Juteopolis

Recently I have just finished my first project of second year, titled 'Juteopolis'. In an earlier post I explained a little about this theme and a little about the progress I had made. Now on the completion of the project I thought it was good practise to look back on the experience and be quite critical.

Task: Design an exhibition space for the DCA based on the theme of Juteopolis.

This project was the first after a long summers break but not only that it was also a group project. This was such a good opportunity for me as a designer to learn how to work in a group with different people and practise skills that could be used in a group. Things like listening to people's opinions, splitting tasks, recognising people's strengths and assigning tasks to them as best as possible. This was such a learning experience for me but something that I really enjoyed.

So as I explained before our group decided to focus on the connections that the jute industry brought to Dundee - not only through the industry but also the friendships that were made. A shocking fact that stuck in the mind of our group was that on average 8 people shared a house. Using this as the main idea behind our exhibition design we looked at many different ways that we could communicate this idea and the common occurrence was that of cubes. The cubes representing the cramped tenement housing.

Above all of this we had to consider aspects that we had never been asked before to think about. Sustainability, transportation...

In the end we made an exhibition space based on 8 cubes that all connected, each made from cardboard. This may seem as an obvious solution to the sustainability element as it is a material that can be recycled but actually this material provided a solution to both the problems of sustainability and transportation as cardboard is lightweight and due to the size of some of our cubes it was crucial that they did not weigh too much.

Each cube conveyed their own idea, (almost like a family member's perspective) some more obvious than others and allowed high levels of interaction.


Presentation boards:

A wee project...

I feel I've been neglecting my wee blog for a while so I thought I'd upload some images of the work that I've been doing in class. Let me fill you in on my project... we have to design an exhibition based on the title Juteopolis. (Basically this was the nickname given to Dundee after the city was taken over by the Jute industry in the late 1800's and early 1900's.) In my group we decided to focus primarily on the connections within the community and decide to portray this through the human form all connecting...

We asked people to stand in specific positions so as to mimic jute weave patterns, street grids, etc but they were always connected in some way - the underlying theme...

A Mini Project...

In studio based time, we are currently undertaking a project called Juteopolis (based on the Jute trade in Dundee). Although we have our main project to concentrate on, we also have a mini project too from artist Louise Ritchie. At the 2009 Degree Show in Dundee she created an exhibition that was very unusual.

Most artists spend many painstaking days, months or even years on their work but Louise Ritchie took a different approach to creating her exhibition. She did something which I had never before been aware of...she asked other people to create the pieces for her show.

12cm³ blocks of wood were the 'canvas' that the work would be created on and participants were given a very open brief where they were able to paint, slice, burn, etc, their 3D sketchbook basing it all on the theme of Juteopolis.

Bearing all this in mind I decided to focus on the connections of the Jute industry. In these times, people basically lived on top of each other in very poor living conditions - some small tenements were housing on average 8 people! Neighbours were almost like family and friendships were established within the Jute communities, all relating to the similar harshness.



The first thought that came into my head were paper chain people - all connected and all similar!