Chalkboard Chatter: Shannen Jalal

My project is base around the idea of a blackboard. It would be around the same size and shape as the landscape billboards that you see up and down the area. The blackboard is an artistic way of getting a feel for the street from a mixture of people who would be there (locals, students, locals-people of all ages). It would allow people to give their thoughts, tell stories, say insights on the area, quotes of things they’ve heard there, funny stories, drawings, recommendations for places on the street etc. It would be something on the street that everyone can interact with, and can become seen as an installation piece. One can be put on each of the streets (eg. Camden street, Aungier Street..) so that a variety of information about the area will be collected from a variety of different people. Each day then, the blackboards can be photographed and placed on a blog to provide people with a unique and interesting view on that part of Dublin.

Andrew has created an idea that revolves around customers creating artwork on coffee cups

As he notes in his text below:

This idea looks at promoting local illustration and creative talent around Dublin while introducing something unique and new to the Camden Street area. The idea blossomed from my observations of the street, where I noticed an abundance of coffee shops. What I also noticed was that there wasn’t anything eye-catching or creative in the area, just rows of shops, alleyways and derelict spaces. Thus I wanted to give illustrators an outlet to showcase their talents and to promote creativy and to participate in something public, and I wanted to inject a bit of life and buzz into the community, to help visually spruce up the area and to give them something that’s unique to their  locality, and to also boost business in the area. The main focus of this idea is taking coffee cups which are an everyday disposable object, and giving them a second life by transforming them into canvases for creative expression.

Rolling out this idea would involve the participation a local coffee shop or potentially a select few independent coffee shops in the area. Customers who wish to participate will recieve their purchased beverages in blank paper cups and be supplied with markers and pens to draw on the cups with.  Participants can draw there and then in the shop, or take the cups home to work on. Once they’re finished the cups will be left or dropped back into the coffee shop they were purchased from. The cups would then be rounded up and transported to an exhibition space which could run either weekly or monthly, with a different theme each week/month.  Countless themes could be applied to this scheme, from interpreting Camden street itself to seasonal events such as Christmas or Halloween. Since coffee shops are a common hang-out spot for young creative minded folk these days, it’s a fun way that they could apply their talents while having a beverage with friends to something that will go on to be exhibited, and a quirky way to get their name out there in the creative scene.

I recently went to numerous coffee shops in the area to pitch this idea, and I managed to catch the attention of one shop in particular. Toasted is a coffee shop around the corner from the DIT Aungier Street campus at the crossroad traffic lights that separates Wexford Street and Aungier Street. Upon pitching the idea to the Manager he expressed interest at the proposal and even gave his own reflections, thoughts and suggestions for my Caffeine Canvas idea and how it could be exhibited.

The exhibition element injects a new social aspect into to the area, and gives aspiring illustrators a chance to mingle with one another and create contacts within the creative scene. It also gives the public something to admire, observe and engage with as they go about their day-to-day business commuting up and down the streets in the area.  There are lots of options in regards to where the exhibit the cups, one of the mock-ups I’ve made shows the cups inside The Bernard Shaw pub. I felt this could be an ideal spot for the exhibition space seeing as how the pub boasts illustration and graffiti on its exterior and interior and a quirky and creative atmosphere and is already synonymous with young creative types in Dublin, it could also help get more people up to this end of the area. Another potential exhibition space could involve utilizing the old Eircom phone booths. The cups could be hung and arranged inside the phone booths for passers-by on the street to look at and admire. A Caffeine Canvas logo could adorn the outside, with a brief explanation of what it’s all about in order to garner interest and potentially attract new participants to the collective. A suggestion from the owner of Toasted hinted at the potential coffee shops being transformed into exhibition gallery’s themselves

Overall the idea wouldn’t cost an awful lot and would be simple to implement. Blank paper cups and drawing material such as markers would be the main components to supply, as well as a team to manage the collective and how it’ll run, collecting up the cups and setting up the exhibition spaces. The caffeine canvas scheme could be beneficial for business as well, acting as a new way of advertising coffee shops and attracting new customers and budding illustrators to coffee shops they might of overlooked before. Since the cost of participation is the price of a cup of coffee, the shop owners will benefit profit-wise as well as the idea grows in popularity and more participants come onboard

Karl Brennan’s Project picks up on the lack of identity of the area. Karl has picked up on the number of music venues in the area and created  a Dublin Live District identity and campaign as you can see in his images below

Radialympics: Derek Doyle

Derek’s title takes inspiration from the IwB description of the area as The Camden Radial. This is another project that will be realised as it taps into the existing DIT facilities in the area. Derek describes the project below:

Within the Camden Radial there is an apparent lack of outdoor amenities and outdoor sports facilities.

The area as well, appears to lack a sense of community and it is something which I felt needed to be built upon. Taking these factors into consideration, the idea which I came up with was the Radialympics.

The Radialympics is an outdoor sports event which will aim to bring the community of the Camden Radial closer together through sporting activities. By using what the area does have (road networks, paths, a canal area) I was hoping to create an event which would get people out of their houses, out of their jobs and out actively getting fit while building a new conversation for the area.

For funding, I hoped to gain sponsorship from businesses, as they could donate money or prizes which would help in the running of events and give people something to compete for. In a bid to gain some backing/funding I contacted several members of staff from DIT about the project and ended up meeting with two members off of the sports board of DIT, Niamh O’Callaghan and Herbie McClelland. In the meeting I explained what the idea was and how it could potentially function. The idea went down very well and I obtained the full backing and support of the DIT sports board. They requested that I run this idea in conjunction with DIT latest sports facility as a launch for both my project and their facilities, which I agreed to.

Recently, DIT Kevin Street opened their new sports facilities (www.fit2goclub.ie) which includes an 18 metre pool, a studio and weights room. As of yet there has been no official launch of the facility to the public which has resulted in only 60 people from the local community having taken out a membership. DIT is fully functional with students for only 6 months of a year and the other 6 months the college is quiet and vacant. This lul period ideally needs to have an influx of people from the community to make the facility viable. The cost for joining the gym per annum is €200, but for unemployed is €180.

Since there has been no official launch of the facility, Niamh and Herbie agreed to have an official launch day on May 31st. The day will be run for the community and will host a myriad of free classes and workshops to try and capture the community. The fit club has 10 members of staff, all of which will be present on the launch day to help out the public by offering workshops and classes.

By accepting their offer of running the Radialympics conjunction with DIT, it makes the Radialympics grow legs and have a platform in which it can start off of. It also allows the Radialympics to have a central hub on the day of the events so that people can meet and get information about what is to offer on the day. By working with DIT, the Radialympics has real scope and can change the conversation of the area.

MaijaJura_TheDublinProject

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As part of The Dublin Project Visual Communications students Maija Žukova and Jura Afanasjevs looked at making projections of interiors onto the outside of buildings. Turning Design Inside Out is the theme of PIVOT Dublin http://www.pivotdublin.com and this project literally does exactly that…

The photographs show the existing building, some trial projections and some still images that were used in the mock up video

Jura and Maija’s statement follows:

Mission of Intent

One of the most striking aspects of the Camden Street locality is the number of rundown buildings stood empty in the area. They give the street a threatening atmosphere and bring the tone of the area down.

While all this accessible space is the ‘public realm’, free to utilise and enjoy, these dilapidated buildings are excluded from this. These buildings have lost their identity and are ignored on a daily basis. We chose one particular building on 4-5 Camden Street Lower to work with. This building on Camden Street has an interesting creative background.

From around 1912, this was the headquarters of the Earley and Powell stained glass and sculpture studio. This firm was one of the largest and most prestigious ecclesiastical decorators both in Ireland and the UK up until its closure in 1975.
Since then, its beautiful circular stained glass window has remained ignored and unappreciated. Inspired by this window, we would like to make people aware of its existence by creating an visual projection of different stained glass works. We want to give this derelict space a new voice to communicate with the community and in turn, give it a new identity and use. We aim to get people to participate and connect with the building again by learning about its history through a series of projections.