An artistic collaboration between the University of Greenwich (Department of Creative Professions & Digital Arts) and local arts company Emergency Exit Arts that will trace the stories of the people and the built environment connected to the site of the University’s new Stockwell Street Building.
From 17 – 21 May the public will be able to view video projections on the university’s new award-winning building and interact with giant blackboards outside the building where they can express their ideas and views in writing.
On the evenings of 20 and 21 May the University’s doors will be open to Greenwich residents and visitors who are invited to experience a series of digital art installations, performances, storytelling, animations and hands-on arts activities created by artists and students. Local residents, businesses and children from James Wolfe Primary School have also contributed their memories, stories and drawings to the project.
This is an Arts Council England funded project.
Events are free and suitable for all ages.
Background: The new university building in Stockwell Street, Greenwich, sits on a site once occupied by malt houses serving the pubs of Greenwich. Three deep wells were excavated during the construction of the building and numerous artefacts were uncovered, including a broken plate depicting redundant gravediggers sitting idle while a mechanical digger does the work. This scene resonates with the new building, a beacon of technological advance that signifies the passage of time and the passing into memory of former industries and practices. In response to the heritage of the site locally based arts company, Emergency Exit Arts, and the University (Department of Creative Professions and Digital Arts and Department of Literature, Language and Theatre) will create a series of interactive experiences throughout the building that will be open to the public over two evenings on 20 and 21 May.
Programme and times:
Tuesday 17 – Friday 20 May 12 pm – 2 pm and 4 pm – 6 pm
Saturday 21 May 12 pm – 3 pm and 5 pm – 8 pm
Before I Die I Want to Learn…… – Participatory activity with big chalk boards.
Arjunan Manuelpillai, Anna Bruder
Tuesday 17 – 21 May 9 pm – Midnight
Silhouetted World – Night Projections – Animated silhouettes, negative spaces and creative abstractions take the viewer through an imaginary narrative where people and technologies are heavily inspired by Victorian Greenwich, steam-punk, and surrealism.
Manos Kanellos, Rob Hurley, Gabriel Radvila
Friday 20 May 4 pm – 6 pm
Saturday 21 May 6 pm – 8 pm
Time Travel TV – An opportunity to become a character from the past and the future and tell us a memory, a story or an opinion that will be live on camera in our mini TV studio.
TV film maker: Danny Santos Amaral; Andrew Macklin as your host
Abstracted Greenwich – A hybrid digital video, hovering somewhere between an advertising poster and abstract animation – inspired by the history and recent excavations of Stockwell Street.
Sarah Daniel, Mike Feeley, Sinead McCarthy, Jelena Sipilova
A-Line Market – An interactive colouring-in installation for all the family, inspired by the old flea market that inhabited Stockwell Street.
Artist: Anna Bruder – A Line Arts; Sound recordings: Diana Nechilcuic; Film: Kyle Graham
Paper Cities – A video installation created with local school children from James Wolfe Primary School, which creatively explores ideas surrounding changing places, developing communities and celebrating the heritage and future of Stockwell Street.
Artist: Alex Evans with Film Maker: Kyle Graham, Sound and poetry: Arjunan Manuelpillai
Words from the Well – Storytelling well and tales of what lies beneath Stockwell Street and old Greenwich.
Storyteller: Arjunan Manuelpillai; Musician: Nick Cattermole
The Pub Under the Stairs – A cynical barmaid, a lady from the council and customers from another era all meet in a pub that time forgot. Inspired by the curious objects and artefacts that were dug up when the new Stockwell Street site was built, this 15 minute performance brings together live action and filmed images into a shared reality.
Directed by Jillian Wallis, film by Ed Currie. Performers: Amy Bentley, Ruby Brown, Harriet Gandy, Daniel Ward-Nixon, Abbie Woolcott
Loops and Tides – An imagined Greenwich, looped in change, yet always returning, is evoked through animations, soundscapes and performance along with local residents’ views on how the centre of Greenwich has changed.
Lisa Hayes, Zhan Wang, James Riordan, Rory Dempsey
Sand – Sand is a mass participatory interactive projection work. It enables people to connect, communicate and play through drawing and writing.
Jonathan Hogg, Andy D’Cruz
Creative coordinator (University of Greenwich): James Hobbs; Stephen Kennedy
Artistic Director (EEA): Deb Mullins
