London Migrations
A collaborative art project between members of King’s Centre for Early Modern Studies and artist Clare Qualmann on the theme of early modern migrations into and out of London. Early modern London was a migrant city – 8 out of 10 inhabitants were born outside of London – and a multilingual one. This project aims to explore the multilingual migrant the city and produce art works that will make our research and the collaboration accessible to the public and open to discussion the history of London migrations. CEMS members from the departments of French, German, SPLAS, English, and History working on the multilingual diasporas of early modern London will be involved in the project, and provide the starting point for the collaboration working with the multilingual diasporas of early modern London (such as French Huguenots, German writers, Sephardic Jews, and travelling newsmongers). The project will focus on emotional and cognitive experience of multilingualism and migration and develop interactive art works that will immerse practitioners and the public in this experience. Research questions addressed by the project are; What were the affective and cognitive experiences of early modern migrants? Do they speak to the present? What was the daily life of early modern migrants like in London, and can art works help us to reimagine it? Can art collaborations help us to understand our source material in different and valuable ways?