Portfolio- Online Now!

After many phone calls and much pulling out of hair I am pleased to say that my online portfolio is now viewable online (rather than just on my laptop!).
Visit www.jamesstearn.co.uk too see for yourself.
There may still be a few teething troubles, but these should be resolved over the coming days.
The website allows you to get an overview of some of my projects, as well as being able to download some of the documents in PDF format.

Forgotten spaces- Brunel's Thames Tunnel

For two days only Londoners had an opportunity to experience one of the worlds engineering masterpieces close up- for the first time in 145 years. The Thames Tunnel, built by Marc Brunel and completed by his better known son Ismbard was the worlds first underwater tunnel, running beneath the Thames from Wapping to Rotherhithe. It took a mammoth 18 years to construct, with many problems along the way. Many men perished in the construction and the tunnel flooded on several occasions. When it finally opened to the public in 1843 it was an instant crowd puller, dubbed the 'eighth wonder of the world'- people flocked to the tunnel to experience the novelty of walking under the river and to visit the shops and stalls selling merchandise beneath the Thames. The tunnel despite attracting visitors was a financial disaster, and was purchased in 1865 by the East London Railway Company. Since 1869 the tunnel has been used by trains, latterly as part of London Underground's East London Line. The tunnel today is in the final stages of being converted to part of the London Overground network which will open in may.While scheduled trains are not using the tunnel the opportunity was taken to open it to the public for the first time in 145 as part of London's 'East' festival. For two days the public were once again able to walk through the tunnel as part of guided groups. Credit must go to Transport for London, The London Transport Museum and the Brunel Museum for organising the event. Despite some complaints about it's organisation it is pleasing to see that events such as this can be successfully staged. Now how about some more access to London's hidden treasures?

Decode at the V & A

'Decode- Digital Design Sensations' is a series of digital installations currently on show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Digital technology is increasingly being recognised as a design or artistic tool, with this exhibition aiming to showcase examples of work under the titles of 'Code', 'Interactivity' and 'Network'. The installations range from those which process data to create a visual outcome to those which require full audience participation.

I personally unconvinced by many of the digital applications on show at Decode- I see very little value in a screen displaying a number of dots while making occasional squeaking noises- this apparently being an interpretation of random data. This does nothing to aid my understanding of this data, or to engage me.

However it is easy to see that the digital technology has clearly got an appeal. Even the briefest look around the exhibition room revealed that, on a Friday afternoon, it was positively busy. People were clearly drawn in by this exhibition more so than others in the museum- despite the entry fee. Maybe this was in due in part by the fact that people moved more slowly- taking time to understand the exhibits- or maybe it was just more interesting. Where the exhibition really began to interest me was in the second half, where the interactive installations were to be found. I do believe that interactive elements in design, when they work well, can be very effective at engaging an audience, and also promoting connections. The works at Decode certainly seemed to be achieving this. People were happy to interact with the pieces, however it made them look- and began to talk to other users also. This for me is how technology could influence my design. I have no interest in a 'computer graphic statue' or an image pieced together from incomprehensible data- but if there is a way to use technology to inspire people, and attract them, surely this is the use we should be looking for within design.

EcoBuild 2010

On 2nd March I attended the annual EcoBuild convention at London's Earls Court exhibition centre.

Ecobuild has become established as the worlds largest event devoted to sustainable design and the built environment, with thousands of suppliers featuring innovative products for use within the construction and design industries. Across the three day event there are also a wide variety of seminars and talks on all subjects relating to sustainability within the built environment.

During my time at the convention this year I attended three talks:
-What makes a sustainable community: discussing the most important factors of sustainability within communities both culturally and environmentally. The talk featured guest speakers including Peter Head (a director of ARUP, with responsibility for designing the eco-town of Dongtang in China) and David Blunkett (MP). The talk discussed issues of why people live where they do, and what makes people stay in a place. The implications of transport as well as the provision of facilities within local areas. The talk concluded with a discussion about the practicalities of the new eco-town movement.

-Retrofitting SUDS: Hosted by Paul Shaffer of the CIRA. This interesting talk gave an introduction to SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems), their uses and applications before looking in detail at a project to retrofit SUDS into an area of Bristol known as 'The Dings' and another example of SUDS being used successfully in a brownfield development in Sheffield.

-Streets for People: A riveting talk hosted by Ben Hamilton Bailey discussing the upcoming tred for 'shared space' streets and the removal of street furniture to better integrate streets into our urban environment. After an in depth introduction to the topic several schemes were presented, firstly the scheme in Ashford presented by Lindsey Whitelaw of Whitelaw Turkington Landscape Architects and concluding with a presentation on the re-designing of Oxford Circus.

Altogether EcoBuild 2010 was a very full interesting and inspiring day.
EcoBuild 2011 will be hosted in March at the Excel Centre.

Chemical Darkroom

Those of you who know me will know that one of my passions in life is photography. In fact, photography was my door into the world of Landscape Architecture, for it was this subject which inspired me to turn my skills in the direction of art and design.
Knowing this it should come as no surprise that I have long planned to spend some time immersed in the photography facilities that Kingston University has to offer. Having finally found my way to the black and white darkrooms last year I turned my attention to a longer standing goal- to conquer the colour darkroom.
As part of a focus week the opportunity did finally arise. I film which I had shot over the summer was duly developed at Jessops so that I had some negatives ready to process, and some sample pictures to give an idea of how the final image should look.
The pictures came back from Jessops and were not entirely satisfactory- I however selected a photograph to try to replicate, and was assured that I could personally reduce the yellow tint which the shop printed image contained.
The process of colour developing is somewhat more complex than that for black and white. Rather than just controlling the amount of light reaching the photographic paper, one also has to control different levels of light using a series of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow filters. The only way to get the combination of levels right is a lot of practise, and countless test strips.
The photos below show some of my prints from the day and detail the progression from test strips to a final print.

Test strip to gauge exposure time:First exposure: Second Exposure- Increase yellow filter:Final exposure- Reduce aperture, Reduce exposure time, increase yellow filter: