I attended a talk at the Chapter Arts Centre last night to listen an artist (Alistair of The WITH Collective) and a psychologist (Dr Christopher French of Goldsmiths) discuss the definition and formation of false memories. See below for visual notes from the talk – you can click the images to view them bigger on my Flickr page.
Posted in graphic recording
Tagged memory, notetaking, practice, psychology, visualisation
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to take part in a workshop organised by the Eco Design Centre and Llamau, a charity working with young homeless people in Wales. For some time now Llamau have been helping young people set up social enterprises and the idea of the workshop was to explore what design can do to help this process and give more confidence and focus for the young people to start making things happen.
My role was to harvest emerging ideas and highlight underlying meaning via graphic recording, a process that took place alongside the workshop activities. It never stops amazing me how effectively visualisation can clarify information in context and inspire deeper thought processes for people when they can see the big picture unravel. I also enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with Nathan Hallett, an illustrator with plenty of insight and humour in his expression.
It was fantastic to be involved in a workshop with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration between designers, facilitators, consultants, researchers, youth workers, and of course the young people themselves. I was impressed and inspired by the energy in the workshop and hope these social enterprises have some more ideas and tools to help them on their way.
For more photos from the day, visit the Eco Design Centre Flickr page
Posted in creative projects, work
Tagged collaboration, graphic recording, illustration, social enterprise, visualisation, workshop
I came across this lovely animated video about language and translation for a new book called “Is That a Fish in Your Ear?” by David Bello. I love pieces like this which combine language and typography into a potent message.
As a Finnish person living in Wales, I have experienced an interesting environment of languages over the last eight years: English used and heard on a daily basis, Welsh seen and heard often, and other languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Chinese heard in student areas and areas with bigger ethnic populations. And of course my native tongue Finnish used by me on erratic intervals either in speech or inside my head.
I love the part in the video where they show the “lack” of right and left for the Aborigine people of Australia. It made me think of different concepts or hard to translate words between Finnish and English – here is a classic example:
sisu
“strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity”
“defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds”
karhu / otso / nalle / mesikämmen…
… plus a few hundred more words for a ‘bear’. This is a good example of language expressing the priorities and deep significance in a culture: bear is the national animal of Finland and can be traced back many placenames, old myths and bear worshipping.
After many years abroad I experience interesting conflicts and gaps in Finnish and English. Mainly it’s Finnish that is problematic as I have started to forget vocabulary and caught myself struggling to find the word even if it’s just an internal conversation. The other occurrence is when I simply cannot find a suitable translation for a Finnish word in a conversation. So it seems that recalling Finnish words is unreliable and unexpected at most times, although I do not see this purely as a bad thing: it really makes me think about the meaning and subtle nuances of words and communication on a daily basis.
Last Saturday (7th May) me and Emily of Mindful Maps co-facilitated an experiential map of Brixton Village market as part of a Treasure Hunt for the Transeuropa festival.
Our aim was to engage people to first of all reflect on their experiences of the market and then record them in writing or drawing. As guidance we provided a framework of words and phrases that people could draw on:
Some of the above became categories we colour coded the experiences with – each experience tag had one or more colours representing the experience on the map.
This post compiles the data collected with some feedback and evaluation – if you wish to read more and see more photos, please check out blog post by Mindful Maps.
Out of 41 recorded entries, 26 people mentioned an emotion they experienced.
What kind of sensory experiences did they have?
Out of 41 recorded entries, 15 people mentioned a sensory experience.
What about the combinations?
Interestingly, there were a variety of combinations.
What other themes emerged?
Food was mentioned the most, and a variety of other perhaps more conceptual themes came up at an equal level.
We will be looking at feedback and evaluation of the project in the near future – the mapping process could be used flexibly to explore a multitude of topics in different scenarios.
Posted in creative projects
Tagged collaboration, creative, facilitation, mapping, public, social design
I spent a few hours today drawing window graphics for the ARK Cycling Consultation shop on Queen Street, Cardiff. Cardiff Council asked ARK to help with the public consultation process for improving the Cardiff Cycle Network.
The shop features and interactive survey (which you can also fill online here – but it’s much more fun in the shop!) and events like Dr Bike maintenance workshop and bike accessories making workshops.
Interested in having a say about the future of cycling in Cardiff? Visit the shop at 105-107 Queen Street (the old Lobster Bob shop opposite Capitol Centre) this Thursday 21 October or Saturday 23 October. I’ll be there all day Saturday to take people through the questions and have fun whilst doing so 
More info: http://www.ark-lab.co.uk/survey
Posted in creative projects, work
Tagged ARK, cycling, drawing, illustration, social design, work
Last Friday I had a chance to visit London Design Festival and after last year’s good timing and awesome events my expectations were rather high. And truthfully, this time was different: horrible weather, bad ankle resulting in limping, and not many great inspirational moments.
I don’t wish to go on about everything I saw, but to pick out some of the memorable bits (you can also check more photos on my Flickr page):
A dark room with cabinets displaying objects, all pure white. Next to the cabinets, stories related to the objects building a saga of a fictional mixed background family. (I Cling to Virtue at V&A)
Miniature design doll house, magical, it can hold your gaze for hours.
The printed guide had no maps! You can stuff pages with advertising but not bother with a map. Pffft.
Stumbling through a door way into Anti Design Festival headquarters, and managing to get a free ticket to the afternoon talk Renewal & Strategy to Destroy and Rebuild featuring designer celebrities and their pals and some interesting artists.
“There’s no such thing as grown ups, we’re just winging it because we have to.”
- Gerald Laing
Adrian Shaugnessy getting excited about magical Wales and praising young designers’ will to do social design projects instead of clamoring to be the next Neville Brody…
Shaugnessy’s realistic insights – we all need to make a living but it’s not an excuse to do something different either.
Peter Kennard’s vivid reminders of the simple power of image. His Cafe of Equivalents is a truly inspiring project: it made people rethink the value of money and the value of their earnings, and provided a space for discussion. A project worth looking up.
“The middle is not a great place to be” – Stuart Semple on the danger of the homogeneous middle
Barnbrook’s shifty nature not being allowed to talk about his work – felt like he was talking to students – again.
Brody being ripped into with criticism about “all talk no action plan” by a gentleman, watching Brody slither around responses.
Anti Design Festival space showing work by maestros and students alike, side by side on the walls without captions – interesting.
Hel Yes! warehouse converted into a hangout/ café/ restaurant/ discussion space, Finnish brunch to warm my soul, free coffee, use of wood branches to create tables connecting us back into nature.
Ok Do! talk Borderlands highlighting increased collaboration with co-creators and resource providers. “Friendship as an important catalyst for collaboration” – still resonates strongly within me, like a warm fuzzy feeling that tells me there is truth in those words.
Spotting parallels and common themes that have been popping up in recent workshops and events I have attended:
That’s it folks, tried to keep this short and hopefully shared some interesting observations. Please do share comments and thoughts.
Posted in exhibitions & visits
Tagged change, creative space, design, exhibition, future of design, intervention, society, thinking
Not far to the portal… adventures await.
Today I took part in a Sustainability Action Planning Workshop organised by Forum for the Future, held at the Watershed in Bristol. The aim of the workshop was to get together a wide range of professionals from the creative industries to discuss future scenarios, their implications and our roles in them. It was interesting to meet different types of creative people and the discussions were thoughtful – however I left with mixed feelings.
I was reading the four different uncertain scenarios (uncertain because we don’t really know what will come our way) in preparation for the event on Monday evening and had contradicting feelings about the whole thing. The scenarios, impressive as they were with the depth of detail, had familiar and plausible elements but at the same time they were quite far out there, hard to connect to. At the workshop we were working in groups discussing possible upcoming challenges and opportunities and what action we could take to help positive change. Some persistent red threads came through – need for collaboration, networks, knowledge sharing, openness and transparency, bringing design thinking into business and decision making as an integral part of the process, need for champions who can reach out to educate our industry of actions anyone can take to help combat things like climate change and its repercussions… the list is actually longer than I thought!
As it can be with these “visionary” workshops, the discussion often veered off the focus at hand (building concrete short term and long term actions) and the aims and rules of how to go about the group setting could have been defined clearer. Not that the activity was without benefit, but the results could have been more fruitful and innovative if openness and playfulness would have been encouraged and guided by the facilitators.
So as not to sound like dry critic, I’d like to say that the process we went through today has made me think a lot about both useful ways of engaging with people in workshop scenarios and also about my actions. What can I do to help change happen to tackle climate change and bring sustainability into my working process and workplace? Change is coming on one level or another and I know it can be viewed as a positive thing instead of a negative threat. I’d like to bring a feet-on-the-ground ethical set of values to my work – embracing sustainability in the way I work but also assessing it for the clients I work with. If this could be part of the setting from the start, everyone involved would be aware of it. I’d like to think this would be viewed as responsible thinking and efficient action, all still making business sense as well.
Other actions are already taking place working with ARK – planning projects for social design, tackling local issues and hopefully prototyping ways of collaboration and codesign.
I hope other participants left with some thoughts on their mind rather than indifferent feelings – reaction is always a sign of engagement, be it good or bad.
Posted in change
Tagged collaboration, creative industry, future, knowledge sharing, workshop
The last few weeks have been abundant with new connections and inspiration born out of a collaborative process. I went along to the weekly meet ups with ARK, a social design group based in Cardiff. I had followed their activities in the digital realm for a while and wanted to see what the real environment was like.
I was pleasantly surprised – I had my initial doubts but they were washed away by a shared openhearted approach which spun conversations along. It didn’t take long for me to be engrossed in discussions on social implications design and sharing experiences.
I ended up becoming involved in their Empty Shops project that took place at Castle Arcade last weekend involving three days of multiple ways of participation, mapping and entertainment.
My particular interest was in facilitating and mapping for Friday’s workshop, Imagining Cardiff. Participants from the council and local community and voluntary groups were invited to come along to codesign a vision for a Cardiff in 2020.
It was such fun – we had icebreaker exercises and then brainstorming ideas for projects which would enable that future vision to come true. I personally found the results exhilarating – so many positive and engaging ideas that could be made into reality (some of them are being done elsewhere in the country or in the wider world).
Community workshop (photo by Simon O'Rafferty)
We also hosted a business workshop for the business owners in the arcades. For this we first showed vox pops, then a presentation on social design and then the participants came over to my corner to do some collaborative ideation on how things could be made better. The thing is, there’s no use hosting occasions for negative remarks – a positive outlook and nudging results in positive and engaging ideas. I think we did well and started a process, a spark for the people whose livelihoods depend on the arcades. And, this is not a one off thing either – as we ended the session, we asked the shopkeepers to spread the word about these ideas, and we pledged to meet in a month’s time to see how we can help them develop their ideas into action.
Prior to the workshops I had ideas and theories and fluffy (but positive) feelings of how these workshops would work and what kind of beneficial results we could see afterwards. The experience proved my hunches were right: a genuine, flexible setting for a collaborative workshop in designers facilitate, not determine the process and outcome, is a tool for positive engagement and creating connections both between people and between ideas and concepts. We will continue to develop these processes and the continuation from here onward but the initial feel is there: I think we really started something.
ARK blog: http://thinkark.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @thinkark
Empty Shops Twitter feed: @ARKEmptyShops
Or come and meet the people in person – ARK come together every Wednesday at 7pm at the Cardiff Arts Institute. Come and say hello!
Posted in creative projects
Tagged ARK, codesign, collaboration, creative, facilitation, mapping, social design
In February I was asked to design the programme for Do I have to paint you a picture?, an international Polaroid exhibition and symposium. The brainchild of photographer Sam Perry, the exhibition and symposium had a good timing now that theoriginal Polaroid film is no longer being manufactured.*
This was one of those projects I can honestly say I enjoyed working on very much. Our meetings took place in a relaxed but productive atmosphere at an arts centre café/bar, usually over a coffee or a glass of wine. We had great conversations about the meaning of Polaroid and its unfortunate demise – and this shared interest formed the foundation for a good client-designer relationship. I actually saw myself as more of a consultant, advisor and collaborator in this project, which made the project run smoothly and the client feel more at ease. The more I work on freelance projects directly with a client, the I more I realise the importance of really listening to your client.
It was fantastic to take part in the symposium, listen to some inspiring talks by Polaroid photographer artists, researchers and journalists, and feel the shared connection in the space. Mark Arkless, a Welsh photographer with a passion for Polaroid, mentioned how the slowly disappearing Polaroid film stock has forced many photographers slow down and think through their process a bit more – the opposite of the effects of digital photography. He also talked about the preciousness and physical nature of Polaroids and how for him the colour variations of the classic SX-70 film express the Welsh concept of hiraeth, a kind of a deep longing for home. A real sense of ownership, care and curiosity was present both in the words of the speakers and the questions of the audience.
I agree with many who say Polaroids work best when they document everyday moments. The unexpected blurs, colour shifts and hues almost mimic the way our memory works – it’s not quite sharp in places and the tone of memories can change over time. For me it’s the size and weight of a Polaroid that makes the physical snapshot of a moment so much more precious – it becomes an object of desire.
