I have planned an initial, informal design thinking workshop on Tuesday 13 July at 1200hrs in room BS54 in ADAM SMITH COLLEGE at ST  BRYCEDALE  AVENUE  which intends to involve some 5-6 individual participants who will act as potential stakeholders for the design research project activity.

Ideally, I had hoped to have participants from Fife Council and Kirkcaldy Civic Society as well as Greener Kirkcaldy.

As it is an initial opinion gathering and  discussion forum workshop, the participants will be involved in looking at some mapping of Kirkcaldy using Google Earth prints as well as  the two ‘Lang drawings of the High street facades. These artefacts represent an linear drawing approach to try to understand hoe the high street appears at present and will enable participants to see the high street environment in a new perceptive format.

METHODS

I will use the drawings and the maps to act as a discussion catalyst around the following question:

‘DO HIGH STREETS HAVE TO BE JUST ABOUT SHOPS ?’

The aim of the workshop is to let the participant stakeholders to work as a whole during the introduction, but then to split participants into 2-3 small groups to ask the following questions :

list 5 good things ( + )  about living and working in Kirkcaldy

list 5 bad things ( – )    which detract from living and working in Kirkcaldy

By using a combination of  post-it and postcards, on a range of specific questions or considerations, participants can  place their comments onto the maps and or the LANG DRAWINGS.

Overall the target is to produce around 50 positive ( + )comments and 50  negative or improvements required ( – ) comments, which will enable the MDES student ( me ) to carry out some analysis of the findings, which can be edited and developed into my own design thinking for the Research element of the project.

I hope to record the feedback using video clips and / or photographs to include in this blog etc.

The room will be laid out with the mapping image on the table to enable participants to see, perhaps for the first time, the physical satellite view of the town.

WATCH THIS SPACE

critical weekend. Deadline for an interim crit on Monday with Tutors at DoJ.

MDP – Mindful Design Practice.

Saturday was spent cutting and pasting all the 270 individual photographs that were taken on Sunday 9 May.  I also prepared a mock-up of a House of Cards for my presentation-as a Kirkcaldy Info Tower. I cut up A1 size card boards in half to make about 12 panels which have been cut with the necessary slots to make the panels stack up. I need to work out the best arrangement to show my project work but I may also put folding panels together with photo montage and collage information that relate to my MDes project as design process and methods.

Sunday ( today ) was spent actually drawing over the photo montage of one side of Kirkcaldy High Street. It took a lot longer than I imagined it would as I was only tracing over the building facades. It was a reasonably satisfactory experience as it involved in me actually drawing in pen. The drawing ended up being approximately 6 metres long. I used a datum line as a level so that I could key all the buildings down to a line. The photographs vary due to the position they were taken from, but considering they were all just hand – held shots, the images were sufficient for this exercise and method.

Drawing is a physical activity, but it also thought provoking. As I was drawing, I was able to consider the different ranges of architecture that exists in the High street of Kirkcaldy as well as the scale and height of the building facades. However, I am concerned that my activities are kind of worthless as I still do not have a clear direction or interaction with any of my indentified  stakeholders etc. It is not really an artistic activity but a design one and there is a difference.

I hope that I can discuss my current position in relation to my MDES research with Hazel and Jason tomorrow, but I have actually followed up my planned activity over the last week or so.

Generally, my time management is beginning to be really difficult, with the combinationof the p/t masters work and my full -time job at Adam Smith College.etc. I made the mistake of NOT opting out of the CCI end of year exhibition!!

I will post photos later and hopefully some video clips of my activities.