The Expanded City - Stage One

Abstract

The Expanded City is a three-stage project, which investigates the changing nature of cities. During the last decade, urban development was largely concerned with transforming post-industrial city centres into retail and residential developments. However, projects such as Preston’s City Deal scheme – part of a national initiative to encourage economic growth in key cities across England – increasingly involve building cities from the outside in.

For 10 years In Certain Places has focused on and shaped developments within the city centre of Preston. The Expanded City extends the methods and approaches refined over the last decade to new contexts and locations; the city’s edges.

What are the contributions artists can make to the external perceptions and internal experiences of inner city and suburban places? How can that inform debate about the imminent future of these places in terms of urban planning and cultural provision?

Following an invitation by Preston City Council, In Certain Places has been working with commissioned artists Olivia Keith, Gavin Renshaw, Emily Speed and duo Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, and The Decorators. The artists have investigated the physical and cultural topography of the outskirts of Preston, ‘deep mapping’ the areas marked for growth.

Through a focus on the practical and political aspects of issues such as housing, play and leisure provision, transport infrastructure, emotional connections to the land, and environmental stewardship, the artists have developed projects which raise questions about and offer suggestions for the future of Preston and other expanding cities.

All the artists share an interest in boundaries, routes, edges and the urban/rural binary, and work across a range of media, including film, photography and performance. The commissions will explore the social and physical aspects of the places, their relationships with the city centre and the potential implications of planned developments. Writer and curator Lauren Velvick contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the work of the artists in a regular Expanded City blog.

Stage one beginning in 2016 saw the beginning of research and development. The work of this first phase is summarised in the 2016 publication produced by Lauren Velvick, the project's ‘writer in residence’. The publication contextualised and provided a critical narrative for the development of the artists’ work. This phase also saw the Expanded City Symposium.

The symposium which took place in Woodplumpton and District Club in the north of Preston, presented the first stage of research in the Expanded City project. Alongside presentations about urban demographics by economist Paul Swinney, the production of community spaces by design collective The Decorators, and a performance lecture by Ian Nesbitt and Ruth Levene, the day included a bus trip around the City Deal areas, where Gavin Renshaw, Olivia Keith and Lauren Velvick presented their work-in-progress.