Unit X Evaluation

Unit X has been a brilliant experience. I have learnt new skills through collaborating with the group and pushing myself to try new things. I am really pleased I ended up working with Interactive Arts students. Their approach is very different to that of textiles. I feel that the have and idea and just do it, and it is that attitude I want to take forward to next. When I have an idea just do it, and then if it works great, if it doesn't I will learn something new. I feel I could have gained more from the experience if I had made the effort before Easter to get to know new faces on a personal level, by maybe going out for a drink. I feel this would have helped in the more difficult situations when discussing things and making decisions and people are more willing when you can be relaxed. I feel that at times when I would suggest doing something, the reaction was a little stand offish, as it can be seen as a criticism as it implies they did not think of it or forgot etc. We worked together well in the end, and the results are something I am really proud of, and we have all been for that drink since the pressure has been lifted.

I really enjoyed collaborating with Annie. You never know, when you are friend with someone if you will work well together, but we really do. I think because we don't tip toe around each other, we can just say what we think and we produce good work because of it. If we felt shy to speak up, we wouldn't be happy with the end results. We bounce ideas really well and have talked about collaborating in the future, possibly another animation, or visualisation layouts.

I took on a lot for this project, some things I ended up dropping, such as the promotional film. I felt a little out of my depth with the time frame, as I didn't want to churn something out for the sake of it, but Lucy took on the role and did a really great job. I really pushed my self when working on the animation, and I have learnt so much from the process. This is definitely something I am interested in pushing newt year, I think it will bring a nice variety to my work, exploring something to compliment my sampling. Creating the map at first was overwhelming, as I wanted it to be accurate, and wasn't sure how to tackle it. But I just went with the way I thought would work and I am really pleased the outcome. I developed my Photoshop skills along the way too.

The presentation and exhibition are huge achievements and I am so proud of the group. Having to talk about the work in a clear concise fashion is something I will continue to develop as I think it is a great skill to have.

Next year I will remember how much I can achieve in a short amount of time, and use this to motivate me. Anything is possible.

Manchester Museums at Night/ NQ After Dark

The exhibition was really successful. It was part of Manchester Museums At Night and Northern Quarter After Dark, so it was really exciting to be part of something so high profile. The animation went down really well, and all the pesto got eaten, which can only be a good sign. I think working alongside Interactive Arts students encouraged me to do work in a more socially engaging way, so I am really glad we were put together. 

The Presentation

The presentation went really well. We used an unconventional approach which I think worked perfectly with the nature of our festival. We used the exhibition layout to guide the presentation, and each element flowed into the next. Natalie did a great job of escorting them round, and introducing each aspect. She was really professional and confident and I'm so glad we had her. I presented the inspiration wall, the locations, map and the dandelion pesto. I was very nervous at first and kept forgetting to breath, but I got better at it by the end. I had prepared some more that morning, but this time with more basil than dandelion leaves, and it was really nice. I served them next to crackers for people to help themselves, after a little encouragement.  It sparked lots of conversation which I think ultimately was the aim. The animation put smiles on everyone's faces too.The response from the visitors was really positive and they really like the food and drink aspect and mentioned us getting involved in the Dig The City Festival. Kim and Lucy's filters were really popular as were Cats mirror attachments. It was so good to see all our work come together, all so different, but all clearly one project. The presentation was really good experience and hopefully I wont be so nervous next time. Laura and Claire's examples of merchandise and interiors for the festival looked great.

A Very Dandy Cocktail

Henna had mentioned her friend who makes cocktails possibly making some for our exhibition. I asked my manager at TerraceNQ if he knew any and he said he would invent one for me which was very exciting. I went back in the next week to film him and this is what he made. If the festival were to happen, we could have Terrace sponsor the event, or host cocktail classes or communal dinners. 

Henna and collaborated for the exhibition, using my film as part of her installation.

Henna during the exhibition

Preparing For The Presentation

We had a desperately needed run through our presentation in the morning, and I'm so glad we did. I thought I could just look at the work and talk about it, but just practising in front of Fiona and Mark my mind went blank. So I made some detailed notes to use as markers and felt a lot better. I know for next time that I can't just wing it even if I sometimes think I can. We curated our work together which went really well and I think the over all layout looked had a good flow. It was hard to do it before we had all the work for us to try out.

Visualisation Board

Annie and I decided to work on this together as Annie's dandelion studies complement my pop up design and we are on the same page with regards to the structure. Putting this together was really enjoyable and was good to push my editorial/layout skills. We used a variety of images and materials to translate the qualities and observations of the dandelion seed in the development of the pop up space and I am really pleased with the final composition. Hopefully this will give a good visual during the presentation to help visualise our ideas and concepts.

Making the Map

I went on an adventure round Manchester searching for good locations for the pop up spaces and a possible rough route. I saw so much of city centre I hadn't seen before and it's really filled in some grey areas in my mind of what leads to where. I think I am close to saying I know the city centre like the back of my hand.

When trying to decide the best way to make the map I just kept reminding myself I am a textiles student not a map maker, so this is my take on how to make a map.

 I mapped my route out on a running website that allows you to draw on the map. I then printed it off large scale and traced over the roads I wanted to include. I then mapped out the lines with masking tape on an even bigger scale and coloured over the top with graphite so when I removed the tape it left a nice thick white line. I scanned this in and isolated the white and layered it over a scan of grey card. Initially I was going to keep the graphite background, but I saw the grey card and just thought the texture was so interesting, and I am really interested in celebrating raw materials. I am really pleased that my process was part physical part digital as it has given a lovely quality to the map. You can even see the white crinkle slightly. I used Claire's design to mark the checkpoints for the pop up spaces and designed all the other elements. My Photoshop skills have really improved during this task and I am keen to develop them further. I used a simple colour palette and included the canal and river as to bring them to peoples attention and encourage them to explore them.

I really enjoyed making this and it's nice to have a finished outcome from my hard work.

Pop Up Spaces

I jumped at the chance to get involved with this aspect of the project as I am keen to develop my visualisation skills and I have previously put my work in an architectural context. After playing around with some cable ties I made a sample inspired by the structure of the dandelion seed. I played around with perspective to visualise the sample and it actually worked quite well. These pop up spaces could be used to exhibit design, house workshops and activities, designer talks, designer makers could sell their work, sponsor stalls, anything really. The sample moves freely and the space could be portable, letting more or less light in depending on the purpose and weather. It is important to give concrete examples of locations in the presentation so that the panel can visualise our concept in practice.

Federation House

Parsonage Gardens

Map Research

I volunteered to make the map as 1. I love maps and 2. I want to develop my Photoshop and graphics skills. Here are some interesting maps from festivals in Manchester. I like the hand drawn quality to them both and the simple colour palettes. It's reassuring to see that you don't have to include every single street for it to make sense. 

MMU Unit X Festival Map

Dig The City Festival Map

Skin Exhibition at Penthouse NQ

Before Easter I saw a poster asking for submissions to an exhibition called Skin. It brought an old project to mind from 1st year so over the Easter break I revisited it and developed 7 seven pieces to submit. They were all photos, some edited on Photoshop and some layered using acetate, and one painting. The show was curated by Milk Teeth collective made up of four 3rd year Film Making students. It was great to meet some knew people and exciting to exhibit in my first show outside of university.

My personal statement:

"Distorting the Distorted’ challenges social ideals of perfection through the medium of photography. I am interested in the unrealistic social expectations of beauty and appearance as I believe this has a serious effect on the way in which we view our own bodies. Perfection is sold as an attainable ideal that we can buy into. My work looks at different aspects of distortion and exposes personal fears by exploring the subconscious mind's warped view of the body. By physically and visually manipulating the human form I draw parallels between my own distorted view and society’s depiction of perfection."

Me and my work

#FrameYourCity

Following our group meeting last Friday, I went out and photographed what I thought were interesting parts of the city through a photo frame which I added a strip of yellow to. We had discussed how framing something somehow elevates it's status. So not only do these photos highlight unnoticed design around the city, it also highlight an issue within the design world.

We thought during the festival, people could take these frames out and then upload their photos to Instagram sung #FrameYourCity. I talked with Lucy about even making an interactive Instagram feed for the exhibition.

It would be good to work with Lucy on something at some point. I mentioned collaborating on the promo film but I don't think it's going to happen now as we've both got so much stuff to do.

Making the Animantion

This was such a successful day. Annie and I had booked the daylight studio to photograph the animation but decided we would be better off somewhere else so that there isn't as much pressure.. We set up camp on the top floor of the Benzie building and got to work. We also decided we were finishing the whole thing in a day as there is no time to take longer with so much to do. We took a while to set up and get the frame right, remembering once the camera was set up we could not move it. We kept getting hands in the shots at first but after a while we found a good rhythm and really got the hang of it. Its hard to remember, the more shots the better, and I think you can even see our development from start to finish, as by the end of the film it is much smoother. We made it really playful, almost giving the ingredients characters. Annie and work very well together. We are comfortable to tell each other if we disagree, or think it could could better another way, which is essential in group work. We even found our own roles with in the task, with Annie moving the objects and me checking the shots and almost directing the movements. 

We then edited it the same day, working until kicking out time. Neither of us had used IMovie before so it was a real learning curve. We saved it wrong though so had to re do it the next morning which was more than frustrating, but at least we will never do that again. We added music the next week. We chose a song that was light hearted and playful. We also had to Photoshop text in which took forever, adding it to each individual photo.  

Overall it was an amazing process, we learnt so much, and it's great to have a finished product to show for all our hard work. We have talked about making more animations in the future, possibly food themed but who knows. A friend who is part of a film collective called Filmonik based in federation house has suggested sending it in for there next screening in June.

Tutorial 6th May

Over the weekend we realised we have less time than we first thought, although it did say on the main timetable, so we now have a week less. Not to worry though, we'll just have to pick up the pace and really focus on what we want to achieve. We discussed a real list of roles with Fiona and Mark and clarified out themes. I posted on Facebook suggesting we all bring in content for the inspiration wall from our individual and group research. This exercise worked really well and I was really pleased people brought a good selection of things in to contribute. It was nice to work on something as a whole group, although I understand this wouldn't be practical all the time. This should help us pin down our visual identity. I really like the mustard yellow against grey.

Yellow- found in urban environment, signs, road markings, stands out, grabs attention, found in nature too, sunshine, dandelion flower, honey

Grey- can be seen as dull, a lot in the city, grey sky, Manchester rain

Red Brick- Iconic of Manchester terrace houses

Brown Card- raw material, celebrate, simple, recycle

We decided on a definate logo as well and what specific yellow to use. I really pushed to use Claire's design as I think its important to use something one of the group had designed. It's really hard to make these desicions as a group as I still don't feel comfortable to put my ideas forward. It will get easier. The fact that we are all feeling the pressure doesn't help. We then decided we would use a single dandelion seed on everyone's work to represent one small idea or aspect of a bigger picture. This will really help to tie all of our work together.

Inspiration Wall

Costume making at SFTOC

Last year I volunteered at Sounds From The Other City in Salford and decided to get involved again. The volunteer coordinator Jamie put me in touch with performance collective, Volkov Commanders as they were in charge of Art Direction this year. I got the brief over the Easter break so started working on it straight away as to not interfere to much with Unit X. It was such a good experience as I had never made a costume before and was a real challenge working out the structure, and what materials to use etc. The design was really dictated by my materials and what I could do with them which is a nice way of working, and turns out is how the Volkov Commanders work to. I met lots of new people and got a real insight into the kind of work the Volkov Commander do. It turns out Anna and Mariel are Embroidery graduates from MMU and Aliyah studies Interactive Arts. On the actual day I performed in my costume in a parade which was really liberating, knowing that my identity was hidden. Hopefully I will stay in touch with them and who knows what opportunities could arise. It was a real confidence boost too as at first I felt out of my depth, having no clue how to make a costume, but I worked through it and achieved something I am proud of.

The finished piece

Costume Design

Bike Ride and lost SD card

I thought it would be good to make a promotional film that visually represents the festival so Annie and I went on a bike ride along the Fallowfield Loop. I attached the camera to a a holder from the AV store and then used the trusty cable tie to secure it to my bike. We then just recorded the ride for a few miles. We also experimented with blowing dandelion seeds and filming them move in the wind, trying to capture the qualities in different ways. I was thinking about speeding up the bike footage as fast as I could, and editing in clips of the dandelion in situe. Short and sweet, and not too complicated. Unfortunately I lost the SD card that the footage was on which is so frustrating so I can't show the footage. Note to self: Never put an SD card in with your coffee reward cards. You will loose it. It was a good experience anyway and Annie and I really developed our ideas during the process. And it was nice to just get out and about and experience Manchester. In a way it was a blessing in disguise because I didn't really have time to do it amongst all the other things anyway.

 

Animation Research

The folowing are examples of stop motion animation using food. I think it will be good to push the use of dandelion pesto further than just making it and serving it. Something creative and visual that is accesable and inclusive. And making it fun will help to change peoples perceptions of what "weeds" are good for. It's also a great opportunity to do something different to usual. The first (oxo- the magic cube) used other materials to appear like the ingredients and the second (pizza stop motion) uses the real ingredients. The way the ingredients move around is really playful and light hearted which is the feel we would like to create. Annie and I have been discussing what other materials we can use to immitate the ingredients such as plastacine to push through a garlic press and yellow cellophane to look like olive oil. It is really nice to have someone to bounce ideas off.

 

 

Pesto Test

Annie and I decided to work together on making Dandelion pesto and potentially making a stop motion animation. We did a test run first to see what it was like. I want to say delightful but I would be lying. Dandelion leaves are quite bitter so maybe mixed with some other herbs would balance it out a bit. The process of making this together in the studio was really fun and sparked loads of ideas for the animation.

Group Meeting 2nd May

I was a little nervous about this meeting. I wanted to bring up a few issues which is never fun, and because I didn't know the group member very well yet, I didn't want it to come across like I was criticising them. The main concerns were:

Identity- what is our colour palette, font, logo? Group members are getting on with with things which is great but we need to make sure our work all fits together so that it doesn't look like a load of separate projects.

Location- I looked at some blogs from students on college 3 last year and they had come up with potential locations and spaces for the festival to take place. Are we going to do this?

Annie and I discussed before hand what we were going to say, but again, I didn't want it to appear that we were ganging up on the other members. Only 5 of us turned up which was disappointing because I was hoping the people who were at the meeting the day before would be able to support what I was saying. It was difficult, and I definitely felt tension, but we will work through it. I suggested coming up with an inspiration board full of textures, colour, materials, images etc for us all to work from. We should have done this at the start but everything I know about a design project went out of the window with all the excitement and confusion of blue sky thinking. It will be good to share this process with the interactive arts students.

Location wise, the group seemed to be unsure of about whether we needed to come up with this, but I insisted we should at least think about it.

It's really hard to be assertive with out coming across bossy, but it has to be done to drive the project forward.

We also came up with using frames and filters to capture perspectives of the city. I love this idea, it will enable the festival goer to put their slant on the festival making it their experience and their city. 

Group Meeting 1st May

Although I felt better after Tuesdays making session and felt I had some ideas of things to be getting on with, I felt unsure of our themes and that we were in panic mode a little knowing the time frame. I don't think I am the kind of person whop can get on with what I'm doing and just concentrate on that. I need to know how that sits as part of the bigger picture and in relation to the rest of the group to ensure we are working from the same page. Some people were unsure of our next meet up so a few tried to get the group together on the Thursday to clarify a few things. It wasn't the best turnout but I preciate people couldn't make it at such short notice. I drew this mind map in our meeting to make our themes clearer, how they were linked, and the practical things that stemed from them. I found this really helpful and I hope everyone else did too. We arranged another meeting for the next day to discuss the visual identity as this hadn't yet been discussed.

 

Tutorial 29th April

After the Milan presentation, we talked to Fiona and Mark about our ideas and moving the project forward. Encorporating the dandelion into our festival makes sense and we discussed ways to use it in food, drink, cocktails etc. After seeing the incorporation of food into Malan 2014 I think this could be really fun and fresh. It wil also emphasise our themes of changing perceptions.

 Ideas so far:

-Pesto

-Salad

-Jelly

-Tea

-Dandelion and burdock cocktail

-Soup

-Smoothie

-Sauce

We could serve canepes at the exhibition which I think would be really fun and spark conversation.

We could also make recipe card for people to take home, prolonging the festival experience.

It might be worth researching foraging and uses for other wild plants.

 

Anie and I had a really good chat with Fiona and Mark about trends. Companies pay a lot of money to go to trend conferences dilivered by forecasters, and essentially it's just a sales pitch. Although I loved the topics Sally Denton discussed in her lecture, phrases like 'Global.isation' and 'Create.Consume' are nothing new. The way she talked about them was as if they were her inventions. So I am going to bear in mind current trends, but not take as gospel.

 

Bottle Workshop

After our tutorial, we tested out the bottle workshop. It was interesting to see our different approaches to the task. We brought in a selection of tools and connective materials such as string, wire etc. It was nice to share the finding form exercise and hopefully opened the groups eyes about the possibilities of a plastic bottle, or any single material for that mater. I am going to continue with this exercise to generate more ideas and maybe develop some into product design prototypes. I really want to push the qualities of the plastic bottle to see what they can do. Thinking back to designers making materials look like something else at Milan, what if I could make the man-made, artificial plastic bottle look like something natural?

Presentation- Milan 2014

Over the break Fiona and Mark had been to Milan Design Week so we spent the morning discussing the kind of things on show.

-Surface design is having a resurgence which is good for us Textiles students. It makes sense, why buy brand new furniture when you can apply a different surface. It reflects current ideas about up-cycling and reusing.
-Revealing the process. I am really interested in this way of exhibiting. So many times I have been to an exhibition and thought it would be great to see some sketches or development. I think it is something we should focus on as a group, reveal our way of working for the exhibition. Transparency is a good thing.
-Contradictions. This was really interesting. I often feel conflicted with my own ideas, and for a design show to bring contradictions to surface for people to see will spark conversation. The Marino Gamper's repair shop in a huge department store was a great example of this, encouraging people to make-do-and-mend inside the same place that wants you to keep up with the newest fashions and spend money.
-Food as communication. Food hasn't always been a part of design festivals, but more recently it has become a central part, where like minded people can sit together, eat, drink and converse. Communal meals are organised for people to sign up to. I once found a flyer to something similar in the Northern Quarter, inviting you to curry and conversation at Kabana. It is run by a collective called Quarantine who put on all kinds of social engagement events.
-Using stickers to guide people around to festival. We have discussed something like this for our project, its a lovely ideas to tie the festival together. Its playful and fun and kind of like a grown up treasure hunt.
Textiles behaving like other things
-Digital fabrication to make materials behave unnaturally. Materials made to look like something else.
-Algae: photosynthetic surface. This is amazing, buildings are being designed with algae covering the walls as it can create energy to power it! Which just shows we need to be coming up with ways of incorporating nature into our infrastructure.

Marino Gampers Repair Shop- Milan 2014

Bottle Research

Designer Unknown

Designer Unknown

Some example of ways to utilise the humble plastic bottle. Lighting is something I am really interested in and it would be good to bring this into the project some how. Perhaps for our bottle workshop we could have examples of professional looking products made of bottles to inspire people and change their perceptions.

Group Meeting 28th April

This was our first group meeting after the Easter break, and the first time everyone attended. I was a little nervous as I hadn't done much work other than research and was starting to get worried after seeing the timetable. I also couldn't see with the things we had discussed so far, how we could start "making". Its so easy to talk about ideas and concepts, but how do we translate that to practical work?

We discussed:

-What is our concept? Dandelion seems to be good direction, negative to positive, change perceptions

-Manifesto- need to come with one as a group

-Viewing the city differently- experiment with mirrors, view finders- Cat and Lucy enthusiastic about this.

-Using design that already exists

-Focus on residents of Manchester- encourage to take pride in their city

-Recycling workshop- Aine was keen to develop a workshop to engage with the public which is a really good idea. We talked about encouraging the public to bring along something unwanted and the workshop would show them how to make it into something useful, changing the value we place in junk, turning negative to postive. I suggested narrowing it down to one object such as a bottle as common thing to have- this was a great opportunity to share the finding form exercise with the interactive arts students so we can get to know each others approaches and it will be good to see their approch to social engagement as it is something I don't have too much experience of.

I felt a little overwhelmed by the end of the meeting as a lot was discussed and specific plans were made to be getting on with things such as social media, branding etc. but I felt a little confused on what I could be getting on with. There are a lot of big characters in the group and until we know each other better it is sometimes difficult to get a word in if you feel a little shy. But I'm sure everything will smooth out once we get to know each other better.

Weed Hunt

This project is at just the right time of the year as all the greenery is starting to emerge. I know we have talked about making the city more green, but it is actually really green already. I love how things just grow in the cracks in roads and buildings. No one planted them, they just start to grow. If humans ever died out, it would not take long for nature to take over. And what's interesting is how hardy weeds are. Plants that have been developed by humans are so sensitive. I sowed some herbs over Easter, and some are doing great, but others haven't even germinated yet. They need perfect conditions, not too damp, not too dry, lots of sun, not too much sun. But weeds can just grow where ever, no fuss. Nature just sorts itself out, and we just make things complicated.

Guerilla gardening and Dig The City

Example of Guerrilla Gardening

Dig The City Festival- Manchester 2013

In our group discussions we talked about making the city greener, which is something we are all passionate about. But we don't want to do what Green Festivals and organisations are already doing. 

Dig The City is a Manchester based festival that promotes adding greenery to the urban environment. They deliver workshops and activities, show the work of urban landscapers, have food and drink stalls and music. 

Guerrilla Gardening is a movement promoting greenery in unexpected places. Some of the examples are really funny and remind me of graffiti in a way. Like green activism, sticking it to the urban, concrete man. I like the idea of reclaiming space though, hacking the forgotten parts of cities. I think our ideas are heading this way, so again, we need to make sure we do something different

Someone mentioned giving away seeds at our festival for people to take home and plant. A small change that includes them in the festival in how ever much suits them. This is a really good idea, and I think the way in which we do it such as the packaging, the process etc is what will set it apart from whats already been done.

Group Meeting 4th April

This was our last group meeting before we broke up for Easter. It was important to discuss roles and things to be getting on with over the break. There were a few people missing which was frustrating as the whole group hasn't been together yet. We also had to explain what has been discussed over the last week week as a few people had missed sessions, but I guess this will happen with such a big group.

 After our tutorial on Tuesday, it was clear that we are all interested in doing something "green", yet we don't want it to be an Eco-festival as that's being done already in Manchester and it is about design. 

We discussed viewing the city in a different way, encouraging people to look up and around.

I presented some research I had done about intervention and a festival called Hacking The City and we talked about hacking the way people view Manchester.

 We came up with the a kind of mantra for us all to bear in mind over the break when carrying our our individual research.

"Coming up with design solutions to highlight and draw attention to the unnoticed , retraining the way people view their city."

This was important so that we are all working from the same page. We also realised that SMALL CHANGES was the over arching concept, with making the city greener being a strand of that, not the focus.

I thought it would be good to discuss some sort of logo as a group, possibly a dandelion leaf to represent the 'weed' aspect: changing negative connotations, simple, recognisable (however we don't want it to look like we are a gardening/Eco festival)

 Or maybe the dandelion seed: spreading of ideas, change, well designed (need to make sure it's not already been used for anything to high profile)

We all agreed that an explore around town would be good to do to identify locations, highlight potential problems etc so we all agreed we would do this over the break. Hopefully a few of us could meet up as it would be good to do this together to get to know one another better

We identified the following roles with Fiona and Mark on the Tuesday, these inc:

Branding and graphics

Marketing and packaging

Promotion

Location research/mapping

Background research- green festivals

Market research- public consultation

Some of these I feel we can't get on with until we have developed our ideas, but research we can all be getting on with.

I enjoyed this meeting, it was a little awkward at first, especially between the two courses, but this should get easier over time. I am looking forward to gaining insight into the interactive arts way of working.

Self Containment

Something we have discussed in the group is bringing greenery to the urban environment. Self containment is a strong trend in design at the moment. As more people cram into the cities, designers are readdressing the way in which we utilise the space and how we can inject a taste of the rural lifestyle into the urban, or as Sally Denton describes it, "Ruban".
This is a really good example of using design to address problems, such as lack of space in cities and people wanting to eat more ethically. We need to remember that we need to be coming up with design solutions too. It is a design festival after all.

Flat-pack urban chicken coop by Anker Bak

Group Meeting- 31st March

A few of us in the group met up before our Tuesday tutorial to discuss our initial ideas and possible directions for the project. 

Themes/ideas that are developing are:

Nature

-Lack of greenery in city centre

-Council kill weeds but don't replace with alternative

-Why not keep the weeds??

Small Changes

-Fits in the palm of your hand

-personal

-level of engagement

-manageable

-simplicity

Re-Inventing what a 'Design Festival' is

-How can people engage?

-Is it an event that you physically attend

-Something sustainable

-Future events

-Keep on giving

Accesability

-Who is it aimed at

-Inclusive

-Something for everyone

Working with what already exists

-People

-Landscape

-Design

-Spaces

Technology/Online Presence

-Instagram

-Participation

-"Attend" the festival online

-Apps

3D Printing- The Next Industrial Revolution?

This workshop was pretty intense. It's inspiring and scary at the same time, the things which are becoming possible through 3D printing. I personally am interested in the ethical questions raised. 

What value will we place in "stuff" if we can print whatever we want, whenever?

Promotes throw-away culture

How will it affect the economy? Will retailers lose business?Will workers lose jobs? Will plastic suppliers increase?

Playing "God"? Is it right to tamper with nature? Or is it adapting, just as we have for millions of years? It can only be a good thing if it extends and improves someones quality of life?

Is it green? Less waste. More plastic pollution (micro-organisms have already evolved to live off plastic in the sea!)

Will it affect food production with 3D printed food? It's not natural? But what is natural? We have manipulated nature for thousands of years. 

Many of the examples I have seen of 3D printing have been groundbreaking such as Studio Brads 3D printed woven structures or this 3D printed valve using real human cells. However, I have also seen a lot of 3D printed examples that did not need to be 3D printed. I think people are using the 3D printed because they can. A bit like when someone gets a new label maker and then go on to label everything they own even though most of them don't need a label.  

The focus need to be more on what we could do with this new technology that cannot be done otherwise.

StudioBrad 3D printed weave

3D printed heart valve

Design Festival Themes

 Prominent themes that emerged from the design festival presentations:

• Hacking/Intervention
• Open Source
• Collaboration
• Process and Participation
• 3D Printing
• Social Engagement
• Non-European Design
• Recycling

Trash to Treasure

Re-using unwanted materials is a strong theme that ran through the Design Festival presentation.

Stenby Craft and Design School showcased the Un-Desireables at Stockholm 2013, which used waste materials to create household products. I like the simplicity of this light and how it highlights issues of waste and hopefully challenges/changes the value we place in things.

PET Lamp is a project set up by Rosanna Orlandi engaging with skilled crafts people in the amazon, using recycled bottles to weave beautiful lamp shades. The lamps were used as a backdrop for a chill out space in Ventural Lampbreta at Milan Design Week 2013. This highlights the use of community and socially engaging practice within design festivals which is something we need to think about for our festival.

The Craft Punk Project (Milan 2009) showcased the talents of several designers who were invited to come and create one of pieces out of the waste materials produced by Fendi. The workshop was done live at the festival so that the public could watch them in the making. The idea of LIVE designing and bringing a process to to be viewed as part of the outcome is another interesting trend that we should consider.



Un-desireables by Stenby Craft and Design School- Stockholm Design Week 2013



PET Lamp by Rossana Orlandi- Milan Design Week 2013

Kwangho Lee and Nacho Carbonell for Fendi's Craft Punk - Milan Design Week 2009