Final Report - pt5 Output

easa010 Final Report

Section Four: Output


Introduction

This section of the Final Report focuses on the output of the assembly, it is the

place to fi nd the glossy photos of the workshops and such like.

Output is a broad umbrella, so this section includes workshop reviews - again

the angle of the chapter is their operation and lessons organisers can learn. The

section also covers easaDAY, a mostly photo review of the different elements

of the fi nal day of easa010, as well as a chapter on Legacy, everything from

this report to the future of easaHQ.

[cma]


Chapter 1 - Workshops

Considered by many to be the cornerstone of he summer assembly the

workshops were given a level of protection that no other aspect of easa010

enjoyed, an engaging experience and successful output for the workshops

was the central focus of the organising effort.

The urban environment of the assembly gave an unusual opportunity for

workshops to explore a variety of different locations, build spaces, experiences

with the added incentive that the results would be part of a city wide exhibition,

meaning genuine engagement with residents - if they wanted.

This chapter of the Final Report is all about the

selected workshops, and is far to short to do them

the individual justice the tutors and participants so

richly deserve, so much so that we are putting together a separate publication

that will cover the workshops in much greater detail - more information in our

chapter on legacy.

In this chapter we will look briefl y at the workshops that made up easa010,

and talking about their key talking points - output, working style, reasons for

being chosen, and so on.

[cma]

The application forms from the workshops are included in Section Five.


DATASCAPES

Understanding and exposing the digital and electronic analogues of the urban

environment

‘Datascapes’ is the newest addition to the EASA roster, and Manchester is

an ideal city to explore it in. Building on the parallels between digital and

constructed architecture, of parallel digital landscapes cohabiting and

grounded in the built environment, the Datascapes workshop aimed to achieve

several things:

• To explore the new thinking around this area

• To learn the language of digital networks,

particularly social, geolocative and signal-related

terminology

• To learn strategies to identify and acquire data and metrics from

the electronic realm

• To visualise and export meaningful information from these data sets

• To develop skills with tools to visualise and explore captured data

We looked at a number of preexisting works exploring digital space and means

of reinterpreting them. Christian Nold’s Emotional Cartographies provided

one way to capture digital data to reinterpret the map. Other approaches

reimagine the underlying topology of the map to refl ect the fl ow of data and

traffi c over time, such as Alan Mislove’s Mood Of The Nation project.

The fi rst few days were exploratory in nature, as we looked for the electronic

layers of the urban environment. We used the practice of ‘warwalking’ and

copies of iStumbler(1) to analyse the networks and device population of the

city; from geolocating the densities of WiFi networks to counting the numbers

of Bluetooth devices in space, we looked at what understanding we could

derive based around simple strolls around the city. We looked at other aspects

TUTORSVik Kaushal (chairTV, http://chairtv.com ) & Dave Mee (TANDOT, http://tandot.co.uk & MadLab http://madlab.org.uk )

In their words <<<<<<


of the data capturing layers of the city - CCTV, traffi c monitoring, weather

stations - which do not grant public access or identify the destination of their

output, despite their presence in the public realm. Whether it’s the particular

British obsession with unfettered CCTV or an increased awareness of the

presence of data in space, participants seemed genuinely surprised at the

volume of monitoring, broadcasting and invisible digital and spectrum traffi c

pervading the city.

A key aim of the programme was to inculcate the digital as a frame for

understanding, and to develop some programming ability to realise outputs

and support mediation. The approach was to break the core group up into

smaller project groups, each of which would develop their own projects

around the themes of the broader programme. We explored a number of ideas;

one proposal was to map spaces not covered by surveillance, to another of

monitoring the linguistic fl ow of EASA. In the end, we settled on two projects,

one to redraw the map of the city based on real-time twitter activity, and

another to create a reactive installation refl ecting human traffi c through sound

and projection.

The second week saw production begin in earnest. Processing(2) had been

chosen as our platform of choice; it is cross-platform, easy to pick up and

forgiving in operation, but critically with the support of a large network of

modules and functionality contributed by other users to support more complex

operations. Tweetstream(3) and jMyron(4) both allowed us to focus on the

tasks, rather than the implementation details. The TwitFlickScapes project

developed to explore multiple cities, quantising geolocated messages to a

grid and displaying relevant photographs from fl ickr to create an emergent

patchwork of images refl ecting other places and their fl ow in a new visual

manner. The Umbrelladisco project created a playful environment where

visitors were sheltered from the (constant) rain of Manchester with virtual

umbrellas as they walked through the stage of the running project.


Both teams performed exceptionally, to have created interactive and responsive

works in such a short space of time - from conceptualisation to not only

implementation, but mastery of tools and languages needed to realise their

visions. As ever, the most interesting lessons are the unexpected ones; that

twitter geolocation is mostly adopted in US cities, and that those cities are

operating to a different time zone than the one the project was running in

lead to some misleading results, but ultimately a fascinating sense of being in

another time and place. As ever with computer vision, that fi nding new things

was always easier than recognising existing things placed a few caps on the

range of response available. Ultimately, participants got a better idea of how

programmatic approaches to data could allow a unique experience and output

aesthetic to emerge, and developed the skills to embrace and adopt these

approaches. As a tutor on the project, I extend my thanks to the participants

and the insights they shared with me about their own practices and ideas, and

the fresh eyes they let me see my own work and environment through.

(1) http://www.istumbler.net/

(2) http://processing.org/

(3) http://mccv.github.com/processing-tweet-stream/

(4) http://webcamxtra.sourceforge.net/

[dme]

Being honest this workshop had one of the most interesting introductions/

presentations of the assembly however I didn’t actually understand this

workshop once it started going, which may be down to me not actually having

time taking it all in. However at the end of the assembly I had some time

to investigate and ask question and the concept seemed really interesting,

and I suppose that it highlighted, through having to target New York, that

Manchester just was that ‘socially’ connected via the internet.

[mla]


Above: Screen shot 2010-10-09 at 16.36.27

Below: Screen shot 2010-10-09 at 17.01.58


Identityscapes

Seeing the amount of effort that was put into this workshop I was really

impressed and surprised with the outcome. The surprise again came from not

being able to see the working product so therefore being unaware of what

the outcome would be. From what I saw the editing and the production were

impressive and you could see the effort put in from the outcome.

[mla]

Below: Work in progress

Opposite page

Above: Hard at work in Mad Lab

Below: Screen shot


Tutors:Jose Mayoral MoratillaRodrigo Castro Peñalva


easaTV

This was the fi rst year that easaTV was a separate workshop to Umbrella. I feel

that this could really work as an idea, and due to the nature of the workshop

there will certain aspects that will always be hit and miss in terms of audience.

There was a little bit of humour in it for everyone and it reminds easaians

of the dialogue, be it humourous, that makes EASA work. The ability to tap

into people and what they are thinking is a good thing and the fact that its

not printed means it can also be a bit more risque, as it is not so permanent,

however it just needs a year or so more to get comfortable and really fi nd its

feet.

[mla]

Tutor:Andreas Nordström


As a workshop I felt Umbrella worked very well together this year, they seemed

organised in their approach and passionate about what they were doing. They

were very good at keeping to their deadlines and more copies than previous

years. It was always good to see how much participants anticipated the release

for the day. One very small note of improvement would be in the proof reading

of the copy, which generally was really good but at times could have been

better.

[mla]

Umbrella

Tutors:Giulia Nardi Jeanne Wéry


Fedentity

This workshop probably surprised me the most in terms of outcome as it

produced things that I and I think not many other people were expecting at

all. Their brief seemed interesting but at the beginning gave the impression

of a totally different outcome, with the idea that they would be more of

traditional or predictable relation to architecture in terms of reacting to the

facade or form. However this wasn’t the case and gives credit to their overall

investigation. The scale and form of their work sat nicely in the settings of

Downtex and which defi nitely contributed to the aesthetic.

[mla]

Tutor:Iryna Bulunenka


Artifi cial Identity

Artifi cial Identity would be the ideal subject for a case study into the benefi ts

of having a super well prepared set of tutors. Due to the preparation done

before their arrival in Manchester the workshop was able to carry out the

construction part of the workshop early in the fi rst week and therefore had

free reign of the tools and the workshop.

A credit has to go to the tutors for the inspiring way they spoke to the

participants in their workshop following the issues surrounding the middle

weekend, demonstrating the role tutors have in creating a great event for all.

[cma]

Tutors:Inger Marit Skorstad

Rune MadsenJi Soo Han


Aural Mapping Manchester

Based on an investigation into the sounds of Manchester, A.M.M. were an easy

choice for the organisers as they had a pedigree of delivering large public

accessible EASA pavilions. My person high with this workshop came when I

managed to secure 4 high grade sound recorders half way through the fi rst

week - having thought they were bringing their own. The low points were

when I had to discuss limitations to their vision due to the permissions for

the siting - no power source on site apart from a generator, and the pavilion

needed to go up and come down in 12 hours. The boys were so enthusiastic,

it was like kicking a puppy, all I could do was sympathise as my workshop,

Kraftka, had the same issues in 2008

Over all A.M.M. was an impressive triumph

[cma]

Tutors:Emmet Kenny

Donnchadha GallagherPaul Flynn


Canalizing

Canalizing was an unassuming workshop and in comparison to the built

output workshops it would be easy to underestimate it, but for me it typifi ed

the importance and contribution that theoretical workshops can have and

their vital importance to the EASA experience.

I also feel the output - a giant model of the River Irwell - was stunning and

added enormously to the easaDAY exhibition.

[cma]

Tutors:Luis Palacios Sergi Romero


Communicating Cities

Communicating Cities was a good example of bending the rules once in

a while. Having spent hours deciding which workshops would be part of

easa010 we had one slot left and a split decision over this proposal, some

people wanted it, and some - ironically - didn’t understand the application,

at all. So we reached a compromise of asking the tutors for more information

before making the decision. It’s worth pointing out that if we’d decided not

to take this workshop we would have had one less, we didn’t choose it in the

place of another, so no one missed out by the rule bending.

I’m glad we did ask for more information and were satisfi ed as the workshop

did a great job, they were especially good at handling the task of construction

away from site and completion on easaDAY.

[cma]Tutors:

Luke GleesonSimon Harrington


Docu + Mation

Docu + Mation was a workshop put together by the organisers and despite

the ups and downs I believe it goes down as one of our better ideas. The

workshop was inspired by the 2008 EASA photo competition, the competition

meant that the organisers had a wealth of photographs to use in their output

documents, but we wanted to take it a step further.

The workshop was opened up as a competition after the application deadline

had passed, the idea was that winners of the competition would be part of this

workshop only, that the workshop would start before the assembly and be the

last one going at the end.

The name for the workshop came from a contraction of documentation and

information, the remit of the workshop was to both document the assembly

but also gather information from the hard drives of all workshops, meaning

the organisers ended with a total of 363 GB of photos and videos - around

50,000 photos.

The workshop photographed every aspect of the assembly every day, but they

also fi lmed every lecture, allowing us to put together an archive web site as

part of the legacy work.

The success of the workshop was in the photographing work when it focused

on workshops and events, though some participants returned only photos

of parties, and we totally lacked photographs of people working ‘behind the

scenes’ or the middle weekend move. Another success was the dutiful way

each and every lecture was recorded.

[cma]


Environmental Response

The discussion to select this workshop was not a short one. This issues

that came up was the relevance of the workshops to architecture and the

viability for the workshop to deliver a successful output, as well as our ability

as organisers to support the workshop in these aims.

In the end though the workshop justifi ed the faith put in it with a splendidly

varied output of small projects

[cma]

Tutors:Stig Anton Nielsen

David Engell Jessen


Flex Space

If I had only one word to describe both the workshop, the output and the

tutors, it would be Delightful.

The decision to choose this workshop was fairly straight forward mostly

because the tutors included examples of what they hoped to achieve, and the

simplicity of their requirements.

The output fi t excellently into the fabric of the exhibition space and it was a

crying shame for it to be removed.

[cma]

Tutors:Anne Katrine RøienPernille Siggaard


House of Everyone

This workshop faced the most problems of all the selected workshops, and

the problems were routed in a certain amount of naïveté on the part of the

organisers in selecting the workshop in the terms of the application. The

application called for a public space in which they could work and leave the

products they collected and built during the weeks. We felt we would be able

to compromise the type of space but unfortunately the tutors were quite set

on their initial vision. In the end no compromise was found and the workshop

went ahead with the much reduced remit of producing furniture from salvaged

material. Salvage workshops are a staple of EASA and when viewed from this

aspect HoE was a success. In general the workshops is evidence that despite

everyone’s hard work things might not work out as planned, and compromise

is unavailable

[cma]Tutors:

Alvaro Leon RivasBlanca DominguezJesús Díaz Osuna


Hunter Diaries

With this workshop we as organisers nearly bit off more than we could chew.

The workshop application asked for 15 bikes, and though this was a tall order

there was a desire in the team to have the workshop on board. As it turned

out we were only able to get hold of around 6 bikes, but the tutors were

fl exible enough to work around this.

The one disappointment from an organising point of view was we had arranged

a space for the output of the work to be exhibited for a month following the

assembly, but no provision was made for this and the majority of participants

in the workshop took their work home leaving nothing to be displayed.

[cma]

Tutors:Boris StanicJasna Cizler

Marko Salapura


InterACT

A great example of the experimentalism that can come with an EASA workshop.

Lead by three tutors the workshop investigated public spaces and how they

were used for public performance, they then built mobile pieces to improve

the locations, all the while creating and rehearsing a performance to go along

with the work.

I was delighted to secure some of the busiest and best places for the

performance, it’s only a shame that for this document there are no photos

available!

[cma]

Tutors:Cecily Quetin - Weeks

Helen Rose CondonRuth Hynes


Picture ID

After debuting in Italy with ‘Photoshoping’, a quick change of name and

the workshop was shoe horned into fi tting the polar opposite theme of the

following EASA.

Picture ID had to be fairly robust as a workshop as they were the most affected

workshop as a result of the move - their darkroom had to be dismantled and

a new location hastily found.

[cma]

Tutors:Christine Boss-Mortensen

Frederick Beckett-NilssonMikkel Nielsen


POP-UP shop

The shop goes down as an unmitigated failure for easa010. As organisers we

had planned on a new approach to the shop, instead of mass produced shirts

in place before the assembly, a pop-up shop would act on the lines of a day

workshop, allowing participants to make their own shirt to be sold with other

items for the benefi t of easa010 budget.

We weer approached prior to the assembly by a participant willing, coincidently,

to run the shop in much the same manner as we had planned. As our philosophy

was to get as much interaction in the assembly as possible we decided to hand

the shop over, offering as much support as was needed.

Unfortunately somewhere along the line nothing materialised and it came to

quite stern conversations toward the end of the second week and a direct

intervention on the part of the organising team before any T-shirts were

produced.

The chaotic planning of the T-shirt production and sale lead to the shop

producing nothing in terms of income for the assembly.

I would suggest that this approach to the shop could be investigated again as

it would surly offer a more involved feeling to the assembly in the participants,

and perhaps it was unfortunate the way it turned out in Manchester.

[cma]


Small Interventions

Small interventions is somewhat a staple of EASA, having been a workshop

in the last 8 assemblies. There was quite a lot of discussion regarding Small

Interventions in the decision making process for the workshop selection. The

opinion of the organisers is it is an ideal workshop for EASA, but with its

selection each year there is a feeling other tutors can’t make similar proposals.

It is a real shame, it’s not our opinion Small Interventions shouldn’t get

selected, but it is our opinion that EASA could cope with two workshops of

similar type.

This year Small Interventions faced a bigger threat to its selection - we didn’t

know I we could do it justice in the type of EASA we were arranging. Our

problem was with gaining permission for the pieces and covering them in our

insurance without limiting the options of the workshop.

[cma]

Tutors:Arvid Wölfel

Malte Wittenberg


Syn-Tactics

The perfect workshop. A bold statement, and don’t get me wrong I loved all

the workshops at easa010, but Syn-Tactics had it all. A good clear application

form, good tutors who weren’t demanding and worked with us to get things

right, a great set of participants who turned up and got the work done, a good

working process that just got on with it and a great output that will be around

for years to come.

In selecting the workshop we had no idea where to locate it and were

considering easaHQ for a long time, until we were able to use the inclusion

of the workshop as a bartering piece when negotiating the use of Hope Mill.

[cma]

Tutors:Leanne Martin

Wendy Adams


The Exploding Synesthetic Inevitable

TESI was an experience for the organisers in feeling like the bad guys. TESI

was selected as a workshop after exhaustive conversation, half the group felt

that we would have to limit the vision of the tutors too much in order to have

an output, the other half felt that the limitation would not be a problem.

In the end we were all glad we selected the workshop, but the discussions

about having to limit the mobility of the object as well as not being able to

supply all the equipment all the time due to excessive cost exemplify the bad

side of organising - none of us want to say no, but sometimes its the only way

to make progress.

[cma]

Tutors:Javier Guerra

Lucia RodriguezRicardo Paternia


something tangental goes in this box text text text text text text text text text text text text text text


Competition

We had always wanted to have a built competition output as part of EASA but

we were very wary about the cost of them at previous EASAs and the chance it

would have a negative effect on the budget of other workshops.

The opportunity to include the competition came up naturally as Paul and I

discussed the use of Hope Mill for the built workshops, instead of paying rent

for the space EASA made an agreement with the owner to run an international

competition for a design for another fl oor of artist spaces.

In fact the building of the competition was in doubt right until the last minute

when we secured sponsorship of materials from British Gypsum that allowed

construction to take place.

[cma] Tutors:Alison Katri

Christina KontanaChristina Tsakiri

Tonia Papanikolaou


Walking Through Walls

WTW was a challenge. The workshop required access to clear spaces to gather

footage for the project, but despite fi nding around a dozen spaces through

the city the tutors remained unwilling to consider buildings other than they

identifi ed on their travels through the city placing a huge burden on the team

to get hold of the spaces.

The sign of a good team though is to fi nd triumph amidst disaster. WTW

were the only workshop to benefi t from the move of accommodation out of

Downtex, as they now had thousands of square feet of abandoned building to

work with - if only we’d planned it that way!

[cma]

Tutors:Bence Pasztor

Roland Dániel Németh


Who is Joe Bloggs?

No one new quite what to expect from Joe Bloggs, not even the tutors. It was

a simple choice to be accepted, it was free and it was completely theoretical

and there weren’t too many applications that were either.

Joe Bloggs was an interesting workshop for the organisers as it showed the

capability of EASA workshops to plug into larger, real world, investigations,

should the desire be there.

In the end Joe Bloggs was a success due to the earnestness of the tutors.

[cma]

Tutors:Patrick O’Connor

Sam Patterson


Wo!Manchester

No workshop had more time invested in it by the organisers than Wo!Manchester.

The workshop was always seen as having huge potential, and time was

invested in helping put the proposal together - an option open to all potential

applicants but not always taken. We also looked for talent for lectures, but

this proved impossible due to being the holiday season.

One criticism would be the hyperactive and sometimes schizophrenic nature

of the workshop, it changed on such a regular basis that it was impossible to

pin down and as such at one time or another had four different organisers as

it’s liaison.

The workshop delivered in the end, but perhaps a fi rmer hand in guiding

tutors should have been shown by the organisers.

[cma]

Tutors:Olivera Lazarevic

Yvonne Michel


Chapter 2 - easaDAY

15th August 2010 Manchester city center, the culmination of 2 years and 9

months work by the organising team, of months of planning by tutors, of two

weeks graft by participants, made possible by kind and supportive members

of the council, funded by forward thinking individuals in expansively minded

institutions and companies. The day when 427 students of architecture from

43 countries around Europe and 5 from further than that showed what this

current young generation of creatively minded students is capable of, even in

the face of signifi cant disruption and discomfort. It was the day the Pinocchio

easa010 became a real boy.

With little in the way of text, the next few pages are dedicated to the photography

of the fi nal Saturday of EASA Manchester.

[cma]


Public Space


Hope Mill


The HIVE


Downtex


Victoria Baths


Final Party


Chapter 3 - Legacy

Legacy, its a huge word, one that can be manipulated to make any action

sound good, not only good, but timeless. Legacy was one of the pillars of our

bid, but what does that mean? What was our aim? Did we achieve it? How -

tell me how?!

For much the same reason we looked at ways to improve integration we felt

that EASA has power to engage and leave an impact. This impact could be felt

by the location, by people, or by the network itself.

A lot of the legacy of easa010 was intended to be on the network itself - leave

the network stronger than we found it - and this document is part of that, as

will be the discussions at INCM. Of course all assemblies are discussed in the

following INCM, but our goal, as can be seen in the introduction and reviews

of each section, was to stimulate even provoke certain subjects. We will take

the presentation to the network just a seriously at the end as we did when we

bid.

Within the UK EASA network the potential for a signifi cant legacy was huge.

As discussed in Section One, the UK team has not been the strongest for the

last decade, but the decade ended with us hosting the summer assembly. The

conference organised as part of the build up and fund-raising is hoped to be

the fi rst step to the formation of the ASA or similar, a move towards the UK

Winter Schools of old that spawned EASA.

For Manchester too there was huge potential to leave a lasting impression.

Part of this potential came from the nature of Manchester and its inhabitants,

and the fertile nature of their imagination. Hope Mill now has two physical

manifestations of this with SynTactics and the competition, both of which will

affect the daily lives of dozens of artists in the city.


The effect of easa010 will also be felt for years to come in the art community

through the work that easaHQ has already done in giving more than a hundred

artists their fi rst taste of exhibiting and in some cases curating. As this report

is going to press easaUK2010 have reached a deal with ASK for the building to

pass from us to Blank Media Collective, so the good work can continue.

To cement this long term impact we are working on two further publications,

one covering the life and exhibitions of easaHQ, the other covering easa010

from the angle of hundreds of students gathering in the former mills of a

northern industrial town during yet another economic down turn and discussing

the issue of identity, these two books will hold for prosperity the attitude of

EASA to get students together to make the best of things.

We are also producing an archive web site to accompany the two books and

this Report that will contain photographs, but also videos of the lectures of

easa010.

[cma]

Final Report - pt5 Output

Documents

Transcript of Final Report - pt5 Output