Manchester Street Poem: 24/7 Arts Livestream
oXyFire produced the 24/7 Manchester Street Poem livestream at MIF17, connecting eight camera points through a CCTV style multiview at UNFEAR.
Carrying an evolving artwork online around the clock
Manchester Street Poem was a nine day live installation at UNFEAR, a disused shoe shop in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Conceived by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of Underworld and co created with people who had personal experience of homelessness, the work filled the venue with painted words, recorded voices and sound.
We produced the project’s 24/7 online livestream. The broadcast needed to follow an artwork that changed throughout the day and continue beyond the venue’s public opening hours, with coverage distributed through a temporary city centre building.
Eight camera points and a continuous multiview feed
We installed more than one kilometre of cable to eight camera points across UNFEAR. A CCTV style multiview brought those views together, giving online audiences a continuous way to follow Karl Hyde’s evolving artwork and the changing installation.
LiveU carried the live feed from the temporary venue to the project’s online audience. The workflow supported round the clock streaming while activity continued inside the working installation.
In numbers
Manchester Street Poem gave individual stories a public space
Manchester Street Poem began in 2016, when Karl Hyde and Manchester International Festival representatives approached Manchester Homelessness Partnership’s Arts & Heritage group. Over the following year, co producers with lived experience gathered stories from people across Manchester and built a safe process for sharing them.
From 6 to 14 July 2017, those stories filled UNFEAR, a disused shoe shop at 68 to 70 Oldham Street in the Northern Quarter. Hyde painted words and phrases across the walls while Underworld’s Rick Smith created a soundscape from recorded voices and sounds gathered around the city.
A CCTV style livestream for an artwork in motion
The Manchester Street Poem livestream ran around the clock. The public installation opened from 10am to 6pm, and our 24/7 livestream production gave online audiences a continuous view as the artwork developed inside UNFEAR.
More than one kilometre of cable connected eight camera points throughout the temporary venue. We brought those views together in a CCTV style multiview and used LiveU for the outside broadcast connectivity carrying the feed online. The visual format let viewers follow several parts of a space that kept changing as Hyde worked.
From a live installation to an enduring archive
Manchester Street Poem’s project archive records 3,527 visitors to UNFEAR, 277,262 listeners to the related BBC Radio 6 Music programme and 3.48 million viewers for the BBC Breakfast feature. The radio and television figures describe separate BBC coverage of the wider artwork.
The MIF17 collaboration continued after the installation closed. Manchester Street Poem became an ongoing co produced art collective and digital story archive, developing new work around personal experience, marginalisation and shared humanity.
Creative and production credits
Manchester Street Poem was produced by Manchester International Festival, conceived by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of Underworld and co created with people who had personal experience of homelessness. The wider project worked with Booth Centre, Back on Track, Lifeshare, Mustard Tree, Riverside, Stretch and Manchester Homelessness Partnership.
Katherine Jewkes served as Digital Producer for Manchester International Festival during MIF17. We produced the 24/7 online livestream from UNFEAR.
A continuous livestream revealed the creative process
The 24/7 format let online viewers see the artwork changing over time as well as the completed installation. Eight camera points and a CCTV style multiview suited a project unfolding continuously across several parts of the temporary space.
We translated the disused shop into a stable online experience through the cable infrastructure, camera layout, LiveU connectivity and continuous operation. The result demonstrates how an arts livestream can make the creative process itself accessible to audiences beyond the venue.
Manchester Street Poem formed part of our wider Manchester International Festival broadcast work. Our guide to live streaming from unusual venues explains the planning behind turning temporary spaces into broadcast locations.
Frequently asked questions
What was our role on Manchester Street Poem?
We produced the project’s 24/7 online livestream from UNFEAR, using eight camera points, more than one kilometre of cable, a CCTV style multiview and LiveU.
Where and when did Manchester Street Poem take place?
The public installation ran from 6 to 14 July 2017 at UNFEAR, a disused shoe shop at 68 to 70 Oldham Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
Why was a CCTV style multiview used?
The multiview brought feeds from eight camera points into one continuous online view, allowing remote audiences to follow an artwork that changed throughout the installation.
Who created Manchester Street Poem?
Manchester Street Poem was conceived by Karl Hyde and Rick Smith of Underworld, co created with people who had personal experience of homelessness and produced by Manchester International Festival.
