How visual culture connects with community has long held a fascination for PhD researcher Hoyee Tse, whose work has led her to explore areas such as how society can help museums and art collections to digitise their materials as well as understanding why curation in these sectors hasn't always had the most diverse of workforces.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background/previous career, and what brought you to London Met in particular?
I trained as a social art historian. I've always been interested in the meaning-making of art and cultural objects and the politics of cultural representation in relation to various social ideologies.
Previously, I worked in a range of professional roles at various private and public arts and cultural institutions. These experiences are certainly crucial for refining fundamental skills such as communication and public-facing skills when I am developing my research and interacting with other members of London Met.
As I also had some experiences working in different academic settings, being able to engage myself into the projects developed by scholars from other disciplines like earth science, anthropology and cultural heritage built another set of practical skills when I came to realise an impactful research project lasting for several years. So, I would like to bring these skills, knowledge and experiences to London Met by developing a solid, well-grounded academic project that can engage with the wider society about the meaningful layers and dimensions of their society today.
I understand you've worked in curating in several museums – can you tell us more?
The most challenging part of working in the arts and cultural and museum industries is about the barriers that are rooted at its historical/traditional structure. It is more of a conceptual structure rather than an organisational structure for people from the global majority. Therefore, it does take a considerable effort just to simply enter the industry.
However, as someone who has a strong interest in history and visual culture, it is indeed the most satisfying area that I have ever worked in.
To curate and support the development of a collection did offer me the pleasure of being able to observe and analyse the works of art as much as to help the public to learn about the uniqueness of every single piece of those.
Can you explain more about your fellowships at the Royal College of Art and u-institut?
My Design Trust fellowship at the Royal College of Art, London was about the potential use of digital platforms as a community-engaged space for co-curating and collecting contemporary design objects in London and Hong Kong. My approach was inspired by the ‘Guarani and Kaiowá Virtual Museum: Experimental Approaches to Collaborative Heritage’ project of the UCL Multimedia Anthropology Lab. I considered the convenience and availability of digital devices to digitise, which is always a lengthy process in cultural institutions, and whether it's possible for digitisation to be conducted by local communities. I decided to try to develop a community-engaged digitalisation model with photogrammetry technology during this fellowship.
For my CIRCE fellowship, my focus shifted from the objects to the people of arts and cultural institutions. With my firsthand experiences in the sector and my curatorial experience with Undone Theatre on the Butter Project, I spent my fellowship period looking into the employment of East Asian curatorial and museum professionals in the UK. This project was to take the community as a case study to reveal the persistent barriers of the sector.
I interviewed many East Asian professionals from the sector and identified what made the sector fail in really diversifying its workforce.
What's been most challenging about being a research student?
Time. There are too many sources and literature that I can and need to go through before deciding what is suitable and what is not suitable for my research. So, there's never enough time.
What drives you?
Believing that my research can contribute to society. Whether it is only about a certain social group or a specific phenomenon, I believe my research can document and form a perspective on something that might be overlooked by society.
What are you most proud of in your life so far?
I still keep going on my way through studying and learning. It is not an effortless way, especially because of how fast our world works today. The process of acquiring in-depth knowledge on subjects like visual culture (as a human being but not an AI machine) is going against the tide.
What's your plan when you graduate, and how do you think London Met will help you succeed in this?
I do not have a solid plan now but it's highly likely that I will continue to develop research projects related to the connection between visual culture and the power dynamic of our society.
I think what London Met will help me with is to provide me with the freedom to develop ideas, regardless of how controversial or alternative those ideas can be.
"Whether it is only about a certain social group or a specific phenomenon, I believe my research can document and form a perspective on something that might be overlooked by society."