Monday, 10 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Day 7
What we did...
- Spent all hours day and night editing the collected clips and previous rough video compositions.
- All the time looking to express all aspects of the charrettes as well as our own perspective.
- Through the piecing together of all footage and audio our narrative became apparent and we development the concept of connecting our journey of the week to a visual journey of a map around Byker encompassing everything we learnt and experienced from the Charrette.
- Completed final film that will become our main documentation of the week.
- Completed supplementary video of students at work and their comments on the projects. We decided to keep this as a separate entity to convey atmosphere of the studio and asked questions that were different to the previous line of enquiry.
Positives...
- Managed to complete a mammoth edit and collected a huge amount of information.
- Technically progressed our editing and recording techniques.
- Became immersed in Byker and what it means to the residents.
Negatives...
- Time is always an issue.
- It's a shame we were unable to become more integral to each groups progression through the project.
Conclusion...
- We found it interesting listening and analysing the recorded student audio clips.
There was a trend for often dramatising issues and situations in order to construct an argument as a basis for design solutions. We feel that certain interventions could be of benefit to the residence but the main underlying issues seem economical not architecture driven.
We hope you enjoy the film portraying our week in Byker...
John & Andy.
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Day 6
What we did...
- We arranged follow up interviews over the phone with residents David, Fiona and Herbie and went to meet them in their own homes in order to better capture their opinions on Byker and our Charrette projects.
- Questions we asked them...
1. An easy question start, Tell us about one happy memory from your time in Byker?
2. What does living in Byker mean to you?
3. What one thing would you change about Byker?
4. What does the future hold for the young people of Byker?
5. If you trying to persuade someone to live in Byker what would you say?
6. Do you think the students of the Charrettes project can really understand what living in Byker is all about?
-Began moving towards a final edited film.
- We realised that we had many separate fragments of film and audio from our documenting of the week and needed a cohesive narrative in which to string them together.
- Discussed at length options for the final output of a couple of short films or one master edit.
Positives...
- We collected some really great interviews and came to know David, Fiona and Herbie on a more personal level.
Negatives...
- Interviews ran too long and a back log of other footage meant that we would be disappointed to cut the interviews short.
Friday, 7 October 2011
Byker Hackers- Day 5
Today everyone was assigned to a group and a tour guide. The groups assembled within the Byker wall outside the housing office before being taken on a tour around the site. The group I was with was led by Michelle Bell and Gordon Humble who told us all about the investment that is being carried out on the site and the upgrades that will have to be made to the building as Building Regulations alter. They spoke about the involvement that the residents have with the council and everyone living within the area has had some level of involvement with the changes being made to the site. Following the site visit we were all able to gather enough information to understand the site and the issues that are being dealt with, or which haven’t been resolved yet.
Day 5
What we did...
- Rented 2 bikes and cycled to Byker with the intent of recording the tour routes for use in the final film.
- Mounted cameras on bikes and chartered several routes we wanted to cover.
- Carried out spontaneous interview with passers by. Met a number of youngsters from the area and asked them 2 questions...
1. What is the best thing about Byker?
2. What is the worst thing about Byker?
- Put together rough edits of group work for final film.
- Edited recorded interviews we had taken from the studio.
Positives.
- Interesting feedback from kids through the discussion of our project aims.
- We were made to feel at ease within Byker's public space.
Negatives.
- We had problems gettin steady footage on the bikes and had to abandon large amounts of footage.
- After attracting the attention of many young kids a lot of the older member of Byker no longer wanted to be interviewed.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Byker Hackers- Day 4
The day started by finishing off explaining the design solutions for the last category. From this the group needed to work through some of the designs again in order to fully resolve the ideas, but also to make the design specific to its context. Other members of the team also worked on ideas for the format of the presentation.
By the end of the day the group had decided that work needed to be done on the original categories, to decide whether they fully described the issues created. The team also needed to delegate tasks better to make sure everyone was putting forward suggestions and being involved. Some of the design solutions still needed to be resolved further and placed within a specific context so that they could be understood better. By the end of the day, other tasks were delegated for the next day. The team decided that tomorrow the format for the presentation would be decided so that the presentation can be started by the weekend.
The day started by finishing off explaining the design solutions for the last category. From this the group needed to work through some of the designs again in order to fully resolve the ideas, but also to make the design specific to its context. Other members of the team also worked on ideas for the format of the presentation.
By the end of the day the group had decided that work needed to be done on the original categories, to decide whether they fully described the issues created. The team also needed to delegate tasks better to make sure everyone was putting forward suggestions and being involved. Some of the design solutions still needed to be resolved further and placed within a specific context so that they could be understood better. By the end of the day, other tasks were delegated for the next day. The team decided that tomorrow the format for the presentation would be decided so that the presentation can be started by the weekend.
Day 4
What we did...
- Back to studio to record Political symposium group at work and shot close ups of participants in action as well as recording sound bites of the following 3 questions...
1. Has your opinion of Byker changed since the start of the week?
2. What are you doing right now?
3. Do you think you can really make a change?
Positives...
- We got a sense of the progression of the individual charrette groups.
- Also a good idea of their final ideas for their proposals.
Negatives...
- We wanted more contribution to the blog so therefore decided to open it up to the whole student body by nominating individuals who would be responsible for contributing info on their groups progress.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Byker Hackers- Day 3
Following yesterday’s organisation of categories, the group had a fast-paced sketching session to come up with feasible and challenging solutions to the issues identified on Tuesday. Simultaneously, another group identified the area within Byker to focus the design solutions on and went about labelling areas on maps in which the issues had been identified.
The team then talked through all the ideas to discuss whether they were feasible and realistic, whether they solved the initial issue and where about on the site the idea would be implemented. The main issue that arose with most of the solutions created were that they were not drawn with any context in mind or scale, and so it may be difficult for someone who has not been involved with the group to understand the design idea fully.
Following yesterday’s organisation of categories, the group had a fast-paced sketching session to come up with feasible and challenging solutions to the issues identified on Tuesday. Simultaneously, another group identified the area within Byker to focus the design solutions on and went about labelling areas on maps in which the issues had been identified.
The team then talked through all the ideas to discuss whether they were feasible and realistic, whether they solved the initial issue and where about on the site the idea would be implemented. The main issue that arose with most of the solutions created were that they were not drawn with any context in mind or scale, and so it may be difficult for someone who has not been involved with the group to understand the design idea fully.
Talking Byker
Talking Byker - Students take a few minutes to answer questions, during the Byker Charrette 2011. Thank you to those involved we had fun making it.
Day 3
What we did...
- We set out to conduct interviews with students to get more direct footage of their thoughts, attitudes and plans for the project so far.
- We were aware of turning Byker into a photographic novelty and not having enough audio evidence of the discussion process.
- We wrote down 3 questions and set up more intimate interviews using the questions....
1. From your initial groupwork what is the one main issue you would like to address in Byker?
2. Where abouts in Byker do you wish to make a change?
3. Who do you think will benefit from this change?
- Edited the clips into a short film naming it 'TALKING BYKER'.
Positives...
- We gained a lot more valuable footage and knowledge from the participants.
- We were pleased with the style and content of the short film and will look to use this to further development.
Negatives...
- We felt we needed the same quality of interviews from the tour guides and Byker residents in order to get both sides of the story.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Byker Hackers - Day 2
Our team met up today to begin the first task of the week; identifying the issues apparent on site. We spent the morning sketching out issues that we had noted from our previous site visits. After this the group discussed the identified issues, making everyone aware of them. We then all arranged the identified issues into categories as to whether they affected people either
-Publically,
-Semi-Publically / Semi-Privately
-Privately
The issues were then also categorised as to what issue this created. The categories were identified as:
-Community Identity,
-Adaptability (of the listed building),
-Management,
-Natural Environment,
-Physical Environment.
Our team met up today to begin the first task of the week; identifying the issues apparent on site. We spent the morning sketching out issues that we had noted from our previous site visits. After this the group discussed the identified issues, making everyone aware of them. We then all arranged the identified issues into categories as to whether they affected people either
-Publically,
-Semi-Publically / Semi-Privately
-Privately
The issues were then also categorised as to what issue this created. The categories were identified as:
-Community Identity,
-Adaptability (of the listed building),
-Management,
-Natural Environment,
-Physical Environment.
Day 2
What we did...
- Began the day editing Andy and Herbie's Byker tours.
- Posted rough tour videos onto youtube and the blog for the people to see.
- Filmed and photographed in the studio, Byker Hackers, Game of Byker and Byker Stripes groups in discussion and working on their respective projects.
Positives...
- Collected good footage of the working studio environment.
- Gained an insight into each groups' subject matter.
Negatives...
- We didn't have any footage or audio from other students.
- Realised from first day we needed better audio content to be combined with the video footage of students at work and Byker tours.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Byker Hackers- Day 1
Today everyone was assigned to a group and a tour guide. The groups assembled within the Byker wall outside the housing office before being taken on a tour around the site. The group I was with was led by Michelle Bell and Gordon Humble who told us all about the investment that is being carried out on the site and the upgrades that will have to be made to the building as Building Regulations alter. They spoke about the involvement that the residents have with the council and everyone living within the area has had some level of involvement with the changes being made to the site. Following the site visit we were all able to gather enough information to understand the site and the issues that are being dealt with, or which haven’t been resolved yet.
Day 1
What we set out to do...
- Document 4 charrette groups.
- Record the discovery and the process.
- Document life in Byker
- Provide a documenter's perspective of the charrette week.
- Create a final film that unifies our findings from the week.
What we did...
- Recorded Andy and Herbie's tours.
- Collected photographs and footage.
- Set up file sharing site and made a short intro film to Byker to test out updating blog.
-Uploaded photos of the day to blog and file sharing site.
Positives...
- Got things moving with film and photos
- Tours were insightful
Negatives...
- Audio from the tour was unusable due to wind noise
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Charrettes 2011
Welcome to the Charrette 2011 Blog. This will be the source for infomration and updates for Newcastle University's School of Architecture Planning and Landscape Charrettes.
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