TOWARDS NOWHERE

The Archaeology of a Non-Place

Test sequence made from development material, with further work completed since the application was last submitted.

TOWARDS NOWHERE

16mm film installation. St Albans, 2026.

Somewhere beneath the ordinary surface of contemporary Britain, in the concrete shadow of motorway underpasses, the hum of electricity pylons, the silence of an empty retail unit, a hidden world once existed. A community with its own way of living, its own future, lost and forgotten... now, 400 years on, something remains in the cracks and decay.

In 1626, Francis Bacon imagined a utopian society deliberately concealed within the ordinary world. Four hundred years later, Towards Nowhere applies this vision to the present, treating the overlooked margins of St Albans, disused office buildings, motorway intersections, electricity pylons beside filled quarries, as the traces of a forgotten experiment in living.

Shot on 16mm, the work presents itself in part as a speculative documentary archive: rediscovered footage of a community that once existed in these liminal spaces. A solitary traveller moves through these environments, encountering masked figures in ritual costumes, remnants of a society that has not survived. Field recordings by sound artist Alex Hyland conjure the imagined aural culture of this lost utopia. Costumes and masks are designed by artist Amina Pagliari. Passages from Bacon's New Atlantis surface within the work, moving between documentary observation and speculative fiction without resolving whether the material records reality or imagination.

The imagined community is shaped with people whose own experience of being overlooked gives the work its charge. Workshops on utopia, shelter and belonging, facilitated by writer Anna Reynolds with Emmaus and HACRO, feed into the world the film builds. A walk through the overlooked sites of St Albans produces the photographs that line the exhibition. Participants are invited to appear on screen as the film's masked figures.

The work is shown in an empty civic space among the retail units of central St Albans. Inside, hand-processed 35mm photographs line the walls: an electricity pylon as sentinel, the brutalist arch of a motorway underpass, fauna pressing back through concrete. The sound of the film drifts through from somewhere deeper in the building. At the back of the room, a door stands open. A small, darkened screening space. Benches. At the far end, the film plays.

What remains when a community vanishes? What traces might we find? Standing among these overlooked places today, we are asked: how do we want to live together now?

Part of Bacon 400, the official programme marking the 400th anniversary of Francis Bacon's death.

MOOD BOARD - THE SINGLE SCREEN FILM

DEVELOPMENT SO FAR

Towards Nowhere has been in active development since the completion of a funded DYCP (Developing Your Creative Practice) grant, which supported mentorship with James Holcombe at Erewhon Experimental Film Labs and artist filmmaker John Smith, building core skills in 16mm operation, in-camera effects and darkroom practice.

Location recces and 16mm shooting have taken place at the M25/M1 intersection between St Albans and Bedmond, capturing motorway underpasses, electricity pylons and infrastructural margins, with further tests at Tyttenhanger quarry. Several reels of 16mm have now been shot and processed, including hand-processed colour tests using a developer recipe adapted from a Second World War formula, with a further roll processed and worked on since the project was last developed in early 2026.

A test edit (see above) has been assembled, portraying a solitary figure moving through these overlooked spaces. It carries test recordings of the imagined utopian community, voiced using original text written by Matt Smith alongside excerpts read from Bacon's own New Atlantis, beginning to establish the tone of the work. Everything seen in the test film is original and has been made specifically in developing this project.

Field recording tests have been made and can be heard in the test film: the metal of a bridge and pylon, the slow drone of passing cars, layered and mixed. Working with sound artist Alex Hyland, Matt has recorded a test sound design session using this material as samples, alongside found scraps of audio and feedback, laying the foundation for the work's sound world. A fuller recording and installation methodology is in active development: geophones mounted directly onto electricity pylons and motorway bridges to capture structural resonance, alongside conventional field recording. In the installation, sound will be delivered through exciters mounted on flat panels, making the surfaces themselves the speakers.

Costume and installation design conversations have begun with artist Amina Pagliari. 16mm cameras have been tested on motion-controlled sliders, and a matte box setup for in-camera compositing is ready to be built. Work has also begun on how an installation built for an earlier project can be repurposed to construct the inner screening room within the unused building.

Since the last stage of development, strong partnerships have been formed with Emmaus and HACRO, who will join the project's development. Workshop ideas with their participants will help shape the imagined community, with the chance for some to become the masked remnants of that community in the final film. Alongside this, a psychogeographic walk through the proposed overlooked spaces has been developed, exploring what these sites could mean, recording sound and taking the 35mm photographs that will appear in the final exhibition.

Conversations have also begun with Joanna Duncombe (British Council) and Kat Haylett (Independent Cinema Office) about the work's onward life in film festivals, heritage sites and exhibitions.

Artist filmmaker Ben Rivers, whose practice closely aligns with the concerns of Towards Nowhere, generously met with Matt to discuss thematic approaches, bringing an important critical perspective to the development of the work.

Tripod-mounted surveillance camera overlooking a highway with cars and trees, under a cloudy sky.

A cell tower standing amidst leafless trees with the sun partially visible through the branches, under a clear blue sky.

Open green field with trees and bushes in the background, a clear blue sky, power lines, and a tall electricity pylon.

An old Morse developer device with a black metal base, a circular indentation at the top center, and metal switches on the left and right sides. There is a label beneath the indentation that reads: MORSE 16 AND 35 MILLIMETER FILM, DEVELOPER, TYPE G3,

Person wearing blue gloves handling a bottle of isopropyl alcohol in a workspace.

An old film camera with a large lens on a wooden surface.

Workshop scene with a saw on a table, a hammer, and a wooden piece. The saw has a jagged blade, and the hammer is placed on a workbench.

A workbench with a vintage film camera, a can of metal primer with yellowish paint, a pink flashlight, a computer mouse, some small tools, a wooden stick, and miscellaneous items in a garage workspace.

An old-fashioned DJ turntable and mixing desk with several records, a lamp, and a wall framed photo of Mao Zedong in the background.

Black 50-pack film or photo paper box with a white label and yellow tape on top, placed on a white surface with small brown stains.

Packaging for a V-type camera lens opener, designed for self-repair of vintage camera lenses. The package indicates it is used for loosening and tightening lens rings and can be adjusted by winding a side lever. It features a sturdy hand grip and is

A person using a camera on a tripod in an outdoor field with trees in the background.

A man in a black jacket and pants operating a camera on a tripod on a pedestrian bridge over a highway surrounded by trees with autumn foliage.

A man working on a vintage camera or projector on a worktable in a workshop or repair shop.

Silhouette of a communication tower against a cloudy sky, with leafless trees in the foreground.

A dark, eerie silhouette of a small, two-story wooden house amidst leafless trees, with a cloudy sky in the background.

Black and white photo of an electrical transmission tower against a cloudy sky.

Black and white photo of a metal gate blocking a rural dirt road, with warning signs attached, trees on either side, and a cloudy sky in the background.

A dark, narrow dirt road runs through a wooded area with leafless trees on both sides. In the distance, there is a partially collapsed or broken bridge over a small creek or stream.

Black and white photo of a highway with a few moving cars, overpass bridges, trees on the sides, and a streetlight on the left.

Black and white photo of a wooden bridge crossing a dense forested area with trees and bushes.

Photo of a narrow, deserted bridge surrounded by dense trees, taken during nighttime with a clear sky.

A small wooden or metal structure, possibly a birdhouse or maintenance box, located behind a chain-link fence, with foliage in the background.

Black and white photograph of electrical power lines and a tall transmission tower against a cloudy sky, with leafless trees in the foreground.

MOOD BOARD - THE INSTALLATION

FRANCIS BACON AND NEW ATLANTIS

Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher, statesman and a founding figure of the scientific method, lived at Gorhambury on the edge of St Albans and was buried, in 1626, at St Michael's Church in the city. He was the first and last Viscount St Alban.

Among his works is New Atlantis, an unfinished utopian narrative published the year of his death. In it, a ship blown off course discovers Bensalem, an island society deliberately concealed from the world, governed by knowledge and ordered toward the common good. Towards Nowhere takes this single idea, a utopia hidden within the ordinary world, and carries it into the present, asking where such communities might be imagined now, and what would remain of them once they were gone.

The project's title reaches back to the root of the word utopia itself, coined by Thomas More in 1516 from the Greek for "no place." A utopia is, by definition, nowhere. Towards Nowhere moves through the overlooked spaces of a real city in search of it.

BACON400

2026 marks the 400th anniversary of Francis Bacon's death. As his home and final resting place, St Albans is the focal point for the commemorations, an international programme of lectures, exhibitions, services and community events. Bacon 400 is coordinated by the Parish of St Michael's and the Francis Bacon Society, with partners across the city including St Albans Museum + Gallery and the St Albans Arts Team.

Towards Nowhere is part of this programme. Rather than historical tribute, it uses Bacon's least familiar major work to ask living questions, about community, civic space, and how we want to live together now, connecting four hundred years of local history to the present moment.

WHY NOW

The question the work asks is not abstract. Across the country, high streets are hollowing out, civic buildings stand empty, and the shared spaces that once held communities together are quietly disappearing. To stage a work about a vanished community inside an empty retail unit is to ask, directly, what these overlooked spaces are for now, and what else they could become.

That question has the most force when it is asked with the people most often overlooked themselves. Emmaus and HACRO, now confirmed partners, bring the voices of people who have experienced homelessness and the criminal justice system into the heart of the work. St Albans is among the least deprived districts in England, an affluence that makes its inequalities easier to overlook. A work about overlooked places, made with people whose lives are shaped by being overlooked, carries a particular charge in a town like this. Their perspectives on shelter, belonging and what a better way of living might look like shape the imagined community at its centre, and some will appear within it.

This is familiar ground. The Invisible People (2019), made with people experiencing homelessness in derelict spaces around St Albans, reached over 1,100 viewers and proved the value of this way of working: place-led, voice-led, presence without exposure. Towards Nowhere carries that approach into 16mm, and into Bacon's four-hundred-year-old question about how we might live together.

MATT SMITH - SELECTED WORKS

Matt Smith is an artist filmmaker working across experimental moving image and installation, supported by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, BFI Network and Drac Occitanie / Ministère de la Culture (France). His work explores unsettling realities and imagined histories, blurring the line between what is real and what is fantasy, investigating utopian and dystopian British landscapes, the role of abandoned buildings on a communal psyche, and how ideas of utopia can affect societal change.

His artist film work has been presented at festivals and exhibitions internationally. Towards Nowhere is his first major work in 16mm celluloid, following a funded DYCP developing analogue film practice through mentorship with artist filmmakers James Holcombe and John Smith, and critical dialogue with filmmaker Ben Rivers

EX_SITU

(Multi / single screen works. Digital film, variable duration)

EX_SITU is an ongoing series of site-specific artist films made in abandoned and transitional architectural spaces, created in collaboration with theatre company OBRA. Now numbering fifteen works made across rural France and beyond, the series establishes the core concerns that run through Towards Nowhere: place as protagonist, location-specific histories, and the intersection of memory, architecture and imagined futures.

Each film is made without preconceived approach, encountering the architecture directly as the primary creative force. No artificial lighting is added. Sound is recorded entirely in-situ. The aspect ratio of each film is dictated by the intrinsic qualities of the space itself. What emerges from this discipline is a body of work that feels simultaneously documentary and invented, rooted in the specific textures and atmospheres of places that might otherwise remain unseen and unrecorded.

The series laid the conceptual and methodological groundwork for Towards Nowhere: the same commitment to site-responsiveness, the same interest in what abandoned spaces hold and withhold, the same approach to immersive moving image as a way of encountering what has been overlooked. Where EX_SITU worked digitally, Towards Nowhere takes these concerns into 16mm celluloid, deepening the material and conceptual engagement with the environments it inhabits.

Visit exsitucollective.org

NEW ATLANTIS

(Single screen Film. 14:57, Digital, Colour, 2023).

An experimental narrative film inspired by Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis. While exploring an abandoned building on the edges of the M25, two friends discover a mysterious audio recording: a woman claiming to be the last citizen of a lost utopia. What begins as urban exploration becomes a reflection on memory, myth and the impossibility of imagined worlds.

The film blends narrative performance with archival sound textures and analogue-inspired visuals, drawing heavily on the atmosphere, tone and formal restraint of celluloid film. Produced digitally, New Atlantis established the conceptual territory that Towards Nowhere now develops through actual 16mm processes: the same abandoned spaces, the same Baconian framework, the same border between documentation and fiction.

Supported by BFI Network and selected for multiple festivals including the London Short Film Festival.

Further Work

An empty room with a window on the right and a projected screen or wall on the left, with faint reflections of window panes and trees visible.

Interior of a damaged room with debris on the floor, exposed ceiling beams, broken drywall, and an open door leading to another room.

Two people, a man and a woman, lying on the ground in a narrow space, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes. The woman is wearing a green shirt and dark pants, the man is wearing a gray T-shirt and dark pants.

Bright light shining through a dark, foggy surrounding, creating a mysterious and ethereal atmosphere.

A person wearing a realistic animal mask with a dog-like face and long ears, dressed in a pink shirt, in a dimly lit room that looks abandoned or damaged, with scattered debris and a basketball hoop in the background.

A woman with curly dark hair looking over her shoulder in a dimly lit room with stone walls.

Close-up of a child's head with colorful curly hair, partially wearing an orange shirt, against a blurred, bright background.

Two people are fighting inside a abandoned, dirty, and dusty room with peeling paint and broken flooring, near a bright open door.

A person sitting in a dark room with digital images of people projected on the walls, creating a mirrored effect.

A person in a white hoodie and dark pants standing alone in a dense, dark forest with tall trees. The forest appears eerie and mysterious.

A grainy, distorted image of a baby in a car seat with a red blanket, with trees visible through the car window in the background.

A woman with curly hair resting her face on her hand, looking at the camera through a reflective surface with a window in the background.

A person with glasses and a beard standing in front of a vivid blue, purple, and white laser light display with patterns projected onto a dark background.

An industrial workshop with machinery, workbenches, and tools, illuminated by natural sunlight through large windows with white curtains.

A close-up view of a gold-colored, textured surface with a reflective, shiny quality. The background features what appears to be draped fabric or paper with a tree bark or wood grain pattern, and some dark areas with small, circular patterns.

Black and white photograph of a landscape with a tall electrical pylon in the center, surrounded by trees and bushes, under a starry night sky with a crescent moon.

A black and white photo of a spiral staircase viewed from above with three people walking on the stairs.

Two people lying on the floor, one with eyes open and one with eyes closed, holding each other's faces in an intimate pose.

People watching a movie in a dark theater with the screen showing a man resting his head on a surface, with a religious or historical painting visible on the right side of the screen.

A room with a wall-mounted television, headphones hanging on a hook, a small table with headphones on it, a large window letting in natural light, and a radiator below the window.

A living room with a wall-mounted TV displaying a mirror reflecting a person, a pair of black headphones hanging on the wall, and an open bathroom door leading to a dimly lit room.

Empty living room with beige walls, mounted TV, and black furniture including three rectangular seats and a low shelf with miscellaneous items.

A woman with curly hair sitting on a black bench watching a TV screen in a room with beige walls and a window.

A group of people are dancing or fighting in an abandoned, dimly lit room with tiled walls and a concrete floor, with a light source coming from the door on the left.

Young woman with short, wavy hair standing in an old, worn room with a large window and green foliage outside. She is dressed in a patterned yellow and black jacket, black turtleneck, and wears a necklace with a green pendant.

the-parish-raindance-film-production-st-albans.jpg A man sitting looking down with a sad expression, an older man, seen from behind, sits facing him in a room with wooden floors and worn walls. There are awards for film festivals on the right side.

RHIAN SMITH - PRODUCER AND ARTIST

Rhian Smith is a producer and artist with over fifteen years of experience across experimental moving image, installation and theatre. Co-founder of VIDEOfeet, she has produced Arts Council England and BFI Network funded projects throughout her career. VIDEOfeet's latest film The Parish has been nominated for Best UK Short Film at Raindance Film Festival.

Her production design and installation work has been presented across Hertfordshire including at St Albans Museum + Gallery, and New Atlantis was most recently installed at Turn Contemporary. Her production design work on New Atlantis received a nomination for Best Production Design at the British Short Film Awards 2024, with the film selected for the London Short Film Festival 2024 and British Shorts Berlin 2024.

Previous producing credits include the five-year cross-border EX_SITU project with OBRA Theatre Company, commissioned film work for St Albans Museum + Gallery, and Arts Council England funded projects including heritage, community and youth moving image work across Hertfordshire.

Her approach to design is rooted in working with found objects and materials in situ, creating immersive environments from what each space already holds.

For Towards Nowhere, Rhian is producing the project and contributing directly to set and installation design, shaping the spatial and material environment of the retail space in which the work will be presented. She is a core creative voice throughout the development of the work.

videofeet.com

ALEX HYLAND - SOUND ARTIST AND COMPOSER

Alex Hyland is an award-winning composer and sound artist with a BSc (Hons) in Music Technology and releases dating back to 2004. His compositional practice centres on the design and implementation of custom systems for improvisation and audio manipulation, combining hardware synthesis, live sampling, tape manipulation and electro-acoustic performance. He has performed live as EXTRASUPER at venues including The Foundry, London, and releases experimental music independently alongside collaborative work.

Alex has an artistic partnership with Matt Smith spanning over twenty years, working together on Arts Council England funded projects including the mixed media installation Thadows and the BFI Network supported film New Atlantis, for which he received the Best Music award at Cornwall Film Festival 2022.

For Towards Nowhere, Alex is developing a recording and installation methodology that extends directly from his practice: geophones mounted on electricity pylons and motorway bridges will capture the structural resonance of the film's locations, alongside conventional field recording. In the installation space, sound will be delivered through exciters mounted on flat panels - a means of sound generation directly integrated into the environment itself, making the surfaces of the room the speakers.

Listen at extrasuperal.bandcamp.com

AMINA PAGLIARI - ARTIST AND DESIGNER

Amina Pagliari is a freelance artist and designer with a first-class degree in Fine Art, specialising in 3D mixed media and installation. Her practice explores decoloniality and the relationship between Britain and South Asia, examining how materials, texture and space can communicate forgotten histories and complex narratives. Her final year exhibition Room 84: The Paisley developed these themes through immersive installation, asking how art can recover and re-educate around suppressed pasts.

Alongside her fine art practice, Amina has developed significant experience in set and production design, shadowing Patience Harding on Jockstrap's show at the Barbican, interning at the Old Vic Theatre and assisting on productions at the Lyric Theatre Belfast.

For Towards Nowhere, Amina is designing the ritual masks and costumes worn by the performers encountered in the film, as well as contributing to the overall installation design. Her interest in how materials carry hidden histories and her experience creating immersive spatial environments make her practice a natural fit for the world the work is building.

aminapagliari.com

Meet the Team

Matt Smith

Artist Filmmaker

Matt Smith is the lead artist and director of Towards Nowhere, responsible for the film's concept, cinematography, in-camera effects and overall artistic vision. His practice centres on place, memory and speculative history across experimental moving image and installation, supported by Arts Council England, BFI Network and international cultural bodies.
Rhian Smith

Producer and Artist

Rhian Smith is producer and creative collaborator on Towards Nowhere, and co-founder of VIDEOfeet. Rhian has produced all of VIDEOfeet's Arts Council England funded projects and brings extensive experience managing complex, multi-partner productions. On Towards Nowhere her role extends beyond production into creative input on set design and installation, and she acts as a core critical voice throughout the development of the work.
Alex Hyland

Sound Artist and Composer

Twenty-year collaborator and award-winning composer, responsible for field recording methodology, sound design and installation sound.
Amina Pagliari

Artist and Designer

Fine Art graduate and production designer, responsible for ritual mask and costume design and installation design.
Anna Reynolds

Utopia Workshops Facilitator
Anna Reynolds is a playwright, fiction writer, drama writing coach, editor, mentor, writing facilitator and arts project producer. Over 35 years she has written nationally and internationally produced and award-winning theatre, dance, opera, film, television, novel, short story, non-fiction and journalism.
GABRIEL FOGARTY-GRAVESON

ACTOR
Gabriel is a British actor, writer and theatre maker, and co-founder of Make It Beautiful Theatre Company. Trained at Central Saint Martins and the Philippe Gaulier clown school, his work spans theatre, independent film and television. Theatre credits include Gawain and the Green Knight and The Nag's Head (both Park Theatre). Screen credits include Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator (2025).
CARA STEELE

ACTOR
Cara is a British actress and co-founder of Make It Beautiful Theatre Company, trained at Drama Centre London with further training at the Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow. Film credits include The Watchers (New Line Cinema, dir. Ishana Night Shyamalan) and Dali (2025), nominated for Best Feature at Raindance Film Festival. Theatre credits include Gawain and the Green Knight (Park Theatre).
FELIX GRAINGER

ACTOR
Felix is a British actor and co-founder of Make It Beautiful Theatre Company. Currently playing Gawain in Gawain and the Green Knight (OVO). Theatre credits include Sniff and The Nag's Head (both Park Theatre) and touring productions with ATG/Dickens Theatre Company.