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How can transgender artists successfully create a digital identity to market themselves if their own identity puts them at an immediate disadvantage to their competitors?

In this manifesto I wanted to explore my digital identity as a designer and how branding oneself can prove difficult when everything you post has to be carefully edited. Both for reasons of personal safety but also for job security in the industry.

“The BBC has quit a diversity programme run by the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, saying it believes coverage of transgender issues should be considered an impartiality topic that requires the inclusion of critical voices.

The national broadcaster said it would no longer be a member of the Diversity Champions programme, under which the corporation paid Stonewall for ongoing advice and assessments on creating inclusive workplaces.

The BBC director general, Tim Davie, told staff it was “unquestionable” that its ongoing participation in the scheme “has led some organisations and individuals to consider that the BBC cannot be impartial when reporting on public policy debates where Stonewall is taking an active, campaigning, role.”

During my research I looked into the supposed impartiality of the BBC in its attitude to transgender issues. These would be fair journalistic standards if they weren’t applied solely to transgender people.

“However, he also said the treatment of trans people in society was an impartiality topic in the eyes of the BBC, unlike others such as gay rights or the climate crisis.”

My manifesto also wanted to explore the difficulties of being a transgender designer who is currently unable to access medical transistion, and therefore is often misgendered in creative spaces.

“ONE IN SEVEN trans people reported being denied GP care for being trans in the UK

Nearly NINE IN TEN trans people said that the terrible NHS healthcare had impacted them negatively

OVER HALF of trans people avoid the doctor when unwell.” https://www.transactual.org.uk/trans-lives-21

I also wanted to create a tactile representation of myself, loosely inspired by Grayson Perry’s ‘Red Alan’. I designed three separate interchangeably faces for one cardboard cutout body. The ‘working Mal’ face is a semi-iconic but also entirely unremarkable Scott McCloud esque black and white cartoon face, with its defining features being glasses, a fringe and a black mask in keeping with the anonymity that social distancing allows us all. The concept of a ‘working face��� was heavily influenced by SOPHIE who herself was a transgender artist and her thoughts on her music video “Faceshopping”. https://highclouds.org/old/sophie-challenges-beauty-standards-in-faceshopping-video/

“It’s about the emphasized idea that if you’re showing more face, you’re somehow being more real, but of course, there is a flip side to that, where you have false identities or different projections of yourself that you’re able to cultivate through your image."

This statement inspired my other ‘face’ concept of an ‘Art Mal’, similar to Red Alan in design with a bright red face contrasting to the black and white of the manifesto. Finally the hollow face with which the faces could be swapped onto represented the lack of a real self when compared to a constructed brand identity. These faces were modded out of polymer clay, giving them a claymation look and feel and then boiled to ensure they hardened and to prevent burning.

Links to research:

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Logo development

Based on the Friday session with the bands I have decided to design for the 3rd band Baby Gravy as they had the clearest idea of the specific aesthetic for their band. The other bands were also interesting however I think the 1st band lacked a clear personality and the despite the 2nd also having a solid style of bluesy, rap, neo-soul I ultimately went with the 3rd option as it seemed the most visually interesting to me.

The band wanted a decidedly oceanesque/glitter/dream pop/trance/vapour wave aesthetic to match their music inspired by artists such as Genesis, Satsuma, Crumb and Jacob Collier.

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For this module I would like to focus my research on historical prop making and sourcing. Here are my sources so far:

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/search/Franklin?images=yes&category%5B0%5D=Polar%20Equipment%20and%20Relics

https://bookandfilmglobe.com/film/anachronisms-in-movies/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/537634/what-amcs-terror-got-right-and-wrong-about-franklin-expedition

https://www.historical-props.com

Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain

Flanders, Judith

Research for media production: Kathy Chater

I want to explore the question, do historical anachronisms ruin the immersion the audience has in a production or can they improve it by allowing the viewer to feel more connected to the narrative?

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Location research- lark hill place

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Rainy street.