Ahead of them was a local cafe, popular with locals and visitors alike. They'd struggled through the market to get there, undulating sails of black and white tarpaulin sloshed with the spitty rain that hadn't stopped in three weeks. A grey day for a grey city, the cafe's yellow plastic chairs, familiar squeezy nozzled bottles and salt and pepper shakers were a relief to their colour-starved eyes. They sat down and shook off cold and coats. A pair of elderly ladies followed them in, greeted by all the customers as they came to sit in what could only be their usual places. "Hello Tilly" said one, "Hello Milly" said the other. The women were dressed identically, with nineteen-eighties style velour jackets with gold fabric-pen detailing on the elbows. One wore a hat. Both ordered tea. Frank and Sandy watched, mesmerised, as the two lit up, perfectly synchronised, and sat back to enjoy their afternoon.
"Alright mate, what can I get ya?" The cafe owner was leaning in a friendly fashion over her immaculate plasticometallic counter.
"Umm, two teas, ham egg and chips and...?"
"A veggie fry-up please."
"No problem tiger be with ya in two ticks"
She moved away to follow up on the order and to deliver two brimming mugs to TIlly and Milly.
"Veggie eh?"
"Yep."
He looked bemused. Goodness knows why, he knew she was - it was part of the reason why he'd found her interesting. Silly thing, memory and it's trickery.
"So here's a napkin and here's a pen." She drew a beetle and let him look at it.
"An artist as well!"
"Yes. This is my interpretation of your story."
With that she sent the napkin spinning across the well-greased table. The napkin span and the beetle turned into a disc of black and white, all legs and arms, until it took flight and found itself under Tilly's elbow.
She hadn't noticed.
The two sniggered.
Milly gave them a look, and then a wink.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
todayiamashopassistant
todayiamashopassistant
Got up, showered and donned my gear: make up. Pretty understated, but necessary, foundation, eyeliner (dark brown, thick lines like in the sixties), lip balm. Put on tights. Black. Skirt – pencil style, hangs below the knee, two slits at the back to ease movement when tottering. Shirt: wraparound, silver lines going through, black jacket, Sgt Pepper style with brass buttons. Phew. Ready. Black raincoat, wrapped around waist and tied. Orange scarf (dash of colour) chequered black hat with black ribbon detail. Handbag and pristine paper bag with bold black print to carry magazine and diary (oversized for bag). Check handbag for essentials: travel pass, lip balm, eyeliner, purse, notebook, passport, National Insurance Card. Check checkitty check.
Look in the mirror, ready to go.
Walking down the road in my new gear I feel as though people must think I’m someone else. For the first time in a long time I feel an equal with other young female tube travelers, pristine hair, manicured, nice teeth, un-scuffed shoes. Looking down I notice I don’t really pass at all, my boots, nice as they are, are terribly scuffed.
Totter over almost as look up to take in the view of London. Maybe the trick is to stay looking forwards. Certainly feels that way. Pick my heels up, they clonk a few times and make a special spangly sound on the grills beneath my feet. Wow I’m noisy.
Tit tot tot tot down Oxford Street, weaving in and out of the pedestrian shoppers, til I reach Margaret Street. A classy street with high buildings and white walls, neat entrances and a feeling that I’ve stepped into the past. Not finding the door immediately brings me rapidly into the present. Aha. Buzz.
“Hello it’s Catherine Fean, I’ve come to see Penelope?”
“Come in, first floor.”
Buzz.
As I walk in I remember the small office, the friendly staff. A nice recruitment agency, definitely more approachable and personal than Adecco for instance.
The layout hasn’t changed much, but there are fairy lights bordering the entrance to the MD’s office, and Christmas cards pepper the available sideboards (dado rail or did I imagine that?) of this converted terraced house. I meet Penny and Helen, who deal with the retail side of the operation.
“Hello, sorry, cold hand”
“Oh don’t worry, it is cold out there.”
“If you’d like to come with me, I just need you to fill in some tax forms.”
I am ushered through to a small room lined on the right hand side with beige filing cabinets, topped again with Christmassy things: definitely a tree, lots of cards, and some promotional material about the company and its special offers: Performance, Retail, Administration. On the far wall above the computer testing equipment, there is an art piece made of reclaimed pieces of wood, painted bright red and teal in places: a donation from an admiring student perhaps. A creative agency. I know of them because they supply temps to CSM. When I left my old job to start the course I met with Alison Jones, the MD, to talk about working part-time at a different college. That was about two years ago, and she had said if I ever needed extra cash to tide me over, they did recruit retail temps for Harvey Nics, Harrods and Selfridges.
Filled in the forms and did a small maths test: quite scary really, haven’t done maths in years. Remembered calculator on phone and felt a lot better. As I was waiting for forms and photocopies, Helen and Penny were chatting happily through the closed door, things about skiing holidays and Christmas Shopping.
Then once the forms were done, they both came in to interview me. I replaced the copy of Glamour that I’d been flicking through for the past few minutes and it greeted its friends Vogue August 2005, other Vogues, none of them current, Elle magazine. I was slightly irritated that there weren’t any up-to-date, possibly because I wanted to check my star sign.
Penny sat in front of me, Helen back and to the left. The interview commenced. God I feel quite nervous. Echoes of many moons ago when I’d apply for temp work suddenly returned: I suppose I’ve not been to an interview in a while, but this one was particularly strange, I felt kind of shy and hopeful, just like when I was sixteen.
Penny has a bob haircut, chestnut hair and smiling red lipstick lips. She has extremely kind eyes and a nice official manner. Helen looks pretty bored, sat alongside, hunched over although her long limbs deserve to be kept upright, straight and shown off. Possibly shy, after a few smiles she seems to perk up a bit.
I can’t remember the interview now, so I’ll list the parts that stood out.
+++
"First of all Catherine we love your name, how did that come about?"
"Some of these customers know exactly what they want when they’re there, and simply need you to provide that for them. Others may need some help. If they come to you, they’ll be stressed, they might not know if it looks good, they need your help and attention. If it looks god-awful make sure you let them know in a discreet fashion. Russian businessmen will be straight in there and straight back out again, but they have to get the Harrods bag. They’ll know their wives shoe size, they’ll want it now, and fast and boom they lay down the money and they’re gone, hopefully happy after your good service."
"I’ve worked with a lot of Arabs and underneath their gowns they’re wearing top designer labels. They’ll come in with their husbands, or sometimes on their own. The husband might think she’s only going to buy one thing but you can (quick motion of moving merchandise along the counter) help her to buy two or three: he surely won’t notice!"
"There are a few things you need to know Catherine if you’re to work in one of these boutique concessions. The customers are entirely different: though Harrods and Harvey Nics are only twenty yards away from one another they’re a million miles away from each other in terms of the customer. Harrods has a lot of tourists. You haven’t been to London for many of these people until you’ve been to Harrods. The list would be incomplete. Harvey Nics gets its highest spend from 3pm until 7pm on weekdays. These are the women who lunch. They get up late, having been to a party last night, meet with their friends and have lunch, then shop then they have to be away by seven, in time to prepare and go out to the next party tonight."
"Harrods on the other hand, you have a diverse mix of cultures coming in and spending."
"Catherine, so why Harvey Nichols in particular?"
Well it’s the one I know the least well – I know Selfridges and I know Harrods, but I don’t particularly like Harrods: my friend took me to the food hall the other day and it looked like Disneyland. So packed! I’ve worked in boutique stores before, but not a department store so I’d like to try that, and I find the women what lunch thing fascinating.
"It’s a difficult time of year, people are stressed, they’re looking for something but they can’t find it, time’s running out, how would you deal with a difficult customer?"
Well, it’s not retail but it is servicing the customer, though a slightly different customer – I was working on the front desk and a woman who was partially sighted got upset with me because I fined her the full amount of money instead of a lower rate. She started shouting at me and saying “you think this and you think that”, I tried to calm her down, but it didn’t work so I went to get my manager, who handled the situation.
"That’s right Catherine, you failed, but actually you did the right thing. I used to work as a flight attendant for BA, and if you have an unhappy customer there’s not much you can do about it when you’re up 1000s of feet in the air with them! At BA we were always told to bring another face to the problem: these people need attention and feel a lot better when they have the full attention of two people."
She told me about the history of La Perla and the other brand that I would be working for at this point, starting with ‘made in the fifties, a hosiery luxury company which was formed in response to the fact that women were starved of hosiery during the war. She said that these hoses were in fact the best. Once you’ve worn Walford you’d never go back. Seams, a foot, it’s in the design and the manufacture. God she could walk in there tomorrow and sell the stuff. I need to do some research on these brands!
"As for La Perla, Italian, really expensive knickers and brasiers. We’ll show you the catalogues later."
"This isn’t like working for boots. These people are after something specific… and so on."
"We expect our girls (I say girls, they usually are but I’ll come on to that in a minute) to be on time and well presented. If your shift starts at one, be on the shop floor about ten minutes before booted and ready to go. Walford like you to wear make up, not excessive but nice a bit of lipstick, a bit of glamour, black or skin tights, black shoes – nothing fancy, no buckles or bells. Jewellery: no necklaces, are your ears pierced? Just studs, no danglies. (I nod). No long necklaces, one bracelet perhaps for Walford, and at Harrods they allow you to wear a string of pearls, but no other kind of jewellery."
"You’re at Central Saint Martins right now? We do say to all of our temps to remember, you may be a famous designer one day, but these people, the permanent staff, it’s their job for life. Please treat them with respect. (No problem thought I, but this did show that perhaps they’d had trouble in the past?)
If you are running late, let me or Helen know, it always sounds better coming from us than from you, and if you’re ill we can send someone else in at the last minute. We are your employer, so any extra hours etc have to be cleared (check this), and finally if you do get a call from us, we’re not just trying to find out how you’re getting on and to have a friendly chat, it’s about work. If you can do the shift say so, if not please also say so and that way we can ask the next person.
I think that’s all."
(Wow thought I)
Helen then ushered me back out of the back office, as a new potential recruit had arrived for their computer test. I checked whether or not my boots would be suitable: no. Has to be shoes. And then Alison came in and I met her again, shook Penny by the hand twice as I missed her thumb the first time (awkward but hopefully she forgot about it as soon as it had happened) then good bye and I was back tottering down the stairs, clutching my dress rehearsal sheet, specifying what to and what not to wear as a shop assistant in a luxury store.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Pillows at Dawn
Myself and a couple of friends signed up as actors for a pillowfight on Hampstead Heath, for Action Aid's Bollocks to Poverty campaign.
It was fantastic fun, we all ended up covered in mud and feathers.
Seminar Tito's Cafe London Bridge Street
Since last updating the blog a lot of thinking and direction-changing has taken place.
Following consultation with friends, family, tutors and mentors we have changed the emphasis to one more fitting with our personal interests: performance. Here's an extract from an email written after a moment of clarity:
Our Major Project looks at turning the retail space into a performance space. Our work starts from finding out what the story of a place is: in this instance we've chosen Harvey Nichols as we have a potential contact on their Strategic Marketing team. Then, we intend to create a brief with the client, using scenario building techniques and the language of theatre and performance to express a new 'future' of Harvey Nichols through a script. This script would be played out and the retail environment (or 'set') transformed so that on entering you wouldn't be sure who was 'in' or 'out' of the game. It's a really exciting project with tonnes of possibilities ... we submit the project in March 2007.
From the seminar we're clear that our next points of action are
-Understand the profile of Harvey Nichols
-Understand the narrative of Harvey Nichols
-Prepare presentation to client
-Create outputs for Work in Progress Show, 9th January 2007
-Plan story workshop
-Create contingency plan
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Shopping for a job
Some action research: hoping to work at Harvey Nichols over the Christmas Period... fingers crossed.
Images from
-MA Communication Design Work in Progress Show, June 21 2005. Claire Scully and Susie Wright (top) fly-poster outside exhibition, Catton Street, London.
-Interior shot, Graphic Design, Catton Street 1st Floor Studio, London.
-Airport Shopping poster in Zurich Airport, March 2006.
Images from
-MA Communication Design Work in Progress Show, June 21 2005. Claire Scully and Susie Wright (top) fly-poster outside exhibition, Catton Street, London.
-Interior shot, Graphic Design, Catton Street 1st Floor Studio, London.
-Airport Shopping poster in Zurich Airport, March 2006.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
In which caf makes a podcast... and very nearly gets away with it
Part of the City Centre Retail of the Future research for Arup.
This conversation ties in many of the themes we explored whilst looking into city centre retail, also interestingly airport retail, and future trends.
Ken Hollings is a writer and broadcaster with so many exciting projects on at any one time I wonder how he manages it all with such terrific energy.
Link to podcast: Arup's Foresight+Innovation+Incubation blogsite
This conversation ties in many of the themes we explored whilst looking into city centre retail, also interestingly airport retail, and future trends.
Ken Hollings is a writer and broadcaster with so many exciting projects on at any one time I wonder how he manages it all with such terrific energy.
Link to podcast: Arup's Foresight+Innovation+Incubation blogsite
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Major Project: crossing the I's and dotting the T's
Following the presentation I consulted with various mentors about where to go next. Then I came to this blank space to synthesise the feedback to share it with P.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Booklist
From Jane Tynan, Head of Cultural Studies Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design:
Find below a list of key texts as promised on consumption/ identity, advertising and consumer culture. There is much more but this is a good place to start.
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing London: Penguin, chap.7
Brewer, J. and Porter, R. (1993) Consumption and the World of Goods, chap. 2 - >J.-C. Agnew -Coming up for Air: Consumer Culture in historical perspective
Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B. (1978) The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption, chap.3
de Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley
Appadurai, A. (1986) The Social Life of Things, chap. 1
McCracken, G. (1988) Culture and Consumption (1988), chap. 5
Fine, B. (2002) The World of Consumption - chap. 3 The World of Commodities, chap 8 'What is consumer society
D. Miller, ed. (2002)Consumption: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences
D. Miller (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption
Slater, D. Consumer Culture and Modernity :
Theories of Consumer Culture - chaps. 1,7
The Consumer - Chap. 2
Ideas of the self - Campbell, chap. 3
Critiques of consumption - chap. 4
Anthropoloogy - chaps, 5,6
Williamson, J (1978) Decoding Advertisements London: Marion Boyars
Bowlby, R. (1993) Shopping with Freud
Breward, C. and Gilbert, D. (ed) Fashion¹s world cities Oxford: Berg
Breward, C. Fashioning London Oxford: Berg
Shopping Routes Project
Find below a list of key texts as promised on consumption/ identity, advertising and consumer culture. There is much more but this is a good place to start.
Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing London: Penguin, chap.7
Brewer, J. and Porter, R. (1993) Consumption and the World of Goods, chap. 2 - >J.-C. Agnew -Coming up for Air: Consumer Culture in historical perspective
Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B. (1978) The World of Goods: Towards an Anthropology of Consumption, chap.3
de Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley
Appadurai, A. (1986) The Social Life of Things, chap. 1
McCracken, G. (1988) Culture and Consumption (1988), chap. 5
Fine, B. (2002) The World of Consumption - chap. 3 The World of Commodities, chap 8 'What is consumer society
D. Miller, ed. (2002)Consumption: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences
D. Miller (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption
Slater, D. Consumer Culture and Modernity :
Theories of Consumer Culture - chaps. 1,7
The Consumer - Chap. 2
Ideas of the self - Campbell, chap. 3
Critiques of consumption - chap. 4
Anthropoloogy - chaps, 5,6
Williamson, J (1978) Decoding Advertisements London: Marion Boyars
Bowlby, R. (1993) Shopping with Freud
Breward, C. and Gilbert, D. (ed) Fashion¹s world cities Oxford: Berg
Breward, C. Fashioning London Oxford: Berg
Shopping Routes Project
Major Project: Presentation Feedback
Post-it format:
Excites
Problematic
Work with
***
Paula and Caf
- Workshops wil be really valuable to you. Having contact at Harvey Nichols
- Catch-phrasey - but you have commercial client so this kind of branding is probably fitting... maybe you are conforming though could be more critical
-can you explore your identity in a retail space? Aren't you being seduced into shop?
***
Do you want to evolve a new method or design the department store of the future? Shout if I can help in any way. Rakhi.
***
What is the area of implementation?
-Segmentation
Workshops: are the participants representative of the target group?
***
Trip to another shop - Caf & Paula
- What are you going to get after workshops?
-Are you supposed to design another retail shop system or an experience?
-Would Harvey nichols customers want to live an experience in there and which kind of experience?
***
Caf / Paula
Stay confident my dears!
Take feedback, make your changes.
Have confidence in your decisions...
***
Exciting. There is a real problem (department stores - identity crisis)
-Methodologies from other disciplines e.g.performance - but need to link up with some professional performers!
-Potential problems: Too many slogans (e.g. 'the future is..') Easily misunderstood
-Not enough tangible 'unique selling points'
Hannah
***
Department stores (high end) provides great scope for blue sky thinking, I think.
A visit to HN for workshop inspiration is important (in the space)
-Interventions?
***
Like:
Developing methodologies you have experience of using
Suggestions/ Problems:
Need to make this different
How to make it innovative
Need to research other futurecasting methods
***
Outcomes??
Scenarios and?
Rebranding?
Re-modelling?
Beleif is not enough! Proof is necessary.
Wht happens in the workshops? What are the hooks? Need the concrete stuff!
***
I love the motivation - linking narrative and retail.
At this stage it still feels very open.
What is the end result?
Future casting method?
Workshops system?
Interior design?
***
So, this is about retail future?
What's the outcome?
***
Challenging and exciting topic.
Strong ideas and research ambitions.
Very open ... would be nice to see it begin to narrow down and focus.
Be more specific about the info that you need...
Katja
***
I understand your thoughts, I just need to have clear what moves the project? Where is the gut, heart and mind?
***
Very challenging and ambitious idea but sometimes very much believable research that could be useful to any, especially highstreet retailers.
***
You both have an interesting direction.
However will the people in the workshop relate to the users at Harvey Nichols?
***
Principles in place.
Next Tuesday's workshop needs definite outcomes.
***
Excites:
Non-experts giving input on creative projects
New futures that go beyond the 'simple'
Problematic:
Theme is an order so one process. Users/ first.
***
That's better!
Much clearer idea and application of your skills and narrative (put it in a relevant context)
Using narrative and workshops as your theme is strong ... but how do you get the client to realise the narrative of their business? Seems that is the problem, not the future of.
Department Stores: What is the problem that Harvey Nichols faces? - not so clear yet
Outcome?
***
What is (are) your outcome(s)? Concept? Design? Business Strategy?
***
Excites:
There is a potential that your idea might be applied in the store
Concerns:
How unique / realistic can your outcome be? Balance between these two.
***
+
Very 'positive' approach
Fully set in what the potential of your network that the course supports is all about
More and better multidisciplinary partnerships.
-
Beyond the "collaboration" and "workshops" what drives the way (the how) you can dream, invent, visualise the future to influence the present?
For who? (Like Yuval) for the store or for the user? Both? Why not ASDA??
***
I used to devise workshops with the Bow Arts Trust to devise brands based on what students were passionate about. If I can help let me know! Suki
***
+ Department store (specific)
- Future is not here
(External Examiner)
Excites
Problematic
Work with
***
Paula and Caf
- Workshops wil be really valuable to you. Having contact at Harvey Nichols
- Catch-phrasey - but you have commercial client so this kind of branding is probably fitting... maybe you are conforming though could be more critical
-can you explore your identity in a retail space? Aren't you being seduced into shop?
***
Do you want to evolve a new method or design the department store of the future? Shout if I can help in any way. Rakhi.
***
What is the area of implementation?
-Segmentation
Workshops: are the participants representative of the target group?
***
Trip to another shop - Caf & Paula
- What are you going to get after workshops?
-Are you supposed to design another retail shop system or an experience?
-Would Harvey nichols customers want to live an experience in there and which kind of experience?
***
Caf / Paula
Stay confident my dears!
Take feedback, make your changes.
Have confidence in your decisions...
***
Exciting. There is a real problem (department stores - identity crisis)
-Methodologies from other disciplines e.g.performance - but need to link up with some professional performers!
-Potential problems: Too many slogans (e.g. 'the future is..') Easily misunderstood
-Not enough tangible 'unique selling points'
Hannah
***
Department stores (high end) provides great scope for blue sky thinking, I think.
A visit to HN for workshop inspiration is important (in the space)
-Interventions?
***
Like:
Developing methodologies you have experience of using
Suggestions/ Problems:
Need to make this different
How to make it innovative
Need to research other futurecasting methods
***
Outcomes??
Scenarios and?
Rebranding?
Re-modelling?
Beleif is not enough! Proof is necessary.
Wht happens in the workshops? What are the hooks? Need the concrete stuff!
***
I love the motivation - linking narrative and retail.
At this stage it still feels very open.
What is the end result?
Future casting method?
Workshops system?
Interior design?
***
So, this is about retail future?
What's the outcome?
***
Challenging and exciting topic.
Strong ideas and research ambitions.
Very open ... would be nice to see it begin to narrow down and focus.
Be more specific about the info that you need...
Katja
***
I understand your thoughts, I just need to have clear what moves the project? Where is the gut, heart and mind?
***
Very challenging and ambitious idea but sometimes very much believable research that could be useful to any, especially highstreet retailers.
***
You both have an interesting direction.
However will the people in the workshop relate to the users at Harvey Nichols?
***
Principles in place.
Next Tuesday's workshop needs definite outcomes.
***
Excites:
Non-experts giving input on creative projects
New futures that go beyond the 'simple'
Problematic:
Theme is an order so one process. Users/ first.
***
That's better!
Much clearer idea and application of your skills and narrative (put it in a relevant context)
Using narrative and workshops as your theme is strong ... but how do you get the client to realise the narrative of their business? Seems that is the problem, not the future of.
Department Stores: What is the problem that Harvey Nichols faces? - not so clear yet
Outcome?
***
What is (are) your outcome(s)? Concept? Design? Business Strategy?
***
Excites:
There is a potential that your idea might be applied in the store
Concerns:
How unique / realistic can your outcome be? Balance between these two.
***
+
Very 'positive' approach
Fully set in what the potential of your network that the course supports is all about
More and better multidisciplinary partnerships.
-
Beyond the "collaboration" and "workshops" what drives the way (the how) you can dream, invent, visualise the future to influence the present?
For who? (Like Yuval) for the store or for the user? Both? Why not ASDA??
***
I used to devise workshops with the Bow Arts Trust to devise brands based on what students were passionate about. If I can help let me know! Suki
***
+ Department store (specific)
- Future is not here
(External Examiner)
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Narrative and Forecasting: in which Pooh frames future thinking
"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't."
At the Hotels of the Future workshop, Copenhagen 29-30 November 2006, Francesca Birks asked Chris Luebkeman to use this image as a prompt to talk about the future. Stop to think.
The 'perhaps there isn't' is something we intend to challenge.
image sourced from Dreambook: Minka's Bear Passion, a website dedicated to cuddly toys and famous bears...
Monday, December 04, 2006
Major Project: from concept to schematic design ... and beyond
In our Trip to Another Shop presentation we gave an outline of the larger scheme of the project. Over the past month we have been narrowing it down to a more manageable size. These images show work in progress.
An email from Tricia Austin, course director, explaining planning for this year:
I enclose the timetables for 2007 as you requested.
Spring Term 8th Jan- 14th March
Summer Term16th April-20th June- please note you will need to come in
the following week beginning 25th June to dismantle the show and get
your assessment feedback.
Some students asked what they need to hand in for the end of the
schematic stage. That is next Wednesday. You need to do a presentation
to the staff and 1st years. There is no hand in.
Arnaud wrote some useful advice to his students for next Wednesday which
I enclose below.
Re next Wednesday, you will have 5 minutes each to present. Everyone in
the audience will be asked to write on a post-it note saying
1) what excites them about the project?
2) what problems they see with the project?
3) would they want to participate in the project?
We won't have verbal feedback because we'll all be writing feedback.
Every 8 presentations we will get up and stick our comments sheets of
flip chart paper, one for each person. Everyone should there for get
approx 50 comments on their work. You will be providing tea and buscuits
for those get up and walk round interludes. You are each bringing a
bottle of wine for a post crit drink with the first years.
You will have the Christams Holiday to act on the comments in
preparation for the work in progress show on 9th January.
Best wishes
Tricia
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Urban Picture Conference Write-up for RUDI
(pictures to be added)
The Urban Picture is a wider concept than simply a screen on a building. A picture can be made up of pixels, people or networks. It encompasses more than three dimensions. Architecture, LED curtains and wireless networks were discussed in relation to cutting-edge projects created by the eminent set of speakers and delegates at The Urban Picture: The moving image in the public environment. Co-organised by landor conferences and Art&Architecture Journal, the event took place Thursday 6 July 2006 in London.
Conference report by Caf Fean
City as Screen
(quotation slide)
Shane Walters
Director
Onedotzero
(screen grab)
Transvision onedotzero_V&A 2006
Shane Walters
“You can learn more about film-making in architecture than in film school these days.” Shane Walter, Director of onedotzero (www.onedotzero.com) encourages us to think beyond “just screens” – the city is a place for generating new ideas: “user interaction is where we’re going, rather than just passive.” We need to be transported outside of our comfort zone: to challenge. Artists featured in this report do just that.
(3 slides)
United Visual Artists: monolith
Transvision V+A
Onedotzero
2006
The screen responds to people in proximity. This worked so well in the V&A – imagine it in the city.
(Courtesy of Shane Walter onedotzero)
Jason Bruges: visual echo
Trans_vision
Onedotzero
A twenty-foot long piece made up of LEDs. Responsive to colour: wave red scarf at one end, see colour traverse across.
Jason Bruges – Litmus
Giant structures responding to environmental stimuli
(2 slides)
onedotzero industries: U2 Vertigo Tour
Greyworld: Flowerwall – research project
The screen responds to your movement and flowers bloom across it.
Mirjam Struppek, Amsterdam-based Urbanist and Curator of Urban Screens 05 (www.urbanscreens.org , www.interactionfield.de), suggests, “the public space is the city’s medium for communicating with itself… a sphere for people engaging, somewhere that should improve quality of life.” She discussed participatory design, referencing public consultation projects (www.remappinghighwycombe.blogspot.com, www.resiteprojects.de ,
www.oboro.tv/resitemontreal), that inspired public response and debate. Video screens create communal connection. She also pointed out the proliferation of screens already present in the built environment: they’re used mainly for advertising or service, and are not platforms for interaction and participation. How can we find more creative ways of interacting with the public? “Public space is most healthy if it has a large mixture.”
Creative Cities, creative content
Creative industries project, Brisbane
courtesy of Mirjam Struppek
“A community values relevance of content and can make intelligent choices accordingly” said Steve Manthorp, Co-ordinator of Digital North & Board Director of Film and Video Umbrella (www.manthorp.co.uk).
“Video screens are creating a communal connection through joint electronic entertainment, music, … we need something more than constant short-term stimulation.” Mirjam Struppek questioned the mix of commercial with non-commercial content and asked for something other than “just art cookies in-between commercial images.” Shane Walters agreed that content and experience in combination are all-important and often get lost: “we accept advertising on the street, whether it is challenging or not.”
Nicky Hamlyn, Filmmaker, Writer, Lecturer, University College for the Creative Arts, stressed the importance of site specificity, and different genres; that which is informed by the site, and that which informs the site. “Public space has particular characteristics one can’t get away from.” Key considerations include footfall, street furniture and traffic.
New technologies, new possibilities
The evolution of the mobile phone into a multimedia-recording device allows for new networks to be created, and new interactions within space to take place.
Daniel Harris, Media & Space Designer’s Frameburst allows a real-time community peep-show style city portrait to be formed (www.mobileframes.co.uk).
One person can take a picture, align it with one taken earlier by someone else. What results is a temporal portrait of the city. The community can self-curate their real-time gallery, removing any “duds”. A strong emphasis on community-led content was present in many of the schemes and projects presented.
(image)
courtesy of Daniel Harris, Frameburst www.mobileframes.co.uk
Gini Simpson, Head of Media Arts at SPACE studios’ work has been informed by the proliferation of technologies in the fabric of the built environment, RFID and the future landscape: SPACE studios has discovered new ways of developing platforms of communication within communities. The projects are extremely valid as they raise awareness of technology in the local area: “we are working with these technologies because they are pervasive.” TAKE 2030 created autonomous wireless networks in Hackney. The real and the virtual become blurred and communities respond to this: “connection and exchange allowed social networks.”
In Bowville, an on-line and “real world” game , Marion Manesta Forrester has three days to win citizenship of Bow in East London. She is electronically tagged. You can check her progress online and in a physical space, the town’s headquarters. Ultimately the community voted for her to become a citizen. This technology allows public services to link with creative industries, and creates meaning for the community in which it is situated. An increased level of interaction brings more meaning.
www.bowville.net www.spacestudios.org.uk
(cut/paste image)
courtesy of Mirjam Struppek
Lucy Bullivant, Architectural Critic, Author and Curator (www.lucybullivant.net), referenced Austria’s Kunsthaus Graz’s BIX light media skin (www.kunsthausgraz.at , www.bix.at) in her discussion of electronic surfaces and interactivity in architecture.
The building’s skin is made up of a grid of blue Perspex glass covering circular halogen lights: this creates a low-resolution grey screen which can be used to communicate text image and pattern.
The discussion veered away from our common notion of the screen, and more towards alternative interfaces: Usman Haque’s Sky Ear, “a beautifully coloured floating jellyfish” is not confined to surfaces creating DNA in a physical and new material. http://www.haque.co.uk/skyear/information.html
These and other projects have expanded our notion of the screen in the built environment and our behaviour and attitude towards new technologies. Lucy Bullivant asks: “can schemes be conceived to have down-time?” These ‘happenings’ would be all the more evocative if they only work at nighttime, playing upon the element of surprise: living architecture.
From the artist’s perspective: cutting edge projects
Michael Pinsky, Artist, (www.michaelpinsky.com) demonstrates alternative uses of pictures and performance in the built environment through project Turning Point: “on the outskirts of Colchester lies the Hythe, an inland dock that used to be a thriving port”: the industry in the area had relied upon a waterway, which was rendered redundant due to a development oversight.
(swans daylight)
Turning Point
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
A family of swans lived on the roundabout near the newly built bridge: in his work, giant swans took the place of cranes on a large-scale projection onto a disused silo. Simultaneously some cranes put on a choreographed performance of Swan Lake.
A fleet of telephone boxes was installed on the waterside: “Whenever you see a lot of telephone boxes you think you’re in the centre of something.” Pinsky pointed out that despite the cold, over 1.5 thousand came to the event.
(night shot 2CV)
Turning point
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
Weather cluster
Children collect video clips of weather on holiday and so on, and the images are uploaded onto a database. The database is linked to a weather report centre, and the cluster of images displayed respond to this. This was an indoor project, but there is no reason why this could not happen outdoors in the city. The database becomes a weather archive over time.
Weather cluster
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
On large screens in Hull Pinsky commented: “I can’t believe they got away with building something so ugly in the middle of Hull.” This style of big screen strikes him as a crude montage between architecture and moving image.
Dan Dubowitz, Artist, Director of Civic Works
“I don’t make films. I set out, came across something I wanted to do in a space: technology helped me to achieve the effect of a space.”
Dubowitz is working on a 1.3 billion pound regeneration project. He is in charge of the artworks project, working on the Cultural Masterplan for Sunderland. His goal is to address the cultural impact of regeneration.
“All projects share certain aspects: the sites are on the cusp. The city is about to transform it. You don’t see these areas anymore because you’ve been excluded from them for so long.” The projects enable a transformation of identity to take place. The community group changes the identity of the whole city: it will be a different place as result of regeneration.
(balloon picture)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
HoBo - Sunderland
The HoBo project www.HoBo.cc uses a giant helium balloon, suspended 30 ft in the air. The balloon has a projector and a strong light attached to it. It can simultaneously project and track. The beam seeks out transitory spaces.
(sepia picture with projection)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
(sightings shot)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
The flyer pictured aids to create intrigue and curiosity in the community. Click on the link and you are taken to a blog site where people can share their pictures and stories of sightings:
01.03.2006 14:03:21 by baby bex: “I couldn't see anything in the sky but about 9pm we saw a bright light. It was in the garden and we thought a helicopter was doing an LA type chase. For about 20seconds it caught someone in the light. We thought it was a burglar. Then it disappeared..”
from www.HoBo.cc
The Peeps – Manchester
(man looking down tube)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
This project treats the unaccessible parts of Manchester: the area is undergoing massive regeneration – Dan found abandoned buildings that had been boarded up for over 20 years. He found toilets, overhead wall parts, all of these existed as spaces: whole rooms under ground. There were machines in the walls: no one knew what they did. He decided to make a piece of work, which retained these rooms. He set a brief to wall up the spaces, restore mechanics and maintain some sort of synchronicity across fifteen sites. Over time developers took over the sites and did not retain them: of the original fifteen only seven real spaces were left.
(bathroom-style peephole)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
“This is a pavement project: I wanted it to be seen from the streets. I worked with the public realm team and landscape architecture. We created peep-holes, lens systems, mounted in the wall around the area.” Dan was able to replicate the missing rooms with a screen-based image: when you’re looking through a peep-hole, your brain thinks you’re looking into a space. Due to the screen-based element, Dan was able to manipulate the images according to day or night, and also to add quirks: “I wanted to change the room in some way – to create an urban myth.”
(series of three images – steam 0, 1,2)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
“I’m really only interested in work that moves people … it’s really common to see “wow look what technology I’m using. Unless work is about content, think carefully about if it is worth doing.”
Cinema and the future
David Gryn, Director, Artprojx (www.artprojx.com) talked about how to grow audiences and keep them, and how important the cinema is as a device for disseminating cutting edge film art. He pointed out the advantages of cinema as a distribution method: it speaks to the romantics, people know the environment, and they are comfortable with it. With the right collaboration and PR, an event can be extremely successful. There is still something about having the artist’s name in bright lights.
He also emphasized its simplicity: “I like being controlled by the fact that the cinema can’t do everything.” The artist has a captive audience – it is not transitory:
“Within the cinema they sit through it and take it all on board”
He concluded that “moving image should happen in cinema…
People like to be together, artists and audience in a more intimate space. He emphasized the importance of collaboration and strong list of partners.
(colourful artprojx picture)
courtesy of David Gryn
Gill Coooper, Head of Arts and Culture, City of York Council highlighted the pressure that councils are under to use contemporary public art to improve the environment. She sees new media as a means of expressing contemporary relevance to historical environments. York has transformed over the past ten years from a city of science to a place “where technology and culture meet.”
She also highlighted the importance of collaboration and understanding: she invests a lot of time in talking to people, explaining relevance of public art. Another problem for councilors is measuring success: the immediacy of public reaction is one gauge. When a programme of light-based art installations was put on in October 2005
60 thousand additional people came to the city centre. According to the economic development team, they made 1.7bn pounds income from the 60 thousand who parked their cars.
What’s next? What happens to the broken nano?
The conference brought up some interesting questions around meaning and community power: by harnessing existing technologies, how can we make the urban fabric more playful, interesting to pass through? Mike Gibbons, Chief Project Manager, BBC Live Events opened the conference by saying the “screen moved from passive to something that responds.” What the screen responds with was a contentious issue: content is all-important, but who controls it?
One issue that was only lightly alluded to was the impact this will have environmentally: screens have a limited lifespan. What happens to them after they die?
(image)
Dan Harris
Frameburst
The Urban Picture is a wider concept than simply a screen on a building. A picture can be made up of pixels, people or networks. It encompasses more than three dimensions. Architecture, LED curtains and wireless networks were discussed in relation to cutting-edge projects created by the eminent set of speakers and delegates at The Urban Picture: The moving image in the public environment. Co-organised by landor conferences and Art&Architecture Journal, the event took place Thursday 6 July 2006 in London.
Conference report by Caf Fean
City as Screen
(quotation slide)
Shane Walters
Director
Onedotzero
(screen grab)
Transvision onedotzero_V&A 2006
Shane Walters
“You can learn more about film-making in architecture than in film school these days.” Shane Walter, Director of onedotzero (www.onedotzero.com) encourages us to think beyond “just screens” – the city is a place for generating new ideas: “user interaction is where we’re going, rather than just passive.” We need to be transported outside of our comfort zone: to challenge. Artists featured in this report do just that.
(3 slides)
United Visual Artists: monolith
Transvision V+A
Onedotzero
2006
The screen responds to people in proximity. This worked so well in the V&A – imagine it in the city.
(Courtesy of Shane Walter onedotzero)
Jason Bruges: visual echo
Trans_vision
Onedotzero
A twenty-foot long piece made up of LEDs. Responsive to colour: wave red scarf at one end, see colour traverse across.
Jason Bruges – Litmus
Giant structures responding to environmental stimuli
(2 slides)
onedotzero industries: U2 Vertigo Tour
Greyworld: Flowerwall – research project
The screen responds to your movement and flowers bloom across it.
Mirjam Struppek, Amsterdam-based Urbanist and Curator of Urban Screens 05 (www.urbanscreens.org , www.interactionfield.de), suggests, “the public space is the city’s medium for communicating with itself… a sphere for people engaging, somewhere that should improve quality of life.” She discussed participatory design, referencing public consultation projects (www.remappinghighwycombe.blogspot.com, www.resiteprojects.de ,
www.oboro.tv/resitemontreal), that inspired public response and debate. Video screens create communal connection. She also pointed out the proliferation of screens already present in the built environment: they’re used mainly for advertising or service, and are not platforms for interaction and participation. How can we find more creative ways of interacting with the public? “Public space is most healthy if it has a large mixture.”
Creative Cities, creative content
Creative industries project, Brisbane
courtesy of Mirjam Struppek
“A community values relevance of content and can make intelligent choices accordingly” said Steve Manthorp, Co-ordinator of Digital North & Board Director of Film and Video Umbrella (www.manthorp.co.uk).
“Video screens are creating a communal connection through joint electronic entertainment, music, … we need something more than constant short-term stimulation.” Mirjam Struppek questioned the mix of commercial with non-commercial content and asked for something other than “just art cookies in-between commercial images.” Shane Walters agreed that content and experience in combination are all-important and often get lost: “we accept advertising on the street, whether it is challenging or not.”
Nicky Hamlyn, Filmmaker, Writer, Lecturer, University College for the Creative Arts, stressed the importance of site specificity, and different genres; that which is informed by the site, and that which informs the site. “Public space has particular characteristics one can’t get away from.” Key considerations include footfall, street furniture and traffic.
New technologies, new possibilities
The evolution of the mobile phone into a multimedia-recording device allows for new networks to be created, and new interactions within space to take place.
Daniel Harris, Media & Space Designer’s Frameburst allows a real-time community peep-show style city portrait to be formed (www.mobileframes.co.uk).
One person can take a picture, align it with one taken earlier by someone else. What results is a temporal portrait of the city. The community can self-curate their real-time gallery, removing any “duds”. A strong emphasis on community-led content was present in many of the schemes and projects presented.
(image)
courtesy of Daniel Harris, Frameburst www.mobileframes.co.uk
Gini Simpson, Head of Media Arts at SPACE studios’ work has been informed by the proliferation of technologies in the fabric of the built environment, RFID and the future landscape: SPACE studios has discovered new ways of developing platforms of communication within communities. The projects are extremely valid as they raise awareness of technology in the local area: “we are working with these technologies because they are pervasive.” TAKE 2030 created autonomous wireless networks in Hackney. The real and the virtual become blurred and communities respond to this: “connection and exchange allowed social networks.”
In Bowville, an on-line and “real world” game , Marion Manesta Forrester has three days to win citizenship of Bow in East London. She is electronically tagged. You can check her progress online and in a physical space, the town’s headquarters. Ultimately the community voted for her to become a citizen. This technology allows public services to link with creative industries, and creates meaning for the community in which it is situated. An increased level of interaction brings more meaning.
www.bowville.net www.spacestudios.org.uk
(cut/paste image)
courtesy of Mirjam Struppek
Lucy Bullivant, Architectural Critic, Author and Curator (www.lucybullivant.net), referenced Austria’s Kunsthaus Graz’s BIX light media skin (www.kunsthausgraz.at , www.bix.at) in her discussion of electronic surfaces and interactivity in architecture.
The building’s skin is made up of a grid of blue Perspex glass covering circular halogen lights: this creates a low-resolution grey screen which can be used to communicate text image and pattern.
The discussion veered away from our common notion of the screen, and more towards alternative interfaces: Usman Haque’s Sky Ear, “a beautifully coloured floating jellyfish” is not confined to surfaces creating DNA in a physical and new material. http://www.haque.co.uk/skyear/information.html
These and other projects have expanded our notion of the screen in the built environment and our behaviour and attitude towards new technologies. Lucy Bullivant asks: “can schemes be conceived to have down-time?” These ‘happenings’ would be all the more evocative if they only work at nighttime, playing upon the element of surprise: living architecture.
From the artist’s perspective: cutting edge projects
Michael Pinsky, Artist, (www.michaelpinsky.com) demonstrates alternative uses of pictures and performance in the built environment through project Turning Point: “on the outskirts of Colchester lies the Hythe, an inland dock that used to be a thriving port”: the industry in the area had relied upon a waterway, which was rendered redundant due to a development oversight.
(swans daylight)
Turning Point
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
A family of swans lived on the roundabout near the newly built bridge: in his work, giant swans took the place of cranes on a large-scale projection onto a disused silo. Simultaneously some cranes put on a choreographed performance of Swan Lake.
A fleet of telephone boxes was installed on the waterside: “Whenever you see a lot of telephone boxes you think you’re in the centre of something.” Pinsky pointed out that despite the cold, over 1.5 thousand came to the event.
(night shot 2CV)
Turning point
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
Weather cluster
Children collect video clips of weather on holiday and so on, and the images are uploaded onto a database. The database is linked to a weather report centre, and the cluster of images displayed respond to this. This was an indoor project, but there is no reason why this could not happen outdoors in the city. The database becomes a weather archive over time.
Weather cluster
Courtesy of Michael Pinsky
On large screens in Hull Pinsky commented: “I can’t believe they got away with building something so ugly in the middle of Hull.” This style of big screen strikes him as a crude montage between architecture and moving image.
Dan Dubowitz, Artist, Director of Civic Works
“I don’t make films. I set out, came across something I wanted to do in a space: technology helped me to achieve the effect of a space.”
Dubowitz is working on a 1.3 billion pound regeneration project. He is in charge of the artworks project, working on the Cultural Masterplan for Sunderland. His goal is to address the cultural impact of regeneration.
“All projects share certain aspects: the sites are on the cusp. The city is about to transform it. You don’t see these areas anymore because you’ve been excluded from them for so long.” The projects enable a transformation of identity to take place. The community group changes the identity of the whole city: it will be a different place as result of regeneration.
(balloon picture)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
HoBo - Sunderland
The HoBo project www.HoBo.cc uses a giant helium balloon, suspended 30 ft in the air. The balloon has a projector and a strong light attached to it. It can simultaneously project and track. The beam seeks out transitory spaces.
(sepia picture with projection)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
(sightings shot)
HoBo
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
The flyer pictured aids to create intrigue and curiosity in the community. Click on the link and you are taken to a blog site where people can share their pictures and stories of sightings:
01.03.2006 14:03:21 by baby bex: “I couldn't see anything in the sky but about 9pm we saw a bright light. It was in the garden and we thought a helicopter was doing an LA type chase. For about 20seconds it caught someone in the light. We thought it was a burglar. Then it disappeared..”
from www.HoBo.cc
The Peeps – Manchester
(man looking down tube)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
This project treats the unaccessible parts of Manchester: the area is undergoing massive regeneration – Dan found abandoned buildings that had been boarded up for over 20 years. He found toilets, overhead wall parts, all of these existed as spaces: whole rooms under ground. There were machines in the walls: no one knew what they did. He decided to make a piece of work, which retained these rooms. He set a brief to wall up the spaces, restore mechanics and maintain some sort of synchronicity across fifteen sites. Over time developers took over the sites and did not retain them: of the original fifteen only seven real spaces were left.
(bathroom-style peephole)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
“This is a pavement project: I wanted it to be seen from the streets. I worked with the public realm team and landscape architecture. We created peep-holes, lens systems, mounted in the wall around the area.” Dan was able to replicate the missing rooms with a screen-based image: when you’re looking through a peep-hole, your brain thinks you’re looking into a space. Due to the screen-based element, Dan was able to manipulate the images according to day or night, and also to add quirks: “I wanted to change the room in some way – to create an urban myth.”
(series of three images – steam 0, 1,2)
Courtesy of Dan Dubowitz
“I’m really only interested in work that moves people … it’s really common to see “wow look what technology I’m using. Unless work is about content, think carefully about if it is worth doing.”
Cinema and the future
David Gryn, Director, Artprojx (www.artprojx.com) talked about how to grow audiences and keep them, and how important the cinema is as a device for disseminating cutting edge film art. He pointed out the advantages of cinema as a distribution method: it speaks to the romantics, people know the environment, and they are comfortable with it. With the right collaboration and PR, an event can be extremely successful. There is still something about having the artist’s name in bright lights.
He also emphasized its simplicity: “I like being controlled by the fact that the cinema can’t do everything.” The artist has a captive audience – it is not transitory:
“Within the cinema they sit through it and take it all on board”
He concluded that “moving image should happen in cinema…
People like to be together, artists and audience in a more intimate space. He emphasized the importance of collaboration and strong list of partners.
(colourful artprojx picture)
courtesy of David Gryn
Gill Coooper, Head of Arts and Culture, City of York Council highlighted the pressure that councils are under to use contemporary public art to improve the environment. She sees new media as a means of expressing contemporary relevance to historical environments. York has transformed over the past ten years from a city of science to a place “where technology and culture meet.”
She also highlighted the importance of collaboration and understanding: she invests a lot of time in talking to people, explaining relevance of public art. Another problem for councilors is measuring success: the immediacy of public reaction is one gauge. When a programme of light-based art installations was put on in October 2005
60 thousand additional people came to the city centre. According to the economic development team, they made 1.7bn pounds income from the 60 thousand who parked their cars.
What’s next? What happens to the broken nano?
The conference brought up some interesting questions around meaning and community power: by harnessing existing technologies, how can we make the urban fabric more playful, interesting to pass through? Mike Gibbons, Chief Project Manager, BBC Live Events opened the conference by saying the “screen moved from passive to something that responds.” What the screen responds with was a contentious issue: content is all-important, but who controls it?
One issue that was only lightly alluded to was the impact this will have environmentally: screens have a limited lifespan. What happens to them after they die?
(image)
Dan Harris
Frameburst
Hotels of the Future: Homework
I attended a workshop on Hotels of the Future: The Business Traveller, co-hosted by Hilton and Arup Foresight+Innovation+Incubation at the Hilton Copenhagen Airport. Before attending the workshop (29-30 November 2006), we were asked to:
Please complete the following VERY short piece of 'homework' in preparation for the upcoming Hotels of the Future workshop in Copenhagen. The homework will be used at the welcoming dinner on the Wednesday evening.
Can you please send me THREE images or photographs that represent:
What you love most about about your hotel experience as a business traveller.
What you hate most about your hotel experience as a business traveller.
Your favourite business hotel?
Mine are...
LOVE The Belvoir Hotel , Ruschlikon Switzerland for the view, at six in the morning: Lake Zurich, beautiful and calming.
HATE
Image courtesy of absentmindedprof,
who said of the image "The hotel was really nice except for one thing: their English translations. Man, they were awful. The sign on the door to their gym is a particularly amusing example. Another funny example: at breakfast, the label for thousand island dressing read "Thousand is Land."
I used this image to talk about communication and lack of understanding of your customer group. It got a laugh as I read out the english translation too. On a serious note, the space should communicate and understand the people walking through it, and it should not alienate - hotels are in the hospitality industry after all.
FUTURE of Business Travel?
I don't travel on business all that often, so I chose this, an interior shot of a Berber house in Libya. The tribes settled there and dug these houses under the ground to get away from the heat. This place is open to tourists: it was built three hundred years ago. Today you can stay the night in one of these rooms. I showed this picture to push people's ideas of what a hotel could be, and what it could offer.
Please complete the following VERY short piece of 'homework' in preparation for the upcoming Hotels of the Future workshop in Copenhagen. The homework will be used at the welcoming dinner on the Wednesday evening.
Can you please send me THREE images or photographs that represent:
What you love most about about your hotel experience as a business traveller.
What you hate most about your hotel experience as a business traveller.
Your favourite business hotel?
Mine are...
LOVE The Belvoir Hotel , Ruschlikon Switzerland for the view, at six in the morning: Lake Zurich, beautiful and calming.
HATE
Image courtesy of absentmindedprof,
who said of the image "The hotel was really nice except for one thing: their English translations. Man, they were awful. The sign on the door to their gym is a particularly amusing example. Another funny example: at breakfast, the label for thousand island dressing read "Thousand is Land."
I used this image to talk about communication and lack of understanding of your customer group. It got a laugh as I read out the english translation too. On a serious note, the space should communicate and understand the people walking through it, and it should not alienate - hotels are in the hospitality industry after all.
FUTURE of Business Travel?
I don't travel on business all that often, so I chose this, an interior shot of a Berber house in Libya. The tribes settled there and dug these houses under the ground to get away from the heat. This place is open to tourists: it was built three hundred years ago. Today you can stay the night in one of these rooms. I showed this picture to push people's ideas of what a hotel could be, and what it could offer.
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