Version city

Small Axe , London and the archive

Bibliographic Data

ID12580376
AuthorsGareth Millington (0000-0003-3337-1513, corresponding author), M Armstrong (0009-0002-3539-6634), M C Armstrong
Year2024
Volume28
Issue5-6
Pages659-680
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-4813 • E-ISSN: 1470-3629
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13604813.2024.2424082
OpenAlexW4404940817
LanguageEN
References cited47

Small Axe, directed by Steve McQueen for BBC / Amazon Studios, was released in the UK and US over Autumn-Wintser 2021/22. Across five films it acknowledges events and records experiences of African Caribbean populations in London during the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with members of the production team and mise-en-scène analysis, our aim is to understand how Small Axe contributes to the production of urban history by drawing upon archives and repurposing a cinematic archive for future use. It is an example of what Hal Foster calls ‘archival art’. The first part of our analysis, on poiesis, considers the archival work carried out in the production of Small Axe; the second, on aisthesis, contemplates the anthology’s configuration of a specific space and its framing of a particular sphere of experience. Our argument is that Small Axe constitutes a ‘versioning’ of London’s post-WWII black history, a recombination of archival elements into a new sensorial archive. The concept of ‘version’ is taken from dub reggae and refers to new takes on, or versions of, pre-written and recorded tracks, involving innovative levels of modification and creative interpretation and/or translation for new audiences

Media studies · Political science · Sociology · History · Irish and British Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philippine History and Culture