced to and develop practice-led and experimental research skills. The MRes curriculum offers a transformational experience and gives you the opportunity to construct your own area of expertise. It offers vibrant, rigorous and experimental research training in a broad array of research methods, allowing students to innovate and interrogate their disciplines by learning from methods across art and design practice.The MRes RCA is interdisciplinary in nature, with expert supervision by specialist discipline in the areas of Architecture, Communication, Design, Fine Art and the Experimental Humanities.
Across MRes, MPhil and PhD level, Research at the RCA takes place within an environment that is ambitious to generate new methods and insights. We thrive on interaction across a broad range of disciplines, embracing a cross-disciplinary perspective, celebrating the deployment of diverse and original methods of research and production.
We hope you enjoy exploring our live archive of research projects from the RCA research student community!
Further Programme and application info:
Additional Information
https://research-biennale.rca.ac.uk/projects/accidentology-i
Image: Armelle Skatulski, La Main au feu (hand on fire), from Initiation Materials, 2017-2022, digital C-Type.
