The Culture of Place: Ponrabbel Row

PURPOSE 

To investigate the  interfaces and cultural interrelationships that come together to shape places and landscapes like Launceston's via the imagining of places and realities linked to cultural production, the social cum cultural narratives and the deep histories linked to 'place' and cultural production. 

OBJECTIVES

The project will aim to:

1. Gain better and more developed understandings of Launceston's cultural landscapes pre-contact, post-colonisation and contemporaneously via the interrogation of  'cultural production' in a 21st C context

2. Gain better and more inclusive understandings of the histories in play in Launceston/Tasmanian cultural landscape. 

3. Engage with a broad spectrum of researchers, writers and others towards de-siloing the investigation towards gleaning more holistic understandings of 'place'.

4. Focus attention upon the production of the class of 'works' in colonial, post-colonial and contemporary community life.

5. Publish the outcomes of the investigation in progress and in various formats at various times throughout its 'life'.



RATIONALE

The project will operate in cultural context where:

1. The understandings of Launceston's cultural landscapes tend to celebrate and emphasise the colonial foundation upon which the city has been founded.

2. Tasmanian understandings of the histories that define and shape 'placedness' are typically inclined to be focused upon the socio-political and cultural imperatives of the city's colonial stories and cultural backstories that have essentially defined Launceston's 'placescaping' into the 21st C.

3. Contemporaneous research methodologies are more inclined to be proactive in regard to de-siloing investigations and seeking out rhyzomatic [1]  connectivity and interfacing towards developing a more holistic, more dynamic, understandings of socio-political imperatives, the consequent cultural outcomes and the cultural landscaping.

4. Somewhat curiously the Ponrabbel has faded from current cultural memories when once she figured so large. It turns out that in its various machinations in storytelling she in a kind of talks about the industrialisation of the manufacture of goods in the city and enterprises close to it. In colonial, post-colonial and contemporary contexts in Tasmania such narratives  still capture imaginations. Likewise cultural and physical landscapes evidence all this in multiple ways and arguably nowhere more so than 'on the river'.

5. The current publishing paradigm is multidimensional thus in order to reach the full spectrum of audiences and research resources, multidimensionality is a requirement. Likewise, in order that the outcomes of any serious investigation needs to fit this circumstance in order to be relevant, rigorous and credible.

STRATEGIES

The project will aim to:

1. Engage with a broad spectrum of Launcestonians – and Tasmanians more generally – in an inclusive research project in order to:

• Conduct a networked investigation through the lens of post-colonial 'placescaping'.
• Focus a key element of the research on Ponrabbel and the ways she is reflected in contemporary 'placescaping' .
• Conduct an interactive investigation relevant to the culture of place and its cultural realities;
• Encourage individuals and communities to share their storytelling in regard to pre-contact, post-colonisation and contemporaneous understandings of  'place and cultural production'.  

2. Initiate a process of 'collaborative cultural mapping' focused on the histories and narratives linked to Ponrabbel and the impacts she has had and/or is having in Launceston relative to cultural placescaping and cultural production.

3. Put in place an open and transparent collaborative/cooperative research process that involves a broad range of researchers, writers and others that will be encouraged to work collaboratively and cooperatively with an emphasis upon holistic 'cross disciplinary cum multidisciplinary' investigations and outcomes.

4. Focus attention upon the production of cultural production in colonial, post-colonial and contemporary context.

5. Publish the outcomes of the investigation in progress and in various formats at various times throughout the project's 'life' in an open and transparent ways and that seek to establish interfaces and interconnections that provide opportunities for serendipitous outcomes.

6. Seek sponsorships, in-kind support, project funding and entrepreneurial opportunities to adequately fund the project. Furthermore, initiate a CROWDfunding [1] project/s for discrete components of the project as it evolves. A guiding principle being that people offering professional services being paid fees commensurate with those typically paid in the relevant field of activity.


TARGET OUTCOMES

The project will aim to publish its outcomes in multiple and interfacing formats such as:

1. A network of Internet postings that operate rhyzomaticly that exploit the opportunities provided via social media;
2. A series of events – lectures, symposiums demonstrations, forums, field days, lunches. performances, exhibitions, etc.
3. A series of essays and discussion papers published in a book or series of books – anthologies of various writings and images;
4. An exhibition or series of exhibitions designed to tour to multiple venues – Intrastate, interstate  and/or internationally;
5. A VIDEOdocumentary or a series of video presentations;
6. A research collection of artifacts that reflect research outcomes.