Birmingham Media Archive Project: The First Decade 1982–1992 invites visitors to explore the city’s overlooked media heritage through the work of the pioneering organisations who were active in that decade, including TURC Video, Wide Angle, the Midlands Video Consortium and the Birmingham Centre for Media Arts, which emerged in 1992.
Since December 2025, a group of West Midlands-based creative practitioners have worked closely with Vivid Projects’ media archive to uncover the social, political and cultural forces that shaped community media during this critical decade. During the 1980s, across Birmingham, workers, activists, artists and organisers documented their lives, their struggles and campaigned for change. At the same time, industrial, housing and social decisions were made that shaped Birmingham’s future.
Through research, discussion and hands-on engagement, the group have navigated and reinterpreted these materials, bridging generations and lived experiences, and bringing fresh perspectives to the archive. Charlotte Bailey, Marley Starskey Butler, Erinn Dhesi, Nafeesa Hamid, Jayne Murray and Vignesh Venkataramaiah now present a series of responses that foreground stories often absent from mainstream histories, offering new ways to see and understand Birmingham’s past. These new responses are presented alongside original archive works.
Within the Pixel Studio, artist, musici
