WOOFISM and beyond

Category: graphic design (Page 1 of 2)

Studio Diary M.A. : That’s all folks and a chapter on Moogee

Surprise of the week was news that Moogee had his own chapter in a new Loughborough/UAL/Teachers Columbia publication 🙂

TTDfront moogee

M.A. ASSESSMENT

This is the final entry in the studio diary section as I will be assessed on my M.A. this Wednesday afternoon. To prepare for this I have created the pdf below and uploaded to Scribd detailing the progress made throughout the M.A. and the final outcomes at this point.

Where I go from here is a good question and not one I can answer easily.

There are three separate yet overlapping areas I have become deeply interested in.

1. Drawing research ; phenomenology of drawing and in particular an interest in sense of place and notions of ‘signature’ in terms of preparatory drawings especially in Gorky,  Miro up to Motherwell and Twombly all developing out of the surrealism and dada influence on mid-century American painting.

2. Early film/photography and magazine culture of the 18th Century/early 19th century and its relation to current developments in web. I have a paper to present in Paris on Charles Dickens magazine illustration end of March and I will be concentrating on that alone from now until then.

3. The continuation of this research into artistic research theory/philosophy of aesthetics and its dissemination through fine art pedagogy.

All three are possible PhD subject matter and how my institution views my future will probably have a major bearing on where I go.

My heart though probably in number one…..my head in number three and my teaching future at present tied up somewhere in number  two whether I like it or not…….

Interesting times ahead 🙂

Meanwhile I’d like to thank Deborah Harty for her very good supervision and for stopping me going off-track all the time or as they like to say in academia develop ‘focus’. Focused I am right now but come Thursday who knows:-)
please note the backgrounds have distorted in this display.

 

Comic and Sequential Research: New Blog

pickwick-papers

 

No studio diary entries this week as I only made it into studio for an hour. Various work related problems kept me busy and rest of time I was starting new research at home.

My next conference is in Paris in March. It continues the theme I started exploring in Amsterdam Film-Philosophy Conference. This is the role of Victorian magazine illustration (disseminated by the railway) in development of sequential narrative that became film and comic art.

The new blog here: https://shaunbelcher.com/rpt

I have separated from this ‘Graphic Research’ blog as although related the focus there is very much on the art historical angle (Frayling’s ‘Research INTO Design’ NOT through or for which this practice-led blog is more concerned with).

I have already discovered a mine of information including original Dickens annotated sketches by his illustrators. My intention is to look at the ‘sequential moment’ and try and establish if the mass circulation of the first Pickwick Paper pamphlet might be a significant milestone in sequential terms.

This I will then relate to the cross-disciplinary proliferation of images and tropes in an attempt to build a firmer picture of what cartoon/drawing, comic and photography actually meant at this time.

I am also looking at the role of technology based on Brian Winston’s political analysis after Raymond Williams.

Here a steel engraving by Phiz from the Pickwick Papers from March 1837.

Source : http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/pickwick/28.html

phiztrial

 

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

Studio Diary: May 23rd – Cartoon Droodles?

My biggest inspiration 🙂 A book called Droodles which I got from a jumble sale when a kid ….most famous droodle is the cover of Zappa’s Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch (below)..so now you know is not pop art, minimalism or a profound theory is DROODLES 🙂 These drawings are profound meditations on the hinterland and liminal spaces between inbetween-ness in a multi disciplinary meditation on landscape, time and sequentiality specifically ‘the first and second sequential ‘moments’ (my theoretical tagging of the invention of ‘cinema’ or was it animation? (1888 LePrince) and the second moment ‘youtube’ 1995….)..so now you know..then again it could be a droodle…

witch

A basic plan?

planB

 

Simplistic but this rough outline of new directions is kind of accurate.

Path One: Traditional practice-led craft orientated production – drawings not theoretical more instinctive. Crossing into surrealist/automatic and subconscious areas.

Path Two: Literary/Historical..orientated toward factual and historical research linked to a wide gamut of technology in early stages affecting a specific area of the Thames Valley – possible PhD subject area? Relating developments in 1850s to present day impact of ubiquitous media. Possible crossover with poetry/cultural geography. e.g. Charles Tomlinson’s borders thesis.

Path Three: Criticism as Research/Graphic Research. Cartoons as investigative art criticism. James Elkins and Mark Staff Brandl connection. Political edge.

 

Mostyn ‘With Humorous Intent’ Symposium March 2012

Again a retrospective post highlighting a symposium presentation I gave in March 2012.

 

http://www.mostyn.org/whats_on/event_detail/with_humorous_intent_symposium

With Humorous Intent: Symposium

By admin Published February 21, cialis 2012

I have been invited to give a presentation of my ‘Cartoon Practice’ at a symposium organised through Loughborough University called ‘With Humorous Intent’ at the new Mostyn Gallery Llundudno.
With Humorous Intent (Symposium)

03 Mar – 04 Mar 2012

With Humorous Intent

A two-day symposium interrogating the deployment of humour within contemporary art practices.

Organised by Lee Campbell, PhD researcher, in conjunction with Politicized Practice Research Group, Loughborough University School of the Arts in cooperation with Mostyn. To coincide with ‘Ha Ha Road’, 03 December 2011 – 11 March 2012.

FREE EVENT but places are limited. To reserve a place, email sian@mostyn.org or phone 01492 868196.
Downloads

Guest speakers: Gillian Whiteley (aka bricolagekitchen); Gary Stevens and Frog Morris are joined by Andrew Paul Wood (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand); Dave Ball, curator of Ha Ha Road, Mostyn; Jonathan Roberts; Alison O’Connor (Oxford University); Ana Milovanovic; Shaun Belcher (Nottingham Trent University School of Art and Design); Eve Smith (Liverpool John Moores University); Jennifer Jarman; Hannah Ballou (Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London); Steve Fossey (University of Northampton); Simon Bell (Anglia Ruskin University,Cambridge); Waldemar Pranckiewicz; and Dean Kelland (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London).

The symposium is launched with a performance and talk by Bedwyr Williams at 7pm, Friday 2 March. Places for Friday evening are limited and must be booked in advance, £5 / £3 students. To reserve a place for Friday 2 March, phone Mostyn’s Shop on 01492 868191.

Drawing Research Network Conference September

I am very pleased to be one of the speakers at this year’s conference at Loughborough.

The Directors of the DRN and TRACEY are pleased to announce
the 2012 Drawing Research Network Conference.

10th and 11th September 2012
School of the Arts/Loughborough Design School – Loughborough University

Further details here:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/tracey/DRN_conference_homepage.html

Alongside the Conference I have also been selected for a digital show.

Here the images that selected.

Interview with Matthew Collings Matter Magazine first issue.

I originally did not include this information in research blog because our previous Dean referred to it is as ‘trade’ work not research. Since she and her stupid ideas have gone west I happy to now post:-)

 

 
I have an interview with Matthew Collings published in Matter Magazine No.1.

http://www.themattermagazine.com/

Matter magazine

Magazine / Newspaper

Posted by Gavin Lucas, shop 12 December 2011, pills

Excerpt from http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/december/matter-magazine

Regular CR readers may recall we wrote about large format magazine Kilimanjaro and interviewed its creator Olu Odukoya back in 2008 (read that piece here). Now Odukoya has his own creative agency called OMO Creates and has just launched a new bi-annual men’s magazine called Matter that takes technology, style and conceptual art as its raison d’etre…

“I’m really excited about Matter, mostly about the content and what it could be,” says Odukoya of his new title, the first issue of which has just been printed. “A lot of men’s magazines are overly sartorial and I don’t think that’s really what the contemporary man is supposed to be about,” he continues, explaining that Matter is interested in technology but not in a way that is concerned with divulging the latest updates from Apple about forthcoming hardware, but rather in a way that is fascinated with how technology and humanity collide.

“Matter’s USP is that it is the first art and style publication to examine these subjects through the lens of modern technology,” says Odukoya.

And so it is that the first issue of Matter contains an interview with musician Tricky, who Odukoya managed to track down using the internet, email and no small amount of perseverence; an interview with Daniel Eatock about his DIY website tool, Indexhibit; a feature on Professor Gerd Hirzinger’s work with soft robotics; and an email discussion between Shaun Belcher and Matthew Collings about Collings’ recent experimentation with image analysis online using Facebook photo albums.

The website for Matter currently shows a film of someone flipping through the magazine, spread by spread. “We didn’t know how to approach the design of the website,” admits Odukoya, “so we just had the video of someone flicking through the first issue. But actually people seem to really like it. The site has already attracted more people than all the ones that have taken a year to do. I find this really interesting. I’m excited constantly by how the internet can surprise you and make you see things or experience things in a different way.”

themattermagazine.com

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