Project Evaluation

Void

This project has come together to create an alternative layer to a Manchester Design Festival reflecting our ideas as a group concerning sensory interference and interpretation. As a group we have worked well discussing and generating our thoughts and ideas, and supporting each other in every element of the Festival in terms of promotion, spaces and making. I have particularly found working in a group beneficial, it has been a good way to share research and expand your knowledge on a subject we have all been passionate about.
We found it was best spending as much time together in the studio as we possibly could, it gave us time to reflect on our thoughts and for us all to have so kind of input with the experiments carried out. When decisions were made we made them as a group and took everyone's opinions into consideration and I believe that this was why our group functioned together so well.
Although there were points that either experiments didn't quite work or not all of the group were able to meet, however these obstacles were all part of learning as a group and the things that didn't work out became parts of the project we could reflect on positively and fins alternative ways of using the process. As a group we kept each other updated with our ideas through the social network page we created for our group, on here we could discuss our thoughts and it became a good way of organizing ourselves.
The research carried out within this project has been of great interest to me and I intend to further my research into the subject of sensory interference. I have found working in a group a challenging way of learning and working however working with likeminded people has been an inspiring and positive experience, it has encouraged me to think about other peoples thought processes and ways of approaching their work, certain elements I think are things I can incorporate in approaching my own work.

Group 3 Final Manifesto

Void

 An alternative layer to a Manchester Design Festival.

Working alongside a daytime festival, VOID is a design festival taking part at night. Creating an alternate Manchester within the darkness.

VOID will not promote specific events or reveal content prior to the start of the festival. But rather, reveal snapshots of what might be to come, through promotional material. Working with the idea that VOID will seem like an empty blank space until the night reveals all.

VOID is concerned with regeneration of non-spaces within Manchester through the experience of the people rather than tangible redevelopment.

VOID considers intangible design through sensory experience and interaction rather than design of commodity or product.

Exploring the limits of what can be experienced through the heightening of senses. VOID creats a space detached from everyday distractions and allows the audience to simply experience their senses. Encouraging interaction with each other but also creating areas for sole reflection.

We are VOID. A night time design festival.

Not reflecting on the past or concerning the future but experiencing the now.

Interactive video

Projection of Tom's promotional video onto Ursula's mouldable stitched form. The idea for the audience to interact moulding the fabric into different shapes, moving the light around the wall.

Interviews

As part of our research we discussed the idea of interviewing a series of people that focus their practices on the effects of the senses. We didn't ask particularly specific questions, the idea was to get an overview of certain elements they considered as part of their way of working and thinking. I was part of assisting with two of the interviews, one for which we interviewed my friend Jensen Brite a Sound Designer and Music student from Salford University. Some of what he talked about concerned how vision is our primary sense and it allows us to see things in order to interpret them and understand what they represent. Also how sound is an instantaneous thing, and we use sound to rectify and understand what vision presents with us.
The second interview was with Collectives and Curiosities, a collaborative group of musicians that put much emphasis on the importance of integrating across the art forms and have done many collaborative projects. One of which took place at Blank Space Media Collective relatively recently, this exhibition incorporated ideas concerning light sensitive sounds. Some of the points discussed by Michael Betteridge and Jacob Thompson Bell were about passive and active listening, and how you can sit an listen to something your not really listening to, you let it wash over you like an ambient thing or you can actively listen but your still sitting on your seat being an observer, an audience member rather than a component part of it, you don't even need to have an audience to have something performed. This is one of the main factors that concerns their work, that the audience must be involved and potentially become a part of the work.

Night Walk

As a group we decided it would be a good idea as our ideas were generally focused on events and happenings in darkness that we should go on a night walk around the city to familiarise ourselves with the spaces available to us. During the night time spaces and places appear somewhat different than they do during the day, darkness can make you question a place more, possibly confusing you to think how much you truly know that place.
The night walk was a really useful way to start generating our ideas, we took with us a section of objects to incorporate into the spaces such as glow sticks and bubbles. In the images I increased the exposure to reveal the markings made by the lights, revealing the light from dark. We also carried out an experiment using bubbles within the Cathedral Gardens fountain area, the bubbles reflected off the water creating streams of colours within the images. The use of the bubbles related well to the intangible ideas we had been thinking about.

Group 3 Manifesto

- playing with the elements of light.
-the effects of the senses during the night/ darkness
- making something that could encourage people to interact with one another (magnetic wristbands) and tracking devices.
- leading people by light.
- the idea of happenings, rather than having specific set events.
- Ghost spaces, thinking about intangible events.

 

Manifesto Words...

- Intangibility
- Senses
- Organic
- Spontaneity
... - The appeal of the unknown
- Interaction
- Creativity
- Growth and momentum
- Temporary
- Counter intuition



Group 3 Discussions

We formed into 3 separate groups, merging people from the previous groups of making, space and promotion. In our new group we found there was an underlying link between us all in the form of senses.
As a group we discussed our ideas surrounding the topic, mainly focusing on intangible elements. I explained the ideas I had been exploring in terms of concealing light (light pouches), and the idea of something concealed within the light and revealed in darkness.
There was much focus on sensory interference, and thinking of senses as something we are constantly surrounded by but go unconsciously unnoticed.
Possible ideas for the festival would be to have a constant flow of information and interactions, making people aware of the elements that constantly surround them but portraying this in an intriguing way.