On Saturday four of us went to the degree show at St Martin's school of art. I love degree shows - so full of energy, of ideas, and enthusiasm. And we wanted to see inside St. Martins' new building. Or is it an old building? Well, it's a regenerated old building, set by the canal in the newly transformed area of Kings Cross. (below)
Here it is, decorated with a silver foil artwork which runs across several neighbouring buildings too. Most spectacular it is, reflecting the sky and the light and slicing the blackened brickwork into unexpected shapes. I specially liked the bit where the canal curved around, with the narrowboats gliding peacefully by.
.
My favourite section was called "Textile Futures". What was it all about? I don't know, but the big red banner invited us to come along and see.
The exhibits included Yesenia Thibault-Picazo's "Craft in the Anthropocene" display. She has created items intended to resemble geological remains from the "Human Period" - our period - of history, seen from a perspective of long into the future. Specimens of imaginary fossilised bones, plastics, even mobile phone remains, are made into elegant objets d'art..
I can tell you, the plastics "specimens" were wonderfully squeezy and fabulously coloured! I've shown them at extra large magnification so you can see the detail.
We also all loved Qian Wang's "Self Medication" - tea-drinking health rituals with beautiful (and eccentric) ingredients. I am sure the look of your infusion is just as important as the taste or what is in it.
The building used to be part of a railway goods yard. The main entrance was a courtyard, now glassed over. You can still see the remains of the whitewashed walls of the now demolished sheds.
I found myself walking over this. I don't know what it is. But the place is an art school, after all.
.
This area of Kings Cross used to be a nightmare, with grim public housing, grimy burger joints, traffic fumes, noise, boarded up shop fronts. But in the last five years it turned the corner, and it's now one of London's most interesting and artistic areas, full of wonderful unexpected creative stuff, lots yet to come. How fabulous to see this change.
If you get the chance, go while there are still things to discover, before Starbucks and Gap and the chain stores move in. And if you want a coffee, try Green and Fortune in the nearby Kings Place concert halll, like we did - YUMMY!
On a less positive note, and I've had a response from Legoland Windsor. It's here, and, not surprisingly, it reflects some of what I said in this post
You might already know by now that I don't think it's part of their business strategy to invest in giving their guests the best possible time. Despite this, they do invest in other things. In offering various ticket discounts, so people feel they're getting a bargain, so they feel a bit grateful. On making journalists and bloggers feel like VIPs, so the company can quote their enthusiastic praise to get good publicity. And they spent a fortune on getting and promoting the Lego brand name, which many people love so much that they don't want to criticise it.
And that strategy works. Legoland Windsor is very busy and makes lots of money, and since the park's owners are a finance company, they are, by that standard, succeeding.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPy7ZtKuTEE0fLs3OZfrFTAhMecmuGKIDpFgUCf0Gp25o1oo5Gq3j9J3U_5tKUx6gJtAl7JwN_EEyT4UCTgC4yYETvISxQh35TcdmkKGJuG76-7L8iP63jF2wmY4aKVHYue4-mPLDcD6m/s320/bearlego.jpg)
Despite this, I think tourism businesses should factor the customer experience in their calculations and place at least some value on whether guests have a nice time. In the picture above, the person who put their child's teddy on the Lego model wanted it to be fun, and I gave Legoland Windsor a lousy review, because I felt they really didn't care if anyone had fun or not. The kids cried, we missed almost everything, we were thirsty, hungry, the staff didn't care and the adults felt stressed and ripped off - BUT we came, we bought, and we paid that £3 car parking fee just as much as if we'd been happy.
Do you think I'm being a sentimental idealist about this, I wonder?
Here it is, decorated with a silver foil artwork which runs across several neighbouring buildings too. Most spectacular it is, reflecting the sky and the light and slicing the blackened brickwork into unexpected shapes. I specially liked the bit where the canal curved around, with the narrowboats gliding peacefully by.
.
My favourite section was called "Textile Futures". What was it all about? I don't know, but the big red banner invited us to come along and see.
I can tell you, the plastics "specimens" were wonderfully squeezy and fabulously coloured! I've shown them at extra large magnification so you can see the detail.
We also all loved Qian Wang's "Self Medication" - tea-drinking health rituals with beautiful (and eccentric) ingredients. I am sure the look of your infusion is just as important as the taste or what is in it.
The building used to be part of a railway goods yard. The main entrance was a courtyard, now glassed over. You can still see the remains of the whitewashed walls of the now demolished sheds.
I found myself walking over this. I don't know what it is. But the place is an art school, after all.
.
This area of Kings Cross used to be a nightmare, with grim public housing, grimy burger joints, traffic fumes, noise, boarded up shop fronts. But in the last five years it turned the corner, and it's now one of London's most interesting and artistic areas, full of wonderful unexpected creative stuff, lots yet to come. How fabulous to see this change.
If you get the chance, go while there are still things to discover, before Starbucks and Gap and the chain stores move in. And if you want a coffee, try Green and Fortune in the nearby Kings Place concert halll, like we did - YUMMY!
On a less positive note, and I've had a response from Legoland Windsor. It's here, and, not surprisingly, it reflects some of what I said in this post
You might already know by now that I don't think it's part of their business strategy to invest in giving their guests the best possible time. Despite this, they do invest in other things. In offering various ticket discounts, so people feel they're getting a bargain, so they feel a bit grateful. On making journalists and bloggers feel like VIPs, so the company can quote their enthusiastic praise to get good publicity. And they spent a fortune on getting and promoting the Lego brand name, which many people love so much that they don't want to criticise it.
And that strategy works. Legoland Windsor is very busy and makes lots of money, and since the park's owners are a finance company, they are, by that standard, succeeding.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPy7ZtKuTEE0fLs3OZfrFTAhMecmuGKIDpFgUCf0Gp25o1oo5Gq3j9J3U_5tKUx6gJtAl7JwN_EEyT4UCTgC4yYETvISxQh35TcdmkKGJuG76-7L8iP63jF2wmY4aKVHYue4-mPLDcD6m/s320/bearlego.jpg)
Despite this, I think tourism businesses should factor the customer experience in their calculations and place at least some value on whether guests have a nice time. In the picture above, the person who put their child's teddy on the Lego model wanted it to be fun, and I gave Legoland Windsor a lousy review, because I felt they really didn't care if anyone had fun or not. The kids cried, we missed almost everything, we were thirsty, hungry, the staff didn't care and the adults felt stressed and ripped off - BUT we came, we bought, and we paid that £3 car parking fee just as much as if we'd been happy.
Do you think I'm being a sentimental idealist about this, I wonder?