Milan 4

Milan

Some more images, these below are form 'Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec' they brothers who design together and they have some interesting exhibition ideas.

.

These are the same guy's who did "Lit Clos" shown in a previous post. http://www.bouroullec.com/



Cake Stall

Here are some photographs of the recent cake stall we had at College, I think that about £150 was raised for the end of year exhibition. Cakes were cooked, Sue brought in her beautiful crockery, Viki organised a sale of bric a brac, and everyone sat around drinking tea and joyfully eating cake for the day, and for about a week after.


Tea party in miniature, ahhh.

Manifesto Piece

Creating a piece for the manifesto was fun, I wanted to do something which I felt would embody the idea of a manifesto. What made me decide to do the piece “Authenticity and Meaning” was a series of ideas that initially based on a lecture from Augustus Casely-Hayford, he said something about people searching for ‘authenticity and meaning’ in the world, and things around them, as though somehow this is an aspect of our lives that we loose through over- exposure to life and it’s objects.

I know that this is something that I experience, kind of loosing the thread. So I thought if I could ‘harness’ the idea of authenticity and meaning, then I would solve the problem, sort of new world order!! The other thing that he talked about was how the with the advent of the internet, our lives have changed and will continue to do so. With people living their lives vicariously through the internet, achieving both good and bad results.

So I had the phrase ‘authenticity and meaning’ and a computer, I wanted to portray this idea of suddenly understanding, which is why in the end I chose to use lights which would only appear when you typed in the keyboard.


Initially I wanted to do a wooden copy of my keyboard, because it’s really cool looking - and of course part of my mac. This would represent ‘good design’, but instead I ended up going for an old keyboard which could be dismantled and rewired (...!?..)

The words A&M link into my interest of language, and semiotics. For example going to the dictionary and looking up the word ‘meaning’, you come back with a definition, and then, putting ‘meaning’ into the thesaurus, you come up with a series of alternatives and of course they are all different, and change the way you can understand something.

And it is interesting because Heidegger said:

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_heidegger.html

Which means that when we think, the thoughts don’t magically attach words, the words magically attach thoughts. All very convoluted.

This is a piece by Robert Smithson, called ‘A Heap of Language’


'...it appears not as an objet d¹art but as a piece of "writing," occupying the same page as a text entitled: "Press Release / Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be Read"-a pairing also observed by Jack Flam's more recent edition of Smithson's "Collected Writings". Thus: depending on the frame or context one wants to bring to it, "A Heap of Language" can be viewed either as an artwork or as a wordwork, as an "essay" or an "illustration." Or as both, for Smithson¹s playful chiasma-"Language to be Looked at/Things to be Read"-asks us to engage in a crossover in which reading and looking, language and things dialectically reverse positions.'

‘A Heap of Language: Robert Smithson and American Hieroglyphic by Richard Sieburth, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, New York University ‘ http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/heap.htm

It is one of my favourite pieces because Robert Smithson has managed to express himself and his beliefs through his art, which must be the aim. As well as that I can really identify with the work because I feel that he has already said a lot of the things which I think and believe.

My sister got an Etch a Sketch for xmas off her husband because it was one of the toys she always remembered as a kid and we played on it, I think it reinforced my idea of using a computer to convey the message ‘A&M’


My final piece was made up of latex canvas, acrylic laser cut letters, metal, wood, light bulbs, keyboard and electricity. Making the words ‘pop out‘ was a big thing and which is why I decided to use the latex. The words were not spelt properly, to illustrate the ‘search‘.... for authenticity and meaning, as well as this although the keys of the keyboard would make the lights work, only a few of them did, and these were the letters which illuminated the piece; WHAT IS.

I especially liked the stretched canvas, and the letters popping out.


With the lights on

It was great fun using the lights in the work, making them key to the piece, so that they were integral in the understanding of it.

Writing the manfesto itself was also fun, but all I had was a scrappy bit of paper with ideas on it, which I couldn't seem to improve. So in the name of art I decided to exploit the fact, and below is the final draft:


Although I spoke about environmentally friendly design in my manifesto, I don't think that my piece necessarily fell into this category because the latex and the letters, are both made from plastic - so, I missed the point there a bit, but next time...

Winsford Salt Mine

This is a picture of the salt mines in Cheshire, you'd think with all this salt we would not need to get it shipped in from abroad. This mine is huge, the article says "Altogether the mines underground boulevards run to more than 138 miles and increase by 80 metres every week....Plotted on a rigid geometrical grid, they serve an underground area of more than 5 square miles"

This mine was once employed to provide salt which was dissolved into brine to preserve food, now the salt is used to fill the gritters for winter. There are no fossils in the mine because the sea which would have been there the same time as the salt was too salty for anything to live in.

Now the carved out space is used to contain all sorts of valuables and not so valuable, from unnamed paintings stored in hidden alleys to doctors notes, to government policies, through to embarrassing relics of our consumerist history, lots of left over indestructible's living their half life's isolation.

There is a company called deepstore http://www.deepstore.com/ which promise to deal with all your storage needs boasting of a climate controlled atmosphere, cost effective storage solution and endless space. It's a bit like one of those government bunkers you hear about hidden beneath the Thames. The author of the article says '"Weird" doesn't cover it. No 5 shaft, down which I am lowered 108 meters into Winsford salt mine standing on the rim of a skip, is an unlikely simulacrum for the back of a wardrobe, but you'd get no bigger shock if you stepped into a Narnia. It's like a journey into the imagination, a place of adventure where any Greek mythologist, never mind a bond script writer, would reach for is pen. You might find the minator down here or Ernst Starvo Blofeld."

All of the above info was taken from The Sunday Times Magazine 25.01.2009, Article: Investigation, Salt Mines

Milan 3

Milan 3

I have had another idea for the stand in Milan. It kind of goes back to the original idea of travel and hand luggage though different. The concept is more based on travel, and the journey.

Taking the idea of luggage racks and using this as a the exhibiting mechanism.

The overhead luggage rack on an airoplane must be shut on lift off, for safety and otherwise you would not be able to sit down. But when they are open they have got huge amounts of room and the doors of the racks are so big that you cannot sit down until they are shut.


If it was possible to design the stand, then the rack system would allow for people to display their work either inside the space (of the cupboard) or on the top of an open door, which (see picture) could act as a shelf.

The concept could be developed by including other aspects of the travel/journey such as a flight map



The second map is flight paths from the west of England, and has Milan written on it, this image could somehow be stencilled or added to the stand to illustrate the journey.

The words 'sustainability, innovation and interactivity' still present a problem in as much as carbon footprints do not generally go hand in hand with sustainability, but maybe we could measure our footprint and encourperate this into the concept somehow.

My only problem with this is the masculinity of it, maybe graphics could soften it somehow.

And of course that the stand might not have walls - slight problem!

To produce them free-standing would probably be quite hard. They could be made from some lightweight (corrugated) plastic which may provide the possibility of suspension.

Milan 2

Milan

Looking on the internet I've found some examples of recent exhibitions - trade fairs which I am imagining will be similar to what we will experience in Milan.

Images taken from 100% Design 2008 London - http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/page.cfm/link=363 and the link is to a video.. get this, with John Miller on it talking about the show, it's really interesting and in light of what we are doing quite informative.

The buzz words for the show as stated by "that's design" are: innovation, sustainability and interactivity. So the design of the stand, and exhibits that we come up with must be reflected in these words.

I imagine innovation to mean new, exciting, different, unusual, experimentation.
I imagine sustainability to mean, materials, process and also desirability (links into innovation).
I imagine interactivity to mean, tactile, movement, audience participation.

Again all of this reflected within the work and the stand.

My view on the ideas that have so far been put forward amongst the group

...Before I write this, I want to make clear that this is my opinion and not that of the group.

Boxes

Pro's

Easy to stack or configure
Uniform - people can get on with there work and not worry about display
They are generally made of recycled material


Con's

They are cardboard, brown, not particularly attractive to look at and could easily look shoddy.
Although they are "recycled" so are a lot of other things, and we should not assume that everyone is blind to this.
They are not very durable and could easily bend crush in transit or on the stand.
Cardboard has been used before, and will not look truly original unless we can be very original with it.

Reinforced cardboard may work - but could be hard to work with - cut (band saw, router) - though needs to be considered, would be the better option.


My own view is that the stand should have objects within it, either in the form of plinths (which we can customise) and/or hanging objects. It will make for a much more interesting exhibition and it will draw peoples focus around the stand and this in turn will create a form of interactivity. The space is 6m x 3m, which is about the size of a container and the it would seem a shame not use the space to it's full potential.

Having looked at other stands on the net, I would be interested in putting a false wall, an illusion of a wall, maybe a textile with shapes cut into it, or cards hanging on fish wire, an object which people must move around.

contractworld - http://www.bustler.net

bouroullec_litclos_award_09_11 - http://www.scarlet.be

“The « Lit Clos » puts forward a simple idea. It’s a box that’s sufficiently closed to accommodate a bed and the intimacy that it presupposes, and at the same time sufficiently open not to be claustrophobic. The box is on an architectural scale, between a bed and a bedroom. It uses techniques from furniture manufacture: painted plywood, soldered steel, and above all there’s the DIY assembly of the kind that you get with a piece of Ikea furniture. These characteristics give you a certain ease of assembly and of installation. While it's admittedly more complex than an ordinary bed, it’s still simpler than putting a bedroom together. There is a play on the scale of the space. The « Lit Clos » frees you from the necessity of building a whole bedroom, and opens up numerous possibilities in relation to the place where one sleeps. The « Lit Clos » exists in a low and a high version, respectively 70 cm and 180 cm off the ground. “

Extracts from the book “ Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec” released by Phaidon in 2003.

http://www.d4th.com/31

Colony

I really like this idea, there is more to work with than in the boxes (I think), I recon I'm going down the route of having a space which contains objects of different shape and size, these could all be hexagonal but the size could change - the repetition of the shape would go some way towards creating a harmonized view, and still allow for one offs (peoples work)

salon_satellite,_Milan_Furniture_Fair,_Italy_2006 - http://www.bihain.com/

Materials

Boxes do not necessarily mean light weight, unless they are flat packed and assembled on the stand, they could be cumbersome to carry and very easy to break (unless they were made from reinforced cardboard)

I think that we could achieve a much better look using a different material, possibly a light weight ply (could be expensive) but we can cut it and it is strong, and because it is wood, it still falls into the green material.

We could create a good look and we could more easily make things with the ply - stacking system, shelves/hexagons, use it as something to print on, make something with.

These are ideas which will change.

MILAN

The things which for me have stood out at the Milan meetings.

• People need to feel happy about the way their work is being displayed.

• People want to be able to make their own expression and not feel pressed into producing something which represents the voice of the group and not them as individuals

• We need to create a good impression, and also drawing people in to the stand.

o The stand needs to be exciting to look at but not dominate the work.

o The work and the design of the stand need to ‘hang together’ correctly

• We have limited budget and time


Some ideas, only preliminary.



Example of how the rope could look..