Intelligence?

Idea 1

Capital of Culture????

A city unable to conjugate in the future tense – frightening, depressing no

longer open to the future......closed

World in One City – cultural and ethnic diversity or a wellspring for

inventiveness – a city with an umbilical connection to humanity’s creative core

(Jung / Ginsberg) - open

Idea 2

Liverpool’s mythic dimension connects with Christian idea of the heavenly city

as a metaphor for a transfigured and redeemed creation

Christian origins in the City and the Desert (amongst the people of God and in

the holy wilderness of silence

Powerful and motifs within Christian discourse and the journey of faith –

creative tension and connection between the ideas of solitude and solidarity

St Alexander of Svir decades in the Northern wilderness his vision of heavenly

glory “Most bright city teeming with angels, the souls of the blessed and rather

strange menagerie of birds and beasts.

A lovely idea of a heaven that is dynamic, crowded, abundant and connected

Thomas Merton - a modern day hermit - his most profound mystical intuition

occurred in an urban shopping centre ......... in a city

“In Louisville at the corner of 4th and Walnut in the centre of a shopping

district I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved theses

people. That they were mine and I was theirs and that we could not be alien

to each other. It was like awakening from a dream of separateness in a world

of spurious isolation.”

He continued that this vision revealed “a point of nothingness at the centre of

our being which is the pure glory of God written in us. It is in everyone and if

we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together

in the blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty in life

vanish completely – the gate of heaven is everywhere.”

Cities are (or should be ) about connections, encounters, surprising epiphanies

– they most definitely conjugate in the future tense. Intelligent growth is

about openness

Opening up and opening out

Idea 3

Want to consider three kinds of openness that are the prerequisites for

intelligent growth

Firstly we need to be open to uncertainty and risk - to new ideas, untested

possibilities, welcome and embrace the energy and intelligence that comes

from the margins and edges.

Lot of talk about making Liverpool a Smart city – is about grids, closed circuits,

hard wiring, physical infrastructure

We are also a city of frameworks, strategies and masterplans

Cultural consortium unable to connect with the vertical silos and structures

Operating in the gaps, the blurred lines, the equivocal spaces

“Without us you’re boring”

McLuhan

“Electric media are eroding the logical, linear and sequential world-view of

the enlightenment and bringing us back to a primordial and essentially

magical perception of the World.”

Like other port cites Liverpool is the quintessential acoustic city, perched on

the edge of chaotic amorphous element from which life emerged

Strangely echoed by the influential business guru, Seth Godin

“As the power and impact of the industrial age peaks and inevitably shrinks.

We can be as safe as possible and its not going to generate growth. It’s not

going to take advantage of the myriad connections we can now make. The

only path left veers away from safe and heads to vulnerability and

unpredictability. Combined with the joy of connections, breakthroughs and

humanity.”

This should not be an alien message to a city with Liverpool’s history and

restless creative spirit. Courage to be who we are (San Francisco)

Idea 4

Secondly we should be open to outsiders as agents of growth and intelligence

At a time when the UK is closing its borders, narrowing its embrace and

becoming suspicious, intolerant and fearful we should be digging deeper into

our history and identity – Remembering why this place is here

Immigrant friendly

Refugee friendly

Student friendly

Boho friendly

Gay friendly

We need to radically stretch our sense of identity and scouseness to be

inclusive and authentically welcoming

“No-one belongs here more than you.”

Idea 5

We need to be open to God

“Before we were regenerated Liverpool was always a great city in which to

be, even if there was not always a great deal to do.”

Closing churches, must preserve and create the spaces that have no economic

value or function.

We need to cultivate deserts

Over-regeneration? Everton Park – place to be, to do nothing and reconnect

and contemplate

“Contemplation is the keen awareness of interdependence” - Merton

Come back to where we started