Audio-visual art exhibition generates funding from City of London Corporation
Date: 12 August 2025
London Met’s Art Architecture and Design (AAD) Projects Office and Masters in public Art and Performative Practice have been funded by the City of London Corporation and Aldgate Connect to provide creative responses to monitoring the exhibition ‘Stories of Aldgate’.
Stories of Aldgate is an audio-visual exhibition that presents the stories of people who live, work and study in Aldgate, retold through their own voice. It includes London Met BA Interior Design alumnus Gabriela Sabau, and themes of migration, community, and transformation all told by people of the Aldgate area.
The portraits are a result of workshops that empowered local people to present their personal journeys, delivered by Heard Storytelling, supported by the Community Infrastructure Levy Fund from the City of London Corporation.
Jen Ng, Head of Projects, AAD, commented: “Thanks to both City of London Corporation and Aldgate Connect in rewarding students to develop this innovative use of art in monitoring streetscapes and experiences. It's been hugely rewarding for the students to apply their public art projects in the public realm.”
Along with AAD Projects Office, the Masters in public Art and Performative Practice students developed creative responses to monitoring the exhibition and the street activity through engaging with the cityscape.
Audio-visual innovation
Lisa Vasileva uses coding to record and visualise sound, Swapnil Patil uses inversions in photography to record artificial light and Shaun Boyd observes phone usage to record street activity. The students’ work appears on America Square, and their ongoing public engagements are presented on the digital engagement platform Commonplace, which invites ongoing public engagement.
Sophie Cloutterbuck, Director of London Engagement, said: "This exhibition is a powerful example of how local voices can shape public space and narrative. By supporting students to develop their civic voices through creative engagement, we’re advancing London Met’s mission to uplift communities and foster meaningful social change".
Zoe Barwick, BID Director for Aldgate Connect BID, added: “The monitoring and evaluation contributions from London Met students have been invaluable to the ‘Stories of Aldgate’ exhibition in Vine Street. Their creativity brings new ways to celebrate Aldgate’s rich community stories and explore how we connect with space in meaningful ways. This marks the first step towards creating lasting positive impact in the area, working in partnership with fantastic local organisations like London Met.”
The exhibition and walking tours that partnered London Met’s forthcoming neighbour, the Migration Museum, formed part of the London Festival of Architecture in June, and both exhibition and tours continue throughout the summer to September 2025.
MA Public Art and Performative Practice showcases its work at America Square, Aldgate