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Bootle Lab
Bootle is a large part of the city of Liverpool. It was a locality of the dock workers of the city, which has a history of being a port central to global trade and transactions for over 300 years. The course of history, however, led to a situation where the social relations and significance of its inhabitants, formed through the importance of their livelihoods, have been subtracted from their lives. What kinds of relations can be imagined and created with a space, whose narratives have become muted because its importance has shrunk? This was a question the residency was prompted by.
The Bootle Lab is a room in the locality, situated in the Venus office. Venus is a non-government organisation that has worked with young women - single mothers, with unpredictable sources of income - in Bootle for the last twelve years. The practitioners at the Bootle Lab have a long history with Venus. Some of them have been associated with the organisation since their childhood.
In the two weeks of the residency, beautiful stories of the everyday, gentle evocations of relations with strangers, and precise observations about specificities of daily living emerged. One blog was set up to create a publicness around the narratives. Responses to the texts (by colleagues at CM Labs and at Sarai in Delhi, on the blog, generated a warmth and excitement in the lab of being in conversation, and a relationship of reciprocity with a world outside of the immediate context.
Another blog was set up with translations of these texts, and daily logs of the days and other texts (both by Neelofar), to build a loop with the Cybermohalla Labs in Delhi, through responses on the blog.
Read these texts, written at the Bootle Lab, between 10th and 24th October, 2004 in English and in Hindi.
A booklet, hear@bootle, was created towards the end of the residency, which emerged both from the creations during the residency, and from practices preceding it. The booklet was released at a locality event - the first hosted by the Bootle Lab - where neighbours were invited to inscribe the photographs that were put up, with their own narratives, stories and comments.
The blogs remained an active site of interaction between the CM labs and Bootle lab for close to an year. Bootle Lab continued for some time, after which the lives of the co-ordinators there took them in different directions.
Bootle Lab was a collaboration between Venus and FACT.
The Bootle Lab is a room in the locality, situated in the Venus office. Venus is a non-government organisation that has worked with young women - single mothers, with unpredictable sources of income - in Bootle for the last twelve years. The practitioners at the Bootle Lab have a long history with Venus. Some of them have been associated with the organisation since their childhood.
In the two weeks of the residency, beautiful stories of the everyday, gentle evocations of relations with strangers, and precise observations about specificities of daily living emerged. One blog was set up to create a publicness around the narratives. Responses to the texts (by colleagues at CM Labs and at Sarai in Delhi, on the blog, generated a warmth and excitement in the lab of being in conversation, and a relationship of reciprocity with a world outside of the immediate context.
Another blog was set up with translations of these texts, and daily logs of the days and other texts (both by Neelofar), to build a loop with the Cybermohalla Labs in Delhi, through responses on the blog.
Read these texts, written at the Bootle Lab, between 10th and 24th October, 2004 in English and in Hindi.
A booklet, hear@bootle, was created towards the end of the residency, which emerged both from the creations during the residency, and from practices preceding it. The booklet was released at a locality event - the first hosted by the Bootle Lab - where neighbours were invited to inscribe the photographs that were put up, with their own narratives, stories and comments.
The blogs remained an active site of interaction between the CM labs and Bootle lab for close to an year. Bootle Lab continued for some time, after which the lives of the co-ordinators there took them in different directions.
Bootle Lab was a collaboration between Venus and FACT.