Joe Fowler, Call to Industry, 2023
Artist: Joe Fowler
Title: Call to Industry
Year: 2023
Medium: Digital video
Duration: 5 minutes, 5 seconds
Acquisition info:
Joe Fowler is a sound artist with a focus on the marriage of data, sound and visuals for the purpose of digital data conservation. His work includes code manipulation, microsound, sonification, and the deliberate corruption of common software. His work has been exhibited in hi-fi contexts such as TEDx and Jodrell Bank, and lo-fi context such as DIY shows at Islington Mill.
‘Call to Industry’ is a ‘tongue-in-cheek exploration of Manchester’s fetishisation of industrial spaces and history, via a parody cult initiation video for an organisation which worships industry’.
The artist examines the frequent repurpose and reuse of former industrial spaces in the city, which often disregard the dark history of the buildings – including the exploitation and abuse of the working class. He considers the inequalities underlying the Industrial Revolution, which allowed those with enough money and power to continue to exploit those without such privileges. Today, property developers create expensive luxury apartments on the same sites, continuing to lock the working class out of the ability to ‘enjoy the greatest city on earth. Join the cult, worship the ruling class, worship industry…’