// About Soul

Art and Digital storytelling exploring the meaning of ‘soul’

Client: Arts Council England

Partner: Tim Wainwright

Start: About Soul is a project that explores what the concept of ‘soul’ means in the everyday lives of 100 people living in London.

Photographer and film maker, Tim Wainwright (1954 – 2018), spent 30 years exploring the ‘nature and consequences of transformation’ through a body of works that create space for people to speak about their experiences of mental health (mind), cancer (body), organ transplantation (heart), and soul.

About Soul was an evolution of the artistic process developed by Tim, using combinations of word and image to explore different ways of speaking and listening.

Journey: In 2016, Tim joined our collective (then based at East Road, E1) and we had the joy of working with him to develop a number of arts and community-based projects, including About Soul, Transplant and Life UK, Barnfield People, Death’s Door, and HOME.

Tim unexpectedly passed away in 2018 from pancreatic cancer.

Peter was initially invited to be a participant in the About Soul project, speaking about what ‘soul’ means for him, and went on to work and train with Tim – engaging other participants, as well as setting up and helping to run screenings and events around the work.

The project constantly evolved as Tim met more participants and created new ‘sonic portraits’ – a powerful combination of silent film and voice recording – that were added to the About Soul website, and developed into the About Soul film.

This organic art film also evolved and adapted, being recomposed for every showing, as new connections were made between what participants had shared, and from the surrounding discussions.

Events included screenings and discussions at Queen Mary’s University in Twickenham and at the Birkbeck College cinema, at the Royal Brompton Hospital, with Galliard Healthcare Communications, at the Royal Foundation of St Katherine, an installation and open call day at the Bow Arts, as well as a range of more intimate ‘Soul Suppers’ where small groups who would watch the film and discuss it over a meal together.

Destination: As participants, and through the process of creating the About Soul website showcasing the beautiful, intimate ‘sonic portraits’ and the About Soul film with Tim, we developed a new collaborative and arts-led approach to digital storytelling that has been hugely influential in how we continue to explore community engagement and storytelling experiences in a diverse range of contexts

If you’d like to know more about or to see the About Soul film, or maybe host a screening of it yourself, simply get in touch and we can make it happen