Month: October 2021

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Planning and Creating Immersive Natural Event

Event Summary

Immersive Natural Event 21st and 22nd October 11am-3:30pm at Central Saint Martins Canteen Space

This event looks to bring nature into city spaces and provide the health benefits of interacting with nature to people within the space. Such benefits include increased creativity, productivity, and positivity. The event aims to engage people with nature, encouraging nature to be included in their lives further and promoting the community practice I am developing as a space for professionals and designers to collaborate on bringing nature into their work. 

The event will utilise projections and speakers to showcase a video of natural scenery, which is focused upon the water. The video footage and audio are all shot and owned by me. Water is the focus of this event due to my meetings with expert stakeholders, such as Sue Thomas (expert in technobiophilia) who spoke to me about her reading and experience of utilising water to engage people with nature as an often under utilised but highly dynamic force.

All equipment will be loaned from the CSM loan store and so will be PAC tested. 

All cables will be taped down to the floor to avoid any tripping hazards. 

People wishing to get further involved in the event will be asked to write their answers to two simple questions on large sheets of paper, which I will supply. One of the questions will be before and one after their engagement in the event. I will also provide a QR code for people to scan which links to my online community page, should they wish to join.

I will be present at the event for its entire duration.

Aims of Event

  • To showcase innovative, engaging and dynamic ways nature can be brought into city spaces
  • To provide participants with the opportunity to intercat with nature and feel its benefits – such as increased creativity, producivity and positivity; reduced anxiety and stress
  • To establish interest from deisgn experts/ professionals in the CSM community to utilise nature in their work
  • To meet upcoming deisgners and indivudlas interested in making sustainably minded decisions to join my online Nature In Community

All of these aims are focused upon drawing interest in nature amongst creatives, specifically at CSM for this event, to demonstrate the power and value of biophilic design consequently growing interest and uptake in joining the Nature In community.

Planning/ Logistics

  • Origionally this event was to be hosted at Chelsea College of Arts, to have secured that opportunity I have had meetings with Chelsea canteen and estates teams. However, having the event at Chelsea presented a few logistical issues, as the equiptmet to be utilsied in the event is all to be hired from the CSM loan store. Therefore, I was going to have to transport the equiptment from CSM to Chelsea across the two days.
  • Subsequenlty, the estates manager at Chelsea offered to contact CSM estates to see if the event could be hosted in the CSM restaurant instead.
  • After many eails and last minute changes a meeting was arranged with CSM estates, events and canteen to finalise details to host the event at CSM. Thankfully everything was provisionally approved for the event following my risk assessment.
  • Following this meeting I reserached how to formulate a risk assessmnet form for an event and constructed my document to then send to the estates, events and canteen teams.
  • The risk assessment was approved on monday and so everything is now logistically in place for the event on thursday and friday.

Creating Video

  • All footage utilised in the video was shot by me during trips to regents park and also in my recent trip back home ot sheffield, where I live near the Peak District which offered a very valuable opporutnity to gather truley natural shots of water
  • I edited the video utilsing premier pro which was a new software for me and took a while to establish how to create the video I wanted, but I am very happy with the final outcome.
  • The video will loop back on itself to cover teh duration of the event

I also tested projecting the video in my flat to see the impact it would have in the event and test out any issues. Please see the google drive link below to the videos of testing the projector:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13c8jJSqMpDPjT56LJo6_G87xkqE7A1b1?usp=sharing

Measures

  • Assessing the impacts of the event upon participants knowledge of the power and benefits of nature – how they experience these benefits from the event
  • Establishing if the event has insipred participants to utilise nature in their work

To measure these aspects participants will be asked to write their thoughts on a piece of paper upon entry in answer to certain questions:

  • How does this event make you feel about nature?
  • Does this event inspire you to include nature in your work and how?
  • Would you reccommend natural events to people and will you keep in touch?

These questions will also be linked into a google forms page that people can access via QR code to provide added details and also to leave their email for future contact

  • Growing the Nature In Communtiy
    • QR codes linking to LinkedIn Nature In Community, as well as another QR code to the Nature In Facebook Group for people who don’t have LinkedIn

What I Have Learned In Developing This Event:

  • Creating a Risk Assessment form
  • Editing a video to a standard fit for a professional event and utilisng effects on Premier Pro
  • Co-ordinating many different teams from events to estates and the canteen, to logistically get the event running
  • Developing relevant measures for the event are brief enough to ensure responses but that also provide enough infirmation for later effective evaluation
  • How to access not just already established professionals through internet searches on platforms such as LinkedIn; developng this event has helped me learn how to consider all types of professionals to jion the community that can influence change. For instance, the upcoming cutting edge creatives that study at CSM as well as the teachers.

Reflections:

It has been a long process in developing this event, largely due to the location change, and it has gone through many rounds of changes in developing the idea. However, I think with my new project direction centered around community building to tie all the threads of my work together, this event has the potential to be very powerful in changing perspectives and providing ideas/ knowledge of how nature can be brought into city spaces. Hosting the event in CSM is also very exciting to be able to access many upcoming designers which can join the discussions in my community group and begin to consider adding nature into their work.

Ideas Summary for Event:

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Creating Community Group and Nature In LinkedIn Page

Why LinkedIn?

To launch the professional community of Nature In I have chosen to utilise LinkedIn groups. This is due to many professionals I am wanting to reach and bring into the community already having big presences on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has also been incredibly instrumental in my work on this project to access high-level experts and individuals by simply reaching out through messaging on LinkedIn and asking if they would be interested in getting involved with my work. LinkedIn was also suggested as a potentially valuable platform during my second panel discussion.

How Will The Community Be Launched?

The community will initially begin by hosting the individuals I have connected with through the journey of my master’s venture. These key experts will form the foundation of the group and I will use this base to build the content and conversation between community members to attract further experts to get involved in the group. I will reach out to all of these connections individuals so they are made aware of the aims of the community and also invite them to introduce any revenant professionals they know to the community. All community members need to be accepted into the group via my admin approval. 

Content Featured In The Community

I will curate and plan the content featured initially within the community. However, members will have the function to post in the group, I will simply approve the posts with my admin role. The posts will aim to promote discussion and collaboration among members which also providing knowledge/ information. The content will also include links to scheduled clubhouse discussions for members to join in on, as well as links to larger panel discussion style events that will be hosted via Streamyard on Youtube.

Future Plans for Growing the Community

I plan to expand the reach of my community by targeting people that lie outside my own niche and positionality so that I can attain multiple perspectives allowing for diverse discussions and truly innovative collaborations between members. I will access these potential members through LinkedIn searches, getting referrals from existing members and contacts, in-person meetings and through my immersive natural event on Thursday and Friday this week, where I will utilise the position of being in UAL to access upcoming designers and sustainably focused student to ask if they wish to join the community.

Looking to the future this community group may develop off LinkedIn into an app space or on the Nature In website (that I am in the process of developing). Additionally, to form this venture into a potential business, there may be a fee introduced to join the community group as a monthly subscription or to join the discussion talks. 

Reflection/ Evaluation

In order to ensure the community is developed as efficiently and works as effectively as possible, I will explore and unpack literature around community practice and community building over the coming weeks. I am also conscious to identify my positionality amongst forming this community and so I look to develop a statement of positionality over next week too.

Visuals of LinkedIn Page/ Group


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Rebranding Nature In to Attract Leading Professionals

Due to the recent progressions in the direction of my project towards community practice, specifically targeting professionals I left it was necessary to do a slight rebrand and increase in quality of the branding around the enormity of Nature In that, I have developed to unify my work. I believed it was necessary to upscale the branding for Nature In so that it was up to professional standard to allow the work to be taken seriously and subsequently attract high profile individuals to engage with the community.

The Rebrand

The rebrand for Nature In has been comprehensive and has ensured that sizing and formatting across all platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and LinkedIn are all appropriate and polished finishes. 

Below please observe the new rebrand of Nature In.

The Website

In the quest to increase the perceived standard of Nature In to be one that is fully accepted and admired by professionals, I have also been undertaking the development of a website. I secured the domain of www.naturein.co.uk which I plan to develop into a site showcasing all the work of Nature In and providing a unified source to access the different offerings. For instance, the webpage will include the Community, Talks and Events of Nature In as well as links to all social media pages, my blog, contact details and the about us page.

Please see below the mock-ups of the website at present. So far I have developed the homepage including the hyperlinks and created all the pages I currently wish to feature on the site. I am yet to add all content and images to the pages of the website. All images utilised in the site are my own and taken from personal intercations with nature.

What I Have Learnt:

  • In building the website I have discovered how to secure domains and attach them to a website building platform of square space that I have never previously done.
  • I have created a full brand package for Nature In, utilising photoshop. Photoshop is a platform I have been learning more about recently and for the first time have solely utilised for a project.
  • Analysed other professionally brandded companies to ensure the branding I was developing could stand up to the professional competition in the sector and surpass it. I looked at companies such as the Journal of Biophilic Design and Planted for this comparison.

Reflection/ Next Steps 

Having developed this rebrand of Nature In I will now move to create the LinkedIn page for the professional community I am to form. The page will feature the new branding and will be tailored to engage leading professionals and experts in natural design, biophilia and sustainability, as well as interior designers, architects and alike so that they can learn form the experts in how to include nature into their projects; and the expert scan collaborate to develop new applications of nature. I will also continue to finish developing the nature in website over the coming weeks by filling out the content of the remaining pages; following this I will publish the website.

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Action Plan

In order to set about achieving my newly solidified project aims, I have devised an action plan for the coming weeks. The action plan for the weeks after those outlined will evolve as those weeks draw closer.

WC 18/10/21

  • Finalising details for and promoting immerisve natural event – finish editing vidoe content to project and the natural soundscapes
  • Run immersive natural event on 21st and 22nd
  • Evaluate outcomes of event
  • Hold clubhouse discussion and include in LinkedIn community group
  • Evaluate outcomes of Clubhouse discussion
  • Draft evaluative report
  • Create Dragons Den presentation

WC 25/10/21

  • Conduct Dragons Den presentation
  • Research into community building and practsie
  • Research into posiionality and write my statemnet of positionality
  • Build up content in LinkedIn Communtiy Group and instigate discussion between members
  • Work to attract relevent professionals into the community group
  • Submit draft of evaluative report

WC 01/11/21

  • Finish building up Nauture In website – secure .com domain to go alongside the .co.uk and ensure all hyperlinks and content are polished
  • Publish Nature In website
  • Host Clubhosue discussions
  • Evalute outcomes of Clubhouse discussion
  • Look to arrange a more formal panel discussion hosted via the LinkedIn Community page
  • Build up members in community group
  • Continue to build Nature In instagram to utilise as publicity for the community

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Question Evolution

Through my recent period of evaluation on my project so far and how I want to progress my work, there has been some considerable evolution of my research question. The evolution of my research question and considerations can be seen below.

The focus on community in the new iteration of my research question is less of a change in direction and more of a union of the ambitions of my work this far. Forming a communtiy unites the past events, panel discussions, talks and stakeholder engagement I have hosted, as they community invites discussion around these interventions and pushes them even further. The community looks to expand upon these interventions by developing them through community discussion and input as well as focusing upon community discussion to include nature in differnet fields of work to ensure that it is included more within city spaces.

Resultantly, my working research question is now:

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Re-evaluating the Direction and Position of My Project

Over the past week, I have had space to take a step back from my work and truly look to evaluate my current direction and focus on my project due to illness stopping me from continuing on with practical work. This time has been invaluable to consider whether my current interventions and research question truly encapsulate the energy and motives of my work and what I wish to achieve.

I have included below my written workings that follow my decision-making process throughout the week and my evolution in evaluating where I am currently at and where I want to progress to. However, I then go on to summarise my thinking and consequential decision making to clarify my direction going forward as a result of this evaluation and reflection.

Progression of Reflection and Evaluation on Project Through to Evolution of Work:

Summary of Thinking and Evaluation of Project

  • Move away from simply reconnecting people to nature to consider the type of change I wish to make
    • This change initially being thought as an attitudional one but I feel this is best achieved through forming a community and community practise to create real change on a larger scale rather than small one off design events and talks ran by me – strength in numbers…
    • Strategic level change – also considering fact finding interventions to assess how people in the market react to this community

  • A community approach to build new attitudes in how nature is utilised in design, consequently results in reconnecting people to nature
    • So, my new direction in my work is much more specific and achieveable whilst providing a framework for real change. As, upon relfection I can now see my previous research question was quite diffused in its direction and purpose due to reconnecting people to nature being a broad focus.
    • Community approach also plays to my strengths of connecting with many top level stakeholders in my field and helps to connect all of the work I have been conducting in the background of my project such as meeting lost of biophilic, natural and sustainability experts
    • The group also adresses a key issue I have noticed through connecting with these experts and reaching out to differnet stakeholders. This being that the field of biophilia/natural design/ sustaibility led companies are very scattered across the internet and sites such as LinkedIn. This makes it very hard for professionals to meet each other but also for their knowledge to be combined and implemented in spaces in a new way. This knowledge can also then be shared with other industry professionals such as interior designers and architects that can be added into the community who can then implement the communtiy discussed ideas and concpets of natural design in their projects and also link with companies who can help make these ideas a reality.
      • I believe there is scope to combine my work and interests into building this professional multistakeholder community

  • The change to make is in percieving nature as a must have in design rather than a nice to have – this not only provides health and wellbeing benefits associated with intercting with nature, but can also help to meet sustianbility targets

  • Aim is to bring nature into city spaces are these are the spaces that desperately need the focus of natural design and also largely contain the people that feel most disconnected from nature (from my intervention findings and further reserach)
    • My work focusing on hospitality is still very relevant, only now there is wider scope for the application of nature in other city spaces, such as urban interior spaces and workplaces
    • Focusing on hospitality was seen as the correct way forward and entry point for my work at the begining as a sector with maxium impact. Hospitality was focused upon due to there being little applications of customer centric biophilic deisgn in the hospitality sector, hospitality having been hit so harshly by the pandemic and such design schemes and events helping to attract customers, the rise in sustainably counscious venues and the popularity of hospitality spaces leading to a vast sphere of influence among city dwellers that typcially ave minimal intercations with nature were all contributing factors.
      • However, with the progression of my work looking towards community building and practise there is a natural evolution away from limiting that community to the hospitality sector, as the communtiy can be of great benefit to multiple city spaces.
      • There is naturally multiple applications for this professional community as hospitality is so closesly linked to the consumer market; therefore, my work up until now feeds into the creation of this community space almost seamlessly.

New Direction In Summary

Research Question:

How can community practice encourage knowledge sharing on biophilic design to promote the inclusion of nature in city spaces?

Stakeholders:

Primary stakeholders – Natural design experts and professionals interested in learning about and incorporating natural design

Secondary stakeholders – Owners of internal city spaces (having the opportunity to host the ideas of the community)

Tertiary stakeholders – Users of city spaces that now incorporate nature as a result of work from the Nature In Community, thus the benefit from the work of the project.

Interventions:

  • Professional Community via LinkedIn page, featuring collaboration and conversation in the group, as well as Clubhouse talks to share knowledge and Instagram for publicity
  • Natural Events – showcase what can be achieved through natural design when thinking innoavctively and collaboratively, but also utilsie these events being held at Chelsea College of Arts to add up and coming deisgners and creative practitioners that are sustianbly focused into the professional community group

Reflection

This period of evaluation and reflection on the direction of my project has been invaluable in working to create the most effective outcomes possible. I now feel passionate that I am working to develop interventions that actively target the key aims of my work and that combine all aspects and ambitions of my work into an impactful, engaging and challenging direction.