School trip
I had a school trip to Manchester yesterday. There was a visit to the Design Your Future exhibition in the morning, followed by Manchester galleries in the afternoon.
I was disappointed to find that I was the only one from the graphic design course who turned up. There were 12 students from the Art & Design course plus their teacher and 8 Photography students plus their teacher. Oh and James, one of the technicians who is very cool. You can tell he's cool, he has dreads. I didn't know any of them at all. I'd spoken a few words to the photography teacher and James but that was it. I wasn't looking forward to having to spend the whole day with 21 people that I didn't know. They were pleasant enough but they didn't go out of their way to include me.
I'd been led to believe that the exhibition included universities, employers and stationery suppliers. I have no intention of going to university again; I already have one degree and two just seems greedy! Besides, I can't afford one anyway. So I was hoping more to talk to employers. As it turned out, the entire thing was solely universities so it wasn't useful for me at all. I did manage to get some freebies though, several stalls handed out bags and/or prospectuses pretty much to anyone who happened to walk past so I ended up with four bags (three of which were those linen ones) and about 8-10 prospectuses. It wasn't so bad initially but they got heavier and heavier as the day went on. My hands were sore from the handles and the weight was really pulling on my arms and shoulders.
I had the choice of going to with the Photography students to the Whitworth Gallery or the Art & Design students to the Manchester Art Gallery. I've got a bit of a background in photography and it ties in well with graphic design whereas the Art & Design side was more foreign to me. So I went with the latter to see if I could learn new stuff. We spent an hour in the gallery and there were a couple of interesting pieces in there, including some Lowrys and a small exhibit of Grayson Perry. I've heard of him, due to his alto-ego Claire so I was slightly interested in seeing his work. I was actually really taken with one of his pieces which is a print called Print for a Politician (deep red). (It's full of really small detail and hard to find a picture that shows it all, this is about the best I could find and it's the grey version not the red one.) It was fascinating, I could have stared at it for ages. It depicts a land populated with various groups who seem to be all shown in particularly pertinant poses, e.g. the Addicts are on the top of a mountain, making them literally 'high'. It reminded me of something but it took me a while to realise it was Richard Scarry, primarily because of the humour and the labelling!
It had started to rain when we were done. There was a quick register done to make sure we'd not lost anyone, which we had, and by the time we were ready to leave, it was torrential. The intention had been to go into the city centre and look at architecture but instead we ended up in Afflecks Palace! I've been in there several times before so I already knew it was a cool place. And as usual, I could have spent a fortune in there. I saw several vinyl records I wouldn't have minded but the thing I really wanted was a vintage RAF great coat for £140... We finally headed back to the train station at 3.15 where the Art & Design teacher treated us to sandwiches and biscuits to make up for the rain and then we got the train home. It was seriously overcrowded and we had to stand up in the aisle between seats almost all the way home. There was a tannoy announcement 5 minutes after we set off saying, "A full ticket check will now take place" at which point half the carriage fell about laughing.
So that was my day. It was disappointing on several levels and I got home seriously tired with aching hands, arms, shoulders and feet. I was already knackered and would have much preferred to have stayed at home so I'm kind of annoyed that I didn't get to do that. Still, it was a day out and I did get to meet other students which was nicer than sitting at home on my own.
I was disappointed to find that I was the only one from the graphic design course who turned up. There were 12 students from the Art & Design course plus their teacher and 8 Photography students plus their teacher. Oh and James, one of the technicians who is very cool. You can tell he's cool, he has dreads. I didn't know any of them at all. I'd spoken a few words to the photography teacher and James but that was it. I wasn't looking forward to having to spend the whole day with 21 people that I didn't know. They were pleasant enough but they didn't go out of their way to include me.
I'd been led to believe that the exhibition included universities, employers and stationery suppliers. I have no intention of going to university again; I already have one degree and two just seems greedy! Besides, I can't afford one anyway. So I was hoping more to talk to employers. As it turned out, the entire thing was solely universities so it wasn't useful for me at all. I did manage to get some freebies though, several stalls handed out bags and/or prospectuses pretty much to anyone who happened to walk past so I ended up with four bags (three of which were those linen ones) and about 8-10 prospectuses. It wasn't so bad initially but they got heavier and heavier as the day went on. My hands were sore from the handles and the weight was really pulling on my arms and shoulders.
I had the choice of going to with the Photography students to the Whitworth Gallery or the Art & Design students to the Manchester Art Gallery. I've got a bit of a background in photography and it ties in well with graphic design whereas the Art & Design side was more foreign to me. So I went with the latter to see if I could learn new stuff. We spent an hour in the gallery and there were a couple of interesting pieces in there, including some Lowrys and a small exhibit of Grayson Perry. I've heard of him, due to his alto-ego Claire so I was slightly interested in seeing his work. I was actually really taken with one of his pieces which is a print called Print for a Politician (deep red). (It's full of really small detail and hard to find a picture that shows it all, this is about the best I could find and it's the grey version not the red one.) It was fascinating, I could have stared at it for ages. It depicts a land populated with various groups who seem to be all shown in particularly pertinant poses, e.g. the Addicts are on the top of a mountain, making them literally 'high'. It reminded me of something but it took me a while to realise it was Richard Scarry, primarily because of the humour and the labelling!
It had started to rain when we were done. There was a quick register done to make sure we'd not lost anyone, which we had, and by the time we were ready to leave, it was torrential. The intention had been to go into the city centre and look at architecture but instead we ended up in Afflecks Palace! I've been in there several times before so I already knew it was a cool place. And as usual, I could have spent a fortune in there. I saw several vinyl records I wouldn't have minded but the thing I really wanted was a vintage RAF great coat for £140... We finally headed back to the train station at 3.15 where the Art & Design teacher treated us to sandwiches and biscuits to make up for the rain and then we got the train home. It was seriously overcrowded and we had to stand up in the aisle between seats almost all the way home. There was a tannoy announcement 5 minutes after we set off saying, "A full ticket check will now take place" at which point half the carriage fell about laughing.
So that was my day. It was disappointing on several levels and I got home seriously tired with aching hands, arms, shoulders and feet. I was already knackered and would have much preferred to have stayed at home so I'm kind of annoyed that I didn't get to do that. Still, it was a day out and I did get to meet other students which was nicer than sitting at home on my own.