The first face to face session

I hope everybody got the idea of how the module is going to work. I will introduce certain theories/historical information and try and make sure they relate to what students are doing within the main programme. The introduction, 'A very short history of type' being designed to give some historical background and at the same time introduce possible areas of theory that we could open out later. Gestalt psychology, post-colonialism, typographic stereotyping, structures of power (who owns these typefaces?) (Foucault), the parergon or space between the ‘real’ world and the book page or screen. (Derrida), the embodied mind (Johnson and Lakoff) , phenomenology (Merleau Ponty), communication theory, narrative theory and Marshall Mcluhan’s idea of the ‘Media is the message’ were all in there somewhere. But which area was more interesting?

A task.

Can you write a brief introduction to your interests? Are you interetsed in becoming an animator, games designer, film director, sound recordist etc etc
What areas of theory already interest you or what sort of areas would you like to find theory about?
What is the book you have chosen to respond to typographically and why?
What do you want from this module?

Another task that you can do if you want to. Write a short review of a film you like. If you remember I mentioned that I went to see Scott Pilgrim over the weekend. It has some interesting typographic sequences within it. So I'll review it.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World
Director: Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead)
Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is an unemployed 23-year-old bass guitarist in a garage rock band who is dating a 17-year-old high school girl, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). He then bumps into Ramona Flowers working as a delivery girl on roller-blades.(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) Ramona has moved to Toronto from New York City to leave her past behind. Scott is facinated by this new girl and her mysterious past and wants to go out with her but before Scott can begin dating Ramona, he must prove himself by defeating the league of her seven exes. They will do anything to get rid of and destroy any new boyfriend Ramona may consider. If Scott wants to find true love with Ramona, he must defeat all seven.
The film brings together several genres. Initially a comic book by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim mixes together elements of video games, comic books, music and film.
The film connects back to older stories, such as Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, (check out the old maps of the road from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, see above)and at the same time old forms of computer games such as the Super Mario platform game for Nintendo as well as ninga and other fight games. What is interesting is that as soon as you get the idea of genre mash-up you start mentally adding others such as the fact that the evil exes turn into gold coins when they are defeated and as ‘super-humans’ they are almost like gods. Zeus, the head of the Greek pantheon of gods, turned himself into a shower of gold and poured down into the love of his life’s lap (Danae) and as a result she had a son. (See Danae by Gustav Klimt) These mythic links are not unusual. Most heroes had to have some sort of magic sword or other help when they went off the fight the monster. They nearly always win the princess too. Just as Scott does at the end. Even the fact that Ramona's hair keep changing colour makes a kind of odd sense. It starts as blue and then 'Knives' copies this and then Ramona goes green. Scott at one point says that he cant take this as changing hair colour means she is insincere. This could be a comment on the whole film. As it flips from genre to genre we are not sure where the director stands, but as the film ends perhaps we know that it really was just another romantic comedy all along.

Dont forget to let me know if you have posted up anything. Make comments if you need to. It reassures me everyone is looking.

Thinking about type

When we meet for the first time next week, we will be looking at a short history of type and how this relates to screen based fonts and moving type. You might want to look at a few things first to familiarise yourselves with the area. A great resource is the one at fontshop and they keep adding to it. (See links at the bottom of the blog page)If you want to try building your own font using grid structures try the font builder at FontStruct.com for hours of fun making your own. Beware it can be quite addictive. For a good typography blog follow ilovetypography (again the link is at the bottom)not just for information but to look at in terms of how a blog might work.Once we get into moving type, which will be the second week (hopefully) title sequences will become important and art of the title is a good place to look. I am asking Mike to post some resources and other stuff on moodle for people to look at as well, so again, if you have time, cast your eye over what is available. We will be going through this stuff in seminars though, so dont worry if you havnt got time.
I was thinking about the things we are supposed to do during the course of the module and one of these tasks is to annotate a text. The image at the top is of an annotated page and it seems to me that this page itself is interesting in terms of how it visually communicates. The contrast between hand written text and the type set page, the introduction of colour to highlight certain elements that are important etc. all combine to make an image that communicates interrogation of a text. Perhaps we can look at tasks that make visual images, at the same time as making academic sense. For instance could we work on creating examples of moving type using simple technology within a seminar session. I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Introduction to OUDF205

This is a very long first post and I would like students working with me this year to read it and make some comments. Communication is a two way process and I need to know how much is getting through.
This blog is part of a dialogue between myself as a facilitator/tutor and groups of students who are on the second year of their BA (Hons) and FD programmes. It is also an arena where issues raised can be explored and the usefulness and appropriate nature of content can be debated.
I will start with my worries.
The first thing I am concerned about is whether or not as students you have had a bad experience in the first year. Contextual studies is often seen as something that is not central to the educational experience in art and design. It can be thought of as an add-on that feels as if it isn’t helping with a student’s main study. So how can I demonstrate that it is useful and prove to students that it can be directly used to support what they want to do?
This all goes back to my own experience.
I am a practitioner who has over the years always found myself engaged with some sort of research in order to develop my practice.
Trained initially as a printmaker I have worked commercially running a print workshop, gradually broadening my practice to eventually include industrial interior design, interactive digital media, public art, fine art painting and illustration. Over the last 10 years specialising in illustration/fine art image making and leaving behind the computer as a tool for working with. One area has though remained constant, I draw and out of drawing I get ideas. I never worried about which area I found myself in, I tended to follow my nose as to what was at the time interesting. I have taught fine art as well as design, in the past covering everything from typography to sculpture.
So how did I find myself working in Contextual studies?
A bit of history.
I have been teaching for over 30 years. When I started this area was called Art History and Complementary studies and as I had a Commendation in Art History as part of my DipAD, I was asked to teach art history to Foundation students in the early 1970s. However as the design areas grew in size and importance, design history was added. Then as media studies entered the fray, it was decided to call the whole lot cultural studies and I found myself having to read all those people like Foucault and Derrida in order to broaden what I was teaching. This however became confused with University Cultural Studies departments that tended to take a very Marxist view on how society worked. It was then decided to call the whole area Critical Studies as this would highlight the critical thinking which it was expected the area would develop. Practical areas objected to this as it implied that practitioners were not critical thinkers. Hence the present title, Contextual (Historical, sociological and cultural contexts) and Theoretical (Philosophical, Psychoanalytical, Sustainable etc.) Studies, but, it could be argued there is slippage between the two, as theory is as much a context as history.
When the Coldstream Report looked into art education in the 1960s it specifically highlighted the problems in starting to award degrees to practical art and design courses. (I have a Dip AD because art courses were not awarded degree level parity with academic courses until the mid 70s) It decided that degrees could be awarded if these courses could demonstrate parity with other academic degrees by ensuring all students undertook an academic aspect of their study. This was why the initial Art History and Complementary Studies modules were so important. The dissertation remains an important element in an art student’s final portfolio, as external moderators still look to the mark of the dissertation as an indicator as to the final grade if it is on a cusp and MA courses often ask for dissertation grades and a report from such as myself, as proof that the student can study at a higher level, which of course usually requires writing a dissertation or thesis.
So where is it useful? It’s probably at its most useful in consultancy work. My partner runs a public art and design consultancy. Each project demands research and contextualisation to get it off the ground and secure funding. For instance a local authority might want a public art policy written or they might want to commission an artist or designer to help regenerate a city centre. They need reassuring that decisions made are based on knowledge and awareness of the parameters within which the city planning regulations work. This demands researching everything from local planning law, to historic documents as to the importance of local areas of interest, to potential audience make-up and their interests, to concepts of regeneration through the arts, to theories on how space is used and understood, to historical examples and contemporary examples of practices in both art and design. On top of the research there has to be the ability to then present all the information as a clear written proposal. This is not too dissimilar to a cross between the dissertation and a feasibility study, as it includes all references and has to have a narrative and an argument as to why the activities proposed are needed.
The other area within which contextualisation has been useful is my personal work. Initially it was mainly building up an awareness of what other artists and designers had done, if only to be able to show a potential client what it might look like or to give myself something to aspire to. (Historical and contemporary art and design) But the more subtle use has been that wider awareness of philosophy, psychology, literature etc. that allowed me to develop reasons for what I was doing. (An informed critical dialogue) This has been of growing importance to me as when I have exhibitions or need to contact people about my work they want text that explains things for them. If I can do this it gives them confidence that what I am producing has some meaning. More importantly it has fed my own ideas as to what I am doing and why.
So what as students do you want to get out of this? What are your worries? How can I help?
I also know that you need to pass this module and that the marks will go towards your overall result. I am experienced enough to know what that means in terms of what you need to do. So can help you achieve this component of your degree. So try and follow this blog which will develop as the year unfolds.