Designers' Front

Slightly later than expected, Designers Front is real! We are online at designersfront.com or designersfront.com/blog  for the blog. That means most of what I'm involved in will be on display over there now as well.

Now and Then

Met with Alex yesterday to catch up with what tinker are doing. I made a little document to tell her about  what I'd been upto over the last year and what I'm doing now. So what am I doing now? Well I just got back from France, doing more photography work and I'm keeping the blog over at bgbarker.com/writings both of which I've mentioned before. I am also working with a group of friends on a studio that we are loosely calling, Designers Front, this may be the name that sticks. Hopefully there will be more information to come on this in the next week. The friends I'm working with our Rachel, Matt, Sam, Brittany and Chris. Go take a look at them!

New Writing Website

A new website dedicated to mini essay writing that I started over at bgbarker.com/writings/ The idea is to write a short piece each day covering a new topic and hopefully use it as a way of practicing writing and collecting thoughts and ideas that I have.

Go to bgbarker.com/writings/

France Pictures.

I'm in France at the moment, working as a photographer. Here are some pictures with blue sky and not much else. Its sort of like a working holiday.

onedotzero Document

A few weeks back I went to see onedotzero. I hadn't see much of them since the year before when I had worked with them. I thought it might be nice to make a document showing what I had been upto in the year between. Now I'm showing you for the sole reason that I haven't put anything visual on here for ages.

Show Bricklane: Design Curious

We had our final year show in Bricklane a month or so back. I was involved in the design build mostly but overall the whole thing went really well and Matt and Sam designed a beautiful catalogue. We left immediately after the close of the London show, to a show called DMY in Berlin, which was different and equally successful.

It was all such a cunfussion of action, frustration and excitement that I don't seem to have much visual evidence that it happened. Perhaps when all the dust finally settles I'll dig some out to add to this post.

Final Film

Here is the film for my final project presentation. Its exploring how design can created democratic engagement.

Liberal Democrats in Blackheath

I spent the Bank Holiday in Blackheath with the Liberal Democrat bandwagon, speaking to people and trying to hear Nick Clegg talk about political involvement. There are a few valuable points in there, such as how important everyone felt communication was to sustained interest. There was no conservative councillor to be seen, so it is not bias that I don't speak with one.

Plotter in Action

The plotter that I have been building over the past month or so, partly functioning, I hope to explore other forms of representation using it and get the interface away from the computer.

Ink Dropper

An automated ink dropper to use in conjunction with the plotter. A solenoid squeezes a drop of ink
from the pipet when arduino sends the current through it.

Plan Degree Show.

Spent yesterday making and measuring for a plan of our degree space. Obviously boring to those who 's exhibition space it isn't, but some part of my brain seems to get a thrill from organising space in this way on a map/plan. I'll get some picture up for it soon.



Heres a crudy picture of the space to give an idea what it's like.

X Y Plotter

A plotter that I have been building that will allow me to create personal political profiles and location based political profiles. Giving people a new outlet for their opinions and a new sense of value for the location where they are able to express their opinion. The strength would be that identities would be visualised, both place and personal.

Politi-Crisps

I normally don't put other things up on here, but these crisps that Rada got for me are so similair to stuff I was doing a month or two back and am still toying with now. Voting through a selection that is streamlined with normal choice. What spray you use, etc.

BT Newspaper.

This is a newspaper that I made with Tinker London using the new, award winning service from Newspaper Club. It was for a workshop we did with BT and a fun experience.

Vote with your Feet.

A model of my "stand". Promoting the idea of having a daily space to promote opinion. People read the paper every morning, but have nowhere to express their opinion. This offers them a place at the station, as they walk, to put say what they think about the current issue of the day. A series of posters could build up over a period of time and create a new space of opinion sharing and discussion. A history of opinion could build up.

Our Berlin Route

Voting where you stand.

Newspaper of Opinion

A newspaper built from varried sources, to challenge people to question what they form opinion based on, and question the source of their news.

Site Installation

Suggestions for a town centre installation that would form a place where people could output opinion and would give the forming of opinion a new value. a reason to generate an opinion.

Tee-Shirt

Tee-Shirt project is about to go live, take a look at www.outof100.co.uk. Don't tell Sam though because it ain't quite ready.

EDIT: This should be going live tomorrow (tuesday 9th) with our first couple of tee-shirts and ready for people to start creating, submitting and soon. Head over there for more information.

Prayer Companion

Talking to Andy and Nadine about the prayer companion I was interested to learn about how they came to this outcome. By having a specific user group and a targeted site, they were able to be far more focused on what they wanted to achieve than I have been so far. So the first key point is that I need to locate a user/group/site that I can understand and work with.

Talking about the prayer companion, a few of the most interesting moments that came up were around how the nuns reacted to what they called the 'indulgent' social networking statuses as well as struggling to understand the concept of social networking, that people were just saying things to the world.

Andy and Nadine talked about the democracy of the monastery, how decisions about the object were taken between the group and if the object had failed to suit their collective needs, then they would have no problems rejecting it.

They also talked about how it had become more of a life companion, in that it was less about aiding at the moment of prayer and more about an awareness of the needs and issues that they absorbed in their daily lives. This is how I would like to imagine that my objects or ideas might function.

The pointed me in the direction of an event later today as well as well.

UPDATE: Interesting event and venue, got a little lost. I ended up speaking with an artist in the space about democracy in art (there was an evening of democracy related work) he was talking about where the author (auteur) sits in democratic work. His criticisms were around Anthony Gormley's One and Other in Trafalger Square. He felt the influence of the artist was too strong in that work to call it democratic (as Boris Johnson did). Something that he said that was very interesting was that the T.V was the biggest restrictor of democratic discussion in the home. He comes from Italy, so his meaning would be more about the state control over the media. It got me thinking though, does the t.v deliver democratic ideas, already complete into the home and remove the need for an active viewer. I.e the politics industry. So this may become the site of my democratic intervention.

Context Report.

This report is equivalent to a dissertation, however it serves as a framing for the final project that I am working on, rather than a finished outcome. Its all hand made and printed at home, the content is quite varied, and serves more as a broad selection of ideas than as a single strand of enquiry. Hopefully it makes it clear for me, and for the reader what my interest is and where I am going next.

The Democratic Household

Exploring ideas of household moments, to change or enforce that every decision in a household or any evironment is, or can be, a political decision. This builds on Foucault's idea that politics is everything in life. Deoderant cans that represent a political decision each morning after watching the news or reading the paper, who has made an impression on you that morning. A washing machine where your choice of wash cycle can be related to a parties environmental or financial policies.

Back to it.

I've been silent on here for a long time. Possibly the longest time since I started this blog nearly two years ago. It just been such a relaxing christmas I haven't been able to get myself to upload anything. Hopefully now with the cricket over, all the holidaying done and Martha and Alice off on their Europe trip (finally!), I can get back down to work. I have heaps to do on my context report.
Last week I was in Scotland and Northern England, so here are some images from there. They are part of a series I was doing for my friend Catherine as a Christmas present. You can see some more on flickr , they are a little classical in style, which is something I am hoping to move away from, but it very difficult when your surrounded by quaint churches and snowy mountains.

Barbican Screen Printing

We ran a workshop at the Barbican as part of their lates programme. The idea was a £3 bazaar, where no item or stall could cost more than three pounds. We had sets of stencils of people at a christmas party and let people choose the legs, torso and head of the character as well as the colours of ink and paper, they then got to learn to print it them selves. It perhaps was a little over ambitious, and too labour intensive. I can't say it was a success as we were unable to work efficiently enough to make the money we would have hoped for. However we were really happy with the concept and think with some refinement it could be great. The girls who we went with made a packet on their badge/ jewelery/ christmas card stall. I was working with Sam who is pictured below.

Democracy: Greenwich

Talking in a new borough, this time Greenwich. Probably a slightly different cross section of society and a larger tourist population.

Personal Pronouns

The use of personal pronouns in a selection of famous speeches from democratic countries. I was interested in seeing how leaders communicate with the people they are supposed to represent; whether they think of themselves as apart from them (i.e I and You) or connected (i.e We). Its far from definite but just interesting to look at. Context of course plays a huge part.

Democracy: Lewisham

A follow up to last weeks Deptford video, I went talking to people in Lewisham their views on the same two questions: 'What does the word democracy mean to you?' and 'Where do we have an impact on,or connect to Democracy?'

Democracy Video

A video on the streets of Deptford (in Lewisham), looking at the public view of democracy.

Document: Week 5

This weeks document, containing my fictions and images of my process and outcome. The front cover is intentionally a little austere, to match the bleakness of the short story and the outcome. The paper I used on the cover is really nice, got it from atlantis a while back. I forget the name but its a heavy hand made paper with a really nice texture. *geeky paper bit finished

Pound Shop Objects.

A project we did on artifact-based imagined futures this week. Taking no more than 5 things from a pound shop we had to suggest a future using an object and a fiction. One was supposed to inform the other and vice versa. A sort of creative dialogue between the two. The short fiction I wrote is below, however it probably fails to explain fully enough the world I imagined and just suggests a few parts of it. I may add the more complete description in time
I'm not sure how useful this week was for me or how successful my process was. I'm still pretty confused about the feedback that I got. The suggestion seems to be that my object associated too much with something, as ever there is a certain lottery about what response you receive, which is often frustrating when you work so hard. Though I acknowledge that I was too influenced by a James Auger lecture I attended which showed in my final outcome.

"Something never sat right with me about that," I said as I watched the puddles swelling in the rain.

"Why do they only copy what we already have."

Food was being slopped in tiny portions from large grey drums. A Ro-mu hovered by scanning for life. The rain fell and the queue stretched back for miles. The never ending queue, to eat from the drum. The man from downstairs began to reply.

"It's a way in." His creased and sickly face looked up, "Like a subtle evolution, one day its a real cat, the next it's robotic, its the only way we accept it."

We inched forward, probably using more energy in the act of queuing than we are likely to get from what meagre portions await us.

"Take the Ro-mu, it become its own species, but without the invention of the cat, it can't exist."

I saw he was half watching something and turned; a Ro-mu had captured and killed a mouse and was in the process of digesting it.

"So now we have a robotic mouse, eating real mice to survive, a pale replica of life." I said.

He showed no sign of having heard.

"Its not about looking back though, the real question is, what's next?"

He was right of course, as we watched the Ro-mu complete it's re-charge and begin scanning a feeble looking elderly lady. Collecting and uploading information, profiling the human species. On the wall in front of us, painted and un dimmed by the rain, showed a red symetrical symbol, an anti-human symbol seen a few times in shadowy corners throughout the last century, but this time not hidden or secretive but glowing in full public view.

Four so far.

These are the four diary (weekly) documents for my final project so far. Each one shows what I did in that particular week, and tries to relate it to my theme where possible.

Week 4, context debate.

Document from context report. Really enjoyed this as I was free much free-er in making it and didn't worry about having a grid or a specific system. It lead to some nice moments and a few less impressive spreads, but over all, having fun is the key to this diary.