28 Mar 2011

'Knowledge Lives Everywhere' at FACT, Liverpool

For its next exhibition, FACT showcases the work it does with communities across Liverpool.

From social housing tenants, schoolchildren to hospital patients, FACT has collaborated with a diverse range of groups over its 21-year history, engaging them in art and creative technology through pioneering programmes like tenantspin (an award-winning community media project) and Freehand (FACT's young people's programme). For the first time, FACT places this work at the heart of the building, celebrating and showcasing the breadth and scale of the often unseen world.

Featuring interactive artwork, architectural installations and photography produced by these communities in collaboration with artists including Neil Winterburn, Nina Edge, Hive Collective, multi-disciplinary design agency Aberrant Architecture and Stephen King.

Gallery 1 houses a giant interactive game with seven 'levels' made by and representing various groups FACT works with. Visitors are invited to navigate a ball through a landscape of specially designed obstacles and small abstract buildings.

A transformed Media Lounge becomes an early 20th century terraced dwelling housing a digital storytelling lounge that mixes up new technology with more traditional forms of storytelling.

In Gallery 2, FACT invites visitor to help co-author a manifesto for collaborative practice. Guest programmers will tackle a different theme each week - regeneration, politics, youth issues, well-being, the environment, food to name a few.

Visitors can expect a mix of film screenings, guerrilla exhibitions, webcasts, talks, performances and demonstrations.

FACT's Public Spaces feature work by its youth programme Freehand and a special collaborative commission between Weatherhead High School and Neil Winterburn, investigating the future of learning in a manner that is both playful and progessive.