stumbling through summer

Well, it's July.

Apologies for being rather quiet on the blogging front this past month and a bit, I been flitting around like a butterfly doing a manner of different things. Okay, I'll admit I'm perhaps not like one of those butterflies you'd see on The National Geographic "Photo of the Day", more like a busy little moth.

Aside from the various things I've been doing, including helping a friend find a new house / actually move house, visiting home for a quick catch up with family, working and spring cleaning (yes, a little late I know), camping, attending the degree show (congratulations are in order for all DJCAD graduates of 2011, more specifically IED's now former 4th years, you guys did a fantastic job!), visiting Glasgow, working for the university during graduation week and going to see the midnight opening screening of the last of the Harry Potter series... I have also been putting together some things I plan on using come September. The daunting thought of third year has well and truly set in, so I figured that I might as well use my summer months to do something useful, rather than waste them in beer gardens in the sun. Don't worry though, some hours will be spent doing just that; if the sun ever shows itself.

I've bought some new books to pour over during the next 8 weeks before term starts again as well, which I'm looking forward to. I'll post short reviews of them if they are any good.

Further to my beavering online researching various things I've realised I am getting heavily addicted to stumble-upon. I'm not sure what a user of stumble-upon is called - a stumbler? A stumble-uponer? Either way it's proving to be very useful as I've honed my interests into course related topics and has so far produced interesting pages - along with throwing in a few funny images of animals for good measure.

As you can probably derive from this post - I'm keen for term to start again, and feel quite lost without the pressures of coursework, projects, deadlines and the general buzz from IED as a whole. I guess that's a good thing, nobody gets a near 4 month break from their career unless it's forced upon them in the form of redundancy (which I hope will never plague any of us!).

Alas, just as I sit here moaning about the lack of summer weather - the sun has decided to show it's face, but for how long is anybody's guess, so I'm off out into it.

...Although I think I'll take my wellies, just in case.

Design Studies: Asking the questions

First we had to create consent forms in order to publish the information we gathered from our interviews.

After gaining our participants permission, we continued on with the questions. I won't go into detail with regards to individual answers and information collected, but the following were our generalised finds, along with patterns we began to spot.

The first question, asking if the participant recognised how many, if any of a selection of adverts was an example of a viral ad, got mixed results. A third of participants however, recognised that the "Visit California" advert was in fact not viral. Others recognised the advert, although were unable to determine which were viral and which were not.

The second question was in regards to Cadburys recent and currently ongoing viral campaign. After asking how they felt after seeing a selection of them, we found that the general response was that they were confused. Often they were unsure as to how the content relates to selling a product, although all recognised the videos themselves.

Thirdly, we asked why they think companies would chose to use seemingly irrelevant content in adverts, to which the general response was to make their product more fun, memorable or enjoyable.

On asking what music was used during a selection of mobile phone service providers adverts, we were left with an interesting array of answers. Although it was a bit of a trick question due to the fact that only one contained music, it was interesting to find that sost could not remember much about the content for Orange or O2 at all (the two with no music at all), however nearly all knew that a) T-Mobile was based around music and b) could name songs used (albeit not necessarily the ones used for the specific advert we had muted). It was interesting to find that a connection was made between the audio and memory.

We then went on to ask which provider each participant used, to which half of our participants use T-Mobile. This may just be co-insidence, but speculation may be drawn on this as to why, in comparison to the other main providers (namely Orange, O2, Vodaphone and 3) had such dwindling numbers in comparison.

Next, we asked if any of the people involved in our interviews could remember what the series of adverts was, or indeed the tag line used throughout for the new Windows 7 operating system. Although a few had no idea, a few of the male participants knew selected bits of them. Some knew the tagline was "I'm a PC and.." and some other knew they were short snappy ads. Here are the actual ads we were referring to:



There are several others available on YouTube from the same series.

It was interesting to find that more males than females remembered this type of advertisement. It's hard to say wether it is because of the quick delivery of the adverts that entices males over females, or if it is the content relating to computers, as computers are commonly regarded as being more interesting to males than females.

Lastly, we played only the audio of an advert, and asked if they could tell us what it was for within the first few seconds - being careful not to reveal the product name that is mentioned towards the beginning. Nearly all of them instantly named it, with the remaining one who did not name it being unable to put their finger on the exact product, although said they did recognise it.

This was the advert we used:

The conclusion we drew from our answers was that the reasons viral advertisements are successful is because in most cases, people remember the content and as a connected result, remember the brand. When a continuous style of unrelated content is used, a style is created, thus becoming part of the brand itself. An example of this is the continuous use of purple throughout Cadbury's adverts, the bright colourful fun extraordinary things that happen throughout Sony's Bravia adverts, or Honda's intellectual use of sound. As this becomes the standard for a brand, the products themselves are less and less important as by now the viewer knows that Cadbury's make chocolate, and Sony makes technological products. It's far beyond that stage. 

Basically, the theory behind it is to make you remember them, and from our findings - most of these adverts do just that.

Nicoll Russell Studios

Nicoll Russell Studios are an architecture and interior design firm based in Broughty Ferry, on the outskirts of Dundee. They have had many successful projects, including The Dundee Rep Theatre, several Dundee University buildings, contemporary private homes, The Scottish Dance Theatre in Dundee and Dundee Sheriff Court, along with many other builds.

Garry Farquharson who is an architect for Nicoll Russell Studios, kindly gave us his time last week for a workshop, in which he took us through the building process. This included explaining site analysis of one of their recent sustainable builds in the Dundee area - the Hillcrest HQ. He said they had been lucky to get such a forward thinking client, as when designers mention the horrid "S" word of sustainability, a lot of clients recoil in confused disgust. He went on to tell us that usually you have to be tactful in the way you approach eco building, but with Hillcrest, they wanted to be as green as possible.

artists impression of the Hillcrest HQ
source: nrsarchitects.com

I learnt quite a lot from him, particularly about how a real project can go. I was interested to find out more about geothermal cooling systems, and about on site generation of electricity - something they used for the Hillcrest HQ, which meant enough electricity was generated to sell back to the national grid.

The relationship between your own project and the surrounding land is something that he spoke to us quite in depth, and made me consider this further for our current project. While designing the Hillcrest HQ there was another on-going build on the same piece of land, so the two firms worked closely to ensure both builds would work together. Although this is not quite the same situation for my hypothetical build, it is a site that has a close relationship to the surrounding buildings - particularly the football stadium. I added a psychological aspect into my site analysis to cover what effects the surrounding buildings in the relatively close proximity would have on such a space.

He also mentioned the cradle to cradle theory, as opposed to cradle to grave - which is a book I have been meaning to read for a while, despite buying it a ages ago.

I think I've just found my reading material for the train on Monday!

EcoOffice: Site Analysis

The necessary evil that is Site Analysis is now complete! 

I have included this on my blog to document everything that I have been doing for my current project - which covers an array of things. As I have already said though, site analysis is just one of the necessary evils associated with such a project. We have to document every aspect of the location, with regards to how these aspects will affect a potential build. 

Trawling census statistics is far from fun.

image from google images

EcoOffice: Materials Documents

Below are a few of the pages from the pdf I am currently putting together, documenting all the materials I plan to use throughout my building renovation. It will read as somewhat of a brochure that has been specifically put together with this building in mind, and include as many sustainable products as possible.

I plan on gaining most of my knowledge base for this aspect of the project from EcoBuild at the end of the month, which is held annually in London.  As I develop these ideas, I will add the relevant pages as and when they are created. 

EcoOffice: Location, Location, Location!

Here are a few photographs I took when we visited the site for our current project last Thursday. It's quite big but due to it currently acting as a storage space, it is difficult to visualise the full space that would be available to us. At the moment I am considering keeping as much of the original features as possible - mainly the partial floor to the right and perhaps the windows on the roof, although I am also considering a green roof. 

The owner of the building also kindly offered to give us access again in the future if needs be, which may be helpful once we have developed our designs further and need to perhaps go back to check specific things.

EcoOffice: Material Research

I thought I would just take the opportunity to share with you all some images I have been collecting for my current project.

The areas I have been directing my research towards include renovation, loft and warehouse apartment conversions, old freight elevator cages (mostly wooden), factory conversions, reclaimed wooden railway sleepers, industrial renovations and a lot of other stuff down the more technical route, such as smartglass and various eco-insulation brands. 

factory conversion

although these are eco friendly, I'm not sure I could take any more pallets!

this is one of my favourites so far, although I had more space in mind!

incorporating 'living spaces' within the office I think will prove valuable, as not only
will it increase the feel good factor having an impact on staff morale, but it will reduce the
carbon emissions

Terramac is an ingenious product from Japan which is essentially an indoor
living carpet

Kubala-Washatko Architects in Wisconsin, USA have converted an old
factory for their sustainable offices

the open plan space keeps the air circulating, exactly what is needed in a
communal area such as a reception and waiting space

this type of structure on show is how I envision the offices to be, although
with more platforms creating partial floors

bringing nature indoors serves as a reminder to protect the environment

Further to this research, I looked at freight elevators to provide disabled access. I want to keep the industrial factory-esque theme, and a salvaged fright elevator would be ideal. These are commonly seen in loft or warehouse apartment conversions, seem most often in the likes of Boston, New York, San Francisco, and London. 

these old industrial freight cage elevators are highly sought after
for warehouse conversions, and can be salvaged from old
factories and warehouses

We are set to visit the site on Thursday, however as it is close to my house I took a wander there this morning armed with my DSLR. Unfortunately however, aside from the rather overcast sky, it is right next to the stadium for Dundee United Football Club - and today happened to be a day where they are playing at home. Aside from police cones along the road, the road being blocked off, a man from Sky Sports wandering around, and a coach in the way, the Hibs coach turned up - so I decided to call it a day. Hopefully Thursday will be more successful - and at least we will get a look inside the building as well, as it is currently under lock and key. 

EcoOffice: Not A Home Afterall!

On Tuesday we presented our findings in our designated groups on our topic we were issued; we were given "green design".

After that, we were issued our briefs commencing from then until 1st April. Instead of what we assumed would be renovating a pre-existing site into an sustainable home, we have been given the similar task of designing a sustainable autonomous office in an existing industrial style building on Tannadice Street, Dundee.

Within this we must create: an entrance and reception, a waiting area, offices housing space for 24 employees, CEO office, 4 manager's offices, a cafeteria, toilets, 2 meeting rooms, a research lab for 4 employees, a library and "quiet space", storage facility and cleaning stores. 

We must concern ourselves with trying to maintain sustainability throughout. I intend to aim for LEED standards, and as autonomous as possible. Thankfully there is no budget to concern ourselves with!

I also intend to try to aim to increase employee eco awareness, and thus not only reduce the emissions of the building on it's own, but also the personal emissions of the employees. The office is hypothetically to be housed by SEPA, so aiming for 100% zero emissions of the building and employees is essential. I have created a few mind maps which I will add once I scan them.

Here is my preliminary research (A1):

On 1st of March EcoBuild will be held in London for three days, to which me and a few classmates will be attending, gaining invaluable knowledge in the eco building materials world. Unfortunately this means a lot of flyer collecting - which is not too environmentally friendly. Whoops!

DJCAD: New Studio Space

We have been told that DJCAD is set to be going under serious renovation over the next few academic years. As exciting as it is, it causes almost immediate disruption to the Interior & Environmental department as our current studio space inhabits most of floor 5 in the Matthew Building - which is set to be developed into the new cantina area. As a result of our current area being designated to other uses, we are being moved up stairs to the top floor - level 8 - over the next academic summer. Such upheaval has caused a mixed response within our department, leaving a lot of us a little perplexed at the thought of getting ready to move. There was a lecture provided to explain what exactly will be happening, however it unfortunately landed during the critical height of our projects, so few people made it. Nobody seems to be sure of how it will pan out - as the layout on the floors above is somewhat different, meaning we will have to alter our working layout. 

Currently there is a large studio housing first through third year, with two a-joining critique spaces, allowing us to showcase work and conduct meetings during group work. We also unofficially inhabit the gallery space on level 5, allowing us to mark out large spaces during early development work. Fourth year are housed opposite in a long private studio, with an additional crit space at the end, which can also be used by all years. All in all, the current layout works well, and with the main studio acting somewhat as a "hub" for the bustle and energy, allowing fourth year to continue in peace. I&ED is after all, renowned for their nursery like ways - paper planes and paint everywhere. 

Being interior students, we had to investigate our to-be studios. Upon conducting our  investigation upstairs, we were a little surprised and found that it was a totally different atmosphere to what we were used to. I can't help but feel that when I step out the lift, I have just entered a floor of The Overlook Hotel: 

And having an overactive imagination such as I do, it means I then expect to return along the corridor to be confronted with the iconic blood elevator: 

But as I say, I just have a terrifying over active imagination. 

I hope something interesting is done with regards to the studio spaces, as it looks as though we are going to have two studios - perhaps splitting first and second year from third and fourth. This may work well, as it allows the latter stages to bounce ideas off of one and other, as they are more developed in the course. 

I do hope the orange doors are painted, or removed altogether - it's currently a Stanley Kubrick nightmare. Bare breeze-block is bearable to an extent, but I find the whole attic like space quite terrifying. I can't imagine I'd be staying behind late on my own, in the winter, and snow...it's sounding more and more like The Shining. 

On discussing this with fellow classmates, Ross suggested it may be good to incorporate "Idea Paint" into the new studios - a paint that once dry acts as a drawing space that may be cleaned and reused. This would be fantastic for group work and brainstorming - and even mind maps! I'm unsure as to the expense of such a product, but it is surely within reach. I hope sustainability will be high on the agenda as well, as I would feel awfully hypocritical to study sustainable building in a space that contributed hugely to waste!

Although it will be sad for us to leave what we have considered a home from home over the (almost) past two years, in a way, it will be a nice thing to happen...as what is more interesting to an I&ED student, than a studio refurbishment? 

...just leave out the horrid carpets, please. 

*Shudders*

Furniture Design: Someone Said It Was Snowing?

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To update, the snow shows little chance of withdrawing its horrid self from these parts, thus extending the mass hysteria and travel related delays. Oh goody.

To date, we have been unable to continue our workshop project since Monday, and given the final presentation deadline is a week tomorrow (Friday 10 December) I have little faith that we will be able to complete it and present fully in that short window. It has been announced that the workshop is open indefinitely today, however how long that will last, nobody is sure.

Just as I thought we may get somewhere today, another stumbling block appears in the form of all buses within Dundee have been cancelled until further notice. Boo! The last attempt to get into the workshop (and the last time it was open) was on Tuesday, to which I managed to get a bus only to find the workshop was closing on my arrival. Typical.

It's nobody's fault - everyone is working hard, but it doesn't stop the frustrations. I especially have sympathy for bus drivers and the council workers trying to clear roads and paths - but some people are being extremely selfish. I went on the Facebook site for the University to try to get a heads up on wether or not I should attempt travelling in, only to find unbelievable comments from some of the students:

"speak english people,, i dont have ANY clue about whether uni is open or not.. YES or NO are the possible answers,, not that whole thing that even google transator wouldnt help :S " - a students response to other people trying to shed some light on the University opening hours. I really hope this person does not study English. The irony does make me laugh though.

Hurling abuse onto the University's page will get them nowhere. It's stupid to expect places to open when staff cannot travel in safely - tutors tend not to live in halls opposite the facilities, love. It's funny how people have excuses not to attend class when it's sunny but when they are bored and want to attend class, it's everybody else's fault. Well, the snow is nobody's fault - even the multiple accident-helpline-lawyers-4-u-get-a-no-win-no-fee-compensation-you-deserve companies would agree.

My personal favourite comment was:

"Pathetic that they were not open today. All my revision material is in a locker in the library, and my exam is next wk! We, as students, pay A LOT of money to attend university, the least they could do is open the buiding. Should be better prepared for events like this! I don't even have the internet in my flat, so I can't even get assess to revision that way! What a joke" - I'll let this person stay anonymous.

I would however like to point out that the person who commented the pointless statement above is from Brechin, so will no doubt get SAAS funding - not costing them A LOT personally. Secondly; they received a mouthful back from a sympathetic student to the University:

"Hang on a minute here chap. It's not exactly the Uni's fault, they can't control the weather. Yes the Uni does get a lot of money for us to attend, but does that mean that the security and maintenance staff have to risk their lives so you can get into a locker. In any case did you leave your revision material over the weekend? Not that worried are you, or if you left it there overnight surely the weather last night was an indication that you should have taken it home with you. Yes we need to be told if the Uni is closed or not in advance but don't be a complete tool." - anon student/legend.

Win!

On a more serious note; I hope I can get on with things soon enough, or at least be allowed some time to make up for what we have lost. Doing the odds and ends in the mean time is all very well, but I'm itching to get on with proper work!

Thats right snow - I'm talking to you! Clear off! 

The Adventures of Thundersnow: Part One

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I am going to make my own (and better) toilet roll reindeer - called Thundersnow - tomorrow, when I get some sticks. I'm too warm in my house to venture out in the dark for his legs. Too bad for Thundersnow.

He will then embark on a journey around Dundee with me, photographed everywhere he goes. Kind of like the gnomes in Amelie.

Yay! I love crappy Art Attack-esque crafts. My desk in the studios is a sea of similar stuff, including little plant pots, miniature scale desks, an off cut of card that looks like pants amongst some other things. This may be aimed at children, but I honestly don't think they could have any more fun than I will!

Thanks Jonathan!

Thundersnow!

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Wow. The ludicrous actions of the general public never cease to surprise me.

To explain - we have been experiencing some drastic weather as of late. The media is of course blowing it out of proportion, but to be fair it has caused quite a lot of disruption to daily routines - such as bus services being reduced to minimal routes, if not cancelled completely, trains being cancelled, schools and universities closing and some local amenities closed until further notice. Roads are blocked quite badly with only main roads being cleared properly, and several cars have been stuck in my street. The latter however, has been enjoyable for me from the warmth of my house - as I have been stuck at home with no transport, and university and work closed.

It has also been the source of the explosive term infecting every corner of the internet at the minute - "thundersnow". As we have been experiencing heavy snow, it has caused thunderstorms to occur as well. It is unusual, and a first for most people, but the reason I think most people are so animated about it is because they just like saying it. Most people didn't know what was going on during the night when it first begun - I myself woke up confused, genuinely thought it was the apocalypse and went back to the sleep with the attitude: well I'd rather be asleep for this anyway - it's not like I have an arc to safely save all species in. A similar incident occurred when the snow slid off the roof and past my window. The building shook and I couldn't see a thing out the window, which left me in a state of panic for a moment or two!

For you lot who enjoyed geography at school - get your teeth into this one: 

Thundersnow: it got so badass it even struck the Police HQ! 

So, thundersnow aside (even I can't stop saying it), I went to my local supermarket today - as the buses were running for a short period - to get some vegetables to make some nice homemade soup. Nothing wild. I wasn't panicking. I was cold, sure, but not losing my mind. With layers on similar to what my Aunt has to wear while working in the South Pole - I ventured out.

Well. On arrival to the supermarket I realise that I am quite alone in my calm shopping technique. 

The shelves were bare. There was virtually no bread. The vegetable aisle was derelict, with all produce long gone. I half expected tumble weed. People had panic consumed the whole shop, and probably stolen the toilet rolls from the customer toilets as well. 

Social networking sites have been ablaze with stories of the psychotic antics of the public in and around Scotland during these arctic conditions, which provide quite a lot of hilarity and amusement. There have been sightings of people taking sledges to the local supermarket in Dunblane, as "they got milk delivered". 

I myself, don't understand this hysteria. It's as if it's an apocalyptic freeze over - the start of a new ice age. It's quite insane. Common sense has been completely lost, and panic consumerism has taken over. Even if you wiped the milk shelf clean out, buying 150 pints of the stuff - it would still go out of date in around 5-6 days. Logic has been catapulted out the frost covered window, not unlike a snowball.

If Tesco were a cartoon character - it'd have dollar signs in it's eyeballs right now. I'm not sure when I became such a cynic but I'm convinced they will be sneakily raising their prices to get more out of this somehow. Cue supermarket mavens, swooping in like the unappreciated superhero. 

But alas, it won't go on forever. Eventually normality will be restored and albeit it will remain cold, I will be able to continue with my normal routines. Studio, work, a quick bite to eat then sleep, repeat.

In the mean time, a good snow ball fight is on the cards - and lets face it, nobody gets too old for that. 

Design Studies: Misunderstanding

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I am lead to believe during the latest of our seminars that I have misinterpreted the previous assignment slightly.

The tutorial based website task of Assignment 3 was supposed to get us to build a list of reliable website sources - 5 from our area and 5 that we generally like to keep tabs on. Unfortunately nobody could get it to work properly - as every time we added one of the reliable sources to "basket", it removed the previous one. This meant we could select no more than a total of 1 site. Argh! I continued with the assignment non the less, although had to use my intuition when it came to a sources reliability or level of authority - wether my intuition was right or not, is yet to be determined.

I, however, had taken the above to mean that we must collect 5 online sources from our research area that we have focussed on recently with regards to Design Studies (as in Viral Ads), and 5 we generally like to keep tabs on (this being 5 general design sites. I didn't think that they would want to hear what we keep track of online out-with University related disciplines - there's a lot of rubbish out there don't you know!)

So, anyway, the above mix up and broken tutorial aside - I have taken it upon myself to amend my previous post. I have left that post live on my blog as they are still relevant, but I will add in the 5 generalised sites I keep my eye on below.

They include:

BBC News (Scotland) / New York Times / The Guardian

National Geographic

YouTube

WSPA

Twitter

Vimeo

There are several other sites I regularly like to keep up to date with, as I read a lot of current affairs. After all, it's important to know what's going on in the world. Dundee's only a pin prick in terms of global affairs, so I think it's good to know whats going on outside the box, so to speak!

V&A: Dundee Welcomes You, Kengo Kuma!

Kengo Kuma's winning design

I would just like to post a short recap on the V&A: Dundee proposal design competition. Today, it was announced that Kengo Kuma & Associates had won the opportunity to build their entry, which is scheduled for completion in 2014, costing an approximate £47million. I think this is a fantastic design as it pushes Dundee's boundaries in ways never before seen in the city, with of course the physical aspect also being pushed quite literally, out into the River Tay. This concept, as Lesley Knox, Chair of the V&A proposal jury said "[Kengo Kuma] demonstrates a clear understanding of the city, offers a new experience of the river, and will be as exciting internally as it will be externally"

She went on, "This has the potential to be one of Europe's most exciting buildings." 

This is a fantastic opportunity for Dundee to pull in a much needed tourist audience, not to mention create many jobs in the area. 

Kengo Kuma responded on hearing the news "We are enthusiastic about the amazing site, the city and environment - it is our intention to find a balanced approach to nature and the city life of Dundee. We wish to bring our best efforts forward, with vigour and passion."

Congratulations to Kengo Kuma & Associates - I look forward to seeing and documenting the build, it's about time we had some innovative architecture in this town!

Ink, Ink, Baby!

There is reason behind with this post, but let me ramble a bit first.

I love tattoos. Don't get me wrong, jail tats - not so much. The big sweaty hairy biker with the tribute to his mother - not appealing. Kind of Norman Bates-ish actually, and if it was ever a crime to love your mother too much - that was an example. "Love" and "Hate" tattoos - there is something cool about those, although I do admit - horrid. I like when people modernise these horrid tattoos, such as "Game" and "Over" etc. These ghastly retro geeky tattoos, are something I find funny and kind of have respect for the fools that do it to themselves. After all, I fear over the remainder of my 20's I too, will be an inked up geek. I've got the geek bit down already. 

um...why'd you get a banana?
why don't you stay in school and learn
about art, fool.

My first tattoo was a replica of Andy Warhol's screen print of a Banana - used as the cover album art for The Velvet Underground's album, entitled The Velvet Underground & Nico. It terrified me of getting more after my friend had exclaimed during it - "um, is that supposed to be orange? Just, there's a lot of blood..". Thanks for that. Thankfully after healing, it was in fact yellow, and not some mutated orange banana-carrot thing. Hooray! 

Well, it took me a while (3 years) to deliberate over the next image to be etched into my skin with a needle. You'd think after so long I must of come up with some cool personalised design, or a deep meaningful tattoo. What did I settle on? A moustache. On my finger. Not only that, but my friend had booked it for me as a 21st birthday gift, and she would also get one. I got told on the day it was booked - as I lay sprawled at my other friends house, smelling like gin and parental disappointment. Crap.

Not to worry, I jumped (I use this term for effect, it was more of a slow crawl with my main point of interesting focussing on not vomiting) out of bed and along to get the tattoo. All was well. I left 40 minutes later, the proud owner of a fingerstache. Random, immature, but in my book, pretty cool.

is that a transfer?

10 days later however, I was not so pleased. It had faded beyond recognition, and when we had asked for it to be rectified, was told it would cost us! The cheek! So I got on my legal high horse and marched down to the Citizens Advice Bureau. They said to formally record the delivery of a letter requesting a refund for the shoddy workmanship and give them 14 days. If there was no reply, I was to return and they would take matters further, including approaching Trading Standards. 

Well guess what? Their 14 days are up, baby! I'll update with what the next steps are when I find out.

FAO EVERYONE: DO NOT GET A TATTOO AT WESTPORT TATTOO & PIERCING STUDIO, DUNDEE.

Juteopolis: Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be an Engineer

*snore*

Today, myself and Christina went to go and speak with the Head of Engineering, Dr. Robert Keatch. After cautiously snooping around the Mechanical Engineering department, and looking completely out of place with my leopard print earrings, Beetlejuice jacket and SLR, and Christina dressed somewhat like an eager October Santa, we finally got directed toward the right place by a kind couple of students who took pity on us poor, intellectually inferior, design students.

I did however manage to cast my mind back to 5 years ago, in higher Physics where I learned about diodes and not gates. This impressed him, as I suspected he thought we would aim to resolve this armed with some poster paint. Christina's vacant expression however, needed no further explanation. By the time we left, we had done two things; resolved our issue and come to the conclusion that our design was in fact possible (and was actually reasonably simple), and also managed to shock a Doctorate in Engineering at the (poor) level of the average persons knowledge of his field. Whoops!

the partition allows for
two separate exhibition
spaces

All in all, he actually was down to earth with us about it, and didn't make fun of us too much. I say too much, he did say he'd hide if we needed his help in the future. Turns out that what we are trying to do is virtually the same process as a newspaper printing press, and also, as I pointed out, similar to that of the process involved of pressing aluminium into tin foil. I can actually now thank my Dad for subjecting me to these awful how-to programs! This however, does not mean I will not watch them at my own free will, Dad.

 the partition provides two
separate experiences. One
based on industry, the other
society.

We then also made a quick trip to the DCA to get some pictures of the area that relate better now we know how we would like the partition set out. Fortunately for us, it was laid out exactly how we had planned. Win!

It was also rather handy that the windows currently had black-out blinds pulled, again - exactly how we had planned. It gave it a much better sense of how it would work out if we actually got the opportunity to exhibit our design. The projector being set up gave us a rough idea of the lighting effect we would get, as part of our space is to be lit using words written in light. Anyhoo, enough chit chat, hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go...