Interview and Model

It turns out the guy who owns the newspaper booth in Crouch End is actually called Paul not Colin. I have no idea where the name Colin came from. Anyway, I went and had a drink with him in the kings head on Wednesday and he was a really interesting guy to chat to.
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.

Mud Roc and Maps

During the start of this week I have been developing some ideas I had over the weekend. As I said last time I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with the course that my FMP had taken and wanted to do something a bit different in my approach to the messaging space. When I was looking over some of my earlier sketchbook work I got back to thinking about maps and the piece I hap done layering together maps of Crouch from the 1870s and 1920s. I was amazed that in the space of 50 years a place could become totally unrecognisable. The only thing that matched in the maps was the hourglass shape of the broadway and the four roads that lead off from it.

Here is a page of my log book, showing a photocopy of my map piece. It made me wonder if the people living in crouch end would recognise a simplified map of the area when I confronted them with it. I felt this went along nicely with my revival- trying to get people back in touch with their area and connect with  it more.

I took that map and started to experiment with ways I could use it in an installation.

I've been really lucky it's been so sunny, because this mud roc piece photgraphs much better in this light.

I'm going to carry on looking at these shapes and ways I can make them into compartments for dropping notes and letters. I have an idea of cutting them out of big sheets of MDF with a jigsaw and draping material behind it.

I'm off to interview Colin the magazine vendour on the broadway now

Printing

Here are some pics of how my scrim experiments turned out.

I really like the effect, but I still have this feeling like they're a bit too safe and sensible. Working with materials like this is something I'm used to and in this final project I want to challenge myself a bit more to stop my work becoming repetative and boring.

From these pieces I did some prints. I like printing, because you have to work quickly and loosely and I think this approach makes my ideas flow more easily.

I also wanted to try out my Blue plaque idae of doing a lino cut of a blank English Heritage plaque which could be filled in by any crouch end resident. I think the results convinced me to take a different route in my messaging space idea. They didnt find the prospect of exploring the blue plaques further that exciting and I wanted to switch course in my development. I alos remembered Gavin Turk and the way he had reinvented the plaque in a piece he did. I want Crouch Enders to see something new and different in town. Something that stirs their curiosity a bit more and something which they can more actively interact with. The plaques would only be able to celebrate a handful of residents, I want my installation to be something more open to the whole community.

I have this idea strirring about using this map I worked with at the beginning of the project. I layered together a map of crouch from the 1860s with one from the 1920s and then made my own map of present day over them. I traced some of the main streets and the ones that are most meaningful to my day to day life. I like the traces of the broadway and the spread of roads leading off from it.

I can picture the traces becoming cut outs that could look like a wall of holes- it would look organic and natural while also having the regular pattern of the area.

For the next couple of days I'm going to explore this map idea. Also on Wednesday, I've arranged to meet colin (the magazine vendour in crouch) for a cup of tea to talk about his selling booth. He told me its been in his family for 3 generations so i can't wait to here more about his relationship with the area.

Colin in his selling booth