Gathering Inspiration In The Middle Of The City

'Home' to me is Manchester.

It's been donning this unusually rare blue sky for a few weeks now and what a beauty it is.

I set out in search of some inspiration for my studio work as well as for my little 'yarden' project and thought I'd revisit somewhere tranquil that's still within reach of the busy city.

The north of England is well known for its cotton mills and back to back terraced houses. Manchester in particular still holds so many hints of its industrial past, converted mills sit squat amongst the glass new-builds, canals pass under buildings and streets and old railway lines sit disused.

No matter how hard I tried to fight it as a teenager, textiles runs deep in my blood and I'm embracing it more now. Including the points that I'm distantly related to Samuel Crompton (inventor of the spinning mule), I have a Textiles in Practice degree at the Manchester School of Art and my current day job involves using sewing machines in a converted cotton mill on the outskirts of Manchester... and yes, I do go home to a terraced house at the end of the working day - it has Wi-Fi and running water, don't worry.

So whilst the sun was shining bright, where would be a better place to visit than the Castlefield Viaduct, a 'sky garden' by the National Trust. The project has involved taking a section of disused railway to transform into a garden space for the public and nature to enjoy.

This little gem feels very hidden in the city, it's tucked away from busy shops and sits up in the air watching over the Castlefield Bowl and canal networks below. It's a perfect little hideaway to enjoy the vast scale of the city from the comfort of plants and quietness - with the soft reminder of industry when a tram rolls past on the parallel tracks.

If you look to the left or right whilst standing on the viaduct, your eyes follow the natural shapes of the plants in front of the harsh strong lines of the metal structures and followed by the softer glass buildings in the distance and as shadows are cast onto the floor, thick bold stripes appear. Theres loads of contrasting textures from the decaying metal work and grassy plant life tied together with a soft colour palette and the planters stay very much in keeping too.

It's a great way to see a space in use, whilst I was visiting there was a pocket with people sharing poetry and across the path sat a couple enjoying some time by the pond. There's so much information about the plants, wildlife and the history of the area too.

At the time of writing this post (May '25) the viaduct is free to visit and will only be open until September 2025 so I would suggest going sooner rather than later. I've heard rumours that the project will be extended in the near future so I have high hopes!

I'm taking what I've learnt back to the studio to reflect and I can't wait to add some of these ideas to my little 'yarden' (garden/yard) when I get home.

A few more bits:

• SO MANY ideas for tiny gardens/ balconies in the book Green by Ula Maria

• A great podcast from Gardener's World

• Join my mailing list here to hear more about my garden project and studio inspiration

AI and Creatives: Content Creation Machine

The Content Creation Machine

As creative people, we spend years learning a skill, perfecting it and sharing what we've made with others. Artificial intelligence is moving in and the ability to create content for online sharing is now lightning fast. Will this search for producing quick content water down our understanding and appreciation of the creative process and will we become desensitised to the art work that we're seeing online?

We dedicate years to growing our skill set and developing our hand-stamp whilst enjoying the process of creating something new. In this blog post I'm thinking more about how AI is changing the content we consume online, what impact this is having on us and how we approach our creative processes now that we have AI looming over us.

I mentioned in the previous post AI and Creatives: A New Tool just how quick and simple it is to generate AI images. Simply type in a few words, click a few buttons and generate a piece of 'art' in seconds. Job done, throw it onto the internet and get on with your busy life. But do we actually connect to this thing we've just produced? Do we connect to the other bits of AI generated content that appears in front of us on our already saturated social media platforms? Do we actually learn anything from creating these quick images?

When gathering inspiration in the offline/analog world, a journey to an art gallery might be taken, books might be flicked through and sketches might be made. A physical activity has happened, a memory of those events has been mentally stored, random discoveries might be made along the way. Turning to the internet and social media for inspiration, the quick paced, AI generated catalog of 'stuff' can be overwhelming. After an hour of flicking through, can we actually remember what we've just looked at, was it so quick that we had time to consume and absorb it?

Not so long ago 'content creator' was a shiny new futuristic job title and these individuals would research their audience and serve up the keywords, colours and voice of the brand they were supporting, there was a real skill to getting the tone just right. As budget cuts tighten and AI is more accessible, these jobs might be some of the first to go. As companies set to fill every gap of our newsfeed with advertising, AI makes it quicker, easier and cheaper for them to do so. But at what cost? As it's still the early days, most of us can still tell the difference between what is written by a human and what is written by AI - fair enough, this might improve over time but for now there are still some improvements to make. Human error is what makes us human and that's something we can connect with. Vague and generic posts advertising a product or service are just not going to grab and retain the attention of the audience.

The cost of AI generated content

There's a big cost to just creating AI generated content willy-nilly to post online in the way of promoting business and that's a cost to planet.

Now, call me completely naive but until a short while ago, I just believed that the internet ran on magic and that tech giants at Google tapped on keyboards to keep it all running smoothly. Now that I know that isn't the case, my eyes have been opened to the carbon footprint that is swiftly swept under the rug...

Of course the data has to be stored somewhere and of course that takes a physical form of whopping great databases as well as electricity to keep them running.

So all of the content you've seen online today (including this blog post) is stored somewhere physically and that takes electricity to store and adds to the carbon footprint of the internet. Just as we might cycle to work one day a week, turn the heating down in favour of a jumper or unplug the telly at night, our internet use also has a carbon footprint that we're feeding into - but that we can do something about.

So now what?

One starting point that I believe we can fight this AI generated beast is to consciously consume when we're online. By aimlessly scrolling through quick AI generated content, the algorithm might show you more of it and in turn you're telling the social media platforms that it's worth it for the companies who are advertising to keep investing in and producing cheap content.

However, by clicking onto blogs that you find interesting or clicking onto websites that take you away from social media sites, you are protecting your attention span and making an investment into the things you want to see more of and want to learn from. Be conscious and selective about what you're posting and what you're letting into your brain space. We can't control what the big companies do with our newsfeeds but we can vote for higher quality online content and invest into our own creative skills.

AI and Creatives: A New Tool

In the introduction to this 'AI and Creatives' series, I spoke about learning more about how AI will impact the creative industry and how we - as creatives - can find a solution to feel a bit more in control about the whole situation. This time I'm looking into how AI can be used as a tool in creating art work.

Speeding up the monotonous tasks

When I'm writing these blog posts out to you, there are a few shiny little AI assist buttons at every step on my website. AI can help from choosing SEO (search engine optimisation) keywords to writing all of the content for the blog post.

Even though I could save myself a load of time and click the button to make AI do everything for me, there's nothing much in that for me. I wouldn't learn anything by letting the computer write my work for me and I wouldn't feel any emotion reading it back - I just wouldn't connect with it as a piece of work and neither would you.

However... if AI can do a better job of choosing the right keywords to help others to find my website then crack on! I see that as a worthwhile use of AI, to save my time to do a task thats straight to the point and requires little creativity and connection from either of us.

How AI can make light work of 'art'

Adobe Photoshop has a new feature on it where you can simply type in a few prompts and voila! You’ve made a piece of ‘art’! easy peasy. If you’re not an artist and you’re in the mood for something new on your walls, brilliant, bang in a few keywords, click the ‘generate’ button and you’ve saved yourself hours of trailing around Etsy and print fairs. (Please don't ask me who owns the rights to these AI generated images - I've no idea how that works).

On the other hand, if you are a creative person reading this, it is a bit scary that ‘art’ can be made so quickly, easily and cheaply. It appears that our industry is at risk and that we’ll be replaced before we can get over our fear of the white page. 

Having a play with some prompts on Photoshop to see what it would come up with, I typed in the monthly prompts that I share on my newsletter to see what it would produce. The result is that it certainly makes something but I definitely don't feel a connection to it and I wouldn't know where the rules stand on using or crediting this 'art work'.

AI generated image (left) , my monthly prompts (middle), my drawing (right)

AI generated image (left) , my monthly prompts (middle), my drawing (right) (I'm not sure AI understands what a 'woodlouse' is...)

As artists, how can we benefit from this new AI tool?

Can we train it to know what we like and to come up with some starting points for us to work on? Can we make it produce some prompts that will get our brains into gear? Can we choose how we use it to streamline processes?

Will it make us lazy?

Will we discover a way to make AI work for us and just get lazy with our ideas? What's the point in working hard when something else will do it all for you? Will we just get to the 'right answer' quicker and not learn any important lessons or skills along the way? I'm sure we'll see how this plays out over the next few years!

So Now What?

My ideas for this situation might change over the next few years but as it stands, in 2025 I believe that if we are conscious about our use of AI, we can keep our control over it and stop it from running away with our creativity.

AI is there to use (or not use) as a new tool. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to. You'll never loose anything by continuing to learn, develop your own skill set and being aware of what's new around you.

Using AI is a bit like using the internet, it can help with some aspects of a project but ultimately, the project needs your hand stamp, your cabinet of curiosities and your personality woven into it.

Next time I'm talking more about personalityless content and how important it is to connect with what we're consuming.

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If you have any comments on AI as a tool or personalityless content, please do drop your ideas into the comments box!