Six Cities Design Festival

6 May 2007 in Visual Arts & Crafts

A Vision for the Future

GEORGINA COBURN looks at what the ambitious Six Cities Design Festival will bring to Inverness

THE FIRST biennial Six Cities Design Festival programme celebrates the “value of design and creativity in all six of Scotland’s cities” and the national importance of creative industries to the Scottish economy.

With global focus on sustainable living, the impact of our carbon footprint and the development of new technology, the festival raises important questions about our developing lifestyles, the importance of design in our built environment and everyday lives.

Festival Director Nick Barley explains: “Design isn’t just a luxury; it is the careful appliance of creative thinking. Design is a fundamental part of how we organise the world around us.”

This ambitious inaugural event organised by The Lighthouse – Scotland’s Centre for Architecture, Design and the City – places Scottish innovation, creativity and design in an international context.

Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Stirling will promote and celebrate Scottish design according to themes which reflect the unique location, character and design heritage of each of Scotland’s six cities.

Ranging from “the highly personal to the truly global”, the festival will demonstrate how design can influence and improve our quality of life and acknowledges excellence and innovation in design as a driving force in Scotland’s past, present and future.

Providing a vision of how we might live more sustainably and with greater reference to our local culture and environment is one of the region’s greatest challenges

As a nationwide international design festival in Inverness the programme represents a significant shift in attitude both within and outside the Highland capital.

As the youngest of Scotland’s cities, Inverness is engaged in the dynamic process of redefining itself. The Festival will no doubt contribute to the debate about the future development of Inverness as a city and raise the question of what are our aspirations and values made visible through design?

In the context of the city’s current public art programme and changing cultural landscape, it is exciting to see such a varied programme of exhibitions, talks, tours and workshops that add momentum to the current focus on culture and its value.

Sustaining that focus over several years through linked events will contribute positively to the region’s cultural infrastructure and sense of self determination.

Linked to both the Year of Highland Culture in 2007 and the Highland Housing Fair in 2009, over 50 events in Inverness will focus on design in business, education and public access highlighting the unique cultural climate of the Highlands and Islands in relation to the theme of “Home environment”.

Actively engaging with local business and youth through the Design into Business and Learning programmes, the festival will highlight the region’s potential through local industry and products and the importance of creative imagination.

A series of practical workshops for businesses and creative individuals include “Brand Essentials” in association with the Inverness Chamber of Commerce, “Design Your Business Start Up Workshop” and “Get Ready to Sell at Trade Fairs Designer Workshop “presented by the Cultural Enterprise Office.

Finding solutions to living are part of any design brief. There is no aspect of life that design does not touch and this is reflected in a programme which will appeal to a wide audience. Whether your interest is in design techniques, fashion, ethics or aesthetics there is something for everyone.

A broad range of events will include the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland Convention, “Creative Responsibility, Home; Environment; Community” (Nairn); the 2 day Touchwood Festival celebrating the work of artists, makers and designers in wood (Dingwall); a Design Film Series presented by Eden Court Cinema featuring “Last Year At Marienbad”, “Playtime”, Hiroshima Mon Amour” and the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Exhibitions “New, Old, Green” produced by the Museum of Finnish Architecture, “Greenhouse/ Blackhouse – New Housing in the Highlands for the 21st Century”, an exhibition by the new Creative Highlands group showcasing architectural models, fashion, jewellery and glass, and “Claystation” will be housed in the Six Cities Design Festival Centre in a newly transformed space at Castle Wynd.

“New, Old and Green” will encourage participation and contain components produced through education workshops with local schoolchildren, whilst “Claystation” is an irresistible opportunity to remodel Inverness in plasticine! Visitors are invited to help create a giant model of their ideal Highland capital.

Other events include “Design at IMAG” (Inverness Museum and Art Gallery) which will feature design work from the museum’s collections, “Homeroom” an exhibition of furniture, glass, ceramics and textiles taking inspiration from Highland 2007 and “This One Feels Just Right”, an exhibition focusing on that most taken-for-granted item of furniture, the chair.

Works by Maureen Minchin (Ceramics), Angie Lewin (Printmaking) and Arie Vardi (Painting and Jewellery) will be on show at the Castle Gallery, and a new exhibition from the SAC’s Travelling Gallery “Build It and They Will Come” will visit Inverness schools and Falcon Square, and will feature work by artists Cath Campbell, Donna Conlon, Will Duke, Toby Paterson, Susie Wright and Matthew Holding.

At the Eastgate Centre a fashion show featuring work by Kirsteen Stewart, Ginger, Judy Clarke, Sandra Murray, Sporran Nation, Coca Couture, Anna MacNeil and Inner Strength will showcase some of the region’s best designers of clothing and accessories.

Also at the Eastgate Centre “New Designs in the Making” traces the development of ideas from sketches and models to the finished product, “Save Time and Effort” will exhibit works from workshops taking place at Highland Print Studio, while “That’s Clever” will present the objects voted by “Inverness Courier” readers as the cleverest designs.

A spokesperson for Six Cities commented the festival will hopefully encourage “people to think about why they like what they like”, the “ethos of design” and “the way we design our lives”.

“New Old City Tour”, led by Inverness public art programme lead artist Matt Baker promises to be a fascinating exploration of our built environment. In 2006 the “Imagining the City” public art event focused attention on how the city sees itself now and in the future through the work of fourteen highland artists.

Matt Baker’s current project examining the “three virtues” or guiding principles of the city is an excellent starting point in terms of considering the wider implications of design.

Public participation in this debate is essential if the city is to define itself on its own terms and not succumb to the commercial demands of being like every other centre in the UK. Modern concepts of design deliver a mixed message in a throw away consumer culture, and the festival will hopefully focus attention on the links between philosophy, the creative process, the end product and the health and wealth of our communities.

Providing a vision of how we might live more sustainably and with greater reference to our local culture and environment is one of the region’s greatest challenges.

A number of talks are scheduled as part of the festival including Design Double Acts; “Urban Sustainable” with Edinburgh City Design Leader Riccardo Marini and Nick Brown from the Scottish Ecological Association; and Wayne Hemingway (Red Or Dead/ Hemmingway Design) and Neil and Alastair Stephen (Dualchas) who will focus on the balance between “affordable social design” and cutting edge ideas that are a unique reflection of their location and environment.

Open days at Great Glen House (Scottish Natural Heritage), Maggie’s Centre (Raigmore Hospital), the Forestry Commission District Office (Smithton), The Distance Lab (Forres) and a bus tour of Findhorn Foundation’s Eco-Village will highlight innovative, sustainable practices in local architecture and design.

(The festival runs from 17 May-3 June at the Six Cities Design Festival Centre, Castle Wynd, Inverness; opening times are: 10am-5pm Monday to Saturday; 12pm -5pm Sunday; 10am-7pm Thursday 24 & 31May)