[Picture+8.png][Picture+9.png][Picture+7.png] [open_sign.png][ny_banner.png]

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The big question: What are we going to exhibit?


After talking to my cousin Angelos who, as a scientist is a very down to earth kind of person I started reasoning on one of the main ideas that influenced this project: we aren’t actually advertising or selling anything! After explaining to my cousin the idea behind the Fickle Street Project, it didn’t have a name then, he told me that one of the golden rules of selling is to lure your customer into the store, if this fails you have lost him and a possible sale! So I thought what if we decide not to make any money? Fickle Street Project is not inviting anyone to walk inside the store, we almost make a point of it being closed, but just to enjoy what is in the windows without feeling invited to buy. Not selling is probably one of the main reasons behind all these shop closures, so can this project be inspiring although it’s not designed to make any money? Clare suggested that this project should raise awareness about all the shops that had to close down, and suggested a link between the history of the shop before it shut and what we are going to exhibit. This does not explain just what we are planning to exhibit but hopefully should offer inspiration as some of these shops have a very interesting past and the type of things they used to sell where quite specific and unique or part of a long gone era We would like this to be the inspiring brief for the Fickle Street Project but without being nostalgic about the past

6 comments:

  1. I like this point. Maybe it should be about the people who worked in the shops. Their livelihood depended on the job they had in that particular shop. Maybe they had worked in the shop for many years. What are they doing now? Could w find them? Should THEY contribute to what is shown in the window? They might have fond or funny memories. We could take an echo of conversations that were had in the shop.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the display of "conversations", could we follow this thread of thought? Not in your ordinary typographic sort of way but through objects?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Talking about relevance to a shop's history:

    "A typical example of a low-cost, "pop-up" store is the Marmite shop in London's Regent Street. It sells over 100 products linked to the iconic spread - and it will be gone by the end of the year."

    full article from: http://files.placemanagement.org/newsletter/bulletin/December_09_bulletin/story_4.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the conversations idea, I wonder how we would find/contact the former shop owners/shop assistants? what other source for conversations can we find?
    Objectified conversations, yes, maybe also combined with 2D(I love your illustrations Liz!!)and txt.

    I like the idea behind the new exhibition at The Serpentine (I haven't been yet but will go once I come back from Italy!!)

    http://www.design-real.com/

    check out"table"or"mirror"or"hart"

    The aproach reminds me a bit of the "Colours magazine"where each issue is a theme, like life, religion, etc and they report on that theme from all points of view and backgrounds across the world, or the Sleep exhibition at the Wellcome Collection which had a similar approach.

    If the shop sold chocolates, this could be the theme analyzed from many different (and unusual!) points of view.

    What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  5. My friend once told me if they were to have a shop it would be 'blue' shop where only blue things were sold.

    Do we need to think SITE SPECIFIC for this route?

    Liz

    ReplyDelete
  6. Could be site specific but not necessairly in therms of the actual shop's trade but maybe in relation to the surroundings, like the street or area, no?

    ReplyDelete