Week6: Lines of Enquiry

Conversations and Lines of Enquiry

This week I had another second chat with Jai regarding our progress with York Design Week. It was really interesting and I remembered to record the interview after asking him for approval. It’s been really good to talk to him about this project and make some head-way. He hasn’t really had much luck with looking into VR with DC Labs which is a shame and I’ve not heard back from any more of my research contacts. They’re proving the most difficult to get in contact with and I’m finding it a bit disheartening.

I’m going to go back to David Diston and see if I can speak to him again.

Jai also mentioned a contact at the Stockholm Environment Institute : Andreas Heinemeyer so I have emailed him.

I had a bit of a back and forth chat with Huw at Falmouth Univesity but it’s come to a swift pause, I’ll chase him up again this week.

Overall, we didn’t really get much further and if anything I feel this project is heading further and further away from what I intended it to be. I’ve spent this week panicking that now my project might just end up being a very simplistic, pared-back version of what I was intending, with no real tangible exhibition which would be a great shame. I think a lot of this is to do with the YDW’s budget and timescale which is absolutely a real consideration to give to this project, but it means my own Final MA Project isn’t as ambitious as it could be.

Feeling quite low this week, I decided to book in a chat with Jonas and this was definitely the reassurance I needed – I was stuck at a crossroads – do I just thropw myself into this YDW project and reflect on this as part of my MA project, or do I create a speculative, ambitious exhibition for my project?

Basically, Jonas said do both – use the YDW project as a tool to reflect on and utilise as a prototype. Your MA project can be based around this but be more speculative and be more ambitious. So I will be keeping the greenhouses project for my MA portfolio and will begin to gather and collect the information needed to crack on with this. Jonas also said it’s a great idea to start collating a moodboard so I’ll go back to the Milanote site and start collecting information together to create a really resourceful and powerful moodboard.

REFER BACK TO DOUBLE DIAMOND – this is purely to remind myself to go back to this during my research and progression!!

My next task will be to create a full list of all the outputs within the exhibition – focus more on the content and what you want the audience to experience – what will be in there? Do I need a list of plants or products in the different environments?

I also need to look into how we utilise this space to hold government and businesses accountable – that’s where the big changes are needed, so should there be a call to action after the exhibition? Can I create something that gets people passionate about this topic enough to foloow through with something afterwards? Explore my communities locally – are there any that are trying to push forwards with this topic? The outcome should be the action AFTER the exhibition – what will people do afterwards? How can you help them make a change?

Next week I’ll begin creating a list of contacts who create exhibitons so I can pick their brains. I also want to write down EXACTLY what I want from the exhibition, lay it out in simple powerful terms so it’s clear what I want to achieve. From this I’ll work out the information I need to gather and can begin looking to make this into a concept development.

It’s been a tough week, I’ve felt quite low and dissillusioned with my progress, I’m looking forward to getting back into it whole heartedly and pushing forwards.

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