Values & Equities; Giving Form to your Story
This week we looked at ‘the self’ and before we delved into our own being we had a guest lecture titled ‘The Self’, by Martin Hosken, a lecturer in critical theory. Martin teaches at Falmouth University on the postgraduate and undergraduate Graphic Design Courses.
Martin said, as humans we have a common ground… ‘Through the passage of conception, birth, infancy, childhood, puberty, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age and our eventual demise we all breath, eat, drink, sleep and dream. Throughout our lives we can experience pain, sadness, humour, beauty and moments of ecstasy, and most importantly the fabric of our communities are bound by feelings of love, attachment, empathy and the possibilities of our imagination. Yet we can also fight, bicker, squabble and lie, and at times it feels humanity can cast a long shadow.’
So, what makes us different?
...'From here we need to reflect on our own lives to extract our core values. These values are influenced by our individual experiences and beliefs influenced by family, culture, and our own psychology: YOUR SELF.'
If we look at the English language there are approximately 450 terms that are prefixed with the word ‘self’, demonstrating the vastness and complexity when exploring the concept of self.
I found it interesting that when the question is raised on nature over nurture and vice versa that most under 40s leant towards nurture and over 40s nature. While studying for A Level communication studies this question was raised along with case studies to support each case. I too leant towards nurture at that time, but now I would lean more toward nature, finding experience has more of a stronger influence on my thoughts and feelings. This could be that we are influenced more by our nurturers when we are younger taking on their thoughts and feelings; then later in life we become more independent in our thoughts and more influenced by our own life experience?
Workshop Challenge
How can graphic design enable you to communicate your core values at this moment on your course?
Distill from your understanding of your practice and your character, your values as a designer. Make an initial list of 20 words you can then edit down to five words.
Visual mood boards for each of my 5 chosen words:
Adaptive Mood Board
Juggling motherhood, being a carer for my mother, managing my work, being a pet mum, running a house and everything else life throws at us, I must be adaptable to whatever comes. This also goes for my work, as I often need to adapt to constraints.
For sometime I have been hearing about Midjourney, an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species. Due to the abstract subject of self I felt it would be a good opportunity to explore Midjourney’s artificial intelligence art to create some of my mood boards.
It is an interesting concept and I would need more time to explore to see how to refine imagery more to better match your own vision. Not a replacement for human creativity, but could be helpful for visualising initial ideas and concepts.
Curious Mood Board
I am curious by nature and love to explore and expand my knowledge. Graphic design projects often throw up new subjects I need to delve into in order to create something authentic and true.
Books and my studio library to feed my knowledge and curiosity. Other photos taken from my phone of curiosities I've found on walks e.g. painted numbers on a wall and the randomly scattered concrete curb stones on the shore, which could be used for inspiration at a later date.
Conscious Mood Board
I am aware of my surroundings and conscious to record everything including senses, sight, sound, feeling, touch, and smell. Another Midjourney experiment.
Experimental Mood Board
Often with my graphic design work, due to time constraints there isn’t any time to experiment, and I would like to use this time studying to do just that and explore techniques and materials I don’t normally get to. Take more risks, enjoy and have fun!
From my archive; experimental letters combining different forms and exploring space using a variety of materials including charcoal, pen, ink, graphite.
Aspiring Mood Board
I've been wanted to do some collage for a while now, so thought I'd use this in my mood boards. I did go a little off piste, delving into the Cross archives, but eventually started to create some collages to represent each of my chosen words.
I had been thinking about doing a master’s degree for several years, but sadly the courses I was interested in didn’t fit with my situation. During the pandemic and the amount of time I spent at home increased due to my mother’s poor health, I felt I needed to do something for me. I wanted to expand upon my practice and broaden my prospects, so I began looking at master’s degrees and found Falmouth Flexible.
Create a single visual expression that conveys you e.g. a film, 3D, typographic, an artefact or an experience.
Final Outcome: My 'SELF'
Conclusion
To express my 'self' and what makes me, me, I looked to my mood boards that I had created for each of my chosen words; adaptive, experimental, curious, aspiring, conscious.
I wanted to express the chaos of life, how we are often stretched in so many ways while it is also these things that equally shape us and make us who we are.
I collected photos, images from books, took photographs and delved into my archive of previous work to make this animation. The idea of my exploding head came last year when I first started my MA journey and created my first quadriptych, before having to put study on hold due to my mother falling ill. So, I was finally able to use these elements for this and possibly more appropriately.
Influenced by looking at the dada and surrealist artists I decided to use objects to represent elements of my life. I wanted the piece to be fun, while also touching lightly on the feeling of overwhelm at times and wanting to explode. My blinking eyes representative of the idea of consciousness and being aware. The idea of me appearing was to convey the idea of emergence from ones being and making the invisible, visible. There were so many other objects I would add to the mix if time had allowed, but it gives an idea of what I was trying to achieve while also demonstrating the process of unpacking my ‘self.’
Words manifesto
I aspire to expand my knowledge and better my design practice. No matter what life throws at me I will adapt to get the job done. I will remain curious and look at a variety of sources for research and explore methods to record my work. I will be conscious of my surroundings and use what I have. I will endeavour to experiment using processes and techniques I may not have used before to push myself from my comfort zone.
