How can I create art in the public realm that communicates clearly to it’s audience? The research project I’ve been working on over the past 2 months grew from this question and out of the anxiety that, regardless of my ability to identify what is important to people, if I can’t communicate it successfully it can have no positive effect […]
From Appearing into Being
One of the unmistakable draws of any town or city centre is shopping, and it heavily controls how we use these public spaces (as we discovered in this previous blog post). People sometimes shop out of necessity but more interestingly people shop for pleasure. But what is at the root of this pleasure? What needs […]
“The Hacienda Must Be Built”
While ever-present ‘social networking’ dominates our online lives it could be said that our real, physical interactions are becoming fewer, more niche and more isolated from each other. It is easy to see why; Our thirst for companionship, connection and validation can be quenched at the tap of a screen. The convenience of social networking, the ability to […]
Manifesto #1
My first Action:Art project Manifesto is being exhibited tonight alongside many other artists and members of the public at Airspace Gallery in The PIGDOGANDMONKEYFESTOS exhibition. An art manifesto is a public declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of an artist or artistic movement. An art manifesto is something I’ve never had, or ever considered before […]
Don’t swallow the sorrow.
Though I’ve planned to write this post for a week or so now, today feels like the right time. Today the writer and poet Maya Angelou has died at the age of 86. As a Black female producing poems that spanned the American Civil Rights Movement, she dedicated her life to expressing her sorrows (and the sorrows of […]
We need to talk about Hanley…and the living body.
During my recent interview with the Urban Planner, Mick Downs, I asked a series of questions about the geography of the area I’m studying and the validity of some of the artistic methods I am developing. My next question was What, geographically speaking, prevents the people of Stoke-on-Trent connecting with each other and their city as a […]
Geography, motives and ideas on permaculture
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Mick Downs, Director of Urban Vision CIC, based in Burslem Stoke-on-Trent. I had some questions for him regarding the geography of Stoke-on-Trent and whether the physicality of the city has an impact on the social and cultural quality of the city. In this post I will be […]
Questioning the Community #1 Q. 5
The last question of my first public survey was Out and About in Stoke-on-Trent, Where is your most favorite place to go? I can’t say I was surprised by these results, they show that people like to get out of the city into a more natural state, which is arguably the opposite of what is […]
Questioning the Community #1 Q. 3&4
The second instalment of my first round of public questioning concerns how people act and react in their town centres. 50 members of the public were asked When you’re out shopping in town, how do you go about it? This chart represents the answers I got, which shows an astonishing majority get in and […]
Questioning the Community #1 Q.1&2
Last night was the first time in the project that I got to put my questions about life in S-o-T to the community. This took place at an Appetite planning meeting in Shelton where 40 or so members of the community across the 6 towns had come together to plan this Summer’s arts events. The 5 […]