tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62409526957761662992011-09-10T16:39:12.130+01:00contact me on alison.barnes7@gmail.comAlison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-68755749913131666412011-06-17T11:13:00.001+01:002011-06-17T11:14:42.042+01:00

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-65719445680752104442011-06-16T13:49:00.000+01:002011-06-16T13:50:47.026+01:00

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-16183860232903877062011-04-09T22:31:00.005+01:002011-04-10T10:54:40.248+01:00

ALI FLORIA232 Kingsland Road‘Fantastic’ felafel and a bottle of waterThe shopfront states that Ali’s was the first kebab house to open in East London in 1969. I don’t know if this is true, but it seems an appropriate place to finish my own journey at somewhere that was the start of another. The posters in the window proclaim his felafel to be the best in the world, and the menu lists it as ‘

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-20708336210595947672011-04-09T22:14:00.006+01:002011-04-10T08:55:56.155+01:00

YUMYUM187 Stoke Newington High StreetVegetable spring rolls, spinach and fresh to-fu curry and a Chang beerOne enters Yumyum through a very grand courtyard. The wrought iron gates must be over ten feet high and the courtyard houses a mosaic fountain, several Buddha statues and some small model temple buildings, as well as three domed, wooden eating areas. A flight of steps leads up to the

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-83729239593880950132011-04-09T13:57:00.005+01:002011-04-09T22:09:50.027+01:00

ANDU INTERNET CAFÉ528 Kingsland RoadMisir wat, kik alecha, atakit wat, inerja and a spicy teaWhen I first noticed Andu I wasn’t sure if it served food or not as although it had a couple of visible tables and chairs, one side of the room was given over to four computers along a thin piece of benching. The notice on the window says ‘we sell Ethiopian food’ but none is on display, nor is there any

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-12410938987358758852011-04-09T13:29:00.005+01:002011-04-09T13:48:58.445+01:00

LEMON MONKEY188 Stoke Newington High StreetA pot of Rooibos teaI am absolutely parched after my salty soy sauce lunch, so decide to call in at Lemon Monkey for a cup of tea. A relative new comer to Stoke Newington High Street, it is a place that seems to have accidentally spilled out of Church Street. The interior is a junk shop and old grocery store cross; mismatched tables and chairs along with

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-20301696941634089692011-04-09T13:10:00.005+01:002011-04-09T13:28:43.089+01:00

SHANGHAI41 Kingsland High StreetStir fried noodles with vegetables and a bottle of waterHoused in a former pie & mash shop*, with a listed interior, Shanghai is a palimpsestual, cross-cultural mix of a place. Its walls retain the mirrors—complete with intertwined pairs of brass eels fixed to each side—and ceramic tiles. The ones behind the counter depict boats that presumably are of the type that

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-6812872387838738122011-04-07T15:26:00.003+01:002011-04-07T15:37:29.433+01:00

THE BAGEL HOUSE2 Stoke Newington High StreetCream cheese bagelThe Bagel House is open 24hrs and bakes its own bread and cakes on the premises. The three women behind the counter are all chatting to a couple of women and their children. One breaks away to serve me. A cream cheese bagel please. She puts it in a bag. One pound ten please. I hand over the money and try and start up a bit of a

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-78332450435430940422011-04-07T15:12:00.004+01:002011-04-07T15:25:23.678+01:00

SÔNG QUÊ CAFÉ134 Kingsland RoadStir fried tofu with lemon grass and chilli, steamed rice and homemade soya bean drinkWe were planning to go to Quê Viêt as it had been listed by the Observer as one of the 50 trendiest places to go in the world! However, on arriving it was devoid of customers. The Sông Quê, however, is busy. We go in and ask to sit near the window. Too hot, we are told, and are

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-28574250794485716492011-03-25T12:27:00.006Z2011-03-25T12:38:08.214Z

73,480 words later I am done and I submitted the weighty tome (all 9, yes 9, copies of it!) at the end of February. Well, I suppose I'm not exactly done, but at least I'm ready to have my viva. Somebody helpfully pointed out that if I could have done 20 words extra then I would have had a nice round number. Maybe whatever corrections I have to do will achieve that feat. No idea when the viva is

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-32944637580324526062011-02-02T22:17:00.014Z2011-02-04T08:35:02.200Z

My desk has been a hive of hands on activity of late as I am finally getting all the books produced ready for binding. Probably the sketchiest my sketchbooks get at the moment is when it comes to mapping out how a book is going to work. In the shot below I am trying to work out how to interleave the different types of papers and envelopes into the narrative of the Stuff book. I really like these

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-83612411049519458402011-02-02T17:52:00.007Z2011-02-03T08:03:07.291Z

BERRY’S KOSHER FOODSTORE1A Holmwood Court, Stamford HillTuv Taam deluxe cheese with tomato and onion roll (kosher milky mezonas), a small bag of pretzels, and a can of apple nectarI feel apprehensive as I enter the store, even though I have emailed a Rabbi and he assured me that my custom would be welcome. The store is having a delivery and large boxes are being brought through to the back. I am

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-80789423288016613822011-02-01T15:14:00.004Z2011-02-01T15:19:38.456Z

I am now on the last phase of editing the thesis, and have just attempted a rewrite of my abstract. I think it could still do with a little more emphasis on graphic design process and practice, but it's definitely better than the last one I posted...AbstractThis research proposes that the ‘geo/graphic’ design process—a new synthesis of cultural geographic and graphic design theory and

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-48085253884684399222011-01-23T18:49:00.007Z2011-01-23T19:47:59.284Z

Some diners from Kingsland Road to Stamford Hill could be seen as culinary tourists, desiring ‘real’ experiences through the participation in different ethnic culinary traditions. The restaurants and cafés ‘perform’ this ethnic authenticity by highlighting ‘genuine’ characteristics and customs from ‘home’ (Hobsbawn & Ranger, 1983). Themed restaurants like this turn a service into an experience (

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-59275675001854211912011-01-23T18:47:00.006Z2011-01-23T19:10:38.175Z

BODRUM CAFÉ BAR61 Stoke Newington High StreetHelloumi, red peppers and spinach on toast, served with salad, and a fresh orange juiceThe menu at Bodrum seems a bit of a cross cultural mix. There is a Turkish section at the back with the usual hot and cold mezzes, but at the front it starts with a range of fry up variations. I decide to go for something that seems a bit ‘Turklish’, as its got

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-52748454650789942432011-01-19T17:20:00.005Z2011-01-19T17:33:22.030Z

TROY CAFÉ BISTRO124 Kingsland RoadHumus, enginar, börek, imam bayaldi and a fresh orange juiceThe outside tables are all taken by men watching Brazil against Portugal in the World Cup on the screen inside the café. We take a seat at a table that is below a wall full of seemingly homoerotic photographs of oiled men wrestling with each other. On closer inspection the accompanying text reveals them

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-81489252271832111522011-01-19T17:06:00.006Z2011-01-19T17:19:59.405Z

SÖMINE131 Kingsland High StreetTurkish breakfast: Eggs, cheese, olives, tomato, cucumber, bread, butter, jam, honey and Turkish teaŞömine is at the crossroads with Shacklewell Lane, so to get to it I have to walk past the end of Ridley Road market. It is another hot, sunny day and Kingsland Road is busy with shoppers. I almost feel that I am abroad as I overhear so many different languages and

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-43376360896311255342010-11-27T19:38:00.004Z2010-11-27T19:58:48.804Z

This blog has been in hibernation for several months as I finished eating my way from Kingsland Road to Stamford Hill and tried to construct a reasonably sensible first draft of my thesis. Nearly 35 pits stops and 70,000 words later I am beginning to think about posting the backlog of stuff around the food project. So here goes for post number one... my experience at Tropicalia, a Brazilian café

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-61104589405882101172010-11-22T09:17:00.013Z2010-11-22T10:05:51.935Z

Michael Gallagher, organiser of EWG has asked all the participants to write some stuff about how our involvement with EWG has affected our ongoing research and practice. So here goes...At the time, I didn't quite realise how much of an affect it was going to have. It was actually only at the point I was writing up the first draft of my thesis (yes, this happened over the summer, hence the

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-82392719234039296512010-07-26T20:13:00.001+01:002010-07-26T20:14:05.529+01:00

Unbelievably I find myself about to start my last test project of the PhD. The newsagents' window project started to pick up little traces of different languages and cultures and this is something I want to focus on more in my final piece of work. But what exactly to do?To start with I decided to take the stretch of road that goes right from the junction between Old St and Kingsland Rd, right up

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-16962154733299713852010-07-26T19:57:00.004+01:002010-07-26T20:05:08.961+01:00

So many posts to post and so little time. I have been thinking about starting a regular item called 'closely kerned pairs' for a while. I see it as the graphic design equivalent to 'separated at birth.' I shall start what could be a series (but then again probably won't be as graphic designers aren't very recognisable) with my esteemed Professor, Phil Baines. Surely he makes a closely kerned pair

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-62563280560901973242010-06-28T20:45:00.000+01:002010-06-28T20:47:28.875+01:00

The final part in the 'stuff' trilogy, and the macro as opposed to the micro view, this project was inspired by some of my very first photographs and explorations of Hackney. I was amused on discovering diametrically opposed advertisements placed next to each other in the windows of Newsagents—adverts for 'massage', next to adverts for Christian meditation groups. I was also struck by

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-91220987738240396882010-06-07T15:19:00.013+01:002010-06-07T19:31:50.478+01:00

During my week in Edinburgh I was also fascinated by the alley ways—or to give them their proper names, closes, wynds and courts—of the Old Town. Along the Royal Mile, with the Castle at one end and Holyrood Palace at the other, a series of narrow alleyways lead off it in a disorienting, herringbone-like pattern. The closes and wynds are, in some places, no more than a few feet wide—the Old Town

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-63289226277289404992010-06-07T13:30:00.008+01:002010-07-28T19:09:10.280+01:00

From the moment I arrived in Edinburgh I was struck by the solidity of the city. It seemed to be literally hewn from the rock. From the imposing figure of the castle, to the refined Georgian terraces of New Town, the stone facades face the elements, silently seeing out season after season, year after year. I found myself running my hands across the stone as I walked, feeling textures made by

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-19142651799194907502010-06-07T13:06:00.007+01:002010-06-07T13:25:14.135+01:00

A very belated post... I was lucky enough to gain a place on the week long 'Experimenting with geography: See, hear, make and do' workshop at Edinburgh University at the beginning of May. The workshop was organised by Michael Gallagher and gathered together a wide range of artists, social scientists and geographers, all who are interested in exploring alternative ways of re/presenting space and

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-29257973532797446262010-04-14T13:35:00.007+01:002010-04-14T14:02:42.896+01:00

Right now I am thinking that doing a PhD is how I imagine running a marathon to be. You set off, the sun is shining, the adrenalin is pumping, you are surrounded by your fellow runners and everything seems possible and achievable, probably even in a personal best time.Then, after about 20 miles, wracked with total body fatigue, unsteadiness and possible light-headedness, you hit an invisible wall

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-5523900831882333622010-04-13T13:08:00.003+01:002010-04-13T13:21:08.914+01:00

A while ago, after seeing some of my letterpress prints, a friend of mine said to me that she thought I was a kind of 'urban Richard Long.' Whilst flattered to be held in comparison, or perhaps parallel, I wondered what the similarities or disimilarities might be.In basic terms I suppose I do undertake a lot of walking, I do take photographs and I do use type—all seen in the work of Long, though

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-2064320852027171672010-04-12T20:35:00.004+01:002010-08-17T15:37:03.441+01:00

OK, so unwittingly I have just created an emoticon of a top hat wearing person, but I'm more interested in how these innocent looking glyphs, characters, lines, or whatever you like to call them can change emphasis and meaning with their use.At my confirmation/upgrade meeting it was pointed out that the proposed title of my PhD contained at least 3 words with potentially contentious or unclear

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-6696511671867382592010-04-07T12:32:00.001+01:002010-04-07T12:34:46.106+01:00

I love the word liminal. Maybe it is a bit poncey, but I have been quite taken with it since I watched a documentary about the British and their relationship with the beach. In it some academic described the beach as a liminal space—not quite land, not quite sea, a threshold between the two.Re-reading Species of spaces by Georges Perec (1999) I noticed he makes various spatial points about the

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-53762060081832756672010-03-08T17:00:00.007Z2010-03-08T17:11:54.675Z

Strolling down Northwold Road on a sunny Saturday morning I decided to look down, not up. Just about every two steps was some kind of manhole cover for the various different services—water. cable, phone, etc. The variety was quite astounding and I'm feeling a little project coming on to record the patterns, types and placement of these. I think I am creeping further along the spectrum... See more

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-42487402018866160472010-03-01T10:10:00.015Z2010-07-28T11:34:29.397+01:00

After drowning in data for weeks on end, the design aspect of the work on the Hackney Freecycle group came relatively quickly. The group is phenomenally active—approximately 400 messages a week. I had six months worth—July to December—so clearly had to sample to get anywhere near something that was digestible in terms of analysis. I chose to sample one week per month, starting on the second

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-25002320485217031962010-02-12T16:17:00.001Z2010-02-12T17:06:29.021Z

Last Thursday I went to the talking graphics lecture at LCC. The speaker was Freidrich Forssman, a book designer and typographer who is little known outside of his native Germany. His lecture was entitled 'Book design as a way of thinking' and I thought a few points he made were worth remembering.1. There is little to think about, but these little things should be thought about thoroughly. This

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-18661808081713131802010-01-29T16:12:00.000Z2010-02-11T17:07:00.864Z

I went to the LCC Graphic Design PhD forum this week. The speaker was Ranulph Glanville and his talk was entitled 'Designing®, researching, knowing'. The ® after the word is not a RSI induced spasm, but intentional. Glanville uses it to reinforce his use of the word 'Design' in a particular way—that is design as known and understood by designers. Implict here is, I think, not as 'understood' by

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-76869404036684028872010-01-13T16:10:00.005Z2010-02-11T12:26:47.904Z

The next incarnation of the 'stuff' book is coming close to being finished I think. Using the same format and four different typefaces as the previous version, and reintroducing elements from the first draft, gives the book a much more lively, appropriate feel. The 'Stuff of dreams' reverts to being set within the landscape format of the page and the asides retain their asterisks and daggers

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-25746073593922102852009-12-06T15:06:00.014Z2010-02-16T10:29:01.502Z

Designing is a process, and one that is rarely linear, except probably when one writes about the work and edits and structures the piece so that it makes for easier reading—a linear path to follow. The stuff book is ongoing and its latest visual incarnation is evidence of the iterative, non-linear process of design. In this case, it's one step forward, two steps back.Reflection on the last

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-43394154296341940342009-11-27T12:38:00.006Z2009-11-27T13:12:02.562Z

It is interesting to refer back to the original of this article - published in issue 36 of Emigre in 1995. The thrust of the argument is that...The oversimplistic positioning of typographic work in relation to Modernism and Postmodernism is not a useful dualism within which to debate, describe or develop.We need to shift from discussing work in terms of these 'isms' to discussing specific context

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-47122747833764626352009-11-27T12:21:00.006Z2009-11-27T13:11:17.323Z

Have just put together the first draft of the stuff book. Lots to work on yet though. Format has lost something, I think, and is now a little too big. Think I may need to drop the obsessive Fibonacci based grid in order to give myself more flexibility. The different threads of texts running through the book are also perhaps too separate - there is no productive use of montage in terms of

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-66990521155053612372009-11-24T13:36:00.000Z2009-11-24T13:37:09.755Z

Supervision later today and here's a ready made excuse... the cat keeps sitting on my chair in the office, so I can't do any work!

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-31466470508987268002009-11-24T13:22:00.003Z2009-11-27T13:12:45.516Z

The lovely folk at The Building Exploratory have invited me to take part in a Pecha Kucha night entitled The Changing Face of Hackney on Thursday 26 November. Pecha Kucha involves a timed Powerpoint presentation of 20 slides of 20 second duration each - I'm not sure I'm known for my succinct summations, so it'll be a challenge!

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-63130049235164414772009-11-08T19:43:00.016Z2009-11-08T20:56:53.038Z

I am starting to develop work for a series of projects that view place through the lives of objects. A series of three projects will take a micro to macro, or private to public, look at Hackney in relation to objets that are kept, recycled, bought, or sold. The first in the series is the 'close up' view of objects in the home - how we create our own intimate space through the accumulation of

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-79589773270894619132009-10-23T15:35:00.000+01:002009-10-23T15:37:49.410+01:00

Sophie Calle 'Talking to strangers' opened at the Whitechapel last week. I went twice over the weekend—it is that good (in my humble opinion). Calle's thought processes and methodology have their roots in anthropological work and her repeated concerns seem to be place, memory and identity. The show both inspired me because of these processes (many of which are participatory) and subject matter,

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-2832414372015827132009-10-19T12:42:00.000+01:002009-10-19T12:44:27.223+01:00

I noticed this drain and the rather nice yellow line and number 12 as I walked out of Walthamstow tube station a couple of weeks ago. Actually what I noticed most was the huge number of grey blobs to the right of the drain - the remains of chewing gum. I am wondering two things... presumably the chewers were aiming to pitch their gum into the drain, so are all chewers of gum in Walthamstow really

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-53219957089123690362009-10-07T17:00:00.005+01:002009-10-08T15:17:33.754+01:00

About ten years ago I saw what I now know to be The Muriel Lake Incident by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at Tate Modern. The memory of it (unlike the name) stayed with me. A few months ago I did Janet Cardiff's audio walk The Missing Voice (case study B) from Whitechapel Art Gallery. Not only did I put two and two together and remember the work from the Tate all those years ago, but I

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-52429758604186445012009-10-05T11:07:00.007+01:002009-10-05T11:12:17.209+01:00

Well St 1 Originally uploaded by abarnes4Just uploaded a new batch of Hackney shots - mostly of a typographic nature.

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-6338878913484716492009-09-23T10:56:00.006+01:002009-09-23T11:41:30.379+01:00

After 14 lunches of greek salad and 10 dinners of briam I am home. Sad to feel the slight autumnal chill and depressed at the thought that I am entering what, come November, should be my final year. It remains to be seen. Right now, I can't imagine that I could get everything done by then. Its a funny old process the full time PhD. Very much a rollercoaster and very much a lonely furrow to be

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-40084719206534006342009-08-25T17:13:00.003+01:002009-08-25T17:15:09.750+01:00

I now have a Flickr account where I am in the process of unploading and geo-tagging all my Hackney photos.

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-19698654233615485872009-08-25T10:23:00.008+01:002009-09-29T12:55:24.572+01:00

The letterpress posters I have been working on for the HTAP in/flux exhibition are based on snatches of overheard conversations within Hackney. The conceptual overview touches on the following...Massey (1994, 2005) defines place as process, as something that is open, not static. For Massey, place is… …the sphere of a dynamic simultaneity, constantly disconnected by new arrivals, constantly

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-12313072919782372152009-08-25T10:18:00.002+01:002009-08-25T10:23:02.102+01:00

I have been trekking through Elephant and Castle underpass, from the old tube exit to LCC, on and off for the best part of 8 years and only this week did I notice that the number 1s stencilled onto the pavement along sections 12 and 10 are either upside down or back to front. Does that make me unobservant or just a bit of a weirdo for noticing at all?

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-9904141721758412392009-08-17T18:01:00.003+01:002009-08-18T14:13:40.856+01:00

As part of my association with HTAP I was part of Pattern Making For Beginners held on Saturday 1 August at the Red House, behind the Counter Cafe. The event was described as a research and collection day that was primarily executed via a diverse range of mapping type tools. My contributions were a Type Cast Map and a Secrets Map. The Type Cast Map follows on from my earlier work regarding place

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-58195698354933669752009-08-10T16:02:00.005+01:002009-08-25T10:58:28.941+01:00

I have recently completed a screenprint workshop at LCC run by Aida Haghshenas. After learning the process we had time to make a couple of our own screens, so I chose to use the opportunity to explore some images that I could use for some work on the 'stuff' project. I had just ordered 20g of assorted world stamps off the internet, which provided the raw material. Some of the stamps were

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-84884126132668211682009-08-09T18:01:00.005+01:002009-09-21T10:18:00.879+01:00

I have now got quite a few of the probe packs back in, and reading the responses to one of the postcard questions—What makes your house a home?—has got me thinking that a project about 'stuff' is in order. One of my respondents classifies her 'stuff' in a variety of ways. There are the 'collections' that might consist of things such as thimbles or paperweights; 'projects' that are more often than

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-36205212768750645852009-08-08T17:59:00.002+01:002009-08-17T17:52:34.492+01:00

Death of the author reveals the process of headline writing and the part the reader plays in constructing the story from the truncated sentences. The ‘headlines’ used in this publication are generated from the alphabetical list of the most emotionally charged words used in the headlines from the Hackney Gazette over the past two years. We are so used to reading the verbal shorthand of newspapers

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-23385712803678041862009-08-08T17:57:00.002+01:002009-08-17T17:53:26.611+01:00

Type Cast reveals how headlines, in this case, those from the Hackney Gazette, contribute to the representation and construction of place through the development of place image, an oversimplification and labeling of place (Shields 1991:47). This labeling has a negative impact, and in turn creates further headlines, changing not only one’s perception, but also spatial practices—if a ‘knife maniac’

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-40232037148113340052009-08-07T18:00:00.003+01:002009-08-17T17:29:03.810+01:00

This first, short project primarily provided a way of getting back into the process of making visual work after a long period of time spent developing the theoretical, written aspects of the research. Developed with the proposed Place as Book project in mind (see below), the resulting work places the visual language of a map into the space of the book, and is perhaps more of an abstract

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-5570791880484427632009-08-06T17:56:00.003+01:002009-08-17T18:07:47.032+01:00

This short project was undertaken alongside MA Design Writing Criticism students at LCC. It provided both an induction to the process of letterpress printing, and also the opportunity to engage with a set brief that, although not directly relevant to place in terms of its content, revealed the potential of an engagement beyond the surface of the page, at ‘the level of the text’, and the human

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-20035071478050383492009-08-05T17:53:00.007+01:002009-08-17T18:19:54.539+01:00

In discussing the recording of everyday life, Highmore (2002:171) suggests a ‘tool kit’ that enables the ‘different registers of a polyphonic everyday’ to be heard is needed, and this could perhaps be seen as a description of cultural probes. Originally developed as ‘part of a strategy of pursuing experimental design in a responsive way’ (Gaver, Dunne & Pacenti, 1999:22), the first probe packs

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-37887615735965234082009-08-04T17:51:00.004+01:002009-08-25T15:40:20.921+01:00

Throughout the course of the research I will be recording photographic images of Hackney. The images focus on traces of human interaction within the environment, whether that be notes pinned to lampposts, graffiti painted on walls, official signs or belongings left amongst derelict flats. Rather like the probes, the images reveal a fragmentary narrative of place. The images will be used to

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-54937107194588222382009-08-04T17:27:00.002+01:002009-08-25T16:52:47.293+01:00

Following on from the notion of landscape as text, is it possible to translate place to book? Using materials generated by the participant observation and the cultural probes, alongside secondary sources of historical and contemporary information about Hackney, can the book format offer an experience of place that transcends the ‘flattening out’ of the map? Within this project it may be useful to

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-36609038169041607572009-08-03T17:48:00.003+01:002009-08-17T17:22:52.699+01:00

The title of my PhD—abstract as it stands at the moment is as follows...This cross-disciplinary, practice-led research centres on the geographic visualisation of urban space and the possibilities print based graphic design and typography could bring to that process. Perkins (2006:np) notes that currently geographers are ‘very good at deconstruction, not so good at construction’, as they fear

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-81583313287444224472009-08-02T17:38:00.009+01:002009-08-18T14:14:57.320+01:00

Undertaken in conjunction with Joseph McCullagh, this research project, and associated paper, explored place via the design and use of a contextual font developed from the graffiti research undertaken in New Basford as part of the previous Mapping Meaning work.This work investigates typography specifically through the creation of the ‘New Basford’ font family as a way of extending our

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240952695776166299.post-64737928914336301162009-08-01T17:32:00.012+01:002009-08-19T09:03:53.833+01:00

This project, undertaken on the MA Typo/Graphics course at LCC/UAL, established my interest in developing work of a geo/graphic nature.New Basford is an area north of Nottingham city centre that was established through the burgeoning lace industry. It is an area that is predominantly filled with two up, two down terraces, some light industrial units (built following a ‘slum clearance’ programme)

Alison Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14464399656250501663noreply@blogger.com0