#collaborative unit

My personal project is interested specifically in imagery of mountains in the winter at night. For me, mountains in this way symbolize states of being and the human mind. As Macfarlane (2009, P.19) wrote: What we call a mountain is thus in fact a collaboration of the physical forms of the world with the imagination of humans – a mountain of the mind. For example, an image of a mountain at winter night creates stillness, it’s dark, silent and cold but it has a presence. This, for me, causes me to think about the relationship I have with mountains. They are so large and I seem small in comparison. The imagery causes me to reflect upon aspects of my life. This idea emerged from a habit of walking around the city at night. Lippuner and Brugger has described landscapes as ' a metaphor of our perception and memory.'  (2015, p.45). The imagery allows me to think about my life and helps me to continue working when I feel unable. For me, mountains remain unconquerable because they are permanent and free; they do not belong to anyone. Like American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, (1976, p.100) said: To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill. So instead of interviewing mountaineers or climbers, I want to make a connection between normal people’s life and mountains, exploring mountains in that specific environment and their reflection in human mind. It sounds only about mountains, but there is a large part about humans.

1.What you have found out about your subject as a group?

 During the collaboration unit, I was in the ‘nature’ group, because my theme is about mountains and the emotion they evoked. I found Yuqing’s theme shared a lot of same elements with mine. Her personal project is about the ‘botany of desire’: using collage to represent four kinds of plant’s desire. During our group discussion, I discovered her research was based on the idea that plants have feelings and can communicate with humans. Her exploration into the relationship between humans and natural world was based on the viewpoint of nature (plants). In other words, through producing anthropomorphic plants, she emphasizes plant’s feelings about human world. On the contrary, my subject is also about nature. However, I want to explore it through the perspective of humans. This means, it does not matter where the mountain is or whether the person has been to a mountain or not, the most important thing is their feelings towards the mountain: whether through an image or just imagining the scene of mountains in the winter night. Although to some degree, I can undertake research without visiting mountains, I believe it is important to undertake some primary research in this way. This will help me to understand my relationship with mountains, explore their environment and produce photographs to work from. Also, the project requires Interviews with a selection of subjects in order to gather peoples’ views and opinions about such imagery. From this point of view, we are able to explore the relationship between nature and humans in a different way.

Linda Hill (2014) mentioned in her speech about creativity that Innovation is a journey. It's a type of collaborative problem solving, usually among people who have different expertise and different points of view. It was inspirational to see a colleague process and research as it was like seeing the reverse version of my research. At the same time, this expanded my research, I can research in the same aspect but from a human side. 

2.The experiences of working collaboratively

As for the collaboration, at first I found it very hard to find someone to collaborate with. I was given a lot of suggestions during the group discussion, like mountaineers, landscape painters, poets, but I thought in this way my collaboration would be limited. Since my research is based on the relationship between mountains as a symbol, it would be more suitable if I could find someone to do a more in-depth collaboration. Coincidentally, I met Gleb, a current Foundation student studying in Berlin. While in conversation I realised how Gleb’s personal history was perfect for my project.  We began to collaborate considering two aspects using mountains as a symbol. One is about photographing his body, as I want to make an analogy between human body lines and the contour of mountains. As David (2015) comments on Harald Sohlberg’s painting about mountains: ‘With their purplish cast and highly textured brushwork, they appear quite present.  They roll and curve, almost breathing like living animals’. Second, is about filming a video of him narrating his story and his thoughts about mountains in the winter night (as I want to through this video making people look back to their grow up experiences and combining the video with the photos to evoke their emotion towards mountains in the winter night). Gleb was cooperative in these two processes but I found two main problems during this collaboration. One concerns time, especially the time for the video, because I want to shoot it in different places when it’s after sunset and the sky is in deep blue, but during those days. Berlin was constantly raining so it was hard to film outside and there was no such deep blue when it was raining.  Because I want to shoot at that specific time, it was difficult for us find an available time as Gleb had to go to college. Then I realised it was very essential for us to set a timetable for all our shooting, in this way, we can work efficiently.

Another problem was we sometimes having different opinion on the angle of shooting, the distance between him and the camera…which was not easy to coordinate, because I’m a very stubborn person and so is he. It is good to be offered different opinions to open your mind, but when you two think oppositely then it is very hard to cooperate or make someone compromise. In this situation, I chose to do a double version which means I did some shooting twice. One my way, another one in his way. Through this solution we were both pleased.

3.How this piece of research might inform your own practice during your personal project?

For me, collaborative research is a starting point. On the one hand, I have stretched my thinking through working with other people. Discussions with Plant project and Gleb has helped me to gather more materials for my project: Since I got the idea for my project during my walking at night, I only thought about taking photos of people and nature at that time, ideologically, I know nothing about mountains and their relationship with humans. After I have started to interview people, see people’s work about mountains, I gradually built a mind map for my project. Now I can not only deepen my research from the nature side (visit mountains, photograph mountains and read books about them) but also from collecting people’s stories. What’s more, the accumulation of information during the collaboration unit makes my standpoint more compelling: in my further research, all I have to do is find a bridge to connect the feature of mountains and the stories of humans.

On the other hand, I will present my personal project mainly in two formats: one in publication, another in video so I can still use the materials I made during the collaboration unit. I have tried many ways to create the juxtaposed images during the process of making the zine, for example, through collage, putting one image in another image, which makes it easier for viewers to see the connection between mountains and human. Or in a subtler way, just put two images together, letting viewers make the visual connection themselves, or through a reel of series images making the connection more sensible. Although I can only use one way to make the zine, I can use more ways to develop my final outcome, especially the publication. Through the experiences of making a zine, I’m able to know the content of my publication better, and thus choose the most suitable way to make my publication. As for my video, I think I will continue interviewing people, collect more stories and make them into a short film.

At last, through collaboration unit, the most important thing I have learnt is that working collaboratively is essential for art work. I used to work independently, I would look for artists whose work is related to my project, but instead of interviewing them, talking to them, I prefer to read the articles about their work. Because working on personal project is a very personal process, I’m more likely to dig into myself, discover the internal part which has not been discovered. The good part about this is that you can develop a better self after the process, and know yourself better, like a cocoon becomes a butterfly. It’s easier for you to develop your own art style as well. The bad part is sometimes you just stuck in yourself and trapped in your own mind. This is why working with others is important, especially when you are in an art university, people around you are all creative. Collision of thoughts can inspire new ideas and make your work more comprehensive. So during my personal project research, I’ll do more collaboration with people from different background.

 Bibliography

Macfarlane, R. (2009). Mountains of the mind. 1st ed. London: Granta Books, p.19.

Lippuner, R. and Brugger, I. (2015). Landscape in my mind. Landscape photography today / Landschaftsfotografie heute. Von Hamish Fulton bis Andreas Gursky / Hamish Fulton to Andreas Gursky. 1st ed. Nürnberg: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, p.45.

O'Keeffe, G. (1976). Georgia O'Keeffe. 1st ed. New York: The Viking Press, p.100.

Hill, L. (2014) How to manage for collective creativity. Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_hill_how_to_manage_for_collective_creativity (Accessed: 08 March 2017). 

Zine Maquette

Red Riding Hood Movie Trailer Official (HD)

In today’s Collaborative Unit, we were divided into several groups which were based on the similarity of our themes to discuss and exchange our ideas. 

Rachel gave me some advices about the possibilities of my work’s collaboration, and she recommended two authors Karrie Fransman and Marina Warner to me. I can get in touch with them and also it would be very helpful to contact some curators of museums or exhibitions like House of Illustration and Intrigue which I mentioned in my last blog.

After receiving my feedback for our recent collaborative unit, I wanted to use this space to reflect upon a couple of points mentioned in the comments, in relation to my developing practice. 

1

As Lizzie points out, ‘the visual language of the final output is somewhat clinical’, and perhaps closer to a piece of capable graphic design, which is something I felt while putting the zine together, and something I’ve always struggled with when producing work digitally. There is a sameness to the sort of stuff I manage to make - a clear digital presence, so strong that it manages to eradicate anything in the semblance of a personal voice. 

This is not the first time I’ve had issues with this. When I was doing my photography degree, I often saw the camera as an obstacle between me and the picture I wanted to capture, as something obtrusive rather than a helpful tool to create the sorts of images I envisioned. This is something illustration has led me closer to achieving. Though I still lack the necessary skills to make the sort of work I see myself producing in future (after all, it’s only been eight months since I first ditched my camera in favour of pencils, pens and paint), I feel working in illustration has granted me a freedom I never found in photography. This has made it easier to develop - or at least begin to develop - a personal voice, which I feel is now finally beginning to take form.  

2

Lizzie also points out that this digital visual language, though ‘capable’, does not ‘communicate anything new or interesting within the field’ - it fades into the background, it blends in - which is something I seek to challenge as I further develop a personal style. 

One of the things I grow increasingly aware of when thinking about a personal language is the need to move beyond formal considerations (what my images look like) and to focus more closely on their meaning. To have a voice is to have an opinion, and to be able to express that in a unique, personal way. 

I find this hard, especially because my concerns and opinions connect most directly with those in literature and philosophy, rather than more accessible issues, such as those pertaining to the politics of gender, race, developing technologies, the environment, etc. 

During this term the assignment was to make a team with our classmates and create and plan an event that responded to a current issue in the field of illustration. Making a team was the easy part because Bel, Lila, Priscilla, Adrian, Rohit and I had one thing that united us… MODUAL.

One MODUAL to rule them all, One MODUAL to find them, One MODUAL to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

We had the opportunity of being part of a workshop called MODUAL, in which we produced a live-project in less than 2 week, from conception to presentation. At the beginning of the project I thought that this project wasn’t going to be as fascinating and inspiring as MODUAL was but fortunately I was wrong.

THE CONCEPTION

The first two days of the week was all about the concept and existential questions. What is illustration? What is the future of illustration? What is an illustrator? Am I an illustrator? Who I am? Do I exist?

Ok…. maybe not that existential, but our heads almost broke trying to define illustration and which are the issues of illustration and our role in this world. We come from different backgrounds so our first step was to say what illustration meant to each of us in order to be in the same page. After discussing the different concepts we had about illustration, we agreed that illustration is a universal language, which communicate and translate experiences or emotions into a visual design. According with Bruno Munari (Munari and Creagh, 2008) visual design is the images whose function is to communicate and inform visually through signs, symbols, forms, colours and relationships between them.

For the exhibition we thought that was really important to show not only a final piece but also the journey of an illustrator as observant and communicator. Illustration is a problem solving-process but also a personal process of searching and developing visual concepts that serves to clarify and extend ideas in the viewers mind. A good illustration should give the opportunity to the viewers to think and analyse deeper concepts, to give them the chance to create knowledge based on visual communication because after all as Sharon Helmer (Bierut, 1994) said, visual communications acts like a cultural amplifier.

One of the things I learned during this unit was the responsibility that we have as illustrators and how important is to experience by first hand what the world is in order to translate those experiences in a visual way for the viewers. Sharon Helmer (Bierut, 1994) also said that our existence becomes more and more symbolic because we live inside an ideographic world where our actions are designated by the signs designed by visual communicators. The personal world map of each of us is based on the second hand information prepared by a visual communicator.  As visual communicators we should keep that in mind and try to create images that are not only appealing but also based on true data. Where do ideas come from? How does the illustrator process data? How does the illustrator translate the data into an illustration? With those questions in mind we created Sieve-Perceive.

Sieve-Perceive was a multisensory installation where we showed the journey of an illustrator, the process behind an illustration, from inception to creation. For this installation not only we wanted to show the process but we also wanted to experience the journey by first hand in order to translate this experience to the audience.

The installation was divided into 3 phases: Exposure, perception and action.

EXPOSURE

During this stage we showed a 360º footage that we recorded on the places we visited in order to give to the audience the sensation of being the places and in some way they could experience the same visual and auditory stimuli that we experienced during the walking.

PERCEPTION

The exposure stage was my favourite of all the process because a sketchbook is a way to connect the external world to your mind, and at the same time they connect your mind with a viewer. During this stage the idea was that each of us had to fill an A5 sketchbook with the doodles, sketches, notes, words, anything we experienced on the places we visited. The main reason we decided to use individual sketchbooks to represent perception is because perception is a subjective way of seeing things, even we can share the same space and time, our experience and interpretation of the situation could be very different from each other.  

Perception plays a funny part in the role of an illustrator because as Dietmar R. Winkler (Bierut, 1994) pointed out the creation of symbols is based on perceptions of the environment so everything we make is based on a meaningful but subjective reality. For me the most fascinating thing was to see the different themes represented in the sketchbooks because even we were in the same space at the time, the perception of what we lived was completely different from each other.

The sketchbooks are beautiful by their own but seeing them together is like a narrative of six different people together representing the world and their minds in paper. James McMullan (Bierut, 1994) said that drawing is the physical act to translate space into form. Drawing is to represent something in a raw way, without filters, it’s just your mind and the paper but also it helps to trigger all deep-seated memories associations so every time you draw something it’s not just the world you represent but also your background as a person. I think sketchbooks are the first place where you can find your inner voice, your discourse as practitioner because your “visual” style could not be unique but your opinion is.

ACTION

For the final outcome we decided to create a collaborative piece based on the sketchbooks that we had already created. In theory that task sounded easy but I think it was the most difficult one of all the process. We tried to find similar characteristics, colours, messages, compositions, even we tried to do a map in order unite our works, but we couldn’t do that because we would loose the essence of every person. Instead we decided to use some elements of the sketchbooks but in an abstract way and we put them in a periodic table because it’s a straightforward way to show the elements, you can see the elements as a whole and at the same time every element keeps its importance.

The periodic table was the best way to represent not only the sketchbooks but also what the collaborative unit is. A collaboration isn’t trying to do the things from one point of view, or trying to work from just one perspective, what makes a good project are the different approaches you get when you’re working with a team, the different layers of knowledge that every team member bring to the table. Working with a team not only changes your perspective of the project but also it expands your perspective as practitioner, it makes you be more aware of the world, of the different opinions, and of course of your role as communicator.

COLLABORATION

In the artistic field is not common to find a creative collaboration because for so many years the practice of visual communicators has been seeing as one-person task. But the truth is that one single person cannot always create an outcome specially when the methods and ideas are too large and complex. We must remember that we create for humans and being in touch with them when we create something will bring honesty and purpose to our work.

Collaboration is an art by itself; you need to find a common goal, the right team, space and time to do it. The transference of energy between the team members especially in the creative field is breath taking, the passion that everyone brings to the table is fascinating and inspiring.  Working with my team was a life changing experience not only for what I learn from each of them but what they show me about me. I learned that if I want to succeed in the creative field I must have a sense of responsibility in what I create because my work affects others and myself. The reality is not objective; it’s meaningful but at the end subjective, and in order to be part of the reality you need to be aware of the other “realities” that are around you.

Collaboration gives us the opportunity to be aware of others, to be engaged with others, to think and react to them and not only concentrate on the subject we have to tackle. An illustration is not only the image; it’s everything that is around that image, the context, your background, the viewers, the message... an illustration is not merely just an image but an experience by itself.  

Paul Auster  (Felcey, Ravetz and Kettle, 2013) defines collaboration as the similar alteration of reality that two electromagnetic object creates because when the two objects are in proximity they create electromagnetic forces that not only affect their molecular structure but also the space and environment around them. The same happened in a collaboration, being with people changes you, it make you be aware of what is around you and of course it changes the final outcome for good.

The SHOP event was more intense that MODUAL not only because of the size of the project but also because being with my team make me feel part of something, make me feel alive and be just happy to be with them, to have the privilege of calling them “Chulos” (it is the lovely way we name ourselves) and of course I am very grateful of had the opportunity of working with all of them not only as my colleagues but more important as my friends.

Bibliography:

Bierut, M. (1994). Looking closer. New York: Allworth Press.

Felcey, H., Ravetz, A. and Kettle, A. (2013). Collaboration through craft.

Hellige, H., Klanten, R. and Sinofzik, A. (2013). A life in illustration. Berlin: Gestalten.

Munari, B. and Creagh, P. (2008). Design as art. London: Penguin.