Week 4: Creative cities

Lecture 1: "Creative cities"


Katie presented the lecture today on the topic "creative cities". Richard Florida who developed the term "Creative cities" analysed Why creative people inhabit certain areas over others,  what are the factors that draw them to these places? He found that such cities were often clustered around industry as these were the places where their creative talents could be truly utilised.  He identified that the truly successful creative cities had a high population of "gays" and "Bohemians" who were seemingly more open to new ideas and willing to explore them. An extension of the term was the "Creative class" which described people within these cities whose primary role  was to create meaningful new forms. The three T's; technology, talent and tolerance introduced the concept of the creative class.


Class work: Group concept development and commitee discussion.


The class divided into our specific groups after the lecture in order to discuss ideas and possible solutions for the final project. Many ideas where brought to the table by the group. The most popular two were discussed further, these where a carnival game themed history quiz, and a green space for the street.


The green space concept involved the creation of some sort of living space from plant matter. It would include a grass couch at the for front of the design and other green furniture to create an out door green room. The space would also allow visitors to style and personalise their own grass heads to take home from the exhibition. The concept of taking something or adding something to the work was something very important to the group in order for the message to truly get through to people.


 The concept itself looked at how where there is green (nature) there is people and spaces are often more livable where nature is present. The group wants to remind visitors that green is right on their doorstep and not to take it for granted as their are spaces, like Darlinghurst where green is not present and this can often detract from human activity within the spaces. Basically the group is looking to put life back into Foley street.This concept was seemingly the one with the most potential and will be developed further by the group.  


After discussing group projects the class split into committee roles. At this point in the project the commitee that i am apart of, infrastructure, does not have allot to discuss as we do not know the size and quantity of what needs to be set up in each exhibition. The group however discussed possible contacts with removalist company's that could help us transport the projects to and from the site. 


Lecture 2: Green living 2030


Glen from Sydney city council presented the second lecture today on the events and goals that the council is working towards achieving by 2030 and how our project could assist with or be impacted by this.We were presented with information on the population and congestion of Sydney city and Glen identified the main goals of the council to create a greener, more connected, global city. The concept of "green living presented by Glen is something that our group can really address in our green space concept.

Week 6: Solidifying the concept.

Week 5: Solidifying the concept 


Class work: Group discussion 


In this weeks session the group worked on concept development in setting a concrete concept and a design that would mimc the concept to present in the following weeks presentation. The group settled on the bi-line for the project "out of the pot plant and into the public." The bi-line represented for need to embrace nature in daily life and get out into it and amongst it. The work itself, in composition, will take the notion of "the concrete jungle" and bring it to life through the green of the couch and the surrounding pot plants being used to envelop the surrounding space. The work will now include more than just the grass couch to truly interpret how plants may be involved in everyday life. The work will be divided into 2 sections the urban and the domestic. Pot plants will be displayed at the start of the work and slowly emerge one by one loosing their pots in the process until we are left with a row of simple plants. The plants will lead to a domestic space where the living room setup will take place with the couch, coffee table and other house hold items. The pot plants will also be amongst this are to lead to a possible third area which comments on plant life in the urban space. The embodiment of the third idea is uncertain as of yet however some sketches have been developed to explore the possibilities of the work's composition in it's entirety. 

Week 3: Relational Aesthetics

Lecture: Relational Aesthetics 


Shane Hasemann presented the lecture today on Relational aesthetics. This was a movement that came to fruition in London in the 1990's. The movement toke to the idea of user based interaction within art. The primary focus was to create points of engagement within altering  social contexts, that often toke place in the sphere of the everyday. The movement looked at Shifting the  emphasis to the local rather than the global, from what is concrete to what is intangible. In essence relational aesthetics transformed life into a  material art form to create art that is participatory and transitory.


From a technical point of view the language used to describe the art form was often associated with the information age, using technical jargon to describe works. Stylistically the works looked to the language of the minimalist's to form works of political minimalism.


The art work's themselves where heavily installation based and took place in real time in order to involve connections between the artist and the user. These were in the form of social encounters which were often random but sometimes planned. 


Felix Gonzales Torres was a key player in the relational aesthetics movement. His Works explored the notion of imposing relationships between life and art, the private and public and the artist and the viewer. His works held a participatory approach with the viewer as they were often able to take away items from his instillation's, Like the wrapped candy in the artwork below. 

Felix Gonzales Torres, Untitled (Placebo – Landscape - for Roni) detail, 1993 

Class activity: Establishing group roles, brainstorming concepts


Establishing group roles


Today we established group and team roles. My role within the group is research designer. With an industrial design background i feel as though this role would be suited towards me as i have worked with and know about an array of different materials we could use to create our final works, as well as where to find them. I am also a capable researcher in an academic sense so i am pleased to have been given this role. 


My role in the class as a whole is with the exhibition/ infrastructure team and i believe my industrial design background once again lends itself well to the tasks associated with this role. 


Brainstorming concepts


The group this week began to brainstorm ideas about the final design for the Foley street exhibition. After screaming out the first thing that came to our heads for a while we came up with a couple of concepts that had potential.


We looked at  bringing life into the city in a literal sense by perhaps creating a living space within the street. This would also draw on the notion of perception by bringing what is typically on the inside to the outside. However interesting the concept may be i don't think it has a strong enough connection to the Darlinghurst area and does not truly illustrate an aspect or idea associated with the area. I think it is important that the work does this to heighten the interaction between the user and the space and allow it to achieve a sense of relevancy. 


The group also further explored this concept of bringing an aspect of  "living" to the street by creating our own green furniture, constructed from plant matter. This also brings an element of nature back into a street which was truly living. Relational aesthetics play's a large part within this design and there is allot of potential with this concept to create something aesthetically pleasing as an instillation that is participatory and user friendly. 

The group really likes the idea of allowing the user to ad something to the instillation or take something away to truly remember the experience of the night.

Week 3: Relational Aesthetics

Lecture: Relational Aesthetics 


Shane Hasemann presented the lecture today on Relational aesthetics. This was a movement that came to fruition in London in the 1990's. The movement toke to the idea of user based interaction within art. The primary focus was to create points of engagement within altering  social contexts, that often toke place in the sphere of the everyday. The movement looked at Shifting the  emphasis to the local rather than the global, from what is concrete to what is intangible. In essence relational aesthetics transformed life into a  material art form to create art that is participatory and transitory.


From a technical point of view the language used to describe the art form was often associated with the information age, using technical jargon to describe works. Stylistically the works looked to the language of the minimalist's to form works of political minimalism.


The art work's themselves where heavily installation based and took place in real time in order to involve connections between the artist and the user. These were in the form of social encounters which were often random but sometimes planned. 


Felix Gonzales Torres was a key player in the relational aesthetics movement. His Works explored the notion of imposing relationships between life and art, the private and public and the artist and the viewer. His works held a participatory approach with the viewer as they were often able to take away items from his instillation's, Like the wrapped candy in the artwork below. 

Felix Gonzales Torres, Untitled (Placebo – Landscape - for Roni) detail, 1993 

Class activity: Establishing group roles, brainstorming concepts


Establishing group roles


Today we established group and team roles. My role within the group is research designer. With an industrial design background i feel as though this role would be suited towards me as i have worked with and know about an array of different materials we could use to create our final works, as well as where to find them. I am also a capable researcher in an academic sense so i am pleased to have been given this role. 


My role in the class as a whole is with the exhibition/ infrastructure team and i believe my industrial design background once again lends itself well to the tasks associated with this role. 


Brainstorming concepts


The group this week began to brainstorm ideas about the final design for the Foley street exhibition. After screaming out the first thing that came to our heads for a while we came up with a couple of concepts that had potential.


We looked at  bringing life into the city in a literal sense by perhaps creating a living space within the street. This would also draw on the notion of perception by bringing what is typically on the inside to the outside. However interesting the concept may be i don't think it has a strong enough connection to the Darlinghurst area and does not truly illustrate an aspect or idea associated with the area. I think it is important that the work does this to heighten the interaction between the user and the space and allow it to achieve a sense of relevancy. 


The group also further explored this concept of bringing an aspect of  "living" to the street by creating our own green furniture, constructed from plant matter. This also brings an element of nature back into a street which was truly living. Relational aesthetics play's a large part within this design and there is allot of potential with this concept to create something aesthetically pleasing as an instillation that is participatory and user friendly. 

The group really likes the idea of allowing the user to ad something to the instillation or take something away to truly remember the experience of the night.

Week 2: Situationist international

Lecture:


Shane Hasemann presented a lecture this week on the Situationist international. An Avaunt Garde post war movement which explored contemporary capitalism in creating and shaping a revolution. The movement began in Italy and western Europe dealing with the legacy of surrealism. Bernstein, Jon and Debor where key players in the movement, yet the primary players of the movement where the group known as the situationalists. 


Their primary agenda was to combine politics and art to alter the commonly held lifestyle at the time, of work and no play, with a life based on desire and passion. Life was now perceived as a situation, ever evolving. Art was now not only a viewed object, but a lived experience where the interactions and events in everyday life created the artwork itself.


The situationist also explored the concept of drifting and psycho-geography to create an alternate mapping system of the city. This looked to ambiance, location, experience and the effects that landmarks and places had on the physique of the individual to create a city of the future. Only the places perceived to be important by the situationist were relevant and documented in the form of maps. 


"New Babylon" by Constant is an example of this mapping idea. Constant looked at psycho-geography and creating prototypes of transportable modular abodes to create a new city, one of interest and intrigue built on top of the old world. 

Class exercise: Mapping 


This mapping idea was carried out further into class work. In our small groups we mapped our journey to Foley st with similar reasoning to that of the situationists'. The theme of nature and the presence of greenery in the street was chosen as our mapping focus. We used green cone structures in varying sizes to show where the concentration of greenery was on our journey to and around Foley street. This helped to illustrate the vacancy of nature as a metaphor for life and all things living in UTS and Foley street, juxtaposed with the overflowing and all encompassing greenery that was Hyde park. It is clear that the balance of life in this instance is not even and it was our intention to make this clear.

Week 1: Subject introduction and site visit.

Subject introduction: Understanding the concept.

The Concept of situational cities was introduced in the first week of class in my absence. This meant that i had to conduct further research into the concepts being explored to fully understand and embrace the idea of "Situational cities" 

After a brief discussion with my peers i was notified of what happened in the first week of class and the concept of situational cities became clear. From my understanding and  further research, the idea of the situationalist is not only a concept on paper, but a way of life, influenced by the Avaunt Garde art movement. The intentions of such activists were to alter the ways in which people lived their day to day lives, placing a greater emphasis on the notion of "play" and experience in order to truly live rather than simply existing. The situationalists achieved this through conceptualisation which they identified as  "Urban Intervention".

The Notion of Flaneur was also presented to me by my peers as a term to describe the activity of drifting through the city. One’s journey, in this sense,  is determined by the attractions of the city and it’s ambiance. The intentions of Flaneur are walking to gain experience rather than walking to get to your desired destination from point a to point B.

Site Visit. 

The group in which i was assigned undertook their own Flaneur journey to Foley st Darlinghurst, the location for the final pop up gallery, The girl's took images of objects, normally overlooked, that captured their attention. The city itself was identified as bustling and busy in comparison to the quiet and uninhabited Foely st. 

The group choose a nature theme to create their own "Flaneur" journey focusing on things that would often be overlooked within the street. They used green string to map their journey and circle all of the areas where nature was present in the street. It was identified that even in an environment where life seemed absent, nature still found a way to thrive and push through. On my own journey to Foely street i found the absence of nature quite startling in comparison to the surrounding environment. But it was almost a nice surprise to see the presence of weeds and tiny bits of unwanted plant matter poking through the cracks in the pavement.