The Roaring River (2023)
The Roaring River is a journey through the landscape of Greater Manchester's peripheral spaces - suburbs, parks, industrial estates and meadows.
By avoiding using a map and instead using the M60 motorway to determine the general direction of travel, knowing the ring road will eventually bring me back to where began, I gave up the option to prejudge a destination in where I would wander and followed my eyes and ears responding to the serendipity of the landscape that appeared before me, giving the banal and the extraordinary a level playing field to which they can be discovered at equal chance; forming my own perspective of a place.
Travelling at 3 miles per hour allowed for the opportunity to appreciate things in these spaces, ranging from smaller objects to whole places, that isn't possible at speeds of 60 and 70. I feel this idea of slowing down is important and transcends into other parts of life too, given the current pace of society, it gives us time to see things from a wider perspective for ourselves, maybe stumble and ponder upon important things we otherwise might dismiss or overlook entirely. A chance to meander in the comfort that everyone is travelling at different speeds through life with different destinations.
