In keeping with the spirit of the festival, I rather strayed from the beaten path that was the itinerary I had made for myself before the festival began. And I’m glad that I did, for I saw a pair of works which, in their own ways, fit the bill of Abandon Normal Devices (AND) very nicely.

Rather than head to LJMU Art and Design Academy (which had been the plan) I opted to take the stairs up to Gallery 2 in FACT for Egyptian artist Ahmed Basiony’s 2010 work, Thirty Days of Running in Place. Basiony ran for an hour a day while wearing a suit measuring distance and sweat produced – the data was then ‘visualised’ by computer and projected onto a screen, creating a portrait, of sorts, of a body in motion, subject to the stresses of exercise. An interesting piece in its own right (he worked in a field more often considered the preserve of Western artists), it is rendered all the more significant by the juxtaposing of this footage with film of Tahrir Square (pictured) from earlier this year, where Basiony was killed during the Egyptian uprising; thought provoking doesn’t quite cover it, as on one screen you see evidence of someone who to all intents and purposes is a fit and healthy human being, whilst never far away is the reminder of his and our mortality.

It’s a great way to get your fix of creativity outside of the sometimes prescriptive nature of more conventional ‘art’ settings

Ahmed Basiony, until Mon 28 Nov, FACT Gallery 2

Phew. I went for a wander out in the sun to clear my head a little, hoping to break out of the festival’s embrace for 5 minutes, but one of the features of AND is that rather than exhibit in galleries alone, work spills beyond conventional surrounds into shops, bars and temporary spaces. It’s a great way to get your fix of creativity outside of the sometimes prescriptive nature of more conventional ‘art’ settings. And it was one such space I stumbled across as I walked down Bold Street: In the window of one of Liverpool’s finest book shops, News from Nowhere, Canadian artist Robyn Moody is exhibiting Butterflies, 2011. A nice, playful piece, it displays books of historical and cultural significance (Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and Darwin’s On The Origin of Species amongst others) brought ‘alive’ on motorised plinths, opening and closing their pages, as if to say, there are worlds within these pages, and we demand they be explored. It highlighted perfectly the scope of work at this festival, allowing for depth and light-heartedness in equal measure. More tomorrow.

Robyn Moody, until Sun 02 Oct, News from Nowhere

Blog by Mike Pinnington, editor of forthcoming Arts, Design, Film and Music website, thedoublenegative.co.uk – Launching later this year – follow their progress on twitter: @doublenegativeM / @doublenegativeL