Opening the Archive of David Jones: Digital Tools and Public Engagement

A collaborative project led by two OU academics, Jasmine Hunter Evans (Classical Studies) and William Kynan-Wilson (Art History) is expanding our understanding of the Welsh modernist painter and poet David Jones (1895-1974) through tools old and new.

Over the summer, good old-fashioned archival research at Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales in Abserystwyth has continued to reveal much about David Jones’ life and work. 

This project focuses on Jones’ enigmatic and layered ‘painted inscriptions’. These inscriptions are paintings of words that occupy a space between text and image; they are collages of textual sources, ancient languages and cultural references that represent the perfect meeting point of Jones’ painting and his poetry.

Jones’ archive continues to yield exciting discoveries. His letters, photos and audio/visual recordings shed new light on his artistic practice, social networks and his relationship with the classical world. These findings will be incorporated into an online exhibition designed to provide greater access to and further understanding of these painted inscriptions and showcase the multidisciplinary nature of the archive. Above all, the online exhibition is being developed with public access and engagement in mind and founded on methodologies of co-production. It will test and showcase interactive approaches to displaying and explaining these enigmatic artworks online that have emerged from our public workshops and events held last year. The project’s wider aspiration is to instigate an inclusive and broad discussion about what online exhibitions can be and do.

The project involves a series of external collaborators: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales, Cambridge Digital Humanities, and The David Jones Research Centre (USA); and it has been funded by Open Societal Challenges.