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Nature Walks at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve in Doncaster

The idea for out Felix’s Adventure Trail community project is to create a leaflet for children to follow and complete activities whilst walking along the Trans Pennine Trail in Penistone. 

Through researching existing nature trail opportunities for children, I have found that the Nature Wildlife Trust promotes 4 different nature walks to do located at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve.

On the website, they provide a downloadable iSPY leaflets which is a similar idea to what we have previously discussed amongst the group. These trails encourage children to look out for birds, wildlife and plants. An activity I thought to be creative within the natural environment was to do bark rubbing from trees and look out for interesting surfaces. This linking to our University practice. 

http://www.ywt.org.uk/node/3176

The booklets fold out and include lots of colour and digitised visualisations of animals and plants. There seems to be a lot going on within the leaflet with lots of writing which I assume the parent of the child would explain. We are targeting our trail towards the age range of 6-11 years old therefore we must consider this when thinking about what images and writing to include. The leaflet will be educational therefore we must include facts about things involved with the trail.

A map may be of use to describe where to go to people who wish to do our nature trail in their spare time.

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The Nature Trail at The National Coal Mining Museum for England

I have found an example of using a promotional figure to advertise a Nature trail. ‘Motty the Mole’ is the figure used by The National Coal Mining Museum to encourage children to engage with nature around museum site.

By analysing the illustration, I have found that bright and basic colours have been used to be eye catching for children. I find that the use of animals, especially drawn in an illustrative, cartoon-like manner, attracts the attention of children therefore, our idea of using Felix the Cat as our promotional figure for our community project will fit with this. Using a figure to advertise the trail makes the activities more exciting as they will be following the adventure of a character, interacting with a story.

By researching other nature trails, set up by organisations, I aim to gather ideas as inspiration for potential activities that the children will complete during the trip. I have thought about using Girl Guide handbooks which I have used to plan outdoor activities in the past for the guides.

https://www.ncm.org.uk/visitors/nature-trail

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Worlds first ever 3D knitted shoes by JS shoes customize each shoe by colour, pattern and size.

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Trip to Penistone

After realising that we had to experience Penistone ourselves to find out what was accessible in the area, we decided to get the train on the morning of Thursday 18th February. 

We caught the train to Penistone at 9:16am and arrived at 9:45. 30 minutes, we felt was a suitable time for families to travel to take part in the trail. I noticed the Trans Pennine Trail was next to the station and thought it may be interesting to explore if we did not find anything in Penistone.

We walked into the town centre to look around to see what it suitable for the children to take part in. We thought the town centre was a long walk for little legs and thought there was not much for the children to do there.

We walked back to the Trans Pennine trail to see what resources there was to work with. We found there was many sticks, stones, mud, a stile and a stream. We came up with activities using theres things the children could find and use to draw with. For example, skim stones, count steps and draw in mud with sticks.

Maddy suggested we ask some people with children some questions about the nature trail. We asked around three people what they do with their children in leisure time and what they thought of our initial ideas about our trail. 

Notes of what they said: 

A lady with an 11 year old grand daughter and 6 year old grandson said they would be interested in a nature trail to take part in locally. Normally they do activities at home, cycle on the Trans Pennine Trail and play football at the local leisure centre. They like visiting the River Don to feed the ducks also.

A lady with her son in a pram said that she uses the Trans Pennine Trail to travel from her home into the town centre. She doesn't use the outdoors in terms of activities, however, would like a trail for daughters aged 6 to do.

 We asked a family with toddler who said it would be muddy but they would be interested. Their family come here anyway to pass through. Her son likes the stile because it involves climbing.

We asked two women walking dogs if there was much else to do on the trail, they said that there is a playing field further up the trail, a stream running to right of trail on railway track, the wagon pub, park which is well used by children just before pub. Kids could explore the woodland and they should be told to bring wellies.

We found the stream and the bridge.

Chloe - Suggested that this could be the end point of the trail and some where for the children to take part in the activities.

Maddy - suggested that the children could take part in the activities along the trail as we are walking to the end point to keep the children minds active.

12:45pm: caught the train back to Huddersfield

Present- Amelia, Maddy, Chloe

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Group theory meeting, 16th February

Met after presentation theory lecture to discuss our ideas on where to develop this project Decided as a group to focus on one station along the Penistone line for our Community project. This station is Penistone and we have planned to visit the town on 18th February to explore opportunities for our project. Discussing our ideas after the meeting with Rowena, we have all been inspired by the idea of engaging young children with the outdoor environment. We aim to focus this idea around the town of Penistone. We aim to come up with ideas for a nature trail around the area of Penistone itself.

Present at meeting- Amelia, Maddy, Chloe Ideas sent to Jay via group Facebook chat.

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Meeting with Rowena, 10th February

Presented our ideas to Rowena and talked about using ‘Felix’ as our promotional figure for our project. She brought up that we should contact Transpennine express to see if they were happy for us to use his name.  Rowena will contact Transpennine Express and gain a contact to ask about this.

We need to consider what we want the project to be based on, with the overall aim to promote the Penistone train line. First thoughts were to encourage people to go and see popular places at all stops along the train line. 

After talking with Rowena, we realised that with the train service only running every hour a trail at all stops along the Penistone line would not be doable. We decided to focus on only one stop along the line. We will visit one station to see what things there is to do there and if our idea will work. Rowena also brought to our attention that the idea of doing an activity at multiple stops could over complicate the project. She emphasised that it is better do do one thing really well than to spread yourself thinly.

She sent us an email which talks about our meeting and includes ideas of places we could visit and possibly include as activities for our project. These are Cliffe House (Shepley), Kirklees Light Railway (from Shepley), Stirley Farm (Castle Hill- Berry Brow station). We also discussed adventure trails and clues stating what to do.

We thought about who we would like to aim our project at and spoke about the Sure Start centre (who havent been back in contact), Melody Makers or a group of school children. 

Present at meeting- Amelia, Maddy, Chloe Notes sent to Jay

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Group theory meeting, 9th February

Risk Assessment could not be completed as we decided to wait to speak to Rowena about our plans to work with the Sure Start Centre

Present at meeting- Amelia, Maddy, Chloe and Jay

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Community Project: Group Dynamics

- A group is able to share experiences, provide feedback, pool ideas, generate new insights, provide arena for analysis of experiences.

- Can provide a measure of support and reassurance. - Plan collectively for change action. - Group discussion is a very effective learning method.

Task 1: Storming When a group starts to discuss a particular task. The first task enabled us talk about our personal qualities and think about how we can use these to effectively work together as a team. 

Amelia- People person, Carer, Achiever Chloe- Carer, Thinker, Achiever Maddy- Leader, Doer, Achiever Jay- Carer, Achiever

We have established that we are all achievers therefore I am confident that our meetings will be held after the lecture every week, as planned. This will also drive us to finish tasks set within the week and work towards our end goal for the project. Maddy, having the leader quality, has the role of emailing Rowena this week, which makes it clear and easy to keep in contact with her professionally. We are all linked into the emails so that we have a clear understanding of the discussions between Rowena and ourselves. Most of us have caring qualities which means that we are more likely to get on together, and agree and work around others ideas. Negatives to this could be that peoples ideas do not get addressed as much as others as we are all happy to comply with everybody’s ideas. Negotiation will be something which we will have to think about when planning this project in order to complete it within the deadline and to a high standard.

Task 2: Norming Starting to formalise expectations of working as a team.  What ground rules might you set up within a team?

Ground rules set by our group. (Amelia, Maddy, Chloe and Jay)

- Meet deadlines (be open if not realistic)  - Share responsibilities  - Meet up at least once a week after theory lecture to discuss project. - Have a break time - Don’t let one person do all of the work

Task 3: Penistone Line Live Project Brief

What do you want to achieve? From this project, we would like to achieve drawings, completed collaboratively within the community. We have also discussed creating a narrative based on the Huddersfield station cat and as a group would like to run a workshop with the Sure Start Centre. Our initial idea is to creating drawings within this workshop which will be developed and made into a storyboard or art installation at stations along the Penistone line. These art pieces will represent the area that the station is located in. 

How might your initial ideas exchange inform how you approach the project and your approach? We are not certain that we will be working with the Sure Start centre, therefore the age of the children we are working with might change depending on where we choose to hold the drawing workshop. This will determine what we will plan to do and talk about within this workshop therefore, arrangements for this need to be sorted quickly.

Interests, Strengths and Preferences Jay- Likes people and has a caring attitude. He is a visual person and enjoys hand drawing and photography.

Amelia- Has experience in working with children and is confident in communicating to a younger audience. I like thinking of stories which can trigger creativity and often enough, stimulate drawing. I am a caring person and have leadership skills therefore and to motivate people to develop the project. Loves cats therefore, will be passionate about researching the station cat and creating stories about her.

Chloe- Also has experience in communicating with a younger audience and is a caring person. Chloe likes to incorporate a mixture of disciplines within her practice, therefore this gives insight into how we could think of things from another point of view. 

Maddy- Has worked within a group on a project previously therefore has informed us about how to structure the dynamics and things that went wrong previously that can be avoided. Is a doer and has leadership qualities which help to push other members of the team to think outside of the box.

How will your group communicate? In discussing this, we have decided that we will all keep in contact regularly over a Facebook group chat, we have decided that Maddy will email Rowena after discussing what needs to be asked and will have a weekly meeting about where we are up to with the project and what we need to do next to progress. These meetings will be held every week after the lecture on Tuesday.

What resources are required? We will discuss this further into the project when we know how many people will be attending the workshop, what we will be doing and what age group we will be working with. We need to develop our ideas before we can decide what materials will be needed.

Present at meeting- Amelia, Maddy, Chloe and Jay

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The Huddersfield station cat is trending on Facebook, she’s a famous little cat. Felix has become more known by the people of Huddersfield therefore, she is iconic to the area. Children will become aware of Felix, therefore artwork in relation to Felix will be personal to the people of Huddersfield.

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Research into the Huddersfield Station Cat, Felix.

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Group Brainstrom- Amelia, Maddy and Chloe

After grouping together, we sat down and talked about our different ideas and how they could be combined. The main ideas we wish to develop are narratives based on Felix, the Huddersfield station cat, working with and setting up a workshop with the Sure Start Centre and setting up art work at one of or a few of the stations. We have to think about a Plan B as Rowena Chantler, Community Rail Officer for the Penistone Line Partnership, had not had contact with the Sure Start Centre. In order to know what age range we will be working with, we need to make contact with the centre and get a firm answer as to whether we are able to work with them or not.

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Theoretical and Ethical Studies: Community Project I am most interested in the Penistone line brief. My next step will be to mind map ideas within a group in order to plan what will need to be done to proceed with this project. 

I have highlighted key word in the two different briefs and added comments which I will expand on. At present, I am interested in working with the Sure Start Centre in Huddersfield and collaborating with members of the public to create an installation or art piece at one or a few of the stations. 

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‘Collaboration: A creative journey or a means to an end’ by Lesley Millar (2013, pp.22-30).

What are the benefits, as stated by Millar, of working as part of a team or in collaboration? Do you agree or disagree?

Millar states that collaboration ‘requires a different approach based on mutuality of benefit from  the  process and the  outcome; a willingness to “let go” of ownership and to share and act on one another’s ideas’ (Millar, 2013: 24). I agree that everybody’s ideas should be valued and that responsibilities must be shared amongst the group. Another benefit Millar also talks about it the pooling of ideas within the group, which the group can consider and work with.

What does Millar state as the risks of a collaboration? Do you agree or disagree?

A concern that I had when working with others was that they may not contribute and that my personal expectations of the project outcome would not be met. Millar highlights that ‘collaboration carries both positive and negative meaning, suggesting risk for all those involved: a pooling of resources with the potential loss of control and compromise.’ ( Millar,L. 2013) Loss of control and compromise could cause conflict within the group. Each person’s idea must be considered and can be decided whether suitable by the team. Control is valuable within a group to ensure everybody knows what they need to be doing. Without management, not everything will get completed and some may be doing more than others. Communication is important within a team of people.

Within our community group. communication is a vital factor and I feel that it is constant between most members of the group and with our external contact, Rowena.

What do you think Millar means by a ‘proactive approach to collaboration’?

A ‘proactive approach to collaboration’ gives the impression that in order to gain something from the experience of working with others, you must be open to compromise your ideas, and be able to value others ideas. A lot can be gained though collaboration however, it can also be a risk to take if one person is not as willing to contribute to a project

Reference

Millar, L. (2013). Collaboration: A creative journey or a means to an end? In Felcey, H., Kettle, A., & Ravetz, A. (Eds.). Collaboration through craft. London:Bloomsbury pp.22-30.

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This talk by Helen Carnac for the Norwegian Craft council is interesting as she talks about how thinking can develop  our work. Carnac talks about making objects and taking them apart at the same time and is interested in this as a thinking and making method.

Her work is very much driven my processes and experiences. I like finding out concepts embedded within textiles, and a project she has worked on called Intelligent troubles works with makers who change over time. These makers have gathered stories and peoples thoughts about objects and making.

She also conducted a Berlin walking project which took students outside of the institution and made them think about the city, which is a place of major change. I am interested in this project as I will be visiting Berlin next week!

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Craft, removed from its political energy and ideologies always seems to be missing something, while craft that exists merely as a way to make a statement seems equally at a loss. One thing everyone seems to agree with is that craft is complex and in need of a good phychiatrist

(Andrew Wagner) Levine, F., & Heimerl, C. (2008). Handmade nation. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

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Defining Activism

ACTIVISM: The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.

Activism. (n.d)_ In the Oxford English online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/activism

Activism is quite simply taking action to effect social change; this can occur in a myriad of ways and in a variety of forms. Often it is concerned with ‘how to change the world’ through social, political, economic or environmental change. This can be led by individuals but is often done collectively through social movements. Introduction to Activism. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/

Activism, I think, is a strong term in which I associate people fighting for change of a topic they feel passionate about. I would usually associate ‘Activism’ with politics however I have realised that it can also be concerned with social, economic or environmental change. Activism can be carried out through various ways including protest, quite activist action such as Lise Bjørne Linnert’s ‘Fences’ performance and hacking which is explored by Amy Twigger Holroyd.

Amy Twigger Holroyd

Amy Twigger Holroyd approaches design activism through stitch hacking technique. “My 'stitch-hacking' technique allows me to tinker with found knitted garments, laddering and re-forming the stitches and exploring ideas of ownership and authorship.” Amy Twigger Holroyd 

http://www.keepandshare.co.uk/making/stitch-hacking

Amy Twigger Holroyd (2010) [Online image] Retrieved from http://ktnicolaisen.com/vintage-knitwear-at-the-fashion-textiles-museum/

I saw this piece at the ‘Vintage knitting’ exhibition at the Fashion and Textiles museum and was unaware of the societal and political connotations involved within the concept and process of this piece. 

Amy Twigger Holroyd has used the process of stitch hacking to manipulate and change garments. This shows that garments are not the ‘finished’ and ‘closed’ structure we perceive them to be. To make people aware of this, Twigger has made videos which explain to people how explaining how to use the laddering and reforming techniques. Giving insight into how to use these skills encourages other people to take part in altering their own garments. Holroyd believes we are not given enough information into the fashion system and the manufacturing cycle of clothing. She thinks with this knowledge, more people will make and maintain their clothes. The overall aim of Holroyd’s pieces are to get people connecting with the clothes they wear and by home making garments, we see the formation from material to product. This links to the idea of sustainability and consumer behaviour. Through making our own clothes we are more likely to wear them more and keep them for longer. This may cut down fast fashion and encourage people to think about what they are buying more. This consumer frame of mind makes us more mindful of the amount of clothing we already have and what we actually need.