what i indulge in the idea of jewellery is most collections come with a story.

a space to dream
dreamscapes

an interesting a point that was brought up to me resonantly, was if i am creating charms with the point of them being offerings, where is the shrine?

which led me to think about the environments I want them to be presented it! Which is an incredibly important point. As I think the environments are as important as the pieces.
So I want to create dreamscapes. A place to dream.

Artist of interest.

I think the issue is here, you need to begin to design before the make, create some more symbolic designs to work from rather than a build which can sometimes loose its intention, becoming something made for its aesthetic rather than its meaning. Loosing both honesty for me and excitement. The elements that excite me in theory are not coming through in the work.

Also. You must remember to consider context, if it is for jewellery you desire, then consider the body rather than it just being a charm. As charms are not want you want it to result in. I want the context of the jewellery to be demonstrated in a shrine but to be worn in result.

To write a manifesto

What is important

Sound is important

A subtle tinkle

Embellishment is important

It must dazzle

What do I associate with the spirit?

There must be charms for different purposes.

Give it a purpose

What purposes do you desire?

I think each and every one should have a mention to the sunshine

The moon is important to!

Who can I make to be evil? Does there need to be evil

Darkness? Not a devil. But an area of no light!

Lets look into the stars and the moon and the solar system

Lets look into astrology.

Lets start simple. Basic elements. Earth. Air. Fire and Water

The lotus is a symbol of all 4.

The plant begins in the earth, it grows through water, its leaves are nourished by the air and the flower blooms to the fire of the sun.

So as a starting point would the current ultimate charm be a collision of the sunshine, a lotus and a shadow of darkness. There must be a balance.

SO IN CONSLUSION.
a startign point of a manifesto.
Sound is important.
Purpose is important.
Sparkle is important.
Movement is important.
The spirit is crucial.
Don't loose sight.
To build.

getting around metal

i have been doing a lot of research into jewelers and jewellery design.

and one thing. i have been finding of difficulty is alot of work i find interesting is metal work. the above picture is not of something i find of particular interest. but. of something i think could be easilly done in alternative materials. a strong decorated card could make as good of effect.

and this is something i need to explore.

instead of spending time wishing on metal. i should be spending time dreaming up alternatives. something that could potentially spark far more intrigue.

All for the Mountain
A jewellery designer I came across, Carly Margolis seems to have a very interesting view on narrative and her output. I am not personally completely sold by the finished pieces but her approach excites me. Working predominantly in metal work, Margolis creates these fusions of futuristic,  apocalyptic, new age, sci-fi with a hint of a past tribal influence visions. Each collection having its own clearly defined chronicle.

I also really like her drawings, although am unsure of what this one is to represent, I like to pretend it is a preliminary drawing before the creation of a jewellery piece, but I fear it is not.

"They are meant to resemble miniature kingdoms"

Her website is also really visually pleasing and complements her work. The way her pieces have also been photographed and digitally styled I feel also represents her narrative. Her jewellery pieces hand crafted, age old traditions yet showcased in a very digital forward facing manner.



Separate point, separate artist, a diy aesthetic

Marolis, C. Design Drawing. All for the Mountain. [Online image] [Accessed on 16 October 2013]  http://allforthemountain.tumblr.com/

Marolis, C. Elevators. All for the Moutain. [Online image] [Accessed on 16 October 2013]
http://allforthemountain.tumblr.com/

Botanicas

Botanicas
Fabulous shops selling ointments, rosaries, statutes, medicinal herbs, holy water, charms, thousands of year old recipes for, incents and candles. Like a gigantic shrine to spirituality. Look into Tarot Cards.

There is an element of magic that I am most intrigued by. Starting to research into other types of shrines and religions when I stumbled across folk religion. Maybe something I should probably have come to the conclusion of sooner.

Symbolism
The sun, the creator. The moon. The lotus flower, an emblem of beauty no matter what are the odds, an emblem of female sexuality. The flying fish, a space to dream. Garlic, to warn of evil. Goldfish for goodluck. Needs to be furthered.

To create a Rosary out of peas.. a seed of the earth. Peas disguised. Or maybe not disguised peas explored.

Moving forward
Towards the end of last week I started to get a bit lost the work was not matching up with the narrative. I think the whole narrative got a bit tired.

Symbolism and Charms.

What makes something spiritual? What makes something precious? Time is precious, does that make something spiritual? I want to explore the idea of making my own symbolic charms, an edited spiritualism.

Something I need to be wary off, I find both the narrative and the making to be very important to my practice but I can have a tendency to let both aspects run their own paths, getting carried away forgetting to interlink them. I am a little concerned I have started to do this already, in terms of narrative I have been exploring into the Ramekien epic and starting to look at editing my own symbolism but in terms of making I have been focusing on the charms element of my project. I really need to ensure that both elements are moving forward together.

To begin

To start my advancements into the idea of the spirit and the charm I decided to look at an object that I bought back with me from my travels. To see if i could visually dissect and imitate it, then giving me  the skills to build.
From a street seller in Bangkok we came across these "lucky" necklaces, where he had taken a series of charms, precious stones and Buddha offerings, created a sort of cage like pocket, a safety net, for which the object to sit in, before using a macrame technique to create the fastener of the charm. By firstly imitating it I could then move on to try it out with different materials and colour combinations. Looking at using wire, plastic ribbon and embroidery thread.

Practice

Lets begin with some notes from my summer project, a written diary of scribbles of little nothings that I experienced and felt whilst traveling around parts of Southeast Asia. The backbone of which has formed my intrigue for this project.

Deities Shrines and Talisments
Southeast Asia, Buddhism and religion
Offerings and Sacrifices? Orange flowers? Offerings to the buddha.
Candlesticks and incense?
Drangons and Elephants?
Palm readers and fire eaters?
Demon explosions, catch a falling star.
Mythological landscapes, A space to dream.

Ancestoral Tombs and Demon Gates.
The unicorn a protector?
The spirit and the spiritual.
Greenery is important, an offering of life?
I like bearded trees.
A makeshift sensibility. A diy ethic.

Whats hiding in the jungle? Tigers and forest spirits.
Explore what the bird house type things are.
House spirits and fire dancing
Its about sound to.. wind chimes and chanting
Windchimes and bells.
Bells and gongs. How to make a bell? A subtle tinkle.

The contrast of the spiritual and the evil.
Stretching hands demon and sinner.
Stretching out of hell. I like the stretch.

Flying fish. A three dimensional world.

The above is an edit of thoughts. A plucked version of my journal. From this I have been able to pick up points of notice that I want to explore further back in the real world.

Spirit Houses
Something that really caught my attention was "the bird house type things". Spirit houses, you see them everywhere around Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. A shrine to the protective spirit of a place. They are fabulous creations, little houses on stilts. They are considered a very important ritual and vital in the success and happiness of a place. The idea is for the spirit to live within and what really intrigues me about it is how they fit it out for that purpose. Figurines of caretakers, dancers for entertainment, elephants and horses for transportation and pets are all placed inside. As well as frequent offerings of flower garlands and food.
To build a spirit house. I like the steps that run up to the house. I like the thought of a spirit living inside.


Religion 
The religion whilst we were traveling around I did not quite understand, especially whilst in Thailand. I was aware that the country was predominantly Buddhist but I didn't quite understand. In hindsight I have now learnt that it seems to form into a collaboration. Animism is an old religion, the belief that everything has a spirit, there to help or to hinder humans, therefore to succeed in life the spirits must remain appeased. This is still evident in Southeast Asia, in the spirit houses and the wrapping of trees and vehicles and long boats. It is all beautifully colourful, offerings crafted in a makeshift sensibility. There is also the presence of alot of Hindu iconography as Hinduism has been important in the country in various stages of its past. (A point I am keen to follow is the story of the Ramakien which is a Thai version of the famous Hindu Ramayana.) Therefore Hindu deities are also worshiped in Thailand alongside Buddhism. Gods such as Ganesha, Shiva and Inda appear frequently. It is this collaboration that so interests me, a collaboration of individually beautiful deities but together a new iconography, a beauty for the eyes. I want to explore this idea of collaboration further.


To move froward.
Offerings
I want begin my exploration with looking at offerings.
The main offerings i observed were flower garlands, figurines, incense, candles and food. Offerings made out of accessible materials, accessible to all. The beautiful flower garlands constructed out of flowers and folded ribbon. Making beautiful ribbon star bows. We were given a flower garland which was made out of polystyrene balls, plastic string and flowers. Something so simply and cheaply crafted that looked so beautifully effective. It is this pursuit of makeshift materials and techniques I have began my experimentation into. Starting with the construction of ribbon bows and the knotting techniques used to make friendship bracelets, (another simple yet effective way of creating). Looking at all these individual techniques with the hope of a build and collaboration.

http://www.anothermag.com/loves/view/24795/hammerhead_sharks_dancing

A 3D world.
Yesterday I wanted to be a fish.

how to make bows

A reflection

Points of Notice.
This has been quite a strange project for me and definitely not what I was expecting. But it has been a very interesting experience and I feel like I have learnt alot out of it.
Firstly it has been very interesting working within a group, the project is not then just about you, you have to consider the other people that you are working with and it becomes a point of not just letting yourself down but letting other people down too. My main aim within the group work was to learn to have a voice and believe in my ideas, rather than just take a backseat and roll with what everybody else wanted to do. I think I achieved this to some degree but definitely could have pushed myself more. One of the things I think that we could have improved on was our organization and how we worked together. We worked well at these things but I do believe we could have improved. There were ten of us in our group, the biggest out of the three, which I think can make it a little harder almost, as it is difficult to keep up with what everyone is doing and organizing us as a group. We did work well together and everything did tie in together at the end, but there was also quite a lot of individual work, where I personally feel that maybe we should have all collaborated a little more. We kept a group Facebook page which we all engaged on, keeping up to date with everyone's progress, sharing ideas and organizing our get togethers.
In terms of the work produced and our festival pitch, I do believe we all came together to create something quite interesting, we seemed to have a keen theme to make it fun, to make it interactive and I feel like we achieved that. As the festival was to be set in Manchester it obviously revolved around the city and its people, and I think to achieve an idea of what you want to do with the city you really have to engage with it, engage with its people. I think we achieved this to, through working within the city, speaking to its people through different surveys and interactions.
I don't feel like I have done my best for this project, but I am happy with the result of it. I still really need to work on my time management and stay productive through out a project not just in small bursts. I think I have learnt alot from this experience and it has left me really excited for third year. As this project hasn't been something that I would normally not be directly interested in, it has left me itching to go back to creating my own work. Over all it has been a very intriguing experience.

Exhbition night

The exhibition was finally complete, everything set up, just waiting for the opening. The viewfinders finally hung.

It all came together really well, in reflection I am really pleased with it. I think the viewfinders look fabulous, looking into our exhibition space through these was a treat for the eyes, providing beautiful photographs.
It was really interesting watching everyone's reactions to our work, everyone seemed really intrigued.

Installing the exhibition

Installing the exhibition
Yesterday was the beginning of the exhibition installation, the spaces allocated to each group had already been decided, so we had a clear idea of what space we had to use.
We didn't have a direct plan for the space, more of an idea, that we were planning to tweek when we had all of our work in the space.
For the exhibition we had a keen idea to use the hexagon throughout, integrating our logo throughout the display. As our festival is quite interactive, we wanted to show this element to.
I came across this image on the blog patternity

it seemed to fit really well with our idea of integrating our logo into the display of the exhibition. We were also keen to present a zine library to showcase all of our zines and this shelving seemed like a great way to do that. But creating this shelving seemed easier said than done. A few of the girls in my group set to work on it but with few not particularly powerful power tools it wasn't seeming to hold up quite strong enough.

But we already had one of these hexagons now and didn't want to waste it, so the solution was suggested to use it as a sort of raised bed. We were already planning to create a sort of garden in the exhibition as a response to The Pothole Gardener and Guerrilla Gardening but it had yet to be completely decided how we were quite going to go about this. So this seemed like a perfect resolution.

We glued a plastic sheet around the insides, so that it could be transportable and to keep it neat and tidy and then started planting. I really enjoyed it. I personally regret not planning this a little better. I think in a way the fact that we hadn't planned it completely and the result being the transformation of our shelves worked wonderfully. But in terms of the planting I think we could have made it look a lot more attractive and maybe have collaborated with a local garden center or nursery to have gotten better quality and more interesting plants. The result did look visually appealing but I think it could have been better.

This idea of planting and working with flowers seems to be something that is constantly popping up in my work and I think it may be something I would like to pursue in the future. Here is a picture of our final box.

plant pot making
i think i may have gotten a little carried away

The unexpected.
I have been making planters out of recycled bottles. Inspired by people such as Anna Garforth, whom creates intriguing city installations out of moss and also created a series entitled "Head Gardener" which I have looked at previously for a different project. The "Head Gardener" series uses old milk bottles transformed to create intriguing plant pots. I feel this is a really good use of materials, up-cycling the old, encouraging a sustainable approach and a DIY ethic.

I have been using old juice bottles, building on top of this, layers of old newspaper and tissue paper applied with glue and white paint. By putting a whole in the lid and using the bottle upside down, it allows it also to work as a sustainable growth pot for the plant to survive. I wanted to apply the papers in such a way that it built up a different form from the original shape of the bottle. On top of this looking to create a hexagonal pattern to link in with our branding and what we are about. I initially looked at glue gunning patterns onto the bottles which created an intriguing effect, the heat manipulating the plastic a little.

But i didn't like how obvious it still remained that it was a juice bottle. From this once the paper was already applied, I started to play with the pattern on top of that, looking at creating a pattern with masking tape and stenciling on the pattern with spray paint, before settling upon using netting to paint over, then removing when the paint was almost dry to create a subtle honey comb.

 For the aesthetic of them I was intirgued by artists such as Karla Black and Franz West. I like they're DIY aesthetic.

I fear I got a little carried away while creating these, spending too much time, wasting time, creating something which is only designed to be a mocket a little too intensely. Although I am happy with the final outcome and am trying to make more for the exhibition.

Zines
A strong part of the branding of our festival will be through different interactive and informational zines. I feel this creates an attractive and interesting approach to the festival, with many of the people in my group making up different forms of zine to acknowledge different aspects of our pitch. We have an over all festival zine which gives information on what we are about and with some space for interactive participation, engaging the audience to partake in the festival from the very beginning. On top of this we have a zine on the canal bombs, hear your city, seed bombs and gorilla gardening, a how to on origami boats and crowns, with some of these aimed also for children but of course could be used by all ages.

I have been creating a zine upon the unexpected in the city, focusing in particular upon the unexpected use of plants, surprise in the city. I am really enjoying making it, using the scanner and printer to build up different images and texts. Something I am really keen on in terms of my practice is a contrast of textures and a balance between technology and the hand made. Making a zine seems like something that really relates to that. Where I have used a combination of different papers such as newsprint, tracing paper and layout paper. On top of this printing a variety of scanned in photographs, texts and drawings. It has been a process I have really enjoyed. I have kept it quite simple as more of a piece of design than an information booklet including seeds within the book encouraging you "to grow your own beanstalk".

I think this use of zines is something quite relevant and accessible and is something that I myself would be intrigued by upon visiting a design festival. As well as being useful at the time, they are also something quite intriguing to collect and keep afterwards. Today we visited the Zine Library in Nexus Art Cafe in Northern Quarter and it was fascinating to see so many different variations of zine together, therefore we would be encouraging people to begin their own. One thing I am a little worried about in terms of our festival, is that we have so many which are all completed in quite different manors that people might get a bit lost in there purpose.

For our exhibition we are keen to display these zines, with many of them having more than the one copy available, in a Zine Library like format, using hexagonal shelving to showcase them.

Todays pitch

Today was our final pitch, the pitch to the council, the pitch to various other people interested in beginning a design festival in Manchester. The whole thing was filmed, to show various other people and to refer back to for future ideas.
We decided as there were ten of us in the group to not all do the presentation, as it would get messy, therefore we decided only three should speak, allowing for a neater presentation and more engagement. We planned the presentation together but then split of so that the three doing the pitch could sort out who would speak when, while the rest of us got on with sorting out the exhibition.

The pitch.
It went well, we decided to do a Prezi presentation rather than the standard powerpoint, we thought it would look more interesting, and its innovative aesthetic went well with our ideas. Although when it came down to doing it it caused a few problems. The Bench space had had perfect wi-fi through out the project but when it came to pitch day for some reason it wasn't working properly. A prezi presentation is soemthing that works online, therefore we needed a good internet connection to show it properly, We were second to do our pitch, which gave us a little time to sort it out. It is possible to download the presentation but the forfeit of that is that any videos will not work as they need the internet connection. But unfortunately this was the best we could do.
Despite this I think it went well, we probably should have considered this when we decide to use Prezi but in ignorance we didn't think this was a problem that would occur.

We had a number of zines and viewfinders to hand out to the audience, many of which they could keep and take home, a token of our ideas. I think this element of handing out things to the audience to participate in is very important, it gives them something tangible that they can touch as well as engage in the presentation.

The unexpected

unusual objects in unusual situations.
In terms of objects in hindsight I think we should have held an event, an event like a yard sale, or a swap shop, or something to encourage the use of old objects.
One mans dirt is another mans treasure.
We could have advertised the event for a good few weeks prior, leaving people time to gather or not throw away, then held the event as a trial. I think it would have been interesting research and an interesting event. Maybe even curated our exhibition with the results.

Paint the flowers red,
Grow a beanstalk

Lazarain Gerald
To make a swing,
surprise in the city?

Commisioning designers to create swings?

Gerald
Lazerian created a computer model of a dog and then into a flat layout, where a DIY version was handed out to over 100 artists to be decorated and designed.
These will then travel to exhibit around the world

why not do this with swings?
swings around the city?
swings on route?

Upon our urban gardening adventure, we got chatting to a young adult who when we asked what he would like to see around Manchester he replied with swings. This got me thinking, I think that it would be a fabulous project, swings are fun, and singular in a city, they are out of place. The perfect surprise.

At the beginning of this project upon having the lecture on previous design festivals, as mentioned earlier on my blog the thing that i really liked was the shop window project in the Eindhoven Festival where they had a singular seat opposite the display encouraging you as well as coming in to the shop to buy, to sit outside and observe it like an exhibition, the cross over between art and design is fascinating. Why not do this with swings?

Obviously they would not be appropriate for all times and ages and may have to be accompanied by alternative seating also. But I really do believe it could be something beautifully fun, engaging and practical.
We could commission various Manchester based designers and design groups and artists to. A collaboration of all disciplines. It could be something that we do like how Lazarian went about their project, by creating an initial model and looking for designer/artists responses to that.

In response to this I attempted to make a swing. It is far from useable and incredibly badly put together with bad resources but I wanted to have a go.

City Planters

In reaction to looking at alternative ways of creating street art and Guerrilla Gardening, I was very much intrigued to try some of our own. Anna and I, another girl from my group, decided to do just that, going out packed up with different plants and plant pots and various cameras we set out along our roots to do some Guerrilla Gardening of our own.
It was an intriguing day.

It is peoples reactions to this kind of thing that I find the most interesting. Not many people came up and spoke to us, more said passing comments or just looked bewildered or intrigued by us. We walked along one of the routes leading back into the northern quarter, setting up various installations along the way. But where we found the most interesting reactions was when we decided to set up a mini installation in Stevenson Square then go and sit at one of the opposite cafes so we could observe peoples reactions from afar.

Firstly as we were setting it up, two young people came up to us, really excitable, really interested in what we were doing. We chatted to them for a while and asked them what they would like to do in Manchester? With the boy answering that he thought it would be a really great idea to set up various swings around the city. Saying that he sees so many places to set up single swings, There are so many signposts and various city architecture that would be brilliant for hanging swings. In hindsight we really should have recorded this conversation, or taken a picture of them for research but we were too enthralled by the conversation.

After we had finished setting this up we settled across the street to observe. There wasn't much going on, a few people glancing at it. But after a little while a group of three young people came bounding up to it, cameras at the ready. They stayed by it for quite a while taking pictures and chatting, a few pictures of themselves with the installation. Out of nowhere a man went over to join them, middle aged maybe, with a punnet of flowers in hand. We were too far away to hear the conversation, (which is something else I would try and do differently next time) but then he put his punnet down with our installation, chatted a bit more then picked it up and left. I don't know where he was going with that punnet but I would love to know! The whole idea of him adding to our installation was fabulous!

This point of interactive street art was something that we really wanted to explore on this city adventure, seeing peoples reactions and how they interact with it. The element of surprise.
One of the girls in my group posted an interesting article of audience participation and curating the city like an exhibition. I think this all links back to my initial ideas on having a trail of breadcrumbs, decoration, leading you around the city, the experience is the whole not just the gallery at the end.

Manchester Coat of Arms
Bees are a symbol of activity
Ships are a symbol of trade and enterprise

Routes and mapping
We have mapped out 6 routes

Canal Route: Holden Gallery > Castlefield Gallery
South Manchester 1: Whitworth > Wahlbar
South Manchester 2: Costume Gallery > IA House Chorlton
Center of Manchester 1: Manchester Art Gallery > Rogue Studios
Center of Manchester 2: Piccadilly Place > Kraak Gallery
North of Manchester: 2022NQ > Islington Mill

One of the main starting points of our festival was mapping. Looking at alternative ways to encourage people around the city, giving a new identity to a place you may already know quite well. We looked at the idea of disorientation, the derieve and using instructions, maybe giving out instruction booklets with a random assortment of cards that lead you to some unknown destination, the luck of the draw choosing your route. After much talk and deliberation we decided upon choosing certain routes which our festival would be based around, see routes above. These would be walks which would lead you around the city, decorated walks, interactive walks with a keen idea of engaging the viewer.

One of the members of our group, began to research into the Manchester Coat of Arms, where she found 

Bees are a symbol of activity
Ships are a symbol of trade and enterprise

this got us thinking. It then came to our attention that bees are widely depicted around Manchester, featured on many of the bollards around the city. We are encouraging a green festival, with a high interest in urban gardening. Bees like gardens, we like bees. It seemed like an intriguing idea to pursue.
We have 6 routes, a 6 sided shape is a hexagon, hexagons make up honeycomb and honey comb is made by bees.

 

How to celebrate the city?
How to surprise?
How to transform the things the city throws away?

Thinking about natures place.
Natures treasure.
Weeds take over the city. Why not bottle them? Why not put them in a vase?
Glass jars and jam jars.

A colour change is a surprise

Chelsea Fringe

Something that is happening at the Chelsea Fringe this year that I am intrigued by is an event called Rocks

Where the Goldsmiths center is holding an exhibition looking into the use of rocks in silversmithing. Both using and drawing inspiration from.

This got me thinking into the mundane.

Using the throwaways and the ignored, transforming, surprise?

Lets start with some spray paint.

How to transform?
Another point of interest was Stuart Haygarth, in particular his frame installation for the V&A. But it was the varnishes and gold leafing that I am most intrigued by. Such beautiful colours and stains.

The throwaways of the city,
How to play with the mundane?
How to play with a twist on street art?

An element of surprise?
We run around from day to day, rushing from place to place,
The fast pace life of the city.
But an idea of surprise makes you stop,
something out of place, out of time?
You slow down, stop, to get a closer look?
Curiosity?
How did it get here? Why is it here?

But how to play with this?

An intriguing project.
The pothole gardener

Steve Wheen, is the pothole gardener, transforming small spaces, holes in the city into small garden paradises. I think this is a fabulous idea all though am not entirely sure how i feel about the props. But it is the public's response to these little gaps in the city that I am intrigued by. They are caught off guard by these obviously out of place little installations. There is a great video of reactions up on The Pothole Gardeners blog and also an intriguing talk by Steve, for the lost lectures series in his talk entitled Little Holes of Happiness. 


Another intriguing idea of street art comes from a project entitled A Common Name, run by a lady called Julian Paige based in California. Where she creates "Geodes" out of paper and resin, and hides them in the nooks and crannys of the city. Leaving the city to do with them what they want, to break down in the weather, to slowly fade away or simply be taken. They are little treasures in the middle of the metropolis.

an interesting idea of alternative materials.
lets create something fun
DUS architects manifesto point
"2. MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL People like pretty things"

step back
Bompas & Parr
Edible crazzy golf
Jelly

The unexpected

We were keen to get our hands on some objects that we could work from. Some unexpected objects, objects in multiples. But as these were all prototypes we didn't really want to spend any mass amount of money.
On inquiring into this it really struck me, how difficult it was to get hold of junk? Junk yards won't give anything away for free, things get binned. I understand there is free-cycle and websites like that but in a tangible sense I wanted to touch something, to search through the rubbish, bit of a ghost hunt.

So on this lack of object inquiry we decided to head to Chorlton to hit up the charity shops there, to see if they may have anything broken out back that they couldn't sell? We were surprisingly in luck, everyone seemed very happy to chat to us, but there wasn't that much spare material as anything that can't be sold tends to be binned. We came back armed with a broken mirror, a large broken lamp, a wicker basket and various other miscellaneous bits and bobs.

Various objects

Our Festival
We want to encourage interaction.
Our main point of engagement is this idea of designing your own festival,
﹟SeeYourCity ﹟MakeYourCity ﹟ExperienceYourCity

﹟DesignYourCity

These are all also hashtags that link directly to our twitter, as we want to encourage a strong online presence to coincide with the festival. Allowing people to upload images directly to us, creating an online exhibition in its self. We propose to then also use these images to create an exhibition once the festival has finished to show case the peoples festival.

In terms of branding. We want to look at the idea of the viewfinder. Upon one of our city walks I found an intriguing city made viewfinder.

  
The viewfinder is so key to our project as it represents the idea of designing your own festival, our posters, leaflets and branding will be designed around a viewfinder, therefore even when looking at one, you are almost designing your own, with every view being different, every poster different to. We want to encourgae people to take photos with their viewfinders, and upload them to our twitter.
 We have been exploring the idea of setting up digital camera booths around the city, inviting people to take pictures with their viewfinds, allowing us to curate an exhibition of the results. 

 an early example

of a viewfinder

photo taken by Anna.

Manifesto

MADE IN MANCHESTER
Design will be in and of the city
Design, in its most general terms, will come from within Manchester's creative base
NETWORKS AND CONNECTIVITY
We want to think about connectivity and form new networks, through the use of images, sound and space that are not just intangible and tactile forms
URBAN EXPLORATION AND REDISCOVERY
Exploring the known and the unknown, we aim to rediscover the city
EXPERIENTIAL AND EXPERIMENTAL
We want to think about the experiential value of a design festival; experiencing the old in new ways
We want to think about interactive design, and interacting in the city as individuals to create a community.

﹟SeeYourCity ﹟MakeYourCity ﹟ExperienceYourCity

﹟DesignYourCity

thoughts on todays session?
Psychogeography,
"a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape."
Mapping?

building infrastructures upon roof tops? Collapsible, Mobile? Shipping containers?

Excavator on roof top of 12 story building in Taiyuan

The design studio Playze stacked up shipping containers to create a building for an organic farm in Shanghai, China

Shipping Containers used to create a pop-up Mexican Wahaca restaurant on London's Southbank.
Where diners even receive their own chilli peppers to grow at home.
First opening during the London Design Festival. Mobile?

Tree houses? Building houses? Buildings upon buildings? Towers

Shipping container architecture has been becoming increasingly popular, it is a fairy low budget easy way of constructing a space with many ready available. But what else could you use as an alternative?

Garden sheds? Greenhouses? Caravans? Tents? Something temporary?

Manchester Roof Tops

Using Piccadilly Gardens as a reference point, 

I wanted to illustrate the amount of roof space we could have to play with

These photos are really old

Roof tops

Where to begin?
As more people are flocking to cities they are becoming more and more built up, buildings are getting taller, more houses being built. But every already existing building and new ones being built is taking up an area of land and elevating it to sky high. This area of land still exists, it has just been raised. Why should we waste this? You climb mountains, to get to the top, to look out over our world, or even get trains and cable cars, to do the same thing. Buildings are the mountains of our city, why don't we use this?


So what can we do with this space? As of recent this idea of roof top gardens and urban agriculture have become increasingly popular. Could some kind of interactive project come of this?
http://www.thegreenroofcentre.co.uk/green_roofs

Examples of intrigue

‘Waldspirale’ in Darmstadt, Germany, by the architect Hundertwasser

Green Peaces new ad campaign
As well as the green roof movement there is also a keen push for rooftops to be painted with white reflective paint, this reflects 90% of sunlight opposed to the 20% that reflected by traditional black roofs.

Green walls? Living walls?

I am not sure how i feel about them, they look very groomed

It was discussed in our group meeting this idea of creating an anti-sensory space, creating a human experience rather than a reaction to place. Leading from this looking at the idea of tricking the viewer that they are experiencing something false.
For example getting in a lift where the viewer believes they are going downwards where in fact they are going upwards. But what would be the factors of this that you would need to apply to make this believable? In relation to this it led me on to think about a trickery of the senses. I read the book "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk some time ago and an idea that was put forth in this book which I find of great interest was this idea of creating a booster. These are experiences that you plug into, almost a progression of film but instead of it just being something you view and hear, the other senses are brought into it to. In the book these are experiences that are recorded by the initial creator, whether fact or fictional which then as the audience you plug into, like you would watch a film, therefore see what they see, hear what they hear, smell what they smell, taste what the taste and feel what they touch.
It's a simple idea in that sense and I think it could be something you could play with in terms of space. Allowing a viewer to enter a space but experiencing the feeling of another. Trickery and confusion. Playing with the idea of what it is that makes a space itself?

As a group, the three key themes that kept arising were:
Made
Waste Time
Mobile
With these ideas in mind we have split into three sub groups,
Space
Made
Promotion

From this I have chosen to work within the Space group. We met up today to discuss further our ideas towards space and how this interacts within a design festival.
Key Spacial Themes

• Artificial space, transitional spaces///familiar spaces,            trickery?
• Abandoned buildings, derelict buildings, nature reclaiming?
• Outside spaces, the river medlock? demolished spaces and alleyways, nooks and crannys of the city,
• Elevated spaces, a roof top city?

But it is what we do, how we work with these spaces to create something exciting? To begin I am intrigued to explore pathways of the city and a rooftop village?

Yesterday I decided to take a walk around the city, take a slight different road to usual and make a conscious decision to look up. My initial plan was to go and find the River Medlock and observe where it intertwines with the city
I need to get better at taking photographs, I wish I had photographic eyes