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Following the meeting last Wednesday, this is a proposal for a workshop which will act as a companion to the formal MA exhibition.
Graphic Design in the Library. An exercise in practical research and the role of the designer.
When using the internet for research and discussion we can easily drop in images and links from other sites to illustrate our thoughts and ideas. We have the facility to do this and it feels natural as part of a digital dialogue.
Presenting our work in a gallery space doesn't offer a dialogue. Graphic design as an exhibition presents a set of outcomes, finalized and impenetrable.
Can we present an alternative model, creating a fluid space for graphic work to be made and shown? Is there a way to communicate something of our working process?
This may be achieved through a workshop situation.
e.g. If a workshop were to be held in the library, there would be the facility to produce graphic materials from the range of sources available / an act which would echo the opportunity for cross referencing which we find on the internet.
Each student and visitor is issued with a photocopy card, to collect sources from the Library ( we may provide suggested links and areas of investigation placed around the building ). The images collected by each person are then used to compose a poster which can be arranged on a series of large pin boards. These posters are to be made by members of the course.
Those who are involved or join the group can then request a version of the posters from a selection of formats. These ' formats ' will be the outcome of our workshop, our audience will be those who have chose to join us either as contributors or as viewers, those who have engaged in the dialogue.
My take on this from what we were disussing last week.
We don't just limit users to the library. People can send or post images from across Leeds to us which we use to create posters, postcards or new images. People sending work can sign up to recieve a poster, postcard or new image (in a similar way to Line or Unlined) which will incorporate their image somewhere. We give them a choice of image sizes and paper stock. In effect becoming a publishing on demand business for week.
One of the issues we talked about last week was getting people into the space, which will be hard during summer. So maybe opening this so work can be sent to us and then returned.
' One of the issues we talked about last week was getting people into the space, which will be hard during summer. So maybe opening this so work can be sent to us and then returned. '
I think we are going to rely on contributors forwarding sources to us digitally. If we can get people to participate in this way, I think it would be important for those of us who attend ( to either supervise or create work ) to update the activity on a blog or webpage.
I don't mind how we do it, setting up a webpage or email address is easy enough.
What I'd say is we need to start thinking about getting it set up so we can get contributions sent to us.
Its also important that we get some good copy to explain what we are doing, why we are doing it and why anybody should contribute.
At least we know that we will have to actively seek out contributors since we dont have a platform which is public ( or at least visited by the general public ) .
Are you talking about us collecting contributions?
I think we set up a webpage/ blog over this week with an outline of what we intend to do and start publicising it. If this going to be around 20th (?) August thats not long.
I think we need to define what it is we are asking people to contribute.
In asking people to use the library to collect images, articles ect. we are asking that they use the resources in a certain way. The material is from one place, it's not their own work for example.
' I like the idea that we're using the library as a physical metaphor for the internet '
Charlotte's comment is interesting, this is what I was getting at with the library idea.
It's an idea which looks at the way we use the internet as a resource. It invites a physical dialogue with graphic work because this is what an exhibtion and a workshop does.
I think its important to use digital contributions and for us to respond to them, but we need to ask those participating via the internet to collect thier work in a certain way or from a certain place, ie the library, whether it is the Met or another.
We need to think beyond send us an image and we will post you back a version of it.
If this exhibition is about how the internet is effecting the role of designer and the viewer, and a large part of this changing relationship is the explosion of choice. Choice of what you consume and how you consume it.
Then the point of allowing people to submit images with a number of options about what they get in return (paper size, paper stock or a digital image) but which has been designed by us reflects that changing relationship in some way.
The library should still think it should be the focus of making and exhibiting work. The idea of asking for certain types of images is interesting, it's the idea of collecting meta data to be used later on. I'd say you need to be somewhere between a specific theme and just random images. So you have an idea of what you're looking for and are pushing users in certain way but not dictating.
