Cardiff city centre has a number of empty shop spaces and so we thought ‘wouldn’t it be great to use them?’
My own particular interest is in design, performance and theatre and so I expressed an interest to my fellow ARKies in setting up a project to turn an empty shop space in Cardiff city centre into a place for performance, storytelling and exchange. At the moment we’re working on finding an empty shop to do the project in, as well as gathering a group of people who would like to take part. A few Wednesdays ago we had a session to come up with ideas for the project and to discuss how it could take shape and some really interesting ideas came out of it.
Then there’s an exciting week ahead – lots of meetings, discussions and visits, including one to the Brixton Village project which I’m really excited about.
I’ll keep updating as things develop, but if anyone wants to get involved come along on Wednesday or get in touch. We’ll be the ones sat around the cow…
Friday, 19 February 2010
How accessible are Welsh Railway stations?
The National Assembly in Wales has launched a consultation into the accessibility of Welsh Railway stations. This is something that ARK are interested in. It is related to one of the projects we identified at our launch event - see the project listed here -
We are not experts in trains or station architecture but we are among those that know trains and train stations the best... the users. We are going to use some design and creativity tools to explore the issue of accessibility and present the assembly with some interesting and hopefully unexpected ideas and actions that hopefully they can take forward. The people working on this project will include product designers, brand designers, photographers, theatre designers, environmental specialists and generally interested people from Cardiff.
below is a very quick and rough brief for the project (thanks to Service Design Tools for the images !!). We will use this post to update everyone of the project as it progresses.
We are not experts in trains or station architecture but we are among those that know trains and train stations the best... the users. We are going to use some design and creativity tools to explore the issue of accessibility and present the assembly with some interesting and hopefully unexpected ideas and actions that hopefully they can take forward. The people working on this project will include product designers, brand designers, photographers, theatre designers, environmental specialists and generally interested people from Cardiff.
below is a very quick and rough brief for the project (thanks to Service Design Tools for the images !!). We will use this post to update everyone of the project as it progresses.
social design presentation
I uploaded the presentation I made last week to the Wednesday club. It was a brief exploration on how I saw social design developing and what were some of the broad issues impacting on design.
It probably isn't the most self explanatory presentation without me waffling through it but the main messages were that all people want to be and can be creative, human networks and relationships are as important as ever, new models of exchange (not only for profit) are emerging and social design ultimately needs to be engaging and fun.
It probably isn't the most self explanatory presentation without me waffling through it but the main messages were that all people want to be and can be creative, human networks and relationships are as important as ever, new models of exchange (not only for profit) are emerging and social design ultimately needs to be engaging and fun.
Orafferty Socialdesign
View more presentations from sorafferty.
Language, openess and journeys
Over the last few months we have steadily built up new ARKies, many have come to the Wednesday meetings others kept in touch through email and online media. What seems to come up more and more often recently is why not as many people as we would like come to chat and discuss on Wednesday. To this end we have had a bit of feedback that ARK is a bit intimidating and possibly the language used is confusing. Also there is a small issue of knowing who the ARK group is and so who to approach on the evening. With all of this feedback in mind we have come up with a few ideas to help:
FINDING ARK:
1. ARK endeavors to be in the Common Room of Cardiff Arts Institute from 7pm every Wednesday (This is only a start time and even if you can't make it at that time come later as we regularly are still talking well into the evening). If for any reason the room is closed (this week for example CAI were putting up an exhibition), then we will be down stairs generally about 5 or 6 of us some with laptops, others with notepads straining to hear each other :-)
2. Social design is a huge topic and can potentially touch a huge variety of people through there interests. With this in mind instead of just reading mine and Lynsey's Blog's we have decided to add other authors to the blog so you can get a feel for the variety of interested ARKies have. For me personally I think that everyone has something they are particularly interested in exploring, ARK is just a place to explore this further.
3. Following on our cow/bull theme. We are looking to bring a pink toy bull as a mascot. So look out for this when in CAI.
4. If you see me at the bar on a wednesday and I am looking through some coins. I'll have an SA Gold or Cranberry Juice (depends how late it is )
5. Think that is it but if someone else has any experience of setting up groups or wishes to feedback their thoughts let us know by commenting below.
FINDING ARK:
1. ARK endeavors to be in the Common Room of Cardiff Arts Institute from 7pm every Wednesday (This is only a start time and even if you can't make it at that time come later as we regularly are still talking well into the evening). If for any reason the room is closed (this week for example CAI were putting up an exhibition), then we will be down stairs generally about 5 or 6 of us some with laptops, others with notepads straining to hear each other :-)
2. Social design is a huge topic and can potentially touch a huge variety of people through there interests. With this in mind instead of just reading mine and Lynsey's Blog's we have decided to add other authors to the blog so you can get a feel for the variety of interested ARKies have. For me personally I think that everyone has something they are particularly interested in exploring, ARK is just a place to explore this further.
3. Following on our cow/bull theme. We are looking to bring a pink toy bull as a mascot. So look out for this when in CAI.
4. If you see me at the bar on a wednesday and I am looking through some coins. I'll have an SA Gold or Cranberry Juice (depends how late it is )
5. Think that is it but if someone else has any experience of setting up groups or wishes to feedback their thoughts let us know by commenting below.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Wednesday 17th February - Tea & empty shops
hello its wednesday again and if you want to join us we will be downstairs from 7pm so feel free to pop over and say hello. If its a little noisy we will head upstairs to the games room so check there too.
This week we will be planning a visit to Brixton Village to check out what they have created and hopefully we can post some photos for everyone to see. Plus we will be chatting about our 'Communi-Tea' project where we are hoping to organise a lazy afternoon tea crawl in Cathays.
some come along say hello and have a chat
This week we will be planning a visit to Brixton Village to check out what they have created and hopefully we can post some photos for everyone to see. Plus we will be chatting about our 'Communi-Tea' project where we are hoping to organise a lazy afternoon tea crawl in Cathays.
some come along say hello and have a chat
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Wednesday Club - 10/02/10 - Next big night
The 10th of February is a really important day for us We are going to be doing another Academy and also going to be working on an ideas generation workshop of one of the projects. So if any of you are in Cardiff on the 10th at around 7pm, you are more than welcome to come along to Cardiff Arts Institute and help us out.
In the ideas workshop we will be looking into:
Retail
Art
Theatre
and Business
while this is a broad selection of subjects we hope that this will interest as many people as possible to co-create ideas for a project we are working on.
In the ideas workshop we will be looking into:
Retail
Art
Theatre
and Business
while this is a broad selection of subjects we hope that this will interest as many people as possible to co-create ideas for a project we are working on.
Sunday nights and a little bedtime story...
There once was a group of friends who met every week. During these meetings there were lots of ideas and ventures that were explored. One day out of the blue a few of the friends set up a skype account to spread the word about how great a bedtime story can be. Ever since the group has broadcast to anyone who is awake, tales of adventurers, philosophical mastery right through to how a bird tweets. SO if you find yourself online at around 10:00pm GMT on a sunday evening, and are feeling like you would like a bedtime story to send you off to the land of nodd, tune in through your skype account.
Search for 'a_bedtime_story' and you will be let into a world of magic and storytelling at it's best. Hope to hear you all there this weekend, and every weekend.
PLACE: Skype, search for 'a_bedtime_story'
DAY: Every Sunday
TIME: 10:00pm GMT
Search for 'a_bedtime_story' and you will be let into a world of magic and storytelling at it's best. Hope to hear you all there this weekend, and every weekend.
PLACE: Skype, search for 'a_bedtime_story'
DAY: Every Sunday
TIME: 10:00pm GMT
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