Wakelost Wakefound was commissioned as part of my residency at the 2013 and 2014 Wakefield Litfests. It allowed me to play with three things I love: writing, taking photographs and messing about with them in Pixelmator.
I have always been fascinated by the way stillness and movement intersect in the patchwork of urban spaces around, what was then, the festival’s beautiful 18th century HQ, The Orangery: a bit of industrial edgeland, a gateway of banks and hotels converted to clubs and bars, a high street of empty shops that local activists were reanimating, an almost collegiate area of Georgian brick, and then the new developments around Burgage Square and Wakefield One. And sitting there side by side, the other worlds of a refugee hostel and the maximum security prison I used to go inside once to place writers in residence!
In the resulting online piece you can follow four characters, Clara, Xoriyo, Lyn and Pete, through 24 Wakefield hours.