LooPPooL
2003 is an experiment, an attempt to try something different
from 2002, to move on, forward. To make the "reflection" in
the mirror, the image that talks to us from another time
and another place, live - so that the time is constant
- now - but the places and the images are different.
Our thoughts
were to place LooPPooL in an historical context, in settings
that have an historical past but are forward looking. We
looked to our friends in Gdansk. Like Liverpool, a port
forever linked with the sea, ships and shipyards, anchored
in the
past but sailing forward -Liverpool to Capital of Culture
2008 and Gdansk, Poland, to entry into the EU in 2004.
Young
people from both cities, from Yellow House based at the
ICDC centre, and a group from Nicolas Copernicus school,
based
at the Foundation Centre Solidarity, will exchange ideas,
thoughts, ask questions, discuss their cities,worlds and
lives, live via connected webcasts during the week of 25
- 30 August. The people in Liverpool will see the historical
room where Solidarity led the strike that changed the face
of the world, where Lech Walesa signed the strike agreement,
the Polish young people will see Liverpool, where the face
of pop music and youth culture was changed forever. The
young people will "meet" each day in "etherspace" and
the "experiment" will attempt to make theatre exercises
happen at the same time in two countries.
LooPPooL 2003 was a fantastic experiment
- to ease new technolgy from the total control of the business
world - video conferencing
exclusively for the global business man - and to put it into
the hands and the minds of young people to encourage them to
explore culture, relationships and cities via new technology.
LooPPooL created a laboratory space for two groups of young people
from
different
cities and
cultures -
Liverpool and Gdansk - to experiment with technology and through
this rediscover their own environs and culture and discover new
ones.
Two groups of young people met
each day over the internet for 4 days - the Polish group, from
Nicolas
Copernicus School,
in the Solidarity Shipyard Foundation in Gdansk, the Liverpool
group from Yellow House in ICDC at the John Moores University.
Initial contact was made by the groups around each computer
screen but after the first day individuals began to contact
each other
and ask questions that could be answered instatly or in some
cases needed more detailed "research" - such as "what does your
house look like" or "what is the main street in your city" or
"what do your buses/trains/trams/phone boxes look like" or even
more simply "what do you like".
Cities and cultures
were expolred with much interest and fun - young people on
both sides mentioned
that they were also rediscovering their cities in their attempt
to show them to their partners in the other city. At the end
of this experiment both groups felt a sense of sadness when
the internet link was disconnected but also a desire to meet
again
and explore further possibilities.
So what next? Plans for
an exchange between the two groups in each other's city and
for
LooPPooL 2004 to be piece of live public art in each city as
part of Liverpool's 2004 Biennial.LooPPooL will be developed
each year up to Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture in 2008.
