Having just completed and handed in a very shiny (literally) document for this second unit (of four 3rd year units) I thought i'd sit back and reflect on it proudly!
Entitled "Cultural led regeneration of Manchester, is the future digital? A review by Alison Buckley", the 'report' comprises of an introduction, 3 interviews and a review style conclusion. I became interested in what role art and culture plays in Manchester after a work placement at Designate where I got introduced to the company All About Audiences (formerly Arts About Manchester) I got to work on their website which is to be an arts what's on and booking portal for Manchester and am now currently on a part time work placement with them. Through Designate I managed to secure 3 interviews with some really knowledgeable people, which I then recorded and wrote up in a journalist style. Roger Tomlinson was from Act Consultant Services and is behind the concept and implementation of All About Audience's new arts website, Helen Palmer is an audience development and marketing consultant and co-owner of Palmer Squared who's clients include Marketing Manchester and Renaissance North West. Alex Saint is an arts audience development consultant and former director of All About Audiences (formerly Arts About Manchester) who currently consults for the Manchester Museums Consortium. It was an absolutely fantastic experience to carry out my own interviews with such high caliber people! They gave me a real incite into the promotion of arts and culture in Manchester and its effect on the city, with a particular focus on digital.
''Having been looking into the agencies and Consortiums who seem to be the big players when it comes to culturally led regeneration of Greater Manchester, it has become clear that they have all taken the route of digital marketing, particularly online. I plan to uncover what is going on behind the scenes or should I say, the screens, of the digital world here in Manchester and to answer the question, of whether its cultural sector is big and clever enough to lead the city forward into its aspiration of being the original modern city, once again?''
This second unit of the year has given me such great, hands on experience at communicating and networking and of course with research. I have also really enjoyed being able to develop my preferred journalistic style of writing, and critically evaluating my findings through backed up arguments has certainly engaged me fully in the subject! I plan to pursue my interest in review writing further through my placement with All About Audiences and would like to continue to develop design work around cultural and artistic events and initiatives. (see Object React project). It has also spurred me to develop 'Radar' a digital magazine that myself Sarah Bush, Helen Butterworth and Maaya Laad are developing. It is to be a 'digital notice board' for MMU art and design students, highlighting to them what's on of relevance to them both internally in the art school and externally throughout Greater Manchester. I now take the digital content of my practice much more seriously and can see the huge potential that Digital currently has in shaping our city.
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