To Be Home
A multi-screen audio-visual installation based around participants who live in and around the Birmingham communities of Handsworth and Stirchley. The participants share their own reflections and perspectives on community life and consider what makes a strong and meaningful local culture.A multi-screen audio-visual installation based around participants who live in and around the Birmingham communities of Handsworth and Stirchley. The participants share their own reflections and perspectives on community life and consider what makes a strong and meaningful local culture.To Be Home is multi-screen audio-visual installation commission as part of the Inhabit Project that took place across Birmingham 2010-2011. Showcased in the Pavilions, Birmingham 24 March – 4 April 2011.
The installation is based around 37 participants who live in and around the communities of Handsworth and Stirchley in Birmingham. They share their own reflections and perspectives on community life, each considering how they find their own connection to other people, and exploring what really makes a strong and meaningful local culture.
Their voices are set against a sequence of moving imagery recorded in each location over the winter and spring months of 2011. The imagery made up of moving portraits of local people and places and is intended to create an interplay between the participant’s perceptions and visual appearance.
The installation comprises of 3 back-projection screens that appear to float in the centre of the space. The screens are surrounded by a series of small suspended speakers, each with a small green light attached, and a series of 4 larger speakers located in the wider area of the space.
A screen version of the audio-visual content of the installation can be viewed below.
To Be Home is a multi-screen audio-visual installation that explores different perspectives of community as it is experienced and understood by a range of people living in Birmingham. It was commissioned as part of Inhabit and was showcased in the Pavilions, Birmingham, 24 March – 4 April 2011.The installation is based around 37 participants who live in and around the Birmingham communities of Handsworth and Stirchley. The participants reflect upon community life, considering what we may have lost over the years, and what we need to treasure and nurture to encourage a healthy and interconnected local culture.
Their voices are set against a sequence of moving imagery recorded in each location over the winter and spring months of 2011. The images are moving portraits of both local people and place that create an interplay between the participant’s perceptions and visual appearances.
The installation comprises of 3 back-projection screens that appear to float in the centre of the space. The screens are surrounded by a series of small suspended speakers, each with a small green light attached, and a series of 4 larger speakers located in the wider area of the space.
A screen version of the audio-visual content of the installation can be viewed below.
http://www.vimeo.com/21665409 Inhabit was part of the Empty Spaces initiative and was managed and curated by Hybrid Consulting. It was a programme of activity part funded by DCLG to re-invigorate local high streets and raise community confidence in local spaces. It aimed to support local areas during the economic downturn, reviving shopping centres by transforming vacant spaces into vibrant places. Hybrid’s approach was to provide a pleasant place for people to meet through a series of ‘pop-up’ tea rooms so people could have a cup of tea, enjoy taking part in creative workshops or simply talk and share stories about what the local high street used to be like and how it could be in the future.
