Presentation | Alt vs. Accessibility

I'm slowly gathering a lot of bits and pieces to talk about in my presentation. However when I was drawing the mind map I realised another potential area to talk about.

Throughout the year two subjects have continuously cropped up alongside each other, and it has been an ongoing dialogue with myself. I don't think I can fully pick apart this idea yet, but maybe I can just touch upon it within the slides I put together:

The 'Alt' and the 'Accessible'

I enjoy things that are non-exclusive, made for everyone regardless of who they are, however a lot of the references I've made on my blog and my areas of interest encompass 'alternative' aspects of visual culture or ideas of illustration.

It's hard for me to articulate, but this is how I tried to do it:

ACCESSIBLE - for everyone, all ages, genders, classes, ethnicities, etc.

ALT - 'relating to activities that depart from or challenge traditional norms' (unorthodox, unconventional, unusual, irregular, offbeat...)

- a smaller following, but often much more diverse content. tends to be bolder, takes more risks, non-homogenised (e.g. with alt-comics; auto-biographical, surreal, fiction, factual, different narratives, subjects, view points - life, mental health, dreams, etc etc)

....in some ways, I would like to marry these two concepts together in my work. Like "this is for anyone" but it's not pandering to a mass audiences, or trends.

My work isn't on-trend or trendy, but that doesn't mean it can't be commercial.

Presentation | Mind map

I started to make a mind map, hoping that it would help me to generate some content for my presentation. Also, the diagram is a good way of showing links between subjects and thoughts, so it could also help with the structure of the presentation.

Ideally I would like my presentation to be a mixture of personal and academic subjects, because I think these two things are very closely linked. The most important thing is that it flows and makes sense to others.

Here are some notes on the main bits of the diagram:

RESEARCH

• 504: William Burroughs - a heavily researched module

• Polish poster art - has informed my practice in some ways

PROCESS

• Monotype - immediate, lo-fi

• Cut-ups and collage (links to Burroughs)

• Sketchbook - thinking, writing, rough sketches, notes

PROFESSIONALISM

• Do I fit into this? I don't feel comfortable with it

• Don't see myself being a successful commercial illustrator. Can I redefine professionalism for myself?

• Instead of shoe-horning my work into industry niches, can I find places that fit my work naturally?

• TIME - I don't think the aim is to leave uni as a pre-packaged, fully-fledged practicing illustrator. That's not the point. -> Take time to develop, it's an ever-changing thing

EXHIBITIONS

• The idea of curating work or a theme. Could I do this?

• Stedelijk Museum visit - really inspirational from 2016. Found it to be an accessible place with a lot on offer.

        -> Willem Sandberg: Director & Designer - posters as framed pieces of art, museum             branding, simplicity, process-led

        -> Jean Tinguely: Machine Spectacle - explored drawing as a process, drawing                  machines, involved the audiences, fun, open to everyone, multi-disciplinary (books,              drawings, machines, audio-visual, recordings...)

• Experimental Jetset - innovative, organising events and exhibitions, involved in the ideas as well as the art direction.

• Mark Beyer: With/Without Text - all of these different artefacts and pieces of art under one roof, looking at one person's career.

• How do exhibitions begin? Who what where how why? Is it achievable?

PUBLICATIONS

• Zines, 504 publication, Batsford Prize, I enjoy collating works into a finished publication. Something I'd like to expand on in future and possibly work towards.

• Alt-comics - Mark Beyer, AX Manga, Seth, Chester Brown, Breakdown Press. All very inspiring to me this year. Some great narratives as well as how they can be visually portrayed.

Mark Beyer

I ordered this book to the library a while ago. Finding out about Mark Beyer's comics and artwork has made a big impact on me. Everything he makes seems to be entirely his own, and comes from a place that has a feeling of true originality.

Beyer's work appeals to me in terms of its aesthetics, and the bizarre tone of voice, but I'm also drawn to the work because it is shrouded in a fair bit of mystery and is boiled down to a few commissioned projects he has pursued over the years. I enjoy the work because it doesn't seem to be about commercial success, but more about authenticity. 

He also did a few animated shorts for Liquid Television, which was aired on MTV in the 90's. The short was called 'Thomas and Nardo'.

The odd exhibition or project carried out by Beyer was most likely done not only because he was willing to create artwork for that purpose, but the client must have been interested in what he does.

'Mark Beyer: With/Without Text' (2013) was the first Mark Beyer retrospective, which exhibited Tom Wagner's personal collection of his artwork. The show featured early self-published books, objects including trading cards, dolls, as well as silkscreen prints, plexiglass paintings, posters, and magazine covers.

Beyer was also a common contributor to Art Spiegelman's comics anthology RAW magazine, his work being featured in nearly all of the issues.

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Escape Magazine Interview [link]

With/Without Text - Mark Beyer Exhibition notes [link]

Outsider Art Now - Mark Beyer [link]

SB2 Creative Presence | Creative Report

Presentation Notes

CONTENT

•  A response to PPP and 503 and how they have reshaped your thinking

• A self-audit. What did you enjoy? Successes and failures? What interests you?

•  Skills, what's happening within your practice -> practitioners, references, industry areas•  What would you like to do next year? Play? experiment?

•  Wishes you want to achieve - contacts, projects, ventures, can be broad

•  Reflect on your work, break your practice down

•  Tell us something about you -> experiences, condense your practice into words, find something about you, identify what you do and what you like, your unique standpoint, what type of work you like making

•  Where your work could appear, contexts, experiences, projects

• NOT an action plan, more about proposals "may do this" "would like to do this" etc.

•  INFORMAL

• Images

Creative Presence | Contact

Here is evidence of my contact for the Creative Presence brief:

Left: 1st reply   Right: Questions

Unfortunately, despite sending a further email I've had no response. When it comes to writing my report I will focus on why I chose to contact them in the first place, as well as what they do as a company. This is a little disappointing however my reasons for contacting them in the first place still stand.

Creative Presence | Contacting Breakdown Press

Email

Here is a copy of the email I send to Breakdown Press...

Questions

If they respond to me, I have some questions lined up that I could ask them. I still have time to revise/reword these questions if necessary, but here is just the basic idea:

1. What is your experience of running an independent publishing company? Do you enjoy the collaborative elements of what you do?
2. The graphic novel/comics industry can often be very U.S.-centric, so I enjoy that you are a UK-based publisher that also works with international artists. How do you find new and exciting work from different places? and what do you make of the alternative comics scene in the UK?
3. How did you progress to the stage you're at now with the publishing business? Did you set out with this in mind?
4. What duties does running an independent press entail?
5. Discovering and reading graphic novels and sequential illustration only began for me when I started university. There's so much scope for what can be done both aesthetically and in terms of storytelling, and some of them are particularly memorable (Mark Beyer, Seth, Anna Haifisch, and Kramers Ergot to name a few!) What is the selection process like for deciding to publish a piece of work, and what makes you want to work with particular artists?
6. I read that Breakdown intends to expand into other kinds of publishing (photography, and other types of artist books, for example) - why do you think embracing many different creative disciplines is beneficial?