Here is what was said in order to sell our idea to our peers and tutors in our first idea presentation!
Since 1985, Eastern Bloc as been the hub of music trade in Manchester. Home of a large selection of drum & bass, jungle, dub step, house, techno and electronica, Eastern Bloc's success echoed the street's clear understanding and dedication to music in that period and the bands thats success was originally born of Manchester. Being a Massive part of the music scene in Manchester, eastern Bloc on Stevenson square is still shown in tourist guides and reviews alike as a 'hotspot' in Manchester's history, yet is a place renowned by the generation before ourselves and commemorated, but doesn’t quite get the attention that it truly deserves from the young generation today.
We first got really attached to Eastern Bloc on the art and architecture walks. After going to the Northern quarter for years, I was surprised at the amount of times I had walked past places of such firm music history and praise, my first thought was to tell others about the places they had seen there too.
Our first instinct was to look at album artwork, but without plagiarism we couldn’t re-create these without taking their concepts out to an unrecognizable piece of work. Then we looked into involving the public to re-create popular bands/musicians photos such as Noel Gallagher and The Smiths by hosting a gallery of then and now photos. As we aren’t musicians ourselves and don’t wish to exhibit the work in the city a ‘busking’, we realized that we could use music itself as the medium in the form of vinyls, CDs and cassettes. Using Eastern Bloc as the platform for our work, vinyls will emerge from the shop/café with spontaneous ease, wrapping themselves around naturally occurring city marks such as bins, benches, lampposts and drains. Some are even to ‘explode’ from the store to be found ‘wedged’ in the wall of an opposing shop and shattered on a window, giving the installation a sense of movement. These vinyl’s will change and melt around the outdoor seating area of eastern bloc by ourselves and melted to unusual shapes, places and grooves in the natural cityscape.
After vinyl’s what came next? Cassettes of course! And that’s the direction we’ll go. Pulling the tapes from them, melting them into the vinyl’s and having them installed in bulk will really show a key transition of what the industry went to in its own revolution. Then to CDs from the cassettes with the same idea and concept as before. These Cds in the two weeks of installation will then be asked upon by the public for them to write what their belief of ‘Music in Manchester’ means to them. This could be as simple as ‘buskers’ or ‘nothing’ to ‘I bought my first record at Eastern Bloc!’ hopefully we can use these to write around the top of Eastern bloc’s interiors as a reminder of modern day’s approach to music here and it new found respect.
The medium we use will also explore the political issue of how illegal downloads and mass legal downloads kills the idea of have music and a hard copy, enjoying and spending time purchasing music and keeping it treasured, plus our waste to having it all ‘in the air’ as such. In order to set our idea to the public in the best way, we aim to flyer, self promote and event the installation by making it Viral on the Internet and making as many people aware and to visit the artwork and get such a variety of people involved!This is after our feedback and final idea arrangements today! If you think I have missed anything from today and our whole concept then please comment below :)
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Since 1985, Eastern Bloc as been the hub of music trade in Manchester. Home of a large selection of drum & bass, jungle, dub step, house, techno and electronica, Eastern Bloc's success echoed the street's clear understanding and dedication to music in that period and the bands thats success was originally born of Manchester. Being a Massive part of the music scene in Manchester, eastern Bloc on Stevenson square is still shown in tourist guides and reviews alike as a 'hotspot' in Manchester's history, yet is a place renowned by the generation before ourselves and commemorated, but doesn’t quite get the attention that it truly deserves from the young generation today.
We first got really attached to Eastern Bloc on the art and architecture walks. After going to the Northern quarter for years, I was surprised at the amount of times I had walked past places of such firm music history and praise, my first thought was to tell others about the places they had seen there too.
Our first instinct was to look at album artwork, but without plagiarism we couldn’t re-create these without taking their concepts out to an unrecognizable piece of work. Then we looked into involving the public to re-create popular bands/musicians photos such as Noel Gallagher and The Smiths by hosting a gallery of then and now photos. As we aren’t musicians ourselves and don’t wish to exhibit the work in the city a ‘busking’, we realized that we could use music itself as the medium in the form of vinyls, CDs and cassettes. Using Eastern Bloc as the platform for our work, vinyls will emerge from the shop/café with spontaneous ease, wrapping themselves around naturally occurring city marks such as bins, benches, lampposts and drains. Some are even to ‘explode’ from the store to be found ‘wedged’ in the wall of an opposing shop and shattered on a window, giving the installation a sense of movement. These vinyl’s will change and melt around the outdoor seating area of eastern bloc by ourselves and melted to unusual shapes, places and grooves in the natural cityscape.
After vinyl’s what came next? Cassettes of course! And that’s the direction we’ll go. Pulling the tapes from them, melting them into the vinyl’s and having them installed in bulk will really show a key transition of what the industry went to in its own revolution. Then to CDs from the cassettes with the same idea and concept as before. These Cds in the two weeks of installation will then be asked upon by the public for them to write what their belief of ‘Music in Manchester’ means to them. This could be as simple as ‘buskers’ or ‘nothing’ to ‘I bought my first record at Eastern Bloc!’ hopefully we can use these to write around the top of Eastern bloc’s interiors as a reminder of modern day’s approach to music here and it new found respect.
The medium we use will also explore the political issue of how illegal downloads and mass legal downloads kills the idea of have music and a hard copy, enjoying and spending time purchasing music and keeping it treasured, plus our waste to having it all ‘in the air’ as such. In order to set our idea to the public in the best way, we aim to flyer, self promote and event the installation by making it Viral on the Internet and making as many people aware and to visit the artwork and get such a variety of people involved!
