‘Save Our Progress’ is the end result of the OGRE Studio digital commission for Summer Streets Festival 2022. We spoke with Artist-Designer of the project, Steven Walker, who shared his experience in creating work: 

“Holistically, I really wanted to create an AV piece with roots in the visual language of the music video as well as nodding to the formats of archival and documentary community filmmaking.  “The aim was to be as collaborative as possible, engaging with people living and working in Sunderland over several days as well as on the day of the 2022 Summer Streets festival itself. “I wanted to let conversations influence the content creation process to represent a slice of time, setting the festival as a videogame ‘save point’ for the people and the place, especially as so much has/is happening in the world and where things are (and could be) heading.  “These conversations happened with a broad mix of people and fed directly into the subtitles and steered the visuals we made and curated to create a layered narrative that could be interpreted in different ways by the viewer - taking in a sense of hope from regional ambitions of the past, with industry, place-making and city branding and urban development, of the function of art making and artists now, considering if we have made actual positive progress or just changed things. 

“Playing live at the festival was Me Lost Me (Jayne Dent), whose track Binoculars features in this work. There were so many connections in what I was thinking about for this piece with the themes of several of Jayne’s songs and in particular this track. But like the film, the takeaway is not prescriptive and definitive, but offers a duality in interpretation by the listener. Music traditions expressed with new tech and storytelling to make something new, relevant and beautiful. We’re really looking forward to working more closely with Jayne in the future. “Heavily edited snippets of 10 conversations are mixed and presented as one voice throughout the film to create a shifting sense of narrative direction and re-presented as a documentary snapshot in time.  “Ultimately this created a visual collage inspired by and around segments of brilliant conversations I had with people around Sunderland and at Summer Streets festival. I wanted to create a kind of lyric video steered by the public’s thoughts on things right now, capturing a feeling of now for the area, whilst also creating something that could work as a music video. “Creating this work has been a genuinely collaborative and enjoyable process in response to the festival. In the end, with the piece massively benefitting from all the conversations we had to anchor some reality into it. Gently suggesting a kind of morphing inflection point for people, and a moment to pause, reflect and restart from. Just like in a game, where you can save your progress to return to a time and place to move forward from again.
“The aim of the piece was to create a visually meditative snapshot in time with a sense of curiosity, achieved through AV collage using animation, game-engines, 3D mapping and video archive, powered by storytelling and community conversations, narrated by people and place. “One thing’s for sure. People from Sunderland love Sunderland, they have hope and resilience because they know that pulling together pulls us all through and can even influence the world, from our little corner of it.