Everything I Have Is Yours is an ambitious film and sound work by Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive) that looks back to the first decade of the UK pop charts (1952-62). Working with a group of older musicians – many of whom are the ‘original teenagers’ of the Greater Manchester music scene, now in their 70s and 80s – this film focuses on this diverse group as they re-engage with public-domain samples from the formative era of the ‘birth of pop’, and incorporate these timeless sounds into new musical creations. When the musicians play, they individually and collectively interact with digital technology, recalling archive sounds ripped from 1950s and early 1960s shellac and vinyl chart hits. Copyright-controlled elements of the original records are separated out and copyright-expired samples are released through an algorithmic process to enable collective use for the project and for future sharing. What results is a vivid sonic conversation, an intergenerational call and response that traverses the private, personal and public.
Everything I Have Is Yours
Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive)
Single channel HD video, 30 minutes 43 seconds, 2019
Project Overview
Now available on FVU Watch
Exhibition Dates
Salford Museum and Art Gallery
4 July – 3 November 2019
Whitechapel Gallery, London
27 August 2019 – 5 January 2020
Everything I Have Is Yours is commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society, University of Salford Art Collection and Castlefield Gallery. Presented by Contemporary Art Society, Mbili Foundation and the University of Salford.
Supported by Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester School of Art, Salford Museum & Art Gallery.
An edition of the film will enter the University of Salford Art Collection.
Outreach & engagement programme supported by The National Lottery Community Fund, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Castlefield Gallery Commissioning Patrons, Jo and Allan Melzack.
Community partners: Age UK, Great Places Housing Group, Northwards Housing, Salford Community Leisure.
Produced by FVU. Producer, Laura Shacham.
Film Credits:
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