Mersey Basin Project

 

Mersey Basin is the inaugural High Tide project. Taking place across the region during Liverpool's Year of the Environment 2009 and beyond into 2010, it manifests as a series of exclusive artists' commissions and experimental interdisciplinary collaborations.

The Mersey Basin Project artist collective is speculating on climate change scenarios for the future of Merseyside. The proposition: after the accumulative effects of sea level rise, storm surges and coastal erosion, our landscape would change dramatically as the River Mersey floods large areas of lowland, currently home to tens of thousands of people.

Can we imagine futures where we have successfully and sustainably adapted to this climate change?

 

FACT - Climate for Change

 

High Tide was successfully launched in 2009 at FACT's Climate for Change exhibition. As resident artists we engaged in a critical dialogue with scientists and artists at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) and University of Michigan. This public context gave us an opportunity to interact with communities.

http://climateforchange.fact.co.uk/

Our collective activity and engagement in the Climate for Change exhibition manifest as the Office for Environmental Democracy (OfED), in FACT gallery 1. This was co-ordinated and directed by James Brady and Janette Porter. The OfED was a historical homage to Joseph Beuys' Office for Direct Democracy at Documenta V in Kassel, Germany, 1972.

The OfED functioned as a sub-residency space for artists - an informal meeting place for artists and public to interact - a space for research, debate, exchange of ideas, social/cultural networking - a point of engagement and information resourcing.

A corresponding artists' journal (designed by Agata Alcaniz) was published on the occasion of our public event evenings at FACT. The Journal from the Office for Environmental Democracy was published in two volumes.

Freely distributed amongst visitors and artists at FACT, the journal functioned as an alternative platform for the dissemination and sharing of artists' research materials. The intention of the journal was to broaden our critical engagement within the FACT Climate for Change programme.

Event: 1.2 image gallery

 Event: 1.3 image gallery Event: BRADY/HALEY/PORTER image gallery

High Tide would like to thank Dr. Jason Kirby (LJMU), Prof. Philip Woodworth, Dr. Chris Wilson, Dr. Judith Wolf (POL), and Dr. Dave Hookes (University of Liverpool).

photo credits: A Alcaniz, J Porter © 2009