Panel discussion on Cultural Democracy
with Loraine Leeson, Hilary Wainwright and Hasan Mahamdallie
4-5pm Monday 20th November 2017
ResonanceFM Suite (212)
Art : Process : Change
London Community Video Archive
On 9th August 2017 the London Community Video Archive went live. Its aim is to preserve, archive and share community videos made in the 1970s/80s in London Portable video recording — now a technology routinely embodied in smartphones — became available for the very first time back in the early 1970s, making it possible for individuals and communities to make their own television. The medium was taken up by people ignored or under-represented in the mainstream media – tenants on housing estates, community action groups, women, black and minority ethnic groups, youth, gay and lesbian people, and the disabled. With an overriding commitment to social empowerment and to combating exclusion, ‘Community Video’ dealt with issues which still have a contemporary resonance — housing, play-space, discrimination, youth arts.
The archive contains the video Emergency created by Loraine Leeson and Peter Dunn in 1974 in support of the campaign to keep Bethnal Green Hospital open. It also hosts an interview with Loraine that outlines how the making of this video became an important touchstone for her subsequent socially engaged art practice.
Lambeth Floating Marsh
This art/science collaboration between artist Loraine Leeson and biophysical chemist Nithin Rai aimed to support biodiversity on the River Thames. Reed beds were constructed along the hull of the Tamesis Dock barge, situated opposite Tate Britain between Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges, the site of the original Lambeth Marshes. The initiative promoted the ‘greening’ of the shored up banks of the river, while providing a sheltered habitat and monitoring station for river organisms. It will also served as a pilot for how biodiversity conservation may be expanded along the inner city reaches of urban rivers. Visitors were able to connect to the project web site via their phones to observe recent activity and learn about the issues affecting biodiversity conservation in the Thames. In September 2015 images of these organisms were projected along the embankment. The work was funded by the Western Riverside Environmental Fund, which re-directs revenue from landfill tax for environmental purposes.
Pavement Projections
Projections of the kinds of microorganisms we discovered in this inner city reach of the River Thames were projected along its southerly embankment, the site of the historic Lambeth Marshes..
Lambeth Floating Marsh Animation Loop from Loraine Leeson on Vimeo with Visual effects by Sean Lewis.
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Biodiversity and the Tidal Thames
The Tidal Thames is a recovering ecosystem of great ecological importance and the Estuary supports a diverse flora; rich populations of invertebrates; 121 species of fish and many internationally important aquatic birds.
In 1957 however the River Thames was declared biologically dead with water quality so poor that it could not sustain life. Since then the river has undergone a massive transformation, water quality has improved, and wildlife has returned. Nevertheless long stretches of concrete flood defense walls on the Thames are still preventing plant growth and the invertebrates that thrive in healthy riverbank habitats.
Lambeth Floating Marsh gallery
Below are images collected from the project.
About the Lambeth Floating Marsh project
Lambeth Floating Marsh is an art/science collaboration between artist Loraine Leeson and biophysical chemist Nithin Rai, with support from University of Westminster’s Faculty of Science and Technology.
Looking down the river towards Westminster.
Lambeth Floating Marsh Project team
On this page are short introductions to the Lambeth Floating Marsh project team.
Projections from Lambeth Floating Marsh launch night
Lambeth Floating Marsh projections from Loraine Leeson on Vimeo.