Returning to the research questions

As the writing and documentation on these pages suggest, this project has taken a sinuous series of paths to this stage. It has not been singular, straightforward, or linear in its progress and, with a variety of threads and possibilities in play from the start, it has had to slough off some of those possibilities in favour of others. In the course of this process, the focus and primary research questions have also shifted somewhat. Below, I offer some responses as to what has been discovered through addressing the initial research questions, as well as how the inquiries have moved on, both in form and focus.

Research question 1: 

How does live intermedial work relate to and activate place as a ‘constellation of social relations, meeting and weaving together at a particular locus’ (Massey 1994, 154), as a ‘meeting place’, and as ‘process’?


Findings:
From my own reflections and from the responses of those who attended the two events, it is clear that the modes of intermedial mixing I employ do have the capacity to activate a variety of concurrent perspectives of a given place, while also mobilising questions about that place. For instance, those who responded very much read the ‘meeting’ of materials in the first solo performance as putting into play the relations between the past and present of the city – its ‘traditional’ elements and those forces that are changing the lived environment.

In the second event, I attempted to mobilise an approach that would prompt ‘social relations’ among those attending and responding to these mixes of elements. This aspect of the inquiry, in the forms chosen, was not successful, in that the relations formed were almost exclusively between individuals and the materials and not between the individuals through the prompts of those materials. This aspect of the inquiry, related to the intermedial events as sites of social relation, is being taken up in a thread that has emerged from this stage of the research – namely, to formulate the encounter between the individual and the intermedial materials as an interactive workshop, removing the ‘performance’ element that my actions and role within the second event created. From feedback, it became clear that it was this element that restricted and muddied the encounter of those present with the materials, as it confused taking part and sharing responses with the prompt to simultaneously watch and listen to a performer.
Research question 3:
What role does the use of popular music and autobiographical material play in this connection and engagement?

Findings:
The feedback from the first event indicates that the popular music was certainly a factor in the affective engagement of those present. The affective stickiness or ‘viscosity’ of the music related to the individual’s experience, whether that was growing up close to Salford and feeling a connection to those ‘teenage influences’ or familiarity with the artists whose work was sampled within the event. There was not a lot of feedback from either event that reinforced the sense that this ‘sticky’ quality was present for those without the individual connections and memories. As such, and in developing the next sets of intermedial mixes, I am shifting the focus of this strand of the project a little, to use, as referenced above, combinations of original text, melody, and instrumentation, formed in response to contemporary Salford.

The autobiographical materials included in both events proved to be successful in offering an ‘everyday’ sense of place, which provided a productive counterpoint to some of the external ‘voices’ included, whether that was Engels’s views of living conditions, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, or the sometimes laughable corporate-speak used by companies to sell a dream of the ‘new’ Salford alongside newly developed properties.

As such, this aspect of the practice continues and I am engaged in ongoing writing practice in relation to Broughton. The tone of that text has shifted somewhat though, to account for my renewed understanding of a split positioning within the research, as both ‘embedded’ and ‘outsider’. It is the productive tensions that arise from this that will be explored further through this new writing of place.

The Salford Samples #3: A ‘Video-Text’

The third and most recent practical outcome of this project is a ‘video-text’, formed of the materials gathered for the two live events (see video above). I have always made these types of ‘text’, formed from video, object, sound, and writing, as referenced on the Live Intermediality page; this particular outcome functions effectively as a by-product and means of recycling the materials used in live events. As the most recent outcome, I have not yet reflected on how this functions in relation to the larger inquiries, but it is part of a trajectory towards working in a variety of intermedial modes, not all of which have to be live events.


This is specifically important, as referenced on the previous page, as I start to open this work out to the local community and learn how it might align with their interests and perspectives. A range of possible forms for the intermedial practice is important to respond to these new ideas and conversations.

Heritage and memory through culture – One of the key threads underpinning the work so far has been to explore cultural artefacts – popular music in particular – as markers and catalysts of heritage, memory, and engagement with a place. Actually, the term heritage is quite a problematic one, in terms of what it carries with it and how it is co-opted for commercial purposes and to present a very particular and often sanitised version of a city’s history. Like Phil Smith, I want to interrogate ‘the monolithic labelling of certain “historic” places by the heritage industry and by agencies of national and municipal identity-making’ (2010, 114). What is at stake in how the heritage of a city is conceived of and practised, is a set of values related to what physically and psychologically is deemed to be worth keeping and remembering and that, conversely, which is not. Some interrogation of these choices in relation to the heritage of Salford has emerged from my research and is part of what it will address about this place, moving forwards.

Place-attachment and the city – An emergent theme and aim is to explore through my own and other residents’ perspectives how place attachment is formed, persists, and perhaps is also worn down in my local area of Salford, Broughton. Place attachment is ‘the bonding of people to places’ (Altman and Low 1992, 2) involving ‘an interplay of affect and emotions, knowledge and beliefs, and behaviors and actions in reference to a place’ (5). If anything has emerged from the research so far, in terms of my interest as a researcher, it is this fundamental affective connection of people and place, specifically in relation to the numerous forces in play within and around the contemporary urban landscape. As indicated above, the practice will now be configured to sit within and in relation to the physical places of Salford in its next iterations, moving into a phase of discourse with my neighbours, the local residents of Broughton, Salford, about this place and how it is being shaped by forces that often are and certainly feel out of our control.

Questions and ideas moving forward


Finally, as intimated above, the inquiries have now shifted productively from those set out at the opening of the exposition. The next stage of the project will be lead by the following questions:

  • How can intermedial practices be used to explore the lived environment of Broughton, Salford, specifically its current regeneration and how that affects the ‘place-attachment’ of the residents?
  • What is the function of performance and the performer in such an inquiry? How does this relate to the positioning of a researcher who is both ‘embedded’ in the place researched and also an ‘incomer’/‘outsider’ in that place?
  • How can mixes between physical and virtual elements, arising from Broughton, be used to activate the current questions and issues of residents, related to their changing lived environment?

 

These pages have attempted to reveal the processes and strands of a nascent research project, conducted through practice, charting shifts, ideas and discoveries and articulating the movement of the work. As referenced a number of times, this is an ongoing set of inquiries, which, I hope, will be shaped and refined further in the next stage of the research. As I intersect with others’ perspectives of this place, it is beyond doubt that these ‘relations’ will also be part of a new ‘constellation’ of ideas and concerns to be addressed and explored through practice with the aim that we, as residents of Salford, can productively reposition ourselves in relation to the place we inhabit and the forces that change that place.

Findings and ways forward

Shifts in form: ‘video-texts’, mini-exhibits, 

and interactive workshops


Since the two performance events documented on the previous page and as indicated in the responses to the initial research questions above, there has been a move towards engaging with slightly different intermedial forms and generating distinct encounters, where a live performance event is not primary to the experience. It has been a deliberate tactic on my part, as referenced above, to remove my physical presence from the work, as well as finding forms of the practice that are accessible to more people, within community contexts. It also aligns with the emergent interest in how to open up my positioning in this place as a resident and community member, who simultaneously is an ‘incomer’ and ‘outsider’. The new forms of intermedial encounter I have created and am planning to employ are outlined here.

Interactive workshops

As a response to the less than successful attempt to prompt ‘social relations’ and discussions through the activation of the intermedial materials in the second event, I am looking at a ‘cleaner’ format for the next stage of this strand. Specifically, I am planning a series of workshops with children in the local community, using intermedial materials as prompts for conversations around and expressions of their relationship with the River Irwell, particularly in the wake of the Boxing Day floods of 2015.

Emergent inquiries and ideas


In addition to the shifting of form or approach represented by the outcomes referenced above, I am also looking to refine the focus of the inquiry, in terms of what the future practice will seek to address. The brief outlines here represent the emergent thematic threads that are of interest, as the project moves forward.

Solastalgia and stasis – In relation to the discourses of regeneration cited to the right, there is also an interesting duality in play in Salford, where ferocious redevelopment and change in the city sits alongside an insistent stasis and lack of movement. I am interested in how these two sides of the city, as a physical and psychological/emotional place, co-exist and intersect. On one hand, Glenn Albrecht’s notion of ‘solastalgia’ is one that I find particularly resonant with some of my experiences of living in a city which is in the throes of a mass of redevelopment, where buildings are thrown up with bewildering speed, altering the space and feel of the place significantly. Solastalgia ‘is the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment’ (Albrecht et al. 2007, 95), as opposed to nostalgia, which is experienced when people are separated from and yearn for that home environment. In contrast to this perception of swift change, much of the area that surrounds me remains insistently and sometimes frustratingly static – areas of land earmarked for redevelopment left empty for instance. The play between these two ‘pulls’ in the psychological and emotional as well as physical site of the city is something that has arisen as a thread and theme from the first stage of practical and conceptual research and will continue to inform the inquiries, moving forwards.

A mobile mini-exhibit

As referenced on the previous page, the project is now set to move into a different phase. In this next year or so of making, I am aiming to intersect with local community groups, to share the practice with the residents of Salford, and then, moving forward, to see how they might actively engage with the project. The inquiries have also shifted, in response to the events created and contextual/theoretical research carried out (see section below). I am currently creating a new version of the intermedial materials, which can function as a ‘mini mobile exhibit’, housing the video, audio, and physical materials in a wooden structure, that can be positioned in various local places – the library/community centre, local pub, and cafe for instance. The exhibit will offer a space for individuals to listen, watch, and respond to those materials and will generate an initial encounter with other residents of the area, from which I hope to build a dialogue around the issues cited below and how they relate to our lived experience of Salford.
Research question 2:
What modes of affective engagement do live intermedial combinations, arising from and centring on a place, create?

Findings:
There were some interesting and productive findings in relation to this question, which emerged from sharing the practice, specifically from the first solo event. Those who expressed an emotional or ‘felt’ response to the event, connected that not just to the materials themselves and the places/times they evoked, but also to something about the form and feel of the mixes, with references to the ‘everyday’, the ‘sensory’ feel of the ‘composition’, and a ‘poetic’ and ‘folk’ sensibility that emerged through those mixes.

This leads me to a more developed consideration of the nature of the encounters formed through the intermedial discourse, specifically through the choices made in the gathering and mixing of the materials that are part of this practice. In the first event, the diaristic, everyday sense of the place, mixed with a poetic and ‘folkifying’ sensibility, in terms of the treatment of the materials, the vocal delivery, and the constant ‘lulling’ movement between those, prompted a feeling response from those who encountered it – an affective sense of place.

In relation to this, the same absorption in the materials and the feel of the mixes was not as obviously part of the participatory event experience, as evidenced through the discussion with those who attended after that event. In this instance, the feedback offered related much more to  the positioning of the materials in the space and the mechanisms for responses offered, particularly the ‘split’ modes of attention many felt were evoked through the combination of live performance and materials, as opposed to the feel of those materials and what they evoked.

This has led me to consider the mode of encounter I offer, as the research develops. Rather than trying to amalgamate and bifurcate attention, it seems useful to look at generating singular encounters with the materials themselves, allowing individuals a closer engagement that, so far, has aligned with more affectively led responses. Equally, the workshop form, referenced above, is designed to allow participants to participate freely, without feeling that their attention needs to be offered to a live performer's actions.

Finally, in developing this idea of an affective response, in the next stage of the practice, there will be more emphasis on original materials – text and music – emergent from my experiences as a resident of this place. The modes of presentation I have chosen to adopt moving forward (see below) focus more on the mixes of materials themselves, removing to some extent a direct encounter with me as the curator and composer of the mixes. Again, this emergent problematic of my positioning within the events and the research itself, seems worthy of both practical and theoretical attention in the next stage of the project. How my self-confessed incomer/outsider state might be reflected and addressed in practical terms is something to be further explored.

Regeneration – An interest in and intersection with the regeneration agenda in Salford has arisen from the two live events created (see Salford in the Mix), as well as from my own contextual research. Rob Furbey discusses the specific connotations of ‘regeneration’, as opposed to ‘redevelopment’ as indicating a ‘moral crusade … rescuing not only the economy, but also the soul of the nation’. In addition, he points to the ‘biological metaphor inherent to the term, with run-down areas seen as sores or cancers requiring regeneration activity to heal the body of the city’ (in Jones and Evans 2008, 2). My research – the field work and the practice that has arisen from this – has engaged with these agendas of  ‘healing’ and improving, as articulated through local government and commercial developer rhetoric. In response to such rhetoric, this research seeks to explore a different sense of the ‘soul’ of the city, as it is felt and understood by its inhabitants, and which sits in jeopardy, when the notion of insistent and indiscriminate ‘improvement’ of the lived environment comes into play. Moving forwards, I would like the practice to intersect productively with these questions and ambiguities.