PDF of this week’s work available here, and via a link at the bottom of this entry: http://23045260.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/10/MECOB_MethodsofCataloguing3_lowres.pdf
ISSUU of booklet presented available here: https://issuu.com/mecob/docs/booklet_singlepages
NOTES POST TUTORIAL: – Original catalogue did not emphasise the buttons’ tone of voice, impact. New format of book and process of recontextualising shows their innate structure recombined for the purposes of this project. – At the start of the tutorial, I placed 100 hand made buttons on the table and gave the group 90 seconds to choose the 14 buttons in there that have been remade, this proves that if buttons are reconfigured, they still combine and work as buttons, even in a more concentrated way, ref my critical position at the end of the above pdf. – Emily, group member, enjoyed the exercise of identifying the buttons, agrees with my critical position above, insightful way of button structure discovery – Tutor responded more to the draft online button maker as a possible starting point for another iteration of this work. Suggested a button design toolkit as a possibility, involving audience choice, referencing modern issues, creating buttons from raw materials and process discovered thus far. – Broader discussion about outcomes with iterative, research-led process which I am trying to reconcile as the projects go on. Briefs do not ask for specific outcomes, and yet outcomes discussed in tutorials as well as the process to arrive at them. I’m learning to think earlier about iterative, enquiry-led working without a specific end point.
Crafting Conceptual Narratives in Editorial Illustration
with Sunnu Rebecca Choi
Oct 24, 2024
10:00–17:00
F205
Cross Year Studio
‘The workshop is designed to help students transform written content into engaging, thought-provoking visuals. Through activities focusing on word association, conceptual development, and visual composition, participants will learn how to interpret text and create images that enhance storytelling in an editorial context.’
——
Interesting workshop. I’ve been commissioning illustration for years, but rarely spoken about process outwith a specific brief and its context. It was fascinating taking to Rebecca. She guided us expertly through some informative examples including illustrators like David Plunkart, Louisa Jung and Paul Bow etc as well as her own work.
After an introduction we produced a mind map based on a given idiom, and then generated ideas using just a black road sicker as a starting point. After that, we realised our favourite idea in collage. I had forgotten how enjoyable ‘graphic play’ can be.
In the afternoon session we were given a text to work from, mine was ‘Is it Worse to Have No Climate Solutions – or to Refuse to Use Them?’. Using keyword extraction and association via a mind map again, we produced a more detail response in context of Rebecca’s Key Characteristics of Editorial Illustration. I found this exercise really valuable, something I often disregard because of speed in a commercial setting.
We all reviewed and discussed the days work at the end of the day.
My key takeaway is play and mind-mapping and an aid for ideas generation.
Today was interesting. In Methods of Investigation, I felt that I spent too much time digging into the material, and not enough time listening to my instincts. Whether that is a correct assumption will come out in the assessment I suppose.
This time, I wanted to be more instinctive with my response. This is also because I am still balancing the course with work commitments. This project is in much less time, but asks for the same amount of work. I am mindful of catalogue material choice and medium choice (how I’m working/classifying/end result), there is simply not time to dive into a new media or suddenly do metal sculpture. This needs to stay digital.
I classified the badges into groups of colour, graphic or typographic and noted down answers to the questions in the brief, see page 5 of the attached pdf:
What are the different components? How are they similar? How are they different? How are they held together, both formally and conceptually? How is your understanding of each component shaped by its relationship to the other parts in the set? Is there an identifiable ‘grammar’ within the system? What patterns are visible across the set? How is it presented, circulated, or accessed?
However, because of time constraints I could only allow 1.5 days on experimenting, so I went straight into the material without questioning my approach too much.
Pages 7-8 deal with representing the type on different badges in an opposing style form another badge. Asking if they take on a different tone when styled differently.
Page 9 overlays random badges, mixing themes to create something new.
Page 10 shows current version software historic badges, not from the collection. One grouper member responded well to this, as did tutor.
Pages 11-12 look at putting the badges into a new context, sometimes opposing the theme of the image. Recontextualising.
Pages 13-14 subvert the badges by breaking them up and recombining elements.
Page 15-16 – more recontextualising, photographic context and us elf digger tent circle motifs to replace the badge material.
Page 17 looks at shape, is the circle integral?
Page 18 – repeated messaging within single badges.
Pages 19-20 takes away any styling, just uses words and dingbats as an experiment.
Pages 21-23 break out graphics, looks at length of the message, and people involved in the badges.
———
The following questions came out of today:
Which method of recategorising/manipulating the material do I find most engaging?
Dissecting the badges and combing random elements.
What is my critical position on the badge catalogue at this point?
The original catalogue from Harvard is quite dry and formal, and does not echo the loud, confident tone of voice of the material.
I want to reframe the badges and understand their constituent parts in order to show their value clearly, and loudly. Can they have impact no matter what combinations there are?
In a wider context, the issues of protest badges are still around today and there is a pointlessness to them. Is it just fucked up and pointless? As the green badge on page 4 says: ‘WEARING BUTTONS is not enough’. I think this reclategorsiation/representation can make a comment about the value in the badges but ask if they are REALLY heard?
What form do I think the end result will take?
Some kind of recombination to make conclusions from. Could that be a game of some kind? Make your own protest badge? Could it be a pamphlet to show how buttons work? I think this last one is a little dry.
What are my next steps?
Take a random cross section, pull them apart, categorise, make conclusions, tink about a method of bringing them together and redefine my critical position on the old and new catalogues.
———
Batia Suter’s Parallel Encyclopedia and Marianne Wex’s Let’s Take Back Our Space discussed as good context.
See attached pdf of today’s work. http://23045260.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/10/MECOB_MethodsofCataloguing1_lowres-2.pdf
Takeaways from the workshop: – I now question my previous assumptions of classification, Linnaeus versus Borges a huge surprise, it makes me reflect on classification and the assumption of them being correct throughout my life, and hence my kids – I can now look critically at examples like The Encyclopaedia of Invisibility by Tavares Strachan with a wider gaze but also conscious even pieces of graphic design communication that look to reclassify, have their innate bias – Rich discussion overall, excellent contribution by everyone – Enjoyed interrogating Alexander Graham Bell kite photography, thinking creatively about societal groupings, involved societal systems, its assigned information and its impact on the associated societies, long list in response to the exercise making me think quite differently – Our varied life experiences informed discussion, particular emphasis on equity and power within societies – Marianne Wex example particularly interesting given ever persistent patriarchal biases worldwide – Interesting, broader discussion regarding museums and their validity, ref equity and power, economy above
Action points: choose and book Archive Tour, start required reading.
Unit 1 / Methods of Investigating / Written Response
Mark Ecob, MAGCD1, October 2024
I usually walk past graffiti, or glance at it from a train. I like the way it looks but can’t read it properly. It’s vandalism anyway, right?
In my local skate park, it occupies bins, poles, benches, ramps, fences and walkways. It claims the space. Like the Xerography typical of 1970s New York, also viewed as a form of vandalism, this concrete canvas informs you that you’ve arrived in an urban scene, subculture or active social movement. (Eichhorn, K, 2016). Executed using widely available spray paint and pen, like the low-cost production of photocopied posters, these large areas of graffiti constantly shift as new elements are added over each other in an indiscernible hierarchy.
Whilst similar to the layered structure of the posters that took over construction hoardings on the Lower East Side in the last decades of the 20th century, which clearly spoke for the work of artists, musicians or just regular citizens with a cause (Eichhorn, K, 2016), graffiti can often seem exclusively intended for those who speak its language. Tags, for example, act like a signature and a disguise simultaneously, so that the authorities can’t identify you as a vandal, but your peers can identify with you as an artist.
Bodies of graffiti such as the panels of the skate ramp at my location can act like Pollock-esque pieces of art in themselves within a wider context, but to break down their structure and begin to comprehend their form and meaning, I have learned to see differently.
“You must set about it more slowly, almost stupidly. Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most colourless” (Perec, G, 1999, p.50).
By slowing down and focussing on the elements in front of me, like Perec I learned to focus on my subject directly and repeatedly. His dissection of the built environment using different written descriptions is mirrored in my use of photography and Adobe photoshop to peel back layers of graffiti and to see how they evolve over time. I too visualised the sedimentary layers of my subject, but instead of a network beneath Paris streets upon a rich Eocene, mine were intersecting and hidden pieces of wall art applied over decades (Perec, G, 1974).
Like a graphic archaeologist, my dissection of the site enabled me to observe a dense, interconnected ecosystem of graphic marks that constantly evolves. After exhaustive categorisation and a quantitative approach, recreating and copying directly from the source allowed me to physically connect with it in a way other methods did not, something I look forward to exploring more.
REFERENCE LIST
Eichhorn, K (2016) Adjusted Margin : Xerography, Art, and Activism in the Late Twentieth Century, MIT Press.
Perec, G ([1974] 1999) Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, London: Penguin.
Between 2nd and 3rd tutorials I dissected and categorised a full set of 47 graffiti tags from my chosen site:
The tags were categorised by medium, colour, location, orientation and length. The statistical results were as follows:
Results from a total of 47 tags:
MEDIA: Spray paint 34, pen 10, paint 3
COLOURS: Black 28, red 8, yellow 3, pink, 3, purple 1, blue 1, green 1, white 2.
VERTICAL OR SLOPED. Vertical 22, sloped 23, flat 2.
WHICH FACE? NW 1, SW 29, NE 7, NW 6, SE 2, TOP 2
Looking more deeply, I queried whether there was a way of distilling my results into a single tag that was representative of the tags on the entire ramp. To do this, I had to consider it more visually, qualitatively. I looked rti find the right balance of some of these common factors:
• playfulness with typographic conventions like baseline and tracking • legibility • length
After finding what I considered to be the most representative tag on the ramp, I felt there was another level of investigation to explore. I wanted to connect to the subject more directly, so I measured the tag, marked an area in which to place it, sourced the materials and began experimenting on both vertical and horizontal surfaces.
This brought a connection with the subject I did not experience using other methods. After multiple experiments, I made deep conclusions about how a tag is executed and the skill it takes to do so.
Armed with this new connection, I looked again at the tag selection and created a visual glossary of the tags on the ramp:
I was able to make practical and social conclusions based on a connection I found between the sense of ownership of tagging something, and its meaning in the community, a group of people claiming a space as their own to realise its benefits to all its users. Earlier interviews and general research provided informative context here, particularly audio and transcript. Conclusions pasted in here, word form below:
FINDINGS
PRECONCEPTIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS
– It is just a skatepark
– A place of antisocial behaviour amongst particularly young people
– Graffiti is vandalism
– Graffiti is indecipherable
– Graffiti is easy to do yourself
METHODS
– Sketching, recording sounds and notetaking all had different value in recoding the site and its users
– Photographing proved the most insightful and effective method
– Digital dissection allowed me to narrow my focus over time
– It produced an evolving data set that I returned to make evaluations and conclusions
– Process has shown that I have had an indirect impact on the form of the tags
GENERAL
– Dissection allows dense areas of graffiti to be categorised
– The breadth and visual value of graffiti becomes clear through dissection and categorisation
– The language is English
– Uses Latin characters and symbols
– Throw-ups take the most surface area despite small number
– Three personified forms
– Three stickers
– Complete lack of posters/“paste-ups”
– Spray paint or pen
– Most graffiti executed on concrete
– Some graffiti executed on metal areas
– Graffiti on the rear has suffered the most because of grass and moisture
– Graffiti resting on concrete base has not lost degraded because of moisture
– Some small interesting graphics done in pen
– Degradation over time due to weathering
– Graffiti evolves as new items are added
SPECIFIC TO TAGS
– More tags than any other form of graffiti
– Legibility is mixed suggesting encoding
– Majority executed in spray paint
– Thicker lined tags commensurate with spray paint or paint
– Thinner lined tags commensurate with pen
– Black dominant colour
– More typographic forms than graphic or abstract
– Tight tracking
– Mix of upper and lowercase
– Often ignore a baseline
– Symbols and graphics can be incorporated with characters
– Underlines provide added emphasis
– Tags require skill to execute
– Tags are executed quickly because of spray paint
– Lines suggest both flowing movements and shorter bursts
– A tag acts like a signature
– Tags are visually impactful when isolated
– Tags are impactful when they are involved with other graffiti
– Layering of tags and other artwork implies community and hierarchy
– Tags mostly are singular not plural
– Most tags situated on south west face of ramp
– Largest surface area for more people to see the graffiti
– Recreation of the tags enable me to connect with the subject more deeply
SOCIAL
The critical investigation of this single ramp within the skatepark has questioned my assumptions about them as a public space and the graffiti that typically covers them.
The ramp acts as a canvas, on which a deep ecosystem of marks in various media exists. It simultaneously evolves and decays. Executing graffiti is both a specialised skill and a claim to the physical space.
There is a clear link between the tagging, the ownership it implies and its importance in the community.
Through interviewing various stakeholders including local councillors, parents, skaters, photographers, park rangers and founders of the Frome Skate Park Project, I have concluded that the skatepark is a multitude of things to different people:
– A place to skate, though poorly designed and insufficient, according to skaters
– A place for physical and mental wellbeing.
– A place where young people may not feel as judged as they do elsewhere in the community.
– A place for artists, though they ‘need more walls to paint on as the old ramps have become layered from at least 5 years of solid painting’
It is not just a skatepark.
CONTINUED STUDY
By reenacting more graffiti marks and interviewing local artists, deeper links could be established between the marks themselves and their social context. More qualitative, visceral research methods like copying could encourage a deeper emotional understanding.
The taggers’ work reaches far beyond the skate park.
————
NOTES FROM AFTER PRESENTATION
I printed and mounted the work in 7 A1 prints, so that we could engage with the tags at scale and in broad context. I showed almost all of my findings and it was received well.
This week’s presentation showed a concentration on one single ramp within the skate park, the ‘bank with cop quarter’, and a choice of one method of investigation – dissection.
After researching types of graffiti (tag, throw-up, paste-up etc), I categorised the various pieces of graffiti over the four faces of the ramp using a process of dissection. This involved taking detailed photographs, cutting out each item of graffiti, experimenting with different layer styles in Adobe Photoshop, image inversion, masking to decipher forms from one another. Though never truly exhaustive because elements can remain completely hidden or significantly weathered or disrupted, it was enough to mine each face of the ramp to break out its contents.
During the process I felt like an archeologist. The ramps are over 20 years old, with myriad layers of marks and affecting by weathering over time, making the process even more involved. There were ‘eureka’ moments when forms or words suddenly jumped out. I am mindful of this almost archeological process and my influence upon it, unintentional editing can happen.
After categorisation, I left the material overnight in order to look at it afresh the next day. This enabled me to start digesting it, and I made the following unedited notes.
‘Observations
– more tags than anything else, come very prolific – NONE/NONER and ROAR found often, they are part of a group named the EMBER BOYS and can be found grouped together. Most often done in a black spray paint.
– black and white dominant colours for tags
– more typographic forms than graphic/abstract
– throw-ups take the most surface area despite their small number –
approx 12
– three personified forms
– just three stickers, lack of paste-ups
– generally spray paint or pen, painted tags on metal areas
– some old throw-ups have maintained their quality
– graffiti on the rear has suffered the most because of its situation? Closer to grass and moisture, and yet the degradation provides a really nice visual quality
– graffiti on the sides has maintained quality
– quality of throw-ups varies
– some interesting graphics, small, done in pen
– real degradation over time, a lot lost in translation
– the graffiti seems to need its neighbours to work, it needs to sit in the busyness to be effective? Is there strength in numbers?
– stripping back illos to black, most common form, means all sorts of illustrative applications
– possible to make short phrases or pieces of communication combining symbols, throw-ups and tags. Interesting!’
Also, more deeply:
‘What do I see?
There is an ecosystem in graffiti.
My preconception of it being impenetrable, a mess even, was wrong because I was judging, not seeing. By dissecting it, cataloguing it, then restoring and reassembling, I can see that combining the graffiti is itself a method of communication. Initially I felt like an archeologist, exploring and finding new things and then I quickly felt like a trespasser and zoomed out.
It has a life of its own as a composite, ever-evolving. Between days of studying the ramp, new artwork would appear which was both frustrating and beautiful!
Even though graffiti art can be a competition on a wider scale, and that there is a hierarchy within it of standard, risk taken etc. This single ramp has shown me that it holds a composite art form new to me. It’s not a mess, it’s a deep, layered entity that communicates visually and hence emotionally. Can the graffiti of the park itself reflect the frustration of the park users? Throw-ups and tags, and these clearer lines below are all expressions of emotion, both positive and negative.’
Once I had prepared this material and made conclusions, I asked myself ‘what next?’. So, ignoring multiple ideas for yet more outcomes, which was my issue from Tutorial 1, I simply combined elements, grouped them, attempting another layer of investigation.
I found this was a doorway to more experiments and that the combinations of graffiti elements formed their own language.
I found these really interesting, and wondered about looking at the rest of the park for inspiration, but that is where I stopped before Tutorial 2, on Tuesday 8th October.
——
Post-tutorial notes, 9/10/24
I had a great tutorial yesterday. I felt like I was on the right track going in.
Similar to the other students in the group, there is yet another layer of investigation to do in order to get this enquiry to fruition. I need to balance this with practicality over the next week to meet the deadlines for all the material, amongst my other commitments.
The tutor and the group approved of my intent to use the dissection method as a kind of graphic archeology. I find this fascinating. Angel, a group member, felt like the later graffiti was a conversation with the earlier graffiti, like talking to a person from the past. I found this really insightful.
We discussed classification of the graffiti at length and the idea of creating a kind of language out of it, but that too few like pushing for an outcome rather than the natural conclusion of an enquiry, focussing on graphic design as research driven.
With that in mind, my intent is to dig deeper into the material of the ramp, ideally the tags, as they hint at the next level of detail. I will consider zooming in further, and categorising the tags by more detailed rules such as position on the ramp, what media was used, its orientation, its clarity, what texture is it on (metal or concrete).
This will give me some material to consider, I will then repeat the process of last week and look with fresh eyes to see what I can discover. Therein, I’ll consider a final outcome and its render. I am thinking some kind of typographic response, a glossary or index of sorts of the graffiti on the ramp, perhaps a set of characters and/or glyphs based on the material.
Cross-year studio / XY.B / Alphabet as Infrastructure
Rebecca and Cai
3/10/24
Group: Mark, Zeina, Virgil, Jingyi, Danxi, Nicks
In a group we discussed questions such as:
1 – How do writing systems change over time, and what aspects of them persist change?
2 – Who controls the alphabets we use?
3 – In what ways can alphabets reflect cultural or personal identity?
In answer, we all contributed to a rich discussion in which we talked about the following:
1
Danxi described that in China, over time and the increase of the territory through expansion meant that new ways of communicating were assimilated dynastically. So the alphabet(s) were enriched through geopolitical change. We also discussed the impact and technology, from pen to laptop, coding, and its impact on writing systems.
Broadly, we discussed how individuality helps resist change.
2
Initially we spoke about rich, white men that tend to rule the media and tech landscape. Murdoch, Musk, Zuckerberg. But by contrast, younger generations will continually influence language and writing systems through platforms like TikTok and Influencers. I referenced the generational gap between how my son and I communicate with our peers.
We discussed literacy and access to learning being a factor.
Because of this constant evolution of semantics, structure and media, we concluded that NO ONE controls alphabets and writing systems completely. It’s an evolution in and of itself.
3
Personal names and pronouns
Fashion labels that we all wear, or do NOT wear
Regional dialects
Handwriting
Zeina contributed a very interesting point regarding two local Indian dialects in Southern India, where originally alphabets and writing were done on trees. The shape and form of the trees directly informed the shape and height of the letterforms. Nature influencing human communication.
BRIEF
We chose ‘works only in the dark’ as our random scenario in which to create of set of characters.
Initially, we discussed sounds combined with tactile elements to communicate. Our first ideas were around the different types of positives and negative across our various language, the tone, noises, idiosyncrasies in how our parents spoke to us as kids. The discussion was fun, and we learnt a lot about each other. It was great.
After a short break, we decided against using tactile elements to use directly to communicate by touch, instead we decided to use them to create sounds to create our alphabet.
Objects included:
– paper
– metal cutlery
– A small bag of polystyrene packing material
– metal nails
– a pen, clicking
– polystyrene shape
To give our project structure, I volunteered to be the subject of a blind direction exercise, where we use simple commands (making up the ten characters in the brief) to direct me across a room and to a chair. The instructions were:
– YES/START – polystyrene bag
– NO/STOP – metal nails
– LEFT – paper
– RIGHT – pen
– UP – High voice
– DOWN – low voice
– SAFE – polystyrene shape
– DANGER – metal cutlery
We asked the class to venture out into the corridor to watch me walk a 5-8 metre path around two stools as obstacle, randomly placed by the group. I was unable to see, but thanks to my group I was able to make it to the chair via the instructions without injury!
TAKEAWAYS
I found watching the rest of the group’s projects informative, it had made me stop and question alphabets and how we use them, what governs the systems I take for granted as I communicate as a human. Its context internationally because of the varied cohort was very interesting. Cai and Rebecca gave some great content, the Norwegian (I think) example was excellent!
The group work was great, I now know people in year 2.
Finally, the most important theme for me across this brief and Methods of Investigating is a process of ‘unlearning’ my automatic responses as a designer, to sort and LOOK.
Location choice: Frome Skate Park, Mary Berry Playing Fields, Frome, BA11
Rationale: I have never skated and have general assumptions of skate parks as associated with antisocial behaviour. This lack of connection with the subject made it perfect for me to study, a blank slate which would challenge those preconceptions and encourage me to look deeper. It was also close to where I live, essential to have ease of access with my commute to London.
The area has interesting architectural elements in the form of the ramps , which are adorned with dense graffiti over the last 20 years or more. It consists of 4 skate elements:
– Bank with cop quarter, with guard rail
– Pyramid with ledge
– Bench
– Flatrail
– Bowl corner with guard rail
– Double Vert ramp with spine ramp
Located within a roughly 30m x 50m2 concrete area. The also uses 5 benches, 2 bins. Set with grass around it. More context of the area is available.
Initial research included sitting in the space at various times of day. I did rough sketches of the forms people took whilst skating, waiting, playing. Situated close to a school, there were inevitable peaks in how busy the skate park was which was also weather dependent. Sketching and noting down a flow of words associated with the site gave me a feel of connection to it, the emotions it evoked in its user. I recorded atmospheric sounds including playing, wheels on the ramps, shouting, parents talking, an ice cream van. I photographed the site, in broad context and in more detail, cutting up the pieces of graffiti on yeti sides of the ramps, which brought an interesting angle of study. Something to pick up later.
The first weekend of the project, there was an event organised by the Frome Skate Park campaign, which aims to develop and improve the site. I attended, repeating the same process of sketching, recording, noting, photographing people. I also interviewed stakeholders in the project including organisers, families with kids, an attending photographer, local councillors. I transcribed these interviews and picked out evocative phrases and sentences which spoke to me as a raw material.
Alongside my broader research, including obtaining plans for the old and new skate parks and the above interviews, I mined social media content form users of the park. They contain thoughts about the park, and are interesting in their use of language. All these gave me a very deep engagement with the emotional links of the park to the people, positive and negative.
After gathering this material over a week, I started to look ahead to experiments such as a stencil overlay of the positive comments to be used subtly in the space. With the permission of the park keepers I started to spray paint these as an experiment. I also took the audio I recorded and placed it with repeating images of the social media messages in Adobe Premier, which I hadn’t used before. As a medium it’s quite exciting but the results taught me little I didn’t know already, the ‘seeing’ the brief mentioned was elluding me.
After my first tutorial, it was clear that I had engaged deeply with the site and its meaning, but not in its physical form enough, its inherent information or patterns within it. I tended to reach for an outcome rather than concentrating on the process leading ME. This is not surprising after a long career creating outcomes sometimes at the expense of process.
With that in mind, I have made a choice to concentrate on a single ramp to narrow the study. I will be looking at two routes over the next week to look more deeply, one involving deconstruction of the graffiti and another the social observation and patterns therein – how people physically use the site. Therein I hope to choose a single direction and have a data set of sorts, with no attention given to an outcome as yet.
I was advised to look into the dialectograms of Mitch Miller and Oliver Kugler’s environmental portraits as reference points.
