EggHeads

BBC 6 Music is currently running an open submission for Indie Easter Eggs, check them out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/lauren_laverne/galleries/5798/#gallery5798

My particular favourite is this egg-straordinary Seasick Steve.

Layout

With tomorrow being the my deadline for submissions I can now confirm that there will be 18 self portraits (including my own) within the book. I am pleased with this as every portrait I have received I feel deserves to be included in the book and as I didn't originally want to reject portraits for the project I now don't have to. I feel 18 will be a good amount as it is very close to my original target of 20.

Now I have the images, where to go next?

Well, to the mac suites tomorrow for a grueling day at 'Indesign'.

I have sketched out a rough layout for the book as shown below, depicting the images I feel will work together best on the page, i came to this decision by looking at all the images and deciding which will compliment, and in some cases contrast each other, the best.

From this rough idea of a layout I will transfer the information into 'Photoshop' and 'Indesign' and once this is complete I will print out onto cartridge paper ready to be collated together into a book in the bookmaking workshops later this week. The importance of a professional aesthetic will be paramount with my publication as I am essentially making a purchasable product which represents myself as an art.

Alongside this I will also be using a similar template to create a few copies of a more 'zine' like publication' which at present I am considering tying with string as opposed to traditional stapled 'zines'.

Going Underground

Whilst looking for work Paula informed me about in a recent tutorial, I stumbled accross this article about portraits of London Underground workers which I think ties in prfectly with my notion of identity as it is portraying people who although provide a vital service are disregarded and anonymous.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/feb/08/dryden-goodwin-art-london-underground

The Submissions from the Tyne are all mine all mine

After talking to an old college friend over reading week about my project I have received a flurry of new submissions thanks to her emailing her University mailing list in Newcastle with details of my project, at the beginning of the project I set myself a realistic target of 20 portraits for the project by the March 1st deadline and a week away I only need 3 more to reach this target, I am still amazed by the quality and variety of the contributions so far and i am pleased that I haven't found the need to discard any image yet as the quality and creativity has been superb.
I have found with the recent submissions from Newcastle that a lot of them have come from mature students which itself has given the submissions a different style to my previous entries, with artists experimenting with different mediums and ways of presenting themselves.

Me Then Me Now

I recently came across a pool on Flickr which invites photographers to send in self-portraits with a twist, showing a portrait from many years ago and a recent photograph side by side trying to replicate the original archive photo.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/methenmenow/pool/

Change of Plan

After coming back from the GIDE trip to Lugano, I have looked at the project with fresh eyes and have reassessed the key elements I want to achieve from the project. I had previously talked about creating a 'sketch booth' which I would create for the book fair as a way of gaining more contributions to 'Profile'. But as the project has gone on and I have been suprised by both the quality and quantity of the submissions I feel that this is now a redundant idea and this would mean that I could concentrate on creating a fully compiled book rahter than a work in progress.

Keep them coming...

More Submissions:

Through the Rabbit Hole

I recieved an email today from national art website Art Rabbit who specialize in exhibition listings. I had emailed them a couple of weeks ago letting them know of the project and they've handily listed it in their current events schedule.

http://www.artrabbit.com/uk/events/event/16692/profile_a_matter_of_identity

On the Campaign Trail

Above is the poster image I shall be using to generate a response to the project. Using the iconic and high impact Lord Kitchener enrollment poster from World War I, i have altered it with playful elements such as the hand drawn hand and eyes to show a light hearted approach that I feel will entice my would be contributors. The poster contains details of all the ways in which to contribute such as the flikr pool, through the blog, pigeon hole and through email.

To be or not to be (a book)?

In todays tutorial with Yvonne an important issue was raised - should i make a book or a box? As I originally perceived the idea of the project with the final result being a book, I hadn't really envisaged it being anything other than that. I am always open to knew ideas and feel that this box idea itself could be a possibility with a large box containing prints of the submitted portraits leading to the notion that additional portraits could be submitted without the need for creating a completley new product.
There was some concern that the imminent Artists Book Fair could have influenced the final outcome of my project too much, but I had the book idea in mind long before the book fair and genuinely feel that as a collection of contributors work the book would provide me with the best vehicle to bring these works together. In terms of additional volumes of the work I feel that it would be more respectful to the artists contributing for their work to be compiled in another book should this matter arise, rather than their work being crammed in with the original works. The final look of the book itself is still yet to be determined with the notion of creating two formats, a high spec hardback piece and a cheaper zine like multiple, being explored. I feel this could be affective as in terms of choice to prospective clientele at the book fair it could prove more enticing although i am wary that the addition of a cheaper version may deter purchases of the higher quality product, I shall just have to see how it goes...

What's Up Doc?

The diversity of the submissions was highlighted when i recieved this frankly amazing portrait from Arthur Carey featuring his prized pet Albus the rabbit eating Arthur's self portrait created with rabbit food!

The Look

I feel it's time to start thinking of how i'd like the book to look like. At the moment I am considering creating two types of publication - A high end quality hard backed book and a cheaper zine style publication that would allow me to print multiple copies and promote the project at a lower cost.
what the book could look like



The photo above shows a selection of my own book's and zines, I find that as I will be the one compiling the book the aesthetic of the book will be something that appeals to me, therefore looking at my own library will help provide me with inspiration for the look of the book. At present I envisage the book version to have a similar look to the "Family" book by Lauren Dukoff. I really like how the publishers have achieved a sturdy housing for the photographs within by using a touch material for the cover which they have embossed on the back with the musicians featured within.


An idea i would like to experiment with if i chose this type of covering would be to cut out a segment of the spine and use coloured paper on the edge of the binding which would be seen through the window to lend itself to the aesthetic. A couple of images similar to what I would like to achieve are shown below:

Painting for Pleasure and Profit

I was recently informed of a Chapman Brothers exhibit from 2006 where the artist's, for a fee, would create a portrait of a member of the public which they exhibited in their exhibition 'Painting for Pleasure and Profit', this is obviously interesting to me as it contains similar elements to my own project, interacting with the public to create work, although my piece is more a selfless exploration of Identity rather than an exercise of obvious profit making like the Chapmans.

Big Headed?

I was recently sent a link to something of interest from Sophie on the course.
Artist Eric Testroete came up with an ingenious costume for Halloween. Responding to the big head mode

More Submissions...

Over the weekend more submissions have come through my inbox and I'm pleased to say that they all have an individual appeal and have been produced with differing media and great responses to the Profile brief. If the submissions continue at this level of quality, I can see the project being a success.

Sketch Booth

After much deliberation and thought I have decided that as a means of generating a greater response to the project, I will be setting up a drawing booth within the Artist’s Book fair enabling visitors to create and submit their portrait within one space.
The booth itself is inspired by a “draw- your -photo booth” which I saw in the Kunsthaus Tacheles in Berlin when i visited in November 2008.

I will be collaborating on the construction of the booth with a Furniture student from Leeds University - Andrew Jenkinson. After an initial plan was drawn up we have decided that the booth will be constructed from either plywood or MDF and will hold a desk and submission facility within it. I hope to have completed the constructin of the booth by mid to late February in order to allow me more time to focus on my efforts for the Book Fair itself.

Start Me Up

The submissions have started to arrive, so at least I'll have something to work with, and what great first contributions they are, as amiguous as the brief was the contributors have understood perfectly and the first contribution is from photographer Hannah Lorriman who has submitted a startling photographic image divided into a tetraptych focussing on her foot. Whilst intentionally keeping the brief vague to encourage varying responses it never occurred to me that the self portrait needn't be of the face. I love the image and hope the rest of the submissions tackle the brief in a similar creative manner.

My 2nd submission of the day came from Pawel Adamek which featured the artist playing a guitar as a means of exploring his hobbies through the medium of paint.

Staying Legal

In todays Enterprise seminar and subsequent lecture, the issues of Copyright and trademark were discussed in terms of ownership and licensing. This will prove to be a key issue for me to overcome when i begin to receive submissions as the work i plan to feature within my publication will not be my own. In order to keep legal and ensure my submittors know exactly what I plan to do with their work and where they stand I have decided to include the Terms & Conditions of Submissions within the "Profile" blog, this way when I begin to receive submissions I can rest assure that they know what they are getting in to, this also gives peace of mind to the submittors.
A screen print of my Terms & Conditions is included below:

Aye-Aye Spy with my Little Eye

I happened to be in Glasgow this weekend, so what better opportunity to have a browse through the Aye Aye bookstore.

I Get By With A Little Help From My 3rd years

Today we had an informal but very informative chat with the courses 3rd years, splitting themselves into 3 groups relating to their preffered practice - illustration, material and video/photography, each group talked about their own practice and artists who have influenced their work.
I decided that the group I would find most informative and would relate most to my project was the illustration group.
Kicking off was Aron Klein whose work involves and urban graffiti style utillised in a more artistic manner. Highlighting the work of David Ellis, Aron talked about how he enjoyed the element of the video being the artwork and the painting being shown going through several transformations that without being documented within the video would be lost. An example of David Ellis' work is shown below, I was really impressed by the amount of time and dedication that must have gone into it's creation.

Artwork David Ellis from Gülşah Bengü Pekesin on Vimeo.

Jack Scales talked about a major influence of his, Bristol based illustrator Jack Hudson whose quirky illustration style and links with the music industry have seen his work popping up on posters around the country.


The artist known as CAKE was up next, her practice involves lot's of computer generated design, her current work has been focussed on the hexagonal patterns found in beehives, which she is using to highlight the plight of the bee and raise awareness for it's cause.



She is heavily influenced by Berlin design firm "Ice Cream For Free" which have similar methods of practice:

To The Bookies

Here are the results of todays bookmaking sessions where we learnt some relevant basic techniques which we could use to create our publications for the Artist Book fair.
The top pictures show the Concertina which involves no sewing just specific folding to created the 'concertina' effect. The last 2 photos depict the japanese stitch which although involving sewing is very simple to do, so long as you ensure the thread is sewn tightly unlike mine!
Concertina







Japanese

Where to next?

This afternoon we had a very intersting and enlightening talk from Sheffield based designer David Appleyard who graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BA (Hons) and MA in Industrial Design. Appleyard's talk was not only interesting due to his work being heavily reliant on it's collaborative element, but also it was reassuring to note how successful he has become since leaving university, proving it is possible, but requires a lot of hard work.

Flickr

With all the technology available nowadays it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.
Flickr is a website I have used many times in the past as a way to archive my photography online. Flickr has a feature which enables user's to create their own pool which members of the group can contribute to.
I have decided to create my own Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/profile-amatterofidentity



Although I am dubious as to how many submissions will be provided this way I feel that it is still worthwhile to have as many alternative ways in which to submit work.

It's a Book Jim... But not as we Know it

A busy and useful day today.
After a presentation with Yvonne and Cheryl in the morning which was also attended by the college's furniture course, aimed at further explaining just what forms Artist Book's can take including looking at a vast variety of publications as documented below. I found this useful as many of the zine's displayed were by student's from last year's course, student's who are year earlier were faced with the same brief as ourselves and it was interesting to note the utcomes their work had reached.









After our briefing on the Book Fair, we furthered our research with a visit to the Art Market Leeds. Housed in a modest unit within the Merrion Market, the market has truly made the most of itself, using it's initiative to create a schedule of arty events that included an artists indoor picnic that was just concluding as we arrived.
After having a good scout around for publications of interest, I had a chat with the lady behind the counter about my project and helpfully agreed to post a link to my project's blog in the next newsletter.








Now onwards to Vernon Street where we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet with the college's keeper of the books and librarian in chief - Chris, to scour through the libraries extensive collection of Artist Books.
Ranging from publications purchased from alumini of the college all the way up to the colleges newest acquisition of the complete published works of land artist Richard Long.
This was a great chance to further expand the scope of my knowledge in regards to Artist Book's and instilled the feeling that anything is possible within this broad medium.



One of my favourites, 'Shuffle" by Christian Marclay is a enlarged pack of cards, but in place of suits, the set features a simple score on each card, the idea being that the cards are to be shuffled up and if musically inclined played in the order they are placed.







This was another ingenious example featuring an authentic chunk of the demolished Berlin Wall.







This book shows the theme of an artist book could be extremely simple, showing various typographic ways to display the title letters.





And our final stop of the day was to be introduced to Mick and Sarah at the print workshop, who are to give us a workshop on creating our own books in the next week or so. Showing us a wealth of construction methods and previous examples aimed at getting us to think of the type of book we'd like to create in the workshop. This was something to think about, i plan on taking examples along with me to explain the aesthetic i want to achieve.





A selection of Buckram swatches, oh the choices!