Abstract

The Liverpool Map is a public sculpture for Museum of Liverpool. It explores geographical, historical, and multicultural boundaries of the city. This collaborative project is a multi-layered glass ‘map’ that is also a visual narrative of Liverpool. An ‘ethno/graphic’ approach blends creative research methods inspired by ethnography with innovative techniques for fabricating a glass sculpture. The project invited the participation of the people of Merseyside in developing the sculpture through web-based surveys and an event that collected handwritten contributions to a printed ‘community layer’ within the map. The work was realized using a unique combination of fabricating techniques on a large-scale, kiln-formed glass sculpture. Fused into six 100 kg standing glass blocks, printed transparent glass reveals layered interpretations of Liverpool through the montage of images and text, overlaid with precision-cut contours of streets and bodies of water.

This paper articulates the application of an ‘ethno/graphic’ approach to the Liverpool Map. Ethnographic mapping and a brief overview of Liverpool provide a historical and conceptual background. A public engagement plan as a method of observation was translated into a ‘cultural terrain.’ The combination of techniques, results in the encapsulation of a narrative of Liverpool in glass.