A Trip to Irwell Vale and Quarry Bank Mill

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Irwell Vale, it is a small village on the outskirts of Manchester which my family has connections to. During the Industrial Revolution my ancestors the 'Aitkens' owned the village as well as the cotton mill located within it.

A street within the village name after my ancestors

In this photo you can just see the edge of the mill, which partially still remains to this day.

After a quick stop off in Irwell Vale, I then went onto Quarry Bank Mill. I have visited the mill a few times before but only as a child, therefore it had been quite a while since my last visit. However, I have very fond memories of the place, in particular the old school building (unfortunately that was closed today as I arrived a little late.) 

The exterior of Quarry Bank Mill

I spent a good few hours wandering round the Museum housed within the old mill, and luckily, because I arrived quite late in the day the place was very quiet, meaning I could go at a more leisurely pace, taking my time reading and photographing the exhibits. Here are a few details that caught my eye:

As I first entered the Mill I was drawn to these beautiful woodcut illustrations by Barbara Greg that were on display as part of the 'Drawn Out of Love' exhibition.

                                                   
                                                      One of the many looms on display

Fabric samples

 One of the aspects of the museum that I found myself most intrigued by were the more personal elements, such as belongings and letters.

I also really liked these trade union posters, which although not original (they were created for the Channel 4 series 'The Mill' which was filmed at Quarry Bank) were still eye catching for their colour and bold use of text.

The office

These were metals cups which were used by the workers to collect their wages in

 Perhaps my favourite section of the Mill was one of the most unassuming, it was a cabinet containing some of the medicines and remedies that were used to treat the workers. Some of them fairly recognisable, and other more unusual and unorthodox, I found myself drawn to the beautiful packaging and bottles, as well as the stories about their use.

Little has changed. This is one of the main rooms of the Mill, the machines are still running and give a frighting impression of the claustrophobic, deafening and dangerous environment the Mill would have been for its workers.

Le Gun Lecture 17/3/15

For this lecture we were visited by Neal Fox and Robert Rubbish from Le Gun. This was the lecture I was most excited about as I am a huge fan of Babyshambles, and as I was perusing Le Gun's website before the lecture I happily discovered that they were responsible for creating Babyshambles video for 'French Dog Blues'. Altogether Le Gun consists of 5 illustrators and 2 graphic designers, although today we were lectured by only two of its members Neal Fox and Robert Rubbish. I found the whole talk to be incredibly inspiring, from their first steps as 'Le Gun', where they would create extravagant, wild themed parties in order to raise money for future projects, right through to their latest exhibited pieces. They explained how in their magazine, they give full double page spreads to the illustrations in order to create a more immersive, impactful effect. And how in the process they wanted to prove that a simple letterpressed word can be as effective as a drawing. 

Perhaps my favourite part of the lecture was when they moved into talking about and showing us their 3D scenes. I loved the quirky look of these and the amazing attention to detail in order to create a fully realised, believable world. Each portrait or object on the wall has a story to tell and adds towards the narrative. I found it interesting how, their stark, limited use of colour (they use black Windsor & Newton ink and apply with brushes) was down to the fact that as a unit, the seven of them struggled making their individual styles mesh. Therefore, they chose to limit the colour palette, so that the drawings would not be lost underneath the competing colours. A decision, that I believe was very clever, and as a result has given them their distinctive, unique look. 
  

Kristan Marshall: Use of archives lecture 16/3/15

Kristan Marshall lecture revolved around archives, in particular, MMUs special collections. She talked to us mainly about one specific project she did where she was looking at a 'Butterfly Book' (Box 148, anon 1856-1858.) It is a beautiful Victorian Book in which hundreds of butterflies have been pressed into the book (not dissimilar to flower pressing) in a process where the pigment of the scales remains on the paper, giving an impression of the individual butterflies. She talked about how all the aspects of the book and discoveries she made, such as: ghosting, (when the gauche creates on imprint onto the back of the paper) and haloing, (when light is captured around the wings edges) helped her to progress her initial ideas and build a solid, unique concept. I found it particularly interesting, as I myself have a strong interest in entomology, therefore I was intrigued to see the direction her findings would take her. It came as a surprise the almost detective like nature the project took, after the discovery of the funeral card. It led to her researching into the family who donated the book to the archive and having to piece their lives together from the fragments she uncovered. Overall a very interesting lecture.

Lord Whitney Workshop 11/3/15

After the morning lecture we spent the rest of the day in a workshop with Lord Whitney. The brief we were set was fairly vague, we were asked to go into groups of around six, and then had to chose an item from the front (we got a crab) and two envelopes, each containing a word. In the end we ended up with the phrase 'crab, sky, darkness' - not a particularly easy task! However, we were told not to feel constrained by the words, instead to use them merely as a guidance for our initial ideas. After a long session of mind mapping and bouncing ideas back and forth we eventually ended up on the concept of a b-movie inspired giant, killer, mutant crab attacking a city along with it's hoard of crab friends. This was by far the weirdest project I have ever undertook...

We decided the best way to go about beginning this fairly mammoth task was to divide up the labour and everyone work to their strengths. In the end I ended up dipping in and out of the work, creating a few of my own pieces (including the figures running within the city scene and some text) as well as helping anyone who needed things doing.

 The final piece was... 'interesting' the say the least. I think we had a strong concept, however probably didn't manage our time well enough. Also I believe we should have worked on a far bigger scale.

Lord Whitney Lecture 11/3/15

Connoisseurs of make-believe

Lord Whitney specialise in art direction/ set design and prop making, fields which are definitely right up my street. Their lecture was refreshingly honest and down to earth, which consisted of them giving us a no frills attached recount of their struggles to get their company off the ground when fresh out of graduating university. It was incredibly inspiring hearing about their difficulties and at times doubt when first getting started, yet through determination and drive they have been able to form a successful company doing something they love. I found it interesting that even through all their commissions and mounting workload they would still find the time to produce self initiated projects as a means to remind themselves why they formed Lord Whitney and to keep their creativity flowing.






http://lordwhitney.co.uk/

http://lordwhitney.tumblr.com/

Hort Lecture 9/3/15

Rather than repeat the past, question it...

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I turned up to the Hort Lecture. Before arriving I had briefly browsed through some of their work that I could find online, I found it interesting, yet wasn't sure how it would apply to my work practice... I needn't have worried. The lecture theatre itself was packed to the brim, and when we were greeted by loud, raucous, punk music accompanied by flashing images of their work I knew we were in for a treat. Hort are all about 'play' and 'experimentation' (their name itself derives from the German word for 'kindergarten'), they embrace the 'outsiders' who aren't really sure where they fit in in the world of Graphic Design. The thing about Hort is that due to their multitude of talents and determination not to be pigeon holed into one particular genre, they have been lucky enough to work with a very diverse client base. Thus meaning, that during the lecture it would be very hard not to be drawn to some aspect of their work. I myself, was particularly intrigued by the work they did with Disney, creating 3D puppets and scenes, and in juxtaposition with this I also found myself drawn to their much more contemporary cutting edge work they are doing in collaboration with Nike.