WHAT DID I DO TODAY?

Today I....

carried on looking through the pages of the book 'Postcard' and see what ideas sprang from them and put them into my sketchbook. This is still a very helpful way of working, for me, as I can see where the idea came from next to an illustration of what came from it. I can see the root and the flower. 

I stuck in the NEW version of the tube map I found yesterday. It has a new cover image and less under the heading "check before you travel". 

Eva Rothschild, commissioned artist, said:   

“The spectrum and colours also hold specific meaning of their own, echoing a life belt, for me this reference seemed appropriate because so many of us, including myself, depend on the Tube, its iconic map and London’s huge transport system in order to go about our day-to-day lives”

The little 'daggers' on the map that are pointed out to me  (via  http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2010/04/tube-map-april-2010.html - a website that was given in the "Further Reading" sections of "The London Collection".) actually signify places to "check before you travel". BUT, they triggered memories of news reports of stabbings at tube stations. So I checked out how many of these stations have held stabbings - I could find 5. 


I went on to research via the net and came across Joana Neimer, an illustrator whose work includes... "Shoreditch Twats"..... "Brixton" ...... and "London Weather".

 

WAS I PRODUCTIVE?

Yes, more ideas were born of research. I can go on to experiment with producing them firther on in the project. 

WHAT DID I LEARN?

WHAT CAN I TAKE FROM WHAT I LEARNT?

I can take away the visualisation of the Underground as a "life belt". I can go on to alter the tube maps "daggers" to just be next to the stations that people have been stabbed at. I can take from Niemeyer's quirly way of displaying London - the way she illustrates and chooses what to illustrate: I can play with stereotypes in areas like she has in map form or representative forms. I can play with the idea of weather affecting the experience of London.

HAVE I DOCUMENTED MY EXPERIENCE?

Yes, I've included sketches of the research from "PostCard" and my ideas that go with them. I have documented the tube map, the artists quote and the link; the daggers on the map and the research into stabbings; J Niemeyer's illustrations.

IS THERE A DIRECTION MY PROJECT IS TAKING?

I am still going in the direction of using postcards as a vehicule for representing London. Howver, I am straying away from representing the different areas of London. I am heading towards a wider view - taking in all aspects (from stereotypes, thoughts about the transport experience, how to repel people from london, the multiculturalism, the affect the weather has on the experience of London, the speech used in different classes of Londoner, questioning what it is to be a Londoner, etc).

I have strayed from my original idea that I would head out to explore parts of London that I have never been to before. This proved an expensive, time consuming route to take.

AM I ON TRACK? 

I have gone into the 'experimentation' period of my action plan. I am not too worried as I am very keen on having a lot of research, and therefore plentiful ideas to play with later on. I am quite good at producing things quickly once I have a list to work from as well.