Dr Jim Donaghey (School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics) and the Warzone Collective
The Warzone Dialectogram Project has been a process of creative research and innovative ethnography undertaken by Jim Donaghey and the Warzone Collective. The dialectogram will be exhibited from 25-26 May at PS2 gallery. Jim is an early career researcher interested in the relationship between punk culture and anarchism. The Warzone Collective is an anti-sectarian punk anarchist group, active in Belfast since the early 1980s, producing records, organising gigs, and running a series of social centres. As a result of the tide of gentrification sweeping over Belfast City Centre, their most recent centre on Little Victoria Street was evicted in 2018, and subsequently demolished – its absence leaves a hole in the fabric of Belfast’s anti-sectarian alternative culture.
The Warzone Dialectogram Project focuses on that evicted social centre, while the exhibition highlights the wider context of gentrification in Belfast. The dialectogram is an A0 floorplan-style diagram, annotated with interview testimony, illustrated with drawings, comic strips, and reproductions of the murals and graffiti on the walls. An online preview is available here: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/4fe627b7bedf4689de348d77187a36c7/the-warzone-collective-dialectogram/index.html
The dialectogram will be the centre-piece of the exhibition, complemented with early/developmental sketches and plans to give insight into the process, maps detailing ‘development’ in the city centre to frame the gentrification context, and graffiti artworks by Collective members. Photographer Billy Woods will contribute twenty-four portraits to give a human face to the Warzone Collective and their activity at the Little Victoria Street Warzone Centre from 2011-2018.
As part of the exhibition, a panel discussion will be held featuring Mitch Miller, a socially engaged artist at Glasgow School of Art. Mitch will be travelling to attend the exhibition and contribute to the discussion – this is a unique opportunity for researchers and artists here to learn first-hand about this ground-breaking interdisciplinary methodology from its primary innovator.
The event is free and open to the public, no need to register or book. Light refreshments will be served at the exhibition opening from 2pm on Saturday 25 May.
