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This post is to summarise some of the things I’ve been doing, seeing, reading and watching since the start of the course that have inspired me or contributed to what I’m thinking about in my work. I may add to or edit this over time:

I went to the counter-protest to the Unite the Kingdom demonstration in September, before the course started. Despite being massively outnumbered, I saw an amazing selection of trade union banners in the counter-protest crowd.

After the “Methods of investigating” brief, I continued reading Georges Perec’s “Species of Spaces” and particularly enjoyed the chapter “Attempt at an Inventory of the Liquid and Solid Foodstuffs Ingurgitated by Me in the Course of the Year Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Four”, towards the end of the book, which describes every dish he ate in quantity over a year.

I attended Frieze and Frieze masters for the first time, because my friend had a free ticket going. I saw some interesting and some really bad art. There was a lot of AI generated imagery, including a wall of AI people kissing which I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be ironic or not. I saw a great painting of some hags dancing in a cave, lots of amazing medieval swords and suits of armour. I got to see some works by Alighiero Boetti, Man Ray, Laslo Moholy-Nagy, Paula Rego, Josef Albers and many others which I really enjoyed. It’s a good place to people watch and enjoy the general spectacle, but it is depressing to think that so much of this work will probably be sold to private collectors and be inaccessible for the public for the foreseeable.

Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy. I loved this exhibit, it was amazing to see his work in person. I particularly liked the use of text and painted lettering, symbolism, collage and prevalent use of glitter. I also thought the way he paints a space is so unique and really tells a story, as shown in De Style (1993), above.

One of my favourite works was “Knowledge and Wonder” which was painted for the Chicago Public Library. Apparently this painting was pulled from an auction in 2018 where it was due to sell for $15 million.

Since Rifke Sadlier’s talk, I have been dabbling on P5.js doing some extremely basic coding tutorials.

I recently watched the anime film “Millenium Actress” by Satoshi Kon. It’s a great example of non-linear storytelling via animation, and media referencing itself. The story travels through different eras of history, noting different moments in Japanese cinema. I also watched (and loved) “It Follows” by David Robert Mitchell and “The Hunting Wives” tv series. I was completely taken in by this 30 minute YouTube documentary about a mystery man leaving bottles or urine on an electrical box in California.

I also watched the documentary “Enigma” by Zachary Druker. It focuses on the lives of two women, April Ashley and Amanda Lear, one who identifies as trans and one who has lived in dispute with claims she is trans. It’s a really interesting exploration of what it means to have agency and to control our own narrative. But also, whether we owe it to those undergoing the same struggles as us to represent our communities, or whether we should live life in a way that is authentic to us as an individual.

I began this brief by looking through the different collection options. I felt quite overwhelmed by the amount of choice in the library and Harvard collections. When I looked through the categories on 3Dsky.org, I liked the simple shapes, fun colours and form of the items. I don’t have experience or much understanding of 3D software, but I felt it was a good opportunity to learn a new skill.

Looking through 3Dsky, I felt particularly drawn to the shapes and colours of the “playgrounds” category in the architecture section. I think playgrounds are one of the few accessible public spaces purely dedicated to play and design just to facilitate fun and exploration. In 2021 I saw Noguchi’s playground designs at the Barbican. He described the importance of “social function” in his work and that playgrounds were a type of functional sculpture and saw this as an important aspect of his work.

Looking through the collection and following the brief I began analysing the sets differences, similarities, forms, “grammar” etc. I put images of each on an illustrator document and grouped them by these items. The consistent themes of each seemed to be primary colours, straight and curved poles, animal and plant shapes and house shaped forms.

I decided the next step was to explore “(re)drawing” these forms in a 3D software. I used a software called “Womp” which is free and easier to use for beginners to 3D design. I debated trying to learn Blender, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to learn enough in the timescale to create enough work.

I had a lot of technical issues with uploading files into the 3D software which meant I was limited to two models to work with. I tried to get around this by working on computers in the library, but I still had the same issue. I created a playground site out of the two 3D models, deconstructing them and using the shapes to create slides and climbing obstacles.

During the tutorial, my feedback was that categorising needs to come through more with this piece. It was also discussed that animating the elements would do more to bring meaning to it. I think I will spend some time learning blender to try to do this as I will be able to draw and animate within the software. I think I will split the project into categories by motion/function and colour and have them as separate playground sites.

In the third week of the project, I set out by doing some online research about the stickers, trying to see if anyone else had noticed them or if I could find out any information about the businesses advertised. All I could find were two reddit posts where other people had also noticed the stickers and were theorising about their purpose. Some people thought they were intended to clog up and break the shutters they were stuck to, leading to the owner having to call them and have them fixed. Some people had noticed them in South London too, and they were the same businesses. Some people had removed them from their shop fronts only to have them reappear the next day. I couldn’t find anything from the businesses themselves, which is unusual.

I decided to analyse the stickers further, taking note of the fonts and colours used, and making tallies of each. Red and yellow were the most prevalent colours. The fonts were often those accessible via Microsoft Word. I did some further online research about font that were used in the stickers which exist on Microsoft. This led me to think further about the idea of amateur design and accessible design tools, which led me to discover the website https://www.makewordart.com/ which is a recreation of early Microsoft word art.

After playing with this for some time, I made some stickers of my own, which was an exercise in not following any conventional ideas of “good graphic design”, trying to replicate the different styles, using fonts such as Impact, Brush Script and Comic Sans.

At this point in the project, I am feeling that this was an exploration of public space on the high street and the visual language of public graphic design. I am interested in the idea of outsider graphic design (?) as a style. I don’t feel like I’ve come to the conclusion of a final piece. I think this is something I would like to complete and potentially return to at some point to conclude with a whole visual outcome.

In Georges Perec’s chapter, “The Street” from his book, “Species of spaces and other pieces” (1974), the writer demonstrates a new way of seeing the street to demonstrate how we become desensitised to the structures and spaces around us. Perec encourages the reader to focus on the mundane and minor details of the environment we see every day. In the chapter, “A Significance for A&P Parking Lots or Learning from Las Vegas” from the book, “Learning from Las Vegas”, by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown (1972), the writers discuss the architecture of the Las Vegas strip, analysing the prevalence of bold signage and large parking lots, discussing its importance as a representation of true American culture. In this written response, I will discuss how both texts explore the street as place of visual communication and the importance of the “ordinary” or “low brow”.

The focus on observation of the environment on the street is present in both texts to illustrate different points. For example, in “Species of spaces”, Perec outlines a method for true observation, encouraging the viewer to “set about it more slowly, almost stupidly. Force yourself to write down what is of no interest” (1974, pp. 50) Perec is urging the reader to observe as if the reader hasn’t truly seen before, taking in all minor details. Similarly, Venturi and Brown begin their text, stating “Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architect…that is to question how we look at things.” (1972, pp. 3). Both share a method of looking, setting an intention to see without judgement. For Perec, this is to immerse himself into the outside world to a point of unfamiliarity; “Carry on Until the scene becomes improbable… until you can no longer understand what is happening” (1974, pp. 53), disconnecting from preconceived ideas of his own environment. Alternatively, Venturi and Brown use this method to argue for their appreciation of the Strip, describing Vegas’ landscape as “an architecture of bold communication rather than one of subtle expression” (1972, pp. 9), something they feel the preceding Modernist architecture movement does not tolerate, describing it as “anything but permissive” (1972, pp.3).

Perec’s meditation and attempt to be present in his daily environment on the street supports the methods and themes explored in Learning from Las Vegas. The “practical exercises” (1974, pp. 50) he outlines lend themselves to highlighting the everyday aspects of the street. He begins, “Observe the street, from time to time, with some concern for system perhaps.” (1974, pp. 50). Similarly, Venturi and Brown emphasise the importance of observation “We look backward at history and tradition to go forward… with-holding judgment may be used as a tool to make later judgment more sensitive. This is a way of learning from everything.” (1972, pp.3). Perec is describing visually observing, while Venturi and Brown are also looking figuratively to understand better their reality in present day and as a critical tool.

In conclusion, I believe Perec and Venturi and Brown use observation as a tool to critically examine their reality. For Perec, this is to situate better understand his position in his environment. For Venturi and Brown, this functions to illustrate their argument for Vegas as a representation of American culture.

Perec, G. (1974) Species of spaces and other pieces. 1997. Penguin Books Ltd.

Venturi R. and Brown, D. (1972) Learning from Las Vegas. Routledge.

Week one 

After reading the brief, I immediately had the idea to use Wood Green High Road (high street) as my location to investigate. In the two weeks since I moved to London, I had walked down the high street nearly every day and it had made a big impression on me, so it seemed like an interesting place to focus on.

After the initial briefing, every time I walked down the high street, I tried to tune in to my surroundings and take photos of anything that seemed important. After reading the Georges Perec text, “Species of Spaces”, I felt I had a method to approach my investigation with. I set out to imagine I hadn’t seen a street before, and to examine every aspect, taking note of everything around me.

I focused on the stretch of road from Turnpike Lane to Wood Green station and walked up and down each day, using note taking, photographing and drawing as my methods of investigation. One afternoon, I spent an hour in the local Wetherspoons, “Spouters Corner”, which I discovered was an important location historically for the area, where different political groups had organised over the years. One evening, I spent some time in a local Greek bakery, people watching and examining the structure of the street. I had also noticed that along the street, every shop front had a collection of shutter repair stickers in different arrangements. I found these interesting graphically and as a visual image, the walls and windows they were arranged around were different at each shopfront, varying in colour and placement. I also liked the idea of them as a representation of DIY advertising and amateur graphic design, using the street as a sort of large-scale noticeboard.

After my first tutorial, I received feedback from my tutor and the group that suggested I focus on the local Wetherspoons or the sticker collections I’d noticed in between each shop front. Previously my work has often centred around people, communities and locations so I thought it might be more interesting to go down a more graphic route to push myself and explore something different.

Week two

In week two, I set out to analyse the stickers further. I continued with walking the same route up and down Wood Green high street, now capturing all the stickers along the whole stretch. It was interesting to notice the areas where they’d been ripped down, usually more upmarket large franchise shops, whereas independent businesses seemed more covered.

Looking at the list of images in my camera roll, I was really stimulated by seeing all of them small in one place. I think there was something about the sheer number of all the stickers shown small as one large image that I felt struck by. Then, being able to zoom in and examine them and see all the small graphic detail. I then cropped all of the stickers individually, examining what kind of fonts and colours were frequently or rarely used.

I also experimented with overlaying the images of the stickers, grouping by colour and background so they were layered, blending into one another. I think this represented the experience of being on the high street and feeling overwhelmed by the constant visual stimuli of the signage and shop fronts. In addition, I was printing out grids of the sticker images, scanning, cropping and reprocessing them to explore and manipulate how they looked. I like the low-res quality this produces, and I think it echoes the DIY amateur look of the stickers themselves.

During my tutorial at the end of this week, it was discussed that amateur graphic design, as well as the idea of looking at the micro and the macro of all the imagery were some of the themes in this project and that I should try to continue making in a way to investigate this.