First Workshop in the ‘pool exhibition in St. George’s Hall (31.01.09)

[tomke]

Between the future and the past: a settlement

People like to find out about their past. Maps are a marvellous tool for time travel. The present is displayed on the table and everybody locates its own whereabouts easily. The surprise lies in the changes that each person acknowledges: “This was all open land from Wavertree to Childwall. I remember that as a child I walked through fields and open space to Childwall and then came back. How amazing that it is all built on today!”
“There was a farm, we bought in this diary here, these allotments don’t exist anymore, what a pity! There were stables and here grew cabbages! Cows passed along this road everyday!”, people wrote onto the map of the present. Longing for the past, I guess. Appreciating the change maybe? At least taking a firm position in the present.
Reflection on the future is difficult. Some people would like to see a forest being planted on the edged of the city, most people only manage to put themselves on the map, a bit lost about how to imagine a future for the empty unused spaces in Liverpool. It is difficult to be constructive. Easier to be in a crowd of names that expect a better future to be organised by someone, somehow…
City’s destiny: indescribable, only to be framed through complaints and demands. “Get rid of the purple bins, paint them green! Save all empty houses! More local shops for food! Build a proper Cruise Terminal where we can board ships, not down in Bootle!” The list is long, nobody says how the change could be implemented. It sounds like a long list for father Christmas.
Then there are people that have learnt the lesson that had been preached upon them for the last 5 years: culture can save the city, therefore culture-led regeneration through a concert by Metallica. Believe in the future, not in this “Beetle”-past. Culture-led regeneration or culture-trapped consumerism ? In any case, it still is a wish list, no action plan.
Let’s see, how the process to think about green space and the reanimation of free space for local economy through local food production will grow during the next workshop. Participation must emerge from discourse as action.