Composing the plastic city : a reflection on methods, motivations and meanings

In 2015, occursus – a network of artists, writers, researchers and academics with an interest in space and spatialities in art – commissioned a series of musical compositions based on a small patch of land on the edge of Sheffield. The patch of land, still home to one of the world’s oldest cementation furnaces, was once situated at the heart of the industrial city centre where it was engaged in the production of blister steel. Following the national decline of this industry, the land lay forgotten and derelict until a recent rediscovery, or re-imagination, of the space produced Furnace Park – a community park that invited reflection upon the changing nature of the city through the act of artistic engagement and activity.