Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fashions, music, humour, an unmistakable
cultural identity; the world in one city . . .
and 'legible' image of the city to the outside
world (Lynch, 1960; Roberts and Koeck, 2007;
Roberts, 2010a).
Commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company,
the body set up by Liverpool Council to manage
the city's Capital of Culture activities,
6
Liverpool:
World in One City
was made in 2002 by River
Media, one of Liverpool's leading media produc-
tion companies. Founded in 1998 by Jon Corner
and Paul Rodgers, the company has played an
infl uential role in shaping much of the visual
communication and marketing discourses of the
city as a place of regeneration, culture and tour-
ism, both in the lead up to and aftermath of the
city's successful bid in 2003 to become Capital of
Culture 2008. On its website (
www.river-media.
com),
River Media highlights the company's phil-
osophy and service provision, foregrounding
communication
as its principal raison d'être: 'The
whole point is to
connect
with audiences . . . put
simply - that's what we'll help
you
to achieve'.
7
The message conveyed in
Liverpool: World
in One City
is one comprised of both affective
and semiotic structures of communication
(Anderson and Holden, 2008), with a veritable
glut of fast-cut imagery, overlain with a musical
collage (delivered at a breakneck pace) of an
'inclusive' mix of the classic and popular, and a
commentary (by the actress Cathy Tyson) com-
posed less of narration
per se
, as a list of key-
words designed to trigger immediate and
positive associations: Vitality; Talent; Innova-
tion; Fashions; Music;
Unmistakable Cultural
Identity
. The image accompanying the latter
phrase is a panorama shot of Liverpool Water-
front viewed from the Wirral side of the River
Mersey (in fast motion - the Mersey a projectile
force of nature, throwing itself to the four cor-
ners of the globe). Featuring prominent land-
marks such as St John's Beacon tower, the two
cathedrals, the 'Three Graces' (the Liver, Cunard
and Port of Liverpool buildings), the image
frames an iconic cityscape which, as perhaps
the most recognizable of all Liverpool 'brands',
has long served to communicate an instant
. . . Diversity of Peoples; Infl uences; Unique
Culture; World-Class; Heritage; Stunning;
Beautiful; Jewel on Europe's Cultural Map;
Outstanding; Diverse; Excellent; Ecumenical
Leadership . . .
At pains to declare its strong commitment to
issues of cultural diversity and inclusivity, this
8-min visual message is replete with symbols
and icons that bombard the senses, washing
over the viewer with the same force as the cas-
cading river, fl ooding (or drowning) the cultural
landscapes of the city with an aesthetic designed
not so much to extrude specifi city of place and
identity, as to ensure that all conceivable pock-
ets or lacunae (whether cultural, ethnic or reli-
gious) are representatively 'fi lled' (Fig. 17.1).
Such is the sweep of cultural and civic ref-
erences recounted in the fi lm (both visually and
textually) that viewers could be forgiven for
thinking that its diligent attention to matters of
'diversity' and 'inclusivity' extends to all the
social landscapes that make up Liverpool's con-
glomerate urban form. This is of course not the
case at all. As the predominant use of qualita-
tive and affective adjectives suggests, the cul-
tural offer that is promoted in the fi lm is one
premised on an exclusively consumer and
competitive model of urban cultural identity
(Bristow, 2005). Akin to any other commodity
circulating in the global market place; brand
Liverpool is packaged and sold on the strength
of its attributes as a place and space of con-
sumption. Whether proclaiming itself as 'Guin-
ness Offi cial World Capital of Pop', a place of
'Lifelong Learning', 'Communities', 'Beacon
Schools', 'Centres of Excellence', 'World-class
Institutions' and so on, the conceptual parame-
ters of what may be regarded as 'culture' in this
context are such that the material spatial practices
that make up the everyday geographies of the
was the location in Jung's dream, in the late 1970s he purchased a disused warehouse on the site and estab-
lished what was originally known as 'Aunt Twacky's', soon to become 'the hub of an emerging avant-garde
cultural scene in Liverpool' (Jones and Wilks-Heeg, 2007, p. 212).
7
www.river-media.com
(Accessed 1 May 2009).
Search WWH ::
Custom Search