IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

This paper introduces urban analogue archaeology as a method for investigating Manchester’s former cinemas—buildings whose cultural significance endures even as their material presence fades. The project employs analogue tools not merely for documentation, but to engage with the atmospheric and cultural layers embedded in urban sites. Drawing on Raymond Williams’ concept of structures of feeling, the research uses 35mm photography, 8mm and 16mm film, and location-based audio to interpret the emotional and material residues of the city. The mechanical qualities of analogue media promote slow, attentive looking and listening, uncovering aspects of cultural memory often overlooked by digital methods. Building on the walking methodologies of Springgay and Truman, the project combines embodied movement with analogue recording processes to reveal how former cinemas communicate through both atmosphere and built form. This method allows for “peeling back” layered histories and illuminating spatial and affective traces of the buildings’ cultural pasts. While nostalgia inevitably accompanies encounters with analogue media and disused cinemas, it is approached analytically—used to register temporal depth rather than romanticise decline. The paper will showcase extracts of analogue film work, field recordings, and selected cinema ephemera from the North West Film Archive, demonstrating the methodology in action. Aligned with UNESCO’s understanding of intangible cultural heritage, the project illustrates how analogue practice can illuminate overlooked dimensions of urban experience. By foregrounding the interplay of memory, place, and identity, it contributes a distinctive methodological lens to studies of liveability, cultural identity, and heritage in contemporary cities.