In this Lunchtime Talk, designer, educator and researcher Harriet Hand shares her research project, Stirring Up New Ideas which explores map-making as a tool for making sense of ourselves in relation to the complexity of our everyday.
Stirring Up New Ideas is a current PhD project that explores the ways map-making might activate the kind of thinking that generates new possibilities, transforming young people’s sense of self and of the world around them. During March and April 2022, Harriet Hand worked with a group of local 17-year-olds in Watershed’s Studio 5 where speculative experiments in map-making filled the space, sparking unanticipated shifts in the group's personal and collective sense of their everyday.
This talk will share something of what emerged in the space and reflect on the potential of the unreliable nature of map-making.
About Harriet Hand
Harriet Hand is a designer, educator and researcher with a background in the field of wayfinding design. Working with Bristol-based City ID she has extensive experience working with cities to improve people’s experience of moving to, through and around diverse urban environments. An interest in creative thinking as an everyday practice drew her towards education and, through her practice as a secondary and higher education teacher, she has explored mapmaking techniques as generative productions of alternative dynamic and relational situations, rather than representations of a world that is fixed. Harriet is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and is in the final year of her PhD at the University of Bristol.
Open Studio Fridays
From 10:00 - 17:00 you can stay at the Studio for Open Studio Fridays - join us to continue the conversation or work on your own projects. The Studio provides chairs, tables, wireless and a great space. You bring what you need to work with (laptop/mobile). Tell us what you’re up to, or allow us to facilitate conversations within the resident community. Studio staff and residents will be around to chat, answer questions, or tell you more about what we do. The open afternoons close at 17:00, sometimes with a trip to the Café & Bar.
Where to find us
The Lunchtime Talks take place in the Pervasive Media Studio, which is in the Watershed building. The Studio is just beyond the Café & Bar, turn right and then go down the corridor to your left (where the toilets are). The double doors here will be open, go all the way down until you reach the Studio. A member of staff will sign you in, and check your ticket, if you have booked.