kieranturnbullkingston

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Week 5 & 7: Photo-Essay Script

Today, I’ll be boring/ no talking to you about screen printing and its impact on the fashion industry as well as explaining why printing has caused high end fashion and streetwear to blur in the last 10 years.

Despite screen printing dating all the way back to China’s Song Dynasty, where it was used to make money, it became popular in the 1960’s thanks to the development of the Rotary Garment Screen Printing Machine.

Although many claims Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe print was responsible for this, in my eyes it was Sister Nun Corita Kent’s surprisingly provocative prints that actually sparked the revolution.

Throughout her time, she focused on creating Matisse inspired colour palettes with political and socially charged messaging. Those included ‘The American Sampler’ that perfectly portrayed the chaos and lack of faith in the American justice system thanks to its handling of the Vietnam War, as well as alluding to the Civil Rights Movement and JFK’s Assassination through graphic Typography.

Similar activism was adopted by Vivienne Westwood and her husband, Malcolm LcLaren in the 1970’s where the artists supplied Revolutionary Illustrations for the likes of the Sex Pistols that featured images such as, The Queen with a Pin Through Her Face and even the Nazis Symbol, to say a few.

The collective’s aim was to shock and rile the masses, which it certainly did, where they were labelled as punks. Yet in Westwood’s eyes, they were no longer accepting the taboos and values of the establishment.

Although this explicit content brough the couple fame and popularity, it was Westwood’s transition into Couture and Ready-To-War Clothing that truly shook fashion. Many of the designer’s collections parodied the Upper Classes borrowing from Victorian Clothing, either printing or accentuating certain elements with sexual undertones and Westwood’s fetish style. Straps, spikes and plaid were everthing!

Whilst this was all going on, ‘Comme De Garcons’ Rei Kawa-kubo was sparking her own controversy with her Fall 1982 Collection ‘Destroy’. Adopting a Monochromatic silhouette, Garments were drapey with Unfinished Frayed Edges.

Similarly, her clothes were labelled ‘Funeral Attire’, yet unlike Westwood however; Rei’s Aim was All About Challenging Presence with Absence where by abstracting shapes, materials and surfaces, It Forced the Viewer to focus on the garment’s nuances and shades.

I personally call this Implicit Punk as it Totally went against the orthodox of Western Beauty as Rei’s Cuts are not about how they make you look, But Ultimately About how they make you feel.

This sentiment along with Westwood’s radicalism can and would easily be identified throughout the Collections of Fashion’s Next Influential Designers.

Whether that be Helmut Lang’s use of Unconventional Materials, Jean Paul Gaultier’s tattoo mesh inspired long sleeves, Vitmons Meme Worthy Slogans or Raf Simons Overall Utilitarian Feel.

While High Fashion may have become more and more avant-garde, Screen Printing provided many Streetwear brands such as Bape and Stussy, A Spring Board to Eventually Break Through.

The Unconventional would Again Be Finally Embraced and thanks to the likes of Mr Kim Jones and Virgil Abloh, Printing is More Evident Than Ever.

With All That Said ….. Hey maybe Alexander McQueen was right, The Machines Really Are Taking Over due to the gradual growth of Direct-To-Garment Printing which is not only responsible in creating Difficult, Personalised Illustrations But May One Day Take Control of Garment Printing Entirely!

This is Something I want to Explore and Take a Further Look Into For My Dissertation. Thank you for listening.

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Week 5: Cartooning The Other

The chosen villain I have selected is Kaa from the original Walt Disney Animation ‘The Jungle Book’, 1967. Despite the devious python being soft spoken and appearing slender in size, it is the character’s hypnosis of the eyes that somewhat threatens the narrative’s protagonist, Mowgli, whilst leaving others such as his guardian, Bagherra, to be highly suspicious. This is further exemplified by the psychedelic sounds of a repeated flute and sitar that puts those in an otherworldly or vulnerable sleepy state, which is a reasoning why the character emphasises his ‘S’s’ and ironically correlates with Kaa’s slithering motion.  

In spite of these unusual ways of seduction, his mild fear does not resonate in comparison to the true villain of this film’s jungle, Shere Khan, who is inferiorly both stronger and larger in size. It is Kaa’s single interaction with this intimidating tiger that particularly deviates the snake’s role from the norm as despite explicitly being afraid of Khan, he willingly hides Mowgli. Whether this is in order to kill the protagonist for himself is somewhat of a debate having previously tried to eat Mowgli, yet the small child is never depicted as being afraid of Kaa. Conceivably this might be due to the character having blatant defects, such as being highly absent minded where on numerous occasions, the python distracts himself by going into song, ‘Trust in me’ is a perfect example of this. Overall, Kaa is an unconventional character who is portrayed as acting on his own agenda who ultimately does not care what happens to those around him and as a result acts as an entertaining foil in his limited screen time.

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Week 3: Animation

‘The Headlands’ - A sequence from The Beatles animated film, ‘Yellow Submarine’, 1968. 

(Set Task: Select an example of an animated film or live action film that includes animation. Pick a particular moment or short sequence and post a link to it on the blog, for analysis in class).

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Interaction of Text and Image

I chose this page from Art Spiegelman’s legendary graphic novel, ‘Maus’ as I am fascinated how the comic artist has showcased loss and memory compositionally through his frame structure. 

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Gab’s Eastern Animation Questions

Kieran: Lil Gab I know you love your Eastern Animations; how exactly did you get into this specific genre in the first place? 

Angel Gabriel: My love for film was the main catalyst as to how I stumbled upon Animation. I had always stayed up late watching Leone, Coppola, Scorsese films from a younger age than I should’ve and one day stumbled upon a film called the girl who leapt through time that was on film 4 late at night, from that point on I couldn’t stop stumbling upon other eastern animations.

Kieran: What are some of your favourites?

Angel Gabriel: To add to the first question, I was also heavily interested in eastern film, with almost all the films of Akira Kurosawa, Chinese films like in the mood for love and Chungking express, as well as the Korean Memories of murder kept me within the eastern environment while my focus on their animation was stabilising. Some of my favourites include Satoshi Kons Perfect Blue, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, and takahatas Grave of the fireflies as films but among eastern series: Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Slam Dunk to name a few...

Kieran: Are most of these Studio Ghibli Productions?

Angel Gabriel: Studio Ghibli films are definitely a gateway into eastern animation for me (as I’m sure they are with many in the west, especially from Miyazaki’s reach on viewers and directors) and will forever be its own comfortable world engulfing films. Not that they are the focus for me but they’re definitely not uninvolved. I believe to me Ghibli films from the main 3 directors will forever hold a part of the foundation of eastern animation, for myself and all viewers.

Kieran: Are most Eastern Animations you like specifically Japanese Productions?

Angel Gabriel: In terms of eastern animation then without a doubt Japanese animation.

Kieran: Why has Japan almost become the “hub” of Eastern Animation or am I wrong?

Angel Gabriel: Japan is definitely the centre; I’m assuming from the background of manga that really is the birthplace of anime itself.

Kieran: Other than its visual style, what is the main difference would you say between Western and Eastern Animations?

Angel Gabriel: I believe the main difference between eastern and western animation is the fact that at least from an early age only (western is now learning from the east), eastern animation understood how to pause, how to take a breath in film (moments of real emotional or inward thinking physically shown). An example in Spirited Away when Chihiro is on her train journey, or even when she taps her toe when putting on her shoes. These are moments that are real, a pause- they don’t hinder the narrative with unnecessary scenes but rather add to the fragility of the character.

Kieran: Why do you prefer Eastern Animations?

Angel Gabriel: I prefer Eastern Animation (pretty much Japanese animation) literally because of these pauses, or these additions to character building. The flat (ukiyo E) look seen throughout these animations (influenced from they’re woodblock prints) has such a distinct, powerful yet calming appearance as well.

Kieran: Over the last 20 years, I can see how Eastern Animation has highly influenced Western Animation, with the Boondocks being one that comes to mind, how do you feel about this?

Angel Gabriel: I feel greatly that you westerners are finally learning from the East, definitely seen in work such as Boondocks, Steven Universe, Adventure time, avatar etc....

Kieran: Do you think it’s affected the quality of either productions?

Angel Gabriel: It’s definitely affected the production as the popularity is generating so much more revenue than it did, mainly why there’s been an addition of CGI to the hand drawn effect, which in some case I guess could be seen as a negative.

Kieran: Finally, cause I’m a dick, what do you think of Scarlett Johnson’s Ghost In a Shell film? (Laughterrrr)

Angel Gabriel: You know I won’t watch that shit, don’t remake a classic. Just as they unfortunately remade death note and the soon to be remake of Cowboy bebop. Don’t remake a classic unless your Scorsese with the Departed... even know it’s not as good as infernal affairs u dig.

My Thoughts –  

When looking back over the interview, it’s funny how staying up late and watching films on Film4 was exactly the same way I become enamoured with the genre. Yet rather than just the Scorsese’s or the Coppola’s resulting in Gab discovering the golden ages of cinema, it also led him to the world of Eastern films. I also found it particularly interesting why Gabriel loves Eastern Animation and how its films don’t generally try to rush their narratives.

The informal questions I was able to come up with was because I’ve known Gab for years. We always talk films so when looking back, I should have probably done more in depth background research on specific directors or animators and the techniques they use to make their masterpieces. At times it felt more like a conversation rather than an interview, which I still don’t know is a good or bad thing.  

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Words About Images

An MSNBC article regarding ‘Aloha’ film - “But the group Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) says that the film has almost no non-white actors and no non-white principal characters despite being set in an extremely diverse state”.

This article sums up exactly what’s wrong with Hollywood today. Despite labelling itself as all-inclusive and forward thinking, many of its films still suffer from a lack of diversity. Coming from an industry where only 45% of its films passed the Bechdel Test in 2015, ‘Aloha’ is simply a crystal-clear example of this. A standard romcom tale, director Cameron Crowe decided to depict this in Hawaii where over 70%” of its population are non-white, yet there is only one actual Hawaiian character cast in a very very minor supporting role. Even worse not only did the studio back ‘Aloha’ at the time, but more importantly it’s biggest star, Rachel McAdams, tried to justify Crowe’s despicable actions by the fact he did a “blessing to kick off the film” and took the crew “to watch live Hawaiian music”. This appropriation does not account to knowing a population’s culture let alone only using it as pretty movie backdrop. 

From the Quarterly Journal of Speech – ‘Anger Among Allies: Audre Lorde's 1981 Keynote Admonishing the National Women's Studies Association’ -  “Regarding Savvy, Lorde wrote that the “straight white women’s media” had used her “article on breast cancer” and illustrated it “with pictures of a thin, young, white woman””.

After having read this particular chapter from the Quarterly Journal of Speech, this was just one of a handful of racist incidences that writer, Audre Lorde unfortunately experienced during the late 1970’s. I found it again interesting how Feminist magazines in America such as the ‘Savvy’” claimed to represent all women, similarly to Hollywood, yet for many black female writers such as Lorde, these publications purposely chose to depict only “all-white material”. It was especially surprising to read how Lorde had a “public confrontation with radical feminist Mary Daly”. This was over Daly’s exclusion of the “Black goddesses from her book ‘Gyn/Ecology’, even though the sentiment of the writer’s book was arguing how “Christianity and other religious perpetuated patriarchy”. Make’s no sense! These incidences alone gave me further understanding to not only why ethnic minorities formed their own feminist groups such as ‘The Sisterhood’ and ‘Where We At’, but also Alison Walker’s infamous explanation of the difference between ‘womanists’ and ‘feminists’.

“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender”.

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Different Drawing Exercises

Task 1 - Drawing a scene in-situ - Directly drawing from observation of the Millennium Bridge  

Task 2 - Drawing a scene in-situ - Utilising my memory and words I noted when I initially recorded this area

Task 3 - Drawing a feeling you experience - Inspired by a walk in Richmond Park that reminded me of the walks my family and I would go on when visiting friends in Dorset over the Summer break

Task 4 - Drawing a memory from your childhood - Whenever my family and I would go up North and visit my Grandma, without hesitation, she would always offer not just any old Digestive biscuit but “Marks And Spencer's Digestives!” For some reason this has always stuck with me to this day. 

Task 5 - Business Man ignoring the Homeless

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Visualising Theory

“So far from realizing philosophy, the spectacle philosophizes reality, and turns the material life of everyone into a universe of speculation”.

Yellow Journalism that is used by ‘supposed’ unbiased major news outlets such as Fox News and BBC News, to legitimise their own point of view, blending the line between fact and fiction.

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Portfolio Continuation

Today we continued the previous weeks task of constructing a digital portfolio, but rather in this lecture we specifically focused on the ways which you could create a coherent flow. Through varying examples of previous students works, we were shown definitive guidelines that I found to be significantly helpful for finalising my own portfolio. 

Screenshots of the layout of ex-student Rivolo Benedetta’s portfolio.

The layout of Rivolo Benedetta was an example that particularly stood out to me as this artist had a distinctive to and fro action throughout, with a busier page against a far simply composed one, as well as visually packing an incredible amount of information in only twenty slides. I also noted Ellie Dempsey’s portfolio in my RSJ which may have been far more limited due to it having been tailor made for certain jobs, but still provided exciting ways of showcasing the development and research processes that chronologically lead up to a finalised outcome. 

Screenshots of the layout of ex-student Ellie Dempsey’s portfolio.

After the lesson, I quickly thumbnailed some ideas I had when listening to our tutors talk. One of my main concerns that quickly arose was that certain photographs of my outcomes such as the wire sculptures of ‘Urban Tribes’ or most of my‘Visual Diary’ drawings, would have to be retaken again. This is due to wanting to showcase the appropriate locations that I initially intended these outcomes to be viewed upon as well as altering the angles to overall make my designs more appealing. Lastly, I know I will also have to screenshot the frames of my varying animations as you cannot upload videos onto InDesign unfortunately. The timing of all this is definitely something that I will have to account for within these remaining weeks.

Varying photographs of some of my initial ideas for presenting my digital portfolio.

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Process and Portfolio

In today’s lesson we were briefed on our new project ‘Process and Portfolio’. Having been requested to construct a digital portfolio of twenty pages, within this account it should reflect not only work from this academic year, but more importantly our unique character and personality as illustrators/animators. 

Shown below, we looked at a variety of ways to potentially present our work:

- Edited Sequence - Print/Pdf portfolio or Showreel

- Archival or experimental - Archival websites or Experimental websites, the initial is where work is categorised and stored in a chronological manner. The latter however; is where work is more of an active home page for noting a brand for instance.

- Diarised or anecdotal - blogs or social media sites, where work is personal and occurs as the illustrator creates. 

The three main ways below were regarding how we would capture and present our work:

- The Content - looking into whether an image is photographed, how it is cropped and how we optimise the viewing of the content. 

- The Process - Demonstrating the journey in constructing an image, such as through sketches, varying trials and even filming the overall process.

- The Context - Presenting your image in the intended environment it should exist in such as the location of where it was assembled or even people interacting with it. 

Although over the following weeks I will look at varying online examples as well as past students work to help inform my overall style, I am however highly apprehensive on how my portfolio will transpire. This is due to the fact that when developing my portfolio at foundation level, I found it a timely process as well as for some reason one that was personally hard to grasp. This is why I will try to start as early as I can!

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Comics Sequence

For this task I teamed up with Gabriel once again, photographed above. We initially discussed our chosen comic book artists and then re-created specific elements of their works in our own styles, keeping narrative and drawing techniques, panelling and layout, format and the specific genre in mind.

One of my favourite panels within Charles Burns’ ‘Curse of the Moleman: Big Baby’.

Above are examples of my own interpretation of Charles Burns’ work using oil pastels of the initial three panels, reworked partly through the influenced and distinctive styling of Frank Auerbach.

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Comics and Visual Narrative: Set Reading

Nick Dodds is an illustrator and senior lecture at the University of Cumbria and has a longstanding passion for comic strips and graphic storytelling that feeds both into his teachings as well as his own contemporary practices. Having originally trained as a Graphic Designer, Dodds current projects include being a primer editor behind the University’s biannual magazine, ‘Bagatelle’, where he illustrators varying political and social events through his ‘comic strip tales’, along with recently releasing an independent graphic novel named ‘The Collector’.

The opening frames of Charles Burns’ ‘Curse of the Moleman: Big Baby’.

However, when reading the illustrator’s extract regarding ‘Spatial Poetics: Control of Time and Space in Graphic Narratives’, I was fixated with his in-depth analysis of the ‘architecture of the page’ section and in particular the exampled work by infamous American cartoonist, Charles Burns. Showcasing Burns’ Curse of the Moleman’ story, taken from the artist’s Fantagraphics anthology of ‘Big Baby’, not only was I initially drawn to Burns’ style, but ultimately after an initial glimpse without reading either the blurbs or speech bubbles, I knew the overall narrative that he had depicted. This I found to be particularly unusual as although I had read a few graphic novels in their entirety previously, the likes of Frank Miller’s classics ‘Sin City’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns’, with others I was always drawn to cartoonists visual style, but ultimately lost interest as their underlying storylines never truly grabbed my attention.

A few panels of Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’.

As a result, I was thereby intrigued to look deeper into Burns’ career and discover what exactly influenced his distinctive approach. Having grown up in an area that ironically, I have just visited, Seattle, Washington, the artist used his own inspired experiences within his infamous ‘Black Hole’ comics. Published from 1995 to 2005, this decade span of twelve comics follows a group of suburban high school teenagers in the 1970’s who gradually become more and more effected by a mysterious sexually transmitted plague. With the traditional way of American life, racism and gun control being constant themes throughout, this horrific tale additionally explores the cruelty of being a youth and are still relatable to many Americans today by these actions being reinforced by their latest President. Despite not usually being a fan of this specific genre, especially with horrors that are as grotesque as this, for some reason in a comic strip style medium it works highly appropriately in amalgamation with Burns’ primarily black and white palette. Similar to the work of Frank Miller, when colour is initiated, it has far more dramatic effect on the viewer and with the purposeful use of specific colours, such as blood red or bright yellow, it thereby reflects instantly whether a character is evil, trustworthy and so on.  

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Comics and Visual Narrative

I found today’s lecture to be particularly fascinating, especially when learning the history of comics in general. However, it was the slides regarding the use of framing that gave me a far greater insight into the varying drawn effects that are purposely utilised by the genre’s artists to add farther atmosphere. These included ‘splash’, ‘braiding’ and ‘tiering’, the latter in my eyes being applied most compellingly within the showcased panels of Charles Burns’ ‘Curse of the Moleman: Big Baby’. Some of these are techniques are even ones that I could use in future animations as my storyboarded frames still lack originality at times despite utilising varying angles and perspectives.

However, Rosie Sherwood’s ‘In the Gutter’ series was another example that stood out to me as the artist applies these same principles to a three-dimensional structure. With each sculpture having been constructed from a variety of materials, although they collectively share the skeleton of a conventional comic book, all differ however in the silhouetted cut outs of their frames.    

Photographs of Rosie Sherwood’s 2013, ‘In the Gutter’ series.

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V&A - Interaction Design - To what extent do these different contexts of production and reception echo or overturn existing cultural and industrial practices?

Today we visited London’s V & A museum and more specifically it’s ‘Design/Play/Disrupt’ exhibition where my classmates and I became more familiar with the techniques and processes involved with a market that is currently being consumed by more than a quarter of the world’s population. Yet, despite being fascinated with the story lines and realistic visual effects achieved by huge video gaming companies such as ‘Naughty Dog’ and ‘Rock star Games’, it was in fact the content by smaller, independent studios that were far more radical and interesting to me. An example of this was ‘Wobble Yoga’ by Jenny Jiao, an online game where you as the player have to arrange a single meal on a plate whilst at the same time making sure you don’t go over the calorie limit as well as potential for future hunger. With her bright and bold characters what initially attracted me to this specific piece, when you truly delve deeper you as a viewer realise that the artist is illustrating a far wider issue that affects many around the world, body image. Having this been an insecurity of Jiao’s for many years, the artist one day decided to overcome this pain by documenting it within a series of small drawings. Through a variety of media and text experiments, it wasn’t until the artist animated these quick examples that the basic concepts of the game actually came about.

My photographs of the research and experimental processes of Jenny Jiao’s ‘Wobble Yoga’.

Thanks to Jiao’s bravery to use this controversial issue in such a manner, it showcases the demand and need for more games like this as well as the lack of basic knowledge and information of how to deal and overcome body image as a whole. Furthermore, by the messaging being purposely subtle, it subconsciously communicates this current problem without you as the viewer to truly realise and as a result, along with its visuals, results in ‘Wobble Yoga’ being assessable to all. This is particularly important, as in the future games like this are and will play a vital role in educating the youth the essentials of life in a creative and interactive way.

My photographs of the sketching processes and varying merchandise from ‘Splatoon’.

These characteristics were also present within many of the exhibitions other popular games, but most namely within Nintendo’s ‘Splatoon’. Produced by Hisashi Nogami, ‘Splatoon’ is a third person shooting game based on Tokyo’s notorious graffiti culture. With players given the option to either shot with coloured inks or disguise themselves with the same media, although its varying accessories and maps are desired, it is in fact the games ability to make realistic artwork that have proved to be far more in demand. Rather than fighting in the many battles that the game offers, a section of ‘Splatoon’s’ players rather create or recreate their own street art and as a result have now created a new type of customer for the brand. With many of its back shots and silhouettes having been computer animated from varying location drawings, it has resulted in players having a deeper connection to their artwork and thereby more of an incentive in investing time and effort to create well thought out and finalised designs. Therefore, it was no surprise that the game’s clothing has become a phenomenon whereby players can now physically wear their designs that they had virtually produced.

Examples of ‘Halo’ Gaming's many toys. 

Merchandising like this is something that is additionally becoming more and more popular with other infamous games such as ‘Minecraft’ and ‘Halo’, whereby these brands toys are almost as popular as the actual game that they originated from. This incredible impact can equivalently be showcased within the film industry too, especially with the release of 2017’s ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’, whereby not only was its plot based around four teenagers being transported into the world of a videogame, but ultimately it was a critical and major financial success that grossed over $1 billion dollars at the box office.

My photographs of the London V & A’s Design/Play/Disrupt big screen showcasing of the ‘2017 League of Legends Finals’ Highlights. 

Although these are significant examples of how the gaming market is overturning existing cultural and industrial practices, it wasn’t until I saw the final area of the exhibition that I realised that this way of consuming media is truly the future. This was due to the fact that two years ago, the finals of the ‘League of Legends World Championships’ took place to a sold-out crowd in Beijing’s National Stadium. Nicknamed ‘The Bird’s Nest’, this 80,000-capacity arena was the centrepiece to China’s 2008 Olympic Games and was now host to a video-gaming competition with a main prize of $1 million dollars. Even the intensity of the atmosphere that could be shown visually on screen felt like that of a World Cup Final, where reporters from all around the world came to cover the major event as well as paid viewing parties being able to be accessed at cinemas to those who could either not make it or wanted to consume the Championship Finals in a similar fashion.

A link to the ‘2017 League of Legends Finals’ Highlights - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAwV4JRBuYY

Yet despite this industry being a worldwide phenomenon, ‘Design/Play/Disrupt’ also illustrates how those who are making and producing these games do not accurately represent the general audiences that consume them. This can be showcased by the fact that in 2017, figures taken from the International Game Developers Association, surveyed that 68% of characters were White/European compared to 1% of characters being Black/African. Although these figures were not as drastically low for women being represented in video-games, they were however still at a shameful rate as well as a large percentage of this gender purposely being characterised in a misogynistic manner. Popular games such as ‘Grand Theft Auto 5’ were noted as prime examples of this where players can even ask female characters to perform sexual acts in return for money. This is even more shocking to think how witnessing this type of behaviour normalises the mindsets of millions around the world, especially young people who ultimately are still the largest consumers of video-games overall. Although legally you must be 18 years old to buy games like this, many simply either give money to their parents to buy it at their local Toys “R” Us store or even easier, order it online.

Varying images of London V & A’s Design/Play/Disrupt exhibit discussing issues within video-gaming. 

Finally, the exhibition additionally exposes how ‘authenticity’ is another fundamental problem lost within these major franchises. The likes of ‘Battlefield 3’ may have the budget of $100 million dollars to create a hyper realistic game, but ironically don’t bother to spend enough time making sure that the actual cultural languages that they are depicting are the correct ones. This is especially apparent within African and Asian cultures, whereby companies such as the ‘Electronic Arts’ use these continents societies and customs, but in a detrimental way that subconsciously reaffirms the Western stereotypes that the West is the ‘Hero’ and the Middle Eastern/Arab is the so-called ‘enemy’. “By thinking of the U.S. audience first’ Imad Khan, ‘The Current State of Muslim Representation in Video Games’, writes ‘it creates stories that favour one side over the other’ and thanks to many like Khan, there are now varying movements that are forcing these vast video-gaming companies to change the way that they are constructing their content. Thanks to platforms such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’, it has given people the confidence to expose these uses of cultural appropriation that will heavily assist in creating story lines that are not only well-rounded and balanced, but more importantly all audiences that consume video-games.

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‘Everyday Connections’ Final Show

Above is a photograph of my own ‘Everyday Connections’ series.

Today was finally our ‘Everyday Connections’ end of show. I decided to exhibit my composition next to the building’s refectory as I felt that the irony and underlying messaging of searching for food would be highly suitable for this specific location. This was ultimately lost however; as rather than my cousin looking towards the rectory, she is instead looking towards the stairs. Furthermore, having not previously accounted for how minimal the wall space was that I stuck my series onto, my format thereby suffered as I could not elongate the distance of the ice lolly as far as I’d planned. 

The images above are two examples of my classmates works that stood out to me.

Yet, I did however enjoy examining my other classmates works. I found the element of deciphering why certain series were in specific locations to be an enjoyable experience, especially when the narrative weren’t always clear. Whilst going around I also documented through drawings and photography, formats that were either creatively unique or the narratives that I was drawn to. 

Below are varying notes from our ‘Everyday Connections’ end of show.

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Visual examples of my finalised series where I was experimenting with format against the conventional ways of just a linear left to right sequence.

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Experimenting with New Imagery

Throughout this week I decided to create an entirely new set of testings from even more of own photography. I was unhappy with the edits from last week’s tasks and ultimately wanted to produce a series of five images that truly focused on narrative. In particular considering a relatable subject matter similar to that of a previously discussed artist’s work, Hans Eijkelboomm’s ‘With My Family’, 1973.

As a result, this was my reasoning behind purposely using initiate imagery from a recent family holiday to Vancouver and Seattle. Rather than simply showcasing snapshots of my time there, I experimented in visually recounting specific days or stories chronologically that were personally significant to me. This led to one particular account to stand out illustrating my younger cousin’s obsession with sweet treats. Wherever we went, it didn’t matter whether we had just eaten or were in the middle of one of America’s most beautiful national parks, all she cared about was the search for an ice cream or a chocolate brownie. Ironically this also allowed me to really have fun playing with the format as well as showcasing the beauty of these areas too. Lastly, I purposely tested printing onto different types of paper and felt that zinc was the most appropriate as it gives off a reflective appearance similar to that of a vintage Polaroid photograph.