What Does Manchester Mean to Us? Prior to Tutorial meeting.

This morning I met with fellow unit x group member Aine in the Interactive Arts studio to discuss our first initial ideas of Manchester. From the off, our views of the city were different. Aine has lived here her entire life, therefore knowing a lot about the places in Greater Manchester and the city's history. I on the other hand had never really been interested in the city until applying for UNI. Even after being here for almost two years, I still manage to find new places to explore- still finding great excitement and appreciation for Manchester around every corner. We spoke a little about appreciation for the city- whether living in a certain place can devalue our views. 

After a few days to collect our own research into Manchester, a small group of us met to discuss our ideas before tomorrow's tutorial:

RECYCLING: The idea of waste in the city. 'waste not want not'. lack of recycling in comparison to where I live. 'make do and mend' lifestyles. upcycling.
LIFE HACKS: how technology can be used to make our lives easier.
NORTHERN QUARTER: seen as the arty, hipster place in manchester. in reality, run down, derelict buildings. forgotten spaces. beauty through street art, stickering, bars, independent chain shops.
FORGOTTEN SPACES: where is the green space? no where to sit and enjoy the art work/ passing by of the city. could we make space? media city waste land. Mancunian way: graffiti/ no lighting
POSITIVE ASPECTS OF MANCHESTER: the new library. frequent transport links.
WEEDS: negative connotations yet in fact beautiful in there own right. dandelions eg. bring colour to the city.
PHYSICALITY VS. VIRTUALITY: social media playing a part for the design festival. instagram. twitter. lomography wall. virtual collages.
TECHNOLOGY: technology in control of human lifestyles. instead give control to nature.
NEGATIVES TO POSITIVES: making the unnoticeable, noticeable. change existing things, not creating new.

'designers are not just problem solvers, they are problem revealers too' 

Occupy Design, London Design Festival 2013.

3D Printing: The Next Industrial Revolution?

Tomorrow we are having a discussion entitled '3D printing: the next industrial revolution?'. Prior to this meeting I have been researching into 3D printing- what's out there, where it came from, what it's used for etc. and quite frankly, I am terrified of the technology.

FASHION. HOUSES. GUNS. RAW MEAT. TECHNOLOGY IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD.

3D printing is not a new technology- created in 1986 by Chuck Hull- it is, like many things in the past, becoming the new 'must-have' craze. 3D printing makes it possible for you to take a computer-aided design and print it as a solid, physical object. It is a technology that is empowering a generation of artists, designers and engineers to turn their ideas into reality- but is this a good thing?

Typing '3D printing' into Google; at my leisure I am able to scroll through pages upon pages of what appears to be utter crap created by this upcoming technology. I feel 3D printers will be the same as any other past fad: they will become popular, everyone will have to have one and then suddenly something new and exciting will be released and nobody will remember why they chose to idolise such a craze in the first place. Nonetheless, researching further into the technology, past the plastic action figures and fun novelties, it's both fascinating and shocking to see some of the objects that have been created/ in the process of becoming a reality;

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IMPLEMENTATION: Using bio-printing technology to generate functional tissues- human organ, tissue and bone replacements. Eric Moger is an extraordinary example of the use of this technology. After battling cancer Eric lost part of his facial structure, surgeons used 3D printing to construct a prothesis for the left side of his face. The technology could be used to save lives and ultimately lower healthcare costs. 'print your own body parts' ... but is this right?
Read more about Eric Moger's story here
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GUNS&WEAPONS: The STL plans for a plastic handgun were downloaded over 100,000 times in two days, having to be removed from the internet.  Although the printing doesn't produce an actual working specimen straight away, one man was able to successfully design, print and fire the gun, causing a widespread pandemic over safety issues. Also, development of materials has started, moving from plastic to metal. Knowing that anybody would be able to produce these weapons quickly and cheaply is a terrifying thought.
Read about the terrifying first plastic gun shot
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3D HOUSES: Dutch architects are beginning the crazy process of creating an all 3D-printed house... "With 3D-printing, there is zero waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. This could revolutionsie how we make our cities"

3D houses, the next big craze? Read here 

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Design Festivals

Neil Harbisson

http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color/transcript

Jim Bond Lecture

http://www.jimbond.co.uk

Jamie Chalmers/Mr X Stitch Lecture

http://www.mrxstitch.com

College Three Brief Decisions

PROJECT OPTION 1: 'CENTRE FOR THE IMAGINATION'

Collaboration opportunity with Manchester Art Gallery. Taking inspiration from alongside exhibiting artist, Ryan Gander, the programme will consist of 'engagement events that aim to set the public's imagination free'. With this option we'd have the opportunity to work with children, creating suitable activities to be ran as workshops at the art gallery, and as an alternative summer school programme. 

PROJECT OPTION 2: 'MANCHESTER DESIGN FESTIVAL'

The brief is to design a design festival to take place in Manchester, taking inspiration from international examples such as Milan and Stockholm. This brief will be based around a blue sky thinking concept, anything is possible. process, not product. Overall the outcome will be to both present the groups ideas to members of Manchester City Council & City Co. and also create an exhibition to showcase our ideas.

It was difficult choosing on the spot which brief I wanted to pursue, especially taking in so much information in a short space of time. Both briefs sounded interesting, it was more a case of which did I feel more suited to. I know that I do not want a career working with children, therefore deciding that project option 1 probably wasn't right for me. In comparison, I feel that it will be interesting to learn more about 'design' rather than my usual textiles preferences, expanding my appreciation of the art world.

Brendan Dawes Lecture

http://brendandawes.com

"could try harder" drilled into him/ school reports. home.
button pusher. mentally and physically. collector, loved to read coding books.

failure, mistakes, output defines his practice. NOT specialism/ generalism . SERENDIPITY.

whats the point? no end goal. to have fun. process not outcome.
- own your difference. get lost in trying to copy everyone. make shit.
- build up networks. relationships, expand as a product.

THE HAPPINESS MACHINE.
use network.
VIDEO.

lovely. interactive. sense of connection.

Blue Sky Thinking Manifesto Workshop

Our second meeting for the Blue Sky Thinking unit took to the form of a manifesto workshop.

We began with a group discussion as to what we thought a manifesto consisted of, our overall defining terms: formal proposal/ outline of aims for the future. beliefs and what you stand for. documentation of what you're about. political and artistic.

noun

a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

synonyms:

policy statement, platform, programme, declaration, proclamation, pronouncement, announcement, publication, notification;

After looking at a range of examples we put ourselves into groups and attempted to write our own. In a group with Cat, Aine and Natalie, we began by expressing what it was that bothered us, that we could potentially write about. Quickly the conversation turned to our own practice, and Natalie bought up the act of MISTAKES and how they are always thought of as a negative, when really they can be as equally rewarding as a planned idea. Making mistakes should be seen as a way to develop and expand on your practice. I felt this to be an interesting starting point, as I myself know from previous unit feedback and experimentations that the issue of being afraid to make mistakes should be seen as a positive.

noun 1. an act or judgement that is misguided or wrong.

synonyms:

error, fault, inaccuracy, omission, slip, blunder, ,misunderstanding, flaw, oversight, misinterpretation, misconception. -something, especially a word, figure, or fact, which is not correct; an inaccuracy.

verb 1. be wrong about.

From it's dictionary, the art of the mistake is portrayed as a negative; we therefore decided to create our own definition. I am a great believer of fate and serendipity (the art of a happy accident) and contributed that this was my interpretation of a mistake with positive outcomes- deciding that this would be the basis of our new definition. Visually, we wanted to interpret the dictionary layout, instead of creating lists of aims like the standard manifesto layout. 

MISTAKE
noun
1. A serendipitous outcome that is essential in the art practice.
- see Serendipity
synonyms: happy accident, positive outcome

Sally Denton: Trend Boutique

http://www.thetrendboutique.co.uk

Narrow-mindedly I had always associated 'trends' solemnly in relation to the fashion industry, not really sure what a trend was, where they came from and why we follow them, so this afternoon has been both refreshing and an eye-opening experience into the subject. As we only had a short amount of time with Sally, She focused on explaining the different trends, and then the top five macro trends in the fashion movement; past, present and future.

noun

plural noun: trends

1. 1.

   a general direction in which something is developing or changing.

   "an upward trend in sales and profit margins"

   synonyms:

   tendency, movement, drift, swing, shift, course, current, run, direction,inclination, leaning;

2. 2.

   a fashion.

   "the latest trends in modern dance"

   synonyms:

   fashion, vogue, style, mode, craze, mania, rage;

 Trend forecasting is used to pinpoint news that people don't yet recognise; it controls our dress and our viewpoints. There are three kinds of trends;

MACRO. show the movement in society, influences, always in the industry.
MICRO. come and go dependent on macro trends.
TRANSITIONAL. looking at colours, fabric swatches.

five key macro trends:

FUTURE SCIENCE:
art/ science split in terms of formula and facts. art as an experimental area. space. space travel. BLUE SKY THINKING PROCESS. 3D printing. technology has become tactile through touch & movement . SIXTH SENSE TECHNOLOGY

HUMAN 2.0:
black clothing trend. living until over 100. movement in technology.  "LESS IS A BORE, IT'S ABOUT HAVING MORE." a/w 2014 psychedelic patterns. DNA

GENERATION X.Y:
WOMEN VS. MEN: over sexualised women. nicki minaj. 'freedom' meaning how naked you can get. 1 in 3 women raped/beaten in life in Europe. metrosexual, male grooming. joey essex. MASC & FEM COMBINED. futuristic.

GLOBALISATION:
internationally designing. bric economy. brazil russia india china. level of poverty. stripping back. possessions and asthetics. RAW MATERIALS. graphine. lighter than air, 60x stronger than steel.

CREATE. CONSUME:
stereotyping. lifestyles (farmers- chickens, allotments etc). LIVING OFF MOVEMENT IN A SUSTAINABLE WAY- making furniture from bread/chocolate. embedding technology into plants, nature, chlorophyll. genetically modifying plants- instead of growing cotton to modify into lace- just grow the lace. use all of our resources, IRIS VAN HERPEN. patterns become redundant. textiles created with technology. video nano manufacturing and 4D printing.

Manifesto Research

Prior to our Manifesto Workshop next week, I have been looking into what is meant by 'manifesto' and some examples. statement of intent. group rules. political/ artistic declaration. ethics. beliefs and policies. professional. taken seriously.

I find the concept of the manifesto really interesting, and definitely a skill that I would like to incorporate into my own practice next year. 

The first written Manifesto 'The Futurist Manifesto', 1909: http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html

I have been looking in particular at artistic forms of manifestos, interested in both the written, and the layout of the pieces. The artistic manifesto gives room for the artist to express himself through words and design, a lot like how we are advised to write our creative CVs. 

Susie MacMurray

http://www.susie-macmurray.co.uk

'Echo' . Site specific installation, York St Marys 2006.
10,000 hairnets containing strands of used violin bow-hair.

From personal preference, I found Susie MacMurray's lecture the most inspiring as she is an artist that I use regularly in my research; comfortable and intrigued with her both site specific installations and concepts behind her work. 

materials used: fragility vs. structure. juxtaposition and m i s matching

metaphors linked to the body/ body form, for example washing-up gloves, dressmaking pins.

 also memory notation. nostalgic.

tries to use materials that have a connotation/ notion attached to them.

repetitive themes shown throughout her practice.

LARGE SCALE. repetition. out of real world, into fairytale.
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Key points that I have taken away from the lecture:

-Don't turn away opportunities based upon whether the criteria fits your style of work.

-Have a 'site' to work at. (the studio). 

Place to create a barrier between art and personal life, have to have the balance and relaxation.

-Collect stuff. You never know when you'll need it.

-Use drawing as a starting point. You need to be able to disconnect from reality- spark imagination.

I've also found MacMurray to be an interesting example for my contextualising practice essay.

(lateral use of the relationship between identity, body and dress.)

Collaborative Sandwich Workshop

"sitting on a small island, you will work with a table of strangers to make your ideal lunch. You are going to compose a lunch with different ingredients, negotiate and make decisions over textures, tastes and colours: sweet, savoury, sour, bitter, salty, umami, crunchy, gooey...
...Come and experience creating together in another form: food."

If I had told me I was going to be taking part in a workshop that involved making sandwiches at any other point of my degree course; I never would have believed it, but that's the beauty of unit x, always unpredictable.

Although thinking back to the session still makes me laugh, it was a really rewarding workshop. Put into an unknown situation; working with groups of students from a range of practices and levels meant that using communication skills was of vital importance. I really enjoy getting to know new people, so it comes as no shock that I threw myself into the leadership role. Organising ourselves and discussing our likes/ hates of foods showed group discussion and collaboration, which were equally as important during the 'construction' of our sandwiches (hilarious, I know).  After we had created our first sandwich, which was given to another table, we then had to create our own. Our group all agreed on the same ingredients, however we decided that instead of making a collaborative sandwich and sharing, we would use the same ingredients and see who could create the best masterpiece. Healthy competition is always good fun. 

Overall all this meant that we were able to use both our collaborative and individual approaches in this workshop, both of which I feel to be needed in the success of Unit X. 

Studio Manifold

http://www.studiomanifold.org

Studio Manifold are a group of nine designers & artists that decided to brave the London industry together after their graduations. Represented today by Zac Eastwood & Matt Raw; It was great to have a very open and honest insight into the challenges and successes of the art world.

 'manifold' came about via a group discussion. It literally means 'many fold'- underpinning their individual practices as a collective. Promoting themselves through a group identity proved more successful when in comparison to individual set ups, as people were intrigued to know how it worked.

working in a group: 

time. commitment. personal experience. knowledge. networks. tea and biscuits.

'Be courageous; go out & get what you want, don't wait for people' 

this message links nicely with the idea of Blue Sky Thinking. having the courage to be courageous.

STUDIO/WORK/LIFE BALANCE? Attempting to live off selling your work doesn't always happen the way you'd like it to (personal experiences). A job is needed, even if just part time, to keep a safety net of money coming in for rent and equipment costs. It is essential to get a job in something that you enjoy, eg. galleries, museums, assisting artists. It can be difficult to find a balance at first but if you want something to work, it will.

WHY LONDON? It's the location that pulled them together as a group in the first place. There's a higher ratio of people there, so is easier and quicker to promote work... 

To be successful there is ultimately no escaping London.

BEST WAY TO START OUT? Learn as you develop. Say yes to everything until you have enough money to say no. Be approachable but also put yourself out there. enter competitions. social media awareness. website. craft fairs.

WORKING IN A GROUP? Sometimes it can be really difficult; it's best to pick your fights. Leadership roles emerge over time. You have to stand for what you believe in. On a positive, nine individuals means nine sets of networking contacts/ nine way rent and equipment split.

Unit X Blue Sky Thinking Unconference

I am going into this college with an open-mind, and the knowledge that this unit is going to challenge and push me as far out of my comfort zone as humanly possible.

We introduced ourselves to a mix of Multimedia, Fine Art and Interactive Arts students, alongside a handful of Tipsters. I am looking forward to the collaborations that may form through this unit, as being able to learn and progress through combined practices is something that I would like to be more involved in. Our course outline for the next two weeks appears exciting, filled with a variety of guest speakers and collaborative workshops. I intend to go to as many of these opportunities as possible in order to broaden my knowledge/ inspiration from a variety of practices, not just textiles, and also to meet new people from other courses in the art school.

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Our morning session involved taking part in an UNCONFERENCE.

noun: unconference; plural noun: unconferences

1. a loosely structured conference emphasizing the informal exchange of information and ideas between participants, rather than following a conventionally structured programme of events.
   
   

The idea was to create questions for discussion, pinning these questions onto the walls of the Grosvenor building, and then as individuals or groups, answer and discuss. I purposely placed myself into a group of both interactive arts and illustration students- it was a great way to communicate, and begin to learn about different courses and the ways in which they work, rather than being confined to the textiles practice. It proved a very rewarding afternoon, opened mind to a world of possibilities.

Unconference discussion posters and engagement

Key areas that we have touched upon this afternoon include;

- Our understanding of the term 'blue sky thinking' and the consequences of living by this lifestyle
- The boundaries between the human body and technology
- The importance of creativity
- A discussion as to which is more important in making- the process or the outcome

The main result taken away from this session has been understanding the term 'blue sky thinking';
positive based thinking. pushing past the norm and developing ideas/ opinions that we strongly appreciate. THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. looking at different perspectives. limitless. no boundaries. having the courage to be curious. SERENDIPITY.

It has been really interesting to expand the ways in which we think about everyday scenarios and questions this morning. I find it really rewarding to socialise and network within the School of Art, and I am looking forward to the continuation of doing so next week in our manifesto workshop.