Brainstorm on Potential Spaces

Chosen Social Space: Botany Night Market

Observations

“Gravitational Pull”

I was drawn to the night market as it is a very action-packed place where people gather and meet for lovely food and company. Many observations can be made here. The food is one of the main reasons people would come, you see people eating together and sharing the food of biodiverse Auckland. There are many encounters here between people, sellers, and the families they are with. There’s the exchanging of money for food or fun items and there are the exchanges within groups or couples, of food, laughter, stories, encounters, and memories. I found this place fascinating as it’s a temp rotary event that pops up once a week. By day for the majority of the week, it’s merely a cinema car park, and on a Wednesday night, it becomes a meeting place booming with social interaction. Food is at the heart of it.

Locating myself with the site

Being from Polish – English background I really cherish culture as well as experiencing other cultures. I was brought up speaking Polish, going to a Polish Catholic Church and eating traditional Polish and English food. When I moved to New Zealand at a young age, East Auckland, especially the Botany area became home to me. I have been living very close to Botany Town Center for almost 17 years and I have very fond memories of walking to the mall and meeting up with friends or going with my family.

The night market introduced to Botany has added another layer to the shopping centre and has brought so many more groups of people living in the area to come out and experience great and diverse, affordable food. You can see many school kids from the local schools in the area coming to the markets with their friends. The night market has brought the community closer together. Auckland is already such a culturally diverse population, and the night markets reflect and celebrate this.

Designer Inspiration

David Hicks- David Hicks Scrapbooks edited by Ashley Hicks

I find Hicks’ work quite fascinating- the way he documents his fathers life through scrapbook pages. Scrapbooking is very personal to one’s life- and much can be observed and said from the way people curated each page from the layout, to colours, textures, shapes, images and fonts to tell such personal stories.

Ashley Hicks has edited the extraordinary scrapbooks of his late father into a collectable quartet of volumes, launching next week at IDEA. Here, he discusses the project with Aimee Farrell

The legacy of influential decorator David Hicks has always loomed large in the life of his son, Ashley. He’s written celebrated books about his father’s epic career, he designs an interiors collection in homage to his bold geometrics – and now, he’s edited the beloved scrapbooks of press cuttings and memorabilia that were so diligently maintained up until his death in 1998. “I’m not very good at keeping resolutions,” says Hicks by phone from his country home in Oxfordshire. “After vowing to do nothing more about my father I found myself locked in the studio editing his scrapbooks all summer. A dutiful son.” The resulting quartet of volumes, published by IDEA in a limited edition of 250, is an enticing visual record of a life in design, played out in the upper echelons of swinging London. There are press clippings on his grand marriage to Lady Pamela Mountbatten, invitations to The White House and notes from Grace Kelly. But best of all, it’s all set against the vivid backdrop of his seminal living spaces. As Hicks himself summates: “The scrapbooks were his monument. They were his life.”

Heather Jacobs- Scrapbook Artist

The layers Heather Jacobs uses in her scrapbooking style adds the most beautiful detail and depth to the scrapbook documents she creates. I especially love the contrast between the lighter, warmer vintage washe3d colours against a dark background which creates drama and seriousness. The layers and textures bring the page to life and trells the story through paper which I would love to carry through in my document archive of the night markets.

DESIGNING FOR PAPER STORIES

Heather Jacobs is a guest designer at PAPER STORIES this month. For this spread for October 2012, she used 7 Gypsies Antiquaries Postale Range of  papers and embellies. “I decided to create a design and have both a dark and light background with the same design, just to show the versatility of these papers. The photo I used of Ella Jai is quite special. It was the very first photo I took with my first Canon Digital SLR camera back in 2006 we were celebrating Ella’s 3rd birthday.”

The Documents

Models

Red

I chose to use red materials for most of my models as it is a powerful and bold colour. Modern surveys in Europe and the United States show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, love, and joy. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.

Red is assertive, daring, determined, energetic, powerful, enthusiastic, impulsive, exciting, and aggressive. Red represents physical energy, lust, passion, and desire. It symbolizes action, confidence, and courage. The color red is linked to the most primitive physical, emotional, and financial needs of survival and self-preservation.

The color red is an intense color that is packed with emotion ranging from passionate, intense love to anger and violence — representing both cupid and the devil. It is a hot, strong, stimulating color that represents excitement and energy. Studies show that the color red can create physical effects such as elevated blood pressure, enhanced libido, increased respiratory rates, enhanced metabolism, increased enthusiasm, higher levels of energy, and increased confidence.

Relating this to the Botany night markets- red represents the strong energy and action occurring here. It is stimulating much like the business and crowding of the markets. Red can also be overwhelming because of how striking it can be. The use of red in my models reflect the emotions which can be provoked through the markets when exchanging food, connecting with people, building relationships, gathering as a community and much more.

Mini Food Models

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Night Market Photo Album

I made a photo album as part of my documentation archive to reflect and replicate how my family documents memories through photographs. I have many photo albums at home which i love to reflect back on. This album was made scrapbook style which let me take notes and add hand made and three-dimensional elements to make the album more personal when introducing a sense of ‘handmade’.

In this album I tried to add the essence of food, people, atmosphere as well as the actions created and caused in this social space. People who have never been to these markets before can hopefully feel the space through this visual documentation as if they were there experiencing it with me. The ‘child like’ nature of this document archive reflects the fun and exciting atmosphere as families go for a memorable evening out with the kids.