Performing heritage (studies) at the Lord Mayor’s show

Abstract

A response to conceptions of heritage as process, this paper puts forward a (re)enactment of heritage (studies) in which the lively materiality, temporality and mobility of an event become entangled with the performance of its research. The event in question is the Lord Mayor’s Show in London. First established eight centuries ago, the Show is an annual ritual and touristic performance of The City; London’s historic heart and today’s global financial centre. One day each year, City life is temporarily suspended by the passing of the new Lord Mayor in his State Coach accompanied by a procession of well over one hundred participating organisations with an audience of tens of thousands lining the route. 2011 was a particularly event-ful year for the Show taking place as it did amidst a global financial crisis and the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest movement camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral, disrupting the regular processional route. In drawing on aspects of non-representational theory from human and cultural geography, a more performative sense of doing heritage studies emerges that attends to the lived process and actions of heritage.

Keywords:

• heritage studies
• research
• performance
• non-representational theory
• experimentation

Notes

1. Included within my definition of heritage and heritage studies are museums, galleries and curating. However, this category work is done in the knowledge that these are all distinct fields in their own right and should be recognised as such, each operating within and through different if related institutional, operational and academic contexts. A criticism I have with much of ‘heritage’ as a broad field of academic enquiry is the lack of responsibility taken for these and other points of difference, which make a difference to our research projects.

2. For a useful chronology of Occupy London Stock Exchange, see Guardian Online http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/occupy-london and the Occupy LSX website http://occupylsx.org/ both last accessed 23 March, 2012.

3. This difference accounts for my use of (re)enactment when discussing how I have chosen to perform the Lord Mayor’s Show within this paper. The Show itself on the day was an enactment, and my performance of it within this paper its (re)enactment.

4. The Lord Mayor of London is an entirely different position to that of the Mayor of London. The Lord Mayor is responsible for the City of London, the Square Mile, and a new Mayor is not democratically elected by the people of the City. The Mayor London is a democratically elected office, voted for by all registered voters of London, and whose term is usually four years. The Mayor of London has a responsibility that stretches across the city of Greater London.

5. For a thorough-going introduction to and discussion of the main concerns and trajectories of non-representational theory see Anderson and Harrison’s opening chapter of their book, (Anderson and Harrison 2010a). In their introduction, Anderson and Harrison make a convincing case for a plural reading of non-representational theories; that it cannot be reduced to a single position, perspective or approach. See also the introduction to Thrift 1996 and 2008.

6. Non-representational theory can be located within a far broader context of performative forms of research practice and representation emerging from the intersection of a range of related disciplines, including heritage (e.g. Bishop 2012; Butt 2005; Carter 2004; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1997, 2001; Muncey 2010; Pink 2009;Rendell 2010; Schneider and Wright 2006; Whybrow 2011).

7. Whether or not non-representational theory does in the end still amount to a theory notwithstanding the claims made against this, and the potential contradictions that raises, is beyond the scope of this paper (but see e.g. Castree and MacMillan 2004; Creswell 2012; Olwig 2011).

8. It should be noted that human and cultural geography does engage with heritage broadly interpreted but these accounts have yet to fully engage with heritage through non-representational theory. Those most closely associated with new forms of approaches place within a heritage context include Crang and Crouch, particularly their work in tourism. See for example Crang 1994, where an earlier version of the performance of heritage is articulated, and Crouch 2002 and 2010.

9. This selection is taken from a much wider literature than can be meaningfully summarised here.

10. ‘Museum theatre and live interpretation’ forms the book’s subtitle but reveals a lack of specificity between museums and heritage that I believe are important to account for. See also Kidd 2011.

11. Nigel Thrift, the originator of non-representational theory has conceded that the ‘non’ prefix has unhelpfully impeded understanding and acceptance of his ideas (Thrift 2004).

12. The first sentence of the main introductory panel of the Museum of London’s City Gallery, last visited 28 February 2012.

13. Newspaper reports on the day suggested that the Occupy LSX encampment would relocate to another site of occupation elsewhere in the City of London.