The architecture of underground dance music :
the work of Shaun Bloodworth

Cookney, DJ

Abstract

Presenting a posthumous consideration of the
work of photographer Shaun Bloodworth with
a focus on his use of the urban landscape, this
photo essay argues that there is a connection
between figure and ground that defies
conventional portraiture. Furthermore, in
Bloodworth’s work, the use of oft-ignored
backdrops involves the same reterritorialization
that occurred in the late 1980s as dance music
promoters illegally occupied dilapidated unused
spaces for parties in cities such as Sheffield,
London and Manchester. The catalogue of
work that he left on his death in 2016 is then a
dystopian series of images where the celebration
of architects and musicians as celebrities
seemingly hasn’t occurred and the metropolis’s
less celebrated environs are seemingly reclaimed
by the equally anonymous.

Citation

the work of Shaun Bloodworth. Architecture and Culture, 7(2), 235-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2019.1614799

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jun 28, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 28, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 28, 2020
• Journal: Architecture & Culture
• Print ISSN: 2050-7828
• Electronic ISSN: 2050-7836
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 235-247
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2019.1614799
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2019.1614799
• Related Public URLs: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfac20/current