Artist Call: experimental, participatory or collaborative practice
Artist Call: experimental, participatory or collaborative practice.
I saw this today and think it is a wonderful idea. Built environment and urban change from a suitcase!
What does creativity sound like?
I like to work with music when I am typing.. recently I have been listening to Spotify playlists. This afternoon I am putting the finishing touches to a proposal which I hope is successful. I like this playlist called ‘creativity boost’, it has a nice mixture of uplifting, happy and hoppy songs, with some artists which I had not heard until today. What would you put on your playlist? What does Creativity sound like to you?
My life in a museum? 30 days of biking sightseeing
architectural cycling sightseeing!
Day 27 of day 30, a day of cycling sightseeing combining art, architecture, digital photos and cycling. I went to see the Glasgow architectural masterpiece which is Scotland Street School. This is a wonderful and free tourist attraction, easily accessible from the city centre via cycle routes from Bells Bridge, and also subway (it is opposite Shields Road station). It is not your ordinary school, it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and is fitted as a museum with class room s from various periods (Victorian to 1960’s).
There are wonderful architectural details, typical of Mackintosh, with nature inspired motifs, vibrant colours and Locharbriggs red sandstone.
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Celebrating World Heritage Day
Today is World Heritage Day, a day organised by UNESCO to celebrate global international heritage. This got me thinking about places which I have enjoyed visiting which have an official world heritage site designation (individual country designations can be seen on the UNESCO website)
I compiled a Flickr set of photos from visits in the last year or so, including UK and Indian sites.
Art meets bike meets art Glasgow Go Slow- Culture 2014
Amazing day doing public art…
This was my day 13 of 30 days of biking… quite an experience. Why? I was taking part in a public event called Glasgow Slow Down which has been organised as part of the Culture 2014 culture programme celebrations, marking 101 days until Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games by artist Jacqueline Donachie.
I set off on an unseasonably early time for a sunday to meet at 8:15am at the Glasgow Riverside Museum (which I had previously visited to view its cycling treasures last week), donning my highviz participants jacket, excited to be taking part but also a little daunted as I was wondering if I could keep up in a group cycle.
On arriving I was greeted by…
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OMG! So that’s what an endorphin feels like!
I have been a bit silent on this blog recently, here’s blog 2 with bikes.. my challenge. Wish me luck and follow along if you like.
Yesterday was day 6 of #30daysofbiking and it was a completely different experience. Why? I found out what exercise induced endorphins are! I was at the Scottish Bike Show and went ON THE VELODROME! This post will have a few capital letters as I set out with the hope of going on the veloddrome, thinking “ach, it will be booked” or “we will probably be too late” or “maybe it’s just for kids, they won’t care about an over enthusiastic overweight adult” or “they will say you’re too fat to ride”. Negative I know, but I still wore my Irn Bru lucky socks hoping we might get a go anyway.
@NewFromIRNBRU I won socks!, thank you! Just the thing to go with my trainers on #SYT2014@Glasgow2014 🙂 pic.twitter.com/UFU9PQlDl3
— AlisonMcCandlish (@CrenellatedArts) March 10, 2014
I had wanted to go on a velodrome since I first went to Manchester on…
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Experiments and reflections on digital media community exploration
As someone with a huge passion for exploring my local environment and digging into the history and architecture of an area, and ways of presenting this creatively I am rather taken by a project which I found on Twitter called “Walk My World”, the invention of William O’Byrne who is based in Newhaven, USA. The idea is that you carry out a journey, once a week, and then record and share that using various digital media tools (he suggests Twitter, Vine and Instagram and produces a handy guide for newcomers to these on his site). There’s still an opportunity to take part if you wish… join in!
I personally have not used Instagram much as until fairly recently I didn’t have a phone with a very good camera (it was quite a low resolution), preferring to play with my SLR, but since I got a new phone in November I have been playing with the many free and low cost apps which allow you to snap, shoot and share your view of the world. The Walk My World project seemed a good time to try out Instagram.. so I took a wander around Govanhill in Glasgow.
A wonderful multi-lingual community cafe, in an Evangelical church hall, which asks for only donations for breakfast:
Said free/ donation breakfast (which was lovely, as were all the people in the pop up cafe):
Library exhibition on wartime experiences:
The library history exhibition, including a little alcove devoted to R D Laing, an influential psychiatrist born in the area:
The many languages of Govanhill:
International peace garden:
Community baths (I had visited these at Doors Open Day before):
Wonderful tenements, a Glasgow architectural icon:
I discovered a lot about the area, even from this short walk! I had not created a video in Instagram before, and also played with the tagging and mapping functions. I know Instagram is not exactly “new news” but it is funny how sometimes we need a reason to play with new stuff. I also learnt that embedding Instagram posts in WordPress only needs the URL, not the embed code. I like to learn through play, and this sort of project is “right up my street”, thanks William!
I completely agree with the comment in William’s blog post that educators should create an online brand for themselves (thinking before they share), I am quite aware of my “digital footprint” and in some ways my background may appear somewhat diverse (town planning, conservation, education, creative media) but I am lucky enough to be able to combine all of these through the various strands of my professional work (on reflection, I am needing to revisit my own website to better represent this; although I was very happy with it when I created it at the time and I have gradually added content such as my “Are You Here” project exploring family history links and the environment of Bristol and Brighton, my professional practice has evolved to represent a variety of skills).
As well as undertaking freelance illustration and digital interpretation projects in arts and heritage, and volunteering my time for Planning Aid Scotland, in my other professional persona I am currently working as Educational Co-ordinator at the University of the West of Scotland, on the Digital Commonwealth project. This is a project which is designed to help marginalised communities (such as those who live in areas of socio-economic deprivation) develop digital media literacy skills using readily available technology and tools. The project is framed around the digital reporting of Queen’s Baton Relay for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, with projects based around the topics of people, place, culture and exchange. I have been really impressed with the creative results of the #walkmyworld project beginning to be shared on Twitter and it made me even more excited about the possible results of planned creative digital media projects which will take place as part of the Digital Commonwealth project!
Here are some of my favourite #Walkmyworld posts so far:
Vine poetry:
Happy Twitter dogs!
I think my rescued pups Watson and Tyson are ready to #walkmyworld with #ENGL3241! pic.twitter.com/tOMg7T5GJD
— Caitlyn Keller (@CatierayeK) January 13, 2014
More dogs (but Vine):
The wonders of Islay:
#islay#beauty#lifeisbeautiful#glen#loch#oa#scotland#walkmyworld#happy#nature#winter#island#lifepic.twitter.com/mJEHbfRlBE
— Emma Revie (@EmmaReviex) January 16, 2014
The fabulous benefits of creating enthusiastic online communities!
“@_mlsg: #walkmyworld the kids who I inspire, continue to push and inspire me. pic.twitter.com/A6qKmd0Giz” #eng152
— Molly Shields (@ShieldsMolly) January 18, 2014
Happy exploring, creating, learning and sharing!
How to escape a cyberman
One of the most amusing Doors Open Day tours I did was of the BBC Scotland building in Glasgow when there was a Dr. Who contingent in residence. Being within arms length of a cyberman is enough to terrify even the biggest of weans. The building was something we had seen from outside many times, but only seen inside “on the telly”. The tour allowed us to see the famous thinking sheds, the view from the roof and also the stepped steel and stone interior which is sometimes used for interviews. We also learnt that cybermen appear not to be able to look up!.
Staring at diamonds
On a recent visit to St. Annes on Sea my mum and I spent an extraordinary amount of time staring at little metal triangles and diamonds. Why?!? Well, if you look closely you can see the mark of a Glasgow architectural metalwork firm on this seaside shelter. This makers mark confirms that a little bit of the West of Scotland has travelled to the North West of England. For a cultural planner and architectural tourist such as myself, a lovely treat to see a set of bandstand, pavilion, drinking fountain and shelter all in a row. I have also seen this ironwork as far away as Darjeeling in India, and as close as Dumfries where beautiful fountains can be seen, adorned with cherubs, animals and plants (and even full size walruses in the case of Paisley Grand Fountain!). Happy iron spotting!
Crenellated Arts 