Reflecting and Creating

 

Christopher Jelley, telling the Salt Way Tale in situ. 

Creating a Storywalk and Reflecting in a Journal, or two... 

 I feel like I really am at the end now. I have started writing on the last page of (possibly) my last Reflective Journal. This feels like a pivotal moment.

Photos showing some pages from my many Reflective Journals

Reflective Journals, of which I have many, are notebooks, which as students we are encouraged to produce to record the research that is undertaken on the MA course. I have found that they are invaluable as tools to remind me of where I have come from in terms of my exploration of design ideas and give me a direction to focus on and pursue. Of course I could go and buy another sketchbook and start a new one, but it feels like this is the point at which I now slow down and stop.

I have found that writing it all out, sticking in articles/photocopies etc all in one place has really helped my research process. I can follow my train of thought easily.

I need to write a fairly short critical paper on my project, finalise preparation for the MA show and yet still think ahead, enough to see where this MA could take me.

 I feel the final project, which has focussed on The Salt Way in Whitstable, can be seen as a generic model for other paths which when revealed, create a valuable connection between people and land. I have visions of working with this route and many others around the country encouraging people to explore their local area. I want to see people who may not have been aware of their local heritage, especially that of trade routes, to feel proud and connected to the place in which they live.

I think the idea of rediscovering the history of local commodities and the distribution of this distinctive local product via trade routes is fascinating. The routes will still be there in most areas, but temporarily lost ‘on the ground’ and in people’s consciousness. I believe that to reinvigorate the path through gentle publicity using layers of visible and virtual interventions is my aim now. I want to improve on the design process that I have used during this research period and create a formula that has integrity and which can be applied to specific paths around the country, perhaps starting with all the Salt ways.

The starting point for the Storywalk created for the Salt Way.

Earlier this week, Christopher Jelley and I walked the section of the Salt Way over which he will produce a Storywalk. It was very hot. I showed him the route ‘on the ground’, as his only knowledge of it before was from my research paper, emails and Google maps. We drove to Blean and parked up in the shade and initially explored the church and graveyard. The heat of the day was intense as we walked along the Salt Way, but we were still able to focus on the job in hand and get some loose ends of the story tied up and yet start unravelling some others.

As we walked together in the evening sun we were treated to beautiful views from the Salt Way.

After a day or two, (luckily Chris and his family had come to stay with us for a week), he had woven the story together, creating an evocative ‘taster’ of a Storywalk for me. This can be used to promote what he does in Kent, as he mainly works in the West Country.

Yesterday, he put all the information into the Storywalk ‘engine’ that he uses, geo-located the chapters to site-specific story zones and got the story ready to go. That evening, after a trip to the beach hut and a swim in the sea, (his family were down on holiday after all), we all ventured back up to Blean church and ‘did’ the Storywalk together. This inaugural walk was filmed and more still photos were taken to add to this blog, our memories and the Storywalk itself, when it expands.

The sun created a stunning 'skydog',(scientific name parhelion), in these clouds.

I hope to be able to obtain funding to pay Chris to complete this Storywalk and create others along the route. His Storywalk along the Salt Way is the virtual intervention that I knew would complete the way-marking formula that I have designed for the MA. I wanted it to be invisible on the ground yet way-mark the route in a distinctive, creative form. These interventions could be layered on to many varied distance sections along the route. The Storywalks are accessed on mobile devices such as smart-phones and i-pads which I hope will encourage another type of user, a tech-familiar walker. The Storywalks will become a destination in their own way and leave only a trace in the memory of the walker, not on the ground. The experience will allow them to share the story out loud with their family and friends as they read the text and see the images provided at each chapter, which is triggered to open as the device is carried into another Storywalk ‘zone’ along the route.

Chris normally incorporates an activity into the story that the users can enjoy. This, in other stories in other places, has included making clocks out of found objects along the route, creating fairy charms to open gates and ringing a hidden bell in a tree. Only Time will tell what he has in store for the Salt Way!