Yuchen Xu

Hi! This is Yuchen, a graphic designer with a multi-disciplinary visual practice. Through my studies at the RCA, I have been able to explore and experiment with different tools for communicating and workshopping.

My latest project Stories Behind the Mudlarking Objects is an archive that collects public fantasies around lost objects found on the bed of the River Thames. By inviting participants to use their recognition and imagination to think about the value and possible stories behind found muddy objects, a second life is given to these lost objects.

I have developed a workshop that aims to trigger people’s interest; to inspire them to go down to the foreshore in person and experience a hands-on historic journey into London’s past stories.

This current workshop gathers people and narratives together, prompting me to question the hierarchy of museums; how we place value on particular objects and how we can make artefacts and histories interesting and accessible to all. Exciting possibilities are sparked by these unknown, untold stories.

If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me and we can talk more about future collaboration and other interesting things!

Education

2016-2020 BA Jiangnan University Visual Communication

2020-2022 MA Royal College of Art Visual Communication Graphic Design

I wander, I scavenge, I catalogue, I wonder, I question, I collect, I archive.

Everyone has stories. Every thing has a story to tell.

What are your stories? I am here to listen.

As a junior mudlark, I am always surprised about what I can find on the banks of the River Thames. I am interested in the narrative behind the objects that I find. When I have the chance to touch something lost for years, it’s a wonderful feeling to hold this in my hands.

Things that are simply thrown away, or lost, tell us as much about the past as many of those that are carefully preserved because they are deemed valuable. Mundane everyday items, discarded long ago as rubbish, can tell some of the most important stories of London history. One of the characteristics of objects is that they so often change, or are changed long after they have been created, taking on meanings that could never have been imagined at the outset: the object has become a commentary on itself.

In the Stories Behind the Mudlarking Objects Fiction Writing Workshops, I invited participants to use their imagination to think about the stories and values behind muddy objects.

Launch Project

Mudlarking Simulator is an immersive experience of Mudlarking. It is a growing digital archive of a section of the River Thames – the foreshore of the Southwark riverbed. It keeps an ongoing record of mudlarking items collected by Yuchen, and fiction stories written by workshop attendees.

When you explore the foreshore in the Mudlarking Simulator, and you spot something interesting on the beach, you can click to reveal the entire mudlarking object and discover stories written by participants in the Stories Behind the Mudlarking Objects Workshops.