At the starting of the fifth week, we have been asked to reflect on our experiences over the last few weeks and to use them to inform the selection of our own text.
After a research process, selecting a wide range of text to which I found me and my practice linked, I came up with my own final selected text.
Starting from the group project, I decided to develop it further and go deeper in the analysis of the meeting space concept by further researching some new topics like storytelling, communication, conversation. After doing some more research about what do you actually need to run your own agency, I decided that the best way to convey this message would be to create an agency called Salon, whose purpose would be telling people’s stories. During my research process I came across this French word, which describes a gathering of people held by an inspiring host. During the gathering they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation. Salons came alive between the 17th and the 18th century, and they were a very important place for the exchange of ideas. That period in fact has been labelled the 'age of conversation'. But, above all the salon was one of the long-established systems using oral tradition (of which storytelling is a form).
Storytelling is at the base of human nature, is part of our DNA. Whatever you are doing or saying, you are telling a story, in every moment of your life. “One of the main things to remember when it comes to storytelling is that no matter what type of story you’re telling, or how you’re presenting it, in the end you’re trying to make something happen.” (Dahlström, 2019)
Salon is a creative agency based in Manchester whose goal is to create unique cultural experiences for an unlimited audience all around the world, within festivals and events.
It believes in stories and give people the chance to tell them in their own way. Besides, “There’s not going to be just one way of telling a story” (Frilot, n.d.)
It listens to those same stories and bring them to life, by merging tradition and modernity.
In a world characterized by the digitization of space, Salon combine reality with technology to create an interactive experience that allows people to communicate in a totally new way.
This is how I clearly defined the message, the audience, and the context.
To make everything more accessible for people I created the graphic interfaces of a hypothetical website and app, which include some sections such as about page, portfolio, and online shop.
One of the most recent experience created by Salon, is Bloom.
By joining it, people would be able to become the author and tell their own stories to a wider audience.
At the same time people would be storytellers and listeners of other people’s stories, creating this climate of storytelling, exchange, listening, conversation, interconnection. “They want to be - people want them to be - places of identity, of relations and of history.” (Augé, 1992)
The focal point of the entire experience would be a cube entirely made up of screens, both inside and outside. People would be able to share their own stories by projecting them on the cube’s surface. “For well over 100 years, audiences have looked into rectangular screens, ignoring everything peripheral to the edges of the frame. But in recent times, the edges of the screen have been removed. This breakthrough in storytelling is changing the way audiences engage with the moving image as well as the ways we create content.” (Bucher, J., 2018)
Meanwhile would be possible to take a sit inside and have some drinks and a chat. After all, “Everyone’s days are full of intriguing encounters.” (Malinic, 2019, p.12)
I also realised the logo, some branded products and posters for advertising, by deconstructing my own selected text, to create a sentence which would be able to grab people’s attention, without revealing to much about the experience they are going to join.
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