aspire to enquire

Bless our Union

Dissertation time is well and truly upon me, with a first draft due in on Friday. It's the same day as my CHI application is due in, so it's looking like a busy week ahead. 

Part of what I'm focusing on is whether Students' Unions could, if organised and funded accordingly, act as a new kind of 'Public Sphere' as Habermas first described. 

So as a little bit of highly unscientific research, I put up a little message in my college Library last week. It will literally contribute to one line of text, and although I'm doing a lot of primary research through interviews and such, I felt it would be ok, for this particular point to use this method.

Here's my notice on a whiteboard in the library space:

I asked people to say whether they agreed with one of 5 different statements:

1. I'm aware how my Students' Union is run and managed, and I frequently get involved.
2. I'm aware how my Students' Union is run and managed, but I feel no need to get involved. 
3. I am not aware how my Students' Union is run and managed, but I know where I could find out.
4. I am not aware how my Students' Union is run or managed, and I have no idea how to find out. 
5. I have no inertest in my Students' Union, and do not care how it is run or managed.  

The results, quite frankly, were a little unfortunate:

 

Oh dear.

Someone's even added a new line; 'I feel un-represented by my union' !

We did a similar question when I was at Sussex, and although the results weren't quite this bad, we still went out of our way afterwards to try and understand what exactly the problem was. Is is just information based, or is the problem more that the Union isn't doing what it's students require of it, a more fundamental failing.

Hopefully the research I pull up in my dissertation will provide some sort of benchmark idea that could then be used to asses which it is in UWIC's case: Are we (students) all just really ignorant, or is our Union fundamentally failing us? And does it matter?

Pay peanuts, get interns

It's been nearly 2 weeks now since I arrived back in Cardiff after spending most of the summer in the USA. Aside from starting a new job (actually, it's the old job, except now I'm 'supervisor') and going back to uni for my scary final year, I've had a little time to reflect on the experience.

So it turns out, I had a really great time. I have this hazy memory of considering this post while I was still there, during days when I felt ready to pack up and book an earlier flight home. I considered writing about how flawed the intern system is, how the fashion world would crumble without it, etc., But listening to people like Sara talk about their own experiences made me think again about what I'd really be criticising.

I think I can now admit that I was interning at a PR and Production company based in the Chelsea area of NYC. I had to be careful about saying it for a while, because I was worried about immigration issues and such. The company work with some amazing fashion labels, as well as a whole load of clients from the art world. It's that interdisciplinary focus and client base that really got me excited about going there, and there was the opportunity to work on events relating to NY Fashion Week, which was just before I flew home. (I also got the chance to go to Interesting NYC which was awesome.)

As it turns out, there's not much opportunity for interdisciplinary thinking as an intern. There's a lot of opportunity to handle amazing clothes, scan magazine spreads of those amazing clothes, deliver those clothes around NY by subway, and walk the length of the city delivering invites because you're cheaper than a messenger. And when you do work on events, you're privileged enough to be the last person out of the building, having spent the past 2 hours taking out the trash while the actual staff sit and point out that there's still some more bags round the corner.

Actually, here's a little anecdote about that event. Those of you who know me in real life will know I've worked in Bars and clubs for most of my working life. Before that I was in construction and stone restoration for a while. All the while I'd been working on musical ventures like live events and tours. All of this, save the construction work, is in my CV. So I was surprised to hear the surprise from one of my 'employers' that I'd "done this before" when cleaning up a bar area. Especially when he'd been my main point of contact throughout the organisation of my time there. He told me he was impressed how professional I looked, that it made them look good and what would they do when I left etc. I'm sure some of that was just mindless stuff you say to interns when they're doing something you don't want to do yourself, but obviously, we're usually not even qualified to empty an ice bucket.  

But despite all the tedium, It's the clients, and the events we did for them (well, the ones I was invited to) that I remember most fondly, and I'm hoping I learned something from. The experience of working in the city and seeing it more like a local will be unforgettable, and I love the New York design aesthetic. 

It was my dad who made me really realise what a great time I had. It's so easy in the UK, and even easier for my dad, to make sweeping generalisations about fat americans, big cars, shootings, whatever, but I feel like we're missing the point unless we actually go out there and see it. I had no idea, for example, that he was such an expert of the food hygiene codes of NYC and the nuances of federal vs state law. Yes, there were a lot of big cars. And I saw a few fat people, sure. But I also met a whole bunch of people who were more open, more welcoming, more easy going than most British people, and actually who ate far more healthily than we'd give them credit for. And especially more healthily than my dad.

So what next? Well I was hoping that all the holidays I've been filling with work experience will result in some fantastic upper-entry-level job when I graduate next year, but once again blog world has made me stop and have a think about that. My ideal graduate scheme with my favouritest creative agency doesn't even exist, So maybe I will end up back in unpaid work land. It will be all the more tragic this time; I'll have a degree and no idea what I'm doing with the rest of my life. At least at the moment there's graduation to aim for.

So it seems every time I go somewhere new, I'm back at square one, back to being another intern. After 2 or 3 months I've begun to start proving myself, and then I'm off again. 

Rep's rant

At the beginning of this school year I was made D&AD rep for my year, which is kind of cool. I wasn't voted in by my course mates or anything, just picked by staff, but still, it's been really nice to get the emails and the student annual from last year. I've also made use of the cheap subscriptions (to Eye and Campaign, since you ask) as well as the President's Lectures earlier this term.

So basically, it's been really good for me. The problem is, the term 'rep' tends to mean that you make it good for the people you're representing as well, and that's been a bit of a problem. Firstly, I was meant to get people to join D&AD, but none of the staff at UWIC really knew that was what I was doing. Fine, I signed a few people up and talked to a few others so at least they know about it for next year.

It was suggested by D&AD that we hold regular drop-in surgeries for students with D&AD questions and stuff in general. What do I know about either.

Reps were invited to the awards, but tickets were like £150 or something.

Fourthly, I've been invited to a few events, but the first one was prohibitively far from Cardiff. So I didn't go, and the next one is next week; a private view at New Blood, and then a feedback and evaluation session the next day with some of the judges. It's basically an awesome introduction to our third year, and it's something I'll actually be able to feed back on to the rest of my year. It looks like it could be the most worthwhile D&AD thing for the reps.

But I can't afford to go. I'm going to Interesting2008 on Saturday (which I'm really excited about) and the prospect of a 4-day stay in London at an as-yet-undetermined location is not making my bank balance happy.

I don't think it's unreasonable, as it's a rep thing, to ask my course to cover at least some of the costs. The response the other day was 'but you'll be there anyway' - I'll be there 2 days beforehand, with nowhere to stay and on a cheap day return... 

I'm pretty much seeing it as a massive missed opportunity right now.

It seems pointless to have reps, for anything, if you're not going to actually support them or at least facilitate their proper functioning. Especially if you're quoted at the top of the University Network page on D&AD. 

This applies to the course reps too, and ultimately, the Students' Union. Everyone seems to see the Union as a bit of a joke, which it is, but without constructive engagement and proper funding it's unlikely to get anywhere, is it?

I'd love to know what other people think about this. Sorry about slight rant.

Evening Tweed

Evening Tweed are a collective I found through swissmiss, who picked up on the website for the 2008 Brighton degree shows for Graphic Design and Illustration. I'm beginning to understand why they wouldn't even see me unless I had an Art Foundation. 

Anyway back to Evening Tweed, who are a collective of students at the University. And their work is A-MAZING. Like, REALLY GOOD. 

Not only is all their work awesome (like, awesome), but they have managed to get together and decide to form this little collective and put a website together. They all get fancy email addresses, a healthy bit of cross promotion, and it all looks fantastically professional. They have a blog, too. I'm pretty much really impressed.

This seems like such a sensible idea, I'm wondering why we don't see more of it. I know that if I hadn't been busy with other things, I would probably have my own little site together, but I don't think any of us had even considered a group web page, even though we had been told in the first year that it might be a good idea to get together and discuss work with friends from time to time.

Unfortunately, the only person who ever suggests those kinds of things makes it sound like attending a burmese torture camp, so they never usually happen. I guess that's a danger; of sounding too keen, even if it is a good idea.

If attending Brighton wasn't enough, this sort of thing will probably really help their graduation into job prospects.

Summer Ball 2008

It was the Cardiff School of Art and Design (CSAD) Summer Ball on Sunday.

It was an event that a little group of us at the Llandaff Campus put together in response to what we thought was a real need for art students. Here we all are just before doors on Sunday:

The build up to the event went pretty smoothly, with publicity like the poster above getting good coverage, we had emails to all CSAD students, facebook groups and even our own minisite. The flyers had a different design but followed the same theme:

And our tickets were rather lovely too, if I do say so:

On the day, it all went smoothly as well, completely on schedule with no unexpected events or responses needed.

And once it got going, it was a lot of fun! here's the team again serving the welcome drinks:

Everyone there seemed to be having an awesome time, I don't think anyone was there saying "what a waste of money". Weirdly, a lot of people said things like "I didn't realise there'd be jazz" (see poster above), which made me wonder if people ever read anything they're given, and other people seemed really surprised that it was as good as they thought. Again, well, whatever.

Sadly, we didn't sell nearly enough tickets. We were kind of on target for one campus, maybe 30 or so below what we would have liked, maybe 60 below what would have been brilliant.

At Howard Gardens Campus, however, where most of the Art and Design teaching at UWIC goes on, we sold a grand total of 14 tickets. An insanely low amount.

At Llandaff we had the benefit of having organised 2 successful events in the past, and we also had the word of mouth factor. But even when we were on campus at HG people were really rude and dismissive of the whole thing.

Perhaps art students are too superior for any kind of ball, but that's why we organised a CSAD specific ball - no 'drink the bar dry' (especially as that event is £12.50!! - ours was only £18), 'naked tuesdays' or anything like that that the Students' Union traditionally endorses here. We were well below our break even target of 200, and with no backing from the Union or the University, that was a bit unfortunate. A fair bit of my New York money gone.

But we needed to take the decision a few weeks previously to carry on as planned. The event had to be awesome so that whoever picks up the baton next year has a firm grounding a reputation to build on. We couldn't cancel as we would have lost the money anyway, it was advance deposits and publicity that lost us the money. The ticket sales paid for everything else on the night. Hopefully next year they'll get the support of Howard Gardens.

They'll also have the benefit of hindsight and everyone will actually go after the sponsorship that they said they would. We only came back with one sponsor. Four more mid-range sponsors (at £250 each) would have saved the night.

The rest of the team bought me a bottle of rum and made me a card, which was really touching. It was a team effort so I don't think any of us were really expecting anything back. If we had made a profit, it was to go towards things like showing at New Designers, which usually requires a lot of student fund-raising.

So here's to everyone who organised the show, and to everyone who came along. Special mentions should also go to The Point, the staff at CSAD, the people at Function Junction, and the fabulous Matt Price Quintet.

Here's us after the clean up the next day, indulging in a well deserved breakfast

I think events like this are crucial to a University experience. As any liberal middle-ager will tell you, University is as much about the experience of growing up and moving away as it is about learning. At UWIC, due to the nature of the uni, a lot of people haven't come very far from home. The campus environment is very geared to teaching as well, there's not a lot of suitable space for comfortable independent study or for socialising. So a lot of students will come on for their set lecture times and then go home again. I think that really impedes group work and class contributions. If people have the opportunity to see each other outside of that formal environment, they're going to come back the the class a lot more comfortable with each other, a lot more respect, and a much greater willingness to work with each other and get the most out of their student experience.

What's your 1968

Props to my mum who managed to get herself into G2 today in an article full of recollections of 'the protests that rocked the world'

My mother, Annabelle Harle, who could have been "any one of numerous McGowan-haired young women in Grosvenor Square" talks about her recollection of the events and the lasting impressions they made:



That's cool for my mum as she'll no doubt gain many cool points amongst her fellow Guardianistas and the more liberal-minded politicians that she works with, but it also raises interesting questions for me about the value of experiences in forming identity.

 

She says that her "political views have not changed" since then and I wonder how many people that is true for. Although it's in a far less distant past, I think the time I really settled my political opinions was at Sussex, whilst Communications Officer for the Students' Union. A good helping of collectivism, an endeavour to be as inclusive and representative as possible, whilst at the same time trying to look a bit swish and raise a bit of money through commercial activities. 

I think it's highly unlikely that something like 1968 will happen again, for various reasons, so, today's 17 year-olds might not get the same experiences as mum, in that form. In today's political climate, how will they form their political opinions? What will motivate them to believe in causes? An alternative question might be: Will they form any political opinion or support any causes?

From the way politicians are scrambling about trying to 'engage youth' all the time, I think it's probably the latter question that needs more attention. It's a question that I look forward to exploring while I write my dissertation.

What's your 1968?

Finally, sorry if anything looks a little weird in today's post, typepad have gone all 'rich text' and its a little unsettling. All back on track soon, I hope.

Grow

'Grow' is the title of the upcoming end-of-2nd-year exhibition for students on the BA Graphic Communications programme here at UWIC.

It will feature work from all students (around 30) and from what I've seen so far it's going to be really strong. Definitely worth coming along if you are about from 19th 23rd May.

There's a flash flyer here, which was made by Chris Welsby, Daniel Rawle, Alex Harper and Dave Cuvelot. Good work, I think it's brilliant.

It's great that the course and university allow us to exhibit at this stage in our learning. Our work will obviously not be up to graduate standard, but it will be useful to see the work in that context, and talk to visitors about it. Hopefully, the process in itself will help us refine our working methods and thinking when we come to the all important third year.

Here's another link to the flash flyer, which opens in a new window. (Sorry it's a full size window for the time-being.)

American College ad

An idea for UWIC's next marketing push, perhaps?

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Are these real students

A few other blogs that I read occasionally post pictures of students visiting their offices for a tour and a chat about the company's work. I'm using posts from Noisy Decent Graphics and welcome to optimism as examples.

The things that strike me about these two posts are:

There are no bored-looking students with nothing to say.
There are no greasy students with stupid t-shirts and hoodies on.
Everyone looks like they want to be there.

Are there universities where this happens? Is it just a third year thing? I'm so confused.

It looks fun though, we had an awesome visit to Purpose last year which might have been one of the best things that's happened on the course. Those visits and talks are always so inspiring.

Basil Spence Modern Master

Whilst I was on Work Experience I stayed up at Sussex University, where I first attempted studying and later worked for the Students' Union. Aside from a great logo^(pdf), the university is blessed by being the only HE institution in the UK situated (adopt 'this phrase has been stupidly over-used' sarcasm tone now) entirely in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

This is quite awesome in itself, with beautiful walks around the South Downs easily accessible whilst still minutes away from Brighton. But what I really like about the campus, which I only really noticed when I got back there after a few years away, is the architectural style of Basil Spence, which makes up probably 70% of the buildings on campus.

With Falmer House as the grade 1 listed centerpiece, Spence was able to create from scratch a beautiful learning environment for a new university with a modern outlook. There are beautiful spaces, both inside and out:

Some of the spaces evoke a sense of the earlier environments of Oxford and Cambridge, with their traditional vaulted cloisters and courtyards:

Even the more functional buildings have real stylistic qualities to them:

This is the lecture theatre building for Arts A, it's just two lecture theatres divided by a stepped walkway. That's Library Square (or 'Fulton Court') in the foreground, they use it for market on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (well they used to, it might be Falmer House now)

But Arts A was originally meant to look like this:

This design was apparently abandoned because of cost. So there are traditions at Sussex, after all.

One thing that really brings the buildings to life for me is the use of texture in the materials. Spence apparently specified that the builders use wood with a heavy grain to box in the concrete moulds. The result is this effect that I've also seen at National Theatre. I think it's a really interesting juxtaposition.

This next image was of a face of Falmer House, using local flint all cut and faced out - it's really rather lovely and seems to be a very early example of the whole 'inspired by local materials' thing that crops up in new public buildings all over the shop.

If you look up that section, it looks like this:

Again, really awesome, juxtaposition, etc etc.

The Meeting House, which is a non-denominational spiritual centre on campus, is another listed building, but it only gets grade 2 (star, I think). This pattern all the way round the 1st floor chapel (the building is circular) reminds me a lot of some of the work of Gerhard Richter:

I'm sure you can imagine the effects both inside in daylight, and outside at nighttime, when these coloured windows really shine.

The building styles kind of deviated a little between the 80s and 2000s, but it's really encouraging that new buildings are a modern homage to Spence's style. The new Swanborough residences (named after a big house that the university sold to cover up it's financial problems a few years ago), are definitely built in his language with a strong dialogue between concrete and red brick, even referencing the strands of windows of differing widths. The covered walkways along Refectory Road remind me a little of his Hutchesontown buildings in Glasgow as part of the Gorbals development.

I do hope that the other new buildings follow this trend, because it's really powerful. and enhances Sussex's real character. These buildings are going to be around for a long time and Sussex will have something really special to offer in 50-100 years' time as one of the few universities of it's age that have a real, tangible character. The staff and student ethos there, the types of courses they (used to) run, and the buildings and visual language of the prospectuses really resonate for me. I haven't seen another Uni that really has the potential to have it all. Kent was nice, but it's spread all over the place. Bath Spa has the odd nice building but again is a mismatch of painfully cheaply-built 60s buildings and old-style bath stone manors that were there anyway. It's all about Sussex.

While I'm on the subject of new buildings, I'm going to finish this post on a little gem that I found whilst reading up on that Arts A redesign. A useful quote for anyone still involved in the Students' Union there about their possible relocation. I'm not a particular fan of the idea, I have to say, and this quote definitely works for me:

"[first Vice-Chancellor] Fulton proposed that one of the first buildings of the universiy campus should be a social building which provided a place for students and staff to eat, to mix, to debate and to relax. ... This social building, College House (re-named Falmer House in 1961), was conceived as performing a dual role, signalling a university which was determinedly non-collegial - or perhaps neo-collegial - in its structure, while providing students with a physical base and a sense of the institution... Fulton's desire to forge a distinctive 'Sussex esprit' and academic identity found a responsive echo in his architect. Spence's description of Falmer House in terms of a gatehouse or grand entrance giving a foretaste of what lay beyond, ... suggests his engagement with Fulton's ideas."

This is why the Students' Union (with their rubbish website) should stay in Falmer House, and while it should be completely refurbished to emulate Spence's work. It would be a really on-message introduction to campus visitors. Yes.

I think if Spence were around today, he'd definitely be up there with your Fosters and Hadids, He has about 5 massive projects behind him, and if you consider the scale of some of them, they must have taken years to just draw up - these days I imagine with computers doing a lot of the calculations and drawings, he could have been far more prolific. I know nothing about architectural practice though. But Coventry Cathedral, the British Embassy in Rome, the Gorbals, the barracks in Hyde Park, The bits down the bottom of Royal Mile in Edinburgh, all huge, all Spence.

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with it. All photos, except for the black and white one, are by me over the past few years. apologies for the lighting in some, the sun was going down and my camera was responding quite oddly.