NYC Tourism Advertisement

Billboard Poster to encourage tourists to visit New York. A video of the initiative can also be seen in the following link:

http://nycvisit.com/video/

Exchange of glances

"exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another"

Chloe, Invisible Cities

"In Chloe, a great City, the people who move through the streets are all strangers. At each encounter, they image a thousand things about one another; meetings which could take place between them, conversations, surprises, caresses, bites. But noone greets anyone; eyes locking for a second, then dart away seeking other eyes, never stopping."
".... An exchange of glances like lines that connect one figure with another and draws arrows, stars, triangles, until all combinations are used up in a moment....."
".When people happen to find themselves together, taking shelter from the rain under an arcade, or crowding beneath an awning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen to the band in the square, meetings, seductions, copulations, orgies are consummated among them without a word exchanged, without a finger touching anything, almost without an eye raised"

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, page 51. 1972

Tutorial 30th October

Is privacy and user information lost when they use the interactive screen? and does the government have a right to use it? Think of the film Minority Report, iris recognition dictates what information is given to Tom Cruise when he walks through a shopping mall. Do we then only get advertisements that a computer generates for us, using previous articles that we've bought or researched? Should we be told what we want? The exploration is then lost and we no longer have a choice to do, go or use what we want. But then another question can be asked: Do we have too much choice? Going in to a supermarket and selecting a soap powder is a lengthy decision, the whole aisle is taken up by persil, daz, aerial, supermarket own brand and the list goes on. Why is there so much choice when only one thing could suit everything?
A lot of things need to be considered when designing the interactive information screen, especially the space in which people use and interact with technology.

City Screens in Leeds

There is only one city screen in Leeds now, in Millenium Square. Up until November 2005 the screen was only temporary for live8, Euro 2004 and Wimbledon, which were great crowd magnets. The screen is now permenant mainly showing bbc news, local films or weather reports. Sound is muted during nightime.

Previously there has been a smaller city screen located outside WH Smiths off commercial street. This has recently been taken away, probably due to its small size and being slightly pixellated. Advertisements were aired across the screen, along with local weather to the seating area infront of it.

Improving the screen would include bringing the screen down to human height and allowing individuals control what they watch.

Microsoft Surface

Take a look at the microsoft website:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/index.html

The microsoft surface could be very useful in the street. A person could take photos of the Street/performers and at different times of the day, whilst upoading them on to the web.

Whilst this is happening another person could use the board to find directions and local events information.

City Wall

City Wall in Helsinki, Finland is a large interactive face displaying images of the local area. Interacting like this is relatively new, where most people only use a mouse, a hands on approach engages the user more productively.

http://citywall.org/

Our day out.

Claire and Lindsay went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and got inspired by the work of Isamu Noguchi.
This exhibition is definitely worth a visit!

http://www.ysp.co.uk/view.aspx?id=457

Redefinition Video

This is the short film that was made for the group redefinition. It shows exactly our thoughts on what Briggate should become, so sit back, relax, maybe even get in some popcorn and watch our film.

The video takes a clip from Leeds Film Festival Trailer 2005 as viewed on YouTube.com

Redefine Magazine Cover

One of the two A1 Posters presented for our 'redefinition'. Design to be like a magazine front page

The Box Office

Briggate will become the tourist destination, with people coming to see the street performers, theatres and cultural aspects of the street and not just to go shopping. When people visit Briggate they will want a source of information to allow them to discover the most of the area.

This will be when they discover the Box Office.

The Box Office is intended to be an interactive source of information, a place to purchase cinema/theatre/gig tickets and a point where people can interact with each other. Tourists and locals will be able to find event and transport timetables at the touch of the screen.

The proposal will investigate what other resources the Box Office could include and types of architectural environments it could generate.

Briggate: The Destination- The Main Stage

Why?

Briggate is already a performance. However it lacks real definition and has no designated areas for performance and culture. Some cultural buildings remain but many have disappeared, whether it be down ginnels or demolishion, Briggate now needs to diversify to redress the balance and ensure a prosperous future.

Briggate has been the retail centre, a residential area and a thoroughfare. Now it needs to become the Destination

Why an improved dedicated performance destionation?

• The street needs to move beyond retail to survive. Economic slowdown is upon us and could cause the death of Briggate.
• Briggate needs to be the Destination, not a transitional space and needs to attract a broader audience, proving entertainment for everyone.
• Briggate needs shelter and seating areas to enable the audience to stay and enjoy the performance.
• Designated performance spaces are required for the street entertainers.

What does Briggate lack to become the Destination?

• Shelter
• Cultural bases
• Evening performances
• Entertainment for everyone
• Holding spaces for performance
• Connection between New Briggate and Lower Briggate where pubs, bars and theatres are.

Proposal: The theatre Destination,

Highlight the best of Briggate

How?

• Create shelter for performers and their audience
• Create performance space for different social groups
• Define performance spaces
• Add more culture to the street

Tutorial 21st October

We discussed our ideas for proposals in this tutorial.

Lindsay: A Box Office for Briggate. The idea originated from the vast amount of people that use Briggate already. With our performance idea this would create even more attraction and a need for an Information Centre/Booth on the street. The Booth could have mini pods located on different points on the street and include an interactive touch screen. Discussions also centred around using the pods could be a performance.

Robbie: Initial ideas were to create a space for use by carnival and festival parades. The next concept was centred around the Leeds Film Festival, a Booth for creating your own videos. Bob suggested looking at a Community Arts Space in Boston featured in Architecture weekly.

Claire: City Lights. A series of suspended structures to use light to hold people or highlight a particular activity. .Another student had been asked to turn on a light outside the Library as an art performance this was supposed to indicate how we can change our environment through light. Need to look at the work of Isamu Noguchi an artist who uses light, currently exhibited at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Street Costume

Going from analysing the theatrical words we applied these to the street in a photo montage. The main things we have in this image is Costume, Interval space, Audience and The Gods as well as the continuing performance theme.

Father Duffy Square, Broadway

http://www.timessquarenyc.org/facts/newduffy.html

Great Quote

"The great function of the city is to encourage the greatest possible number of meetings, encounters and challenges between all persons, classes and groups, providing a stage upon which the drama of social life may be enacted with the actors taking their turns as spectators and the spectators as actors."

Lewis Mumford
The City in History 1961

Looking at Other Destination Streets

A series of slides to see why people visit other Destination Streets.

24 Hour Briggate (or at least longer than 9 hour)

We created this 'Broadway' image to show how Briggate might look, if evening entertainment took place actually on the street and not just down the ginnels and arcades.
Providing more lighting and an inviting environment to hold people in and not just a space to pass through. Have a couple of cinemas, theatres or small hotels on Briggate would extend its life past shoppers 6pm.

Tutorial 14th October 2008

During our group tutorial with Bob we discussed our definition and how we were moving on with the redefinition. The main points were to show the process and give reasoning and underpin all ideas.
Furthering our study in to comparing Briggate with other major destination streets was another point to progress the redefinition.
Discussions about the archigram approach to plug-in cities, lead to ideas around creating space on the roof tops or adding a parasite to the flat roofs.

Performance Related

Continuing with the performance definition, how can we redefine Briggate?



Our first step was to take several words that related to part of a theatre performance and each group member investigated how this could relate to Briggate. Returning back to the group we brainstormed these ideas:

Taking the theatre words, we mapped them on to Briggate and looked at for example how an interval space could benefit Briggate or adding costume to a building would improve the streets atmosphere:

Narrative

Throughout the day Briggate acts as a performance space, from the buskers, street sellers and charity workers to shoppers parading in the latest fashion. However as the sun goes down, it is as tough the curtains close and the street's vibrant atmosphere disappears for another day.

Define Briggate: Powerpoint Slides

Along with the previous posters, we produced and presented a slideshow to Define Briggate. The powerpoint in more analytical compared to the posters, but displays our group narrative in the final slide.

Define Briggate

Two A1 sheets defining Briggate within group work. The first is presented in an old style theatre poster, portraying the different types of people who perform on Briggate. The second is presented as a Billboard/Newspaper to enhance the 'performance' definition. It communicates the analysis of who uses Briggate and when, the cultural buildings and attributes of the performance street.

Group: Claire Dickson, Robbie Sampson and Lindsay Morris