A time for pause

So there was much more of course, but isn't there always?  My flight home was uneventful and of course felt exceptionally long - both in space and time.  The UK was wonderful, meeting old friends and making new friends.  Exploring the depths museum collections and taking country walks.  Nevertheless, when homeward bound I looked out my window and saw the majesty of our landscape, and reflected on our beautiful country and the opportunity that abounds with being so new in the world.

The Wellcome Collection and Visualizing Information

After all the information of a week in London- I went and did something only I would - GO GET SOME MORE!  I headed over to the Wellcome Collection first thing on Saturday morning.  The Wellcome Collection is a museum that is dedicated to the education and "the connection between, health, medicine and art".  It opened while I lived in London, and I remember going to their first anniversary with Emmie Joseph - where we listened to an amazing talk by one of the design leads at Timorous Beasties (his name escapes me at this moment).

So back to this time - the exhibitions were so wonderful, but not appropriate for visual documentation.  The first temporary exhibition was on Forensics, and really delved into how they figure out some of the more gruesome details about death (it was disgustingly fantastic!).  The second temporary exhibition was called "The Institute of Sexology" and presented both information and examples of the study and debates surrounding sex over the past 150 years.   Needless to say quite interesting topics to be discussed and thought about, and the collection very much so inspired reflection on change in society and how technology has assisted in this change of both information gathering and with it a greater understanding of our humanity in life and death.

I did take some pictures of the permanent collection - all about Visualizing information - something this museum does exceptionally well as it has art to making it meet the discerning aesthetic eye of the viewer while accurately communicating the data, a feat not to be diminished.  So - now - here's the pictures!!!

 These first two images are the volumes containing the human genome if it was printed into a book form - it would take this much space to print it all out and bind it - so amazing we can know what the genome is and can communicate it (and its really big)

 These were the most beautiful resin sculptures - each one was of a person thinking something different (I didn't remember to get that part down, I wonder what my brain looks like now?)

 These 3 images were of these 'drawers' in one of the drawing tables showing both the life of scientists and how people communicate some very difficult information to people.  They were so simple but also so very effective.

We need to ask Denise if we can get this book - if we don't already have it

Oh to be at the Tate

As I'm sure I've mentioned - this whole trip was a bit of a strange occurence where I was at once reliving my past as well as finding how things had changed - the Tate was no different.

I first arrived and decided to do the one thing I always did when I was having a terrible day (not that I was, just that it was my favourite thing to do in all of London - other than go to the V&A of course). I wrote about it back in 2008 and there is a nice picture of why I loved it so much.  I guess it could never be the same, but was a good start anyhow.

I then started trudging through the galleries hardly looking at anything, more of a searching for my favourite pieces - 480x10x10 by Miroslaw Balka and Jean Arp's Sculpture to be lost in the Forest.  Unfortunately, they are nowhere to be found - but are off travelling just like me.  In the process of looking for them I found something even nicer - Jonathan, one of the most lovely First Year Marketing Students - just hanging out, and after my run in with Christian last week I was not that surprised, though Jonathan was.  I told him all the fantastic things to do in London, way too quickly without any paper or a pen, so I'm not sure how much of it he would have remembered, but what a lovely occurrence. The world is small.

 I love this - so much, I wonder what else it could be?

  This series was the most related to apparel of anything I saw, mostly I loved seeing her process, so very interesting

 The crack - to the initiated, I need to say no more - God that was the best!

. The new building at the Tate - I can't wait until it's finished - MORE ROOM FOR ART!

A beautiful hour at the British Museum

Jumping around a bit in how things went down.  I went to the British Museum for an hour, as I was looking for someone who works there and was hoping she was there - I did not find her if she was there (If I had a phone in the UK, things might have been simpler, but I like that there is a bit of difficulty, keeps me on my toes).  Anyone who knows me knows I call the British Museum 'The British Museum of Stolen Stuff', and often don't visit because of that - but as I was there anyhow I thought I'd look around, and there was a visiting exhibition on Bark Cloth from the Pacific.  It was AMAZING!  Most of the pieces are from the 1800's and so contemporary in design which makes me wonder how much of our 'hand' is intrinsic.  I'll stop talking and put some pretty pictures now.

Product Design + Innovation

So after 3 fantastic days visiting some of the world's best Design universities it was the day for PD+I to start.

The day started out with some interesting talks about models of service and developments in consumer electronics. Points of reference to the world of transportation and our comfort in this environment. This was in such steep contrast to the flights Iryna and I had been on a few days prior and the discomfort we felt during them. It very much highlighted that so much of the work within our field is focused on the most wealthy - and our complicit role in developing products and ideas for this market and was a wonderful reminder to look to other places for market inspiration and to bring into our practices.

Old School

So Day 3 was another thing altogether - we went on some fantastic visits.

On Day 3 our first visit was to my Old School - except that it isn't my old school - it is a new school, as the building at Kings Cross was finished and the entire college moved there (when we were over 4 campuses before).  The building was fantastic, some issues of course, and the storage plan that was proposed when I was around (and on the committee) was not realized, but the space was fantastic!  We first visited Jessica Lertvili (Material Librarian, fellow Cdn, 2009 CSM grad like me, and all around lovely person).  She showed us around the Materials Library - which is fantastic, and I was so impressed to see how it has grown and developed under her care.  I have more, but I'm running out of battery, so I'll leave it there for now.

Going Backwards

So as I would hate to be logical - I'll tell you all about Day 1 in London!

Day 1 was all about Brick Lane and the Spitalfield Market - 2 out of 3 of my favourite things to do on a Sunday in London (it was too late to go to the flower market, as we got to the East end after 3)

The highlight - while wonderful to find the chaos has not changed, was running into an old friend on a small street between the two markets

It was completely unexpected, and so incredibly lovely to be welcomed be it accidentally by Christian Nyampeta to London, out of the millions of people in this city I find one of my people - absolutely amazing! (I have another story like this I'll share another time)

Found my favourite store, Labour & Wait, as it had moved and bought the most lovely vintage marmalade jar, and trolled for trousers with Iryna

East London is alive and well with young cutting edge fashion and its rawness is still inspiring!

A week late but still here

Currently in Edinburgh, but still around.   I'll be sporadically posting about the last week and things still to come.

As I look back upon this week, it feels more like a lifetime than a week.  I would have to say the punctuation of the week was that of reflection, of both the 6 years that have past but also of a life lived here.  Everyday was completely filled up and now I just hope I can remember enough of it.

I will start with Day 2 – and as I headed to the V&A the first moment I could, I hopped on the tube and headed over there, and I meandered around as always as it is but a place of dreams.  It was very busy, and I enjoyed looking at the new and old displays and found myself flooded with inattention as there as so much to see and comprehend. Looking for the textile study room, I discovered that it has moved to another space further up the road – and is only open on Tuesdays and Fridays by appointment only.  So instead I looked for something to pay attention to specifically, and decided on green glass, for no apparent reason other than it was a collection I could feasibly gather and when surveying the space was neither the most or least common.  So I have made a very long series of images from my mini colour study on green glass in the V&A, pay particular attention to the cow creamer – he is hilarious.  I don’t know if I would have noticed this grouping of objects otherwise, as glass is not where I usually place my attention.