2.2.3 Lived space
Lived space means how space is produced through the imagination and emotions – through art, music, film, literature, or even just individual thoughts and fantasies. Lived space works through the full range of emotions: fear, hope, sadness, joy, and so on.
Spaces can therefore become synonymous with the feelings created in and about them. In this way, an important task of leadership is to generate positive and inspirational associations with space – to draw out the values, characters and cultural practices that make a place unique. This is a difficult idea to communicate because the livedness of each space will be different. You need to have spent time in a place to appreciate its qualities – its smells and noises, curves and lines.
Activity 3 Living L8
You will now watch some spoken word performances by residents of the L8 area of Liverpool. These clips were filmed as part of a project called L8 Unseen (you can find more information here [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), with photographs from the project put on display at Liverpool’s Kuumba Imani convention centre on Princes Road.
L8 has a rich Black and multi-cultural heritage, as a hub of creativity, innovation and care for others. As the L8 website says: ‘Liverpool 8 is a state of mind, an idea, a culture, rather than just a geographical location’ (L8 Unseen, 2016). More recently, its community has been practising leadership to resist gentrification, and insist on the need to maintain and build on its distinctive strengths.
You can find the full video at L8 unspoken (make sure to open this link in a new tab/window so you can return here easily). Watch the selected pieces timestamped below (though you might like to watch the whole thing), and as you do, try to identify three key features of L8 that could guide leadership practice there.
- ‘2 L8 4 L8’ by Curtis Watt (4:49)
- ‘Loveletter to L8’ by Sandi Hughes (6:28)
- ‘Firebird’ by Tom Calderbank (10:03)
Discussion
You have just watched three artistic performances, which could have inspired a variety of different ideas. Perhaps you noticed these particular key features:
The importance of sociality and spaces for being together: ‘You’re the bottle of pop we passed around,’ says Tom Calderbank. Leadership can create and maintain shared spaces where people can enjoy one another’s company and create together.
The importance of creative diversity: ‘In it I burst and overflow,’ says Sandi Hughes. L8 embraces and lives diversity and draws on it as a key strength. All three videos pulsate with the energy of difference. L8 is ‘The world in a crate’ – the whole world and its potential in one corner of Liverpool.
Inclusivity and welcome: ‘It’s never too late to get to L8,’ says Curtis Watt. All contributors emphasise a friendly and welcoming feeling, enhanced by the locations in their videos – out and about in the community, rather than hidden away in private spaces.
Now that you’ve felt some of the distinctiveness of L8’s lived spaces, can you think about how leadership in your area could be defined by its lived spaces?