A Public Resource for West Croydon
- Submitting institution
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Goldsmiths' College
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 2617
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
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- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- Public enamel signs
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- July
- Year
- 2017
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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D - Design
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A Public Resource for West Croydon is an installation of fourteen enamel signs mounted on a wall in Croydon High Street. The practice research project was conducted and delivered by Lacey with Helen Maurer and Wouter Van Der Hallen as part of Åbäke Studio, a transdisciplinary graphic design collective. The project proposed that the walls of buildings be used as surfaces to ‘sign’ local resources and unexpected destinations. The project was revealed during East Architects’ master-planning of West Croydon transport hub in November 2016._x000D_
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Åbäke concentrates on the social aspect of design and the qualities that participation with public groups and professional partners can bring. Archive and museum research identified visual and textual material that grounded the proposal, including Piranese’s studies of fragments of the map of Rome, and Victorian street advertising. The signs were generated by identifying local organisations, resources and spaces that would benefit from attention, meeting local interest groups and attend local events, then producing ‘adverts’ these constituencies. The researchers undertook activities including a bat walk, a visit to a fungus farm and apple pressing, to understand the practices pf public groups. Following the archive reviews and fieldwork, a series of signs were prepared for fabrication._x000D_
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A visit to an enamel factory allowed the Lacey to better understand the process of printing on metal. Each sign was designed in one or two colours and produced as vitreous enamel signs with an etched panel of captions giving further information. The outcome is a permanent installation of fourteen enamel signs and an etched steel key to those signs. The audience are visitors to Croydon as well as residents and the recipients of signs. The project has been presented by Lacey as an example of the participatory and interdisciplinary approach of Åbäke in public lectures.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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