Year: 2016
Medium: HD Video
Dimensions: 07m 25s running time
Brief biography: Daniels and Meech live and work in Manchester, UK
The artists describe One Square Mile as a “short instructional video containing some easy steps for how to rightly read an area. By following this process carefully, you will be enabled with a Valuable Dataset which will allow you to clearly define any locality towards redeveloping a brand new sense of place. Invest this time and we’ll push the boundaries, survey the contents and help write a policy that works for you…”
Sam Meech and Chris Paul Daniels employ absurdist methodologies to explore environments, architecture and communities within one square mile of MediaCityUK – “the Northern broadcasting beacon from which narratives are edited and distributed”. The film celebrates the area whilst critiquing the notion of culturally surveilling, and drawing conclusions from, an arbitrary space.
Chris Paul Daniels is an artist and filmmaker based in Manchester. His works often explore reflexive forms of filmmaking informed by specific geographical locations. He won the Deutsche Bank Award for Art in 2010 with Maria Anastassiou for his collaborative project Unravel, which resulted in public events across the UK including Tate Britain, BFI Southbank, IKON Gallery, Chisenhale Gallery, and the National Media Museum. In December 2016, Unravel undertook a ten day residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Recent works have been screened or exhibited at ICA (UK), Ural Biennial (Russia), K11 Art Space (China), and live video collaborations in China, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Major works include Premier/Divisions – the outcome of a Gasworks Gallery and Triangle Network supported residency in Nairobi, A Tiger’s Skin a solo exhibition at the Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester (UK) and a dual commission for the group show SAFE at HOME, Manchester (UK).
Daniels studied at the Royal College of Art and is a Lecturer in Filmmaking at the Manchester School of Art.
Sam Meech is an artist based in Manchester, working across moving image, projection design, and textiles. He has shown work at FACT Liverpool and Transmediale, Berlin (Time & Motion: Re-defining Working Life) as well as working with National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and Royal Opera House, London. He is part of Re-Dock, an artist-led organisation developing public realm arts projects that engage people with art and technology beyond gallery spaces. He currently teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University School of Art and Design on the BA Graphic Design.
One Square Mile was co-commissioned by Quays Culture and University of Salford Art Collection, subsequently entering the University’s Art Collection.