Studio & Entrepreneurship
This week’s interdisciplinary insights lecture helped with understanding the tools and ways of collaborating with people in many fields other than graphic design. The podcast with Louise Harris talks about her experience in being subversive in the projects she has worked on throughout her MA and sharing her process in consulting and investigating throughout her research. I learned a lot about not looking too far in finding interdisciplinary practices in your own community that can create a far greater challenge in making change for the people. So getting out to local events or networking with industry experts can lead to amazing causes that can make a lasting difference. I believe you could truly find a niche in an area of interest if you search and listen to the people around you to create collaborative tools and solutions for people to enjoy and be part of the bigger picture. This can really unlock a creative flair in a community if there isn’t one already where people have been too intent in what they have been doing no matter what the subject matter it is. A great opportunity to explore, create and enjoy some fun in socialising with different people to expand your horizon.
TYPE Talk, Andy Altmann (2012)
Why Not Associates co-founder Andy Altmann presents the creation of the comedy carpet at Blackpool Tower where he talks about the visual form of jokes, songs and catchphrases that was dated over decades of British comedy culture. The amazing work goes into detail about the collaborative development of creating this unique art form that brings joy and happiness to the public. The hard work and grit and grind of putting this marvellous carpet together had some challenges in itself but it was the collective input that made this happen.
How to make a brainstorming session most effective
Brainstorming I was told as of young to work on a sheet and create a spidergram with several ideas that come to mind. Through that method, I’ve always only worked with 3 or 4 ideas onto a sheet and thought to myself where I go from there. This method has been mastered over many years to expand further than a handful of ideas. Personally, I enjoy being articulate with my thinking and be more verbal in expressing my ideas and thoughts to talk to others about my thinking. I believe researching the most effective brainstorming techniques has shown me various methods that can be approached in making a brainstorming session a more exciting and fun way of coming up with ideas. Awkward silence, shying away, not being outspoken and many other traits can lead to people not sharing great ideas and reading through an article on the WeWork website showed some great techniques to remind ourselves to invite, collaborate, use tools and support others to contribute to a brainstorming session. You can evolve some of these techniques into your own method if you think any of them can be a bonus to your team and working with individuals to help motivate ideas into your session.
The tools and tactics successful museums use to attract new visitors
This article on Museum Next website describes the success of changing the way in drawing in more visitors to exhibitions in the current age when young generations might forget the importance of exhibition space. Museums and exhibitions are spaces for all ages and mental wellbeing in approaching a place of furthering your education and thoughtful process to enjoy the atmosphere of interesting artefacts. At a time when more than ever that people are more sociable than many years in the past is a key factor in how museums can attract the audience through tools that engage with visitors to interact and also when’s best to open. As these museums are usually opened from 9 – 5 every day for visitors to open, some have adapted to opening events in the evenings to help promote and encourage visitors to attend an exhibition of their choice. This can target those people that are too busy during the day to visit and those are more adapted to attend places in the evenings. These are some examples of how museums have had to adapt to change in their strategic planning to attract new audiences to their environment and exhibition events to get people to talk about the events. Digital and social media have played their part in this where the audience can share stories of their visits to help draw others to attend these events.
Loneliness and Isolation in people with disabilities
Over half of disabled people report feeling lonely, rising to 77% for those aged between 18-34 and recent changes in the welfare system isn’t providing the support that is needed to help those tackle the issue. Local support and social groups are not being funded in many communities to help those with disabilities to connect and make friendship groups as we’re going through a pandemic at this time. It’s been an issue that goes undetected for many reasons as for one loneliness and isolation isn’t challenged as a whole but a lot focuses only on elderly people. There’s plenty of evidence that young people with and without disabilities go undetected on how they feel isolated from society and we need to make more of an issue on this with keeping in mind that they’re just equally important as elderly people need the help.
This podcast by Emma Tracey on the BBC sounds has a great interview with award-winning bloggers, Elin Williams and Chloe Tear, and disability rights campaigner George Baker to find out their thoughts about loneliness in people with disabilities which is far greater than those who don’t have disabilities.
Sense is a charity for people living with disabilities and they campaign on the subject of loneliness and isolation that they believe is a huge issue. There is a lack of understanding and awareness of people living in isolation with disabilities as it’s an obstacle to make connections and forming friendships. They’ve suggested 49% of non-disabled people feel that they do not have anything in common with people that are disabled and 26% admit to avoiding engaging in conversation with a disabled person. This is clearly an opportunity in making a culture shift in getting social groups to connect with each other regardless of their abilities to tackle isolation and loneliness, which can be an issue from working with colleagues to meeting a friend for an evening meal. It’s about getting people to talk amongst each other to build great friendships and accepting in a social environment.