Station Zone

23. Call My Name, Call Me Home

Artist: imitating the dog with Hope & Social (UK)

The Queens Hotel, City Square, LS1 1PJ 
W3W: slug.bats.goat 
PROJECTION | SONG | STORY  

A figure arrives by train to begin a new life in Leeds. Over six minutes, the façade of The Queens Hotel transforms as five decades of memories unfold across roads, streets, bars, hospitals and homes. Buildings appear and disappear, mapping one person’s journey onto the changing landscape of the city. Created by Leeds musicians Hope & Social with digital storytellers imitating the dog, Call My Name, Call Me Home combines projection, song and story in a moving hymn to belonging, memory and the places that shape a life. 

In partnership with Markel, The Queens and Lloyds Wealth.

    Audio Description 

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We are stood in front of The Queens Hotel on City Square.

It is a historic 4-Star Art Deco landmark building in the heart of the City Centre. Opened in 1937 and currently Grade II listed, it has played host to numerous notable figures such as Nelson Mandela, Cary Grant, and Princess Grace of Monaco.

Tonight it serves as a canvas upon which a large scale projection is displayed. The piece is titled ‘Call My Name. Call Me Home’, and is a collaborative installation created for Light Night Leeds 2026 by the local Leeds Band ‘Hope & Social’ and the digital storytelling group ‘Imitating the Dog’.

The Concept is of a ‘hymn to the city’, mapping fifty years of a life and local memories onto the architecture and topography of Leeds. The Narrative follows a character arriving in Leeds by train to begin a new chapter, featuring shifting projections of local streets, bars, hospitals, and flats alongside contributions from Leeds residents. The original song and lyrics by Hope & Social were composed first, guiding the projection-mapping and animation developed by ‘imitating the dog’. You can expect a glorious celebration of a city and its people.

We start with a grey brick wall across the middle of the hotel. Windows to the left and right of the building are lit up in neon yellow they flicker on and off as if tracking the music.

A man walks into the centre of the projection and sits down facing us. It is Simon Wainwright, the lead singer of Hope & Social. He is wearing a blue jacket with the lapels outlined in white. Under this is a plain white T-Shirt. He is a white man with brown short hair and the beginnings of a beard. He starts to sing to us. A swoosh line of warm orange runs from left to right across the bottom of the projection. It forms writing, the name of the animators - imitating the dog.

The swoosh continues back on itself from right to left. It has changed colour - a pleasant blue matching Simon’s jacket. The band’s name ‘Hope & Social’ is picked out. The swoosh follows an oval trajectory back to the right before disappearing.

A road sign appears. It is ‘City Square’. Simon reaches to the left and plucks a small character from the periphery, placing him on the grey brick wall. He sings down at him like an omniscient god. The character is dressed in the same blue jacket as Simon, and carries a brown packing case. An Inter City train swooshes in along the top of the wall, next to the small character. The steam from the train halting forms images to the left of a number of children’s faces. They are gone as quickly as they arrive, replaced by a number of Leeds landmark buildings which can be found on Woodhouse Lane - the University’s Clarendon Building, the giant rust copper orange skyscraper that can be found there, as well as the pubs - The Fenton and The Pack Horse. Their windows light up yellow before they drop from view.

A house on Burley Road replaces them. It is a red brick terrace with a white door and a bay window. The grey wall is now yellow with red polka dots of varying sizes. A phrase in red is painted on the wall - Dig Hard, Be Kind, Live Long. A young couple appear in a puff of steam. They seem to be have an argument in a park the disappear.

The whole frontage of the hotel lights a blend of pale yellow and cyan blue. The orange swoosh has returned along the bottom of the projection with the song lyrics etched on it. There is also a curvy yellow line which pieces itself together to form a map style A-road. A circular roundabout appears to the right of Simon’s head. Its centre is coloured grass green and then further smaller estate roads are picked out around the A Road. The swoosh has changed to the blue again, more lyrics of the chorus spelled out.

A green double decker bus with ‘Welcome to Leeds’ emblazoned across it, arrives from the left, and a full moon arises, too. The bus is engulfed in green smoke and zooms off to the right. The character is still stood on the wall. The moon curves over and ahead. We see The Cardigan Arms and The Brudenell Social Club appear. A puff of steam shows us a room of people in the bar. Are they watching a football match? They celebrate a goal before disappearing again. The bus zooms past again along Kirkstall Road.

Numerous smaller houses spatter the front of the hotel at random. A steam shows an older man looking up wistfully, before a parks worth of trees grow into being. A couple holding hands drifts through the centre and then a blue sky with white clouds.

A map of Leeds unfolds itself behind Simon’s head, picking out Bradley and Upper Armley. A dissolve shows a young girls’s eyes blinking, Someone else puts their hands to their head in frustrated prayer. A woman in a headscarf approaches the camera and embraces another woman with her back to us. The orange blue swoosh returns as does the yellow A-Road, with a second larger roundabout now to the left of Simon. 

They dissolve and the background is now in a club. Multiple people are dancing, arms aloft. Then up appears another pub (The Albany?), alongside Kirkgate Markets exterior. A woman with dark curly hair is in deep conversation with someone else. The architecture of Jimmy’s and the Thackeray Medical Museum hove into view. A black man with an impressive white beard watches on in profile from the right. A woman in surgical kit and a mask looks down and starts to remove her head ware. The NHS logo makes a flash and is gone.

The map unfolds once more behind Simon. A new born baby with a shock of black hair blinks upwards for the first time, suddenly aware. A toddler, dressed for the cold in a puffer jacket and bobble hat, rides a bike. Another child laughs. Here’s the swoosh and the A-Road for the chorus.

The town hall arise in front of Simon. The woman from earlier with curly hair is hugging someone. People are dancing with gay abandon as the town hall drops away. A night sky of stars rushes past at speed. The map unfolds. An older couple embrace with sadness. Four black jacketed men with their backs to us carry a coffin decorated with white flowers.

A young couple in their twenties are chasing one another. The chorus swoosh and road.

Simon disappears, the wall disappears and we are left with the lit up yellow windows flickering along to the music. A thinner swoosh dashes across the image from right to left in an ellipse. First yellow and blue, then white and red. It repeats. Simon is back with more of the band in the blue jackets all singing. A child’s face overlooks them all. A pair of women hug. The architecture we have already seen serve as a bottom border. Someone holds their head in prayer. Hands are holding hands. The doctor in surgical ware takes off her headgear. An older couple embrace. Children run away from us arms aloft. A woman closes her eyes and nods. More people hug. More people in the blue jackets sing in unison. The club scene is back with a DJ at the decks. The coffin. The bar with celebrating fans. The woman in the headscarf, continuing a hug. The newborn baby.

The map folds itself away and then reopens itself. The thin swooshes of light perform their ellipse. The map fades to black. The windows flickering along yellow for a last few seconds, before the hotel frontage is dark once more.

Thank you for listening.

24. Ghost Town 

Artist: FRONT404 (Netherlands)

Sovereign Square, LS1 4DA
W3W: pure.supper.saints 
NATURE | OUTDOOR | ANIMALS  
 
Ghostly animals appear among the city’s buildings, their luminous silhouettes reflecting the architecture around them. Each figure marks an absence, revealing a space where wildlife might once have lived or could return in another version of the city. Quietly unsettling and strangely beautiful, Ghost Town asks us to imagine urban places reclaimed by creatures after people have gone. Are these animals memories, warnings or glimpses of a possible future? Look carefully and consider what has been displaced as the built environment has grown. 

In partnership with The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and The Flanders Foundation.