Day 10

After finalising all of the outputs over the previous day, we met on this final day to prepare for the presentation in front of our collaborators. The presentation offered the opportunity to de-brief and discuss everything that we had worked on over the previous two weeks, and how we will move forward before the exhibition in Accra in June. It was useful to hear feedback from Prof. Ola Uduku, which was very positive and provided us with some useful notes as to any changes that we might want to consider. Unfortunately, we were not able to present to our colleagues in Ghana, but we are looking at continuing the collaboration over the next few months.

We were also able to talk with the undergraduate students about what they enjoyed from the previous two weeks. We learnt that student felt that it was overall a useful experience for them, helping them to learn new programmes and develop their exhibition curation skills. This will be helpful for them with their end of year BA exhibition designs.

Day 9

Today we looked at refining the zine, by proof reading and testing the design in print. This allowed us to spot any errors that my have been made, as well as see how the final zine would look in the exhibition. We looked again at the poster on the back of the zine, producing the final 3D icons of each building case study using SketchUp and Illustrator, which helped to give an overview of the whole marine drive project in a visually pleasing poster which visitors of the exhibition could take home with them.

This was all in preparation for the presentations to our collaborators on the final day of events. On this day we will need to think about how we will talk through our thinking process behind the zine, as well as what changes we might want to make before the exhibition in Ghana in June.

Day 8

Following on from yesterday, we further developed the layout of the Zine, refining the colour scheme and font selection so that it was harmonious across all of the publications that we have produced. We further edited the model images that we had taken, using photoshop to remove unnecessary background and clean up the photographs.

From this layout, we drafted the text for each page, looking to analyse all four of the projects and describe their relative merit. This allowed us to gain a greater insight into the Marine Drive project in Accra, furthering our understanding of the colonial context within which it sits.

Day 7

Today we continued to put together the Zine, using the photographs that were taken of the models previously. We drafted out the layout using InDesign and began to think about how we wanted to display the 3D models. From this we started to think about the text that would be included to describe the models. We printed these initial layout to analyse the effectiveness of displaying the models in this way.

We also started to think about the A3 poster that would be included on the reverse of the zine. To do this we downloaded Digimaps of the relevant areas and modelled using Sketchup the four buildings that we are exhibiting. This would then allow us to develop a stylised graphic timeline, demonstrating the four building's context.

Day 5

Today we visited the workshop to get high quality photographs of the models, to be used primarily within the zine. They photos are also a useful way of documenting the models as part of the wider research into the Marine Drive project.

We experimented with a mirror to make the sectional model appear as if it was whole. This was later photoshopped and edited to hide any mirror lines and suggest that the model was created as a whole. From this we had the idea that the model could be exhibited in Ghana with the mirror. This is something that we fed back to the exhibition team to see if it could be incorporated within their design. We will need to enquire with the Ghanaian student to be sure that a mirror of the correct size can be sourced.

Day 4

After dividing into smaller groups, we started to develop the zine by looking at various folding techniques. We needed to consider the time it would take to produce these zines by hand, and so we settled on the techniques which on required one cut and minimal folding.

Then we began to think about what the content of the zine would be. We started to consider the work that had been produced by the master research methods group, including the models, and how these could be displayed. This would help us later as we start to edit the content more thoroughly.

After observing that many of the exhibitions that we had visited yesterday didn't allow for participation by visitors, this group decided to explore how our designs could encourage interactivity. They looked at how visitors could be engaged and asked to express their opinions of the contents of the exhibition, and how boards could be moved or flipped to create a more tactile environment.

We decided from this that seating should be integrated within our design, to encourage visitors to sit and think about the works within the exhibit.

Day 2

To begin with we had a discussion of things that we had learn during the previous day’s visits to various exhibitions within Manchester. We talked about what we though that worked within these, as well as what we had learnt about curation. Then, we all selected relevant images of exhibition precedents, along with photographs that had been taken on the previous day. We started by presenting these to the rest of the group, justifying our selections and giving reasons as to why we thought they would be useful to look at within our designs. Then we started to collage and sketch over these precedents, enabling us to visualise our designs within the actual exhibition space in Ghana.

We ended the day with another informal presentation of these collages. This process allowed us to draw out key themes and ideas which we will be able to develop further tomorrow as we start to build a more formal design for the exhibition.

Day 1

Today we began by issuing the brief and discussing the various outputs that we would be undertaking over the next two week, in collaboration with the Ghanaian students. We discussed the process that we would be undertaking to facilitate this design process, including collaging with precedents and the visiting of local art galleries.

We also talked about what the zine, which is to be exhibited in Ghana, would contain and how it would be displayed. We presented the work of the Masters Research Methods group, which will be used to provide content for the zine. This helped to provide more context for what work will be expected over the next two weeks.

Week 2 Schedule

The second week of events will focus on the production of all the outputs needed for the exhibition in Ghana. These include final plans, newspaper/zine, exhibition construction pack, evaluative pack and an exhibition poster. In order to complete these tasks, we will look to develop the collaboration with Ghanaian students, who will be able to provide key information about how the exhibition will be built and the context within which it will sit.

A final presentation will be given at the end of the week, to the collaborators, so that they can see the completed designs for the exhibition.

Week 1 Schedule

During the first week of Events, we will introduce collaborators, both here in the UK and in Ghana. Then we will be visiting and analysing various exhibitions around Manchester, in order to gain a greater understanding of the process of curation. From this, the students will be asked to experiment and investigate, using exhibition precedents, as part of a design workshop. From this a more formal design will be created, for the exhibition which is to be constructed in Ghana.

At the end of the week, the design as it stands will be presented to the collaborators, so that feedback can be given for the second week of events.