The Salford Samples Series

This series of intermedial works was developed in 2015/2016, in response to questions about cultural memory and its relation to place in the city of Salford, specifically through the lens of Salford’s musical history. As detailed in the article published in the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR) (link below), my research in this area was conducted through the processes of creating and presenting three works: a solo performance, participatory event and online ‘video-text’, each formed from the materials I gathered, as I researched and lived in the city.

‘The Salford Samples’ in JAR

Questions around gender and vocal sampling, collective cultural memory and ‘solastalgia’ receded through the project to a more distinct focus on the contrasts and contradictions present in the contemporary lived environment of Salford and specifically  the competing pulls of heritage and novelty, tradition and regeneration. I specifically developed an interest in how place attachment is formed in this city of stasis and movement and the ways in which this attachment to and engagement with place might be played out in intermedial combinations and interactions.

These ideas led directly to the next stages of this project, which are detailed in Mixing the Irwell, The Broughton Oratory and, most recently, the Urban Wildscapes project.