Music, heritage and cultural social responsibility

Big Bang Lab director Sergio López Figueroa works in bringing communities together by mixing archive films with new music. He also works on 'Cultural Social Responsibility", developed while on a Cultural Leadership Programme grant in India.

"Big Bang Lab is a creative consultancy development agency and production company working across digital media, music and heritage. And what we do is work with communities to develop new content for use in archive films as a learning tool."

"Most of the work that we do, the final output are silent films with live music, which means that there's no barrier of language to being able to communicate certain issues. And by creating new music, you have this idea of reviving heritage, so how you operate with tradition and create new music.

Developing cultural leadership

Student filming for the 'Delhi City Symphony' project "Last year I got an award from the Cultural Leadership Programme for an international placement in India. That was quite a big step for me and it opened new doors and opportunities.

"The idea was actually to research a model we developed in the UK, the re-use of archive, in a new cultural context. But also in the back of my mind was, what was the issue behind classical music in India in terms of accessibility and education?

"I was also looking for commercial opportunities of how we could create contemporary silent films with new music in a country where music is very important in film, but also open new opportunities in the future for artists, filmmakers and composers to transfer their knowledge to deprived communities in order to create value and a voice about what future they want for the city. So actually it gives a voice about environmental and social issues that affect the city."

'Cultural Social Responsibility'

Sergio López Figueroa composes new music with students "'Cultural Social Responsibility' is a concept I developed as a consequence of reflecting on the Delhi City Symphony project we developed in India.

Basically what it is is questioning in one hand the lack of social innovation in certain areas of cultural organisations, and also questioning why social enterprises and corporations are not working together on the language of trade in a specific space or towards a specific target. It's a framework of partnerships, both private and public, targeting issues where culture can be used as a force for social and economic development.

"So it's a combination of creativity, involving people in creative processes that are around their own history and values, but in a collective situation. So they develop new IP, new value that could be used and reinvested in the development of their own communities, which means creativity and entrepreneurship in the context of a city."

Leadership through learning and collaboration

Students edit archive footage into new content "Culture and arts are not the same. That's a big difference depending on which country you're talking about. And the Cultural Leadership Programme taught me that different countries think differently about what is heritage, what is culture and what is relevant for people.

"So you have an idea of an anthropological culture where every activity that is shared by people creates culture, is alive, or the more instrumental, which is arts as a representation of culture. In terms of leadership we need to think about collaboration and partnerships beyond the sector, be more socially driven, think about innovation, and allow the participation of small agents or changemakers to facilitate that process."