7 minute read
MODEL CITIZEN
My experience with podcasts is not extensive. Mainly Desert Island Discs, to be honest, and I really think this shouldn’t count because it’s just a replay of a radio recording, rather than being done specially.
People use podcasts for unwinding or relaxing, commuting, doing housework and working out. There are a dazzling 850,000 podcasts and over 30 million podcast episodes, so it’s not surprising they are also seen as one of the hottest marketing tools.
The other big motivation for listening to podcasts is finding things out –three out of every four podcast consumers in the US say they enjoy tuning in to podcasts to learn new things. I have just listened to one of these. It’s one of a series of Meet the Maker podcasts, produced by design agency Mytton Williams for Made in Bath, an enterprise that started as a book and has now become a general celebration of the dynamic spirit of makers in and around Bath.
Lockdown was the perfect opportunity for creative director Bob Mytton and Hannah Lee of Mytton Williams to interview makers for these podcasts, which are currently being published monthly. Their subjects have included Nick Hussey from Frahm Jackets, Ben Tucker from Plane Industries, Nell Beale from Coucou Manou, ceramic artist and Bath Spa lecturer Keith Harrison and composer and musician Liam O’Connell. A new podcast is being published each month, and I have just listened to the latest one, with art director and modelmaker Matt Rees.
Matt has had a wonderfully varied career, centred around a craft (modelmaking) that he always enjoyed at school and during his degree in interior design, but which he didn’t realise was a career option until relatively late. Finding a job in the modelmaking department at architect Richard Rogers Partnership in London was a catalyst, and it was here that he made architectural models for the firm, which were used for entering competitions or getting planning consent.
Matt has also created an amazing array of productions for some of the biggest names in the opera world and for stage shows and TV. These include stage shows for Coldplay, Take That, Stormzy’s Pyramid Stage set at Glastonbury in 2019 and a succession of recent Brit Awards stage sets, working with creative director and production designer Misty Buckley. This process starts with a scaleddown model, often now a digital model, moves to a scaled-down model with colour and decoration (see opposite), before being built at full scale (see below right, the final stage show for the 2018 Brit Awards).
You’d think that moving from a scale of 1:200 for an architect scheme to 1:100 for the Brit stage designs and 1:25 for theatre stage designs might require some challenging adaptation, but it’s more dramatic still because as part of the stage projects Matt is involved in overseeing the building of the physical stage. So for stage shows and theatre his role, quite literally, involves overseeing an Alice in Wonderland transition from minute visualisations to real life constructions. Which makes sense, because the models are there as a representation of what the architect or designer has planned.
Matt explains in the podcast how the design process has changed during his time as a modelmaker, with digital technology replacing some of the hand-built elements, which can save considerable time. However he maintains that models are still a crucial factor in all the work he does. “You can now create fully rendered walkthroughs, but people love physical models and there is something intangible about a model – in the middle of the room, with people crowding around it. So technology has added to model rather than taking away the need for it.”
Matt has a new studio in Frome and he is looking forward to working there with other makers when Covid restrictions have eased, so it becomes more of a communal and collaborative space. I’ve only covered a fraction of the podcast content, so do listen to the whole thing by visiting the Made in Bath website. n
You can listen to all the podcasts mentioned above on the Made in Bath website, as well as on all well-known podcast platforms. matt-rees.co.uk; madeinbath.co.uk; myttonwilliams.co.uk
Young writers: book review
It’s a real pleasure for us to showcase the work of young writers who love language. Here Isobel Smith, a Year 12 pupil at King Edward’s School in Bath who is studying English Language and Literature, has written this review of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Good literature lasts a decade, but great literature stands the test of time. The Picture of Dorian Gray was recommended to me as a classic work of literature, and after reading it, I can now confirm that it is in fact a great piece of writing. The protagonist embodies the doctrine of aestheticism, the belief that art has no purpose other than purely beauty.
Oscar Wilde’s novel illustrates so intricately that the ‘age of the celebrity’ has been a common thread running throughout history, and it is not a new concept. As I was reading the novel, I could imagine it taking place in the modern day. Dorian Gray is a timeless character, his fate the blueprint for people who chose self-satisfaction. The pertinence of the novel is part of the reason why I’ve chosen to do a review on The Picture of Dorian Gray –it can be picked up at any point in history and would still be thoroughly enjoyed.
The novel depicts an impressionable young man who flippantly sells his soul for eternal youth. Neglecting the true pleasures of life to live a corrupt one instead, Dorian destroys the portrait out of remorse for his crimes. Although, ironically, he kills himself in the process.
Dorian Gray’s portrait is the key symbol in the novel. Dorian Gray sacrifices his soul’s morality for eternal youth and beauty. His strong narcissism can only have detrimental consequences, which become obvious as you read the novel. Gray’s portrait presents the moral implications of his hedonism and his alarmingly dissolute behaviour. The portrait bears the burden of his shame, whilst Dorian remains handsome and youthful. At the beginning of the novel, Gray is depicted as an innocent man but grows susceptible to Lord Henry’s unscrupulousness. Lord Henry is a languid, idle man who ‘knows the price of everything and the value of nothing’, and his intellectual ramblings change Dorian’s mind about his own ideologies. Lord Henry warns Dorian Gray that his beauty will fade –influencing Dorian to exclaim that he would sell his soul for the painting to age while he remains youthful.
I find this novel so interesting due to the crucial significance of the themes that remain prevalent in the 21st century: beauty and vanity in relation to morality. Oscar Wilde’s criticism of the doctrine of aestheticism is evident throughout the novel, transgressing past the idea that art is art only decorative by including complex characters. Oscar Wilde said of the novel: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be –in other ages perhaps”. By relating each character to versions of himself, it helps to portray the characters (and humanity) as a cyclical pattern that’s relevance is preserved from the contemporary reader to the modern reader.
As a teenager in the 21st century, I became sensitive to the comparable points from the plot with the current day. Among the rise of social media, influencers have the power to show the perfect ‘portrait’ of themselves. Likewise, Dorian hides his true portrait and masks his immorality and insecurity to remain beautiful in his youth. Dorian Gray’s portrait displays new physical imperfections every time he commits a dangerous action, nowadays this is similar to digital footprints. Individuals now are finding their reputations ruined due to posts on social media from their teenage years. Ultimately, we can alter our appearances, deceiving those around us to appear as the platonic version of ourselves. However, the expected answer remains the same –it is not worth it. The final impression left on the reader is: would you give away everything to appear a certain way? As I said before, this has, and will be a recurring question through literature and culture. Therefore, the novel will always have lasting relevance and artistic merit. n
Portrait of writer Oscar Wilde
Find The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, in one of Bath’s independent bookshops: toppingbooks.co.uk; mrbsemporium.com
