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



Choosing groups

We were encouraged to decide on our groups depending on interests which would become prevalent through initial discussions. However, the college as a whole didn't get may students join (and all of us who did are either textile or interactive arts) and if we were to split into two groups, there would be about four or five in each group. So we have decided to work as one big group. It's a shame because I would have loved to meet and work with students from a wide range of disciplines to get the most out of the unit. But not to worry. And it's still great to work with the students from Interactive Arts as they have a totally different approach.

Initial Discussion

After the design festival presentations we had a group discussion about issues we could work on for the project. Design can be used to both high light and solve problems so we were encouraged to discuss issues related to Manchester. It was so easy to talk about the things that are wrong with Manchester, but the hard part it coming up with ways that we can use these ideas to develop a concept for a Design Festival. This seems really out of our reach at the moment, but we'll get there. It was good to get talking and to generate ideas together. We are also going to split into two groups so this discussion was aimed to see who works best together and has similar ideas. 

Changing negative connotations of Manchester

- Rough areas

- Bad weather

- Crime/ poverty

- Dangerous

- Miserable

- Concrete city

- No greener in city centre

Making new connections

- Waterways

- Trans-Peninne trail

-Cycling

- Oxford Road too busy with buses, not safe.

Lack of Greenery

- Integrating nature into structure of life/ buildings

- Make people aware of existing greenery

Manchester International Festival

- Exclusive/ expensive

- Brings wider audience to Manchester

Community

- Don't know our neighbours..why?

- Typical Manchester terraced streets- once close knit communities

- Festival that everyone inc local communities can engage in

- Gentrifications in areas such as Levenshulme/ Northenden

Remember: Using Design Solutions to Solve/Highlight problems

Design Festival Introduction: Stockholm Design Week

Mark and Fiona delivered presentations on current design festival models and the kinds of things that go on at such events.

Stockholm Design Week (Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair): The design week was launched in 2002 as an umbrella event for the Furniture and Light fair which has been running for over 60 years making it one of the oldest events going. From the examples shown, it seems that the fair isn't just about showcasing design products (although that is pretty important) but more the way in which things are displayed, similar to art installations. The whole event is a memorable experience with design to be admired from every aspect.
The Glass Elephant Installation was used to showcase glass pieces from several designers. This is such an exciting way to exhibit design, yet it still doesn't take away from the pieces themselves. The contrast between the fragile glass wear and the heavy bulky robots seen to be taking care of the pieces is playful and fun. AND it all takes place in a mystical looking cave.
80 Sheets of Mountains by Nendo provides the backdrop for a seating area at the entrance to the fair. Sustainability seems to be important to all involved at this festival as the installation collapses back down to be used again as well as taking up minimal space when being transported.
Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh and Finnish artist Kustaa Saksi created a paper installation above the area in which talks would take place. Again, not necessarily exhibiting product, but the design is still important to create an experience for every part of the event.

Glass Elephant, 2013/ 80 Sheets of Mountains by Nendo, 2013/ Paper Installation by Wingårdh and Saksi, 2013

Brendan Dawes

Brendan Dawes is a self confessed button pusher and collector. He delivered a lecture and I would say it was my favourite out of all the Unit X talks. I could write about all the things he showed us but the most relevant I feel is The Happiness Machine. It is another examples of the "The Internet of Things" as it physically communicates data from the world wide web. When the button is pushed, a little receipt is printed off displaying a tweet containing the word "happy". I cant remember if it was selected from just accounts that Brendan is following, or all Twitter accounts, but you get the idea.

Brendan said the reason it works so well is because the receipt is small and can fit in the palm of your hand, making it personal and special. You can put it in your wallet, give it to a friend or stick it on your notice board. This is a really interesting concept that I would like to explore further.

The Happiness Machine from Brendan Dawes on Vimeo.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things was a concept I had never heard of before. We had a talk from Ian Forrester and Zoe Barker who both work for the BBC. Zoe showed us some examples. The Internet of Things are basically real, tangible objects, that in some way visualise information or data that would usually be viewed on a screen.

I am interested in bringing a physicality back to our increasingly virtual world. We now have smart phones that do pretty much every thing we need yet these creations are moving in the opposite direction, having just one function or purpose, which at first I couldn't see the point. But now I understand, these objects put a smile on people faces and they are fun.

#Flock: A Cuckoo clock powered by Tweets

Developed by London-based technology consultancy, Berg. 

The clock reacts physically to different twitter notifications.

 

#Flock by Berg

The Good Night Lamp
The Good Night Lamp is such a lovely idea. In a world where texts, Facebook messages, likes, Tweets and hash tags have taken over real, physical and verbal communication, these lamps bring back the sensory element to letting someone know you are thinking of them.

"Good Night Lamp is a network of internet-connected lamps with a Big Lamp triggering a family of Little Lamps to turn on anywhere in the world. Our mission is for Good Night Lamp to become the first physical social network. The Good Night Lamp allows customers to keep in touch with their friends, family or work mates, and is designed to be simple to use." http://goodnightlamp.com/about/

The Good Night Lamp by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino and Daniel Fogg

What is a Design Festival????

I have was initially pretty confused about the outcome of this project. So we are designing a potential design festival to be held in Manchester.  But it's not real. But we are pretending it is. We can do whatever we want! But we need to pitch it to the council. So it cant be too out there. And we are going to use our skills in making to create a concept. Wait. WHAT!?! 

We can either design the main concept for the festival. Or design an element of the festival such as a workshop, or piece of art. We could even design the space it takes place in. One of the groups last year designed a bridge to bridge the gap between Manchester city centre and Ancoats. We could design the branding. There's a lot to think about, and we could easily get over whelmed by the possibilities. The most important thing is to come up with an over arching concept that we can all work on using our varied skills to create different outcomes.

Then there's the question of what does a festival actually have to be. Does it need to be an actual event or something more sustainable.

Sally Denton- Macro Trends

After the colour workshop last term I realised colour/trend forecasting is something I am interested so was really looking forward to this lecture. 

Sally Denton is a trend forecaster and delivered a lecture on Macro Trends. I had always associated trends with fashion, but they are so much more than that. I thought the lecture would show us examples of future trends but instead Sally showed us what is currently influencing trends which was very interesting.

Trends are influenced by what's happening in the world

What has gone on in the past and what is happening now

Personally Sally Denton uses a mixture of intuition and research. And she does A LOT of research. 

We are currently in the "Turbulent Teens" and in post recession which = BIG THINKING

And we tend to look else where for answers.

1. Look at OURSELVES

2. Look at the PLANET

3. Look at SPACE

The four main macro trends Sally talked about were:

Human 2.0

-Ageing population

- Celebration of Age

- Mental Health

- Robotics

- Replacing limbs with prosthetics as they will eventually work better

- Becoming cyborgs

- Vaccinations: polio nearly eradicated 

Generation X.Y

- Women's century

- Over sexualised

- Freedom = naked/sex??? (Miley Cyrus)

- Objectification (Kate Moss shoe campaign, why naked if aimed at women??)

- Return to modesty

- Male grooming taken to extreme (Joey Essex)

- Return to more masculine look

- Androgynous era

Global.isation

- Shrinking world

- Rise in wealth in Brazil, Russia, China, Africa

- Use technology differently

- New wealth

-Brands

- Graphine: lighter than air, stronger than steel

- Small technology

- Mega companies

Create.Consume

- Rurban (rural/urban)

- Gorged on stuff!

- Back to basics

- Stripped back

- Raw materials

- Self containment

- Self sufficiency

- Less space

- Use nature for technology

- Finding new resources, less wasteful

The talk was so insightful, I felt excited and overwhelmed but I've got pages and pages of notes which I'm sure will come in useful throughout the project.

Unit X Briefing

This session introduced us to the two options for college 3:

1. Centre for the imagination
- Working with Manchester City Gallery
- Taking inspiration from the work of Ryan Gander who's work will be exhibited
- Promote active imagination, games and play within thinking and creativity
- Come up with ideas for workshops to run at MCG
- Work with children

2. Manchester Design Festival
- Design a "Design Festival" to take place in Manchester.
- Process not product
- What makes a design festival?
- Present to Manchester City Council
- Look at space and public engagement

It was a lot of information to take in and we needed to decide quite quickly. Because both options were very open ended/ anything is possible/ vague briefs, it was hard to imagine what either would entail but the design festival option seemed more related to what I am interested in.

College 3- Blue Sky Thinking: The Unconference

The "Unconference" was our first session of Unit X. It was good to meet some new people and generally chat about "stuff". The idea of an "Unconference" is that there is no set agenda for discussion, and instead we decide the agenda as a group by coming up with a set of questions.

It was a little awkward at first trying to think of questions but we ended up with the following which all sparked some interesting discussion between us and worked as a good ice breaker.

1. What is Blue Sky Thinking?
2. What are the consequences of Blue Sky Thinking?
3. Can thing change through creativity?
4. In todays world, what is more important, the process or the outcome?
5. Where is the line between "head" thinking and "physical" thinking?
6. Is idealism and creative forward thinking a luxury only some can afford?
7. Where is the boundary between the human body and technology?

Manifesto Workshop

I really enjoyed this workshop. I was aware of the manifesto from my CP lectures and studying Communism but it was interesting to discuss the importance of them and why they are important. There were plenty of examples for us to read which highlighted how different they can be. Some were even funny or sarcastic.

What is a manifesto?

-Definition of practice (who, what, why)

-Statement of intent

-Group/individual intentions

-Group rules

-Political declaration

-Ethics

-Formal outline

-Beliefs/ what you stand for

-Policies

Why is a (artist) manifesto important?

-Professional

-Credible

-Taken seriously

-Supporting political ideas:

Many of the artists involved in movements of the early C20th were heavily involved in politics such as the Constructivists, Surrealists, Dadaists etc. and expressed their beliefs through their work.

The 1st artists manifesto was written by the Futurists in 1909

Some interesting manifestos include: The Stuckists, The Cult Of The Done Manifesto, 

Droog Manifesto

Annie, Henna and I worked together to come up with our own manifesto after reading some well known and not so well known examples. Some of the issues we wanted to target were: inclusiveness (sometimes feeling "stupid" for not understanding certain art) sharing ideas and collaboration, being open minded, wanting to learn, not mindlessly going along with what we are told, actually do something with your ideas, just do it.

Work Experience

This year I will be volunteering at a festival I worked on last year called the Just So Festival, a family arts event based in Kidsgrove. Last year I managed a stage which was an amazing experience. I learnt so much and met some amazing people from all areas of the creative world. This year I will be working on the design team in the Peekaboo Glade(area) for ages 0-4. This will be really great experience and I can't wait to get started.

Jennifer Scott jen.scott@wildrumpus.org.uk	11 Feb (13 days ago)
to hannahwhitlow, me

Dear Hannah and Elinor

Thank you so much for wanting to get involved as part of the design team for Just So Festival 2014. We have been getting wonderfully excited, dreaming up design briefs for each glade section within the festival site.

I have assigned you as a design team for the Peekaboo, a really gorgeous glade. Have a look through and start getting some ideas. You may want to email/ meet up and discuss ideas in advance to festival run up. Contact information is below:

Hannah Whitlow:  hannahwhitlow@hotmail.co.uk
Elinor Birkenhead- Jones: elliex10@googlemail.com

We'll get back in touch with you shortly with more information but for the time being let your imagination run wild and start dreaming.

Attached is the design brief for Peekaboo along with general guidelines for all visual designers.

Any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

All the best,

Jen