in the beginning …. such a biblical proportion of a statement. the start of the residency does feel of biblical proportions, the ambition of those behind the re-imagining of the derby silk mill museum being bold and looking way into the future.
their vision is that by 2019/20 the museum of making will be fully open to the public. in the up coming 14 weeks the 6 of us are part of the on going research and prototyping of that vision.
within this blog my intention is to record what i do and reflect upon that. part of the brief is to answer 21 questions set by the museum team.
yesterday was the first official day of the residency. i met with the museum team and the maker team. the makers being guided through the history of the project and informed of the current status.
it was then quickly down to work. guided by the main curator we were taken high into the building and introduced to one of the collection rooms. our brief was to find something that could inspire a making activity based around a theme of communication to the drop in public audience later that afternoon.
part of that experience was to chat with the curator re his interpretation of communication. the maker team had quickly latched onto the verbal obvious forms of communication. our curatorial guide gave examples of social non verbal communication. for example how the collection of qualcast lawn mowers communicates aspiration. how the textiles machine communicated something about ambition and status to the people who worked with them. i felt uncomfortable with this notion of social communication, partly because over time i have rejected it as a sub-concicous notion to participate in.
over lunch the makers sat and discussed the morning and particularly the visit to the store and the need to develop an activity. as i listened and tucked into lunch i became aware of what i was part of. it resembled something from a realife tv series where a bunch of people are brought together and given a task to do to see how they cope. i loved the experience because the dialogue became very open and very honest.
currently the silk mill building is only open to the public on the ground floor. through the re:make project the interior was gutted, asbestos removed and all made beautiful again. there’s an area to view things and there’s an area in which making occurs. currently in the viewing area there is a maker bar and curatorial hub where objects from the collection are cleaned and documented ahead of the upper floors make over project.
the activity we arrived at was to create personal totems, adding them to a collective totem pole. i found the process really exciting as working with 5 other people meant i could action the small ideas i had to offer, feeding this into a collective effort without having to worry at all as their were interpretations of what i was doing that helped to collectively arrive at something we were all happy with. a benefit over working alone where it’s so easy to get bogged down in a small detail.
there are however some details i do need to consider. we left the day with a briefing document. 7 considerations each with 3 treatments.
for this blog i’m going to return to the driscoll (by borton) model of reflection. i’ve not practiced much with this so i’m going to be a little clunky over it’s use while i get familiar again. we covered a lot yesterday so focussing in on something to reflect upon is going to make this process more manageable.
so my focus today is the 21 point making brief….
step 1. what ?
This is a description of the event.
Trigger questions: What…
- … is the purpose of returning to this situation?
- … happened?
- … did other people do who were involved in this?
- … did I see/do?
- … was my reaction to it
what happened was as a group we arrived at a making activity for the public based on an object in the collection, group discussion, group prototyping and group deployment.
step 2. so what ?
This is an analysis of the event.
Trigger questions: So what…
- … did I feel at the time of the event?
- … are my feelings now, after the event, any different from what I experienced at the time?
- … were the effects of what I did (or did not do)?
- … positive aspects now emerge for me from the event that happened in practice?
- … have I noticed about my behaviour in practice by taking a more measured look at it?
- … observations does any person helping me to reflect on my practice make of the way I acted at the time?
- … is the purpose of returning to this situation?
- Were those feelings I had any different from those of other people?
- Who were also involved at the time?
- Did I feel troubled, if so, in what way?
my reaction to it overall was good. i enjoyed every stage of the process. i enjoyed putting forward my thoughts/ideas and it was ok that my main idea wasn;t picked because what was picked was something i hadn’t considered or thought of and it worked really well. i was able to adapt to the evolving idea and made things. i felt good in myself that i had been able to make a positive contribution to the activity.
step 3. now what?
Proposed actions following the event
Trigger questions: Now what…
- …are the implications for me and others in clinical practice based on what I have described and analysed?
- …difference does it make if I choose to do nothing?
- …is the main learning that I take from reflecting on my practice in this way?
- …help do I need to help me ‘action’ the results of my reflections?
- …aspect should be tackled first?
- Where can I get more information to face a similar situation again?
- How can I modify my practice if a similar situation arises again?
- How will I notice that I am any different in clinical practice?
the process of drawing inspiration from collection, prototyping activity and delivering activity will happen each week.
as well as developing ideas to connect and engage with external groups of people.
as well as making things inspired by the collection.
as well as being an active member of the maker corps programme by maker ed.
the implications are there is a lot of work to do in 14 weeks and over thinking it will lead to build up of stress, which is not required.
the process is curiosity led with a systematic approach to answering questions.
i love that through our potential we will inform the prototype of the museum of making.
