the useful arts organisation style, design, program, build, manage & find solutions for media, internet, installations, exhibitions, performances and people.
the useful arts (also called technics) are concerned with the skills and methods of practical subjects such as manufacture and craftsmanship. It has now gone out of fashion, but was coined in Victorian times as a mirror of the performing arts and the fine arts.
the useful arts organisation was founded by Dorian Moore in 2008 to gather together his portfolio and provide a framework for his expanding practise. Angie Fraser is co-director of the company, providing consultancy and advisory services.
Website design & build with Content Management System.
Rossi & Rossi are an art gallery specialising in contemporary and classical Asian artworks.
The Useful Arts were commissioned to update their out dated web presence, providing a new site design and improved visibility of exhibition, artworks and artist information, to provide a cleaner, clearer experience with the focus on the artworks that they represent.
Website design & build with Content Management System.
public works are an art & architecture practise working within and towards public space.
We created this website in collaboration with the team to allow them to move away from an in-house site built using DreamWeaver with Wordpress blogs, to something more dynamic that would allow all of the team members to manage their own projects within a content management system, and provide better interlinking between their works.
This project is part of an ongoing relationship with public works that includes Folkestonomy, Colchester Inn, International Village Shop and DIY Regeneration.
Website design & build with Content Management System.
Avant Gardening is an arts and environment project aiming with the aim to educate on the issues of how we affect and interact with the world around us. Their website is a central point on their news, project information, and a launch point to interesting things the find about similar projects.
The aesthetic of the website intends to follow that used in the fanzines they produce, producing something friendly and involved, reflecting the complexity of the issues and the simplicity of their approach at once, in a friendly, fun manner.
Consultancy + website build with Content Management System + E-commerce for subscriber access.
Afterall is a contemporary art research and publishing organisation who asked to the useful arts organisation to help to launch their redesigned website celebrating their 10th anniversary. Given the flat designs produced by AtWork we built the complete site for them, advised on best practises for some of the parts of the site that weren't yet finalised, and extended the designs as necessary.
Consultancy + website & database design & build with Content Management System.
Spatial Agency is a research project initiated by Agency, part of Sheffield University School of Architecture, looking at alternative architecture practises, their interconnection and influences.
The first part of this project has involved creating a database structure to allow them to document and connect the various important practises, both as a research tool for publication of a book and as an extra resource, providing ongoing documentation of projects that can't be featured in the book.
The second part of the project will be a mapping of the interactions and influences of the various parties featured practices.
I've recently completed a new website for Rossi & Rossi, a London gallery who specialise in Contemporary and Classical Asian artists and artworks, from traditional Sculptures, Thangkas and Masks through to contemporary originals, prints and photographs from leading artists.
I'm pleased to have just launched a new website for public works, a group I've been working with for over 3 years. Indeed this website was actually completed about 18 months ago, but the very busy people at public works have struggled to keep up their ambitious ideas of creating a comprehensive project archive whilst also creating a massive body of new works. Indeed I've collaborated with them on about 5 projects over the time this project has gestated, and, in pixar style, there have been 2 project babies!
It's a lesson that I try to take with me to every project - data entry is a huge task, especially when it comes to collating historic information that only exists in people's memories and can't easily be given out to a junior member of staff to create.
For this site that's combined with trying to find a way to present the project as much as a process as in texts.
Spatial Agency is a project by the Agency unit based at Sheffield University School of Architecture, looking at alternative architecture practises and how they are interconnected. The website is a home for an ever growing database of organisations, projects, publications and events and their interconnections, with the aim of providing a clear picture of what's is going on where.
The first phase of the site has been up since September 2009, and the content is slowly being refined and published as each record is completed.
Launched in late 2009 www.avantgardening.org is a website representing an arts and environment project which encourages community involvement in environmental issues via a programme of events and activities.
We've recently launched the new website for contemporary art journal and research publishers Afterall, at www.afterall.org. It's been great to work with the team at afterall and with graphic designers AtWork, but without much time to breath it's now on with the next set of work, as well as extending out some of the features on this over time.
To coincide with the launch of Fugitive Images' 'i am here' installation we have created a website to represent the project and provide some background on it. The website is a launching point for further documentation of the redevelopment of Haggerston Estate and it's effect on those living there, the surrounding area and the people who occupy the redeveloped space, and will extend and expand over the next years.
We've been involved in realizing a virtual representation of the installation, and looking at how the stories behind the project can be extended on-line, as well as a bit of graphic design.
The Useful Arts are pleased to - belatedly - announce our latest work with Nina & Karen at somewhere, for their community gardening project in Stratford, East London. What Will The Harvest Be? is an experiment in creating a productive vegetable garden for the community, started from some waste ground that the local residents wanted to see developed.
Over the next 3 years the process of growing and working together will be document via the website, and will build up anecdotal experiences from those involved in the garden, and document what's involved in growing your own in a shared urban environment.
We are particularly happy with the webcam archive and timelapse player, which is still a bit of an experiment and we've got some refinements to do on the interface. The plant database is, similarly, coming along nicely.
Grizedale Arts is a residency and commisioning organisation based in the Lake District, who's practise is "adding complexity to confusion". We have been working with them for a number of years on various projects, and are pleased to have launched a new website for them at the same time as their new residency space at Lawson Park was launched. As ever this is a work in progress and part of an ongoing relationship, so expect it to develop and transform over the coming years.
Head To Toe is a site specific installation by Ross Phillips for Super Contemporary at The Design Museum, featuring a network of kiosks capturing video clips of eitehr head, body, and legs which are then sent to a pod at the Design Museum where they can be viewed in the style of the classic children's book, flipping through the videos to see each clip.
We're happy to have built much of the software for this installation, including the video processing infrastructure, data synchronisation, moderation and web and kiosk interactives.
Visit the pods at the Design Museum, Selfridges, Covent Garden or Ideas Store and get yourself in on the action.
Completed earlier this year, but only just put live, is a new website for public works project Colchester Inn. This is the first stage of a project with First Site in Colchester, working with local communities to create works for the new First Site building.
The website is part blog, part mapping tool, part documentation of process, designed to show how the network of people involved in the projects grows and ideas are formed. To deal with this it switches from the standard blog format to something a bit more dynamic.
Whilst it uses horizontal navigation which is something I don't usually agree with - it goes against usability norms - here I am using it because it best represents a timeline, and more clearly delineates the entires. JavaScript is used to make the interface work more dynamically.
With any luck this will turn into a more full mapping project in the future, with more cross linking and different visualisations of the underlying structures and relationships created throughout the process.