#look17

by Devon Forrester-Jones

Today was a day of thoughtfulness. In the morning we went to  Architectures of Displacement: Planetary Gentrification, a talk in the Museum of Liverpool discussing the politics of photography, the urban landscape and gentrification. This was part of Look17 festival. It was such a rich talk, covering so many facets of this topic. It dealt with environmentalism and consumption, the role of the photographer in documenting and raising awareness of these issues, and culminated in in-depth discussions about gentrification. This was addressed via the situation of the North Docks  as it stands. The North Docks is an area of Liverpool that has been picked by the City Council to become the next creative ‘quarter’ of the city. There was a (at times) heated discussion about the role of artists in leading gentrification, and the role of creative production within the capitalist machine, and reminded me of my own issues of consumption that I deal with in my day-to-day life. It made me want to reaffirm it in my practice, and reminds me that it’s okay to be as minimal in staging as possible when it comes to my practice because it comes from this resistance to consumption.

Afterwards we came back to the flat and decided to flesh out some of the ideas that had been generated during this week. It was so important for us to take that time to rest our heads. They were buzzing from all the things we started. In order to function, and get ready for tomorrow’s performance, we had to quieten some of that, and so sat down on the floor with lining paper and marker pens to mind-map the hell out of all that noise. It was so cathartic to sit and chat about projects we could start from these ideas.