Project description
Rewriting the global history of porcelain production
Porcelain is a material that has flourished in the Jingdezhen region of southeast China for over 600 years, despite its energy-intensive production and environmental impact. While high energy consumption may have supported local ecological resilience, Jingdezhen eventually lost its leading role in global trade by the late 19th century, overtaken by rising Euro-American industrial powers. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PlanetArt project will reframe the global history of porcelain through the lens of energy use. It will interpret the decline of commercial porcelain-making as a form of ecological resilience. Blending art history with geophysical science, PlanetArt will empower museum professionals to tell more ecocritical stories, increasing awareness of the environmental narratives behind cultural heritage.
Objective
This project proposes to rewrite the history of porcelain production from a planetary perspective. Titled PlanetArt, the project focuses on the energy regime of Jingdezhen porcelain manufacture in southeast China, where billions of porcelains were produced for global consumers from ca. 1300 to 1900. Porcelain, a human-made material of chemistry, technology, and art, demands energy to produce, releases pollutants and generates waste in production, and remains roughly intact in soil or under water for millennia. As massive production consumed enormous amounts of energy and generated multiple environmental disturbances (e.g. deforestation, air pollution), how did the manufacture continue to thrive over six centuries without causing severe ecological collapse in the region? How did regional inhabitants, transregional (e.g. merchants, porters) and transcultural actants (e.g. non-Han Chinese travellers, Jesuit missionaries) perceive and tackle ecological problems? This project hypothesises that the impact of energy consumption in porcelain production did not diminish but actually enhanced ecological resilience in the Jingdezhen region. The resilience is theorised in the correlation between energy, ecology, and material literacy (i.e. environmental knowledge, technical expertise, and skilled practice in processing materials). Toward the end of the long duration, Jingdezhen porcelain indeed lost its dominant position in global competition, viewed conventionally as a decline of Jingdezhen factories vis-a-vis Euro-American industrial enterprises. PlanetArt proposes a fresh look at the commercial decline as ecological resilience, a form of survival and renewal in favour of ecosystems over anthropogenic infrastructure. Departing from human-centred perspectives, the project aims to tell a story of art informed by geophysical science, to realise the potential of energy as historical method, and to empower museum professionals to effectively communicate ecocritical awareness.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CV4 8UW COVENTRY
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.