With a week of chasing photos behind me, and getting my hands on the actual brief now the task of choosing a subject is pressing.
Initially when Stuart mentioned finding something that has had limited critical attention I thought of the local history museum of Ryde. It is an absolute delight with knowledgeable volunteer historians, it nearly closed last year due to lack of visitors and had a bit of a campaign in the local new and on social media. It is saved from closure for the time being, the problem I see with the museum is that nobody really knows it is there, it is in the basement of the Royal Victoria Arcade, so off the beaten track. Their signage, at the front of the arcade is appalling and very easy to miss and I’ve never seen any promotion for it. This museum also holds the postcard museum of Donald McGill, which seems to have a far bigger, although still not enough, presence. I have spoken to Brian (curator) at the museum about signage before and I got the impression there is really not anything that can be done, perhaps I need to go higher.
I also thought about my own job and the business I work for. I was sat amongst the globes whilst Stuart delivered the webinar due to my home WiFi being down, I think that was a fleeting thought, a possibility, but as I am wanting to broaden my horizons I really want to step away from the globes.
The two above Ideas are very close to home, my employer at the globemakers also has a hand in the museum as he owns the copyright for the Donald McGill archive, so my overiding thought is not to do these.
Next I thought about something I was considering for the self initiated project from the last module, but decided four weeks was not enough time. My daughter is a geology undergraduate, when talking about the environment and electric vehicles she enlightened me with some of the things she has learnt about Lithium mining and destruction of local eco-systems, how the carbon emitted to make a brand new EV may not ever be offset by what it doesn’t emit when being driven. It’s all about car sales and money, and clean air for some is resulting in irreversible damage to other areas of the planet, it’s a bit like sweeping it under the carpet.
While I feel strongly about this, I am not sure if it is fun enough for me, I think it may well leave me in total despair
I have a quick toy with a couple of things I skimmed in the last module, space junk and the South Pacific space junk graveyard, again I may end up despairing, and I’ve already touched on this slightly in the last module.
Which left me with;
Word of Mouth – Words for Sale! – BBC Sounds
I listen to Radio 4, when cooking and at work. This week’s episode left me fascinated, and gives a glimpse into the online commodity of language due to SEO, not sure if this is jumping on the back of someone elses bandwagon though.
Full Circle, back to Ryde
And then there is the town of Ryde itself, an underrated Island town, a mini slice of Victorian London by the sea, Built for leisure and pleasure on two small medieval villages, Upper and Lower Ryde, an unknown entity, down from its heyday of Royalty visits and high society, home of the very first Carnival parade in Britain, building upon building making the skyline as you walk the mile up the pier from the mainland fastcat, an interesting higldy pigldly sight, that welcomes and sparkles with salt in the air.
If there is trouble, people always say, must be Ryde, tut tut, its not posh, anymore, but when it was built the money poured in
This takes me back to my initial idea of using maps, so perhaps I need to return to that? And delve further into my local history, perhaps take a look at the hidden history of Ryde, there is lots of information there if you go looking for it, but it is generally overlooked.
I did a google pole, mostly to feel like I’m actually doing something, and partly to see how many people had heard of Ryde before I mentioned it on the ideas wall. So far it’s neck and neck, I’ll keep monitoring it. In hindsight I should probably asked a few more questions, particularly the geographical location of respondents, as a couple are definitely not far across the Solent, (Bournemouth, East Grinstead) so if they hadn’t heard of Ryde it would have been strange. Either way it kept me from climbing the walls whilst I decided on something with Limited Critical Attention
Ryde, from the wet end of the pier.
Last weeks research task got me looking at Ryde with fresh eyes, much like some of the tasks in module one. The project made me rekindle a little love for the place, and an interest that I had forgotten, that had been buried beneath the daily irritations of life, perhaps there is still shine beneath the crumbling exteriors.
Shelters on the pier, the old and the new, will the new still be standing in 200 years time?
A little history of Ryde pier;
Interesting small article from Historic England
Ryde High Street Heritage Action Zone | Historic England
Levelling up; it all depends what they do with it. Creation of meaningful jobs? How to do that when the main industries are tourism and healthcare (aging population, a retirement hub)
Built in 1813, Ryde Pier in Englandis the world’s oldest seaside pleasure pier (thevintagenews.com)
History of Ryde 1300 to 2008 In the Context of British Social History – RSHG RSHG
Islander March 1971 – Historic Ryde Society
I think a visit to the Ryde Historical Museum and Newport records office are in order to get some first hand information
Record Office and Archive (iow.gov.uk)
Things to consider asking to see;
Town plans of Ryde, Historic and up to the present day
Maps of Ryde, historic to now
Articles with notable historic interest- people?
Historic Ryde Society Archive – Historic Ryde Society
I see the history of Ryde as multi layered, the history and stories have been built up layer by layer like the town itself. I like visuals with layers that you can peel away, or rub to reveal, things hiding beneath. I am thinking of final outcome and currently have the notion of an animation or a book, (or perhaps both) where you turn the page (or watch) and moments of history are revealed, to be covered and replaced when the next page is turned, with cut-outs that reveal chinks from previous pages (eras) or a possibly a pop up.
I think perhaps my focus should actually be the museum of Ryde, in the basement of the Royal Victoria Arcade I will be able to include all my historical research on the town and its history
The extent of promotion for the Museum, either side of the Victoria arcade entrance, not in clear view or at eye level, you have to look up to see it, they also adorn the pavement with a sandwich board, which gets in amongst a whole tribe of other sandwich boards that and up cluttering the pavement. The only visual on here is McGill, which is possibly why people think it is only a museum of McGill, and not the more interesting (in my opinion) artefacts and history of Ryde.
Everyone who comes to the Island comes by boat, except for the occasional helicopter/plane. On all ferry services are screens which promote local business/days out etc. They are usually pretty cheesy, holiday style smiling family type stuff. My first thought is getting something on these screens that is a bit more interesting that will raise awareness of the underground history museum of Ryde
Advertise with Wightlink – Wightlink Ferries
Advertise with Wightlink Ferries | Madfrog – Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Advertising
No prices online, I do wonder if they have a charity offer, as the museum is entirely run by volunteers and not a profit making enterprise.
There are also a couple of hub/spaces in the town where, if a film is made it could potentially be shown in the window, Aspire has a large window where often local artists display work, there is also the department, home of the Shade Makers, again they have cultural window displays- if the ferries prove too expensive for the museum, they would basically need it free, then these are potential options- This could also influence the outcome, as a display in a window could have more elements to it than something on screen. The person would have to aleady be in Ryde to notice the display, so they could easily walk down the hill to the museum.
I notice looking through the Museum website that the Hover is one of a few business/organisations listed at the bottom of the page, which would suggest an affiliation. I have advertising rates for the Hover (for 2021) but will talk to the museum when they reopen to see what the relationship is. The prices are for still advertisements, and ideally I would like to include movement. The prices for the Hover are making me think that Wightlink will be well out of affordability range, but I will contact them to confirm. Perhaps this will leave me with window space in Aspire or the Department?
advertising-rate-card-2021.pdf (hovertravel.co.uk)
Quirky Museum Marketing Ideas to Get Noticed! – MuseumNext
Creative Museum Marketing Ideas – MuseumNext these are all so much bigger than our little museum in the small town of Ryde, but definitely worth a thought
There is also on the Wight, an online and printed magazine
https://onthewight.com/the-arts/
Visual Identiy
I would like to keep the visual identity in line with the building it is housed in, the Royall Victoria Arcade, and the overall style of the museum. I’ve looked at the museum website, which could also do with an overhaul, web design isn’t my thing, but something that could be perhaps looked at, the website at the moment appears to be a basic template, not hugely exciting or engaging.
Its closed until 5th February (work or bit of a refurb, ) so I’ll pop in again one it reopens. In the mean time I have been thinking about Victoian inventions/toys and how they could influence my final outcome.
Zoetrope | Let’s Talk Science (letstalkscience.ca)
I love the layers that go into construction of the Victorian paper theatre
Theater-Bilderbuch | Schreiber | V&A Explore The Collections (vam.ac.uk)
I shall also take a visit to Osborne house (Queen Victoria’s home on the Island), to specifically look in Swiss Cottage, the playhouse that was built for the royal children, to see if there are any more
Workshop Challenge
Pressing issues being discussed in my local area.
A lot of these are discussed in the Isle of Wight County press, and the Island Echo, they are also discussed on the Isle of Wight community Facebook page.
Housing developments being built on a mass scale, many unaffordable for local people, with no adjustment to infrastructure to cope, eg a Victorian sewage network that can’t currently cope meaning even small amounts of rain water result in sewage discharge. The last working dairy farm in Ryde, run by three generations of a family closed due to the land owner wanting to sell for development, the family gave up the fight and sadly moved on, but there is still campaign to save the farm.
save westridge farm | save westridge farm
Beachbuoy (southernwater.co.uk)
A small hospital, aging population, lack of employment opportunities, extortionate ferry price run by private enterprise, fixed link argument of which has been going on for years
Results of Fixed Link Feasibility Study Survey revealed (onthewight.com)
Isle of Wight NHS Trust declares critical incident – BBC News
The Isle of Wight Community Facebook page gets a lot of interaction regarding all the above, and often seems like a place for people to vent anger and have a rant, also organise protests, in the case of the farm closure, not all people use Facebook, and reporting in the news (County press in particular) seems slow in comparison, but it is pretty common
There are 2 community pages;
Isle of Wight community information, 52,600 members, and
THE Isle of Wight community Information, 19600 members
Generally speaking a lot of the community interet stories are shared from the new sites to the social media
Isle of Wight Population 2023 – UK Population Data
Population 141,538 (14.6% are under the age of 14=20,665) leaving 120, 873 adults
Community Info users 52,600 (I would guess that most users are members of both groups, rather than one or the other, so will use the number of members in the larger group)
This leaves 56% of the population, 68,273 people who do not access information that way, there also may be many members who do not actively engage with the group, but this is a harder thing to quantify.
This is also presuming that all members of the groups live on the Isle of Wight, I’m sure the majority do live here, but there is going to also be a certain % that have an interest but live elsewhere.