Dott Blog - Festival Zones

The Health Zone at the Dott 07 Festival

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:04:00+0100

In two innovative and forward-thinking projects, Design and Sexual Health (DaSH) and Alzheimer100, Dott 07 worked with designers to tackle key problems in the areas of Sexual Health and Alzheimer’s. Stigma is a big hurdle to solving many of the problems with the current systems already in place. I mean, who wants to talk about Chlamydia at a family meal with the Grandparents - but think about it - why shouldn’t sexual health problems that affect an increasing number of our teenage population be on the menu? One can only guess that in the Netherlands, where sexual health problems among teenagers are the lowest in Europe, that the topic is discussed any time, any place, any where. [More]

Win a bike in the Welcomes Zone at the Dott 07 Festival

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:00:00+0100

Welcoming is big business. Take a minute now to think about that café you love to return to, that holiday you’d take again if you could, or that hairdresser you just can’t bring yourself to change. Just how much does ‘feeling welcome’ in those special places, really influence your choices about them? It’s probably not all about haircuts and nice coffee but just what exactly is it? People and places that we experience as ‘welcoming’ have that magic ‘something’ about them... if you could bottle it, you’d make millions. Why not try! Bring your welcome ideas, thoughts and experiences directly to the Welcomes Zone at the Dott 07 Festival and you could win a spanking new Dawes Bike and a glowing Wattson device. If that’s not a welcome prospect, I don’t know what is! [More]

Food Meets Design at the Dott 07 Festival

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:05:00+0100

The craze for home-grown produce is spreading and the nation is signing up in droves. Last year, sales of herbs and edible seed was greater than flowers, meanwhile bun fights for allotments is on the rise. Whether for health, economic or eco reasons, the Supermarket Generation is digging for victory on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Get down to the Urban Farming Zone at the Dott 07 Festival and see the results of the urban farming project, where thousands of people living and working in the town of Middlesbrough took part and quite literally, brought new life to their urban landscape. [More]

Cars, Rappers and Jewels at the Dott 07 Festival

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:38:00+0100

How do I become a Sustainable Tourist for a day? What is ‘Mapping’ and can I do it now? Is there any other way to get to work or school if public transport isn’t reliable? Explore the Dott 07’s Movement Zone and you will be taken on a trip across the Northumberland wilderness, down to the Durham Necklace Park, then up to the town of Scremerston and all without moving from Baltic Square. If that’s not sustainable movement, then I don’t know what is! [More]

The Future of Education at the Dott 07 Festival

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:53:00+0100

Be warned. Visiting the OurNewSchool (ONS) space will ignite emotions from envy to delight as you wish you were back at school just to experience what you never had, or smile with relief and joy as you realise just how different your children and grandchildren’s education really will be. Within 10 years the nature of schools and learning will be fundamentally different from today. Come along to the Our New School space and you can say, ‘I was there when Pink Floyd’s seminal Another Brick in the Wall was consigned to the annals of history. We don’t need no education? More like, we don’t need no deviation! Roll on OurNewSchools. [More]

Dreams Become Reality at the Dott 07 Festival

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:28:00+0100

Get down to the New Work planet at the Dott 07 Festival and have your mind opened to the future of work as we know it. In true Back to the Future style, time machines have arrived at the work place. As you enter the festival from the Millennium Bridge or Gateshead, you will be hit by a bolt of lightening that would have transported Michael J. Fox straight into Baltic Square for Back to the Future VI, if it wasn’t for Hollywood’s obsession with Harry Potter. Yes! The New Work space at the festival will transport you in a serene ‘office’ space, where the whiff of freshly ground coffee will filter through as you indulge in a relaxing massage or a spinal analysis. Or why not ease the stress of the festival crowds by chilling on comfie sofas as you feast your senses on the delights of the specially designed office ‘garden’. Take time to ask the question: ‘do I work to live or live to work?’ Experience tips for organising your work and home life balance and speak to experienced professionals about your business dreams. [More]

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at the Dott 07 Festival

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:38:00+0100

At the Dott 07 Festival, the Schools Zone will be buzzing with free workshops for school pupils of all ages and things-to-do for all the family. The zone will have a designated Activity Area that will host a fantastic programme of events centered on the results of the Dott 07's Eco Design Challenge.

This inspired project aimed to get Year 8 students around the North East of England to focus on how to make their school more user-friendly with less impact on the environment. The process involved over fifteen thousand students and teachers from the region designing sustainable alternatives to some of the systems currently operating in their schools. [More]

Zone Into Energy at the Dott 07 Festival

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:40:00+0100

Who doesn’t feel bombarded by the call to reduce domestic power use and cut carbon emissions? It’s all moving so fast and I’m still trying to locate my carbon footprint let alone put it on the scales... confession of a carbon newbie over, I am happy to report that during the Dott 07 Festival, the Energy Zone is geared towards making energy simple to see and understand in a fun and interactive way.

Energy! Energy! Energy! We all use it, need it, love it - but how do we sustain this relationship without contributing to global climate change? We know the story: burning finite fossil fuels emits harmful gases, so just how do we reduce our dependency on them? The Dott 07 Energy Zone aims to provide some answers to this urgent question. As part of the Dott 07 Low Carb Lane project, service design company live|work have been developing pioneering technology that communicates energy in a very understandable way so that we can ‘see’ ‘touch’ and ‘control’ the energy we use. Their ‘inventions’ will feature in a mock-up 2-D-3-D house where visitors can wander and experiment for themselves: not possible? Yes, I tell you, enter the TARDIS of the Energy Zone and you walk in to the future of domestic energy where no man or woman has gone before; where energy has no escape and money returns to the wise. In a funky, original space designed by artist Bethan Laker, we will be treated to the trip of a lifetime that promises to push anyone’s footprint knowledge off the Richter scale. [More]