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Audio Interchange File

Part 2 Project 2022
William Weston
Louis Stephenson
Adam Nuttall
 Birmingham City University | UK
The ideas, tensions and exploration documented within this thesis is grounded in the city of Coventry. A city that has undergone a near constant evolution at the hands of war, city planners and developers with little input from the communities these changes affect and represent.

Through a documented exploration of the components that make up Coventry’s multi-faceted and complex genius loci, music has proven to be one of few foundational cornerstones that give opportunities for a collective representation of culture and being.

The discovery of musical pioneers such as Delia Derbyshire, who was able to invent novel soundscapes within a closed system and hack devices and equipment of her epoch to an exceedingly modern effect, has created a blueprint for disrupting the established order of development in the city.

An alternative history is presented In which lost music venues are retained and rebuilt. These theatres of collective euphoria and vehicles of culture are reclaimed through a city wide bricolage process that reuses elements from destroyed urban fabric to protect the beating heart of the city.

This ethos of reinterpreting and finding new significance in the existing city runs throughout the thesis in its architecture, in the collage-based methods of representation, and with the use of archival content in multimedia work.
William Weston
Louis Stephenson
Adam Nuttall
Tutor(s)
Alessandro Columbano
Valeria Szegal
2022
Audio interchange file is located in the city of Coventry. A series of listening and mapping devices are created and explored to find meaningful elements of genius loci amongst the cities fragmented and demolished past.
Sonic pioneer Delia Derbyshire, inspired by the air raid sirens of Coventry during the blitz goes on to create ground making electric soundscapes through a hijacking of analogue technology. Her methods are contextualised in a visual language through colla
A method is designed to codify music into defined spatial actions that can be interpreted as architecture.
The emergence of a city wide bricolage movement that is plugged directly into cultural hotspots. Lost venues are reconstructed from destroyed urban fabric reconfigured in new ways.
Reclaimed music venue - the Locarno ballroom, is reinstated as a parasitic amalgamation of demolished fragments. An active and movable programme and architecture opens and closes to protect the culture it facilitates.
A series of new spaces assume form, carrying with them the stories, memories and significance of existing fabric as a cultural and physical palimpsest.
A spinning stage as seen in the original ballroom triggers the shifting spaces within the reclaimed composition. Dynamic spaces serve multiple functions and encourage future changes as the culture evolves.
The eclipse nightclub, an empty site with no immediate neighbours is reclaimed midway through demolition and reconstructed to serve future generations of music lovers.
The Locarno ballroom, after being converted into a Waterstones library the iconic venue is reinstated as a parasitic and flexible architecture hosting a myriad of evolving functions.
Mcgunigans pub, a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community, burrows deep underground to create cavernous theatres for pride and celebration of self.
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