VIRTUAL London.
Abstract
Working-class communities in Blackpool, like many other industrial towns in the UK, face unique challenges that are changing their identity, the dynamics of their community and the architectural shape of these areas. More recently Blackpool has experienced an urban regeneration programme with efforts aimed at revitalizing the town that has been socially and economically been deprived for many years. However, these efforts can also lead to the displacement of working-class residents due to rising property prices and the arrival of wealthier residents as a result from regeneration programmes with areas becoming more popular and being gentrified. These gentrified areas can have significant impact of on the working-class communities and must be carefully addressed to ensure the preservation of their heritage of these communities ensuring the working-class has access to employment, affordable housing and other community opportunities. This research aims to explore and understand the community of the working-class areas of Blackpool and what is it like to live there and experience the social, economic and culture of these working-class communities. By capturing the narratives and aesthetics of the community, it will seek to uncover the layers of history, culture, and experiences that contribute to the unique sense of belonging and identity within the working-class community of Blackpool. These findings will be translated into artworks through a series of artistic works, including photographic images and short poem films with the outlining experimental processes will be analysed within this paper.
Dr David Sinfield is an academic leader and educator within the field of Arts and Communication Design. His research underpins a series of poetic typographical projections as short films and extends the concept of the portrait beyond a purely visual representation of identity by fusing typography, narrative, location imagery, sound and paralinguistics. Furthermore, it creatively expands on discourse surrounding the lived space of working-class communities and how typography as emotive by considering the erosion and decay of letterforms as generative of meaning.