Creative Practice Workshop

Another two day workshop. This time with Daniele Pario Perra and Roberto Dell'Orco. The focus of this workshop was to get a better understanding of the everyday. We had a lecture to start off with showing us various examples of creative practice - people using their imagination with what they have around them to make their environment more user-friendly. Most examples showed people bending the rules, to avoid parking tickets or paying a fine of some sort, and always with a sense of humour. Each group was asked to make an intervention in the faculty, change a space somehow and see how people react, recording this on camera. Basically we were asked to do those things we wanted to do as kids, but have always been told not to do. So, each group set about doing something, most proactive and helpful at the start and then later more mischievous. Our group were influenced by a note we had seen on a door near the Service Point, a note saying window on a door! So we decided among other things, to put up post-its with love notes on them at different places. We started with the very obvious places, at eye level on doors. The reaction was completely unexpected, people working in offices in the area we started with, reacted aggressively to our notes, taking them down, and eventually complaining about us. So we had to adopt a more subtle approach. We decided to move to the library, and put the notes in less obvious places. The notes now were more personal and we got much better reactions. In the afternoon we tried something different, again playing with communication, but in a more disruptive way. Some of the ICTO rooms in the faculty have doors, which are locked and have signs saying 'no entry, use the other door'. We decided to highlight this, and emphasise how annoying it is. So we put a sign on the other door, the one you are told to enter, with the same message, 'no entry, use the other door', and added a virtual door in between, with a message on it to grab people's attention. We filmed people's reactions......some people didn't notice, some noticed but still used the door, but a few read the notices and walked away, thinking they were not allowed in. Even though you could see there were people inside the room, the sign saying no entry was more important, the power of communication