COSTOS DE PRODUCCION POR HECTAREA DE PASTO PARA FORRAJE

However, FACT’s ambitions for the FACT Centre extended beyond providing an arthouse cinema, as demonstrated by the appointment of an artist to work alongside the architects. The organisation wanted to create a “contemporary landmark building” which would be “a key development in the regeneration of the recently established Rope Walks [sic] area”678 and they viewed the project as an artwork in itself. The architecture practice appointed for the design was Austin-Smith:Lord (ASL), a national practice with offices in London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester and Liverpool. ASL was founded in Manchester in 1949, and relocated to Warrington in the late 1960s before returning to Manchester in 2003.679 _{At the time that} the FACT Centre project commenced, ASL was operating out of Warrington and, although

677 _{Rotten Tomatoes (2012), Wimbledon (2004) (Online)} 678

Press Announcement: The FACT Centre – A New Cultural Building for the 21st Century in the Heart of Liverpool, Board Papers 22 November 1999, (Available: FACT Archive, Box – Board File 1, Folder – Moviola Board Papers 1998-2002)

679

they list a diverse range of commercial, civic, regeneration and residential schemes within their past projects, they had limited experience of designing cultural buildings.680 Prior to the FACT Centre, ASL had only designed the new Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, but have subsequently gone on to work on a number of museums and galleries across the North West of England and Yorkshire, including the Leeds City Museum, the National Media Museum in Bradford and the People’s History Museum in Manchester. Furthermore, since the completion of the FACT Centre, ASL opened an office in Liverpool in 2006,681 and have completed a number of projects in the city, including the base2stay hotel on Seel Street and the redevelopment of the Bluecoat in 2008.682

The primary aim of the Lead Artist in working with the architects was to create a building that would “act as an information system, with different shapes, lighting and colours indicating what might be happening inside.”683 This desire to create a reflexive building transformed the project from one solely about function to being also about artistic expression. Seven artworks were commissioned and integrated into the building design, with Clive Gillman producing The Orientation Wall, Sensibilia, External Lighting, and

Metroscopes, alongside Graham Parker’s Local Heroes, greyworld’s Tune, and The Singh Twin’s 7 Portraits.684 Each of these artworks was commissioned to contribute to the different ways of experiencing the FACT Centre, with Sensibilia intended for visitors with sensory impairment, Tune being played continually, and almost subliminally, throughout the building’s public spaces, and the 7 Portraits reflecting the history of the organisation through visual representations of some of the people involved in it.685 Furthermore, artworks such as Metroscopes and the External Lighting spilled out of the building and into the public spaces around it, with the latter being embedded into the fabric of the building,

680

Austin-Smith:Lord (2012a), Culture and Leisure (Online) 681

Austin-Smith:Lord (2012c), Story (Online)

682 _{Austin-Smith:Lord (2012b), Galleries and Museums (Online)} 683

The FACT Centre: A Centre for the Moving Image, Stage 1 Feasibility Study, Options Appraisal (30 October 1998), (Available: FACT Archive, Box – MICE Archive 1), p.49

684 _{FACT (2003a), Commission – Arts Commissions and Interventions, Liverpool: FACT, p.6. For more} information on Clive Gillman’s artworks for the FACT Centre, see Gillman 2012b

685 _{The seven portraits were of: Billy Flynn, a construction worker on the FACT Centre; Geoffrey} Horley, the financial advisor for the FACT Centre project; Olga Bayley, a tenantspin participant; Roy Stringer, former co-chair of the FACT Board; Gina Grey, participant in a video project with artist Kristin Lucas; Isaac Julien, one of the first artists to have work exhibited in the FACT Centre; and Jamie Scott, one of the architects of the FACT Centre (FACT (2003a), Commission – Arts Commissions and Interventions, pp.7-12)

through strips of lights in the sequence of the colour television test pattern686 running up the building’s façade to information panels that would project information about the FACT Centre, and be visible across the city.

(L) Fig. 3.2.12 Clive Gillman, External Lighting (2003), FACT Centre

(R) Fig. 3.2.13 Clive Gillman, External Lighting (2003) at night, FACT Centre

However, an error during installation, and the subsequent liquidation of the installation company, led to the artwork being irreparably damaged and, consequently, it no longer functioned after only a few months of being exposed to the weather.687

Of the artworks commissioned for the FACT Centre, only Local Heroes, Tune and

Metroscopes remain on display, with the External Lighting in place but not operational, and without the artworks that were designed into the building as a means of enticing people in through “seductive architecture, transparency and accessibility,”688 the FACT Centre can be seen as both austere and compromised in terms of its essential functions.

686

The colour television test pattern is: white, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, blue. 687

Gillman, interviewed by the author, 27 July 2010; Gillman, C. (2012a), FACT Centre (Online) 688 _{FACT Centre: Synopsis (The White Book), (Available: FACT Archive, Box – FACT Centre Business} Plans (HIST.25); Folder – June 1999), p.5

(L) Fig. 3.2.14 Graham Parker, Local Heroes (2003) and the ‘Franklins at FACT’ café, FACT Centre, 2012

(R) Fig. 3.2.15 Clive Gillman, Metroscopes (2003), Ropewalks Square, Liverpool

One issue for the FACT Centre has been its difficulty in expressing its triple role as a gallery, social space and cinema, although in August 2012, the façade of the FACT Centre was restyled to include the slogan “film, art, media” and explicitly states, through sizeable signage, that the building is a cinema and gallery. Whilst this identifies its functions, it does not rectify the problems posed by the spaces within the building, with the large atrium, which was intended to allow the flow of people to the cinema, as well as housing the café and bar, being a problematic space for curators to programme.689 The absence of art on entering the building further emphasises the building’s other functions, each of which is controlled by a different company; FACT, City Screen and the café franchise Franklins,690 thus leading to the segregation of audiences into either art consumers, cinema-goers, or customers. Consequently, monitoring the organisation’s art audiences is problematic, and claims such as 2,500 visitors on opening day,691 and 25,000 visitors within the first six weeks of opening,692 as well as subsequent statistics like the millionth visitor in 2006 and two millionth during 2008,693 are difficult to verify, and it is even more difficult to ascertain for what purpose these audiences use the building.

689 _{Hand, C. (Director, Ceri Hand Gallery, former Director of Exhibitions, FACT), interviewed by the} author, 11 February 2010

690

FACT (2012b), Food and Drink (Online) 691

Berg (2003e), “Foreword,” p.5

692_{Director’s Report, 07 April 2003, (Available: FACT Archive, Box – Board Archive 2)} 693

Fig. 3.2.16 The atrium of theFACT Centre, 2012