MSCTY_EXPO REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
MSCTY_EXPO [ZONE 003]
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
INTRODUCTION
A Jump to a Different Timeline!
In a turbulent time of change, REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL ZONE looks back to unbuilt [and somewhat utopian] visions, which were product of an immensely dynamic period of reinvention. It is a time perhaps best represented through the 1951 Festival of Britain – and exactly 70 years later.
The ZONE takes us on a journey through sketches, blueprints, and ideas that symbolize some of the UK’s most adventurous and playful urban planning.
And who better to sonically respond to these than the artists who have lived, worked, and grown within the very spaces + places these suggestions of a different future would have been built in?
PAVILIONS
A sonic response by Forest Swords to C.H.R. Bailey's unbuilt 1960 design for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
PART 1: LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL
Forest Swords
Ani Glass revisits the grand unbuilt plans for Cardiff's Centreplan 70.
PART 2: CARDIFF CENTREPLAN 70
Ani Glass
Felix Taylor explores the fine line between utopianism and dystopianism with Charles Glover's wonderfully ambitious 1930's plan for an airport over Kings Cross in London.
PART 3: LONDON KINGS CROSS AIRPORT
Felix Taylor
Kode9 takes a musical-imaginary glance at what could have been if Bruce's 1945 blueprint for a new central city had been built.
PART 4: GLASGOW BRUCE PLAN
Kode9
In 1954, an alternative Central London was proposed by the planning giants Geoffrey Jellico, Ove Arup and Edward Mills. Seven decades later we are there with Mieko Shimizu to reimagine how that future may have sounded.
PART 5: LONDON SOHO
Mieko Shimizu
The proposed plan for Shaftesbury Square formed part of the larger Belfast Urban Area Plan 1969, which was shelved due to The Troubles. We join forces with local resident Helena Hamilton to imagine an alternative universe where the Plan was built, and recreate it through sound.
PART 6: BELFAST SHAFTESBURY SQUARE
Helena Hamilton
Further Reading
Words by Steve Taylor + an interview w/ Kode9.