All change, All Change, next stop, My Work In the NOISELAB window

 I had just dismantled my graduate show at
the Royal College of Art when I got a call from Vic at www.NOISEFestival.com, after they visited the show and saw my work. 
She asked if I would like to display my work at the Noise Lab, and of course I
was delighted to.  Luckily, the work had survived the dismantling of the
show ( I was in a bit of a rush!) and with a few tweaks was ready to take up to
Manchester.

 The work was a train set model of my
Railway Wikiversity masters thesis in Architecture, illustrating how my concept
for an informal system of education based on the existing UK railway network
could work.  I had already made a model of Kings Cross St Pancras station
in London as the site of the main Wikiversity Campus, and of  Cambridge
and Pegswood station as satellite campuses, but I made a model of Manchester
Piccadilly station for the NOISELAB installation.  As the railway set is
my dad’s Triang set from the 1960s, added to and extended with more modern
parts, the set can be quite temperamental!  However, as my dad grew up in
Manchester, and had played with the train set here in the 60s, it seemed very
fitting to be setting it up in the NOISELAB window!

                                                                 

 My friend Emily and I drove up to
Manchester from London, with the railway set and a set of railway sleepers in
the boot (a little too heavy to carry on the train!) and when we arrived in
Market Street we were very impressed with the Noise Lab and the size of its
windows!  Vic had already printed out my Wikiversity Manifesto (much MUCH
larger than I had ever seen it), and we immediately set to work setting up the
train set.  Luckily, lovely Leila from Noise was on hand to help us, and
after a good few hours (and a few bumps on the head – the existing structures
in the window made the set up quite challenging!) we had the WIkiversity train
up and running, and the manifesto in place.

 

I felt very proud to see my work in such a
prominent site in Manchester – it’s a really great opportunity to exhibit to a
very large audience and to get feedback and share ideas online.  Thanks to
the www.NOISEFestival.com team for giving me the opportunity, and thanks very much to Emily and
Leila for helping me set up the window!  www.NOISEFestival.com is a brilliant
idea, and a very valuable platform for young and emerging artists – keep up the
good work!

www.NOISEfestival.com/MeganCharnley

NOISE GOES VIRTUAL GEEK!

So we tried out a full on virtual launch last week on Second Life. It made a change from running around Urbis or Downing Street worrying about guest lists, caterers, band sound-checks and the like. We all sat at a desk in our office and made our online avatars run, dance, fly and chat with other people at the launch. It was refreshing not to have to put on the high heels and schmooze with the ‘important people’ that we always have to impress (not that we don’t love them).

The office was buzzing – we had Badly Drawn Boy controlling an avatar that had been build especially for him (complete with guitar and hat), one of Badly Drawn Boy’s top choice bands, The Rossman Frister Project, popped in as we’d got them a gig headlining at the Dry Bar in Manchester, and last but not least we had a very cute and occasionally screaming three week old baby watching the action.

It was surprising how stressful a virtual launch and exhibition can be, nothing compared to the real life version, but it still involved some shouting, a lot of running around (albeit only me running between desks in the office telling people what to do), and a lot of relief once it was all over!

The online launch went really well, we had lots of people there listening to the wise words of our Chief Exec Denise Proctor in her speech, viewing the gallery, and asking NOISE Curators Zaha Hadid and Badly Drawn Boy some insightful questions. We capped off the launch with Badly Drawn Boy inviting everyone there to join in with him for a virtual dance.

The launch is over now, but the exhibition’s still running, so check out www.NOISEfestival.com for details of how to get to the Oldham Second Life Island.