exhibition: 13-17th may

Student work from all 25 events is being exhibited at Cube (Portland Street), which opened on Thursday evening. Wish You Were Here showed t-shirts, postcards, photos and other items from their creative interventions. We even printed the blog out in full- it was 10m long and stretched over the entire room! It is only staying up until Monday so get down and check it out! Thank you to everyone involved!

wish you were here

Emily

swansong

At approximately 3 am we set off, hedge clippers in hand.
With perhaps not the stealthiest of wardrobe choices we started our intervention under cover of darkness (wearing our gleaming white 'ugly duckling' t-shirts)









After battling long and hard with the overgrown foliage (about 45 minutes) we came out triumphant, and settled down to a good 3 hours sleep before our presentation that morning.





Viewing our handywork later that day we were pleased to see the subtle outline of the arrow all the way from the 'manchester wheel', and many intrigued passers by.

hopefully our intervention made people look twice when walking past the river. Wether it is recognised as an important space that could give life back to the city only time can tell.


to be continued... (?)

A day at the beach...

A Day at the Beach

Friday finally came around, after gathering all beach essentials, Deck Chair, Parasol, Paddling pool and lots of sand we arrived at our site.

The site was just off Back Piccadilly, and located itself just opposite a row of bus stops.

We started laying down mats to cover in sand, to avoid tainting the site and allowing for easy removal. The deck chair was out and the beach was taking shape! There were many passers by who stopped to watch, looking very confused, especially as we were wearing sun visors, sunglasses and hula skirts!

Once the beach was set up we took to the streets promoting our beach and handing out flyers, this proved very successful as people who we had handed flyers to visited the beach hours later, which was quite encouraging for us!

So the day went on, and we had many visitors varying from business-men, builders, families etc. But despite this number, the majority of people that came, came to enquire what we were doing or just to look, there were few who actually stopped to sit.

The day came to an end and was successful. The beach created a destination to an ordinarily thoroughfare space, a space that exists simply as a platform for travel from Lever Street to Oldham Street, whilst putting a smile on everybody's face!

Wish you were here!

workshop 4: 10th may

Final day! The groups presented their projects, using a variety of media including photos, maps, videos and installations. All the interventions were demonstrated vibrantly and imaginatively.

feedback!

tommy.

workshop 3: 4th may

All the groups reported about their various consultation activities. They also demonstrated how they had selected a site. This was done as a short presentation by each group to wish you were here as a whole. Then discussions followed with the whole group on the form the interventions may take. Below is an overview of how each group is getting on.

Group 1 – Matt, Jo, Chuanhui, Pete
Site – Ancoats
Ideas – CCTV, public space not being used, figures acting out scenes, looking at animation and journeys to explain intervention.

Group 2 – Becky, Sarah, Cassie
Site – Piccadilly/ Back Piccadilly
Ideas – Manchester has everything apart from a beach, hosting a beach event in an alleyway, they've set up facebook group and event, why don't you join them, asking people to write postcards while at the beach...

Group 3 – Orlando, Tom, Huseyin
Site –Deansgate and Castlefield
Ideas – Empty shop fronts, livening area up, fairground activities, having activities for children, other groups not catered for in the area...

Group 4 – Jordan, Ama, Dael, Charlotte
Site – Northern Quarter
Ideas – confusing signs, getting people to see a different side to the area, maps as activities, picnic, tea...

Each group have to communicate their intervention next week using promotional material including films, posters and postcards and any other appropriate media.

wish you were here? we do!

Emily