Reflective Statement

The process of managing a blog and presenting academic research here has proven challenging. Motivated to create egalitarian graphic art, conveying the character and flaws of analog media in a digital context, I chose the keyword “Humanity”, which seemed to link to both. Academic articles about a range of relevant issues – from theological morality to computer-generated emotion – have been interesting to read, and provided visual prompts, but can’t define what “Humanity” might be.

As such, I’ve struggled to reconcile this research process with the need to produce coherent creative outcomes for Practice 1, sensing something of clear value in my enquiry, but not knowing quite what. In truth, I’ve at times wished that a these theories, theses and analyses would seep into my subconscious and infuse my creative work. …But although it’s challenging to find a direct correlation between the musings of Sartre and my design skillset, I have rationalised certain Situationist concepts, including the Society of the Spectacle, relative to my Practice 1 proposals.

In terms of using this research to inform practice, it’s been valuable to learn more about graphicacy and semiotics, and I’m particularly drawn to employing pictograms in my designs, having recognised their similarity to historic representations of humanity in Paleolithic art. Indeed, the excitement of seeing such connections for the first time – between academic theories and practice, or discrete areas of creative practice – constitutes the most rewarding part of a research project such as this; thus it was revelatory to me that cave paintings might be viewed as public art, and in some respects may not be so different from modern representations of humanity in shop windows and on road signs.

Perhaps the most surprising connection I’ve found is between glitch art and analog media, their potential for interaction offering a new dynamic for attempts to bring humanity’s imperfections into the digital realm. Without taking my own embryonic findings into a tutorial discussion, I wouldn’t have thought to explore this area, and this not only underlines the value of allowing research methods to spontaneously change direction, but of the free-thinking interaction of humans: it’s as if appreciating a spark within human-to-human communication offers a key insight into humanity’s condition, which, of course, only confirms Mark Pagel’s position, as reported on this blog.

Prominent within my practice-linked research have been the triumvirate subjects of anti-consumerism, analog media and public art, each equating with aspects of “Humanity” in my mind. However, there was no strategy beyond starting with graphic artists referenced in SAT1, and, at some point, focusing on how image and typography (predominantly analog) is used by contemporary practitioners, specifically within graphic art installations and exhibitions; even then I found it enlightening to detour via the work of Sister Corita Kent.

While I didn’t plan a non-linear approach to this research, on reflection, I see that a certain unevenness often pervades my work, despite intentions to impose a structure. Sometimes this is problematic, but it can create the conditions for unexpectedly positive outcomes, and, in the context of researching a multi-faceted subject like “Humanity”, may be appropriate, even representing it to some degree: diverse, unpredictable, making significant mistakes along the way but, hopefully, having a potential for good.

Design to challenge humanity

Fig. 1 Glenn Rickwood ‘Human Niche’ pencil sketch of zygote (2014)

Fig. 2 Glenn Rickwood ‘Human Niche’/Venn diagram sketch (2014)

I spent last night experimenting with some image-making processes: photocopying, ripping, scrawling, scanning and manipulating all of this digitally… …Am struck by the visual similarity of a human zygote and a Venn diagram (See Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, above,)… …Rather like this connection, but will need time to reflect on if/how I might develop it… …And might need to seek guidance about the requirements connected with the recording of source material, with particular regards to the appropriation of existing imagery… …Also recognise that Adbusters’ influence may be weighing too heavily on my efforts, but, ideologically at least, this may not be such a bad thing, and, hopefully, I’ll find my own niche within this approach to graphic art in time… …Certainly, the idea of humanity as a niche within a broader market of evolution is one that interests me…

…Today, having clarified certain assignment issues, I’ve been examining the source text I intend to make the focus of my critical evaluation, looking to consolidate the links between it and my Practice 1 work… This is Clean New World (2001) by Maud Lavin, and although I’m drawn to Chapter 3’s consideration of the work of Kurt Scwhitters and his contemporaries, I now plan to focus on Chapter 7, titled Collectivism in the Decade of Greed: Political Art Coalitions in the 1980s in New York City, which is a period I know much less about from an academic/historical perspective. During my first spell as an art student, in the 1980s, the design practice of the 1920s was very much assimilated into the cultural references and structure of art college life, and, thus, I have some knowledge of the work of Schwitters, Piet Zwart, Herbert Bayer and Jan Tschichold (though not, I confess, Paul Schuitema!). However, as I grappled with the challenges of B.A. (Hons) Graphic Design and young adulthood, I was only somewhat aware of visual communication’s engagement with British sociopolitical issues – such as Anti-Thatcherism, the miners’ strike, and the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – and knew little of what was taking place across the Atlantic, beyond noting that Ronald Reagan was as divisive a figure in the U.S. as Margaret Thatcher was in the U.K.

…The posters and installations created by art collectives such as Guerilla Girls and Gran Fury are neither subtle nor technically complex, but as the self-proclaimed “conscience of the art world” (this is the claim of the former), they reared up to challenge the prevailing views of a right-wing Establishment, employing a postmodernist “style [that] was to cement a hard-hitting, single-image graphic with a didactic, advertising-like caption” (Lavin, 2001: 97).

Fig. 3 Guerilla Girls (1991) What’s the difference between a
prisoner of war and a homeless person? [image online] Available at:
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/homelesspow.shtml
[Accessed 30 October 2014]

…And, no doubt, they’d readily acknowledge the influence of John Heartfield and his Dada associates. As mentioned, I’ve not previously noted the work of Dutch graphic artist Paul Schuitema, a collegue of Piet Zwart, and though his modernist typography rarely strays from a Constructivist template, his sporadic use of raw photographic content, documenting regime brutality or the socialist aspirations of the working man, prefigures the stance of Agitprop material produced in the 1960s and thereafter. Indeed, amongst his writings is a pseudonymous article for a 1933 edition of the Links Richten journal, describing “Photography as a weapon in class war” (Lavin, 2002: 35).

Fig. 4 Paul Schuitema Victims of police brutality against
the protests of the unemployed in Rotterdam (1932) [image online] Available at: http://www.scrbd.com/doc/77196048/Clean-New-World-Culture-Politics-and-Graphic-Design-Maud-Lavin
[Accessed 30 October 2014]

In due course, I shall further explore how I might utilise photographic images and sloganeering within my Practice 1 project to express something of Humanity: the great challenge here being to find a fresh approach to the form, and not merely repeat the work of others…

References

Lavin, M (2001), Clean new world: culture, politics and graphic design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press

What does it mean to be human?

Fig. 1 Planet of The Apes, film still (1968) [image online]
Available at: http://www.cinemasquid.com/screenshots/sets/planet-of-the-apes/87658604-a190-4d28-a903-2735b14d326f
[Accessed 27 October 2014]

I’m now considering how to reinforce the links between my Research and Enquiry work and the creative process in my Practice 1 project. In time, I hope to explore the ways in which “Socially and Politically Aware Graphic Art” might express concepts of “Humanity”, which is now set to be my FAT1 keyword. But initially, I feel that I should have some deeper understanding of the term “Humanity” might represent in an academic context.

Thus, the first search I’ve made (within the UH online library) in connection with this matter is “what does it mean to be human?”, which results in a number of texts being identified with the very same title. An article by Philippe Rochat, from the Journal of Anthropological Psychology (2006), commences with the assertion that while “we share 98% of our genetic make-up with chimpanzees, we evolved unmatched ways to relate and deal with each other” (Rochat 2006: 48). Reading on, it becomes clear that this is foremost a deliberation on the intricacies of human evolution, but that Rochat has a keen interest in the ostensibly intangible qualities of the human condition: “To capture what it means to be human, I would suggest that one must focus not on what is inside the individual but rather on the way human individuals transact and share resources among themselves” (Rochat 2006: 48).

I am certainly drawn to the concept he presents of “the human niche” (Rochat 2006: 48) that we’ve carved out for ourselves in this world, always needing to adapt to a fast-changing environment in which we are the primary agents of the change: there may well be opportunities to convey such a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ visually…

…Also, in terms of linking with Socially and Politically Aware Graphic Art, it is interesting to note the extent to which Rochat thinks that humans are defined by “prestige” (Rochat 2006: 49), “reputation” (Rochat 2006: 49) and “property” (Rochat 2006: 50).

Approaching the same matter from a very different starting point, Pru Hobson-West’s article, Beasts and Boundaries: an Introduction to Animals in Sociology, Science and Society examines how human identity might be defined relative to animals, and the way in which our species treats animals. Hobson-West, referencing Descartes’ notion of beasts as machines, considers what justification there might be for an innate sense of superiority within humanity that leads [most of] us to assume we are dominant over other species and have the right to use them for our advantage: “Modernity relied on a positive view of humanity with animals seen as a legitimate resource to aid human progress” (Hobson-West 2007: 26).

Having discussed how mankind’s relationship with animals has changed over the centuries, particularly relative to our transition from an agrarian to industrial lifestyle, Hobson-West states that, due to ongoing technological developments, and experiments on animals over the past 150 years, it continues to evolve in ways that challenge our sense of self and concept of what humanity should be. In conclusion, taking the scallop to represent lower animal consciousness, Hobson-West asks “What is the meaning of aliveness and what distinguishes human aliveness from scallop aliveness?” (Hobson-West 2007: 36), but offers no answer.

In noting this reference to aliveness, and recognising an existentialist aspect to it, I sought out a text by Sartre that summarises his thoughts about humanity, finding an essay titled Existentialism is a Humanism. Herein he defends his philosophy while making its central tenets plain: “There is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing – as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism” (Sartre 1945: 3). It is both a discomforting yet potentially empowering view.

Further contemplating a darker side to mankind, M. Cherif Bassiouni states that the term ‘Crimes against Humanity’ was first employed in Article 6(c) of the London Charter at the Nuremberg Trials, though neither a formal definition nor convention for its use has ever been widely agreed. Relative to this Bassiouni professes that “the laws and writings of scholars throughout Western, Judeo-Christian, Islamic, and other civilizations have expressed the values and beliefs that life, liberty, physical integrity and personal dignity are among the fundamental rights of humanity” (Bassiouni 1993: 488).

According to the Collins Concise Dictionary, humanity is defined as follows: “humanity (hju:’maeniti) n., pl. -ties. 1. the human race. 2. the quality of being human. 3. kindness or mercy. 4. (pl., usually preceded by the) the study of literature, philosophy, and the arts, esp. study of ancient Greece and Rome” (humanity, 1995).

References

Bassiouni, M. C. (1993). ‘Crimes against humanity: the need for a specialized convention’, Columbia Journal for Transnational Law [online], 31, 1993-1994, pp.457-494.
[Accessed 17 November 2014]

Hobson-West, P. (2005) ‘Beasts and boundaries: an introduction to animals in sociology’, Qualitative Sociology [online] 3(1) April 2007, pp.23-41. Available at: https://uhvpn.herts.ac.uk/,DanaInfo=scholar.google.com+scholar?q=pru+hobson-west+beasts+and+boundaries&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5
[Accessed 27 October 2014]

humanity. (1995). In: Collins Concise Dictionary, 3rd ed. Glasgow: Harper Collins, p.630.

Rochat, P. (2006) ‘What does it mean to be human’,  Anthropological Psychology [online] 17, pp.48-51. Available at: https://uhvpn.herts.ac.uk/,DanaInfo=scholar.google.com+scholar?q=what+does+it+mean+to+be+human&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5
[Accessed 27 October 2014]

Sartre, J.P. (1945), ‘Exististentialism is a humanism’, University of Warwick [online], pp.1-14. Available at https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=nIyLVIXGCIaA0AXhgYHQCw#q=sartre-eih.pdf
[Accessed 13 December 2013]

Graphic art with a conscience

Fig. 1 Adbusters/Garland, Ken (2000), First Things First Manifesto 2000
[image online] Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000
[Accessed 21 October 2014]

Having driven back the demands of the day job for a while, the last seven hours have been spent trawling UH’s online library portal, familiarising myself, to some extent, with Google Scholar. At some points it feels like one is searching a very (very) large field with a metal detector, but there are treasures to be found. However, it soon becomes clear that one issue to be addressed is whether these items are sufficiently academic, relative to the requirements of the SAT1 brief, and, on re-reading the brief, I’ve realised that certain results GS provides do not meet its criteria. …Thus, even an article written by a prominent journalist on The New York Times, promisingly titled “The Branding of the Occupy Movement”, isn’t substantial enough to feature in my bibliography.

The second issue I’m addressing is the need to adjust the parameters of my enquiry somewhat, focusing on Socially and Politically Aware [rather than engaged] Graphic Art: this, I feel, will highlight the conceptual aspect of such work, rather than its application or delivery (through workshops etc.). I also wish to retreat from any consideration of State-devised propaganda, which rarely, if ever, promotes the finer human qualities. Moreover, focusing the research in this way should help to inform the FAT1 project I’d like to pursue.

Relative to this, I’m reminded of the value of the First Things First manifesto, the original version of which (I’ve only recently discovered) was conceived of by British designer Ken Garland in 1963. This call for social responsibility is definitely worth further consideration…

The first manifesto, signed by Garland and 21 of his contemporaries, was “a reaction to the staunch society of 1960s Britain and called for a return to a humanist aspect of design” (Design is History, n.d.). It spoke disparagingly about the trivial commercial content produced by mainstream design and advertising studios, proposing instead that the creative sector “focus efforts of design on education and public service tasks that promoted the betterment of society” (Design is History, n.d.).

Although the manifesto received some media attention in 1964, it was not until 1999, when Kalle Lasn of Adbusters revised and updated the idea in collaboration with Garland – having come across it in a back issue of Eye magazine – that it gained widespread support, and the backing of 33 eminent signatories including Milton Glaser, Tibor Kalman and Vince Frost. Published in 2000, “Adbusters’ welcome initiative reasserts these considerations as fundamental to any sensitive interpretation of graphic design’s role and potential” (Eye Magazine, Autumn 1999).

Currently, a British-based Canadian designer called Cole Peters is inviting all interested parties to sign a 2014 version of the manifesto, having contacted Garland by email: “[Ken’s] been very supportive of me taking this on — although he’s also told me that he personally feels the 2014 draft might not add much to its earlier iterations” (Design Week, 4 March 2014).

Unfamiliar with Ken Garland or his creative work, I wanted to know something about his practice, especially as Eye Magazine attests that “although he is a key figure in the development of graphic design since the mid-twentieth century, Garland’s design work is less known than that of his peers. He rarely exhibits it. He never publicly discusses it. He is interested in communicating ideas but believes his own interpretations of those ideas should speak for themselves” (Eye Magazine, Winter 2007).

The images below offer a fair representation of his style, incorporating a vibrant use of colour – frequently overlaid to create ‘extra’ extra colours (a technique seldom seen these days within digital production structures) – and a bold, playful approach to typography that often focuses on specially drawn characters that are modernist way epitomising the future-facing zeitgeist of the sixties and early seventies.

Fig 2. Ken Garland, Camden Committee for Community Relations logo (1966) [image online] Available at: http://a1.dspnimg.com/data/l/161609010552_4PKX7p3M_l.jpg
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Fig 3. Ken Garland, Galt Toys logo (1968) [image online] Available at: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2011/03/ken_garland_galy_tots_0.jpg
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Fig. 4 Ken Garland, Design Magazine (1963) [image online] Available at: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JBi9txTxKx0/UWJxYAuXi7I/AAAAAAAAAGE/HYB0hC6kniE/s1600/url-10.jpeg
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

References

Barnbrook, J., Kalman, T., Lupton, E., McCoy, K., Poynor, R., Miller, J.A., Roberts, L., van Toorn, J., VanderLans, R., Wilkinson, B., Bell, N., Keedy, J., Licko, Z., Mevis, A., Howard, A., Helfand, J., Glaser, M., Blauvelt, A., Bockting, H., Boom, I., Levrant de Bretteville, S., Bruinsma, M., Cook, S., van Deursen, L., Dixon, C., Drenttel, W., Dumbar, G., Esterson, S., Frost, V., Garland, K., Spiekermann, E. (Autumn 1999) ‘First Things First Manifesto 2000’ Eye Magazine [online] Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Design is History (n.d) First Things First Manifesto [online] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Montgomery, A (4 March 2014) ‘Updating the First Things First Manifesto for 2014’ (4 March 2014) Design Week [online] Available at: http://www.designweek.co.uk/analysis/updating-the-first-things-first-manifesto-for-2014/3038037.article
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Odling-Smee, A. (Winter 2007) ‘Reputations: Ken Garland’ Eye Magazine [online] Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-ken-garland
[Accessed 13 December 2014]

Links

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000

http://www.kengarland.co.uk/

Socially engaged graphic art

Fig 1 Siouxsie and The Banshees (1979), Mittageisen;
John Heartfield,  Hurrah, die Butter ist Alle! (1935) [image online] Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Siouxsie_Mittagessen.jpg
[Accessed 14 October 2014]

…This is the working title for my R&E work, having considered quite a few, but may change as matters proceed.

In the politically charged atmosphere of Britain in the late ’70s and ’80s, I became aware of both Constructivist and Dadaist imagery, appropriated as it was by graphic artist/designers such as Jamie Reid, Linder Sterling, Malcolm Garratt, Dennis Morris and Peter Saville in their efforts to visually represent the energy and disaffection of punk and post-punk, music at that point being the prime social and political signifier for ‘Youth’: for example, the first time I ever saw a John Heartfield montage was on the cover of Siouxsie and The Banshees’ single, “Mittageisen”. Struggling to find my own visual identity within this cultural stew became the main focus of my first passage through the Art School system, leading me from the Hertfordshire College of Art and Design (where Banshees guitarist John McKay had also gained a Foundation Diploma) to Middlesex Polytechnic (where Adam Ant had also sought a graphics degree during its Hornsey incarnation). Without doubt, the need to challenge the ‘Establishment’ within one’s art/design practice, and to react to the divisive politics of the time, was de rigeur for any self-respecting art student (even those studying fashion).

In examining some of the art/design work I made during this period I still feel curiously connected to it, and a mid-life urge to apply its spirit – hopefully, refined in some ways – to the pros and cons of the Digital Age. And, to my eyes, Constructivism can still appear many years ahead of what passes for mainstream commercial art, much as Dadaism still seems radical in how it continues to shape the desire to question the 21st Century status quo. (…While Metal Box, by PiL, is about as radical as popular music has yet managed to be.)

The need for art/design to engage with the important issues of the day remains paramount, I’d say, but all too often this is evident by its absence from sociopolitical debate. …Thus, as I recently made my way through the streets of London (to visit The Barbican’s somewhat underwhelming “Digital Revolution” exhibition), it was inspiring to come across the work of photographer Michael Thomas Jones posted across hoardings on the Goswell Road: his A9 Project – a series of portrait-led posters – addressed the issue (as of then undetermined) of whether the Scots would vote for independence; very much an intriguing, apposite and well-delivered concept.

Fig. 1 Michael Thomas Jones (photograph by Glenn Rickwood), A9 Project (2014), Goswell Road, London.

Links

http://michaelthomasjones.com/A9-IMAGES

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2014/aug/29/a-journey-on-the-a9-scotlands-highway-of-history