MANE 1st Year Team members
Layan Al Saud – Architecture and Urban Planning, Project Managment
Mateusz Gidaszewski – Art, Design, Project Managment
Yiyao Lai – Spatial Design
Yu Sun – Product Design
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The four Storyshapes projects partner Year 1 MANE students with clients to explore the process and possibilities of ‘narrative environments’.
The Storyshapes projects aim to spark change through the design of a sequence of events and spaces. Users are taken on a physical,intellectual and emotional journey to change their perception of a place or subject, through the design of a narrative environment that facilitates this ‘unfolding of events’ in a unique and engaging way.
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Here we take a look at the concept and design for the Parklife project which bought together 1st year MANE students and the Furtherfield Gallery, a hub for Art, Technology, and Social Change in Finsbury Park.
The brief was to produce a design proposition for a low-cost façade of the current gallery building that would engage diverse local audiences in response to, or co-creating, content throughout the year alongside Furtherfield’s artistic programmes, and envisage a dispersed digital system connecting park users to the content in the façade.
The MANE 1st Year team produced a concept for a narrative environment consisting of three elements that aim to resolve the tension between the outside and the inside of the gallery – the emotional state of people in the park is relaxed and calm in contrast to the intense and stimulating atmosphere of the Furtherfield Gallery. The concept consists of Pixelators, a Landmark Frame and an Outdoor Virtual Reality Device.
The Pixelators
The concept of “Pixelators” was adopted to represent the breadcrumbs inspired by the tale of “The Hansel and Gretel”. By strategically leaving “breadcrumbs” throughout the premises of the park, the visitors are left intrigued and curious. The trail of pixelators leads them to Furtherfield Gallery. A Pixel is a building block of a digital image. It is a miniscule segment that creates an overall image.
The Landmark Frame
The Pixelators represent dispersed fragments of the gallery which are mapped out through a symbolic Landmark Frame installed on the Furtherfield Gallery.
The Outdoor Virtual Reality Device
Once the users have reached the final destination, they encounter an unexpected wall-facing binocular i.e. Outdoor Virtual Reality Device. The binocular serves as a device that frames Furtherfield’s programmes/content.
The overall experience is aimed to engage local audiences and connect them to the gallery in an indirect and intriguing way.