Week 6: Forming and projecting a new future, referencing and process
Weekly learning objectives
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Discover and analyse a range of topics that reflect a viewpoint of your own town, city or locale.
- Contextualise the interplay between social, provenance and history when writing a visual culture article about your locale.
- Define and distil your research to gain a new insight and critical understanding of visual culture, myth or story in your area.
- Deliver an ‘elevator pitch’ presentation to clearly articulate the subject of your long form 3,000 word article.
- Manage your personal work-plan and schedule.
Some advice
It is very important to take some time to find interesting and inspiring local topics, subjects or stories, because you will engage with the content over the next three weeks. Speak to family, friends and people who have lived in your locality for a long period of time. Visit the local library and explore newspaper archives.
Lecture introduction
In last week’s lecture we explored the interrelationship between critical writing and design. This week we will talk to a creative practitioner working in the field of publishing, to gain an insight into the challenges experienced when developing a new written publication.
In this lecture you will:
- Watch Stuart Tolley in discussion with Andrew Sanigar about research, developing a concept, developing a proposal and the challenges of pitching an editorial project;
- Explore how places speak to us and how we talk back;
- Develop ethnographic research to curate socially led research stories.
After the lecture, take some time to explore the given resources. Make notes and reflect upon these ideas, and use them as a springboard for your own investigations. Use the Ideas Wall freely to discuss, ask questions and share ideas.
Research And Curate.
Ethnographic Research
Study of peoples lives from perspective of own communities
Title first used to describe studies of peoples social and cultural observations from small communities in different countries.
Whilst researching it’s common to live amongst the inhabitants to fully understand the culture first-hand.
Before starting, define clear objectives for what you want to achieve, eg. To get an insight into a particular society or culture, to identify a new or versioning lifestyle or sub-culture, to reveal new consumer patterns or perspectives or provide a voice for social or cultural groups.
This kind of research is a great tool to gain information from within a group, but it’s important to act appropriately; consent is important especially when studying vulnerable groups, eg. Children, elderly and infirm. Can they rationally and freely give their consent. This may not seem necessary for a uni project but it’s important to get this permission if the research is to be in the public domain.
Film and photography are the most effective ways to show ethnographic research. It has the power to reveal new insights into the society and cultures.
Project names Infra, by Richard Moss, documents the conflict and human migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mosse spend years gaining the trust of refugees and warlords to create a project highlighting the undocumented plight of the DRC.
Interview:
Begins with the medium: interested in photo forms and media, they’re his starting points.
Takes his interest in a topic and works backwards. How to use it to tell, communicate, reveal, etc., the subject.
Work is close to photojournalism, reportage and documentary formats his interest is engaging with world affairs, with history unfolding.
Video installation: The Enclave.
Shows DRC in 2012-13. The name comes from the format of infra-red cameras used to film and photo.
5.4 million people had died in war-related cause in Congo since 1998, but we don’t hear much about it. Huge numbers of refugees.
The project took place over five years.
“It’s got colour, so it’s got teeth”
The infrared film was used as it was developed by the military for camouflage detection. Camouflage is green, foliage is green so this way of imaging to make things stand out, an ‘invisible image’ as infrared is invisible to the human eye. The reason or theme for using this technique was to make the invisible visible, this fitted with the fact that a lot of the conflict was going on unseen.
Building relationships took a long time and he had to win trusts. Some groups are familiar with photographers and some are more wary and suspicious. Shows a face-off between wanting to pose but not really wanting to be photographed which carried the face-off through to the viewer.
The pink foliage makes the images dreamlike and unthreatening but the presence of the people within the images contradicts that.
Andrew Sanigar – Commissioning Editor at Thames & Hudson
Author & publisher relationship when developing a proposal.
Family owned company! 70 yrs old.
“A museum without walls”
Primarily art, design, illustration, photo, architecture, archeology, fashion and textiles, etc.
Visual publisher.
Commissioning Editor responsible for finding, researching and bringing in the books for the years ahead. First point of contact.
The roll of a book designer should be an active one.
How do you make meaning from the presented content. The design was created out of the content not design first, then add the content.
Consider format, sizes, types of paper…
Subculture/music
What makes a good visual culture book concept?
A clear audience, clear focus on what the book is for, why the audience might want/need the book. Whats the best way of communicating that want/need; format, positioning, price. Also consider how much it might have to cost to buy.
Main points: clearly ID’d audience and a ‘hook’, why should this book be?
Recognise the audience and how you need to speak to them.
The marketability of the book is a key consideration.
Platform for the book, support material, exhibitions, etc.
Audience + hook gives you a chance.
Considering a global audience varies from subject to subject so not always necessary.
Research:
Authors need to be ‘under the skin’ of the subject – show a level of expertise. Relying on the author to bring good knowledge and passionate about the subject. Publisher job is to distill that knowledge into a saleable format. Very collaborative.
Presenting books, the pitfalls:
Work hard to make a case for the book. Why this book? More than just info, more than just the content.
Stages:
Proposal, present, talk. Next comes Once past that first hurdle of getting looked at it goes into development: who there will fit the project best. What’s the spec, what’s the price, what’s the audience?
Basic requirements to distill down those things.
Positioning statement.
‘Cold War Steve presents the festival of Brexit’ a book from a Twitter feed.
Text by John Savage
‘Crashing a book’ = very quickly publishing a book to meet a trend.
Books -vs- Internet:
Digital is ‘transient’, gives some excitement. Books are experiences and not just information.
Curate: bring together the information and present it ‘correctly’
Ozalids 🙂
Slow journalism – what’s that?
The CD ROM, internet, apps replacing books: people jump(ed) on those because they were novel at the time but always revert back to the book when the interest in those dies/settles down. Plus the reaction against them in favour of ‘tradition’. Download -vs- holding a real thing in your hands.
Vinyl records
Analogue photography
Letterpress
Become sub-cultures?
Feel more hands on, have to look closer, more involved and ‘expert’ (?).
Crowd-funding gets a pre-built audience.
New to come? Mid-range will shrink. Collectors editions, include prints or something ‘special’.
Books no longer used as reference? Reference online is instant so this kind of book needs to be/contain something extra. How-to included… Not just a ‘survey book’. The practical book.
Resources
Robson, C., (2002) Real world research: A resource for social scientists and practitioner researchers. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Only doing the job if it’s Chanel
No limitation
“I’ll only do the job if it’s Chanel.” Such was the feted book designer Irma Boom’s response to the enigmatic people, who contacted her about a secret project. She here shares the story of her engrossing white book that pays tribute to Chanel No. 5.
Though Boom has infused her pages with scent in the past, she didn’t want to do so for this book commissioned by the Parisian fashion house. She simply felt it would be too blatant and instead chose a more subtle approach: The 300-page book has no ink – instead the text and images narrating the story of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel are embossed onto the paper. Moreover, the book is made entirely in white (encased in a black box), and in some lighting the embossings consequently appear somewhat invisible. Making an invisible book for an almost invisible perfume made perfect sense to Boom: “It’s also a tribute to Coco Chanel. To envision this book, the person Chanel and to make a book which represents her but also the illusion of Chanel No. 5.”
“It’s all calculation.” Boom’s books are always based on mathematics, so when she found out that Coco Chanel had the same approach, and furthermore believed in numerology (which is also why the legendary perfume bears the number 5), everything seemed to come together.
The scent of the roses used in making the perfume influenced the white book. All illusion.
The book as a PDF is nothing – it has to be seen first hand – avoids the digital media. An invisible perfume meant an invisible book.
Contains images of ingredients, the avant-garde movements Chanel was surrounded by. Living in the Ritz, Marilyn Monroe used the perfume. Everything features. Proportion of a Chanel No 5 bottle.
Louisiana Channel (1916) Irma Boom: A Tribute to Coco Chanel, [online video]. Available at https://vimeo.com/142852186. [Accessed 31 January 2019].
Week 6: Workshop Challenge
The Challenge
This week we want you to explore how to research and define a topic that reveals a new insight and critical understanding of visual culture, myth or story in your area.
Please note, this is a key research phase for a longer, three-week project.
The findings of your research will inform the next stage of production and we expect you to utilise a variety of research methodologies (e.g. primary, secondary, ethnographic).
Please remember, it is imperative you gather enough initial material to develop your final 3,000-word article.
- Research and find two possible stories that reflect a viewpoint of your own town, city or locale.
- Create one image to represent both initial story concepts, using a variety of methods, which must be original and not sourced from the Internet or a third party.
- Present two short proposals with title, original image and a short 100-word synopsis (elevator pitch) about the concept of your article. Please note, we will provide a prepared Keynote slide template for you to present your findings.
Use different research methods
Primary: Questionnaires, interviews, etc.
Secondary: Existing research, publicly available
Ethnographic: Observation/interaction with study participants in their real life environment.
Gather enough material to develop 3000 word essay!
Lots of groundwork on an engaging subject.
- Library
- Archives
- Interviews
- Stories
Needs to be something I’m interested in… ????????♂️
Read Only Memory:
Books about computer games industry
The Sega Megadrive – sources from the company archives.
Followed an interest in gaming
This is something with a different angle
Fuel:
- Design publishing
- Visual culture
- Russian Criminal Tattoo Archive !
- Interest in Russian lifestyles and achievement.
- Space Dogs
- Soviet bus stops – cars hard to come by so a large public transport network. Known for their experimental architecture.
Ok, Shrewsbury…
What do we have instead of history?
Topics
I have my two…
I’ve wanted to avoid simply doing ‘the history of…’, mainly because it’s been done here in Shrewsbury over and over again. I wanted something connected but current, something still going on.
Shrewsbury Market Hall: A Day in the Life
My first subject is the Market Hall in Shrewsbury. Over the last few years it’s become more and more popular and there’s a real community inside, it’s become a bit of a ‘place to be’.
It’s filled with a good range of subjects, from traditional stalls, fruit and veg merchants, butchers, hardware, who have all traded there for 30 years-plus.
Then there’s the new traders; a coffeehouse, a traditional barbers, organic wine merchant, even artists studios. My angle would be to study a day-in-the-life of the market, an observational essay interviews from as wide a variety as possible, backed up by portrait photos of those involved.
Julian Batey: Violin Maker
The second is about a man called Julian Batey, a violin maker who has a workshop in Shrewsbury.
For those who know their violins, he served his apprenticeship with Barry Oliver in Washington in 1980 and after working in Seattle with Rafael Carrabba, he returned to work with his father repairing, restoring and making their own violins.
This would be an observational essay focussed on the craft and expertise, along with the look and feel of the workshop which is a really interesting place, I was able to take some photographs there a few years ago, it’s a real Aladdin’s cave, stuff everywhere, but you get the feeling he knows exactly what’s there and where it is.
Topics Feedback
Richard:
If you found the Martin Parr example interesting, also have a look at his project ‘the rhubarb triangle’. This would fit the idea of primary ethnographic research and your approach of the photo essay very well. A couple of links below.
https://shop.hepworthwakefield.org/collections/books/products/martin-parr-exhibition-catalogue
Also look at, James Mollison – Where Children Sleep.
https://www.jamesmollison.com/where-children-sleep
I think both have potential and both have the same challenge you highlighted; the need to go and get primary visual and textual material. The violin maker sounds very interesting but if you can’t get access to him and the shop in time, then this does leave you slightly adrift. The option of the market could also be very interesting, and possibly easier to cover. Could you arrive on a day early and cover a day-in-the-life, from set-up to close. Then, during the daytime capture both the hustle and bustle of market life visually and interview some of the stall holders perhaps with a rather deadpan portraits…. Perhaps you could also approach this with two formats of interview; one which might be a very short name and some limited demographic info, and a second which could be for those you find a greater rapport with and are happy to give you the time. It might come down to the latter anyway but it would be good to be strategic about who you approach for the longer interview. Try to get a range of ages, backgrounds, types of stall, etc.
Stuart:
You’re right to focus your attention on a subject area that interest you (not history of things..) and I think both of your ideas are strong. I love photo stories and am happy for you to create your essay text in line with your photography. Take a look at magazine such as Colors (old issues), Port and photo stories published in supplements, such as Guardian, NY Times Magazine etc etc. This will give you an idea of how text and photographic stories can compliment each other.
1 – Market Hall:
There are lots of routes that you could take with this and I think it’s important that you focus on a specific angle. For example, you could work as an observational essay about the regeneration of town centres, which have suffered recently, followed by a series of short interviews and accompanying portrait/observational photography. It’s great that traditional towns are regenerating with independent and local businesses and not relying on large stores that have caused the homogenisation of the high street. Your could frame your essay introduction with a specific angle, to give it context, and follow up with interviews that answer the question raised.
2 – Julian Batey:
Again, I really like this idea. It’s clear, simple and intimate. It will need some focus and, I imagine, some repeat visits to determine the direction of your essay. Is it about craft? Is it about a dying industry? I there anything specific about Julian’s work? Is he the last of a generation of violin makers in the town?
With both ideas I think you need to clarify the direction of your essay, which may require a few visits. The first idea (market hall) probably has more miles in it, which will allow you to write 3,000 words, where as the Julian essay may need some more thought as you could run out of steam…
Workshop Outcome;
I think the Market would make more sense, there’s more to go at; more people, more visual, more stories. Julian isn’t the chattiest of blokes and having to revisit the workshop a few times might stop things in their tracks along the way.
I like the ‘day-in-the-life’ theme from Richard’s suggestion, this could be a good way to frame the job, like Stuart says. It will also give a valid reason to be looking at the Market as a subject in the first place.
