Sensing place: using mobile methods to reconnect to the spaces we live in

The Approach

Regionally sited in West Yorkshire, the project has transformed the perception of communities (ex- industrial workers, Holmfirth residents and tourists, a land-activist choir, urban gardeners) regarding the places and landscapes in which they live and work. Using visual and sensory memories, gardening, art consumption and choir performance the projects have heightened the awareness, understanding and wellbeing of local and regional communities, re-affirming the value of their everyday experiences.

The Impact

The impact of the projects was felt by the various beneficiaries (ex-industrial workers, Holmfirth residents and tourists, a land-activist choir, urban gardeners; night walkers) and ranged across five impact themes:

Understanding and Awareness

LoL heightened ex-worker understanding of the value of lived experience in the shift from industrial to post-industrial textile manufacturing. Feedback on an exhibition (45 attendees at the launch 15 July 2016) of ex-workers’ photographs and artefacts (Bailiff Bridge Library, July 2016) said, ‘the project helped me feel more important about my working life, which up to now had seemed pointless.’ . A public ‘Cultural Conversations’ event reported research findings at Leeds City Museum (October 2016).

NH showed the locals’ memories of the town were interwoven with its TV representation . Also enhanced was Tourists’ understanding of the town as a ‘real- life’ place with a specific history and set of inhabitants.

UC Participants (x20) commented the event made them see the city afresh. They testified: ‘it made me think about the less trodden paths through a city that are not guided by spending in shops/bars or restaurants’, ‘It didn’t occur to me that that would be something of interest, so it elevated something that was quite everyday to me'.

YAH participants noted the value of the sensory (‘visual images couldn’t capture the experience, the emotions, the weather, the ephemeral feeling of the event and its physicality’).

HMON participants testified to greater understanding about why David Hockney’s art-celebrity image and landscapes of East Yorkshire mattered as a counter-force to place stigma of the North.

Health and Wellbeing

VC participants reported enhanced health and wellbeing - 'I think of gardening as very valuable – you’ve got to have passions in life and things that you care about that are nothing to do with money; ‘You lose yourself in a different world’; the workshop enabled them to share sensory memories of gardening, ‘Love the sensory element and exploring memory’, and to recognise gardening’s positive effects, whilst practical elements inspired them to take up gardening, ‘I felt inspired to try some gardening’; ‘Learned how to make a seed bomb’.

For CC, the benefits arising from singing and walking together were noted . ‘Every time we went we felt better, spirits lifted’; ‘It completely enhanced my well-being, it got me through my mother’s passing…looking back, I don’t know what I would have done without it.’ The events had a joyful emotional impact: ‘when we sang at the top of Kinder Scout it gave me this indescribable feeling in my belly that singing about things that really matter produces.’ The benefits of the choir also extended to wider audiences (reached via media coverage, broadcast or live performances) who have since joined.

NH residents wellbeing was improved through having their everyday experiences of living in the town valued.

YAH participants testified to the wellbeing benefits of taking part (’the walk did me so much good for such a long time’) and the positive health effects of night walks (‘the stress of work just melted away throughout the walk’)

Cultural

CC completed a catalogue of public performances, media appearances (Look North (BBC1), Britain’s Best Walks (ITV)) and released an album. The cultural benefits of the choir have been felt by members (c. x 70) who have testified to the creation of community. ‘I’m not arty at all, I’m an accountant, yet suddenly I was performing with people from very different walks of life’; ‘the choir is a community to which everyone contributes, whether its printing badges, writing song lyrics’; ‘the shared act of singing in harmony…is very bonding’, the sense of belonging from walking in the steps of previous protestors: ‘Magna Carta was a celebration of the history of walking protest, to walk on those paths happened because of those who had fought for our right to do that’

For VC the recognition of being part of a community of gardeners was noted ‘I know a lot more people in the area through that.. it brings people together – it really is a community thing’. 

NH enhanced participants’ sense of community and belonging as well as their ability to cope with change: Holmfirth had changed and their lives alongside it. Participants testified to the sense of community by sharing their love of the programme with each other as fans. 

Environmental 

CC: ‘Joining was life changing. For the first time in my life… it made me realise I could protest about access to green space’ 

LoL participants testified: ‘we should be included in the planning decisions about what happens to old works villages in the future. The clock, some of the looms could be made into monuments to remind folk that we made fantastic carpets. Policy-makers should read your work and act with it in mind!’

For VC the benefits of land preserved for planting was noted, ‘access to green space is vital’ and the connections between people and place: ‘link between local produce and memory’ and ‘how people engage with the places they plant’. Research findings could inform environmental policy on access to green space for urban residents. 

For NH how residents relate to the environment in relation to the TV series was changed ‘When I see the things on screen it makes me look at it differently … I get that sudden realisation that ‘oh yeah it is a lovely place to live’'. 

YAH: 'Walking became a sensual and thoughtful process – such a wonderful night’; ‘the different terrain we encountered, and the length of the walk made me think about [the environment] differently).'