Studio Brief 2 - Tell an Untold Story Pt 1: The Visual Journalist - Playing With Layout

Playing with layout

Recently my enthusiasm and inspiration for my chosen research project - The West Indian Centre has somewhat decreased. I seem to have hit a brick wall with what I want to achieve and the artwork that can come from the information I have gathered. I almost feel like there are too many avenues in which I could travel down and I cant seem to make a decision of which avenue is best or most engaging when taking into consideration the audience looking at my book.

To combat this, I decided to have a little play with layout for the book. In the past I have always felt this has helped me visually communicate ideas as it gives possible outcomes and context in which ideas can sit and I know what works and what I am working with in terms of overall structure.

Here is what I came up with:


















Postives
The idea behind this book is that each page is folded and bound in such a way that each acts a pocket. On each page throughout the book there will be artwork relating to an event experience, and within each pocket there will be a paper cut piece of artwork representing a typical souvenir found at the event on the night. I really like this idea as it brings a little bit of the event to the audience looking through the book, and this added element and interaction creates interest. It is a little different.

Negatives
I am not sure if this structure of book counts as a saddle stitch which is something i will need to ask about in terms of sticking to the brief. 

Positives
This next book I feel really lends itself to the exploration into the music played at an event at the West Indian Centre. Each page of the concertina is cut to resemble a vinyl record with artwork on some of the pages engineered to spin like a record on a vinyl player. This could be where the text element appears throughout the book. The whole book itself acts like a vinyl record once folded up and fits into an illustrated vinyl sleeve representing the night in which it is to be "played" at. I Really like the "package" and professional feel of this dummy book which gives it potential and like its play on records.

Negatives
The format of each page will be difficult to construct and bind together as I am not sure how well printing this out on one long roll of paper will be.
Also the round page format could affect the artwork in an unpredictable way - the hole in the centre could take away from the pieces.

Positives
In keeping with the concertina layout, this nect book provides the platform for an idea that really interests me and links well with the research I have gathered so far. 

The inside artwork would represent one long continuous panorama of an event, each area of the event split up by floor to ceiling speakers so that different areas can be featured. Beginning with the queue to get inside the event, leading through to the bar area, and then onto the first room, then the smoking area, on into the second room and finishing with leaving back through the entrance at 6am when the event closes and the sun begins to rise. 


The text/quotes/song lyrics throughout the book could feature on small spinning vinyls to continue the theme.

I really like the "full circle" idea of this book, how the audience can be taken on a real visual journey through an event.

Negatives
I can't really think of any real negatives to this book other than the artwork itself will have to be pretty amazing to keep the audience engaged and represent an event at the centre and its atmosphere.

Positives
Whilst researching the West Indian Centre and its events, I noticed the main way in which these events get noticed and publicised is through flyers.

This book is a representation of that, each page being perforated so you can rip the flyer out and keep the artwork and each flyer is of a specific event held at the centre. Some are paper engineered to fold and pop up and I really like the way this book could be looked at as an official record of everything that goes on at the West Indian Centre. Each flyer for each event is a good way to show contrast between what happens here and how the centre is used and how important it is to the community.

Negatives
I am not sure if there would be enough separate current events going on to fill the book with a flyer for each page so I will probably have to double up which may effect the impact and flow. A way to sort this is I could focus on the events at the centre through history to present day, also giving the book a stronger sense of journey and "story through time".

 

Positives
This final book is one of my favourites in terms of concept and interaction with the audience.

Each page is folded and bound in such a way that the artwork is hidden within the book and inaccessible. Each visible page of the book has artwork resembling a ticket stub and advertisement for a certain event. In order to access the artwork within relating to that specific event, you have to tear the end of the ticket stub away along the perforated edge (as you would an actual ticket) which then reveals the artwork inside. Each torn off piece will also be a piece of artwork in its own right, turning into either a speaker or souvenir from the night you have just accessed.

This book is all about interaction and creating a personal experience for the audience who have to take it upon themselves to tear the book open to access the artwork. I think it is memorable.

Negatives
Will people actually tear into the artwork? It is a bit of a gamble this one and I guess the first person who looks at the book will have to tear open all of the pages in order for anyone else to view the artwork and not just think it is a book for tickets stubs. Maybe this is better for a personal project to be given to one person to experience?

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Overall I great fun making these dummy books and seeing visually where my ideas can lead. I am still not feeling 100% reconnected with my chosen research and location and I still have very little clue as to where it can all need, but getting the creative juices flowing and working on some possible book solutions has definitely helped. 

Time to suck it up and make some key decisions!

Studio Brief 2 - Tell an Untold Story Pt 1: The Visual Journalist - Peer Review & Project Proposal

Peer Review

I found this peer review session really helpful and enjoyed seeing what other people had come with as a result of their research trips. I also found explaining my ideas and what I had experienced at the West Indian Centre got a great reaction as not many people know a lot of about the centre, or its history or even its events which was a surprise.

Kristyna really helped solidify some ideas I had about where I wanted this research to go and seemed to really like the ideas I had come with so far. As a result of the this peer review session, I would really like to re-visit the centre suing the daytime not only to get a comparison with what I experienced on the field trip, but also see another side to the centre and what it is about.

I am a little gutted that the West indian Carnival is held in August as I think I would have really liked to explore this further. There seems to be so much meaning and preparation involved with it and the colours of costumes alone really inspired me. - Maybe a project for the future? 

Ideas to take these ideas further:

• Re-visit the centre and attend some of its other events and clubs
• Look into comparisons between the events held at the centre - explore visual ideas
• Research into different experiences had by different people at a specific event depending on who they are/what job they are employed to do
• Do the centre justice - look at all aspects of how it benefits the community across leeds
• May look into the religious aspects behind the music at the events held here. The meditative side and what the DJ's are all about when producing and playing the music that they do

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Project Proposal

This for me is just an early look at what I want to propose in terms of this brief and what I aim to achieve. So many ideas floating around that I am bound to change them at some point, but here is a look at where I am so far.

Christmas Break 'To Do':

• Re-visit the West Indian Centre and attend a variety of their daytime clubs. Speak with employees and locals
• Visually explore the research I found so far - EXPERIMENT!
• Maybe attend another event at the centre (if I have enough money) in an attempt to get another chance to speak to event goers and gain better perspective of the variety of experiences to be had.
• Research Rastafarianism 

Collage & ephemera - Poster Brief

In keeping with my chosen visual theme for this module "Cowboy's & Indian's", I decided to create an imaginary event poster for a local school ground game of Cowboys & Indians in solution for this brief.

I rarely use collage, so producing this poster was quite fun and new to me - however I feel it would have had a more successful outcome if I had had a stronger idea to begin with, or an alternative visual subject/theme to explore.

Collage elements:

Found internet arrow images (cut from background in photoshop)

Found library book image of cowboy boot
(scanned & cut from background in photoshop)

Photograph of wooden floor

Hand-drawn rope detail

Scanned in sarong detail

My aim with arranging these collage elements was to produce something typical of a cowboy/indian theme, focusing on pattern and detail that manage to advertise the event well. As I like working predominantly in analogue media, i decided to challenge myself with this brief and work digitally once all relevant elements had been scanned in/sourced.

Final Poster:

Strengths

Overall I like the composition of the elements within this poster despite being pretty simple.
Drawing, scanning in and working into the rope detail in photoshop produced a really nice clean effect and this works well against the appropriate sarong detailing that I used for the background.

I was pleased to find some sort of arrow imagery in the 3D angles that I needed and sort of managed to play with them enough to give the (weak but obvious) effect of being shot through the boot.

Working with photoshop in this way is a new process to me - and just to be able to tackle it and create some sort of outcome was a success for me personally.

Weaknesses

I feel my solution to this task has a lot of weaknesses. I spent so so long trying to master photoshop, that I just got lost in all of the possibilities for this image. I found that creating an image from scratch digitally almost gave me too many options - forcing the decision making process to be hard long one and somewhere where I became completely lost and absorbed.

Having really exhausted my visual theme by this stage in the module, I felt I was maybe not as motivated as i should have been when creating a solution for this brief. Being slightly tired of cowboy boot and indian arrows - I found it difficult to create an interesting arrangement of the collage ephemera that I had managed to find.

In terms of answering this brief - my work is pretty weak at working as a poster. Running out of time meant that I wasn't able to really promote the event in the way that I had wanted too or include key elements that would have appeared on a poster in real life, e.g :
Time
Location
Event holder

NEEDED better source material as I felt the failures in the work have been dictated by the lack of ideas stemming from the minimal ephemera that I was able to find linking to my event poster idea. To solve this, I could take my own photographs of the elements I require in the dynamic poses I need for stronger composition.

Final thoughts

I am so used to drawing/creating the elements within an image that I need - not relying on finding sourced material to do the job for me. I'm such a collector of postcards, clothes tags, old books, magazines and I would love to put all my own collections to good use as I really like the effect of collage when it is done well and successful. I am keen to explore this way of image making in my own time more thoroughly. ***Maybe I should start a sketchbook/scrapbook of assembled collage ephemera - using the images I create as visual sources for further artwork?

Studio Brief 2 - Tell an Untold Story Pt 1: The Visual Journalist - Field Trips

Field Trip 1: Charity Shop

For my first field trip I headed to a charity shop close to where I live on Cardigan Road.
This charity shop is massive, a real treasure trove full of random bits and pieces. I thought a possible avenue to take my research could be looking into the stories behind the items that people bring in to the shop to be sold on. 

Charity shops have a real personal aspect to them in comparison to normal shops selling products. Each item has a history with its previous owner and I hoped to be able to find items that spoke of this story, through scuffs, marks, creases, missing pieces etc.

Old Cameras

Board games

Golfing clubs

Badminton racket

Mixtapes

Amp

When I first arrived and had a little look around, what jumped out at me first was that this was a great place to spot collections. Everything similar had been grouped together, all the electrical items, all the games, all the tapes/cd's/vinyl records etc. The charity shop on the whole did not look orderly, it was an accumulation of anything and everything sellable...however the organisation of these random bits and bobs made it easy to shop and easy to discover possible gems. 

The items that really jumped out at me where the different sewing machines (and the amount of them). I have a love of all things old and well crafted, and these items were truly beautiful and so intricate.

Keeping collections in mind, there was a lot of old furniture, cupboards, wardrobes etc in the store. Although a lot of it was extremely dated and tatty, it was the handles that interested me. These parts of the furniture were all completely in tact and hardly tarnished. I began to think where these items of furniture had been all this time and who had used them and opened doors with them over the years. They were also again ornately patterned and beautiful and had great detail to begin collecting.

These photos were just a few of the many that I took on this trip and I do feel inspired with what I have found. The problem with this location is that I worry it is slightly too obvious. This is an untold story I am meant to be aiming for and I feel that the untold stories of these items and what they could have been used for, by whom etc is something that other people on the course might be doing.

I would like to go to the shop again (when it is less busy) and ask the people that work there about any items that really stand out to them in their mind, having been a little odd, or having a great personal story attached to them. It was really difficult on this first trip as there were only 2 members of staff and they were completely rushed off their feet (I hardly saw them) but I did take note of the type of people coming into to the shop. A lot of them seemed well known by the staff, frequent and local visitors perhaps and they all seemed to have an idea of what they were looking for.

Shoppers:

• Young student stuck to the box of vinyl meticulously flicking through each and every one to find that special track.
• The older woman on the hunt for a bargain in the shoe, bag and clothing section.
• The elderly man transfixed with the tools hanging up on the wall and in desperate need of special wall screws.
• The two young polish women needing a coffee table for their new house.

Possible ideas to look into:

• Stories behind certain items, how they were made/used/where they have been. A history.
• Why the items have been brought into the shop (item no longer needed by owner, humanising certain items, giving them a character etc)
• Collections, what you can find in a charity shop, strange, unique, outdated
• The people who shop in charity shops and the items they are looking for / likely to buy - stereotypes?
• The charity shop itself and its history. Where the proceeds go and the stories surrounding the people this money helps

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Field trip 2: The West Indian Centre

When thinking about possible locations to visit for my field trips, I found it helpful as a starting point to look into what interests me. A big influence for me, my work, my life is music. In particular, I am really into my Dub and Reggae and where is it that I am able to enjoy these types of music?- The West Indian Centre here in Chapel Town, Leeds.

I have to admit I am a frequent visitor, but as a venue I know very little about it. I just turn up late, party hard and leave in the early hours of the morning. That is it. Its a great time, but there must be more to this place than the events they hold here.

Research

Before actually visiting the centre, I wanted to do some secondary research into the place itself to get a good idea of its history and what it is about. I was so surprised by what I found.

• Established in 1979
• Founder: Ian Charles MBE
• Leeds West Indian Carnival held every year by the centre in Chapel Town
• Carnival began in 1967 and is a huge well known celebration, the largest West Indian carnival in Europe.
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• The centre began as a base and meeting place for the West Indian community in leeds - something the city was lacking.
• The centre houses the Leeds West Indian Women's Group, The Leeds West Indian Domino's Group and the Leeds West Indian Centre Charitable Trust.
• The venue not only holds musical events and is frequented by many students studying here in Leeds, but is also used as a base for all weddings, funeral services, christenings and parties within the west indian community.

In light of all this research, it is clear how important The West Indian Centre is to the West Indian population here in Leeds - something I knew nothing about. It has great standing within the community and doesn't seem in danger of becoming less popular any time soon.

For my field trip idea, I decided to buy tickets for a well known weekend event at the West Indian Centre known as Subdub. I have been many times before, but as this was running 2 nights in a row, I thought it would be a great idea and a good amount of time to get some first hand research. (Not an excuse to party I promise).

 

As you can imagine I have a million more photos from the weekend but these are a few that stood out to me and gave a good representation of the event.

Speaking to party goers at the event was a bit more of a challenge across the nights. I found it really hard to approach people in this environment as they were either way too messy (drink, drugs, etc) and I wasn't on their level, or they were having such a good time I didn't want to interrupt. Because of this, I decided to note down a few quotes that I heard throughout the event. (I need to become more confident speaking to strangers)

I did pluck up the courage however, to do some very quick drawing whilst I was there. I managed to have a few attempts at this before I had a growing number of people interrupting me, asking me what I was up too and why. At least I think that is what they were asking...it was difficult to understand what anyone was saying because of the insanely loud level of bass coming from the surrounding speakers. A few other quick drawings were done from the photos I had manage to get on the night.

Overall I think this visit to the West Indian Centre was a success. It refreshed my memory of the atmosphere at an event like this and helped to spark a few ideas of where I want this research to lead. I also think this location is vastly different to what other people on my course will be looking into - which cant be a bad thing as i am all about having a unique idea.

If I was to go to the centre again, I would like to go during the daytime as a contrast to this event and maybe attend one of the community clubs that they have going on and speak to the locals / staff that work there. There are bound to be stories personal to the people who use the centre that are only going to be found in speaking with people.


Possible Ideas to look into:

• History of the West Indian Centre
• What it is used for and its importance/place in society here in leeds
• The types of people who use the centre and the issue surrounding why - their story
• SubDub/Irration Steppas - a history of the night
• Dub music - its followers, message in the music, meditative
• A visual representation of the music/tracks played at an event
• An untold story of the night - a focus on experience and the types of things that go on/the people you meet at an event
• Stories behind the people that work here - day and night: bouncers, barmaids, cleaners, an event goer, event organiser, DJ's...a comparison between people and their story.