screen-printing workshop:29th april

Nell showing us how its done

We learnt a new skill yesterday - screen-printing - taught by the lovely Nell from the Manchester craft and design centre. The key was making a simple design into a good neat stencil. Then we used screens and squeegees to push paint through on to paper and t-shirts. All the designs were ace and some brilliant t-shirts made. I made many posters with “wish you were here” on, they’ll be going up around the school soon. Learning the process and making t-shirts moved everyone’s ideas on for their interventions. Thanks Nell!

Check out her lovely shop- its ace! http://www.nellclothing.co.uk/

Emily

Drawing up designs


Printing the first batch of t-shirts

The key was cutting a neat design to print through

Cutting a very intricate deign of some signs

wish you were here posters

making the t-shirts as a group

one of the final t-shirt designs

Mapping Perspectives of Manchester

During the course of the day willing particpants took part in the task to identify what emotions and feelings they had towards different areas in Manchester. This was to aid our decision of the location of our creative input to the city. The general feeling that came across as areas of enjoyment were in the heart of the city, where as areas to the north east were perceived as far more run down, dangerous and unsafe, as summarised in the diagram below.

Washing Line Effect: Response

After visiting town with washing line and images in hand, the feedback we recieved from the public, kindly stopping to help us with our intervention, was rather impressive. Quite a large percentage of the people stopping on their own accord were of the older generation, interested or possibly just being nosey as to what our line of images was about! Middle-ages males were the easiest to talk to and get useful information out of and eventually, younger females agreed to participate with our project. We analysed the responses with the intention of determining the site for our final intervention; the responses were as follows:

Security Worker, middle-aged male: "I would definitely change the space [Piccadilly Gardens] because of the dirty, high-rise buildings".

Retired, male O.A.P: "I love this image of a park with the river running through where all ages can relax in the summer and on nice weekends...I'd like to Piccadilly Gardens back to how it used to be".

Student, male: "It'd be great to see a nice, big TV area with places to relax, like the one near the wheel but more in the centre and more of a laid back atmosphere for people more my age".

Retired, female O.A.P: "Tennis courts would be a great addition to the centre, open to the public and free of charge, which would encourage a more active lifestyle...a leisure centre for students with a lot of it ourdoors".

Middle-aged male: "A big amusement park is lacking in Manchester! It'd make use of some of the wasted spaces and it'd bring some great fun into the centre".

Retired, female O.A.P: "Maybe some type of community-based projects occupying some of the unused spaces like in some of these images [image: wasteland on outskirts of the city]. I'd recommend brightening up some of these dark alleyways because women at night avoid them for safety...maybe paint the walls bright, playful colours or fit some bright lights there. I love the alleyway in the Northern Quarter covered overhead with the umbrella art".

Two male friends, middle-aged: "Unused spaces made into bridal, cycle or walking paths to make people feel safer".

Young female, student: "I once heard Manchester had everything but a beach, so why not bring a beach to Manchester centre!!".

Middle-aged male: "See all of these pigeons around here, they're everywhere. And we are lacking a good Manchester Zoo. It'd be a great attractive...maybe even a mini zoon...a Pigeon Zoo!".

Two friends, females: "Bring more 'real Manchester' back into the centre, like the Northern Quarter and Aflecks'...I'm not a fan of all these new, modern buildings. It's not what Manchester is about".

From analysing all this data, we felt it was best to look at the least used areas in Manchester, forgotten-about places or avoided places, and places where people may feel uncomfortable. These included areas such as alleyways that may look unsafe at a first glance, or bright, enclosed spaces that are wasted, inbetween high-rise buildings. We settled upon quite a main alleyway just off from Piccadilly Gardens where people would still be near, so it wouldn't be too much of an issue directing people to a random space. Our intervention would be aimed at attracting people to this space they'd usually overlook and provide them with an area that is enjoyable to be in and making them feel relaxed in their own city.

Hook a duck

When first given the assignment we immediately decided to distance ourselves from the typical clipboard and question affair, preferring to think of a way to draw the public towards us without the need to hassle and irritate. Looking at ways to interact with the public we came up with the idea of using the classic fairground 'duck and hook' game, with a few of our own additions to get the opinions and ideas we needed.

What better habitat for our ducks than the ubiquitous public fountain...

The names of 15 areas or places in Manchester were written on the bottom of the ducks, which then had to be hooked and sorted into piles of 'loved' or 'unloved' spaces. After the initial ice breaker we asked the players the reasons behind their choices and got them thinking about any spaces they felt needed a bit of love - our 'ugly ducklings'




Once we had enough information the ducks were left to be found by passers by, with the link to the blogspot marked in pen

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The Washing Line Effect

After we had been put into a group, we began to organise how to approach the public in order to find a site to use for our intervention.

Initially we were going to hand out compliments in a jar, similar to that which becky did in her first intervention. This however was left aside when we decided we needed something of a spectacle in order to capture the audience's eye. We wanted to draw people towards us rather than to hound them.


Having brainstormed more ideas we decided to make a 'washing line' of which we tied between two trees in Piccadilly Gardens. On the top line we paper-clipped a collection of good/bad/happy/sad/inviting/intimidating pictures of Manchester so that we could gain a reaction from the public. On the lower line we placed two signs at opposing ends... 'change me' and 'keep me.' The activity involved members of the public discussing the pictures we had provided and placing them in the category of their preference on the lower line.





Above is an example of the photographs we printed off for the line. In addition to this we also made small cards to hand out if the response was positive; this card included the blog address so that they could follow us if they wished to.








Feeling incredibly awkward when setting up the line, we were watched by passers by, onlookers and observers. Even a bin collector gave us a blank stare as we wrestled with the prevailing winds and the flapping pieces of paper. Eventually we were set up. And the success began :)





As the hour passed, we gained lots of positive feedback. We didn't have to approach many people as most came to us to be nosy. Many were intrigued by the photographs and the activity that they could take part in. We recorded the remarks into a separate book and will collaborate it with the washing line and results a bit later in the week.

We plan to analyse our results before the screen printing workshop which is to be held on Thursday.

We leave you with one of the most confident clients from Monday's task as he talks about some of the pictures on our washing line.

Sarah, Becky, Cassie

workshop 2: monday 26th april

in our second workshop we had a presentation by hannah wiles she showed us her site specific interventions in derelict buildings and public spaces. It was really interesting and relevant. Feeling inspired the students were put in groups and came up with creative innovative techniques to consult the public about where they'd like to see changes happen, and what interventions they would enjoy.

To follow will be images of these consultations which took place all over the fair city of manchester, so watch this space...

Emily

signs

Hi my names Huseyin. My intervention in Chatham looked at how people respond to and interact with signs.

My intervention involved changing the women's toilet signs in to the men's and vice-versa. This was to see if students who use these facilities on a daily basis would believe the signs they see, or believe themselves and their past experiences.

To do this I used sticker paper and copied the signs that were already used in Chatham to make it as believable as possible.


A Guy walks into the toilet only to find a woman already in there washing her hands. So decides to stand there until she finishes.


One girl is confident that this is the girl's toilet, the other, not so much.