Metal

You Are Here was devised and developed by Metal as a way of exploring with young people the atmosphere, cultural life and future potential of their home towns and cities.

Metal is interested in how artist’s of all different kinds, contribute to the thinking, the identity and the development of ideas within civil and community life, and in particular within places that are undergoing major change and development.

Working with Insite, and Essex County Council we identified three towns across Essex that are currently undergoing a masterplanning process – Harwich, Harlow and Southend on Sea – all of whom are working towards a future vision for  their town.

We asked the pupils of a secondary school in each town to work with us, alongside an artist, an architect, a designer and the masterplanning body, to help us to understand their town, and to draw out the ideas and potential for its future.

Shoeburyness High School in Southend, Burnt Mill in Harlow and The Harwich School in Harwich worked with three artists from different disciplines.  Inno Sorsy is a writer, voice specialist and storyteller, Elina Jokipii is an artist and photographer, and Keith Watts is an illustrator.  The artists worked with pupils to enable them to produce all the content – reviews, interviews, photographs and drawings.  Visits and workshops with the architects and masterplanners involved in the development of their towns fed into their understanding and ideas.  Thompson Design visited each school to develop the design approach in consultation with all participants.

A book for each town was produced as a set of three to give you a flavour of what the pupils discovered about the place they live, the people they met, and the excitement they felt for its future.

For a full pdf copy of each book, please click on the following links.

You Are Here - Southend on Sea
You Are Here - Harwich
You Are Here - Harlow