Home of Metal – The future of curation?

by Antonio on 02/04/09 at 10:18 pm

Home Of Metal – Family Tree by Francesca Bunny Wiliams

Birmingham’s Capsule have a mighty interesting project on the go right now:

The ‘Home Of Metal‘ project aims to create a digital archive of everything heavy metal from the 60s to now. An online library of images, interviews, stories and various pieces of memorabila dedicated to telling the story of Metal and its unique birthplace.

Even though I’m not a massive metal fan, this project does has a personal connection for me. Heavy metal is the one form of music that the West Midlands can genuinely lay claim to. Received wisdom says that all metal bands trace back either to Sabbath or Zeppelin – both from the region. I also remember hearing Judas Priest talking about how their music was inspired by the sounds of industry that they walked past on the way to school – something which I experienced a lot in the last 10 years.

From a cultural point of view I think this project does something genuinely interesting. I think building a project like this based on material from the public is a fascinating approach. This makes it genuinely participative, relevant and far less stuffy than local heritage projects normally are.

As well as inviting contributions online, they’ve also run events which aim to bring people together to submit their objects, have their photographs taken and provide oral histories.

It’s a lovely idea – I hope it does well.