Where I am Local – Research
Workshop 1 (Partnered activity and Autobiographic Zine)
For our first task, we were asked to bring in an object that we felt represented ourselves.
My partner Kinara brought her blue nail polish, and me my Monet print glasses case. From these items, we wrote down and drew out mind maps as to why they felt it represented them.
Then we worked on our Autobiographic zines based of our answers we gave and the questions given on this task. I brought magazines in to cut out from, and used the floral pictures in several pages to make the cover using a scalpel and cutting board, but since it took a lot of time, I ended up doodling and filling the rest of the pages. I think if there was more time in the lesson I could’ve done more but it was what I came up with. In Kinara’s zine she used tracing sheets, and layered them on top with lined drawings to complement it altogether, using tapes and coloured sheets to make a contemporary layout and design, I learned a lot from her processes and about her as a person through her zine.
I chose Gotta Be by Des Ree, a song that I listened to this year to stay strong and positive to get through tough times this year, I used a verse to cover the back of the front cover as reference to the title. One thing I did wrong was misspell “Autobiographics” as “Autobiography”, I ran out of space as well when cutting out the letters, but with the amount of time I had, I rushed to finish the zine in the end, it wasn’t what I had hoped it would looked, but this was an interesting exercise and I did learn about my fellow classmates through this exercise.
(First page with the verse from the song I chose and contents to arrange the pages and questions for each page)
(This page shows what kind of work I do, and who I take inspiration from, plus the object we brought and talked about why it was special to me, mine was because I loved Monet since my early college days before thinking about what I wanted to do as a specialist subject. It was bought when me and a friend went to see paintings all that are floral and had Impressionists paintings including Monet, and she suggested that time that I should try Graphic Design, which is why I find this case quite meaningful to me to this day, it keeps breaking but I ending fixing it due to it relevance to me.)
And the last page with my doodles, I drew myself in a portrait, and the flag of the country I was born and raised in.
My Partners Zine
Task 2- Take photos of my locality
In this task I took various photos on my canon camera of my local area, of not just shops and my park but also of Typography I could see as well. I also noticed that there is a lot of littering in my area that has been a problem, this kind of concerns me as we have various animals that cohabitate in the area and park.
Asynchronous Task-Belonging
In this task we were to select three questions given and answer them based on our experiences of what it is like to belong. This was very reflective for me as I ever thought about my experience as a whole but also what I am without on my identity and culture. I feel as though since living in the UK I had no other option but to fit in, as my mother didn’t speak English very well and raised us to speak it as she worried we would fall behind in school. It makes me wish I would’ve grown up in a bilingual home like my parents who speak multiple languages, which made them more than accomplished in my eyes, still I think I would like to reconnect with my Pakistani and Afghani roots one day and learn my languages.
I still feel more connected and comfortable to being British Pakistani as my nationality however, but more so as a British citizen as I was born and raised in this country for most of my life and speak English as my first language, I just wish that it wasn’t so much of a question of who I really am when people ask me “Where I’m really from?”, as it feels I’m being uncomfortably interrogated for my identity. I feel as though “where” is subjective and also vague in a question, as we are the ones who decipher where home feels to us. If anyone asked me about politics that goes on in my country, I wouldn’t know as I didn’t grow up or live there or speak the language to understand my native country’s news but I can recall and read back to politics in the UK because I’ve lived here most of my life.
Psychogeography Map Research
In this class we learned about what Psychogeography is how it connects to our themes of locality and Typographic works. Various maps use wording to describe space and environments that we’re familiar with around. One of the works I came across and was familiar with was Paula Scher’s map paintings. I found her work on a Netflix documentary called Abstract under the episode “Graphic Design” and learned about her connections to words in new York City, it was fascinating how she used the culture and the arts in galleries to connect people to her poster designs, she seems to be also obsessed with information and writing it down where ever she went in a journal, and how she sees that information, plus how to create something in worded designs to express them. it made me learn about Graphic Design as a foundation as well, that it is more than just imagery to express information, it can be a link to words and culture surrounding us. I found it valid and a link to what we were learning in class as well.
We then made our own Pyhchogeography maps of our area in class, I used Google maps from mine and edited this on Photoshop.
I feel as though this exercise has made realise how much I’ve connected to my area over the three years I lived here, and the way I look at my journeys mentally is like one straight line although it’s a complex culmination of paths connected. I quite liked this activity as it gave me a new perspective on area and familiarity with ones home.
Reflections Tutorials
We filled out a sheet regarding our reflection over the workshops and activities we did in class.