Phase 3: Week 11
Design Development
Weeks 11-12: Design development | Ongoing concept, project refinement
Weekly learning objectives
This period of the MA Final Major Project is for you to demonstrate a clear sense of development and review, to allow your project to evolve holistically but also maintain depth and rigour. This ensures it is critically positioned and conceptually exciting and new. It is always a challenge at this phase of longer and more in depth projects – you need to focus on keeping motivated and maintaining the ambition and intention of the original question driving your work.
Alongside the development of your practice based studio work, you need to be working on your draft critical report, due to be submitted for formative student peer review in Week 13.
By the end of this period you are expected to have a body of work that certifies your final direction and area for developing, building and launching, as a culmination of the final Phase 4.
Different research methods (just a reminder)
Primary: Questionnaires, interviews, etc.
Secondary: Existing research, publicly available
Ethnographic: Observation/interaction with study participants in their real-life environment.
Part Reflection, Part Next Step
Ok, the reflection section is a little high up on the page this week, but I need to clear up a few things for myself. Mainly: exactly who is this for?
On my other projects, there was a clear path to the audience; the Market Hall was for the people who work there, the people who use it and to attract the wider public by creating interest. The OPPO app was for the Police, easy, and the Public Opinion project was aimed towards residents of Shrewsbury. I’m still not entirely happy with the direction of this project.
I’m hoping that if I write everything down up to this point that I’ll get some clarity and therefore, a firm direction.
So far, the direction is to illustrate the characteristics, the spirit and the culture of club cycling and amateur racing. Their commitment and passion for something which, to some, may seem pointless; it’s not their job nor will it ever be for the majority of them (ie. they’re all too old to be picked up by the British Cycling Academy), it’s a huge investment of time and money and what’s the return?
Who cares, other than those already involved, and therefore who is it for? Is there enough curiosity outside of this subject for it to bring new attention?
Research-wise, this is the one with more scope. I can interact with the club as I’m a member; take my own photos, chat to the riders, etc., but is it ‘niche enough’, what makes it different from others?
This niggling doubt makes me feel that there’s a need to include others to add more curiosity;
- Ride of Silence
- World Naked Bike Ride
- Art bike
- Bikes Not Bombs
- Ovarian Psycos
- Tweed Run
These are all events rather than clubs as such, but the theory can still apply – what makes people want to take part in them, you must be pretty committed to a cause to cycle naked through the centre of London… but, am I now looking too broadly? Do I choose one of these even though I’m not part of it in some way? Are they all still current, and does it matter if they’re not? Lots of questions…
Primary research would be to contact the organisers/originators to talk about what made them come up with the idea, how it’s developed and what was achieved, etc., an event such as the Tweed Run is on social media and so further stories or Q&As could come from contacting their page. I imagine secondary would mainly come from press coverage resulting from such large events.
More thoughts, more research
Step away from the MAMIL? I came across these groups during the course of my research into the need for us to belong to something, just as a means of comparing different groups with some link to cycling. Of these, Ovarian Psycos stood out and is steering me away from what I thought I would be doing.
It raises a new question: How can I show the strength cycling brings to a group?
However, the next question is: am I just repeating the existing documentary?
Ride of Silence
The Ride of Silence is an annual international bicycle ride to commemorate cyclists killed and support those injured while riding on public roads.
World Naked Bike Ride
A peaceful, imaginative and fun protest against oil dependency and car culture. A celebration of the bicycle and also a celebration of the power and individuality of the human body. A symbol of the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic. The world’s biggest naked protest: 50+ cities and thousands of riders participate worldwide, including around 3,000 in the UK each year.
Bikes Not Bombs
Bikes Not Bombs is a Boston, Massachusetts based nonprofit that uses the bicycle as a vehicle for social change by recycling donated bicycles, training young people to fix their own bikes and become employable mechanics and sending thousands of bicycles to international partner communities in countries such as Uganda, Ghana, St. Kitts & Nevis, El Salvador, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, Kenya, and Rwanda.
Art bike
An art bike is any bicycle modified for creative purposes while still being ridable. It is a type of kinetic sculpture. The degree of artistic creativity and originality or new functionality of art bikes varies greatly, depending on the artist or designer’s intentions (as well as the subjective interpretation of what “art” is by the observer).
Not an organised event, not ‘a thing’… the closest to a movement I’ve been able to find is called ‘The Winking Circle: The ultimate goal of The Winking Circle is the eccentrification of the world. Eccentrification?’ – make everything eccentric, not just about cycling. Also, just for the sake of it? Look at us, we’re just crazy…
I think I’d find them annoying.
Ovarian Psycos
The idea behind the Ovarian Psycos—a group of women who ride their bikes through streets of East L.A. at night, fighting back against stereotypes and violence directed at women of color. The collective consists of 13 core members, all of whom are Latina and from East L.A.
Initial response to the name and an image was an eye-roll, looking into it I’ve realised that was quite presumptuous, the story is a powerful one which drew me in. It’s already a feature-length documentary though, does that make it ‘already done’?
Wanksy
“taking direct action by using art to highlight the dangerous potholes that damage our vehicles and harm cyclists on a daily basis.”
A graffiti vigilante known as Wanksy has taken an innovative approach: painting penises around potholes and documenting his work anonymously on social media. The council has responded with condemnation, but it seems the potholes are being fixed.
(‘Wanksy – Road Artist’ 2020) (Smith 2018)
Tweed Run
The Tweed Run is a metropolitan bicycle ride with a bit of style. We take to the streets in our well-pressed best, and cycle through the city’s iconic landmarks. Along the way, we stop for a tea break and a picnic stop, and we usually end with a bit of a jolly knees-up.
(‘The Tweed Run: London’s Metropolitan Bicycle Ride – May 2020’ 2020)
Interesting, just for fun.
Meanwhile, I came across a book called ‘The Men of Paris-Roubaix – A Sartorial Portrait Book’ by Max Leonard. This looks like it could be the forerunner of the Tweed Run, the original real-life version:
“Reproduced as a book of detachable postcards – each comes with a brief description of the rider and his performance in Paris-Roubaix – Leonard’s selection of images from the Agence Meurisse’s archives affords the twenty-first century cycling fan an opportunity to imagine how earlier cycling fans saw the sport, in a stylishly produced little book.”
Would my outcome just be the-same-but-different?
Auto-complain
Auto-Complain offers the possibility to automate the act of demanding road renovations by using a simple app.
All you need to do is to attach your Phone onto your bike for tracking its motions. When hitting a bigger pothole, your phone registers the intensity and location of the bump. These data are directly sent and stored on an online platform called www.auto-complain.com. Upon arrival at your destination, your complain ride is completed and a PDF-file, which summarizes all of your complaints, is sent to the department for road repair.
(http://www.florianborn.com 2020)
If there’s doubt…
The feeling is I’d either be subconsciously comparing my work to the existing documentary or trying so hard to avoid it that the outcome would be weak.
I may include it as one selection to show the different values brought by cycling, but as I asked above; am I now looking to broadly?
The Tweed Run and the Naked Cycle are just rides, they’re not clubs or groups as such – does that matter?
What makes people go on the rides, Tweed Run isn’t a protest or anything, ride it’s just for fun. Tweed Run is probably too well known to use as an example on its own for the project. What other rides would people be familiar enough with to raise a little more curiosity for?
Local clubs host their own races locally – who’s that aimed at? The riders in the clubs would have interest but would others?
Is there a historical value in something, like the ‘Lantern Rouge’? An older tradition which still goes on?
Just did a quick search and found this story:
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-women-banned-cycling-isfahan/29949683.html
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/12/girls-ride-bikes-iranian-women-defy-cycling-fatwa-tehran #IranianWomenLoveCycling https://twitter.com/mowlaverdi
https://cyclingtips.com/2019/09/the-big-lie-what-its-like-to-ride-illegally-as-a-woman-in-iran/
Only 4 days ago…. first female cycling group in Saudi
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1770321/saudi-arabia
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wj4yvz/inside-saudi-arabias-first-womens-only-cycling-club
Critical Mass, the guerilla group rides that aim to promote cyclists’ rights – http://www.urban75.org/photos/critical/ – don’t think they happen any more
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/06/03/op-ed-breaking-down-barriers-to-disabled-cyclists/
https://www.cyclinguk.org/community-outreach/inclusive-cycling-network
https://www.vanraam.com/en-gb
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51421340
https://www.brothersonbikes.cc/
https://www.cyclinguk.org/group/cycle-sisters
https://www.amaliah.com/post/56499/cycle-sisters-muslim-women-empowered-through-cycling-sarah-javaid
https://www.ladbible.com/community/daily-ladness-woman-cycles-naked-around-london-to-raise-money-for-suicide-prevention-20201130
