synthesis-ember

[synthesis-ember]

the diy prints made me remember how much i love print making, and especially lino, i am especially drawn to the marks that are left behind from the pieces that are sometimes missed, it leaves a sort of raw authenticity that isn't always shown in other forms of printmaking. the letterpress lets you achieve a markmaking technique that just can't be replicated from digital type.

[synthesis-ember]

Steven Appleby Illustrator

bridget riley

bob and roberta smith

john broadley

paul klee

jasper johns

gabrielle le roux

alfredo jaar

[synthesis-ember]

TO DO RESEARCH

activism art

printmaking

code/qr code

'space race'

climate change

jeff bezos

nhs

[synthesis-ember]

TO DO PHYSICAL

screen print lino

screen print onto cardboard

do more lino

make a zine to risograph

experiment with qr code collages

make my own qr code by hand

[synthesis-ember]

[synthesis-ember]

cipher

[synthesis-ember]

the matrix

The Matrix first hit screens in 1999, when Lilly says "the corporate world wasn't ready" for an allegory - a story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning - about transgender people.

[synthesis-ember]

[synthesis-ember]

alan turing

Alan Mathison Turing OBE FRS (/ˈtjʊərɪŋ/; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.[6][7] Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer.[8][9][10] Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.[11]

[synthesis-ember]

research: trans rights in the uk

"We need more focus on trans issues and better recognition of non-binary genders, as well as the right to self-define one's gender without unnecessary medicalisation

Stonewall research shows that trans people experience inequality and discrimination across all areas of life. There is a long way to go to end transphobia in our workplaces, universities in healthcare and in the streets.

Yet misinformation in the media can mean that many people don’t realise what it means to be trans and what a difference legal changes would make. Every day there are ludicrous claims that people are being ‘turned trans’, and stories that sensationalise and misrepresent the reality of being trans. This is reminiscent of days gone by: days when the media constantly hounded lesbian, gay and bi people as deviants and prevented progress on equality for so long."

[synthesis-ember]

self-isolation diy printmaking

[synthesis-ember]

[synthesis-ember]

puzzle research

[synthesis-ember]

[synthesis-ember]

pecha kucha

my last part of the message/audience/context focused on my arrest at a kill the bill protest. we were protesting the governments proposed police crime and sentencing bill that aims to criminalise ‘noisy protests’, give the police more power over stop and searches, and further criminalise the GRT communities

i was experimenting with screen printing for this project, and was focusing on screen printing onto newspaper as a way to reach my audience. i wanted to screen print onto the sun but i didn’t want to buy a copy so i had to make do with the metro, but i found an article in the paper about the race report that came out claiming that the uk isn’t a racist country and thought it would be quite powerful to screenprint these words over that

i came up with the idea to ‘hack the bbc’ as a new way of reaching my audience and created a series of idents that i would subtly add my own message to

for my culture and context unit i was looking at how neoliberalism effects marginalised identities, focusing partially on trans people and how our lives are often the subject of ‘debates’ around issues that have no place being debated on. i’ve included an instillation from the artist Emmett Ramstad, he says that

‘the fence is emblematic of this neoliberal agenda in the United States and the idea that one can purchase safety, privacy, and freedom if you have the means. Single stall “gender neutral” bathrooms awkwardly reflect the institutions that make them. the piece is a reflection of the ‘othering’ our society forces on trans people 

from my previous work and my own interests and ambitions in life it seems like the best focus point for the synthesis project would be art as activism. as someone who is very politically active it feels only natural that i would bring my activist influences into my work

this is the poster i created a few weeks ago when i was still finishing up the last project. it’s more of a mindmap really of all the different things i’m interested in, themes i was exploring previously and new directions i could go in the next project.

my keywords were taken from the work i was doing in the last unit and the brainstorming i was doing for this unit. really the last slide was full of keywords i could have used but here i just tried to narrow it down to five, though they may change in the future depending on where my project goes

to me, art as activism is something that feels like a often overlooked part of the art world. activism is the reason we have the rights we have to day, the reason we are closer to achieving a more equal society and the reason we often have such strong communities.

art and activism go hand in hand, as the decisions we make and our core values are often always political, whether we realise it or not, and that extends to the work we produce

in the book, paper politics, Josh MacPhee talks about printmaking as a medium of expression and the connection between the printmaker and their art, and by extension the connection between the artist and the audience. i think the work we produce is often an extension of ourself and thus anyone who is viewing our art is viewing a part of the artist.

thinking about what josh said about prints being an extension of the artist, and because i’ve been both working with digital and print in the past i thought maybe for this unit i could try to find the cross section between these three areas. maybe focusing on the moving image aspects of digital work and if it’s even possible to bring printmaking into a digital world

i’ve been doing some research into the history of art as activism and how artists and collective use art as a medium of protest. as well as looking at the influence art movements from history have had on more modern day artists and political campaigns. i’m gonna go over a couple of the things i’ve been looking at here.

dadaism satirised the bourgeois capitalist society of the early 20th century and has had a lasting influence for the past 100 years, especially with the zine movement that rose in popularity in the 70s and 80s through the DIY punk and queercore scenes

so aids activism and queer activism in general is something that is really important to me. kieth caring is one of my favourite artists so i’ve used him as an example here but there are countless artists who’s work has had a massive influence on the community and the work these activists were doing in the 80s is still important to this day

emory douglass was an artists i was looking at during my last project. he’s a designer who worked for the black panther party during the 60s. he created a wide range of posters including these anti-american war posters, that pointed out that the real fight was at home, with home being america and the fight being the civil rights movement. 

russian constructivism has had a clear influence on activist and political art for the past century. you can see a clear connection between the original styles and the work of shepard fairey, the designer who created the obama’s ‘hope’ campaign 

finally we have a video from the hacktivist group Electronic Disturbance Theater showing a mobile phone application intended to guide individuals who were making their way to the United States through the deserts of the U.S./Mexico borderlands to water.

[synthesis-ember]

synthesis project

following on from my last project, i think that exploring the themes of art as activism would be in my best interest as a practitioner. i want to explore how to bring activist art and printmaking into the modern world and how it can be used to spread positive messages and to fight for good causes. i am also interested in finding the juxtaposition between the printmaking and the digital worlds and if it would be possible to merge the two together.