This morning we had our MSAP Christmas Market. The idea was that we would be selling our projects to our tutors, 5th years and anyone else who was visiting. There was lots of food and mulled wine to go along with the projects and I think I went really overboard with the gingerbread!
We did it in the form of speed dating in which we spent 5 minutes talking about our project and trying to communicate it as clearly as possible. It was good to have to summarise my project as I then had to focus on the most important ideas.
Afterwards when the 5th years had passed on their feedback to our tutors, we had short tutorials. The general feedback was that I need to focus more on what I am going to do rather than what I have done. I do however really need to make links between everything I have done and tie it all together, making sure that it is relevant and everyone reading through my project knows that it's relevant and why.
The other thing that I need focus on is backing up my argument: Why am I focusing on the stay at home women of Cheetham Hill? This was what I wanted to achieve with an event but I also need to start reading into it and I will be able to really focus my programme and take it forward. It might be worth talking to friends back at home with reference to staying at home.
Yesterday, we had our individual tutorials in studio.
As well as discussing our study tours, we've also began to think about our personal manifestos for our individual projects.
I haven't really given much though to my project since Newcastle but after re-reading though our manifesto (in an attempt to edit it) I began to make links between the manifesto and my trip.
The major link was the five aspects that we wanted to focus on and the five elements in Lynch's text. While the first makes up a community, the other makes up the city. I think that this is a strong idea that can be used in my manifesto and I want to look further into it.
I also want to look closer at my visit to Byker estate in an attempt to see what makes a community project work and what doesn't. When it was first proposed and built, the project was ground breaking but further down the line and it seems to have fallen into disrepair and I can't help but feel that it doesn't function as well as it did when first built.
As a group, we still have a little bit of editing to do on our manifesto and this is something that we were working on today. We identified what needed sorting and improving and after much discussion, we assigned ourself tasks and are aiming to finish it by Sunday (Monday at the very latest if rearranging is needed). This evening, as well as working on the group blog, I am going to look at market typology. The idea is that I will map out different markets and similar arrangements and we will then be able to compare them. This is something I am going to continue tomorrow when I go to the Arndale Market and Church Street Market. Tonight though, I am going to map out the Victoria Baths Craft Fair that I attended at the weekend as a slightly different type of market.
