What is Blue Print?
Blue Print is a project by me, Rachel Sale. It’s a response to my
time spent at the V&A museum, as Adobe Illustration
Resident.
Since starting this 12-month residency here, I’ve become
hyper aware of the evolution of museums and curious about who gets
to shape them as we move into the future. So, I decided to start
this project, which aims to map out some ideas for imaginary,
future museums.
I want to create an opportunity for others to join me in doing this. I believe we’ve all got good ideas for the future and seeing as museums are often public spaces, we should all feel empowered to dream about the role they play in our lives. So, I’ve created a method that supports individuals to dream up new museums. The method helps you to avoid preconceptions about museums and instead supports you to draw on your embodied memories for inspiration.
![Talking about dreams at the V&A. Photo © Hydar Dewachi]()
For this first stage of the project, I’ve invited a select group of people to try the method. They’re people from across the world who, in different ways, are actively redefining how cultural spaces operate. The method is reaching them by means of a travelling sketchbook.
The contributions collected in the sketchbook will then inspire a series of illustrations that I will make this summer – blue prints that describe the speculative museums we have collectively imagined. These drawings will be sent back to participants as an exchange for their visions!
I want to create an opportunity for others to join me in doing this. I believe we’ve all got good ideas for the future and seeing as museums are often public spaces, we should all feel empowered to dream about the role they play in our lives. So, I’ve created a method that supports individuals to dream up new museums. The method helps you to avoid preconceptions about museums and instead supports you to draw on your embodied memories for inspiration.
For this first stage of the project, I’ve invited a select group of people to try the method. They’re people from across the world who, in different ways, are actively redefining how cultural spaces operate. The method is reaching them by means of a travelling sketchbook.
The contributions collected in the sketchbook will then inspire a series of illustrations that I will make this summer – blue prints that describe the speculative museums we have collectively imagined. These drawings will be sent back to participants as an exchange for their visions!
Research and Inspiration
Visualising the Future
A big theme within this project is visualising the future. As an Illustrator, I believe that vivid, engaging imagery of the future can help us to explore and ultimately create the future.
William Scott (b. 1964 San Francisco) is an artist that
paints utopian visions of San Francisco, which he renames ‘Praise
Frisco’. The visions are based on Scott’s memories of ‘wholesome
encounters’ he’s experienced. His aim is to remind viewers how
beautiful the city and its communities can be.
Science fiction writing as a method for exploring
speculative futures. Some of my favourite reads are Cygnet by
Season Butler, The City and the City by China Miéville and The
Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
Architecture groups like Ant Farm (1970-80s USA) who made architectural proposals that were designed to present political / social / artistic statements, rather than feasible, conventional buildings.
Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was also a painter whose
abstract paintings inspired her buildings. “She found abstraction
allowed her to avoid preconceived architectural ideas and generate
new plans and forms."
I once visited Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. The Heydar Aliyev Centre, a new building for the country’s cultural programmes, had been built and designed by Hadid. Many people told me that the building was designed to break free from the rigid Soviet architecture that is prevalent in Baku. But even more people told me the building was based on the president’s signature! I don’t know if that’s true, but I like imagining Hadid allowing the expressive lines of a client's signature to create a vision for a nation’s future!
I once visited Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. The Heydar Aliyev Centre, a new building for the country’s cultural programmes, had been built and designed by Hadid. Many people told me that the building was designed to break free from the rigid Soviet architecture that is prevalent in Baku. But even more people told me the building was based on the president’s signature! I don’t know if that’s true, but I like imagining Hadid allowing the expressive lines of a client's signature to create a vision for a nation’s future!
Pina Bausch (b. 1940 Germany) is a choreographer who asked
her dancers to show her their bodily ‘gestures’ in response to her
prompts ie. ‘show me the moon!” Then she used those gestures “like
paints” and created compositions with them.
‘Consequences’ or ‘Picture Consequences’ is a Surrealist drawing game/method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled to create a surprising result.
My organisation, F.A.T. Studio, used this method when we were creating the logo for our new community arts space, Old Kent Road Arts Club. We wanted to create a logo that represented the joy of working together.
Shared sketchbooks. I found a beautiful sketchbook in the V&A archive. It belonged to the illustrator Richard Doyle (b. 1824, London). He had shared it with his companions, who added drawings to it, which he would then respond to. I love the idea of a sketchbook as a shared space. Also see The Two Pages Project, by Konstantinos Trichas and Dionysis Livanis, which I was lucky enough to be part of in 2018.
The book, How We Hold, has taught me a lot about the
ethics of working collectively. It’s a gathering of essays,
reflections and case studies from creatives who have run projects
within the Serpentine Gallery’s Education and Civic programmes.
I’m also completely obsessed with Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy, a book – a guide – that has helped me to recognise that in order to transform the world, you must transform yourself first. The book shows how by tuning back into our human nature allows us to turn away from the problematic, capitalist system most of us live in. Blue Print is a project all about tuning in to yourself and listening to what your body and mind already hold. So this book is extremely useful to me.
I’m grateful to Dhiyandra Natalegawa from the V&A for bringing these books to my attention and for the time we’ve spent exploring how to stay close to ourselves whilst working in a big institution.
I’m also completely obsessed with Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy, a book – a guide – that has helped me to recognise that in order to transform the world, you must transform yourself first. The book shows how by tuning back into our human nature allows us to turn away from the problematic, capitalist system most of us live in. Blue Print is a project all about tuning in to yourself and listening to what your body and mind already hold. So this book is extremely useful to me.
I’m grateful to Dhiyandra Natalegawa from the V&A for bringing these books to my attention and for the time we’ve spent exploring how to stay close to ourselves whilst working in a big institution.
Museum Dreaming: The Method
The method I’ve created is based on the idea that our bodies
store important memories that could help us understand
what’s important for the future.
The method asks each individual to reflect on the 3 memories:
During the activity, these memories are unfurled within the individual’s body, through a series of writing and drawing prompts.
The method asks each individual to reflect on the 3 memories:
-
A memory of an OBJECT that inspired them
-
A memory of a SPACE that inspired them
-
A memory of a HUMAN INTERACTION that inspired them
During the activity, these memories are unfurled within the individual’s body, through a series of writing and drawing prompts.
Then, with these memories flowing
their mind, they fill in the blanks in a statement that
describes a future museum – one that is based on those
memories.
What I hope this method does is help people to consider the essence of museums, rather than preconceived ideas about how they should be. I think OBJECT, SPACE AND HUMAN INTERACTION are 3 of the essential parts of a museum. So, by asking people to reflect on their own positive memories of these 3 things and then helping them to reconstruct/remix those memories as visions of the future, I hope that I’m sharing a tool that helps people to recognise their own power and wisdom.
Journey of the Sketchbooks
We’ve produced 15 Blue Print sketchbooks which hold the Museum Dreaming method. We’re now in the process of sending the sketchbooks around the globe, to people we think can teach us something about how to be in a better relationship with the world. We’re also hosting Blue Print workshops here at the V&A South Kensington – opening the project up to people of all ages and backgrounds.
You can follow the journey of the sketchbooks here!
![V&A producers Mia and Dhiyandra picking up the sketchbooks at Omni printers in London]()
![Me in my studio, with one of the freshly printed sketchbooks]()
![Blue Print team: Me, Mia, Deneesha, Dhiyandra]()
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Sketchbooks packaged up and ready to be taken (by Dhiyandra’s auntie) to the artists at the legendary Gudskul in Jakarta, Indonesia.
You can follow the journey of the sketchbooks here!
Sketchbooks packaged up and ready to be taken (by Dhiyandra’s auntie) to the artists at the legendary Gudskul in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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Mia's friend Adam McGuigan (centre) kindly agreed to carry 4 sketchbooks to Zambia! First stop was Circus Zambia – a social enterprise that equips young people from marginalized backgrounds with circus and life skills while providing educational and employment opportunities.
Dropping off the sketchbook to Jess Thom and Matthew Pountney: artists, writers, disability justice activists and best friends, who co-direct the brilliant Touretteshero in Peckham, SE London.
Blue Print session in the V&A studio with:
Georgia Gendall– Artist and farmer @georgiagendall
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Sahra Hersi– Artist, spatial designer, teacher @sahra_hersi
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Grace Tombozi Banda and Michael Mwale from Barefeet Theatre in Lusaka, Zambia. Barefeet Theatre is an NGO that uses play, creativity, art and empowerment to give vulnerable children in Zambia a chance at a better life.
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Studio session with Selena, Ell, Mac, Sarah, Carys and Hana from the Wales Millenium Centre. This group was made up of young storytellers / artists from the WMC’s graphic novel course and representatives from Radio Platform: a youth-led radio station that we’ll be collaborating with again later in the year!
Grace Tombozi Banda and Michael Mwale from Barefeet Theatre in Lusaka, Zambia. Barefeet Theatre is an NGO that uses play, creativity, art and empowerment to give vulnerable children in Zambia a chance at a better life.
Studio session with Selena, Ell, Mac, Sarah, Carys and Hana from the Wales Millenium Centre. This group was made up of young storytellers / artists from the WMC’s graphic novel course and representatives from Radio Platform: a youth-led radio station that we’ll be collaborating with again later in the year!
Returned sketchbook from artist Sean Roy Parker, who untill very recently was based at The Field, a communal living project in Derbyshire, UK. RIP The Field – thank you for inspiring me!