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!

First things first, the purpose of this post is mainly to show off the new look glittermouse.co.uk! Websites, especially those serving the purpose of an online portfolio, seem to have a tendency to get cluttered over time and can end up looking like a teenager’s bedroom wall; random snippets and posts that seemed important 6 months ago but really don’t have much relevance anymore. As such, I noticed it was time for a virtual spring clean, so you’ll hopefully find this site brighter, fresher and easier to navigate. It’s also now easier to find me on Facebook and Twitter (groan) and you can see an archive of previous blog posts on the Facebook page too…

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.