Call for contributions - local knowledge.

[Transitsheff]

We are Transit, a locally based visual art collective, and are currently working on the production of a personalised guide to the city of Sheffield, created by its people to contain little known, unseen and transient elements of the city along with more familiar features. We invite you as Sheffield’s publics to contribute to this ever expanding alternative representation of the city; a compilation of places – sights, occurrences, histories and constructions changing subtly as the city develops.

 

Please tell us of a place in the Sheffield area….

This could be your favourite or most loathed place, or of hold some personal or historical significance or interest to you. By place, the definition of which this project explores, could be anything from a shared open space to an occasional sight, a community group, a street, a shop, a hidden feature or the site of a little known past event.

 

You are welcome to write as much or as little as you like; you may wish to simply tell us of the location or provide more details to be passed on to eventual readers. Please send us an image of the place or directions of its whereabouts so we can take one ourselves! Please also specify whether you would like to give your name to your contribution or whether you would like to remain anonymous.

 

This project is ongoing and has no fixed deadline, however there will be an interim collection from the archive exhibited at S1 Artspace, Sheffield on 5th June as part of Make/Shift, so if you would like your contribution to feature in this show we would need to receive it by 27th June.

 

Thank you,

Transit

(Kate Longman and Charlotte Morgan)

 

More about this project…

The representative features of a city are those which give the place and its inhabitants it a sense of shared identity, through which people can respect and relate to the diverse environment of which they are part. The most widely known and celebrated symbols tend to gain prominence through natural acquisition, be they geographical attributes, inherited traits or industrial structures. An example of such a symbol is the Cooling Towers at Tinsley, the demolition of which has been the topic of much recent debate in varied circles.

 

At first glance the cooling towers may seem an unlikely icon. Although outwardly industrial and severe, it is believed by many that they are imbued with an oblique beauty that is quintessential to Sheffield. In certain cases, the plan to demolish the cooling towers has been met with great indignation from the public. In a bid to placate a stealthy group of protesters, the energy company in ownership of the land has promised to bestow upon Sheffield a piece of public art designed to take up the cooling towers mantle, encapsulating Sheffield’s social, historical, cultural and industrial identity, which will be commissioned and planned by Sheffield City Council.

 

Arguably showing a lack of imagination, the council’s favoured artistic proposal is to create a giant steel football on the site; a sculpture that combines two elements which, though greatly significant to the history of Sheffield, come together as a somewhat tired emblem of the city doing little to exemplify its diverse industries and activities in culture and technology, its green environment and rural connections, and many other overlooked characteristics by which Sheffield can be identified. Public Art of this kind has a tendency to generalise the needs and characteristics of the public to a point where every idiosyncrasy is ironed out to leave a banal and empty symbol. Some may argue that the Cooling Towers are ugly, but is mediocrity and indifference the alternative?

 

Through this ongoing project we are creating of a guide to the city’s complex and transient features, an archive of associations, and we are appealing to you for any unknown stories and personal accounts of Sheffield that describe your own unique experiences. Whilst aiming to provide the city’s inhabitants and visitors with a personalised and idiosyncratic insight into their surroundings, the aims of this archive are also to offer an alternative perspective on methods, functions and outcomes of referencing the city in hope of adjusting the aims of the public art commissioners towards more gestural innovative ends. An interim collection of these accounts will be exhibited on July 5th at S1 Artspace as part of the forthcoming exhibition Make/Shift, 23.06.08 – 10.07.08. All readers and contributors are invited to attend on July 5th where refreshments will be served, and on July 10th for the closing event of the Make/Shift exhibition as a whole.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss these issues or express your views in more detail. Other organisations of interest may be The Sheffield Civic Trust and Go Sheffield.

[Transitsheff]

We are Transit, a locally based visual art collective, and are currently working on the production of a personalised guide to the city of Sheffield, created by its people to contain little known, unseen and transient elements of the city along with more familiar features. We invite you as Sheffield’s publics to contribute to this ever expanding alternative representation of the city; a compilation of places – sights, occurrences, histories and constructions changing subtly as the city develops.

 

Please tell us of a place in the Sheffield area….

This could be your favourite or most loathed place, or of hold some personal or historical significance or interest to you. By place, the definition of which this project explores, could be anything from a shared open space to an occasional sight, a community group, a street, a shop, a hidden feature or the site of a little known past event.

 

You are welcome to write as much or as little as you like; you may wish to simply tell us of the location or provide more details to be passed on to eventual readers. Please send us an image of the place or directions of its whereabouts so we can take one ourselves! Please also specify whether you would like to give your name to your contribution or whether you would like to remain anonymous.

 

This project is ongoing and has no fixed deadline, however there will be an interim collection from the archive exhibited at S1 Artspace, Sheffield on 5th June as part of Make/Shift, so if you would like your contribution to feature in this show we would need to receive it by 27th June.

 

Thank you,

Transit

(Kate Longman and Charlotte Morgan)

 

More about this project…

The representative features of a city are those which give the place and its inhabitants it a sense of shared identity, through which people can respect and relate to the diverse environment of which they are part. The most widely known and celebrated symbols tend to gain prominence through natural acquisition, be they geographical attributes, inherited traits or industrial structures. An example of such a symbol is the Cooling Towers at Tinsley, the demolition of which has been the topic of much recent debate in varied circles.

 

At first glance the cooling towers may seem an unlikely icon. Although outwardly industrial and severe, it is believed by many that they are imbued with an oblique beauty that is quintessential to Sheffield. In certain cases, the plan to demolish the cooling towers has been met with great indignation from the public. In a bid to placate a stealthy group of protesters, the energy company in ownership of the land has promised to bestow upon Sheffield a piece of public art designed to take up the cooling towers mantle, encapsulating Sheffield’s social, historical, cultural and industrial identity, which will be commissioned and planned by Sheffield City Council.

 

Arguably showing a lack of imagination, the council’s favoured artistic proposal is to create a giant steel football on the site; a sculpture that combines two elements which, though greatly significant to the history of Sheffield, come together as a somewhat tired emblem of the city doing little to exemplify its diverse industries and activities in culture and technology, its green environment and rural connections, and many other overlooked characteristics by which Sheffield can be identified. Public Art of this kind has a tendency to generalise the needs and characteristics of the public to a point where every idiosyncrasy is ironed out to leave a banal and empty symbol. Some may argue that the Cooling Towers are ugly, but is mediocrity and indifference the alternative?

 

Through this ongoing project we are creating of a guide to the city’s complex and transient features, an archive of associations, and we are appealing to you for any unknown stories and personal accounts of Sheffield that describe your own unique experiences. Whilst aiming to provide the city’s inhabitants and visitors with a personalised and idiosyncratic insight into their surroundings, the aims of this archive are also to offer an alternative perspective on methods, functions and outcomes of referencing the city in hope of adjusting the aims of the public art commissioners towards more gestural innovative ends. An interim collection of these accounts will be exhibited on July 5th at S1 Artspace as part of the forthcoming exhibition Make/Shift, 23.06.08 – 10.07.08. All readers and contributors are invited to attend on July 5th where refreshments will be served, and on July 10th for the closing event of the Make/Shift exhibition as a whole.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss these issues or express your views in more detail. Other organisations of interest may be The Sheffield Civic Trust and Go Sheffield.

[e912]

several locations i would take photos from

 

Firstly Shrewsbury Road, looking westerly if you found the right location you can capture midland railway station, Bramall lane football (?) ground, the roof of the new mosque on wolseley road, and the hills of the peak district in the background as well as housing and some industrial looking roofs.

 

Secondly, the crematorium on skew hill in grenoside, just go up there and look i havent enough space to describe it.

 

Finally get as high as you can in the Royal Hallamshire and take a photo of the East end, on a clear day you will be able to get everything from the town centre out to the tinsley viaduct.

 

hope that helps

[sydneygirl]

HISTORY ICONS - THE TUDOR/STUART YEARS OF SHEFFIELD: It helps if one has completed a Creative Writing Course to record our visions of Sheffield. I would like to relate to an item I have input into another thread on The Old Queen's Head pub as a Tudor/Stuart Sheffield icon. (I thought this was in Dixon Lane but apparantly the pub there is the Norfolk Arms). The most obvious iconic connection here, one we never see advertised, Mary Queen of Scots whilst imprisoned in England by Queen Elizabeth. A comment is made "MQoS would have enjoyed half a pint with the travelling coachman" on his way North or South. However, I read somewhere she loved visiting the Ponds area, as well as trips into Derbyshire. I was surprised one day when I visited an office within the Midlands Railway Station to find a small plaque dedicated to Queen Mary of Scotland's visits to this area in the "Ponds". Surely this icon should be placed somewhere where a tourist might read the inscription, not hidden in an office.

 

It's unfortunate the true icon Sheffield needs for tourism has been destroyed. Leeds, Nottingham, York, etc. still have their castles and walls and gatehouses. What does Sheffield have left; The Queen's Head pub, to remind them of the Tudor/Stuart years. Alright so they were not the happiest of times for some of the grafters, workers, servants and vassals of those days. The same can be said of many towns all over Europe at that time.

THE PLANTAGENET YEARS OF SHEFFIELD: The second area devoted to Sheffield history (in my visions of Sheffield) would have to be the Rivelin/Loxley valley. Unfortunately, the flood of 1864 when the dam burst destroying lives and buildings has removed much of it's history. I have an excellent pamphlet issued by Sheffield City Council and the Countryside Commission mapping out and describing the Rivelin Valley Walk from Malin Bridge to Rivelin Post Office past The Holly Bush Inn; Bingley Farm and Robin Hood Inn, many a magical Sunday afternoon spent here. One icon of interest, the "leaping stones" at various places along the Rivelin River. I wonder how many Sheffielders realise Hillsborough's "Leppings Lane" is named after these "leaping stones".

THE VICTORIAN YEARS OF SHEFFIELD: A third iconic image of Sheffield will be (for me) the Derwent Dam in Derbyshire, half hrs drive south. I have a photo of this dam showing a huge wall of water on the one side and on the other side a very high wall of stone. We could not describe Sheffield any better than this.

Best tourism attraction would have to be the Sheffield Markets. The best shopping place in the world as far as I'm concerned. That and the hot chestnut man who stands in Angel Street. Best tasting hot chestnuts in England.