Science Africa Unconference

Last month I was asked to scribe at Planet Earth Institute's Science Africa Unconference. The Planet Earth Institute is an international NGO and charity working for the ‘scientific independence of Africa’. They build their work around three pillars, of higher education, technological innovation and advocacy and policy. FutureGov ran a Simpl challenge asking guests to suggest possible ways of making Africa more scientifically independent. The day was a huge success with talks, workshops and a darn incredible African lunch (it's all about cassava chips). Nice perk of the job.

 

Another Sunday Gif Activity

So I have been getting pretty obsessed with hand-drawn animation lately. Yesterday we deemed it far to cold to venture out of the flat, and spent much of the day browsing Vimeo's Staff Picks section. [You really have to check out this and this]

Now, it's not that I'm obsessed with tea or anything...

This is an hour's work using just pen, paper and iphone- then chucked into Photoshop. Now I'm imagining an entire day and what we could do with it.

Sometimes it's helpful when it rains.

Happy Mother's Day!

This whiled away at least an hour of Sunday afternoon. Happy Mother's day!

Rushey Green Map Unveiling

Today was the unveiling of the Rushey Green community heritage map in Catford, South London. This project has been 6 months in the making, and seeing it finally in print was bloomin satisfying. Also, received first-ever bunch of flowers from the Mayor of Catford. So yeah, that was a double bonus.

This project couldn't really have been better suited to me- map drawing, community and historical geekery all rolled into one. It's an exercise in creating history visible in a way which is designed to reinforce a sense of local pride and identity.

The fine people at the Rushey Green Residents' Committee were the ones handing over the completed content this time around, but in future I think I might initiate the research myself. Gotta love archive snooping and interviewing history buffs.

Doiley!

Urban Chintz

So I've been thinking a lot about countryside artefacts, and thinking more about how it is that we've come to have images of pastoral landscapes and chocolate-box cottages engraved onto what remains of our national id.

I've also been thinking about what Oscar Wilde said about wallpaper (see this post from week one). And then looking at some of William Morris' designs for it. I recently happened upon the Guardian's Homes supplement part of the paper left on a bus seat which contained series of articles in which city homes and interiors sought to recreate the qualities on country living. It's interesting to me that we use these props as ways of borrowing what is essentially the facade of a particular lifestyle and displace it deliberately and obviously- all through a few bits of china.

We tie most of our associations of idealised country life into rural and natural imagery, and this is most often displayed on objects which are closely aligned with traditional social rituals and environments. Like tea-sets, for example.

As the population of rural England continues to grow, perhaps this traditional imagery can be subverted to represent a more realistic image of Britain: the urban landscape rather than the'cultural fiction' of the pastoral. By emulating the rose-tinted styling of china, wallpaper and chintz but with symbols of the city instead of the country, can I nurture a more idealised and romanticised view of urban Britain and help promote a more attainable way of life?

And then I got a little carried away and made a bit more...

I must admit, I really like the idea of turning the most florally-repugnant objects of the most elderly-relative variety into bad-ass 'urban chintz'. Potentially very amusing.

The hunt is on...

So... modelling week didn't quite happen...

It's been a weird week in which I have generally been procrastinating and desperately trying to avoid my project. Although I'm not quite sure why.

The reading is helping. Though every time I pick up a different book or magazine a million new avenues of exploration seem to open up and I find myself drowning in content.

My studio space is a hotch-potch of mini-projects I've been doing over this first half-term. These include:

• A briefing document
• A drawing source book
• A village tableau scene
• Several drawings of urban/rural fusion birdhouses
• A picture of a thatched flat-block
• Some laser-cut hand-illustrated sheep
• A Swallows and Amazons-esqe research trajectory map

There is a clear connection between all of these objects, but so far I have not quite pinned it down.

For this weeks' enterprise, I did a study of the iconography of English village signposts. I'm extremely interested in the imagery that communities use to identify themselves, and I'm sure I remember reading something by Viktor Papanek last year about the totems that Native American tribes used to rally around to enforce community bonds. (Note to self: look this up)

It was really interesting to see what kind of icons recurred: churches, animals, pastoral/natural images, local landmarks, historical heroes, crests, dates and local industry symbols all featured highly as symbols of specific locations. This has made me give a lot of thought to the nature of collective identity: shared memory, traditions, experience. How is it represented and reinforced by tangible imagery? Does it really strengthen community bonds as it did for the tribal Indians in old America? What if the urban villages of London had a greater sense of collective identity?

Could defining the identity of these areas in a similar way to small rural communities give the residents here a clearer sense of community?

Arts and Crafts day...

Seeing as it's image week and I'm doing a project about villages, I thought it might be sensible to actually go to one. So here I am, back on the sunny Norfolk/Suffolk divide in the heart of lovely rural East Anglia. Smell that Autumn air. And complain about the weather, because it's absolutely pissing it down. Not quite sure where to start, I went on an inspiration mission looking for images that might effectively 'capture the essence' of what the Villages project is all about. Seeing as I myself am not yet sure about this, I thought this could be a little bit of a struggle. Out on my little drive, one thought immediately struck me: the countryside ain't always quite as pretty as you expect...

But in general, the area does still come wrapped up in a chocolate-box bow. All over the place there are still signs for village fêtes and farm-shops, and the local paper shop is rammed with historical books about the area. These countryside folk really are happy to be so. I forget this sometimes now that I'm down in London nearly all year. The ideal of country living is alive and kicking. So, even if it's not always as pretty as we think it should be, the ethos lives on regardless.

My project has been very wrapped up in aesthetics so far. The images we rally around, the ones we hide behind, the ones we project in order to represent how truly lovely it is to be in the countryside. There's a simple and charming naïvity to it. And this was what I decided to try and capture.

I went on a little road-trip collecting photos with my shitty compact camera in the dismal weather, and successfully came back with a whole heap of examples of buildings found in typical rural idyll...

But the light was crap, and it got wetter and colder until I couldn't even be arsed getting out of the car. Feeling like a bit of a child I ventured to the local toy shop and bought a load of PVA, coloured card and crêpe paper, before buggering off home to a cup of tea, my mummy and some quality rainy-day activities...

I had the idea of like a nativity tableau... you know how they look like a proper three-dimensional scene but as soon as you move a bit you realise they're just flimsy bits of card and straw? The thought is sincere,but it's also a little naïve and idealistic- a bit of a fantasy, really. And their's no denying that although the final product may look pretty enough from the right angle, ultimately, it's only gonna fall over or get trodden on...

I had a lot of trouble getting a good shot. Lighting was hilarious. I think I must have had every single lamp in the house gathered around my desk. I've been using my Canon compact for everything, and as my parents are also techno-phobes their was no SLR or DSLR to be found. Sadly I have had to make do with my final photograph...

Yes, I am a child. A bad-at-photography child. But I had a very fun day.

(PS. Chris, does this constitute 'messy play'?)

Monday: Image Week

An amusing little assignment (*read, horrible stressful). We were told we had three hours to go away and write our 100 word statement for the final degree-show brochure, along with an image that 'captures the essence' of our final project. Shit.

The closest I've come so far to defining my project using an image is probably this one, so I decided to attempt to recreate it using photography as a medium. Instead of drawing more. Like I wanted to.

So I went on a mission to buy some straw to fashion a rudimentary thatched roof. The idea being, I could use perspective and a large aperture setting to make it look as though a new building had a picturesque, village-style quality to it. The idea being that I'm interested in the symbolism and objects associated with the British rural lifestyle.

So here it is: the roof.

...and this is it attached to a building. Oh dear. No amount of desaturation could save it.

...and so, with half an hour to spare, blind panic, a google search and only a black and white printer in the vicinity, this is what i end up.

-"so you copped-out and photo-shopped it?"

-"yes. yes I fucking did."