Project: Exploration and Description of the Peripheral City
Location: East Manchester

Because of the complex nature of East Manchester we decided to describe it through a series of journeys at different speeds through the area. Journeys by foot, bicycle, bus, car and train through different parts of the East Manchester area only accessible by their respective form of transport. On the journey, photographs were taken to describe the nature of the landscape encountered, also sections were drawn across the route at regular intervals and a sound recording was made of the entire journey.

This information was brought together in the form of a multimedia installation, different areas with different characters were created inside a room using suspended strips of paper, which had the images projected onto them. The boundaries of these areas were constantly changing due to the motion of the air caused by the observers along with the succession of different images and sounds. The people interacting with the installation are confronted with issues of basic orientation and the memory of landscape.

The transient nature of the installation is a reflection of the constantly mutating nature of the site. The process of change that has and will continue to transform the area of Greater Manchester in the periphery of the city centre has until now resulted in the creation of a homogenous carpet of low density structures that denies the differentiated experience of the landscape. The programmatic density of the peripheral carpet is subject to dynamic economic forces which constantly mutate the boundaries of spatial ownership.