As we are breaking up for Easter, we have decided to meet up as much as possible this week.
We are now narrowing down our thoughts to what we think are going to be the key elements of this project.
Recurring themes:
Noticing the Unnoticed
Weeds, specifically dandelions, we like the idea of this being the logo
Guerilla Gardening / Colour our city
Small changes going towards one greater change - reflects the seeds of a one-o'clock - individually they are small, but together they create one larger thing.
Collaboration - creative and conceptual people pairing up and working together
Work shops - recycling- idea with plastic bottles
Changing the idea of a design festival- does it only have to last a week?
Changing people's perspectives of the city - idea for another workshop with view finders, which will make people look at the city in a different way
I have enjoyed the group meeting because it seems a lot less formal than a tutorial, and I feel more comfortable voicing my opinions. At the moment I feel that we are being a bit repetitive as a group, as we are meeting up, and talking about what was previously discussed in the previous meeting. I also think that the ideas we are having are really conceptual, which is great because there will be a story behind out work.
One of the girls from interactive arts mentioned the idea of the logo being a sticker, that could be placed around the City, to reflect that change is here to stay and the festival doesn't just last a week, but then of the other girls then said that if we were doing something like this it could be seen as vandalism.
I think the idea had a great concept, possibly not that realistic as we would be pitching to the council at the end, and I'm not too sure they would be keen on stickers around the city. The idea introduced a different way of advertising the festival that I definitely wouldn't have thought of on my own.
This has got me thinking of different shapes, so a sticker might not be realistic, but we could have the posters in a circular shape so that they differentiate from other posters.
3D printing
We had a session concerning 3D printing because this seemed to be something that kept popping up at recent design festivals.
3D printing still seems really new to me because I haven't heard that much about it.
My notes:
-3D printing is coming to the end of it's patentee
-no assembly is required, the object can be used after printing with no hassle
-infinite shapes of material
-it can be used to make 3D portraits, such as dolls based on real people
-Wide variety of materials can be used to print with such as metal, plastic and human cells
-someone invented a 3D printed gun, which had no parts to assemble
-Iris Van Herpen designed a 3D printed dress
- you can get a 3D printer for your home / desktop 3D printer
-the 3D printing process is quite slow at the moment, as things take a while to print out
We then discussed some of the issues surrounding some of the objects that have been printed.
The one that seemed most controversial was the 3D printed heart valve, and other body parts printed out of cells.
This opened up a lot of issues such as :
is it okay to prolong life?
is it natural?
are humans playing god?
will anyone ever die if we keep fixing ourselves?
It's a difficult topic to discuss because there is no right or wrong answer, and printing organs is just a bit too much for me to take in.
Another interesting topic was the 3D printed gun.
Quite a few people had an issue with the blue prints being posted on the internet because it meant that people could access them and end up printing their own gun, with no licence.
Meat can be 3D printed aswell. I thought this was weird.
I had wondered if Jewish people could eat 3D printed 'pork', because it's never been an animal.
Would it be classed as Halal?
any waste metal can be reused, but the designs are created through trial and error, so you land up creating a lot of wasted products, meaning that the design process is less precious.
Talking about the waste problems of 3D printing lead onto talking about the North Atlantic Garbage patch, as a lot of the objects created by 3D printing are made of plastic, they are likely to end up here.
I was really interested to find out that there are such thing as artificial microbial reefs that survive by eating the plastic. It's amazing that because of plastic, new life forms have evolved, and it is now an important part of the oceanic ecosystem.
Realistically, I don't see myself using 3D printing in this project because it is just too expensive at uni. I also think it takes the process of making away a little bit because everything is done on a computer.
3D printing still seems really new to me because I haven't heard that much about it.
My notes:
-3D printing is coming to the end of it's patentee
-no assembly is required, the object can be used after printing with no hassle
-infinite shapes of material
-it can be used to make 3D portraits, such as dolls based on real people
-Wide variety of materials can be used to print with such as metal, plastic and human cells
-someone invented a 3D printed gun, which had no parts to assemble
-Iris Van Herpen designed a 3D printed dress
- you can get a 3D printer for your home / desktop 3D printer
-the 3D printing process is quite slow at the moment, as things take a while to print out
We then discussed some of the issues surrounding some of the objects that have been printed.
The one that seemed most controversial was the 3D printed heart valve, and other body parts printed out of cells.
This opened up a lot of issues such as :
is it okay to prolong life?
is it natural?
are humans playing god?
will anyone ever die if we keep fixing ourselves?
It's a difficult topic to discuss because there is no right or wrong answer, and printing organs is just a bit too much for me to take in.
Another interesting topic was the 3D printed gun.
Quite a few people had an issue with the blue prints being posted on the internet because it meant that people could access them and end up printing their own gun, with no licence.
Meat can be 3D printed aswell. I thought this was weird.
I had wondered if Jewish people could eat 3D printed 'pork', because it's never been an animal.
Would it be classed as Halal?
Is 3D printing green?
The program allows users to work out the optimum shape of an object based on its maximum strength and minimum amount of material usedany waste metal can be reused, but the designs are created through trial and error, so you land up creating a lot of wasted products, meaning that the design process is less precious.
Talking about the waste problems of 3D printing lead onto talking about the North Atlantic Garbage patch, as a lot of the objects created by 3D printing are made of plastic, they are likely to end up here.
I was really interested to find out that there are such thing as artificial microbial reefs that survive by eating the plastic. It's amazing that because of plastic, new life forms have evolved, and it is now an important part of the oceanic ecosystem.
Realistically, I don't see myself using 3D printing in this project because it is just too expensive at uni. I also think it takes the process of making away a little bit because everything is done on a computer.
Group Meeting
We decided to meet as a group before our next tutorial.
The aim was to discuss themes that we were attracted to, in order to find common ground that we can develop the design festival from.
In the previous tutorial we had discussed transport, which had sparked conversation about cycling, and encouraging people to be Eco-friendly, and nature had been a prominent factor in our discussion.
We discussed what a design festival actually is, and whether or not we can change the visitors expectation of the design festival.
We really liked the idea of carrying the design festival on, so that it wasn't just one event, but you can keep adding to it after wards.
We thought this could be possible through social media and by holding competitions, etc.
By having an online presence we also thought that this would allow people to know what was happening at the event, even if they couldn't make it.
We also thought that this would be a good way for visitors to interact with the design festival, as they could take photos of themselves participating and add them to an online collage of contributions.
We then went onto discuss how we can make the design festival personal to the visitors.
The idea of tickets to the event was an interesting topic as, as some people in the group said they would be happy with a virtual ticket, whilst others said that they like the idea of having something that they can hold. A real ticket can also be used as memorabilia of the design festival.
We liked the idea of creating something small that visitors can take home with them like a pet plant or a small visitors pack.
We liked the concept of small changes going towards a big change
Nature was again a prominent theme in the discussion.
We talked about how there is a lack of greenery in the city, and how it is ironic that people dig out weeds from an urban environment but don't replace them with anything else.
We said they they might as well keep the weeds, so that at least something is growing.
We also talked about the weeds being relentless and growing in bizarre places.
Noticing the unnoticed :)
Where the event would take place was also on everyone's mind.
There are a lot of places in Manchester that are unused, where buildings have been knocked down and nothing erected in its place.
We decided that we would go out and photograph these places, to get more of an idea of what was realistically possible, and also to start noticing the unnoticed around Manchester.
I decided to do this on my own, because I thought that if the group went out together then it would take a lot longer, than if we went out separately or in smaller groups. I also thought that I might notice something different to what others noticed and vice versa.
There is a patch of land on Whitworth street that looks very abandoned. There are weeds growing amongst the cracks in the cement, and there are no immediate plans for the land to be developed. I thought that this would be a good area to host part of the event, as it it close to parking and access to it is easy. Being close to the city centre makes it quite appealing and it is a large area of land.
We had also been discussing car parks, and how they are everywhere. Buildings are knocked down and parks are replaced for car parks.
I thought of the idea of having the design festival, or part of it, in a car park. I'm not too sure how viable the idea would be, as it would be taking up space people need to park in in order to visit the festival. This could be a catch twenty two situation.
With this car park, I thought it was interesting that there are trees surrounding it. This then got me noticing how green Manchester actually is. Considering it is a very built up area, there seems to be greenery almost everywhere you look.
I feel that I have become a victim of my own prejudice. I have assumed that because Manchester is a city, there isn't going to be a lot of greenery in it. Since taking these photos I am noticing greenery everywhere. There are trees along pavements, mini gardens on the edge of buildings, numerous pot plants, etc. I think that it would be a good to develop the concept of changing peoples negative connotations of Manchester, and get people noticing all the great parts of it.
The aim was to discuss themes that we were attracted to, in order to find common ground that we can develop the design festival from.
In the previous tutorial we had discussed transport, which had sparked conversation about cycling, and encouraging people to be Eco-friendly, and nature had been a prominent factor in our discussion.
We discussed what a design festival actually is, and whether or not we can change the visitors expectation of the design festival.
We really liked the idea of carrying the design festival on, so that it wasn't just one event, but you can keep adding to it after wards.
We thought this could be possible through social media and by holding competitions, etc.
By having an online presence we also thought that this would allow people to know what was happening at the event, even if they couldn't make it.
We also thought that this would be a good way for visitors to interact with the design festival, as they could take photos of themselves participating and add them to an online collage of contributions.
We then went onto discuss how we can make the design festival personal to the visitors.
The idea of tickets to the event was an interesting topic as, as some people in the group said they would be happy with a virtual ticket, whilst others said that they like the idea of having something that they can hold. A real ticket can also be used as memorabilia of the design festival.
We liked the idea of creating something small that visitors can take home with them like a pet plant or a small visitors pack.
We liked the concept of small changes going towards a big change
Nature was again a prominent theme in the discussion.
We talked about how there is a lack of greenery in the city, and how it is ironic that people dig out weeds from an urban environment but don't replace them with anything else.
We said they they might as well keep the weeds, so that at least something is growing.
We also talked about the weeds being relentless and growing in bizarre places.
Noticing the unnoticed :)
Where the event would take place was also on everyone's mind.
There are a lot of places in Manchester that are unused, where buildings have been knocked down and nothing erected in its place.
We decided that we would go out and photograph these places, to get more of an idea of what was realistically possible, and also to start noticing the unnoticed around Manchester.
I decided to do this on my own, because I thought that if the group went out together then it would take a lot longer, than if we went out separately or in smaller groups. I also thought that I might notice something different to what others noticed and vice versa.
There is a patch of land on Whitworth street that looks very abandoned. There are weeds growing amongst the cracks in the cement, and there are no immediate plans for the land to be developed. I thought that this would be a good area to host part of the event, as it it close to parking and access to it is easy. Being close to the city centre makes it quite appealing and it is a large area of land.
I thought of the idea of having the design festival, or part of it, in a car park. I'm not too sure how viable the idea would be, as it would be taking up space people need to park in in order to visit the festival. This could be a catch twenty two situation.
They are all over the place though!
With this car park, I thought it was interesting that there are trees surrounding it. This then got me noticing how green Manchester actually is. Considering it is a very built up area, there seems to be greenery almost everywhere you look.
mini garden
The idea of part of the design festival actually inside unused buildings would be quite interesting, because it would show that these buildings can be used for something, instead of being left to rot.
At this stage I think it's important to remember that we are pitching to the council at the end of the project, and I don't think they would be very happy if we said that they weren't doing a good job with making Manchester green, because they are.
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