Five Years of LiveWire

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LiveWire is an award-winning informal education project that takes place at Cornerhouse, Manchester. The project is aimed at the 14 – 19 age group, and provides a range of opportunities for young people to meet new people, be creative and work alongside professional artists and filmmakers.

LiveWire began very modestly with a couple of taster workshops in October 2003 and has since developed into a hugely dynamic young people’s programme. One of the main highlights of the past five years was setting up a Management Team of young people to direct the programme, which led to the creation of LiveWire Studio and LiveWire Critics.

A huge variety of film and art based projects have taken place over the years, thanks to the imagination and creativity of the young people involved in the programme. They have enabled LiveWire to go from strength to strength, providing young people across the Northwest with exciting and unique projects that are free to attend.

There have been far too many fantastic projects to mention in just a few sentences, so read on for our highlights.

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LiveWire has always been a participant-led project. Young people not only decide what projects they want to take place but they are also given opportunities to manage activities. Each month a team of young people meet up at Cornerhouse and discuss project ideas for the up and coming months. Some of the most notable Management Team projects have included programming films as part of Cornerhouse’s Breakfast Club screenings, and organising Cornerhouse’s annual young people’s film festival, underexposed. underexposed has proved to be a hugely successful project for the Management Team. It’s a great example of how young people can take hold of an opportunity and apply energy, emotion and informed judgment to produce an event that is not only about filmmaking, but is a celebration; putting a spotlight on young creative talent across the nation.

For the 2008 edition of the festival the team were fearless in their task of putting together a very important programme of films that had to inspire and entertain. Over the weeks, the team devoted a lot of time to selecting films and there was an increasing sophistication to the discussions. They displayed great talent, being progressive in attitude and bold in the manner in which they managed the live events.

The beauty of the way that underexposed is programmed is in the confidence that develops throughout the weeks that the group work towards their goal. They have a lot of fun along the way and gain experience that is comparable to none.

The management projects are where I feel I have grown as a person in taking part. Working on a project such as programming an event is a chance to turn your creativity into a real achievement. Being able to say that you had a hand in making that event happen is something I could have only imagined happening when I was much older, but I’m doing it right now.Alice Toomer-McAlpine

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Originally conceived by the LiveWire Management Team, LiveWire Critics has become the most regular and popular strand of the young people’s programme. Reviews vary considerably in opinion, style and format but the constant factor is the interest and dedication by all young people involved. The Critics formula is a winner, with the Management Team selecting key films, exhibitions and events that are of interest to their own age group. The events are then advertised and the young critics come flooding in. There are always a few familiar faces but each week more and more new participants sign up, all of whom bring their own interests and passions to the table. At the beginning, young people preferred to write reviews but with the evolution of digital technologies, podcasts fast became the medium of choice. Podcasts allow groups to review events together, which promotes discussion and debate.To date, the Critics have produced almost 100 reviews. They’ve seen films, exhibitions and events in Manchester and have travelled as far as Cyprus to review international film festivals. The critics projects were relaxed and usually a smaller group than other projects, and helped me to look more deeply into a film or piece of art, which has definitely helped me in the Film Studies course I am taking.Alice Toomer-McAlpine

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sThe past fi ve years have seen a fantastic range of LiveWire projects. Thanks to the ongoing exhibition and fi lm programme at Cornerhouse, we are able to work with visiting artists and fi lmmakers to organise cutting edge projects that engage andinspire young people. One of the most notable projects was Artradio, which took over the Cornerhouse galleries during the summer of 2007, transforming the space into a radio broadcasting station specifi cally for the Artradio exhibition. Young people from across Greater Manchester were invited to take part in the radio planning, programming, presenting and DJing. LiveWire Artradio broadcasts took place live in the Cornerhouse galleries. Young people co-presented shows, put together hours of pre-recorded material and were involved in live DJ sets, which were all broadcast on FM radio and over the internet via the Artradio website. Participants worked alongside resident artists, reboot.fm (Diana McCarty and Pit Schultz), Open Music Archive (Eileen Simpson and Ben White) and David Blandy. The project was also supported by Unity Radio, Manchester’s seven day underground music station and was funded by Mediabox. As with many LiveWire projects, Artradio was a stepping stone for some young people, making it possible for them to go on to present their own shows with Unity Radio and even go on to study related courses at university.

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Some of the most innovative and exciting LiveWire projects have come out of partnerships with organisations across the Northwest. Pooling together skills, knowledge and ideas, we have been able to provide young people with unique experiences and opportunities.

Virtual Lives is a great example of a collaborative project between Cornerhouse, FACT, Folly and Liverpool John Moores University. Funded by enquire, it involved twelve young people working together across the Northwest with a total budget of £5000. They were presented with the challenge of creating a professional digital based artwork in collaboration with an artist of their choice. After choosing the theme of interactivity, the group worked together with artist Dan Fox to design and built two interactive wireless body suits. The suits were embedded with patches that when pressed on one suit produce sound, and on another produce images that are displayed on a large screen.The idea was for the two suit wearers to work together to create an artwork on screen.The suits travelled to Liverpool, Manchester and Eastbourne for demonstrations, which were a great success.

Community Arts North West (CAN) have collaborated with LiveWire on a number of occasions. CAN is a participatory arts organisation who work extensively with Manchester’s refugee and asylum seeker communities. Projects that CAN and LiveWire have teamed up together on include a week long animation project working with young refugees, as well as a film education programme for young people from various communities as part of the annual Exodus Shorts Refugee Film Festival. These collaborations have been extremely positive both in developing new digital skills with young refugees, but also in developing participants interest in LiveWire projects and Community Arts North West projects.

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After a series of taster filmmaking sessions at the inception of LiveWire, the Management Team decided that a more regular filmmaking project strand should be part of the LiveWire programme and so LiveWire Studio was born. The real catalyst for this LiveWire strand was a successful funding application to First Light in 2005. This enabled LiveWire to make four very different short films, one of which went on to win Best Animation at the First Light Movie Awards.

To date there have been twelve films made as part of LiveWire Studio, all of which have been filmed, directed and edited by young people. The participants have complete creative control and ownership over everything from the initial ideas to the final edit.

Recent years have seen the success of the LiveWire Film Camp, which gives young people the chance to travel to the countryside for seven days to make a film. It’s always an intense experience and a challenge that seems almost impossible, but with a bit of teamwork and dedication the group always finishes on time and has a lot of fun along the way. I enjoyed the challenge of having a limited time to make this film, as it teaches time management and resourcefulness. Many new LiveWire participants were on this project who I’d not met before and I enjoyed working with a range of new people. Georgina Amica-Carpenter Directing a movie is one of those things that I had always wanted to do and I remember being asked to help direct FLESHBACK. This really made me smile. I loved every minute of it. I actually had a real reason to say “Lights, camera action”. The LiveWire team were great too, giving us all complete control of the movie; for example with the title and plot as well as the character selection.Max Igbon

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ksThanks LiveWire projects would not be possible without the dedication, hard work and support from Cornerhouse staff, funders and supporters.

Special thanks to:

The Programme and Engagement Team at Cornerhouse, past and presentCornerhouse’s Project Assistants and Workshop LeadersAll LiveWire participantsAll the organisations who have collaborated with us

The funders

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the text in this document. They were: Georgina Amica-Carpenter, Amy Cham, Marisa Draper, Max Igbon, Rebecca McKnight, Maria Ruban, Alice Toomer-McAlpine

Design by decafnomilk.com For more information on LiveWire, surf: www.livewire-manchester.comEmail Cornerhouse’s Young People’s Programme Manager:marisa.draper@cornerhouse.org

Greater Manchester Arts Centre Ltd. Registered Charity No. 514719. Registered Company No. 1681278 England