If I Wouldn't Be Me I Would Be You by Harrell Fletcher is a video documenting the scars that people have acquired over the years with the accompanying stories of how they were picked up. The video itself, although very simply produced, makes for intriguing viewing due to the very human nature of the content.

Fletcher's work Humans at War is the basis for FACT's Media Lounge activities during the MyWar exhibition. Using the same storytelling premise, people are invited to come and record their experiences of war and what war means to them, while others are asked to reimagine the audio story by drawing it out on paper.

Following the publication of a 'Photoshopped' image of a failed missile test by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an Internet meme developed with scores of alternative images created reimagining the incidient in a multitude of ways.

In Versions, exhibited in the upcoming MyWar exhibition at FACT, Oliver Laric takes some of the meme images and employs an airbrush artist to reproduce them. By airbrush, in its digital version one of the most typical and recognisable Photoshop tools, the images become alternate versions of the meme altogether.

This video on Laric's website provides a fascinating contextualisation of the piece, referencing other aspects and events relevant to the piece such as Zinedine Zidane's headbutt on Marco Materazzi and the prevelance of 'cammed' versions of movie's released on the Internet. Please be aware that the video does contain some explicit images.

Designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby have provided one of the exhibits for the MyWar exhibition. The Huggable Atomic Mushroom Cloud is a soft and cuddly version of a deadly war weapon, which provides a means for people of coping with irrational fears.

In this interview Dunne and Raby discuss critical design and its place in today's world.

The FACT delegation to Vancouver has returned home after a successful trip working with the W2 Community Arts Centre in the Downtown Eastside area of the city, including an interview with the BBC.

tenantspin Producer Ed Pink and Young People's Coordinator Louise Latter were involved in producing videos and using social media to highlight some of the problems that are facing the poorest residents of Vancouver.

I wouldn’t consider myself part of a community with regard to how and where I live, I suppose the closest community I have ever experienced is school, as a student at University or the arts community that I work and socialise with in Liverpool.

Even though I wouldn’t be classed as a member of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community, I would say that I have felt part of something special since we came here and when I contribute to an event or a protest I become part of the community.

In my work community is a word that is thrown around all over the place, what I’m interested in, is how we engage people who live in Liverpool. Real engagement isn’t something that can happen quickly, it is something that should be long term with clear aims and objectives. Within Freehand (FACT’s young people’s programme) we should be constantly assessing what people really gain from our work and how they move on from it. We engage with large numbers and this is what the funders want, but is what we are doing really sustainable and valuable?

I’m learning how important it is to collaborate. I have always been quite scared of these external relationships. But, in fact, people are interested and are genuine in their collaborations. What I’ve found in DTES, Vancouver, over these last few days is that organisations here are really open and very able to create real collaborations with other partners and the participants they work with.

I met the staff and young women of Dreamseeds today and they have a great studio just outside of the DTES area. This programme is for young women aged 16 to 23, they work with staff to mould the programme and they participate in art practices that go across the board.

Dreamseeds is part of a larger young people’s project called Purple Thistle. This is a youth arts programme run by a collective of young people. Ed Pink (tenanspin Producer) and I attended their art showcase and we were really impressed. The group have their own studio, their own attitude and their own confidence. There were many different installations including a short film shown inside a tent produced by a young woman from Dreamseeds. Her film was about homelessness and young people. She had photographed them from the legs down and where they slept, shot all in black and white. She quoted a young homeless person as having said that he slept, “Wherever my feet take me...”

Another film made by a Dreamseeder was shot as if through the eyes of someone roaming the streets. It echoed themes of being lost in your own locality, not quite feeling you belong or feeling that you don’t know where to move on to. Both of these films were a part of a project called ‘Finding home’. Home is a big issue for these young people-some because of their past, some because they feel strongly about the housing problems in DTES. One of the young women told me she found the project hard to do because her housing had not always been stable and concentrating on this issue in a creative context wasn’t enjoyable or helpful for her. Maybe expressing these issues within a youth art programme isn’t always that helpful...

The event also included bands, photography and graffiti. I was impressed at how confident the young people were and how they took control of this event and led it in a way that was not forced or pretentious. I believe a huge part of this is due to the young people having their own space to create art work and being able to choose whatever theme, whatever art practice and whatever time they like. They are swamped by possibility and control.

Ed and I also visited Granville Island, which has a whole host of shops and entertainment. This is where we experienced the best Cultural Olympiad art works so far. Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller have recreated a small, old fashioned cinema within the University of Art and Design. Sit on a chair and put headphones on; beneath you on a small screen plays a black and white film. You hear the people speaking in the film but what is much more unnerving is the sounds and voices you hear ‘in the auditorium’. People burst out laughing, whisper to each other, cough and I even found myself shuffling out of the way when someone asked if they can get past-there is no one there and you find yourself embarrassed, confused and a little bit scared! Your mind has a hard time understanding what is really happening and what is not...

This superb video was created by Jamie Bell as part of an AS Level art course. He uses a flipbook with biro drawings to tell 'A Brief History of Almosty Everything'. The piece is apparently about 2100 pages long over about 50 excercise books.

You'll be glad to know he got full marks..!
 

So we arrived in Vancouver to a manic City that on the surface seems in love with the Olympics. There are tourists everywhere, all clad in top to bottom Vancouver 2010 merchandise. It seems shiny and happy and very middle class. These people must have money, there are toddlers attending the downhill skiing event-these tickets are priced at $200 a ticket! I find this troubling (recession? What recession?)



Then you leave the shiny airport and head to Downtown Eastside (DTES) (Wikipedia) and start to see Vancouver's poorest district (locals call it ‘Canada’s shame.’) W2 - where we are working, is placed in the heart of this. What W2 is trying to achieve is an alternative space (a literal space and online space) for unaccredited media to voice what the mainstream media isn't. Basically DTES has masses of homeless people and drug users and not one cent has been spent on providing proper housing or health services etc.



Tonight I went along to a piece of land that has been overtaken by protesters-it is completely peaceful and has a zero tolerance on drugs and alcohol. I went to the protest march this afternoon and went back to the land tonight to meet some people. I didn’t find the people I wanted to talk to but I found myself wanting to write about what I saw……



……I would call myself a mild activist. I join in a few things at home in Liverpool but I am not nearly as active as I’d like, I used to research women’s rights and injustice issues regularly but recently have found it hard to find the head space and time. Being in Vancouver has made me realise that I need to get my act together and that we should all be active in being an activist. Our communities need us and we need them. When I am amongst people from completely different backgrounds, all striving for the same thing, it inspires so much creativity and feeling which inspires my work, my attitude and makes me feel like I am actually useful and making a difference in some way. I really believe that we all care about something. Do we care enough to get up and actually do something about it?

I can see the barriers, people think being an activist is being antagonistic, a hippy or even violent. I am not any of these things. And I know most activists aren’t. The feeling of helping and being a part of something is intense and positive across many parts of your life. And these are just the selfish benefits. You can change the world.

At the protest I listened to a young woman sharing her poetry about women in Downtown Eastside and I was in bits. She was probably younger than me and she was so confident in her words. She paid tribute to murdered women and it was amazing. I felt guilty that I was not writing anymore and I think its because I lost my confidence. Well I’m gonna start again now. Bam.

I was told that one person couldn’t change the world and that I couldn’t. Well, I will. Join me?