Tit For Tat For Tates

In a recent visit to both the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern in London I saw a huge range of work which I found interesting both in terms of content and curation/presentation:

Gustav Metzger at the Tate Modern - heat-sensitive liquid crystals between

glass slides inserted into projectors - bean bags on the floor for the viewer to

sit or lie on creates a deeply immersive atmosphere

Bernd and Hilla Becher - Water Towers (Wassertürme) - a room full of

identical documentation style photography makes for an endlessly

fascinating account of one particular industrial landscape feature

Lorna Simpson - 5 Day Forecast (above) and 20 Questions (below) - 

a touch of humour and irony in the repetition of images and labelling

Rachel Lowe - A Letter To An Unknown Person No. 2 - film, Super 8 mm, shown as 

colour video, artists drawing the landscape on glass from a moving vehicle,

the landscape is the letter, something satisfying about not writing words

Rebecca Horn - Unicorn

Rebecca Horn - Finger Gloves

Rebecca Horn - Pencil Mask

Interesting sculptural performances - focuses on the

movement or the inhibition of movement of the body

Wade Guyton Untitled at the Tate Modern

'Guyton's painting was made by sending a digital file to print on a primed canvas fed through a large Epsom printer. In this case, the canvas was folded in half, passed through the printer, flipped, then passed through again. This process resulted in misregistrations between the two halves of the canvas and a white seem down the middle. Further aberrations were created by the printed head clogging with ink, and the canvas falling into the studio floor. What finally emerges is a texted surface whose delicacy cannot be predicted from the original image in a computer screen.'

Unknown - screen inside a screen inside a screen

OUGD402 - Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding Initial Ideas

'Design, develop and produce self branding that effectively communicates and promotes you as an individual, designer and learner. To inform your design decisions you should reflect upon your learning aspirations and design direction. You should aim to communicate the context of your interests by referencing specific designers, studios, principles and audiences where necessary.'

In order to generate initial ideas for this project I started to undertake research into how other artists and designers promoted themselves. I found that online research did not present me with many ideas, particularly among young graphic designers, other than business cards and instagram accounts. I also felt like any ideas that I gained from looking at this online research wouldn't feel genuine to the project or to myself - whatever I produced had to be characteristic of me as a creative, and so I eventually abandoned this form of research. 

However, during a visit to a DIY Art Market in London I found inspiration from how the artists I saw there promoted their work and passed on contact details when they made a sale. The market showcased a diverse range of practitioners, selling art prints, zines, independent publications, illustrations, ceramics, jewellery etc. Each seller had a unique way of passing on their details to interested parties: one graphical artist had made 'missing cat' flyers with his details on the bottom, one illustrator simply wrote out his details on whatever the customer happened to be holding at the time, and one ceramicist had imprinted his details into the bottom of his sculptural pieces. It was clear to me that the best way to approach this brief was to make the work as personal as possible, and to utilise the skills and artistic approaches that I used most often within my work. 

In order to this I looked at the back catalogue of work I have produced through high school, my Foundation Course, and so far at LCA to try and find common denominators that would link this promotional piece to my practices. Brief initial ideas therefore included making a publication of some kind, a poster series, or  a pack of collectible items (cards, prints, physical items etc). A lot of my work is physical in some form, whether that's through simply a physical format like a book, or being physically made using processes such as screenprinting, and so I knew I wanted this particular element to be present in this new piece of work. 

I also had a variety of other ideas that would push me to create something new to help represent myself. These included:

1.  A personalised rubber stamp that I could use to print my name onto a variety of surfaces
2. A framed physical specimen of a piece of work, so that I would almost be curating a collection of pieces, and gifting or loaning them to people I would like to work with
3. Some kind of projection piece that would involve individual parts (words, images, colours, patterns printed on acetate) to be used on an overhead project to project a collage of images and text onto any surface. This way potential collaborators could choose the colours, patterns and text they liked, which would allow both myself and the collaborator to gain a better understanding of each other and our preferences
4. Something bodily physical - a physical act or part of a performance I would undertake whenever I met a potential collaborator to see how they would react to me and my ideas in a certain situation.

During one of the first critiques for this project I discussed these ideas with a selection of other students. Creating a rubber stamp seemed to be a common idea among the group and so I ruled this out as too obvious an idea. There was positive feedback for the projection idea, however it was pointed out that not everyone would have access to an overhead projector or some other way of projecting the pieces. Although it was suggested that a window could be used instead, the same effect would not be given.

After another discussion with a tutor it was agreed that I should return to the idea of using my own skills and preferred mediums to create this piece of work. From this I decided that creating a publication, in either a book or a zine format, would be the most appropriate for me as I have a strong interest in publication design and production. I like to create order within my work, I like to collect works together, and I like my works to have a tactile quality. It would also allow me to showcase myself within the publication itself, and also fully represent my creative ideals as a whole.