Model of exhibition piece

David Graas

I first became aware of David Graas's work when I bought the book 1000 New Eco Designs, so when I was planning my exhibition I emailed him to ask for help, and I am extremely pleased to say he has agreed to help me with my wardrobe design for the exhibition.  

DRAFT Synopsis Submission

How can teenagers be encouraged to develop their personal identities through creative critical reflection?

My aim was to develop creative, positive and enjoyable workshops where young people can discuss society, culture, values, dreams and aspirations, engaging with their personal identities and role within their communities in a constructive way. 

The physical, psychological and social changes experienced by adolescents lead psychologists to regard adolescence as a critical period for self and identity development (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1987).  The Identi-tee workshops are designed to encourage young people to reflect on their sense of self and community, enabling them to become confident individuals and become responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. 

Although there has been some recent interest in the development of social identity (e.g., Bennett & Sani, 2004), most research has been conducted with children, and researchers have assumed adolescents to be equivalent to adults (Ruble et al., 2004; Sani & Bennett, 2004). 

Personal wellbeing is a non-statutory part of the National Curriculum for 11-16 years olds, including elements such as personal identity, healthy lifestyles, relationships and diversity: key to helping young people develop their identities, feel confident, embrace change, recognize and manage risk, take responsibility for themselves and contribute in a positive nature to their communities. 

Dewey (1933) talked about the value of critical reflection in education: it ‘gives attention to one’s experiences and behaviours, and meanings are interpreted from them to inform future decision-making… reflective action is an extremely useful tool for addressing social and emotional issues, especially those relating to race and culture’. 

Identi-tee explores how creative critical reflection can be used in contemporary society to help teenagers build an awareness of self and identity in relation to both their culture and their community, in turn it looks at ways for teenagers and their communities to work collectively to produce work that reflects their experiences and the places they live. 

During the workshops, young people collaborate to discuss themselves, their relationship, their society and their environment, and how all these components affect sense of self.  The key themes of personal wellbeing are developed and explored through creativity and reflection:

CREATIVITY Producing artefacts, experimenting with ideas, materials, tools and techniques, taking risks and learning from mistakes.

REFLECTION Exploring the visual, tactile and other sensory qualities of their own and others’ work, identifying how values and meanings are conveyed, developing views and expressing reasoned judgment, analysing and reflecting on their work and the work of others.

(The results of the above interactions have been noted in my blog and can be seen in my exhibition).

I hope that these workshops could lead to developments in the field of personal identity in adolescences, its importance, and change it from a non-statutory component of the national curriculum, leading to widespread use of the workshops in schools and youth groups.

Identi-tee is on going, there are further workshops in 2012, using drama, singing and dance to aid critical reflection, as well as workshops on other key topics, such as relationships or diversity. 

During my research I have become extremely passionate about helping young people who have suffered homelessness.  Homelessness poses a real risk to identity, the social stigma and negative status associated with being homeless combined with 'hearthlessness', leads to a lack of attachment to and identification with temporary accommodation.  Emotional attachment to, and identification with, places is key to psychological health. Feelings of isolation, rejection and alienation is extremely common with homeless people, these in turn can lead to psychological problems in relation to identity.  Another key issue is having somewhere 'safe' for emotions and thoughts, without this 'psychological space' a person can become emotionally withdrawn and lock emotions away.  I feel there is room to investigate this using a variety of exercises developed from my findings to date. 

My exhibition has been inspired by the Fluxus movement.   Maciunas defined Fluxus products as ‘work that would occur as a result of performance activities, or as elements of participation environments.’ This resonates with what I am trying to represent; I have filled drawers with objects that represent the different workshop exercises involved in Identi-tee, reminiscent of the Fluxkits in which Maciunas collected performance-related cards, games, and ideas.

Top Drawer

Today I went to a buyer's fair in Olympia called Top Drawer, I thought it would be a very different type of exhibition to visit as inspiration for the grad show. I really enjoyed it, firstly, some beautiful designs, graphically, some great new innovative products, and finally, I saw a number of interesting ways to display items. 

I am still really struggling on how I will visually display the workshop process and my iteration for the exhibition, and most of my ideas involve hanging installations from the ceiling, which will not be possible in a double-height space, which i think is what we have got!

I am going to start sketching up the ideas I have got though, and go from there, only a few more weeks and we will be able to see the amazing new space we will be exhibiting in. 

Press Coverage

120811
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/article-23977669-kings-cross-vs-bermondsey.do
ES Magazine - Richard Godwin
King's Cross vs Bermondsey - Where would you rather live?

Press Coverage

050811
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/aug/05/higher-education-director-enterprise-innovation
Guardian - Matthew Caines
Behind the job title: director of enterprise and innovation                   
Dani Salvadori, director of enterprise and innovation for Central Saint Martins College of Arts & Design, talks to Matthew Caines about generating income and business for higher education

Please drive slowly through our village

An exhibition at Fold in East London.

Artists - Dominic Beattie, Tom Dale, Annabel Elgar, Matt Golden, Angie Hicks, Sean Parfitt, Simon Willems.

A great event where I meet a number of interesting artists, creatives and curators. The exhibition was curated very simply with no labels, instead a little map of the room was provided with number for each of the installations and descriptions below.

The idea of the exhibition was to explore the representation of 'support' and 'structure' as a failed, dysfunctional and collapsible proposition. Working within a paradoxical remit, they share the need to suggest an unworkable solution.

Dimensionalising the workshops for the exhibition

2011 Grad Shows

Last night I went to the Private Views at Southampton Row, it was extremely busy, so difficult to see all the exhibits and really talk to the students, but it was very exciting and inspirational.  It was daunting to see exactly how much is still left for us to do to be at the point where we have a room full of people to see our exhibition, and such polished exhibits.  As my project looks at crafting I am worried that my exhibition may have a very kitchen table feel to it, which really is not what I want.  I would like to achieve a polished exhibit which communicates clearly and effectively how I engaged with young people to help them develop their personal identities through creative critical reflection.  It still all feels very far off, but it has definitely helped me keep up my momentum, I want to be one of the students that shines. 

Final display ideas...

I was thinking of vacuum packing each t-shirt to protect them physically and to represent the protection needed for fragile and developing identities.  Perhaps connect them together with the necessary nutritional inputs they need to develop like in hydroponic gardening. 

I also like the idea of using Luggage Tags with the details and descriptor of those that made the T-shirts. 

I have also been thinking about giving each participant a building block with a sticker on it so that they can annotate it about the experience of being involved in the Graffi-tee project. 

Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want

Today I went to the Tracey Emin retrospective at the Hayward Gallery and was pleasantly surprised.  A lot of it related to the journey I am on through MADS and with my personal artwork outside of this course.  Over the years I have collected a lot of work that could displayed in a similar way, I wouldn't necessarily say I was an artist, but I think all creative people collect, annotate and report on all aspects of their daily lives.  There weren't really any good examples I could use to demonstrate the dimensionalisation of my workshops. 

Tools to display your data visually

I have found a couple of ways to map research data visually. 

Gapminder
Google Fusion Tables

Data is Power

Went to a great talk this morning thanks to Claremont, a PR, social marketing and digital communications consultancy based in London

Simon Rogers of The Guardian was the key speaker, he is data journalists that uses the power of data, visualisations and the Internet to bring stories to life. The Guardian is now well known for providing the public with large mounts of data in a wonderful graphic form, and allowing people to drill down deeper into the detail if they wish.  He also explained how the readers themselves sometimes get involved in trawling through vast amounts of data.  

This was again another good occasion to think about how I represent and communicate the data from my research question.  He of course also mentioned the wonderful work of David McCandless.  

Information is beautiful

I found this wonderful book by David McCandless, who is responsible for some of the amazing viualisations of complex information in the Wellcome Collection exhibitions, his blog is also great.  I hope to use his work as inspiration when it comes to my exhibition to really ensure I can communicate complex ideas, facts and thoughts in a visual and simple way.

Maximising your MA Show

I found a great report today from Paul Glinkowski, CLIP/CETL Research Fellow at Wimbledon College of Art part of the University of the Arts London on the purposes served by MA Fine Art shows, the practices
followed in staging them, and their effectiveness in meeting audience needs, some good poitners for our exhibition. 

Clerkenwell Design Week

Last week Clerkenwell was buzzier than normal for their annual design week.  Filled with special attractions, activities and open studios as well as pop up shops and bars in the most unlikely of spots!

My favourite installation was the House of Detention.  An old Victorian prison where each dungeon was filled with a design exhibition.  The nature of the space meant that there were some extremely exciting ways of presenting artefacts and creating installations. I really enjoyed Bobby Petersen's Musical chairs, which allows people to sit together, talk and create their own instant and temporary musical piece. 

Sponsors at recent small exhibitions I have been to

I have been collating a list of possible sponsors by just logging the logos I have seen at small events:

Money, food and kind

London Development Agency

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Deutsche Bank

Arts Council England

Headley Trust

Garfield Weston Foundation

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

City Fringe Partnership

Goldsmiths' Company

John Lewis Partnership

Mark Leonard Trust

Radcliffe Trust

The Zetter Hotel

ERDF

The John Ellerman Foundation

The Tanner Trust

Barclays

Karen Millen

Lifeline IT

L’Oreal Professional

Mulberry

Renault

Rimmel London

Ty Nant

Metro Imaging

1883 magazine

Computer arts magazine

Aesthetica magazine

Dezeen magazine

Hiscox corporate

Conran Foundation

Dyson Foundation

FT Weekend

Homebase

Interbrand

Man Group plc Charitable Trust
Microsoft Research Labs
Royal Mail Philatelic Sector
Sir Jocelyn Stevens Fund
Valpak Ltd
Garfield Weston Foundation
Withers LLP
Matthews Wrightson Charity Trust

http://www.glyphics.co.uk/

Ocado

Sainsbury’s

http://www.chopscakes.co.uk/

Drink, shop, do

Interesting Website

http://www.artshole.co.uk/

Good for promoting work and exhibition...

Wall Decals

For any quotes or definiteions I may want in my exhibition:

http://www.trendystickers.co.uk/en/wallstickers/your_own_text/your_text_as_a_sticker/

http://www.wallwords.com/categories.asp

Exhibition display ideas

I have been thinking about how I would display my t-shirt artefacts at the exhibition.  I have always loved Susan Bradley's stiletto heel hooks...

But I would want to upcycle something to make my hooks, to stay in keeping with my crafting theme, so I thought about silver spoons, and then found this example...

I would also like to display not only my printed blog book, but some other research materials, so I thought about using these invisible shelves, people would be able to flick through the books and gallery leaflets, articles and reports I sued for my research themselves...

Also been thinking a lot about finding a quote about identity to have on the wall...