PRESENTING: F A C E S

Presentation for our: unit X proposal.

In order to get permission to use the sites we wanted for our project idea, we had to submit a proposal in the form of a presentation to a panel with members from the city council, CityCo, public relations from the university an architect and our tutors.

Our presentation was met with positive response and enthusiasm from the board including suggestions of who to approach and the promise of further contacts. 

This is roughly what was presented to the council:

(download)


CONCEPT

We want to get people drawing. We want to get people interacting.

F A C E S mcr is a project starting with an event at Kraak gallery on the 8th of May and culminating with an installation around the windows of the northern quarter.

The human brain is hard wired to recognise faces: it is a key part of how we communicate and express ourselves. We want use this concept to get people to interact with each other and with the places and spaces the faces with ultimately end up.

Our aim is to get the people of Manchester to connect with one another and draw the creative potential out of the city and get it onto the streets. We hope to create a connection and strengthen the relationships between young artists and the creative community in the city.

EVENT

The ultimate aim of the event is to RECORD the FACES of mcr in preparation or them becoming a physical part of the city.

Everyone who attends the event will have their face photographed at least once, hopefully more than once with as many different facial expressions as possible! Upon arrival everyone will be invited to have a typical ‘mug-shot’ style photograph taken, these will be printed immediately and pegged up within reach  as a living, growing interactive installation around the room.

The artists attending the event will have full access to the photographs as they are taken and will be using these to create something LIVE. The idea is that with this live inspiration, not only will the people feel part of something through seeing it happen, but will feel inspired to take up the pens and have a doodle on the photos pegged above their heads.

WE ARE VERY KEEN TO GET A PHOTOCOPIER! We think this would be a great idea because it’s something people can use themselves, play around and have a laugh with, pressing faces, hands and whatever else up to be photocopies. This kind of injection of humour should help people to relax and engage a bit more with the concept behind the evening.

DISPOSABLE CAMERAS: Another idea to engage people. When groups arrive we would give them a disposable camera between them and set them a few challenges that must be completed with it. 
A few ideas we have for this so far:
- a silly face
- a serious face
- a picture with/of someone you don’t know (and their name) 
- a moustache face
Once it is complete we would ask them to write their names on the camera and hand it over!
The bands, djs and artists who will be LIVE on the night are: 

Bands///////////////////////////////////
#Voodoo Vultures 
#Black Lights
#Coup De Ville

Djs/////////////////////////////////////
#DIPSTICK Residents
#SION 
#5eighty6 (Limbo, MCR)
#Doodle Residents 

Artists/////////////////////////////////
#AO crew (street artists)
#Haimer Atkins (film artists)
#Calum Crawford (sculptor)
#Harris Gillespie (photographer) 
#Kate Willson (fine art)  

We will be documenting the whole experience through film and photography in preparation for our final exhibition in nq.

THE EXHIBITION- windows

The faces we record will all have the event in common, one point in time where they were connected by a place. These faces are not just single people, as a whole theyare Manchester, however small a cross-section we capture. The idea is to get these faces up in the streets as a physical record of what we achieved within the event and as something for our attendees to connect with outside of that time and place – general public to be intrigued by and check out. Encouraging people to explore the city and find their face, taking part of something which will be seen by huge numbers of people, connecting them in another way – injecting life into a rejected/neglected space.

The installations around the Northern Quarter will go up about a week after the event has taken place.

LOCATIONS:

The Mackie Mayor Building 
Being the old meat market, this building would have been bustling with people buying and selling and we feel it is such a shame it is sitting empty and miserable. It backs onto a main road; the windows are clouded over and boarded up. We would like to breathe some life back into it by displaying FACES over them, in the windows and at lots of different levels to get people interacting with the building again as well as the faces they may or may not have already seen.

Solway Exhibition Space (above Fred Aldous) 
We like the location of this building as it’s in such a creative hot spot in the Northern Quarter. There is a lot of scope for playing with imagery with the different size and shapes of windows here.

The former Big Issue Office top corner of Oldham Street – hopefully?
Projection
Sitting on the corner of a busy junction, we think this would be a great space to have a projection of the footage from our event. Having moving visual imagery as part of our series of installations would help convey the atmosphere and feeling of the event and explain to the onlooker what we were trying to achieve and why there are so many faces looking down at them from windows and boards around the Northern Quarter!

The United Building (Old Cinema on Oldham Street) and facing window (above the £5 charity shop) 
This has 5 large windows, separated into small square panes. Our plan is to fill each window pane with a face, creating mural of Manchester’s faces to look down at Manchester’s faces.

The window opposite this building is the top floor of a recording studio and is of the same aesthetic. We would really like to have corresponding imagery here to create a cross road link

 

location location location

The locations we are going to propose to the council for our final exhibition are:

(download)

 

The Mackie Mayor Building
Being the old meat market, this building would have been bustling with people buying and selling and we feel it is such a shame it is sitting empty and miserable. It backs onto a main road, the windows are clouded over and boarded up. We would like to breathe some life back into it by displaying FACES over them, in the windows and at lots of different levels to get people interacting with the building again as well as the faces they may or may not have already seen.

P1020091

Solway Exhibition Space (above Fred Aldous)
We like the location of this building as it’s in such a  creative hot spot in the Northern Quarter. There is a lot of scope for playing with imagery with the different size and shapes of windows here.

P1020078

The former Big Issue Office top corner of Oldham Street – hopefully?
Projection
Sitting on the corner of a busy junction, we think this would be a great space to have a projection of the footage from our event. Having moving visual imagery as part of our series of installations would help convey the atmosphere and feeling of the event and explain to the onlooker what we were trying to achieve and why there are so many f
aces looking down at them from windows and boards around the Northern Quarter!

P1020083

The United Building (Old Cinema on Oldham Street) and facing window (above the £5 charity shop)

This has 5 large windows, separated into small square panes. Our plan is to fill each window pane with a face, creating mural of Manchester’s faces to look down at Manchester’s faces.

The window opposite this building is the top floor of a recording studio and is of the same aesthetic. We would really like to have corresponding imagery here to create a cross road link 

 

Initial Proposal

Our initial ideas consisted of creating an event in which a collaboration of all the young artistic talent in Manchester can come together on one night and bounce off each other’s ideas. We wanted DJs, Bands, Artists and the public to attend the event. The plan is not a party! It is an artistic event!

Below is a copy of our initial proposal we created....

The MMU students known as '#?' are taking part in a unique and ambitious concept known as "UNIT X" a collaboration of students across different practises. As a group we have designed a notion to engage Manchester’s young blood with the opportunities that this creatively rich city has to offer.  The project is NOT a party, nor is it a festival of arts. It is a living installation that will expose the abundance of creativity that OUR generation is capable of, if they are allowed to be inspired. 
 
Where?
 
The Northern Quarter is a diverse and exciting environment for any young person. The street art, vintage stores, boutiques and quirky cafes give this part of town an exciting ticking... all it needs is a BANG!! We intend to expose the artistic talent of Manchester within the Kraak Gallery in the NQ, and propose that on (? May) our city allows this generation to begin its own story. The event will take place as an installation itself, but there will also be an opportunity for everyone who takes part/visits the event to make their mark. This will then be exhibited on the old toilet entrance barricade. We hope to use this landmark in the square as the scene where a generation will become united and inspired by what has been created.
 
How?
 
The installation will be alive with artist, musicians and raconteurs sharing their passions with an audience, who were never aware of potential that this city has hidden away. All artists will be of the best and most exciting artists that the city has to offer! All home grown! However, the jewel in the crown of this living installation, and what makes this a live installation is the landmark that sits in the square after the event. It will become the canvas where our generation have left their mark, turning this current exhibition SPACE into a PLACE with value and meaning to all involved with that day.
 
Now...
 
The concept is in place and no doubt will evolve over time, but this is something our generation needs. A sense of identify and achievement. Manchester and its generations are proud of the legends of factory records and all it did for the city but NOW is our time! Let us be proud and make our contribution to history and the city. Let’s encourage students to stay in the city and contribute to the community and economy by proving this is the creative capital of the UK.
 
All we need is your support to bring this event to life and by doing so inspiring a generation to use its city and access the wealth it holds.

 

a KRAAKing night

Kraak gallery is booked for the 8th of May as I mentioned before and our 
F A C E Smcr event will be happening fom 8pm onwards....but what exactly will this entail?

So we have some bands and DJs lined up and there will be a bar...
BUT 
The idea is to record the faces of manchester. During our tutorial this morning we were discussing how we could get the 'participants' to engage with the event and, well, even be up for taking photos in the first place!

The idea of hiring a photo booth came up, but at a whopping £900 for 3 hours...our poor student budget is a little below the mark

UNDER COVER AGENT style

What about dressing up? Throughout the idea generation process this crossed my mind but it is only now that there has become an opportunity to include it. Keeping this idea of dressing up minimal, keeping it to a few accesories or identity concealers, would be great as it takes the edge of having the photo taken. It's more of recording something youre getting involved in as opposed to just recording your face.

ONE SUGGESTION: have a few dress up stations? SCENE STATIONS?

"Hipster Corner"

disguise yourself with a moustache, bowler hat or a monacle?

Img_0444

in reflection, yes this could be a little common place with the current moustache loving youth...it's a question as to wether we play up to that or discard it. 

PHOTOCOPIERS!

photocopy  your face? photocopy other body parts at the opposite end to your face....?!?! This event is about having fun and getting to know one another - granted maybe not that personally, but after a drink or two, playing with a photocopier could be the time of your life. This is a way of recording faces that would really engage people as well as giving a completely different outcome to your standard MUG SHOT photograph. This idea is a big favourite of mine so I shall definitely be pursuing a potocopier!!!

Photoface2

CASTING CALL: So if you can dress up and take a photo of your face...could we not take aphysical cast of your face and display you as a model? Just a suggestion,  sure it may get a little messy but thats all part of the 'LETS RECORD YOUR FACE' game.

Castaface

All of the above are an injection of HUMOUR and what better way to get people to connect than through laughter right? 

break the ice.

 

THE BIRTH OF FACES.

So over Easter, dabbling across our ideas on our own to try and come up with the ultimate idea to be the basis of our event, the first thing which was completed when arriving back in Manchester was the booking of the Kraak Gallery. The event shall take place on the 8th May 2012.

As we wished for music to be played, time to locate bands and possible artists to be present (as we wished to remain with having artists create work at the event). Thank god that in our group, there is two people who have contacts which would be available for performing at this event.

Amognst the discussion, a theme was born. FInally. Slowly but surely. The event shall be titled 'FACES', our aim was to record every face that would enter the event and use these images in a fashion that would ultimately become our final exhibition for Unit X. This way, by photographing everybody who came would allow those who did to be recorded in their own way as a part of something. So this theme of community coinciding with FACES has remained as the longstanding thesis throughout this project. This theme of FACES, I believe has given our Unit X event the structure it desperately needed before Easter. I feel excited about this, it will be good. We, as the group '#?' feel that this will go well...

In order to get our event known, we need to start advertising.. Objective set. More objectives would be to organise the Kraak Gallery into a space that will become a creative environment and source the materials needed for artists.. (this ain't going to be cheap.. GOODY!)

a LIVING mural

In 2009 the Ting Tings and Adidas hosted a paint party gig which consisted of a big white gig space, fans dressed entirely in white Adidas tracksuits and a whole lot of paint.

  

As mentioned in the video, this experiment could've gone either way to result in a hardly touched room or one totally paint-bombed depending on the atmosphere within the crowd. It is a sort of social experiment and the people within the space all became artworks in themselves. 

This sort of idea is something we could build on...?