Class - Research

To try and find out more about working class and what really goes on, I've started watching some documentaries that explore home lives and follow people around on their day to day business. 

My favourite show is Skint. 

From this programme I've been quite shocked at stories some of the people tell. Stories of prostitution and drug addiction from very young ages - just to support themselves or to shut out reality. There have also been some extremely funny yet insightful quotes. A lot of cursing yet the things said are very intelligent. 

A few of my favourites being "Don't disrespect the fuckin' queen" and "When it comes to christmas you get a loan, buy your kids what everyone else has, spend the rest of the year paying it off then do it again next year!"

I want to incorporate these quotes into my films to reveal the truth behind the stereotypes and bring a personal level to the films. 

I also have been watching Gogglebox, partly because I enjoy it but also because I get to see the reactions from mainly working class audiences to current TV. One episode in particular was interesting as they all watched a programme called Inside Tattler and were astounded that some of the women hadn't ever heard of Poundland. They were laughing hysterically at her disbelief at the bargains. 

Class - Cinema 4D Character Design & Jesse Kanda

As a follow on from my last project I know that I want to continue furthering my skills in this software. Last time all I worked with was squares really, but character design is something completely different and more the kind of direction I want to go in. 

I found an artist called Jesse Kanda who does music videos, something I am also doing outside my course and he uses C4D to create 3D bizarre characters. I love the atmosphere his films create, like a sinister disturbing feel. I also think his use of colour is amazing, the flashing and clashing is something I'm particularly fond of using too. 

Jesse Kanda Website

Although I doubt I'll be able to create something as accurate and fluid by the end of this project, this is certainly the standard I want to be at one day! 

Class - Observational Drawings

As I sit and draw I find myself drawn much more towards those I categorise as working class. As I draw them I know that I prefer their lined faces, eyes that actually look around and interact with their surroundings and their open actions. They look happy, sad, drawn, stressed, angry - there is no pretending or putting up appearances with them. They're out with their friends or alone shopping or simply walking around taking in everything around them. I start to pay attention to how I define them, making lists and collecting quotes and in the end creating little scenes myself applying the lists to them. 

I know now that I want to focus on the stereotypes of Working Class. I want to explore these stereotypes and reveal the nature behind them, to get a little more understanding of their situations and shed some light on the real deal. 

Class - Brief and initial thoughts

Aims
This project will enable you to investigate, document, translate and create narratives of Culture, Class and Taste after visiting the Grayson Perry tapestries ‘ The Vanity of Small Differences’ at Temple Newsam House, Leeds.

Your research should reflect some of the ‘narratives’ undertaken by Grayson Perry in his series of films in examining how ‘Identities’ can be translated and understood
The project provides an opportunity to develop specific relationships as artists and illustrators, through the making of objects and images, to ‘Culture’ and notions of Taste acquired through Socio-Cultural and Class contexts.

Areas of research:
political or ideological affiliation
family and community background.
inherited skills and interests
peer group cultures
collective identities and culture
manners, etiquette, social rules
communities and collective interests
fashions
dominant, alternative or sub-cultures
education and social mobility
communication of Narratives through media; films, music, television, Internet, and social media
entertainment
technologies
gender
notions of similarity and difference; culture, race, sexuality, religion
shared community, regional, global values
customs, histories and traditions
hierarchies ; ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’ influences
personal expression, consensus and individualism
wealth
kitsch
high, popular and low culture
cultural accessibility
re-defining and free-floating markers of taste

Introduction:
Group tasks and discussion: Christian Lloyd, Bob Partridge (T1/06) Tuesday 18 November 11.15am (all Strands)

How does an understanding of Culture and Taste guide the way we acknowledge, interpret, value and understand cultural objects/cultural capital?
How are cultural artefacts and behaviour codified and how do we decode and employ the codes ourselves as artists?
What makes ‘Art’ contemporary and what essential differences exist in recognising cultural or cross-cultural influences on the ‘modern’ or ‘postmodern’ when responding to cultural artefacts and images?

Stage 1:
Define the following terms:
Culture
Taste
Class
Art
(These can become the introductory source of enquiry in sketchbooks and journals as well as ‘umbrella’ terms in the Blog)

Stage 2
With this Research in mind
Choose objects, images, sections of film, graphic novels and comics, wallpaper pattern books, gallery catalogues, interior design magazines, antiques or works of art catalogues, car manuals, DIY guides, ‘household/lifestyle catalogues eg Ikea? Liberty, B&Q, holiday brochures, menu cards, online clothing catalogues, Deviant Art, Tate gallery guide, etc. that determine and refine aspects of your approach to the Culture/Taste.

Make a series of small drawings, colour studies, prints, montages and collages that experiment with the notion of ‘coding’, ‘signifiers’ and the semiotic of groupings. Work from these small works on other scales and in changes of media.
Analyse and deconstruct the ‘iconic’ stereotypical and eccentric in pursuing your own developing interests and reflections on Taste and Culture. Extend this to include video and 3D structures. Use visual art elements –composition, colour, structure, dynamic, line, shape, pattern etc to develop particular ways the viewer might ‘read’ these images, films or objects.

Stage 3
Develop a series of works that demonstrate your understanding, as a contemporary artist or illustrator of the narrative subject matter as a:
Focus
Challenge
Critique
Celebration
Develop an appropriate language that conforms to, extends or proposes alternatives to current paradigms
Consider the context for the output: gallery, book, zine, site specific, lens-based, magazine, internet, collaboration, community, performance
Use sketchbooks, journals, notebooks and Blogs in tracing your development of idea and imagery and the cultural/artistic contexts for this production

The first thing that comes to mind when I read this brief is the stereotypes that surround the different classes. How do we define who is in what class? I know I'm not alone in walking around and categorising people into how rich they are. What I want to know is where these categories come from and if there is actually any truth in them - if there is, what is the reason for them? 

Each class faces a negative stereotype somewhere or other. Working class = chavs/aggressive/benefit dependent. Upper/middle class = snobs/uncaring/tax frauds. 

I'm going to begin how I begin every project, with observation. I'll go out and sit and draw and take notes on anything I think is relevant. 

Queensgate Market - Suffocating software

Nearing the end of the project now and looking back I haven't been able to do anything outside of learning to use and creating the market within C4D. Although it has been fun learning to use the software and looking at the market in a different way to what I normally would, I would have also liked to have gone off on a bit of a tangent and explored different ideas around the market. However, I think the work has paid off and I will have a finished piece that I can be really proud of. 

Also I have found that because my work has had to be quite basic so that I could get to grips with C4D, it's lacking my normal weird and bizarre style. Ideally, I would have liked to have created an animation that would have warped the Market from what we know it today to transport it into a truly different virtual dimension. However, I simply haven't got the knowledge of the software to be able to do that yet. 

Queensgate Market - Gathering images

To efficiently build the market I want to recreate the shop fronts. To do this I need to gather enough images so tat I can recreate the shop fronts in my own time. This involves taking photographs of the shop fronts and arranging them in an organised way so I know which one comes where - I think a sketchbook is in order!
I really feel like I'm approaching this project almost as an architect, this is interesting for me as I would have thought before that creating blocks in a realistic way was dull before.

Queensgate Market - Cinema 4D

I decided to get started immediately on learning how to use C4D. I downloaded the software and opened it up and surprise surprise, it's like a different language. The most logical thing for me to do is to build Queensgate virtually, but I think I would like to focus on the movement through the market like I have already been doing using film.
I have been working on Lynda and making notes as I go along but I can tell this is going to take a very long time - it's very complicated! But I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.
By creating Queensgate virtually it is almost like creating a whole new market - just like Queensgate was created as a whole new market to the Gothic market. Whilst in the 70's, "new" was all about garish structures and experimentation, modern day is all about the virtual and software, so it's like creating a modern day new market. I therefore do want the virtual market to look distinctly virtual - much like Crevier's work.
With this I want to comment on how "new" isn't always better!