projects

Dan Stewart         It’s a Revolution         external blog
Kate Davidson         Spoiler Alert!         external blog
Sarah Surette         Scrapbooks         external blog
 

Stewart         (revision 2 September 09)

My drive for art making came from my grandmother and my high school art teacher. They really made me see my talents. I have always been interested in fashion and when I saw threadless.com my sophomore year in high school I fell in love with the idea of a clothing line and from then on I have had a one-track mind. I came here intending on graduation a graphic designer. I worked diligently through my 3 years, so far, to make sure I wasn’t creating anything anyone else was, and struggled to make my place here. My thought process starts with a thought of whether or not someone will hate it or think it is ugly. If yes then I usually do it. I have always felt like I have been on the outside looking in on on going trends. I was out casted for most of my life and never fit in to any really notch it the social totem pole. Because of this it has formed and transformed my thought process and my compassions. I find all this to be relevant to my topic of choice.
  Plotting the Revolution, 21 September 2009

The biggest communication we have as humans is our impressions. It is what we wear, how we wear it and what we are wearing is saying. I wish to contribute to this conversation. By spending time to create an image and a message putting my own twist on fashion. I want to compile a stock hold of information of first hand experience, relevant text and photos, as well as canvassing my cause and presenting my manifesto to onlookers. With my internship taking place this summer I hope to gain valuable knowledge within the industry which will further set my self up to advance my compilation of visual language and information so I can then begin to create.

My ideas are all based off of a certain thought pattern at a certain time, and a set of words or a phrase that sparks some sort of poetic interest. My ideas are also based off of my own feelings of nostalgia. For these thoughts, words and phrases I have, I will create images; these images will be my interpretations of my own thoughts and words. These images will be my way of expressing my nostalgia. These images I make will then be made into screen-printed works and eventually printed onto t-shirts shirts.

references
WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy
GRN Apple Tree
Society Original Products
CREEP STREET

Antenna Magazine
Digital Gravel
Karmaloop     Global Concrete Culture
e.5.Charlie     custom clothing and accessories
 

Davidson         (14 May 09)

In these hard economic times, who has the money, or hours to waste on watching a movie? No one. So, why watch the movie when the poster can get right to the good part: the spoiler. That’s right; a simple glance at the movie poster, and you can get right to the meat of the movie. No actual viewing of the film is necessary.

In this project, I will create movie posters from scratch in programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. These posters will include imagery, type, and the usual elements of a movie poster; i.e., title, tagline, actors and actresses, the director, etc. They will also include a spoiler — a remark which reveals the important plot elements or surprise twist from a film.

In doing this project, I hope to hone my skills in typography, use of imagery and spacing, and general poster creation. While I have made several posters in the past, I have never really put a significantly large amount of time or research into them, which this project will allow me to do. I also would like to create something that will most certainly elicit a strong reaction out of the viewer; I believe creating a normal poster wouldn’t get the same level of response as it would if a spoiler was included.
  These — a change in approach — were shown on 21 September

My project was inspired by an incident that occurred in Los Angeles in December 2008. An unknown individual went around the city and proceeded to spray-paint a spoiler on almost every printed advertisement for the film Marley and Me. When I spoke with friends about this I saw different reactions from everyone. One individual would think it was hilarious, while the next was upset because they had wanted to see the film. In doing this project, I really want to see how these posters and their spoiler message will affect the person viewing it.

bibliography
lol-vandals-spoil-marley-mes-ending
spoiler alert, from
Matt Hills. The pleasures of horror (New York: Continuum, 2004) — here at page 42 (scroll down), but discussion begins at p39 if not earlier.
 

Surette         (revision 31 August 09)

I’ve always had a fascination with scrapbooks. It probably started when I was kid and used to look through my baby book. My mom isn’t a very crafty person, but I could tell she had fun making our baby books. She has clumps of our baby hair in there, hospital bracelets, birthday invitations, baby shower cards, and tons of pictures. She would cut heads out of family pictures and paste them on top of the illustrations that were already in the books. They’re not really aesthetically beautiful, but I always found them funny and interesting. One year for maybe my twelfth birthday my friend’s mom bought me a scrap booking kit and that was when it all started. I still have that old scrapbook and it looks horrible to me now, but I love looking back at it. I stopped doing it for a while and then started back up again in high school. I am now pretty much addicted to scrap booking and rubber-stamping. My uncle’s ex-wife used to do stamping parties for a stamping company and got me completely hooked. Come to find out now she is considered to be a professional scrap booker and goes to all these conventions! I would love to explore the world of scrap booking and what makes someone a professional scrap booker. It is interesting to me the different ways people scrapbook, the different styles, and the business of it. I’ve been hearing about digital scrap booking now, and the amount of products they sell in stores now is insane.

I’m going to start by collecting things I have. Going through drawers and cabinets in my room and looking for things I’ve saved for whatever reason. So far I’ve found coasters from restaurants, ticket stubs, notes, directions, cards, and various other items. I’m not sure if I’ll have themes for my scrapbooks or even a certain subject matter, but anything I put into it will probably end up relating back to me in some way, at least at first.

 

essays

On 14 September, each seminarian presented and contextualized one visual idea for a fellow-seminarian’s project. The presentations did, in each case, shed some light on their respective subjects.

Sarah Surette : Kate Davidson’s spoiler project

instructor’s observations —
Brings to mind Ed Ruscha’s paintings of words and phrases, e.g., Gone (1992).

Take a list — any list — of a dozen movies you've not seen, maybe even not heard of. Do not research the movie, but on the basis of its title, director (if known), actors (if known), period (if known), make a spoiler poster for each. The result will float free of its movie, work poetically. Explore this at length. Possibly several posters for one movie title.
 

Kate Davidson : Dan Stewart’s revolution project

What Would Don Draper Do?
 

Dan Stewart : Sarah Surette’s scrapbook project

instructor’s observations —
Layered, aestheticized collage. At one pole in a multi-polar map that contains, in addition to scrapbooks, the artist’s notebook, index rerum, commonplace books, photo albums, art collage (e.g., Joseph Cornell, Jess, Hannah Hoch here and here), non-art collage (aka graphic design?), diaries and journals, inventors’ notebooks, guest books, autograph albums, &c., and even emblems (symbolic compounds).

Also, friendship albums (alba amicorum, mentioned here and many elsewheres), albums of artists’ sketches, and gift books.

Take a look at the artists notebook blog, to Ethan Berry’s class of that name, Spring 09.

One might consider language as it applies to scrapbooks, graphic design and other of the media/genres that are located on that multi-polar matrix. For design, answerability is crucial: language is involved in conceptualizing, persuading, developing a design in social setting. For the scrapbook, language may play a less central role, with responses being warm and kindly.

Of course, there are blogs and discourse in the scrapbooking community; workshop stars, headliners on Carribean cruises. There emerges a vocabulary of brands and products, stickers and software, techniques, styles, approaches. Once, a scrapbook stayed in the home, was visible only to those with an immediate interest. The conversation — if any ‐ would likely have focused on subject not presentation, and certainly not critically. Now, a scrapbook might be visible to strangers via websites, digital scrapbooks, blogs, workshops. And so the language and communities in which they are embedded and derive significance change.