American Zine

I made this zine as a small personal project, but also plan to display it at a small event that I planned with the film society. The event is a mini poster exhibition and a table where contributors can trade or sell their items with each other or passersby.

I chose to make a zine about American Movie because I enjoy it so much, and by taking imagery and lines from the film I can present it in a new context and hopefully show people what it is that makes the film so great to me.

It's not just a direct retelling, instead I tried to convey the atmosphere and broader themes within a series of drawings. It's funny, sad, a bit weird, and quite heartwarming.

Thought Experiment

A fear within your practice?

My fear is the transition from student to professional and all of the connotations that come with this. What is professionalism and how do you do this for you? What is success? Does success even matter? Branding, professional identity, brief case, business cards, client-base, will they like my work, name plaque on your desk, wearing a tie, am I doing this right? Do they take me seriously? Does it only look professional when it's not you?

(Being professional includes meeting deadlines, being a hard-worker, being reliable and on time...but it seems so much more abstract to me.)

Extended Practice | Statement & Plan

Editions | The Day the Wild Horses Died

After making that bunch of collages and drawings, Ben suggested I could string some of those together to create some sort of narrative that would eventually form an 'artist book'. It would still have that non-linear structure to it and hopefully be a bit surreal, but it would all be based on a theme, feeling or sense of place.

It was mainly based off of this image I made:

The words I've written on it sound very much like the title of something. The name came from a small clipping I found attached to a diagram that read DEN VILDA HÄSTEN.

I have some ideas for what concepts and subjects that could spark the basis of some images, however I don't want it to be a straightforward Western story?? Maybe just with influences based on a series of unattached events, time periods, names, people, thoughts.

Who Am I? | Self-portrait

Who Am I? | Pitch

Editions | Starting

Before we were briefed on 603, I took a couple of days to just put aside the books and generate some self-indulgent work. Basically taking the time to mess with drawing, collage, photocopying, chopping work up, gluing bits together.

Here's some of what that amounted to

Similarly to the practices / work of Henrik Drescher, and Nathaniel Russell, a lot of their 'finalised' outcomes are the result of intensively experimenting, using loose papers and their sketchbooks to generate a vast body of work.

I'm thinking about continuing along these lines in some way, which may result in some sort of 'compilation' or 'collection' of some kind.

They're quick and a bit chaotic looking, but I have fun making them as it's very much just what comes out of my head.

603 Briefing Notes

BE PLAYFUL, EXPERIMENT, HAVE FUN

• Pt. 1 - Statement of Intent
Themes and subject, research methods, practical development, contextual references,
must have a formal and critical tone.

• Pt. 2 - Studio Practice
A series of creative briefs that are appropriate to your individual studio practice.
A range of briefs (for a diverse portfolio), mix of live, competition, and self-directed.

• Pt. 3 - Project Journal
Studio practice blog. Professional in tone, predominantly visual, concise, pertinent, edited.
4 x 500 words summaries (30th Oct, 11th Dec, 29th Jan, 19th Mar)
Should include statement of intent, ongoing reflection.

• Pt. 4 - Project Report
A 750 word summary document that includes content from statement, blog, and a summary of the year's activities. Critical, reflective, relevance to the developments of your practice.

THERE ARE TWO SIDES OF 603...

"Live Briefs" (External, public-facing projects, competitions, etc...)

• Hookworms gig poster (Nov / TBC?)• Lifting Tower (Briefing 10/10/17 at 3PM)
• Cape: Four-page short comic (Jonathan Cape, publishing)
• Manchester Art Gallery (TBC. Product design-based)
• New Statesman (TBC, Christmas or Easter)

Henrik Drescher, Turbulence dummy book

"Editions" (Self-directed, personal projects...)

• Ongoing, can be a big project or a series of small ones
• Play with process, ideas, themes, output, etc...
• Not client-driven
• Personal (could result in finished "products" that act as folio pieces)• A body of work. Can be research or practically based, or both