Alan Dunn

My three main current long-term research projects are Where the Arts Belong, FOUR WORDS, and the AHRC-funded Network project I have just launched, Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place with Dr Helen Tookey, Reader in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and a Lowry expert as Co-Investigator.

We received the AHRC Network Grant to bring together a group of academics, students, musicians, environmentalists and members of the public to reconsider some of the short stories of Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) in relation to increased care of our seas. In the 1950s, Lowry was living off the coast of Canada in a self-sustaining manner and writing about the detrimental impact industrialisation was having on the oceans. In many of his short stories, gathered together in the collection Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (named after a Manx fishermen’s hymn), he used the Isle of Man which he visited as a child as a model for hope and natural beauty. Our network met at sea between Wirral/Liverpool and Isle of Man between 2021-22 and gathered content for a series of podcasts available at: www.malcolmlowry.com.

Our aim was to develop a new sonic language for thinking about ocean pollution, and particular plastics, using Lowry’s texts as markers. During the crossings for example, The Art Doctors (featuring our own Liz Stirling) engaged ferry passengers in using Lowry’s texts to make collages around ocean-related themes. On one crossing they even worked with a group of comedians, including Paul Merton, who were crossing for a gig. One of our network members is Chris Watson, known for his award-winning sound recording work with David Attenborough and on the island Chris made some astounding underwater recordings of limpets and shrimp. There are other snippets of conversation within the abstract podcasts as well as soundtracks from Isle of Man musicians, young people playing with Lego and excerpts from ‘Luminescence’ from our own Sam Mitchel (LSA).

The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, with a population of 83,000 and it faces some important environmental challenges, including cataloguing Blue Carbon resources through Manx Blue Carbon Project and maintaining UNESCO Biosphere status (awarded 2016) and threats from unsustainable fishing, windfarms, gas mining, pollution and single-use plastics.

One of the most pleasing aspects of our network phase was the range of people who generously gave their time to chat, including beach cleaners, grassroots recycling agencies, local bands and members from the Isle of Man Government. Other network members from Leeds Beckett included Matt Green and Olga Munroe as well as current Fine Art students Frankie Mazzotta and Kristina Nenova, the Band of Holy Joy/BAD PUNK and academics from Bath Spa University, University of Leeds, University of Chester and University of Hertfordshire. 

The Where the Arts Belong research began in 2019 exploring the impact of contemporary art (and in particular for me the use of sound) within dementia care home settings. Given that our partners, Belong, not only persevered with this project all through Covid but specifically invited us to adapt and deliver award-winning online activities was incredibly humbling. Having developed more of a facilitating role within large community projects over the past few years, often supporting emerging artists in doing the face-to-face work, Covid forced me to become frontal again (there is no hiding on the screen!) and to find completely new ways of working. The input of the care staff through the most challenging of times has been the most rewarding.

We’ve applied for two pots of funding to return to the Isle of Man to undertake more underwater recordings and to create listening stations around the island. With the current phase of Where the Arts Belong concluding in June with an exhibition and symposium, I’m planning a continuation with some Seed Funding working with the new care home in Chester. I’ve been using tongue-twisters within the homes as ice-breakers but also beautiful moments when language breaks down and the role of memory matters less. We started ‘performing’ some tongue twisters in Chester but as whispers and I’m looking to find the best way of presenting these as most of my research contexts are relatively noisy (populated with people and conversations).

There’s been a few recent highlights including the Loose Articles gig at Futureyard in Birkenhead featuring one of our Fine Art alumni Erin Caine, the Tailor’s Tale exhibition at Ty Pawb in Wrexham, British Culture Archive at Bury Art Museum, (Un)Defining Queer at the Whitworth in Manchester, Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool, Sam Ainsley’s Out of Redness Comes Kindness at Leeds Arts University (Sam was the most influential tutor for me at Glasgow School of Art in the late 80s), Craig Easton’s photographs at Open Eye in Liverpool and The Leeds Artists Show with work by some of our students.

After seeing her talk at HOME in Manchester, I’ve been dipping into some of Melanie Challenger’s articles on her website such as Listening to other species that encourage us to consider non-human animals within the (literal and ethical) conversations. I’ve started Greg Garrard’s Ecocriticism but struggling to get into it. Graham Stokes’ And Still the Music Plays: Stories of People with Dementia is an incredible set of short stories on creatively resolving specific people’s ‘issues’ within care homes. I recently enjoyed Tracey Thorn’s Bedsit Disco Queen and Victoria Yeulet’s Women Make Noise: Girl Bands from Motown to the Modern references lots of exciting music I’d not heard, from Spitboy through to The Liverbirds.

I’m meeting with Professor Claire Surr soon to chat about collaborations between myself, Fine Art students and our Centre for Dementia Research here at Leeds Beckett University. I’m continuing with the FOUR WORDS project (https://alandunn67.co.uk/fourwordsportfolio.html) that has involved a huge range of people from Turner Prize winners through members of Kraftwerk, former Liverpool FC footballers, priests, young people, gardeners, University ancillary staff and journalists. One of the recent iterations was at Ty Pawb in Wrexham which is an exciting set-up of contemporary art within a modern market setting. We’re in discussion about extending the collaboration towards a major exhibition in 2025 and for that we’re hoping to extend our collaboration out to work with Wrexham FC, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.  

The three named projects cover most of the forward plans although there’s also a series of zines of which TOP TEN is the latest, with the first issue just created with our own Tom Rodgers: https://alandunn67.co.uk/topten.html