LAUIL601 - PRACTICAL PEER REVIEW 1 & REFLECTION

W/C 29TH Oct PRACTICAL PEER REVIEW

PEER FEEDBACK

INITIAL REACTIONS TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS
-research questions is relevant extension of personal practice concerns
-need to clarify which are the traditional crafts & processes associated with the working class
-could consider a range of crafts that are traditional, but re-appropriate them for a modern society

INITIAL REACTIONS TO PRACTICAL WORK
-beautiful exploration of processes relevant to theme
-solid application of colour, relevant to contextual aesthetic
-intriguing how the crafted skills will be employed in more narrative outcomes

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL
-effective link with practical work drawing on the contemporary perspective of traditional, industrial crafts
-could benefit from some clarity of intention> education, promotion of heritage?

PROPOSED OUTCOMES
-the use of highly technical processes seems too ambitious, consider reducing scale of outcomes in order to fully explore the crafts
-consider more accessible application, how does your practical determine the audience that can be reached?

IMPROVEMENTS TO MAKE
-consider how you could establish a sense of community as this is unclear as yet
-explore quicker processes to generate ideas and narrative, and to add to volume of work

How am I going to draw a synthesis between my theoretical and practical concerns?

PRACTICAL REVIEW REFLECTION (500 words)

As a first practical feedback session, the peer review served really well to help me consolidate my direction, and drive the pace of my development. At this stage I feel as though my work hasn't quite got a grounding or direct purpose yet so this helped to identify where my practical work sits within my thematic and contextual concerns. Having invested a great deal of time and effort in teaching myself weaving, I am keen to pursue works with a high technical competency as I feel this is most relevant to the industrial context surrounding my research. The weaving I have completed so far served as an investigation into the woven construction of shape; a consideration parallel with the examples in my case studies. Technically, this process really celebrates the heritage and tradition of craft appropriate to my contextual research, however, having learnt how long it takes to produce, I may need to explore more commercial outcomes, inline with my intent to re-appropriate these crafts for a modern community.

From the feedback I received, it seems that my aesthetic approach is appropriate and reflects the concerns of my research, but feedback suggested that there needs to be a clarification of narrative and purpose. While my written work justifies the relevance of such processes, it does not necessarily explain the relevance of the application I have used. The woven banner simply serves as a sampler for a complex heritage process, but in order to attain synthesis across my project, I must now continue to pursue the narrative and linguistic elements I have briefly explored in ink drawings. As outlined in my proposal, language is pivotal to the transmission of meaning and I will now look into how I can merge my narrative concerns with more technical practical outputs.

From the critique, I gathered useful observations on the functionality of my work through its aesthetics and accessibility. Having explained to my peers the intention to use the banner form to promote holistic identity for modern communities, they did suggest that a modern community may not resonate with a highly crafted, woven banner, in the same way as the communities who pioneered it. This certainly seems important to consider in the development of my practical research as accessibility underpins the intentions of the research and as such, more commercial processes may need to be explored.

Moving forward, the integration of narrative and process will be pivotal to a developing synthesis between my contextual and practical concerns. Exploring more commercial processes such as screen print or heat transfer may enable me to continue to explore textiles but in a playful manner that corroborates my commercial intentions. There has certainly been some successes in the investment in weaving, and exploration of typography as I feel both are natural continuations of my wider practice, but both are relevant to the research proposal and so far, have driven an appropriate traditional aesthetic.

LAUIL601 - PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT - WEAVING

The process of learning and practicing weaving has been highly laborious but it is a process which seems so representative of British heritage and industry that I felt it would attain a solid grounding for the synthesis of my practical and theoretical work. From completing two studies, shape and text, I have been able to understand the construction of woven elements. This is something which may inform other practical processes through the consideration of pixels in order to attain a similar aesthetic. The time-consuming nature of the process may mean that it has to be substituted for something for viable, but the purpose of learning the process and demonstrating it is pivotal to the contextual grounding and authenticity of my project.

LAUIL601 - COP WRITTEN PROPOSAL

LAUIL601 - ABBIE MOONEY
CONTEXT OF PRACTICE PROJECT PROPOSAL

RESEARCH INTENT  & PROTO-QUESTIONS

-To explore the relationship between industrial communities and visual heritage -To identify how industrial heritage is prevalent in contemporary creative communities -Use practical methodologies to identify the role of design and craft in the development of holistic identity in communities - Carry out primary and secondary research to find out how the current landscape of craft and design is influenced by heritage -Consider themes in light of craftivism and identity -To what extend are Britain’s working-class communities shaped by the legacy of their industries? -Industrial heritage and community identity: The place of craft in working class Britain

THEMES/ SUBJECTS/ PHENOMENA

-Social relationships with the people’s art -Pride and tradition, celebration of community identity - ‘Unsophisticated arts’ - NUM banners/ Durham miners gala - Craftivism and union placards/ DIY type/ signwriting -Transmission of union and social community through craft processes -RITUALS AND THE TRANSMISSION OF IDENTITY CRAFTIVISM/ HERITAGE/ CRAFTSMANSHIP/ HOLISTIC IDENTITY/ TRADITION

AUDIENCE/ CONTEXT

-Aim to shed light on heritage to those now living in these geographical communities -Directed towards families and older communities to instil pride and promotion of holistic identity -Intent to teach younger audiences of the heritage of the places around them -Inclusive and playful tone of voice to encourage positive promotion of identity and community spirit -POSITIVE PROMOTION OF CRAFT FOR SOCIAL COMMUNION TO MODERN COMMUNITIES

GOALS/ ACTION PLAN

-       To establish a distinction between craft for politics and craft for identity -       Broaden personal knowledge of social movements and aspects of heritage -       Clarify the line between protest craftivism and community craftivism -       Use practical processes to visual realise theoretical research in an attempt to explore craftivism as a promoter of heritage rather than a vehicle for protest -       EMPLOY THE VALUES CHARACTERISED BY THE CRAFTIVISM AND IDENTITY OF INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITIES TO GIVE MEANING AND IDENTITY TO A MODERN COMMUNITY

KEY QUOTES AND TEXTS

‘Heritage and Tourism in ‘The Global Village’ – BONIFACE & FOWLER ‘Heritage: Critical Approaches’ – HARRISON ‘In Loving Memory of Work’ – OLDHAM ‘The Place of Imagery in the Transmission of Culture’ – WRAY ‘Cultural Studies and the Working-Class’ – MUNT ~ ‘Heritage is something that suffuses us with pride rather than shame’ BOYM ‘The powerful rhetoric of inclusivity mobilized people’ MUNT ‘Heritage as a social process’ HARVEY

Additional Information -Clarify link between physical craft practice and industrial heritage -What is the relationship between community, craft, and heritage? -The politics of craft

POTENTIAL PRACTICAL EXPLORATIONS/ OUTCOMES

Content: -       Explore a celebration of heritage through analogue processes pioneered in British industry -       Consider re-appropriation of industrial traditions to suit a contemporary cultural landscape -       How can I use processes such as weaving and letterpress to promote holistic identity of modern communities? -       Colloquial language and dialect to capture essence of community I want to represent > what does it mean to be from an industrial town/ the north/ Yorkshire?

Outcomes: -       Propose a creative workshop or event celebrating industrial heritage through accessible contemporary craft and design -       Woven or screen-printed banner capturing the essence mining lodge banners but through a contemporary illustrative aesthetic -       Explore contemporary sign writing to visualise colloquial language of the community/ region -       Textiles/ fibre art to explore the processes of the industries central to the research, but with a modern approach -       Analogue and mechanical processes used to channel aesthetic qualities and physical processes of research context to establish playful and rich visual outcomes

LAUIL601 - RESEARCH PROPOSAL, FEEDBACK & REFLECTION

W/C 8th Oct GROUP TUTORIAL FEEDBACK & PROJECT PROPOSAL

RESEARCH QUESTION
-Industrial heritage and community identity: The place of craft in working class Britain

METHODOLOGY
-Industry/ Craft/ Folk art/ Heritage
-Textiles, illustrative fabrics
-Printed matter/ letterpress
-Fibre arts & weaving
-Analogue/ mechanical processes in contemporary context
-Promotion of community pride

PRACTICAL DIRECTION
-Mining banners as central inspiration (George Tutill)
-Contemporary weaving
-Typography and sign painting
-Printmaking & analogue processes
-Exhibition/ Creative workshops promoting pride and celebration of heritage

ASPECTS NEEDING DEFINITION
-How industrial heritage is linked with physical practical methodologies
-Craftivism & social identity
-Community and the politics of craft

ASPECTS THAT NEED EXPANDING
-Relationship between the main industries of study; textiles, mining, printing
-Relationship between community, craft and heritage
-Poetry and application of language/ text
-Link between practice and work; ritual vs. industry; mining galas vs. textiles factories


PRESENTATION & FEEDBACK REFLECTION (500 words)
As a first session, this group tutorial worked well to deconstruct my ideas outside of my own research and gather external viewpoints on the different avenues I have started to explore, and consider how I can establish a strong synthesis between my theoretical concerns and practical goals.

I felt from the feedback I got that I have a fairly solid contextual grounding, my research question has appropriate and substantiated opportunities for theoretical investigation and thorough practical exploration too. From the feedback, I can now see that I may have been trying to juggle too many aspects of industry when in fact I can focus primarily on mining and link industries such as print and textiles in my practical work rather than over complicating the theories and case studies with multiple industries. This certainly seems to offer greater clarity within the research as the issues of community identity seem much more pertinent and cemented in the mining communities than in any others. 


Areas to develop are the clarity of the relationship between craft and community, as it is perhaps easy to assume that the audience know as much about the topic as I do, when I really need to approach the topic from the perspective of it being new to the reader; how can I be explicit yet substantiated with the connection between communities and the crafts they practice, and the relationship this has with their industry. Moving forward with the project, I will focus on this relationship in terms of a discussion between social ritual and industry.

In the critique, I took the opportunity to gather opinions from my peers on my wider intent for practice. I felt as though my initial proposals for this research project were pushing me away from a conventional illustration practice. My practice has been becoming increasingly concerned with text and theory and I was concerned that the topic I was pursuing would push me even further away from conventional drawing. On reflection, the crit actually aided my visions for the practical strand of the project as I unpicked some areas of study into the following practical avenues; mechanical printing and the use of type for community gain, and textiles art and the use of textiles in social rituals. 

Moving forward, something that will be pertinent to both the development of the project and my emerging practice, is the flexibility to push the boundaries of an illustration practice. From talking through my research and ideas with peers, I have been able to see that text and process is pertinent to the project over drawing or conventional image-making. As the research continues to grow, I will be informed by multi-disciplinary case studies and the body of work will be built around meaning making and identity rather than evolving a direct illustration practice. To drive this, I will begin to focus on colloquial language and dialect as the means by which analogue outcomes achieve narrative.