And for further delving into things around my latest ideas, it's worth mentioning the band MGMT who started their group as an ironic experiment, as students they had the idea to taking the piss by making the most popular music they could, it ended up being both popular and very unique. Just thought this would be worth mentioning.

IDEAS

Ok, I've been thinking about how we would merge our music ideas with toys etc.. It's a difficult thing. I've been thinking about our project, and the potential I always thought we had when we'd eventually come together to create something. And I've recorded a video in response to Deano's 'metangst' video, but had to delete it due to it taking up too much memory on my phone, I have the second part I recorded on my laptop, but like Deano mentioned in his video, things develop and suddenly, it's not relevant. The video was basically a continuation, answering some of Deano's concerns and all that, maybe that was always irrelevant. I've been thinking about both our practices so far on this MA, how weve both done very practical things, raw with a performance element at times, this was always a huge reason for me wanting for us to collaborate.

When we put that presentation together and that promo reel, it was just a bit of fun, but Deano was right in saying that he can see the potential we have since seeing that. Now, I'm not saying that this collab would be wasted, I believe in the power of toys, they're important to the future of our society etc.. I dunno though, we've been working on this for a few weeks now and we haven't really come up with anything close to a toy really.. And I don't know about you, but I feel maybe that the toy side has felt quite forced, from myself anyway, as in, pushing to try and come up with toy ideas etc, like that's what we've decided to do, and we've been working towards it very slowly..

With that being said, this promo reel was interesting, people had a good idea of what our project was about, but the reel was us pissing about with drums and rap, and arguably spoken word... "AHH, UHMMM, MMM, OK.."

We've been talking about VR, AR and the metaverse, its an interesting conversation, and definitely something to look into, maybe in the future though..

This collaboration was put together by Deano as he wanted to really get something out of a group collaboration that he hadn't got out of one before. I feel that maybe if we pushed towards this toy creating thing, we'd get there eventually and probably do something really good. But, I'm wondering, and also open to anything by the way, this is just me opening up my thoughts, totally down for carrying on with toy making... but, I'm wondering if that is where we really WANT to be heading? Maybe the philosophy around the toys and creativity is the key ingredients, rather than us making toys ourselves?

Thinking about this merger of art forms, I feel like we've both delved into this a lot in our own practices anyway, the Sculpt Factory was a mixture of sculpture, production design, costume, acting, writing, filmmaking and themes of mass production, consumerism, creativity and all sorts of other stuff, rolled into one loose narrative and exercise in world building. Deano's thought experiment with the laboratory was a live performance, production design, fine art painting, costume all mixed into a 'game' setting. Maybe there's something more interesting in this?

What if we took the idea of making music and mixed that with video and sculpture and painting. How would we do it differently to musicians making a music video? What about coming up with the visuals first, then writing music to that? What if we took the toy idea, give ourselves a visual look and theme. think slipknot and the masks etc... What if this band had a story? What if we dressed up as toys/action figures, the radical toy clan, take it literally and see what happens? We make the music but maybe we take it from a different perspective, rather than the music being the main part of the band, and then everything else, music videos merch etc coming secondary, what if it was all rolled up into one package, a fictional narrative of these toys that have become a band etc... the merch is more than just merch to sell, it has meaning, worn by the band members/characters etc.. maybe the merch is from a store/brand that the 'band' interacts with in the content we create? Doesn't have to be dressing up as toys, could be anything.. maybe this would eventually lead us into making toys.. action figures of the 'band' members, then we could put our ideals and philosophies into those toys so that theyre imaginative and creative, again, more than just 'toys' of the characters for no other reason than to sell them.

I dunno, I just think you're dead right about the potential we have as a collaboration, and in the past we've been very physical creators, raw and, it's like how Disney Star Wars has been incredibly disappointing other than one or two decent projects, we expect something that reflects the originals that we love, but has something new and exciting, so far it's either been an exact copy of the originals, or so far different that its almost in a different universe... This is kind of where I'm at when I look at us creating toys, thought it's important, and has a place, I'm underwhelmed with what we've done so far, when I think back to what I thought we could achieve together when the idea was first introduced!

I hope this makes sense, just an unfiltered ramble. Like I say, more than happy to carry on doing what were doing, aware we haven't got into the thick of it yet, just thought I'd put this out there since I have had these thoughts.

(BELOW) Today me and my daughter, Luna were playing with plasticine, lego and whatever else had gotten mixed up in her toy bag. I found the games were really interesting, and much more free and creative than anything she plays when she uses her play sets or anything pre-made. This little plastic tray came from a plasticine set, so I repurposed it with a load of different materials, gathering the most creative materials we had on hand, this included lego, plasticine, pipe cleaners, pen lids and match sticks. I was thinking about what Cas Holman said in the Netflix documentary about how to teach creativity, and encourage it through play and design, she said that if she gave a kid a set of parts and asked them to make a car, they'd generally make a car, a pre-conceived idea, but if you switch the question around, giving it more freedom, give the kids the parts and ask them to make a new way to get to school, the imagination has space to breathe. I took this simple idea, and gave Luna the same challenge.. We did it together, talking through ideas, but letting her spark most of the ideas, this is what we came up with.. I think maybe there's something in random parts, lego is great, but limited on it's own, similarly with plasticine, it's a very free form material, but requires a bit more skill to master basic shapes, especially for younger kids without the hand strength to manipulate and make soft, but combined, these materials can create wonderful ideas, then when you add in materials like pipe cleaners, matchsticks and wheels, the possibilities, and inspiration through what the materials are capable of become closer to endless. There's creative restraint in only being able to use the materials you get with the set, but this is a constructed barrier, kids can easily take a random set of materials as inspiration and run off around there house to find more materials like toilet roll tubes and plastic bottle lids.

The Clan

As we started this project we talked about toys and what's available for kids in shops right now, and we talked about how we could make toys better really, but we talked about making satirical toys which turned into the Radical Toy factory, which I think became the Radical Toy Factory through Deano mixing what we'd talked about, maybe with his association with me and the Sculpt Factory, I'm not sure. But I think sometimes I have a tendency, even within this era of self creative discovery, I have the tendency to take things literally, and I think this might be a trait/flaw in my creative practice, I always make a self aware effort to look at the way I practice through a critical lens and this is one of those times when I've realised something, sat back and gone, "Oh, shit".. It's a kind of 'I'm not practicing what I preach' kind of feeling.

Anyway, this came from a meeting today with Deano where we talked about Cas Holman, who is someone who has shaped a lot of my creative understanding and energy towards researching 'creative thinking' recently, and has been the sole inspiration for my castle play set project. The thing is, even though that's a toy, and were making toys as part of this project, for some reason I've separated that project from this, I think it's this enjoyment I've discovered of collaboration and coming up with new ideas, maybe it's because of this literal taking of satirical toys, thinking more along the lines of the bootleg toy projects I did in my degree rather than something new. I think maybe the word radical has had an impact on the way I've been thinking during this project, taking 'radical' and 'satirical' and thinking, we need to make some kind of sarcastic remark to the powers that be.. I dunno, developing to some kind of Boris Johnson bootleg toy of him pissed at a party or some shit.. But we got talking about the ideas behind Cas Holman's work today, and talked about the impact toys and playgrounds have on kids shaping the future of our planet, Deano talked about implementing philosophy into toys, I mean it's fucking cool, and not just because its different or whatever, it has meaning and impact, a bojo toy might make a few people laugh at the tory party, but a toy that makes a child think for them selves, a toy that encourages a child to imagine and a toy that pushes a child to think creatively about how to over come issues, allowing the child to manipulate actual space in a meaningful way... it's radical as fuck.

I got me thinking about a few ted talks I've watched in the past..

https://youtu.be/UZCbNstq2Uk - this is about playgrounds and how shit they are in their current state, very much worth a watch in relation to all this.

This next video is connected in a more abstract way, it's a TED x talk from the 'Hip Hop Architect' - Mike Ford who has devised this way of looking at how black culture and Jazz inspired architect le Corbusier when designing block flats in Paris, and in return those designs inspired an American architect to build the Bronx block flats in New York, the birth place of Hip Hop, which Ford believes wouldn't have been created if the people who birthed Hip Hop weren't forced to live in such a situation. Mike Ford now runs workshops where he teaches architecture with the philosophy and teachings of Hip Hop, which I think is incredible.

It's got me thinking naturally about the Wu Tang Clan, a bunch of hip hop artists from New York who originally got together to share experience and resources, instead of just one rapper trying to get all the equipment together to record a track and release it etc trying to find all the funds to do that, they got together a big group, sharing recording equipment and sharing each others fan base building a following quickly for their music as a group, they then obviously went onto be one of the biggest hip hop groups in the world.

I think hip hop is an interesting thought to put on the table here. I'm not sure how much Deano and Alice are into Hip Hop, I grew up rebelling a bit and listening to metal, punk, grunge and anything else that was loud and raw, it wasn't until only about 4 or 5 years ago I got into hip hop, before that I considered it a joke, only ever hearing what was on the radio, and Eminem, who was generally listened to by the people I never got on with in school, so why would I give it the time? I discovered hip hop when I was working as a delivery driver at Dominos, after about 6 months I was trying to figure out a way to be creative, the job was taking up way to much time and I couldn't make films in the car, I was getting depressed seeing all my mates making films, and not just that but getting paid to do it, it sucked, they were in a position where they didn't have to earn a living yet, and so waited out a little longer than I did and it paid off for them. I tried writing in the car, at each delivery writing a bit of a scene I'd thought about on the way or whatever, but it was a pain, I needed an outlet that would be more improv based. I met my wife and her family for an Indian after work one night and when we left we heard music in the Parrot in Carmarthen as we walked past, we called in thinking "why not" and I discovered The Culture Vultures, a local hip hop group made up of rappers who were around my age. Bearing in mind hip hip generally takes a bit of adjusting to from the grunge I was accustomed to, which meant I had no idea what they were rapping about or anything, just had a general idea that it was about getting baked. It was great. I was hooked. The next night I wrote my first 'bars' and my next shift I practiced them over and over, it was absolutely terrible, but I carried on. Eventually I got to a stage where I was rapping from the top of my head, which is an incredibly creative act. I had no idea it would become the thing I spent my time doing for the next few years, but it was what it was, I had a need to be creative in a specific situation and nothing else fit, this thing came along that was hands free, quick, and could be done without the need to record everything I did, it was perfect for the situation I was in, and my first real hint that creativity was the most important factor to my practice, rather than specific things such as filmmaking/story telling or whatever..

'Creativity emerges when different regions talk to each other, in particular two networks, one of which is the default mode network, which is most active when day dreaming. When concentrating on a task you activate the executive control network, it evaluates the thing you're coming up with. The first network helps us make spontaneous new connections and the second one to judge which of those ideas is any good. In the brain of highly creative people these two networks are more connected. They talk to each other more.' -This is from the Netflix documentary 'the brain explained - creativity episode'.

Ken Robinson states that creativity is 'the PROCESS of having original ideas that have value'

In the same Netflix documentary as above they stated that 'A study of freestyle rappers brains whilst they were freestyling showed that their default mode network was turned right up - their day dreaming network, whereas their executive control network was turned down considerably - their logical side. They weren't just spitting out random words - they had to control it in some way, so they do use their executive control network, just a lot less.'

There's this idea about taking the ideas surrounding the hip hop architecture movement, taking a culture that is looked down upon by society, and giving those people the tools to do something amazing, these are kids who have grown up in the slums in Bronx, living and breathing hip hop, incredibly creative people, and if you take the teaching of the late Ken Robinson and believe him when he said "schools kill creativity", and understand the importance of creativity in kids, you've got to look at things like hip hop with a feeling of hope for the future of humanity, right?

What if the radical part of this project is designing toys and playground equipment that really impacts the lives of kids in really positive ways, tools to help kids grow and see things differently, taking inspiration from something as simple as rhyming words together in hip hop, and the empowerment that comes with it, what if we could take that feeling and put it into a toy.

The Sculpt factory project I did was/is a personal journey I underwent, discovering ideas and conquering my own artistic issues such as not being able to have a stable income that I would have in a 9-5 job, supporting my family, the idea was built around, well artists should be able to get that too! The factory setting made ironic sense for that project. Maybe The radical toy factory isn't right for this project, that's why I'm changing it to the Radical Toy Clan, taking inspiration from the creative clans around the world, pulling resources together to create something spectacular.

Going to the Moon was an incredibly creative and imaginative seed. It took a huge amount of innovation and TEAM WORK - collaboration, it definitely wasn't a one man show, yet schools still teach on an individual basis - calling it cheating - yet in the real world it's called collaboration. Lets teach kids how to collaborate and be creative together, as a clan.

I dunno, let's give a it a spin for a bit, see how we feel about it..

SHIT-TOK

What if we made a shit-toker but they were fully animated.. an animated social media influencer. Stop motion or hand drawn traditional animation. the character does all the typical shit-tok trends, the dances, challenges, but the character is just animated?

Off the back of this, we can be as satirical as we want with the marketing etc.. sell toys and t shirts based on the character.

Who is this character? A clown? Someone tied up? why are they tied up? Is this character shit-toking from a room he's been locked up in? I dunno... What could we play with here?