TestSpace Sandpit Event One

Same old, same old. It's always like this- given a brief read it, a few days trying to ignore it, thinking about it, a meeting, a crit, thinking about it some more. Then something clicks, usually when I'm pancaking about lack of ideas. This has been the same for the last ten years. But design is design, a brief is a brief and it requires a bit of work but something usually comes together.

Anyway the struggle with this initial event is 'the theme' so we start with the basic food theme. First problem straight off is still thinking in terms of a gallery, this isn't what we do. We're multi-disciplinary in terms of what we show, I'm a designer- more precisely for this an interior designer. Images paintings on the wall food related is going to be shit and not what we do. Second problem- is thinking we have to be 'interactive' and defining what that means. Third problem- we don't make the work, how do we make interactive stuff. The problem is that still considering this as a basic gallery/gig/BBQ is also wrong: the flaw here is I'm not an events manager. It'll just end up a gig with some food, just as Crash could have been gigs with artwork. So what do I do, well I'm an interior designer. If someone came to me and said we have X space we want to fit a bar/cafe/gig space in here, then I can work from that.

And this is where it starts to click- the theme is food, but that shouldn't mean food in it's basic/obvious sense sense. Now it really starts to click so if I was Anthony Bourdain, Piere White running a kitchen in there what would it be like? But the problem with this approach is it easily becomes a wanky conceptual piece. Been there, done that, don't like it. So lets start treating like a real space again- we had a stage PA system at Crash so brought bands in, we had stock and installed shelf's and sold work at 42, treating it like a shop. Playing with this idea, getting people through the doors. So lets start to think of this as our cafe/bar Test. And this is where it starts to make sense.

Consider it like this- we are Testing our cafe/bar for two days. 42 was testing our shop/gallery element. Themes should just be us testing our ICA project, the next one should be installing a cinema space. So for this you still have food stuff but in it's broadest possible sense.

The approach needs to be thinking of it as a two day cafe/bar and testing ideas from there. So just as before when we involved artists, designers, bands etc why not get young chefs, restaurants/ cafes involved- this was discussed before for 42/Crash getting breweries involved, chip shops. This can be along side designed menus, screen printed tea towels, illustrated paper plates, doodled paper cups, extreme cake icing with graffiti groups etc. So if 42 was about testing out a shop/gallery this is about testing a cafe/bar/restaurant environment. So all the elements are in place for a real cafe/bar, just as 42 should have been a shop, as well as a gallery.

Food is just the hook- anything should relate back to that. But that doesn't have to be literately food, it can be all the elements involved in a cafe, like menus, tablecloths, cups etc

But this isn't a final solution but it's getting clearer. Going back to original concepts ideas, avoiding wacky themes. Tomorrow is a bit of research, printing off, pulling concepts together and start to design this thing. Print this post