Exercise No. 2

Visual Excursions

The aim of this session is to capture the essential character of your part of the village drawing on visual evidence where available. You need to consider the way the village sits in the countryside, right down to small details like the decorative parts of individual buildings, or the particular colour and texture of the stone or brickwork. Your visual excursions may be inside - sorting and examining photographs; and/or outside - taking photographs.

Things to consider

Individual buildings and groups of buildings and the way they make up the street scene
Open spaces. Public areas, playing fields, greens and churchyards. Think also about the small spaces between buildings, or private land, such as woodland and gardens
Boundaries. The edges of the village. What is it like arriving or leaving? In the village itself, how are spaces and buildings contained (e.g., by walls, fencing, planting or a combination of these)?
Trees. Do trees matter to the shape and pattern of the village?
What drivers or casual visitors (like planners!) might miss as they pass through
A child's perspective - do children have a different view of the character of the village?

The warm-up

Step 1. Take some PostIt^TM Notes. Write down things that you value about the area you live in, one phrase per Note. Work quickly - your first thoughts are often the best - but don't dismiss anything!). Take no longer than 5 minutes for this step.

Step 2. Stick your PostIt^TM Notes on the large sheets of paper with headings. Don't be constrained. Add new sheets and headings if you need them. As a group discuss thoughts, commonalities, differences.

The excursion

You were asked to bring long with you photographs of the area which supported the things the you value about where you live. You will also find more photographs that the team has been assembling over the last couple of weeks. See if you can find photographs that illustrate your views and feelings about the character of the village. Make notes of any particular points that add to and help describe the photographs. Don't stick anything down yet!

You will probably find that there are aspects of the village that you do not have photographs for. You may like to delegate part of your team to go out and take some additional photographs with the cameras provided.

Analysis and Interpretation

Use the big plan on the wall to make comments on PostIt^TM Notes, that add to or expand the ideas on the photographic sheets. Check back at the sheets you produced earlier in the morning, showing routes, zones and landmarks, these may help you in your selection. You do not have to use all the photographs.

Once you have made your final selection, and added all your notes, use the last selection on the sheets marked 'Yours ideas', to put down all the issues that you do not think have been covered in the selection, and issues that are priorities. At the end of the session you will be pinning up your sheets and the whole team (well at least one person from each group!) will be able to briefly present and describe the groups ideas.