Refugee Council collaboration workshop. Bronze tree

The workshop consisted of asking the participants to make flowers and leaves to stick onto a tree mural that I had been asked to design and paint onto one of the office walls last week. The workshop started off quite but we had a steady flow of people in who wanted to make leaves and flowers, both workers in the building and clients. I was slightly worried about the look of the mural once the tree had been painted as it seemed quite plain and but as soon as the first few leaves made by the women in the women's group went of the tree it was looking interesting. After todays workshop it is becoming something that is really symbolic and the different uses of colour are making visually , nice to look at.  Symbolically it is really positive and this is being reflected in the colours , shapes and patterns. Also the idea of the tree tying it all together works well. You can also see that individual approaches coming through.

self lead workshop plan

Workshop plan:

Aim of the project, based around ambition. The project aim is also to build community and investigate how they feel about working in a group and if group collaboration benefits them, and if so in what way?

In the first session –

 Participants will be asked to fill sheets of paper using a verity of materials.  For thoughts who are old enough I will ask them to fill the sheet based around the theme of what they want to achieve. For the younger members of the group there will be fun and easy materials to use and they can just have fun playing with them. However, for the older members there will be opportunity to used screen print with stencils and they will be able to use this in their collage. Once this is done I will scan their favourite pages onto the computer and ask them to pick screen print colours. The with the original pages they will fold them into hot dog books which they can take away with them.

In the second session –

I will have complied all the designs they did together and created the screen-printed bird design. They will then fold/ cut the bird designs out and make the bird. Once completed the next task is to decorate the bird. Using the same colourful materials as last time. They can then take their birds home at the end of the session. I any new people turn up then they can create the collages and just make the birds out of them.

In the third session –

This last session will be used more for making and talking. It will be slightly more relaxed than the previous two sessions. The participants will be asked to make images that they want and enjoy to make. Then I may do a similar thing where I scan and print the designs but depending on how the first two sessions go be able to get a better idea of task I want to run.  

Development and Bronze tree before workshop.

Time frame to do this in was short , I had around two days to sketch roughs send them off , get feed back and cut the stencils out. Using thick card I measured and cut the piece out to fit to the scale of the wall. I then hand cut into some of the shapes to add texture and diffrence in tone. It took a while to get the stencils cut and so I decied a few days before painting that it would be quicked and easier to hand paint the branches of the tree onto the wall and to spray paint the trunk. So I informed the voluteer who was in charge of getting the paints of this idea so she could get the correct things, also this ment that the cost would be lower so would fit within the councils budget for the project. 

The time frame to get the tree on the wall was around 3 - 4 hours. The council wanted it up and decorated by the clients in time for an launch event they had coming up later that week. I had help from the voulnteer at the council in sticking the stencils up and spraying them. But unfortunetly the spray paint she had bought ran out on the first few templains so she had to run out and buy some more while I got going on sticking the rest of the stencils on and starting on the branches. Luckely the voulnteer got hold of some more paint and we got most of the tree trunk done but couldn't get it finished so I came back the next day and finished the tree off.
Overall given the time frame I am happy with the outcome. Without some extra help getting it on the wall it would have been tight. Passing feedback was good and the council where really happy with the finished wall. 

- After the first workshop. 

Self Evaluation add image of feedback

Happy with the feedback I received, was positive , although could have made more use of the crit as work was not up to date due to time constraints but a good idea of my approach was shown.

The main comment which came up was about how the written related to the practical. Given the nature of my project, a heavy part of the practical research must come first as this informs the essay as I refer directly to the practical work. However given that the information gathering in the practical element is nearly over, I now know I need to  alter  my question slightly. Given that I am working with a vulnerable group of people turn out is low so a workshop as I initially project plan isn't going to happen. But I still have a lot of information to work with from this research. 

The second key thing is the final outcome. I have realized that I don't know how this will work until all the information has been collected and I can start to develop and work with it.  

Question change.

'An Investigation into Creative Collabortation and Narrtive through Workshops and Conversation with Refugees and Asyulm seekers.'

Correspondence after meeting with Refugee Council and rough sketches of ideas

Responce -

Next step -

Need to merge designs together and get to work on stencils.

Collaboration with Refugee Council - Wall Mural - Bronze Tree.

The project - 

Design a mural (A tree) on a wall measurements- 

 That exists within the new floor of the office.  Once the tree is design and painted onto the wall ,  in collaboration with clients , run 1 or 2 workshop session in which they will design seasonal features to go onto the wall. The aim is to make the environment within the office more homely and welcoming for the clients who visit it in need of help. All materials will be paid for by the council and Me and Rachel have been given total control over the project.  Deadline - 26th October - Launch night of the new offices. 

First meeting -

I went to a meeting (present was Fleur and Rebekka , office managers and coordinators , Rachel, volunteer and graduate from Fine Art , Northumbria University and myself.)  Fleur and Rebekka talk me and Rachel through what they where after. Then Rachel suggested a really good ideas for a colour pallet of seasonal colours we could use such as , bright greens, reds , oranges and yellows. And Bronze for the tree. I suggested that this would work well as the wall is next to a large window that is south facing , so when the sun shines on it , the colours of the tree will change. The other colours will be used in the other materials that the councils clients will use to create the features to go on the tree. There was discussion as to what the material could be. We are sticking them to the wall using white tack. Fabric was suggested but one problem I highlighted was that white tack may not hold it well and that folded paper would be better and fabric can be placed on top of this.

Fleur and Rebekka asked if the tree could be made out of stencils , I said that I could design theses to fit to the scale of the wall. One I know how much paper I need i'll be able to send a costing over to them. The wall is larger then I initially thought but I should be able to work out the stencils size and proportions from the measurements that they have given.

Notes from tutorial.

- Observing Workshops - 15th and 22nd October.
- Workshop dates are 28th Oct, 4th and 11th Nov.
- Need to look into book - Claire Bishop - Collaboration/ Capitalism ' Artificial Hells.'
- Need to define research question by the end of this week.
- Outline for chapter structure -
Chapter 1 - into ( introducing the project.)
Chapter 2 - Context and themes ( any research from Summer.)
Chapter 3 - Case studies ( the summaries of the workshops.)
Chapter 4 - Bird animation - social media ? Authorship? Morals?
Chapter 5 - Conclusion - (thoughts and future questions ?)

Next point of action is to get the research question down and book rooms for the workshops.

Mind Mapping - Research question

Presentation / group tutorial feedback.

-Feedback sheet.

To Do For Next Time:

• Define research question.
• Organise workshop dates.
• Find ways/method to document the research.
• Read ' I swear I saw this.'
• Email Council with dates for the workshop. 

Overall really happy with the feedback I have received for the research and practical development so far. I was initially lacking confidence in producing the workshops but setting dates of when it is going to happen and having that as a deadline will definitely help me to set tasks and organise things better. With regards to the essay I need to get my ideas in order and narrow them down. Mind mapping in simple notes will help me to identify the key words and links that I already have, but also toughs that need development.

Russell Brand : Under the skin podcast- Marxism.

Guest speaker - David Harvey - Marxism thinker.

• Industrial capitalism - craft people in charge of there own production, but they were being pushed into factories - taken away from them.
• Capitalism is ' built on expansion and profit.'
• 'Appears to be something it is not.' 
• Large corporations have become the new capital in the 21st century. e.g. Apple , they have to produce things that don't last in order to develop and sell.
• Why is the theory of marxism still relevant today- 
• Environment , social inequality, want people develop a need for and desire.  
• Big corporations are creating needs that are not there. 
• Imperialism, colonialism , ideologies =  uneven geographical development. Commodities are made in different places. 
• Certain types of mentality - Where has the Morality gone ? but Marx never makes any moral argument. 
• Socialism - Marxism - communism. 
• MARXISM IS A WAY OF THINKING !! A WAY OF ANALYSING. - Helps to identify between the symptoms and the underlying problem. 

This discussion between Brand and Harvey is an interesting debate into weather Marx's theories and method of thinking still relevant today. The conclusion was that they are, but have altered vastly. This is obvious with the introduction new technological developments such as social media and jobs created by this. There is also the consideration that capitalism has grown, they kept referring to countries like Russia and North Korea. It was also mentioned that due to the increase capitalism is running out of space so is now taken the form in the mass corporations and the commodities they produce. As a result culture. The example of hip hop was used to describe the transition , so it started off as a definite act the moved into a utopian from then subsequently turned into product. I can see what they are getting at with this example but i'm struggling slightly with the utopian part of it. Dose this mean that it was used in a escapism form or that it suggested ideals which would help for the seek for the utopian society?  But in buying the commodities the companies produce is this now commodifying people ? 

The process of decommodification is a complicated, as suggested by the speakers , educations and health care would both have to go under reform. But by doing this it equals to socialism. A centralize state where the power is held but peoples imput is vital. 

- Social Media platforms being used for reform.

OCCUPY MOVMENT !!

- symbolic movment 

- changed discorse of inequality 

- the concept of the 1%. 

- Urban questions and movements.

- NEOLIBRALISM !!