I won't go through the whole "interview", but I'll mention some highlights from our talk. Some of the things he talked about I can see as beeing pivotal when I look at designing him a new selling booth. I want the booth itself to be a bit adventurous and silly. I don't want to think about it as a serious bit of design- I want my imagination to run away with me a bit.
Some basic things he told me were that he's been on the stall for 32 years. His grandad set it up just before the second world war and it has been handed down his family for 3 generations. When Paul first took it on he said he really hated it, but I get the impression that he's actually enjoyed the way he's chosen to live his life. He kept on talking about simplicity and 'the simple life'. He gets up at 4.15 every morning and he doesn't want much when he's out there working. I asked him what one thing he would have on a day to day basis out of a seat, a radio, a cup of tea or a heater. He instantly answered with a radio- he never sits down when he's working; he wouldn't want tea because there is no toilets nearby and he said a heater would mean too much faffing and he said if he was too warm he'd probably just fall asleep (his dad used to have a heater which burned parafin, but Paul couldn't stand the smell so he got rid of it.) One thing he would quite like in the winter months is a light.
He loves working for himself. I liked it when he said he could ' be his own govenour'. The only thing he finds frustrating about the work is the weather. When is windy or raining he has to strap all the papers down and cover them with plastic. When we were talking Paul mentioned the weather alot. I asked him where he would pitch up his booth if he could go anywhere in the world. He said abroad, he said Spain made him feel 20 years younger. Because he's always standing up outside, often in the cold he said he gets back ache and arthritis in his legs- a bit of sun makes all the difference.
Here is a page of my log book, talking of ways I might approach designing Paul's booth.
I've also been developing my other idea in the Crouch end revival project- my installation based on the map of crouch end. I made a small model of what I wanted my messaging space to look like.
I like the cardlike MDF map element, but when talking to Rupert today, I found it quite hard to justify the purpose of slotting notes and messages into a net behing the piece. I want people to interact with it more and perhaps each person could change the piece in some way. They could customize it and together make it their own.
Heres some more log book notes.
I think this final idea, the one with the two stages of throwing a ball at the smaller map and then me going to find something in that area, is the one which I fint the most exciting. It will grap the attention of the residents and people would want to return to the piece to see how its progressing throughout the day. Also, I intend to film the event and take photos of the days progress. I think it will look great as the ink spats and objects on each of the maps multiply. This weekend I'm going to buy my MDF and start cutting out the map shape with a jigsaw. I hope the project will be ready to go by next weekend.
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