#weekfive

- Louis Rare Pair Fest - /// Week Five Roundup ///

✦ One by @allwaswell16

[E, 4k, Louis/Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders), fic post]

When omega Louis Tomlinson becomes pregnant after an unexpected encounter, he decides his only option is to flee his pack. But Tommy Shelby, pack alpha of the Peaky Blinders, might not be willing to let him go so easily.

✦ Chaos by @haztobegood

[M, 100 words, Louis/OMC (bodyguard), fic post]

First assignment for Comm Design Studies done and dusted. The “Hello, my question is…” proved to be extremely enjoyable, to the point where I forgot it was even work. The scope of the task was to ask an open ended question about design, where I chose to ask “is design ever original?”, as I had been thinking about how ‘new’ designs today are never really new; every design is inspired by other things, meaning that perhaps there are never fully original designs. Concepts and styles are just recycled and reused in different ways. With this question in mind, we had to write it out using objects that had some relation to the content of the question. I chose to use the materials of pencil shavings, eraser shavings, scrunched up paper and pencil lead shavings. Such materials were used as they allude to the concept of starting over and redoing - people sharpening pencils to re-write, people rubbing out things to start over, people scrunching up paper to start work again. 

I began by creating my background of scrunched and teared up paper. I thought that as well as relating to my concept, it would add interesting texture, though in a subtle way as it still remained white. The paper kept popping up and moving around, so I taped it down onto my desk. As I wanted my poster to maintain a consistent colour palette of cool colours, I coloured these colours on a scrap piece of paper and then rubbed them out using an eraser, causing the eraser shavings to be dyed with these colours. It was strange keeping all of my eraser shavings and pencil shavings, when usually I would throw them out.

Once I had collated all my materials, I began to assemble them on my page. This was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I didn’t realise just how delicate and flimsy the eraser shavings would be, as well as how hard they were to manipulate into specific shapes. They kept breaking in my hand or blowing away, so I fixed this by using my eyebrow tweezers to place them down. This allowed for a much more tight and accurate grip. A lot of patience was required, as I needed to be very focused and gentle with my work, otherwise it would move around very easily. It was also interesting having to think outside the box of how to compose my type letters, experimenting with different ways to lay them out in a way that would be different to how you would usually think to lay them out. An interesting moment was when a pencil shaving happened to perfectly form the letter “a”, relating to the notion that designs are often made from mistakes or coincidences. 

Making the pencil lead background for the word “design” was also challenging. Firstly, it took a lot more lead shavings than expected to create an optimal dense background. Secondly, the shavings were so light in weight that when I gently blew on them to try and spread them out, they ended up all blowing away. Hence, I had to close my window to minimise wind and be very gentle. To carve the word “design” into it, I used a cotton tip which worked very well, as it had good grip with the paper.

Since the second week of teacher training, we have been divided up in groups, alphabetically. I’ve never been so glad to be at the end of the alphabet. We are a bunch of gentle folk, always eager to lend a helping hand. We come from different walks of life, carrying scars that make you weep. In my group, we have battled cancer, addiction, divorce, shame, guilt, hopelessness, loneliness, disgust and despair. My kind of people. The closeness and euphoria described of these groups have been compared to that of a litter of puppies.

Teri Almquist, the PC whisperer, comes to tame the wild horses that run away with our self confidence in a week when we are bone tired, wrung out and strung out on electrolytes and fear.

She prescribes from a source of love. Every word rings with truth that reverberates in my soul. Like a religious zealot, I weep with every word she speaks because she speaks the truth from a place of love. I needed this. To be told that I can be gentle to myself and it’s okay. To be told that we don’t need to strive towards perfection and it’s okay. To be told that we have the rest of our lives to study that dialogue. And it’s okay.

Just as I have relied on the support of my littermates, I know that I can turn to this teacher to nourish my soul. How refreshing to know that it’s not necessary to stay up to the wee hours of the morning, memorizing every ‘and’ and ‘the’ and that the syntax of the sentence does not need to be conquered but our fears and shame? What kind of a teacher do we want to be, one that gives perfect dialogue, or one that sees students with compassion?

As I have provided my littermates with like compassion, so will I go out into the world more determined to do the same.

Associating menaing

The toxic artists are the ones we love most?

Structure of publication design or structure of typesetting.

The idolisation of design artists vs the idolisation of music artists (what makes a bad role model)?

Analogue process and self expressionism

Are bad influences necessary for good?

Seductive imagery

Social activist campaigns

Research into influencing people to think like ourselves whyger that is yhrough music or throuhh design

Authnoeth ographic

Telling a story through self (in lyrics and in design methodology).

How we might be able to steal strategies across industries and bring them to the design one

Group thinking- why we are made to feel part of a group

Self awareness- How aware are we to our physical and non physical environments (Music culture, streets do we notice small details?)

Research into creative legacy. What marks do artists leave behind in cultural contexts?

Research why we are so divided?

Perception

Rebellion

Graffiti

Non-constructive behaviour which pulls society apart rather than assisting its cohesion.

How defaced property can be used as an art reference to speak for rap/hip hop culture

The shift in society’s trends

- Toxic behaviour is promoted through music

The loss of respect. A self centred view of the word. Self centred

Research Identity and the self

Have young men lost a part of their identity through shifting gender roles and expectations

The voices he hears

How people form personal identities and perspectives based on their experiences. When experiences align with a shared culture (music) how does this drive the cycle of toxic behaviour. How does this promote others to do the same?