Pathway - NottsForgotten

Pathway Phase

NottsForgotten Contest

This competition was open to students and architects from Nottinghamshire. The goal was to revitalise an underused are of Nottingham City Centre.

I decided to go with the idea of a street food market. I have seen this phenomenon take off in London since I first experienced food carts in Portland, Oregon ten years ago. Ready to eat street food traders are a very common sight at every "farmers market" that starts around London. 

The benefits of this idea include a rotating roster of traders, meaning variety and return visits to try new traders, the use of the Wing Walk car park site can be retained for parking revenue on weekends and evenings, and the location being just off Hockley is very in keeping with the "hipster" atmosphere of the area. 

I began by experimenting with some different logo ideas, first in brainstorming and then roughly mocking up some different options.

The final branding I settled upon is below. I like that there is a cognitive dissonance created between the word "Park" and the double yellow lines which designate no parking areas. I hope this creates enough of a "hook" to stick in people's minds. 

Pathway - Standard

Pathway Phase - Response To Italy

The Standard

The spectre of Brexit-related fears really hung over me, even in Rome. I have friends who are scrambling to apply for the right to remain, who are living with the anxiety of not knowing what their immigration status will be in two years. These citizens and likewise, Britons abroad, all face huge uncertaintly. 

The rallying cry of Leave voters is to create a second golden era where we have "control". It smacks of Imperial ambitions to me, and empires can and have fallen in the past. I wanted to capture a feeling of faded glory, biased nostalgia.

I photographed Cormorants basking on the Tiber and they reminded me of the Eagles used on Roman battle standards... which was appropriated by Nazis. 

Above are some photographs of my sketchbook while I developed ideas and experimented with materials, and below is the final piece.

Pathway - Hands

Pathway Phase - Response To Italy

Hands

While the conflation of dolls with the objectification of women is a very familiar idea, I wanted to focus specifically on hands.

I wanted to work with the idea of women's contributions being undervalued, especially in Catholic communities where gender roles are strictly imposed by certain interpretations of the Bible.

Hands are very important to our sensory perception of the world. 

They are like a doorway between our external and internal worlds, for most of us they are the primary way we enact our will by manipulating and interpreting the physical realm around us.


They are used with Ouija boards to communicate with dead spirits, they are pressed together in prayer to communicate with Holy spirits.

I've felt constrained by family ideas of what women have to offer and how we should behave, so I initially visualised the hands escaping from a birdcage. I was encouraged to sit with the idea and I did some free form / brainstorm writing on the back of a Wetherspoons menu one evening which yielded some interesting results!

The phrase "The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands" popped into my head. This was a pivotal moment where new ideas began to develop.

 My research also featured folk lore connected to fertility symbols and wishing or praying to water spirits. The tension between Celtic cultures where women held a higher status than their Roman counterparts has, I feel, contributed to the subjugation of fertility as a creative force worthy of respect and Divine status. 

When I juxtaposed that with the sale of indulgences prior to the Reformation, and the existence of Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, my idea completely changed.

Pathway - Research Trip

Pathway Phase - Research Trip 

Photographs From Rome and Milan

Here are some photographs from while I was in Italy.

I was looking particularly for the pairing "Secure / Insecure" as the Brexit vote has impacted a lot of my friends. I believe it was absolutely the wrong decision. I was struck by how in Rome particularly, Italian businesses and Embassies displayed the EU flag alongside their national flag. 

I was also considering how we use the illusion of security to "not let [things] bother us" when it can be taken away by a government at any time. How we can buy things to comfort ourselves thinking "It can't happen here".

Access to healthcare and running water is denied to such a large percentage of the global population...and in Europe, we take it for granted.

Welfare support, free healthcare, even Human Rights.

How long do we have? What do we use to fool ourselves into complacency?

Exploratory Phase - Site Specific Installation

Exploratory Phase - Site Specific

"The Loving Hut"

My pain levels at the beginning of term were phenomenal. I began the course in the first week of September, was diagnosed on the 23rd and prescribed medication that was effective immediately. My life has been SO much better since then.

Trying to access Student Support was difficult and delayed. Some of the ideas college came up with - using hand gestures to communicate that I needed a break - I found insulting. Removing myself to a "Reflection Room" was useful if I needed to stretch or lie on the floor, but it had no seating suitable for back problems and the aspect of being "hidden away" felt very shameful.

The Loving Hut came about as a response to these issues.

The goal posts were moved by the maintenance team on campus, and the survival shelter is tucked away at the end of a long path, out of the way and not terribly accessible from classrooms.

Coffee pots without running water, teabags with no kettle, scratched and unplayable relaxation CDs, dead flowers... this piece is basically a giant unsubtle sulk. Got to get this stuff out of my system! 

I spent time alone in the shelter while crocheting a Prozac pill or eating lunch. It was lovely to hear the sounds of nature and lie down on a relatively comfortable foam mattress, albeit one I found in the street. It was also very satisfying to see the fascination it inspired in the sports students. One even asked if they could use it to hang out in.