I have been feeling somewhat apprehensive about 2012 as I have somehow developed the habit of assuming that each New Year must be better than the last. As the last few years have been very positive, it seems hard to imagine how 2012 could possibly live up to that and I have been assuming a degree of disappointment is inevitable. However, that’s clearly not a productive attitude and I have instead resolved to invest my efforts in ensuring that regardless of the as yet unknown content of 2012, I at least maintain, if not develop, those projects begun in earlier years which continue to display creative or social potential.

Of course those weren’t exactly unexpected but I’d somehow failed to take in to account just how much organisation they were going to take, and despite having received confirmation that I passed the MA with distinction (so am technically no longer a student) I am still involved at the university campus as I prepare to exhibit in the MA show.

A two part event, I will be installing next Thursday morning in time for the private view in the evening of the same day. Photos from that will follow, but in the mean time you can find a little more information on the university site (linked above) and on the site of the college where I teach.

In other news, I am beginning work on a new painted commission (I can justify spending a bit of time on that now!) and am investigating a few new avenues with regards to organising further workshops. I am also looking into setting up an artists’ networking group in Manchester; for fairly selfish reasons, in that I am hoping to continue benefiting from interaction with a peer group – the thing (apart from studio access) that I will miss most about university life… So; though things may certainly have become less structured, in that I will not be working around term dates and tutorial time tables, I certainly have enough to save me from idle moments... For now at least!

In an attempt to cut myself a bit of slack, I wasn’t planning another update until after the completion of the MA, but I was so excited to hand in my final written document yesterday (titled PubliCity) that I couldn’t quite stop myself from sharing these photos of the final bound document ready for submission. You can find the document in PDF form here but I was so pleased with the quality of the printing and binding that I thought I’d post a couple of photos. Just one thing left now; a presentation on the 15th of September and that’s it!

There are, as ever, a couple of other things going on in the next few weeks too. Firstly, I am returning to the Hulme History Society at the Zion Centre on the 8th of September as they have asked me back to revisit the use of I Remember boards in relation to members’ photographs of the Stretford Road area of Hulme. These will be old photos and will hopefully encourage a discussion of how the area has changed and how urban regeneration has affected it for the better (and sometimes the worse). Though I initially devised the boards for utilisation directly in the urban environment, I’m delighted that an alternative application has been suggested by users and I’m really looking forward to seeing how their use might be developed. I’m especially excited by the suggestion that they could be used with projected photographs as this feels like a very natural response to the initial intention of use of shadows in sunlight so I can’t wait to see how the evening goes. Additionally, I’m hopeful that more members will be able to participate as we had some difficulties last time due to reduced mobility. A method of using the boards inside would make the whole session much more accessible for some people.

On the 17th of September I will be running a crafts workshop for the Wythenshawe Regeneration Team at their Garden City Festival; the theme of the day is gardening so I plan to use the opportunity to ask participants to explore ideas of gardening as one of a series of devices for reclaiming city spaces. This will be primarily through the medium of glass painting as that’s what I’ve been brought on board to deliver, but I’ve also been asked to respond to the theme and that fits in quite nicely with some survey feedback I had many months ago that some residents felt community gardening led them to feel more positive about their area.

That’s all for now… Next updates will hopefully include photos from the upcoming workshops and a reflection on how the final presentation went. Who knows, I may even be able to report that I have passed!

Following on from the I Remember workshop about 6 weeks ago, there are one or two updates to make in relation to those projects. The photos from the session with the Hulme History Society went on display at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme for a month from the 13th of June. This gave the participants the opportunity to see the photographs of their contributions. The members of the society reported that they felt a sense of achievement in viewing the work, commenting that although it was a small portfolio of images, the content was expansive. The group also enjoyed a new conversation about the area stimulated by the photographs and were able to share the discussion further with those who had been unable to participate on the day. Keen to continue the project, Hulme History Society has invited me back in September 2011 to conduct a second I Remember workshop using members' photographs of the area through various decades.  This workshop will take a slightly different format and we plan to bring projection back into the session to view and interact with the photos. The main benefit of this new approach will not only be that we can visualise the past of the area but also that those with reduced mobility will be able to participate more directly and share their thoughts equally.

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On the 14th of July, a group of artists from Venture Arts (an organisation in Hulme which runs workshops for people with learning disabilities) participated in a similar session. Instead of focusing on memory however, the This Place Is workshop focused on a more current perspective of the same part of Hulme, which provided an interesting opportunity to compare the impressions of alternative community groups. The 7 members of the group agreed that they all had fun during the 2 hour session and that they enjoyed looking at the buildings and taking the pictures. Photographs from the session will soon be on display in the Holden Gallery Café at the Manchester School of Art.

In other news, I recently added a couple of additional projects to the site; Fancy a Pint and Where’s Good For You? These smaller ventures have yet to be realised on a larger scale but are still related to my on-going investigations in to interaction between strangers in cities.
Aside from potential additions relating to the above, the next major update is unlikely to materialise until mid-September/early October as I now have until the first of September to write up the details of practice and concept that have occurred since my last assessment. Upon completion, I will then have reached the end of the MA and the very clear start of a new chapter!

There have of course been other developments in recent weeks and progress has been made on a variety of on-going projects. Not least of these was the I Remember workshop with the Hulme History Society on Saturday (June 4th) in which 7 members of the society joined me for a wander around the Stretford Road area in Hulme, where we all enjoyed sharing tales of Hulme’s past, from long forgotten local indiscretions to activities of a less lascivious nature such as the Beatles recording at the Hippodrome! We were fortunate to be blessed with good weather and the participants agreed that the I Remember boards helped them to both recall and share happy memories that made them feel positive about the area. It was also recognised that the discussion helped to identify where change had come about for the better, as well as looking back with some nostalgia on other aspects of the place. It is planned for the photographs from the afternoon to go on display at the Zion Centre, in Hulme in the coming weeks so watch this space for updates!

I have also just received confirmation that a second workshop will be going ahead in July, however this one will be with the photography group at Venture Arts (Also in Hulme). As most members of the group are not from the local area, it is planned for new boards to be made which will carry a different phrase to encourage a more forward thinking feel to the day. As it is likely that we will visit similar places, the combined output of these workshops should provide an interesting portrait of an area which contrasts memories of its past with hopes for its future.

In other areas, the Talk To Me project concluded at the end of May and I have received a small amount of feedback which should enable me to assess whether or not it met objectives of encouraging public interactions. At a first glance, it does appear to have had some beneficial effects, I’ll properly analyse that in weeks to come. In addition, Public Warming a new strand to the current suite of investigations, looks at subverting the visual language of the public warning sign to suggest possibilities for a friendlier, freer shared ownership of city spaces. Public input has been an incredibly important part of developing this recent work and I’m currently gathering feedback on these signs so please do visit the brief survey page and share your thoughts.