Paper short abstract:

A time based essay comprising A/V ’evidence’ collected by Stevenage Museum in the form of oral histories, commercial photographs of the Development Corporation and private movie clips comparing the corporate with the community memory of it’s own intentions.

Paper long abstract:

Preparing content for Talking New Towns(www.talkingnewtowns.org.uk)I have listened, edited and looked though the extensive archives in Stevenage Museum. When the content is presented it is framed and interpreted through words, design and editing. The interviews, photos and plan drawings from the new town are used for schools packs, and in exhibition displays to enhance the experience of the objects.

I have searched for the personal statements of the architects and planners who built Stevenage New Town, I have listened to the builders, moms, the Irish and the Londoners, the housing officer and the teachers who lived the changes in the planned new town.The town was built to take in the London overspill, a housing crisis accumulating in the thirties and vastly accelerated by the bombings during the 2. World war.

The planned new towns reflected the intentions of the privately funded Letchworth Garden City and the scope of the state built Becontree Estate built as a part of Homes Fit for Heroes. In the visual essay the voices of people moving in to the new town will reflect in the intentions of the planners, accompanied by the photos commissioned by the Development Corporation and the private recordings on cine film. Sidelining the visual and the oral memories creating a journey through time unfolding the experience of a futuristic project of mass housing. The final piece will be around 10 - 15 minutes and delivered as a movie to be projected on a screen with reasonable speakers.