#l5s2

Law & Disorder Final Evaluation

In summary, I feel like this project has been my most successful at university thus far. I had a clear goal early on which gave me time to develop, research and amend my work. I am really interested in the subject area so found this helped to keep me on track and motivated.

In previous modules, I have struggled to organise myself. In this project, I feel I have organised myself well, setting myself goals and writing to-do lists to remind me exactly what needed to be done and when. Considering I had the Professional Practice module running alongside this, this is a huge achievement for me. I communicated well with Dem and Jonny regarding my illness during the project, again something I have not previously been great at. 

Overall, I am thrilled with my final piece, I feel it is a strong piece of work with a concept that both interests and disgusts people and that has made me enjoy the making process. I feel I have effectively presented information in a format that is clear and concise and has ample research and references to support all aspects of the book.

If I could change anything it would be to have had the opportunity to further the book, develop more tasks and pages but unfortunately, my health did not allow for this. Despite being unwell, I have managed to maintain my motivation throughout despite not being able to work for a couple of weeks, when I was well enough to do so I was prepared and well organised in order to meet the deadlines I had set for myself to ensure I had a physical object at the end of the module. There are some other changes I would make such as: using a thicker gsm paper for the book and potentially redesigning the covers so they don’t look so much like a whiteboard. I would also be better at documenting the process of creation, as I don’t feel I have done that well enough as using inDesign, constant change is happening and I failed to maintain a high level of documentation for that. 

Final Presentation in Mock Court

As we were doing our final presentations in Curzon St’s mock crown court, I decided for my presentation I would like to utilise the opportunity to present my journey on the module as if I was presenting an investigation. This made this process a little more fun for me and also appropriated the presentation to the setting in which it was delivered.

For the presentation, I wrote an A4 page worth of script, I later decided I didn’t want to be stood in the witness stand reading off a sheet of paper. I condensed this down into bullet-pointed notes that I referenced during the presentation. This was a new way of presenting for me but writing out what I wanted to say before narrowing it down to notes was really useful as I was more prepared regarding exactly what I wanted to communicate.

The presentation went well, the investigative role it took was appreciated and I delivered my speech relatively well, without forgetting anything I wanted to say. On the penultimate slide, I left it blank as I presented the physical books to both Dem and Jonny. Following that, I was interrogated in the witness box and given feedback.

Feedback:

Front cover a bit dramatic, reminding of Hitchcock films - later it was noticed that it was representative of bars which I am glad was not noticed straight away as I didn’t want that

Good concept that edges on dark humour and inappropriateness

Not as finished as any of us would have liked but overall an interesting project

The Book

[click to enlarge images - I have only included a selection]

For the book, I chose a gloss finish on the cover to ensure it would stay clean and to give it a sturdier frame. Inside, I chose matt paper because it is best for writing on - which is the total point of the activities.

Upon arrival, I was super excited and super pleased with the outcome of the print! The book is clear and the printers have created everything I could have wished for. There are a few slight imperfections, seen in the images, where lines of ink have been passed onto other pages, but other than that everything else is pretty perfect and has exceeded my expectations. I imagined the book being a lot thicker than it is but I just have not been able to bulk it up as much as I would have liked due to illness. It could be seen as an opportunity to expand in the future for me, I could definitely develop this even further given time and good health! 

Getting ready to print has been an extremely tedious process, finetuning co-ordinates, proof-reading for grammatical errors and generally ironing out any imperfections. To help with this, I asked for a fresh pair of eyes to go through each page with me to highlight anything that needing altering. This was extremely useful, as someone who had not been staring at the same pages for hours on end was much more alert and aware of any errors than I was.

A further 4 saved PDF files later, the amendments had been done. Many of them were my complete ignorance, e.g. some of the lined pages I had not respaced with the others, and generally ensuring sentences made absolute sense.

As well as my own errors being altered, I had to make changes in order to fit the requirements of Blurb (the printing company I have chosen) to ensure that the physical object is printed correctly.

Thankfully, Blurb also has their own PDF reviewer on their website that checks the document before you print, and can fix certain issues (in some places I had used ‘registration’ instead of the colour black, which was fixed by the reviewer). This saved me a lot of time and stress!

Amended PDF files:

1 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/fpg6bqlfzkd406i/P2D2.pdf?dl=0

2 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/unkgiotjm38wbgo/p2dfin.pdf?dl=0

3 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/3goxnpq2qkkbvv2/p2dfin2.pdf?dl=0

Resize,  Cover Redesign and Amendments

I resized my A5 pages to 9x6 following my research into prison publications. I then decided to redesign the covers to minimise the amount of black ink and keep attention on the actual words on the cover. I redesigned the back cover and decided that the use of the black square (shown in image 2) did not flow well, so I altered this to keep a sense of continuity. 

The letters P R & E were manipulated to create the idea of bars, this is simple and possibly a little cliche but I think it works quite well as it is not completely obvious.

I also made amendments to the publication regarding the execution process section. I removed the simple, childlike illustrations and reverted back to the original sketches - I feel this look much better as it no longer resonates with a colouring book.

Also in section two, I focused on the finality of the inmate's last events, ie last meal. I researched whether there are restrictions on this and found the following:

No alcohol is permitted

If no request is made, the standard menu is served for that day

As well as this, there is no guarantee that the request will be 100% fulfilled. I used this information to create a 2-page spread dedicated to generating ideas for the final meal. I broke it down into different categories and made a section for the final selection to be noted down on.

The PDF file showing this progress can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2w5tv9xzrsiw1z5/P2D.pdf?dl=0

Reference:

Following my previous tutorial, I wanted to ensure that there was a constructive order and flow to the book, so it doesn’t seem like a random collection of tasks.

I questioned the idea of adding a small introduction following the section breaks, to kind of explain what was going to be coming up and why. I decided against this after as I feel the tasks are pretty self-explanatory and I didn’t want to overload with text as I am aware that many inmates have poor literacy skills so I want to keep it as simple as I can.

The chronology for the second half of the book will follow the order of events during the execution. For the second half I decided against the above notes and that the order that flows best is as follows:

List your greatest achievements - a way of opening the mind to the good actions that have been done rather than the obvious crime and punishment.

Personal Narrative - I plan on adding this page in, where the inmate will write the story of their life and questioning whether they know themselves well enough to do so

Proust questionnaire - these questions aid the understanding of oneself, one’s character and personality which can aid the next task.

Write a letter to your younger self - following the achievements and narrative, it allows for a wider view of past and present actions and circumstances

Eulogy - after so much thought about life, it turns naturally to death; using the reflections on their life to write their memoirs

Spending time more wisely - again, I plan on adding this page in to provoke a sense of potential change - allowing inmates to think how they can improve their time. They’ve thought deeply about their life, and how they wish to be remembered after death so this would be an opportunity to plan how to spend their time. For example, things one may wish to learn, books to read, developing skills.

Upon further searching for inspiration for content, I came across the Proust Questionnaire.

The questionnaire is a series of 35 questions said to reveal one's true nature upon answering the questions. It is used by writers to allow them to create a greater picture of their characters as well as magazines who pose the questions to celebrities in order for their readers to gain an insight into the minds of the rich and famous.

I read through the 35 questions but didn’t find them all too relevant, so I handpicked a selection that best suit the context. For me, the most interesting question of the ones I chose is: how would you like to die? It borders on inappropriate, much like the “write your own eulogy” task, but it allows for a different perspective. To elaborate; inmates death is chosen by the state, they have no say in the time this will be or the circumstances, asking how they would like to die is almost a question of privilege. Like if you were not in your current situation, where would you be happiest dying and how? It is a little controversial but I feel questions like this evoke thoughts one may not have had before.