Patterns in Sand...

A few photos of various discarded objects and the accompanying patterns left in the ground. The images were taken during a walk from Salwa to Rumaithiya to take some photos for a future blog entry, but the seemingly infinite variation and selection of photogenic trash caught my eye. None of the images have been cropped and almost no 'focusing' has been used. None of the items have been touched or adjusted. The images are displaying the ground patterns and included items in their 'raw' state...


For some images from the last February's sandstorm click here...

Designed Spontaneity...

A busker in Rome...

A successful city is often a contradictory city – where the mix of various cultures, cultural sub-classes and social taxons in close proximity provide it with a catalytic and dynamic vibrancy. How, however, such elements are allowed to coexist and interplay is where the magic formula of a dynamic and resilient city lies.

This benign form of subversiveness is what innovation is all about. New ideas aren't created in a vacuum, but are catalysed by exposure to a smorgasbord of different, frequently conflicting, ideas and forms of expression. It's about being inspired by exposure to unexpected sources of creativity – music inspiring architecture, biology affecting engineering, chemistry inducing a novel take on cooking. It's also about asking questions, as asking, defining, and aiming to solve queries is what research and progression is all about. A city's role and vigour is defined by what questions are asked. The features and activities included here are all reflections of such, more casual and spontaneous, street level interventions. But what the street says, has a tendency to 'trickle up' to eventually permeate the higher echelons of decision makers.

Kuwait is an interesting concoction of concurrent conservatism and tolerance, action and apathy, passion and indifference, progression and regressiveness - qualities that can often exists within the same body - be this 'body' an individual, family, neighbourhood or governmental unit, with many of the more 'exuberant' activities taking place behind the covert enclosures of its private residences. How some of these qualities might manifest themselves more openly as a potential generative resource in Kuwait remains to be seen.

Below are some 'spontaneous' elements found in most world cities. The list is in no way exhaustive, and based on a very subjective take on the matter, but hopefully some of them touch upon issues which at least in part could be adapted here in Kuwait to encourage something closer to a more vibrant city-scape...

Buskers & Street-Performers

As of yet I haven't come across a single busker of (ad hoc) street performer in Kuwait. This is partly due to the lack of street life in Kuwait, where today much of the more casual interactions take place within the hermetic and controlled confines of a mall.

A street performer in London...

Wouldn't it be great to have a 'Busker's Corner' in one of the nooks of Avenues or Marina malls? A spot where aspiring performance artists of any discipline could come to promote their trade and gain experience performing. Create a place where anything from a shadow-puppet performance, sand-shuffle dance, or a drum & base/ beat-box rendition of an Om Kulthoum could be performed. These types of events would not only provide a welcomed distraction and alternative to the common shopping experience, but could also become something of an attraction in their own right.

A (flamenco) busker in Malaga, Spain...

A street (ladder) performer in London's Covent Garden...

A classical trio in Helsinki, Finland...

Protests & Communal Activities

Public activities, be it a protest or any other form of common event, are key to a city's health. They allow various factions to express and vent their feelings regarding issues that, at least to them, are of more heightened general interest and concern. Regardless of the gathering is for ten or ten-thousand individuals, a city needs to allow and provide facilities for them to take place. The alternative, to prohibit or discourage them, only fuels more covert rabble-rousing which seldom results in anything constructive.

The percussion section of a protest march in Malaga...

A communal dance performance (to Michael Jackson's 'Black or White') in Vilnius, Lithuania...

Communal Spaces & Locales for Casual Interaction

Based on the aforementioned heading, a city also needs spaces where such communal activities can take place. This doesn't necessarily mean (even though it can) that a city needs to retain a space only for these types of gatherings, but that there is a place which can be adapted for such public assemblages. Trafalgar Square in London is, along with being a tourist attraction, used mostly as a nodal hub for transport (there's a tube and train-station, as well as a major bus-stop next to it) but it also performs on select occasions as a place of performance and protest. The Spanish Steps in Rome is used as a central meeting point and a place for some people watching adjacent to some of the city's most exclusive shopping streets. Most cities contain this type of adaptable open areas which can be easily accessed and are commonly available. Places for a short breather, a shaded spot for reading, a quick cup of coffee or a bench for a quiet conversation as well as the occasional, more organized, sable-rattling...

The Spanish Steps in Rome...

Town square in Borgå, Finland...

A small neighbourhood square in Benalmadena, Spain...

Casual seating spots at the Alhambra, Granada, Spain...

Graffiti & Public Posters

Even though not appropriate everywhere, graffiti and various event or promotional posters can provide their share of eye-candy in any city. When done with skill and passion, and with an understanding for its context, they can enliven a usually unremarkable stretch of sidewalk or mediocre city wall. They, again, provide an outlet for various kindred, perhaps more subversive, spirits to vent their vexations and provide a skill-set which can hopefully be channelled into something more vocational (it was through graffiti, after all, that artists such as Keith Haring, Jean Michel Basquiat (Samo) and Kenny Scharf got their start)...

Above and all images below - some graffiti and a poster in Vilnius, Lithuania...

Animals

Humans are not the only consious living entities occupying a city. Beyond the roaches and rats, which any self-respecting urban environment can't seem to manage without, there are many animals which actually provide some harmless entertainment in their own right. Kuwait has its slender street-cats embellishing most garbage bins in the evenings. Other places have their own renditions of these semi-domesticated creatures, be these swans, ducks, fish, squirrels, rabbits, even city-foxes, sharing the city with their two-legged compatriots. Of course one should mention the fully domesticated animals that play their own role, and leave their own 'marks' (particularly in Paris), on the sidewalks of most more cosmopolitan cities, but, especially here in Kuwait, these seem to be few and far between.

A swan family in Helsinki, Finland...

Goldfish in Fuengirola, Spain...

Palying Kuwaiti kittens...

KUKA in Kuwait...

As someone interested in the various CAD-CAM technologies and the way they are used, one has a tendency to always keep an ear and eye open for examples of both the machines themselves as well as evidence of products produced by such fabrication methods. There are a number of service providers in Kuwait, most found in the Dasman Complex and Shuwaikh area, providing both laser-cutting and 3-axis milling services. Kuwait University's architectural department also has a laser-cutter as well as a 3-axis milling machine. As of yet no more sophisticated subtractive methods (multi-axis CNC technologies) nor additive processes (Stereolithography, Fused Deposition Modeling, 3D Printing) have crossed our path, until recently, when, whilst visiting the Avenues Mall's Magic Planet inside amusement park, where a KUKA industrial robot has been adapted into a ride.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with using such high-tech methods as a children's ride as the KUKA is, after all, the 'Swiss Army Knife' of industrial robots. It does seem, however, that using a KUKA for this purpose is a bit of an overkill and somewhat of a lost opportunity – a bit like using a Bentley for a pizza-delivery. This robot, which can carve, shape and position things up to a thousand kilos in weight at an accuracy of ±0.2 mm, only as a children's ride is a bit strange, particularly if it is amongst the only ones, if not the only one, in Kuwait. This 6-axis multi-tasker is the work-horse of the CAD-CAM fabrication world, and has an established presence all around the globe, except, as far as I know, the Gulf and the Middle-East. It and its likes are also already widely used at various academic and research institutions (both architectural, engineering and computer science departments), where the means for how they could/ should be used and adapted is pushed even further.

If anyone has used, or even just come across, one of these robots somewhere in the region please get in touch. It would be great to set-up something, perhaps a collaborative research project, exploring how a KUKA (or its like) could be used in the designing and building of something more architectural in character and purpose in Kuwait and what it would entail to use something of this calibre in the region.


This post has also been previously posted in the smArchitecture blog...

Censoring in Kuwait...

Image from a Kuwaiti news-stand, showing examples of the inconsistency in censoring various women's magazine covers. The magazine to the left has its shoulders blackened out, a body part the three right hand magazines show. On the other hand the side of the chest and armpit have been censored in the second magazine from the right, an area left exposed in the cover to its left. The magazine to the right shows shoulders, upper arms, chest as well as abdominals...

Often, particularly whilst passing a news-stand or going to the movies, I've been wondering about the guidelines according to which censorship is applied in Kuwait. Beyond the general dismay that a kiss, even between a married couple, is censored in a film whilst a gory decapitation seems to be acceptable, and with cable channels and Internet permeating almost every household makes censoring somewhat redundant, there also seems to be a marked inconsistency in how and what is censored. Female cleavage, shoulders, legs above the knee, abdominals and buttocks seem generally to be blackened out. On men, however, most of these areas appear to be acceptable to show (even though some of the bodybuilding magazines show men with much more pronounced cleavages than those found on female models in a women's magazines).

These same conditions also seem to apply to more representational, even abstract, renditions of the human form, such as paintings and sculpture, where many an art history book have become unreadable due to the ink daubs permeating its pages. Where does the threshold of censorship lie on more abstract work? Would, for example, the nonfigurative nudes in Picasso's Mademoiselles d 'Avignon need to be selectively blackened? How about the photographer Andre Kertesz's distorted nudes (who photographed his models' reflections in a warped mirror) would his images, that sometimes require a concerted effort to distinguish heads from tails, need censoring?

Image from a recent International Herald Tribune, where a number of sculptures have been selectively neutralized of their more risky bits...

When does a chest turn into a cleavage? Why is an upper arm and shoulder considered more suggestively agitating than an elbow or forearm? Why is it that semi-exposed men are considered less sexually provoking than women? At what height should the imaginary hemline of a censors black marker or scissors actually go when reviewing the latest issue of Italian Vogue? As can be seen in some of the included images it seems like some of the censors themselves aren't too sure...

On the other hand, many books (without provoking covers) and texts seem to be left untouched. An interesting example of which can be viewed below, where in an article about wine, the images of the wine have been blurred and pixelated, but the piece itself is untouched. I also remember a while back coming across a samples of Voltaire, Mishima's, Focault's, Satre's, Beauvoir's and Miller's work at a local bookshop which seemed a bit surprising considering their chosen subject matters.

A blurred glass of wine...

Pixelated wine bottle labels...

Some Victorians used to shroud their table legs with covering hemlines to avoid provocation. They did so whilst simultaneously subscribing to some of the most explicit kink of any age that would make even the most sordid of today's Berliners blush. It is important to find some form of a balance between unreasonable censorship and excessive exposure, as, if either condition goes too far, there will inevitably either be a backlash, usually resulting in the pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction, or a quasi-covert sub-culture develops where any such 'alternate' behaviour will be practised anyway.

In the end, 'impropriety' is always in the eye of the beholder, entailing that at least some of the judgement regarding what should and shouldn't be seen and practised by an individual should be left to their subjective selves to decide.

Commercial Individuality...

The Monocle shop, in London, UK...

The problem here in Kuwait is not as acute yet, however, with the proliferation of malls at every nook and cranny, and the closure or reduction in the local rendition of the high-street, there is a profound risk there will not be many one-off, bespoke, usually family owned stores around Kuwait for much longer.

A toy-store in Helsinki, Finland...

These need to be appreciated, supported, patronized and (planning wise) encouraged as only through the allowance of home-grown promotion and custom will the particular individuality and uniquely Kuwaiti character of the local shop and shopping experience be retained.

A pharmacy in Malaga, Spain...

Pedestrian Drivers...

A nigh time shot of the pedestrian path in Salwa, Kuwait (taken on a very humid day). As commendable as it is as an effort, this track leaves much to be desired regarding track material (the asphalt is too hard), location (too close to the road), variety (too uniform), etc.

All drivers are sometimes pedestrians, but not all pedestrians need to be drivers. This truism applies also in Kuwait, where even the most persistent drivers aren't (as of yet) allowed to drive down the main concourses of Avenues or Marina Malls. Why is it that a nation that not too many generations ago used to be almost exclusively reliant and designed to befit seafaring and moving by foot has now completely transformed into a place where even crossing a road has to be done by car? Take Gulf road as an example – on its roughly twenty kilometer stretch there is not a single pedestrian crossing worth mentioning, and as of yet I haven't detected a single pedestrian traffic light in Kuwait!

Claiming that the climate doesn't allow one to walk in Kuwait has become a self-fulfilled prophesy that has by now transcended into a generally accepted, and often repeated, justification and excuse why no one seem to walk in this city. Yet, for eight to nine months of the year, aided by the for the region unusually dry air, its perfectly possible, in fact pleasant, to move by foot in our beloved city. Whether this is actually possible due to the lack of available venues and routes where walking is possible is a different matter. This is a true shame, as walking, along with providing a form of low impact aerobic exercise, also offers a much more comprehensive sensory experience of a city compared to driving. In pedestrianized cities the pace and rhythm of the city are different – here the details and nuances begin to matter. A city perceived mostly through a car window is a city that lacks a soul, as it ends up becoming a city always experienced through the enclosed viewpoint and uniform and controlled ambiance of a car interior. It becomes a 'nodal-city', in which the points between the nodes end up becoming of less importance – generic, forgotten - and thus subservient to the end points of a car trip. Here the more subtle nuances of a place are lost, blurred by the speed and driving entails and the inevitable concentration handling a car requires. Intangible qualities such as the fragrance of the sea or blooming roadside plants; the gently shifting shadow patterns on a 'sigma-tized' wall; the sound of ones steps across shifting ground materials on different street blocks and neighbourhoods; or the gentle stroke of of the shifting breeze that adjusts its turbulent temperament according to the urban vernacular, the time of day, and seasons - all such subtleties are squandered whilst driving.

In the images below are two images from a case-study of Izmir, a coastal city in Turkey, which in many ways is surprisingly similar to Kuwait in that it is a city wrapped around an elongated bay coastline with a main vehicular artery adjacent to it. However, in many ways Izmir is leaps and bounds ahead of Kuwait thanks to how it has realized some of the featured details relating to this key ingredient of the city. Elements that are easy to overlook, but which make a substantial difference in how the areas along the coast are used. Factors such as the speed of traffic is substantially slower in Izmir than in Kuwait, and pedestrian access between the city and the shoreline is prioritized, or at least equalized, to that of cars. There are also other features, such as a maximum height to the buildings flanking the shoreline and how the buffering between where cars and those pedestrians move is more sensible and reflective of how people actually use the areas. These are elements that could be, with a bit of forethought and planning, be easily implemented in Kuwait, all it would require is a bit of formal commitment and faith from the right parties.

A cross-section of the main beach side street in Izmir (please click on the image for a close-up)...

A panorama shot from the beach side walk and street above, outlining some of the key features...

As it is well known by now, Kuwait as a nation has one of the highest levels of obesity and diabetes in the world, this one can with some assurance speculate is at least partly due to the lack of daily exercise. Ordinary things that in other cities are taken for granted, such as walking (or bicycling) to work or even just the corner store, are done by car in Kuwait. Ironically, as one of the most sun-rich nations in the world, many Kuwaitis also suffer from vitamin E deficiency, something easily rectified by additional sun exposure. There are only benefits to be had from reconsidering how we get about in Kuwait.

There are a number of parallel things that need to be developed to make this a viable option. Firstly, the seemingly infinitely postponed plans to develop a more comprehensive public transport system needs to be reanimated – the current situation is not sustainable for much longer. Secondly, a campaign for the hearts and minds of the population need to be set in motion. The current stigma attached to public transport needs to be neutralised. Thirdly, how the city itself is planned needs to begin assuming that (the Kuwait version of) suburbia is not the answer, as people seem to be living further and further from necessary amenities and work places – density, if done right, can be a good thing.

There are infinite templates of successful, more densely populated, neighbourhoods that could be adapted in Kuwait, some interesting options are already in development in some of the neighbouring states. We should learn from these and adapt them to Kuwait.

The aim here is not to exclude driving from the picture, but to allow for more alternatives for how one could get around the city, a symbiotic hybrid, of sorts, where there are options available. To do this, however, it is not enough to just get the architects, urban-designers, environmentalists and engineers involved, but, most importantly, engage with these issues on a political level, as true change will only be initiated through changes in governmental policy and the way these are implemented, supervised and enforced.

Tom having a morning stroll on the ceiling...

Printed Matters in Kuwait...

In the recent local press, there's been a number of articles lamenting the difficulty of accessing decent books, particularly those with a bit more select slant on things. The same can be said about magazines, where the situation isn't perhaps as dire, but the selection is still somewhat, shall we say, 'predictable' regarding what magazines one encounters on the shelves. Neither does their price (which seems to be the same in Dinars as they were in Euros, Pounds or Dollars) nor the censorship (black blotches and ripped off pages) increase ones wish to purchase them locally.

To create stimulating, interesting and worthwhile work one needs to be exposed to stimulating, interesting and worthwhile ideas, be these in picture and/ or text format. It was thus invigorating, as a born and bred bibliophile, on a recent trip to Europe to be reintroduced to the fantastic variety and selection of printed matter (books & magazines) available. This doesn't only include regularly available (best selling) magazines and books, but also more, call them, obscure and unusual material, limited edition prints, one-off publications, special interest papers, university press editions, etcetera. As someone interested in design and architecture related matters, the choice of specialized book stores on London's Charing Cross and its vicinity is heartening, as there are anything from large book department stores such as Borders, Foyles, and Blackwells, to smaller more specialized stores such as Koenig Books (art), Magma (design), AA Bookshop (architecture and urban design), Forbidden Planet (comics and graphical novels) or the book-shop at the Photographer's Gallery, to mention a few. Along its sidewalks there are also an abundance of antiquarian book stores (some with fireplaces, that are nice to nip into on cold winter nights) that each carry their own musty fragrance of decades, even centuries, old books and knowledge.

Similar locales, on a smaller scale (comparative to Kuwait), can be found in cities such as Singapore, Luxembourg or even Helsinki, which all have well stocked book stores, libraries and a well developed cultural life (aspects of a developed society that seems to be linked).

The Academic Bookstore in Helsinki (designed by Alvar Aalto)...

During my studies and practice life in London these places played an inherent role in my education, and aided in keeping me updated on the latest ideas and technologies. Visiting them became a daily early evening routine, that acted as almost an initiation, or catalyst, for some of the tasks that needed to be completed later. They, along with the various libraries and other peripheral cultural institutions (museums, galleries, theatres, etc.) made a considerable contribution to how I practice my discipline(s) today.

There are some great (English language) cultural magazines that focus specifically with the Middle-East, ironically, some of them, such as Bidoun and Meada, are actually based respectively in New York and London. Other worthwhile publications are Canvas, Brownbook, and even a student publication such as T-Square, done by architectural students at Kuwait University. An additional, by now unfortunately terminated, publication worth a note was Alef Magazine, which had some of the most evolved editorial content and formatting around.

If you have any know-how of further worthy magazines please let me know, as it's always great to encounter and learn more regarding this genre of press...

Kuwaiti Chasms...

Walking up to Salhiya from the Dar Al-Athar Al Islamyyiah's headquarters at the former Americani Hospital Building by the Gulf Road, one has to cross the work site of the new road extension running adjacent to the Behbehani Complex that will eventually connect the area by the Al Jahra (also called the 'Sheraton') Roundabout to the First Ringroad and the beach side. For a nation that prides itself on its culture and heritage, it's remarkable how unfazed the population seems to be, and thus how seemingly easy it is to 'develop' (it that's the word), these types of drastic interventions without as much as a murmur in protest. What was once a level plane linking the beach side cultural centres, restaurants and gallery by the Behbehani Complex to both the commercial and retail hubs of Salhiya, will henceforth be occupying opposite sides of a unpenetrable chasm which, in its width and depth, will make any type of ambulatory crossing close to impossible. This is a true pity as, even though mostly having functioned as a somewhat ad-hoc parking lot, there used to be a very inherent and natural topographical 'flow' between the various adjacent blocks in the area. It used to be easy to, say, do a bit of shopping at Salhiya, and then walk or quickly drive down to the restaurants with their wide outside terraces for a snack or a drink. Now that option doesn't exist anymore as the urban coherence of this neighbourhood has been fatally interrupted. Unfortunately these types of shortsighted developments aren't unique in Kuwait, as examples abound and exist in most of its residential districts. In Kuwait it seems like neighbourhoods are defined by their flanking highways rather than the other way around. Here the needs of a neighbourhood have become subservient to the demands of the automobile.

What once was one, soon will be two - the multi lane and level route currently under construction in Salhiya...

We need to begin applying a bit more forethought and creativity to the way our city is formulated. Building more of the same will only take us so far, as there are only so many more roads that can be built and only so much more the existing ones can be widened. It was Einstein who said (here paraphrased) that one can's solve a problem by using the same type of thinking that caused it in the first place - as the amount of cars in the city won't change, this extension will, at best, only manage to shift the bottle-necks from one location to another. This type of development is too singular, too limited and one dimensional, in its purpose. The road to be is intended for nothing but cars - it includes no consideration for pedestrians or other means of transport or alternative uses along its extruded pathways. Nor does it show any for of consideration or respect for what existed on the site previously. Cities are more complex than that, they are living and breathing entities that, just like us, react to seasons and weather changes, respond well to kindness and consideration, and will eventually atrophy and disintegrate if not cared for. Thus it is time to begin thinking about alternative means of transport as well as urban patterns within Kuwait. What this might entail, and how such plans could realistically be implemented, needs also to be debated on a wider realm than what our current soap-box polemics allow for. Dubai will be opening its first metro line in a few weeks time (09/09/09), it is going to be interested to see how it is received and used, as it might provide a template for how Kuwait's own metro and train-line related plans (currently scheduled for completion by 2017) should be implemented. In addition to this, however, it is equally important to begin encouraging further alternatives for how one could move around without necessarily having to use a car. This should not only involve designing alternative means of transport (metro lines, trains, trams, mini-buses, etc.), but also how the related, more ground level, planning details, such as sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, parking, bus lanes, access routes, etc. should be implemented. Also, perhaps more importantly, the larger scale urban configurations such as what types of inherent services each neighbourhood needs (co-ops, banks, dry-cleaners, etc.) within its immediate vicinity, and the proportional quantities (and qualities & formats) of residential, commercial, office and other facilities the neighbourhood should include, also need to be thought of. All such considerations, from the micro, to meso, to the macro scale play a fundamental symbiotic role in the creation of a successful, functioning safe and dynamic living environment.

The new extension cuts Salhiya into two, irredeemably disconnected, halves...

On a slightly different, but related, note, lamenting about existing vexations might hopefully impact future ventures (one can always hope?!) - doing something about already existing miscreations is a different matter. Accepting that what has been (semi recently) built will remain for the foreseeable future, how could the overtly apparent shortcomings of the existing highway based problems be alleviated? How could, for example, the beach front, currently being split by the six lanes of the Gulf Road, be more naturally linked to the residential and commercial areas flanking it on the other side? This location is in the context of this query particularly pertinent as it, along its approximately twenty kilometer stretch, doesn't include a single pedestrian crossing (bridge or ground level) to speak of*. The quest thus becomes to figure out a way to create, design and build, this aforementioned connective 'flow' into a program which, without excessively impacting the roads themselves, aim to, if not fully heal, at least manage to lessen and partly camouflage the calamitous affects such developments usually result in? The answer will have to be left to a future date, so as not to veer off the main topic too much. However, based upon some of the projects produced by students of the 'Design 3' Studio at at Kuwait University's Department of Architecture, who just happened to explore a design brief based on the aforementioned criteria last year, the answer seemed to require a semantic shift in what the notion of a 'bridge' or a 'crossing' might entail. In other words, instead of defining the project as an exercise in creating a mere link between two points (a bridge), the assignment became about aiming to design an intervention/ environment/ experience that had its own presence and existed on its own merit. A design that was the protagonist of its own vernacular narrative rather than a sub-plot to the whims of the road. How such aims ended up being interpreted by the students will have to wait for a future blog entry...

*This observation excludes the bridge by the Seef Palace, as it cannot be accessed by the public, as well as the pedestrian connection of Marina Mall, as it is mainly designed to link two halves of a mall, rather than provide a public pedestrian crossing...

Some of the factual info of the text above was based on research conducted by students of last years 'Design 3' studio of the Architecture Department at Kuwait University. I'm grateful to you all...

Drawing Workshops at the Al Sabah Art & Design Gallery...

Yesterday was the conclusive Drawing Workshop session of the Al Sabah Art & Design Foundation, at the Al Corniche Club by Gulf Road. This type of occasions are a all too rare an occurrence in Kuwait, where the arts are still all too often relegated into the 'hobby' category, rather than considered an inherent representational component of a nation's psyche, character and maturity.

Architect Farid Abdaal and Artist Alia Farid...

The workshops have been taking place for the past few weeks and have explored a variety of different techniques, ranging from calligraphy, life-drawing, collage and even sculpting. They were organised by Artist Alia Farid, who is also the Cultural Director of Al Sabah Art & Design.

Architect Farid Abdaal introduces the days theme - Calligraphy...

The workshop was attended by individuals of various ages, backgrounds and skill levels...

Top view of the floor area, here used as the collective work area by the participants...

One of the younger workshop participants...

Above and below - some samples of the work produced during the various workshops...

Drawing from the life drawing workshop (a future Basquiat..?!)

The value of this type, more tactile and hands-on, skills need to be acknowledged and celebrated, as they form an inherent component in all (even the cerebral and more abstract) sets of abilities and know-how. Their development also needs to be included in the general educational curriculum rather than, as currently seems to be the case, predominantly left to private individuals and organizations to sponsor and organize.