location ideas

Thinking about the robotics idea, myself, Fay and Stephanie have discussed before our PH2011 Lecture yesterday (28th March) about some possible locations which we feel could be succcesful:

1. A working factory - with or without workers/labourers in the background of the photographs. This location would emphasise the idea of education being a working process, the child is entered as a material and leaves the factory as an end product, with examination results or qualifications or the mundanity of everyday - doing your course work, chipping away at the time left in the educational institution.I would love the idea of photographing a model in the foreground of an image with usual workers and goings on in the background, with the model well lit and the light disappering into the background, a shallow depth of field making the model stand out from the background a little more than usual.
   
2. An abandoned building - having the model positioned in a worn-out, tumbling building. However, this is very cliched! and reminds me of Tim Walker, a bit overdone! some locations that Steephanie has found around Preston are an ex mental asylum which when it was open was the laargest in the country. the images that other people have taken whilst visting the building in its current state are very eerie and quite disturbing. The idea of using a menatl asylum would link to the focus word of Education and our idea of robotics, in the sense of constrainment, the idea of wearing a straight jacket, being 'put away' for your mental instabilities...all quite sshivering thoughts really! Obviously, the realistic idea of using an abandoned building is probably unlikely, due to the health and safety and gaining permission for access.
3. An old factory - Stephanie also sourced on the internet an ex-working mill just outside Preston. Penwortham Mill looks like it could be very useful as it still has the equipment inside, I can imagine a model draped on a conveyor belt or something similar. This would imply the idea of us all being placed into the education system as if it is a factory, we are of a similar age and 'packaged' into classes and often are in the same classes until our last year at the particular school.
4. A police station - One in Preston which closed in 2006 has been used by a university student in the past with permission for entry. The building has metal railings and interior metal gates, police cells, barred windows and interview rooms. The idea of policing and the law could be a reflection on the lack of education in some people's lives or indeed the ignorance of education and the effect that this has on crime and anti-social behaviour, current trends, class room behaviour..?