The ten original musical works responded to and reflected found sounds and stories captured in those areas, thereby creating a cultural sound map of the UK’s superdiverse second city. The for-Wards website features as an interactive music map of field recordings, photographs and blog posts that document the project’s story and received 24,585 hits in its first two years (to July 2018). I was able to successfully populate each of the website’s ward pages with engaging content that share the story of how for-Wards has come to be, including blog posts from community groups and the cohort of selected composers.
The for-Wards website features a map which was also hyperlocal in its focus. Rather than commission selected graphic designer and illustrator Claire Hartley (who lived and studied in Birmingham for an extended period) to create a generic map of Birmingham and its iconic buildings for the ward map, I decided to hone in more directly on the essence of for-Wards. for-Wards is quintessentially a celebration of the sounds and the musicality of Birmingham people. The Birmingham map, therefore, needed to be a music map. These musings led to the involvement of proud 'Brummie' Jez Collins (previously Research Project Manager at Birmingham City University) who runs the Birmingham Music Archive. I invited him to collaborate with Claire Hartley to create a Birmingham Music Map – showcasing legendary musical venues, studios and institutions and musicians hailing from Birmingham city.
