Name: Os Elezi
Atelier: Making
RMW: Decolonizing the Bathroom
Undergrad: Oxford Brookes
Our Agenda: My agenda for choosing this particular topic is to help expose the businesses in our city that are supporting the nuclear arms trade. Join me in this project to uncover the arm trade deals that happen in OUR city and make Manchester Nuclear Free.
Interests: music, art, reading
Skills: Photoshop, Revit

Name: Aisha Zulfiqar
Atelier: CPU [Ai]
RMW: Decolonizing the Bathroom
Undergrad: Manchester school of Architecture
Our Agenda: An activist, one of the many words that describe me. Being the voice of the invisible and voiceless, standing against injustice and corruption is like second nature to me. Given the current world situation, the many wars that we hear about, it is key time that we do our bit to stop injustice, discrimination, and different ethnic cleansing. Join me in this project to uncover the arm trade deals that happen in OUR city and make Manchester Nuclear Free.
Hobbies: Sketching, Painting, Travelling, Visiting Museums, History Worm, Music (I can listen to anything, classical compositions, pop, kpop, Bollywood- you name it), Watching TV Series (mostly K-Dramas though but I enjoy my crime series as well)
Skills: Procreate, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, AutoCAD, Sketchup

Name: Samruddhi Shendurnikar
Atelier: &rchitecture
RMW: Deep Cutting Edge
Undergrad: BNCA, India
Our Agenda: Identifying points of discord in urban settings that we can correct through architectural interventions. Join me in this project to uncover the arm trade deals that happen in OUR city and make Manchester Nuclear Free.
Interests: Avid reader, occasional writer, and painter
Skills: Quick sketching, CAD, Photoshop, Sketchup, and quoting random fashion/ film trivia

Name: Haoyu Zheng
Atelier: FLUX
RMW: Campus Architecture: Science and the City
Undergrad: University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Our Agenda: Space can be political, at the same time, it can be a means of propagating ideas and maintaining equality. To uncover the arm trade deals that happen in OUR city and make Manchester Nuclear Free.
Hobbies: painting, photography, badminton, swimming, traveling
Skills: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, AutoCAD, Sketchup, Rhino, Enscape

EXTERNAL PARTNER: Geeks for Social Change
OTHERS: DeD_ucation, Campaign on Military Spending, CAAT, Resistance Lab

What happened to Nuclear Free Manchester?
Once upon a time, Manchester saw itself as a leading light in the fight against nuclear annihilation. Now not only do we have several companies here who manufacture nuclear missiles and submarines, but we also put ‘em in the regional marketing brochure.

How did this happen? When did Manchester City Council go from a peace-loving city with doves on the road signs to actively encouraging some of the worst companies in the world to set up shop here?

Aaaaaaand here we go jumping head first into our MSA Live project with an impromptu ice-breaking session with our (initially) shy but (later) enthusiastic undergrads! After finding out one weird fact about each other, we have an online meeting with our client where the project brief and outcomes are explained concisely.
An open discussion commences after the meeting, with everyone sharing their ideas and opinions freely.
The year 5 leads conclude the day with a short brainstorming session and instructions about Day 2.
A good start to a great project!

Day 2 starts with a presentation by Year 5 leader Os where undergrads are introduced to new and old presentation and composition styles. The group then splits into 2 halves with each focusing on one part of the research and quick mind maps sketched out.
Do we know where we are going? Well, we are starting to figure it out! Keep checking this space to find out which well-known organizations not-so-secretly contributes to the arms trade and how it can affect YOU

It's Day 3 and posters ahoy! With guidance and advice provided (where needed) from year 5 leads, the undergrads of Nuke Free Manchester have started working on posters, the concept for which was finalized on day 2.
It's full steam ahead for the meeting with clients on day 5 where draft posters are to be submitted for approval.

Day 4 begins with a short debriefing by the year 5 students, and then it's all hands on deck to complete the posters for the clients' approval on day 5. The colour schemes, fonts, and styles are uniformised while allowing the students to maintain their styles and approaches. Fingers crossed for the meeting with clients!

We are at the half-way point of our MSA Live (whew! the days have just flown by huh) and now have to discuss our draft posters with our clients. The meeting is conducted online through zoom. The clients have several helpful inputs to share, and we shall commence with these minor tweaks to create that most elusive object of all----- the perfect poster (fingers crossed!)

Day 6 was all about relaying the client's inputs to the rest of the team and then coming up with a strong plan of action to execute everything. The teams continued working as 2 sub-groups to produce outputs that had different approaches but were unified by the same base concept.

Look at our undergrads giving it their all! Despite multiple tiny tweaks happening by the minute, the team continues working, passionate about our cause.
Day 7 was a continuation of day 6, with everyone striving to make sure all our posters and collages synchronize well together.
Based on the brainstorming exercise done on day 6, there is an influx of fresh ideas. Let's get all these wonderful ideas on (digital) paper!

We are nearing the end of our MSA live project, and it's never been all work and no play for this group! All posters are nearing completion, and while there is last minute panic, and sudden changes in posters taken up and just as abruptly abandoned, our final aim is to maintain coherency of narrative across the board.
Looking forward to compiling all our final ideas in a booklet/ 'zine ready to be shared digitally.

Seen here is one of the iterations that were done by our BA student Leo, displaying the various ways he experimented with colour schemes and fonts to produce what the clients needed.

Day 9 and here is one of the experimental iterations done by BA student Michael

Photo-shoot time for the publication and its laughs all around, everyone is excited to present our work to the clients on day 10

It's the final day of MSA Live and we finally present our posters to the client, receiving their approval. This experience has been a joyous ride for all involved, and we have all ended up making friends and sharing laughs. Thank you to all for this amazing project!