Future Ruins Future Archives

  • Ben Kelly
    Director
  • Abbe Leigh Fletcher
    Producer
    Railwaywomen, The Origin: An Experiment in Living; Under Construction; The Road to Gibara/El camino hacia Gibara; My Mildmannered Mother-in-law from Mildmay; Four Shores: Artworks for the Isle of Sheppey
  • David Falkner
    Executive Producer
    Stanley Picker Gallery Director
  • Thomas Line
    Cinematographer
  • Michael Gatt
    Sound Design
  • Fleeta Chew Siegel
    Editor
  • Mariam Majid
    Line Producer / 1st AD
    (as Director) A Night with Noor Jehan; Mrs. Khan; Like Buses; The Lullaby
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Archive, Design, Design Archives
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 8 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Future Ruins Future Archives Symposium
    Kingston-upon-Thames
    United Kingdom
    January 15, 2025
Director Biography - Ben Kelly

Professor Ben Kelly RDI, MA, FRSA, Hon D Des, Hon Fellow RCA
Ben Kelly RDI is one of the UK’s most influential designers. He is best known for his interior design of the legendary nightclub, The Haçienda. His practice produced influential work for The Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, Factory Records, 4AD, The Science Museum, The Design Council, The V&A, The Natural History Museum, Gymbox, BIMM, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Virgil Abloh and 180 The Strand.
Kelly’s installation work has been commissioned by the South Bank Centre and the British Council and his work is held in the permanent collections of the V&A and the British Council.
Kelly has been extensively awarded for exhibition design, record cover design and interiors.
Kelly is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) and Professor in Interior Design at Kingston University. He graduated from The Royal College of Art in 1974 and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Design from Kingston University in 2000 and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Art in 2018.

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Director Statement


FUTURE RUINS / FUTURE ARCHIVES

Director's Statement / Creative Vision
Professor Ben Kelly RDI

The film was conceived to promote the Ben Kelly Design Archive held at Kingston University who acquired it in 2018. It has lain dormant ever since. My ambition for the archive has always been for it to be accessible to students, staff and a wider audience, to be used as a learning tool and as an inspiration. Therefore my approach to the narrative for the film was inspired by the huge variety of materials, documents, plans, photographs and physical objects that the archive contains. I wanted to make them visually tangible to the viewer and give an impression of the richness and potential it contains. It was my desire to portray it as a living and breathing entity that is there to be actively used and accessed and not just to be stored away in boxes.

The opening sequence of the film shows a large empty tin of orange paint sitting on a low wall. The camera tracks down an alleyway following the journey of the empty tin of paint. Through a pair of automatic doors, into a lift, out of the lift, down a corridor through a number of doors and into the offices containing the archive. Cupboards, shelves, boxes and general carnage can be seen. Chaos ensues. Slow camera speeds, out of focus shots, abstract sounds. Flashes of images showing projects, photos, graphics, 3D images covering five decades of work including The Haçienda, DRY 201, Seditionaries, Design Council Offices, BAR TEN Glasgow, letters from Tony Blair, Tony Wilson and more. The archive explodes out of the existing confines and into an abstract space. It is shown from above via a drone as a large abstract circular floor collage surrounded by abstract sculptures and original artworks. The final sequence shows the artist exiting down a corridor dragging the empty tin of paint accompanied by a Vinnie Riley / Durutti Column soundtrack and fades to credits.