Liverpool One

'The Paradise Project' aimed to redevelop a large section of underutilised land in Liverpool City Centre, beginning in 2008 during Liverpool's year of European Capital of Culture. A £500 million reconstruction meant that the 42 acres of land - previously consisting of a bus station, a car park and large areas of wasteland - has now become an economy-boosting retail led project, also including a huge leisure complex.


The design style of Liverpool One is much more modern than the rest of the city centre, with two floors of popular (mostly expensive) retail stores, and even outdoor escalators. It has recently been shortlisted for the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Stirling Prize 2009, the winner of which is to be announced in October 2009.

It's certainly an experience visiting Liverpool One, but I often wonder if it's really worth all the money that was spent on it. After all, the project has ensured duplication of many of the shops already existing in Liverpool City Centre, and has been criticised for alienating local business' (ie. Lewis' Department Store), and generally moving the location of Liverpool's central shopping district, creating empty units across the rest of Liverpool.

There's no question that the project has lifted Liverpool in the ranking of British retail destinations, however it's definitely caused a fall in the success of other businesses in the rest of the city centre. It's easy to see where the £500 million has been spent, but I'm not sure the simple - slightly tacky - Liverpool One logo reflects the project's high class and distinction.

Beauty in ugliness

Freelance photographer Namiko Kitaura focuses on visualising the invisible human condition behind appearance. She creates eerie, solemn scenes through use of minimal tones and lack of colour, and portrays the world in a bleak, cold and lonely way - possibly showing it for what it really is.

The images are powerful, and have been described as showing 'passion in depression, comfort in sadness, tranquility in chaos and beauty in ugliness.'

The juxtaposition shown in Kitaura's photographs is very captivating, and have successfully been used within influential advert campaigns, making a huge impression on their viewers.

Environmental WALL.E?

After watching Pixar's animated WALL.E for the second time recently, I started thinking about the messages within the film, as opposed to just enjoying light-hearted story of a garbage-cleaning robot.

The film tells the story of a not so unrealistic future, where mankind has abandoned Earth due to it becoming overrun with rubbish, leaving WALL.E to clean up the mess. It seems on watching the film, that the main message is about what might happen in the future, with all of mankind becoming lazy and obese. However, after reading an interview with Andrew Stanton, the animator, it seems that this might not have been his intention.

He was interested in showing the most human thing in the world as a machine; as WALL.E is more interested in finding out the point of living than an actual person is. According to Stanton, the entire film is based around relationships, and the fact that humans are not engaging in them, when two robots are.

It's not a bad thing that kids might only get enjoyment and a glimpse of an environmental message out of this film; however, a deeper meaning of the film is that humans live to be cared for rather than to care. In contrast, a robotic trash collector comes to love the creatures that inhabit the Earth.

I'd say that's something to watch out for...

Da' Sh'no Masterpiece

Elusive street-artist Dash Snow's work has in the past created some controversy due to it depicting scenes of a candid and illicit nature. In 2007, the New York Magazine published an article entitled 'Dashing Dash Snow'. It describes Snow's then-most recent piece of art 'Nest', whereby:

"To make a Hamster’s Nest, Snow and [Dan] Colen shred up 30 to 50 phone books, yank around all the blankets and drapes, turn on the taps, take off their clothes, and do drugs—mushrooms, coke, ecstasy—until they feel like hamsters."

The end result is displayed in the picture above. Since first hearing about this, I have now discovered that these 'Nest' creations are quite a regular occurrence, and frequently take place in hotel rooms, before the artists make a quick escape, leaving the mess they've spent so long creating. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't exactly call this art. I'm also pretty sure there's not a lot of talent involved. Lock anyone in a room with 50 phonebooks and a bunch of drugs; it wouldn't surprise me if a similar scene was created...

York Cells

A visit to York Castle Museum was recently recommended to me, due to the £200,000 refurbishment that has been carried out on the York Cell's, and so I jumped at the chance.

As Museums go, it's actually pretty interesting - showing the change from Victorian life right up until today. Even the 1960s section is worth a look. But what about the actual reason I went... those cells. Let's put it this way... they were underground, dark, dingy, cold and spooky; and that was it. I suppose everything you'd expect a prison to be... if you were a criminal. As a visitor, I went expecting detailed information of the criminals who were kept there, and the conditions that they were kept in. However, the modern revamp meant that instead of written information, each cell contained a projection of an actor dressed as a criminal, moaning about being unrightfully locked up.

Well, as you'd expect I was less than impressed. Neither I, nor anyone else there could be bothered standing in each cell listening to the entire monologue of this person who was never actually imprisoned there. I'd heard that Dick Turpin had been kept there, and sure enough there 'he' was, in a cell, talking about how he shouldn't be there... Not exactly want I went to hear.

I'm surprised that this refurbishment cost £200,000, and I think a lot more could've been done with a lot less money. I paid £6.50 to see the whole Museum, which allows free admission for the rest of the year. The Museum itself was very good, but I can't say I'd walk through those less-than-average cells again even for free. In fact, you'd probably have to pay me. Or lock me up.

Camouflage Art

Whilst reading the Metro last week, I stumbled across an article entitled 'The Invisible Man'. Chinese artist Liu Bolin uses his own body as a canvas, merging his body with whatever is behind him. At first glance, I barely even realised he was stood in the foreground of the photograph, and had to read the article in order to understand what it was about.

I was amazed when I first saw Bolin's art style, as it's really unique and I've never really seen anything quite the same. Out of interest I further researched Bolin's work and discovered that the artist was removed from his studio by the Chinese government, which he claims is the inspiration of his photographs. For me, this explanation, and Bolin's claims that he is 'Hiding in the City' makes the series of photographs even more engaging and inspirational.

I think the most effective photographs include those such as the earthquake rubble shown below. The attention to detail and colour amazes me - each photograph taking more than ten hours to complete. The location options are endless with this particular type of artwork - might this be the latest street entertainment craze?? I hope so...

Shazam!

I can't begin to explain how frustrated I get when I'm out and about - in a club, or a café - and a song comes on that I love, but just can't quite put my finger on what it is.

That was until i discovered Shazam, a mobile phone based music identification service. When that annoyingly familiar song starts playing, just call 2580 (if you look on your keypad it's pretty easy to remember!), and hold your phone up to the music. Within a minute or so, the name of the song and artist is sent to your phone.

Yes it costs, but in my opinion it's a small price to pay to keep me from thinking about nothing else for the rest of the day.

Also, a small word of warning - Shazam doesn't work if you have a song stuck in your head, which you then 'sing' down the phone after dialling 2580. Believe me, I've tried.