Rob Watson Media

Beth Piggott is a producer with ArtReach, who has been working on the Liberty UK festival that is taking place in Leicester. Taking place across July and August, Liberty UK Leicester offers three art trails in the city centre. As a collaboration with members of the local community, the festival tells local residents stories and [...]

How we connect and build relationships with one another is an essential question for the future sustainability of both our local and our global communities. John Coster, of Leicester’s Documentary Media Centre, discusses and explains why he has established the Parallel Lives project, based here in Leicester, but with the aim of connecting people through [...]

The weather was perfect on Sunday for our visit to the Moira Furnace heritage and craft day. We chatted about the importance of valuing our heritage and making it accessible now that we are opening up from the pandemic. This was an opportunity to develop our media capture skills as part of the Y-Leicester Heritage [...]

The work of the volunteers at Evington House, has brought the gardens to life as a place of increasing biodiversity. It was lovely chatting with Helen and Geoff, and hearing about how they plan the garden so that it supports a wider-range of wildlife and looks after itself because they are increasingly recognising that not [...]

Today I had three conversations at the Hope CIC Men’s Support Drop-In Café, that takes place every other Saturday, 10.30am to 12.30pm at the Bishop Street Chapel Café in Leicester. I chatted with Tina Barton about her experience running support and development groups for women, and how the need for similar support networks for men [...]

The need for public support as we come out of the lockdown is readily apparent all around us. Men often don’t come forward to ask for help because they are unfamiliar with expressing their emotions and asking for help. Mahesh Hettiarachchi has set up Hope Against Poverty, as a community interest company in Leicester, with [...]

Today I went to visit the Braunstone Gate Community Garden, which is a volunteer-run pocket garden in the West End of Leicester. I spoke with John and Jeff about the origins of the garden, and about how they have managed during the lockdown. They told me how people can get involved, and what they feel [...]

Today I met with Kajal Nisha Patel, who runs Lightseekers, which aims to equipping each of us with tools and knowledge to better manage periods of stress. The aim is to cultivate healthier communities, which are centred around the concept of care. Kajal told me about how she has developed the idea of Lightseekers, and [...]

Earlier I went for a walk to Aylestone Meadows in Leicester and captured the sound of the birds and wind rustling through the trees. I find these walks are a good way to capture my half-developed thoughts. Today I wanted to try to articulate more of my understanding of the importance of Carl Jung, and [...]

Wandering around Leicester city centre yesterday, and seeing people return to the cafés and bars left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand I’m dealing with the anxiety of going out to public places after being at home for so long. Then there’s the pleasure that comes with seeing people enjoying one another’s company. [...]

I was late in getting out to put this soundwalk together, so there’s not as much recorded content as usual, and I didn’t really focus on getting good recordings. I only went for a stroll around my neighbourhood, and because I was worrying about another project I’m working on, I didn’t pay a lot of [...]

Today I went for a stroll in Leicester city centre and visited a couple of shops, bars and cafés to get a sense of how people are responding to the easing of the lockdown. Seeing people back in the shops got me thinking about what our culture is and how our sense of identity is [...]

I had a quick walk through the city centre today, and captured some sounds as the cafés and the bars opened up. I’ve not missed the sound of drunks making lots of noise, and as the bars are only doing table service outside, it might take some getting used to. The weather was cold today, [...]

I went for a walk earlier through Aylestone Meadows in Leicester and recorded a soundwalk. It was a beautiful day, with bright sunshine, which really illuminated the spring flowers and the new growth that was coming through on the floor of the wooded areas. It was great to see the wall of blossom on the [...]

For today’s soundwalk I met up with Kulsum, Dhra, Zoe and Munira to record some vox-pops about the census for the Leicester Stories project. We spent time in the city centre chatting with people about why they had completed the census, and I got a chance to chat about what being a community reporter is [...]

I had a relaxed walk around Leicester city centre today, and captured some sounds as people we out and about. It really feels like people are starting to emerge from the lockdown. I shared some observations about the census as well.

I was set a challenge to record the traffic in Leicester. Which isn’t that difficult given that the whole city is surrounded by busy roads. I had a wander about with my microphone on one of my usual routes into the city centre, and captured something. Who knows, on a different day it would be [...]

I managed to get out this afternoon for a short soundwalk. I had a mooch around Leicester city centre, and sat and listened to people walking past. It’s fascinating that when you get tuned in to the sounds that are being generated, it’s amazing how rich it is, with things happening in the foreground, in [...]

It was lovely to catch up with Asa Malmsten today,  to chat about how we’ve been coping with lockdown. Asa has been dreaming of beaches, Homes Under the Hammer and Imagined Commutes to work.

I had a lovely time wandering around Leicester city centre earlier, listening out to the sound of families out playing in the park, the birds, and the people passing through on a lovely spring day.