Journey Lines: project proposal for MA Book Arts, December 2010
This project aims to develop a body of work around the theme of travel in the invisible landscape of the everyday. It starts with my practice of drawing a continuous line while travelling on public transport (according to rules that I set and revise) – this becomes both a map and a ‘time line’ of the journey. One aim is to find a format for this line, as part of a book object, or evolved into something I cannot yet imagine – something that will engage the viewer’s thoughts and provide a space for reflection, as well as provide aesthetic enjoyment. Another aim is to explore and reflect on the notion of ‘journeying’ in my own life and in the lives of others.
Content of the project
The project involves producing records of journeys; documenting these with writing and with photographs of the works and their context; transforming them by using other media; developing the records themselves; and developing the documentation by analysis or synthesis. It also includes reading about aspects of travelling; researching and reflecting on theoretical constructs that give a context; interviewing people about their experiences of travel (from commuting to world trips); recording my dreams to delve into the subconscious ‘intent’ of travel in them.
One objective component – a counter to the time-line that develops on my solitary journey – is the ‘desire lines’ that develop when people collectively mark desired paths in areas that already have official paths. Perhaps more subjective is the component of setting rules for drawing the day’s journey line – these rules are mutable, variable, and perhaps fickle or unsuitable, thus leading to the development of the visual aspects.
This work draws on the documentary methods of land artists such as Richard Long, whose journeys were the art work and the photographs or books just the record of the work. Richard Long’s work of walking a path into a field is directly relevant to the ‘desire lines’ that interest me. My project will also reference artists who use “the un-noticed everyday” as the basis of their art, and those who have concentrated on process (Marcia Hafif and Bridget Riley, for instance). The component of rule-setting is linked tothe ‘automatic writing’ practices of the surrealists – procedures that embrace chance, improvisation, and free association – and to John Cage’s use of chance operations, and also Sol Lewitt’s drawings based on simple instructions (he said that “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art”). Theoretical background includes de Certeau’s analysis of the uses to which social behaviour is put by individuals and groups, which leads to consideration of how the crowd shapes the everyday (urban) environment, and recent writings on psychogeography (the psychological and hence behavioural effects of landscape, environment, terrain), notably Iain Sinclair in the context of London.
Bibliography
Augé, Marc (1995). Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity. London: Verso. (French edition 1992; translated by John Howe.)
De Certeau, Michel (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Published in 1980 as Arts de faire; translated by Steven Randall.) (Especially chapters on walking and riding on the train.)
[Hayward Publishing] (2010) Every day is a good day: the visual art of John Cage. London: Hayward. (Exhibition catalogue with essays and interviews.)
Highmore, Ben. (2002) The everyday life reader. London: Taylor&Francis. (Themed sections open with an essay outlining the debates. Preview at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V4bp0piLE_MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Motion, Andrew (2010). The essay: the path and the poem. BBC Radio 3, October 2010. (Considers the link between walking and writing in a series of talks about poems that follow paths. Poems reprinted at http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/the-path-and-the-poem/ )
Riley, Bridget (2009). At the end of my pencil. London Review of Books, v.31 no.9, 8 October. (Use of process to break through a sterile patch into new work: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n19/bridget-riley/at-the-end-of-my-pencil.)
Sinclair, Iain (2003). London orbital: a walk around the M25. London: Penguin. (An “extraordinary trek and round trip of the soul.”)
Thomas, Edward (2008). The annotated collected poems. Bloodaxe. (Edited by Edna Longley.)
From idea to end product
In addition to researching book artists and other artists on the internet and by gallery visits, as well as in special collections and specialist bookshops and publishers’ fairs, I will be doing theoretical research through reading (sociology, anthropology, poetry, art history) especially in the first part of the project. This academic component will contribute to, indeed will drive, its development. Apart from access to books/libraries and the internet, my primary material needs will be my computer, a camera and digital printing. Having attended inductions to various facilities available at the college, I can consider using letterpress for text-based work, the printmaking facilities for both illustrations to accompany the text and for textile printing, and the photography workshop for developing prints from pinhole cameras.
In developing this project I will be gathering material several times a week – either on the same route (travel to college) or on new routes, mostly in London itself. One format is the drawn line; another is using pinhole cameras on journeys to capture mood and motion. I will be interviewing people about their experiences and dreams (night-time or daydreams) about travel, both epic and everyday.
Studio practice involves the adaptation of the material gathered during travel on public transport and reformatting it into various book formats, either by printing onto materials that will be used for book objects, or by using it as a starting point for other work that is related but uses other media or methods, elaborating it in visual or verbal form through reflection and imaginative transformation.
Documentation of developmental processes is an extension of the documentation of the gathering of the original material. Work in progress will be shown on a blog and feedback invited.
I hope to create one or more series of books with text and/or images, and a more sculptural work (which may also be a book object) related to this theme of journey. One possible series is about the material from dreams that relate to journeys and travelling; another series could be based on my daily route, elaborated with photographs and/or drawings; yet another, poems based on these routes, perhaps using found text during the journey. I would like to interview my work colleagues about their daily journeys, and replicate them, and then put these together in one volume. In addition, I’d like to take “the line” off the paper and translate into a 3D structure of some sort, possibly using media that are new to me.
The most important end product, for me, will be to elucidate what “journey” means to me; this process itself constitutes a journey. I am looking forward to seeing where I find myself at the end of the time-span allotted to this course, and also look forward to the excursions along many side-roads along the way.
Timetable
Research in (theoretical, academic) books and via exhibitions either in galleries and on the internet will continue throughout the project, but will become much more focussed as I determine more exactly what aspects of journey/travel are most relevant for me, and I know that as the course nears its end, my tendency to look outward for a broader view and yet more possibilities will have to change to looking inward and focussing.
During the first half of the course (the first of the two years of part-time study) I will be mainly gathering the raw material and researching in libraries, galleries, and on the internet. I’ll also be looking for ways to change the gathering format and what I might do with it to present it in book (and possibly non-book) formats. This is a period of broadening out the topic; projects set within the course have already opened up new possibilities. I hope to be able to recognise dead ends during this time, and in the second year I’ll be culling my research to focus on the aspects of journey/travel that are most relevant for me, and narrowing down the methods and materials to be used to produce the final works.
Content of the project
The project involves producing records of journeys; documenting these with writing and with photographs of the works and their context; transforming them by using other media; developing the records themselves; and developing the documentation by analysis or synthesis. It also includes reading about aspects of travelling; researching and reflecting on theoretical constructs that give a context; interviewing people about their experiences of travel (from commuting to world trips); recording my dreams to delve into the subconscious ‘intent’ of travel in them.
One objective component – a counter to the time-line that develops on my solitary journey – is the ‘desire lines’ that develop when people collectively mark desired paths in areas that already have official paths. Perhaps more subjective is the component of setting rules for drawing the day’s journey line – these rules are mutable, variable, and perhaps fickle or unsuitable, thus leading to the development of the visual aspects.
This work draws on the documentary methods of land artists such as Richard Long, whose journeys were the art work and the photographs or books just the record of the work. Richard Long’s work of walking a path into a field is directly relevant to the ‘desire lines’ that interest me. My project will also reference artists who use “the un-noticed everyday” as the basis of their art, and those who have concentrated on process (Marcia Hafif and Bridget Riley, for instance). The component of rule-setting is linked tothe ‘automatic writing’ practices of the surrealists – procedures that embrace chance, improvisation, and free association – and to John Cage’s use of chance operations, and also Sol Lewitt’s drawings based on simple instructions (he said that “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art”). Theoretical background includes de Certeau’s analysis of the uses to which social behaviour is put by individuals and groups, which leads to consideration of how the crowd shapes the everyday (urban) environment, and recent writings on psychogeography (the psychological and hence behavioural effects of landscape, environment, terrain), notably Iain Sinclair in the context of London.
Bibliography
Augé, Marc (1995). Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity. London: Verso. (French edition 1992; translated by John Howe.)
De Certeau, Michel (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Published in 1980 as Arts de faire; translated by Steven Randall.) (Especially chapters on walking and riding on the train.)
[Hayward Publishing] (2010) Every day is a good day: the visual art of John Cage. London: Hayward. (Exhibition catalogue with essays and interviews.)
Highmore, Ben. (2002) The everyday life reader. London: Taylor&Francis. (Themed sections open with an essay outlining the debates. Preview at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=V4bp0piLE_MC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Motion, Andrew (2010). The essay: the path and the poem. BBC Radio 3, October 2010. (Considers the link between walking and writing in a series of talks about poems that follow paths. Poems reprinted at http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/the-path-and-the-poem/ )
Riley, Bridget (2009). At the end of my pencil. London Review of Books, v.31 no.9, 8 October. (Use of process to break through a sterile patch into new work: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n19/bridget-riley/at-the-end-of-my-pencil.)
Sinclair, Iain (2003). London orbital: a walk around the M25. London: Penguin. (An “extraordinary trek and round trip of the soul.”)
Thomas, Edward (2008). The annotated collected poems. Bloodaxe. (Edited by Edna Longley.)
From idea to end product
In addition to researching book artists and other artists on the internet and by gallery visits, as well as in special collections and specialist bookshops and publishers’ fairs, I will be doing theoretical research through reading (sociology, anthropology, poetry, art history) especially in the first part of the project. This academic component will contribute to, indeed will drive, its development. Apart from access to books/libraries and the internet, my primary material needs will be my computer, a camera and digital printing. Having attended inductions to various facilities available at the college, I can consider using letterpress for text-based work, the printmaking facilities for both illustrations to accompany the text and for textile printing, and the photography workshop for developing prints from pinhole cameras.
In developing this project I will be gathering material several times a week – either on the same route (travel to college) or on new routes, mostly in London itself. One format is the drawn line; another is using pinhole cameras on journeys to capture mood and motion. I will be interviewing people about their experiences and dreams (night-time or daydreams) about travel, both epic and everyday.
Studio practice involves the adaptation of the material gathered during travel on public transport and reformatting it into various book formats, either by printing onto materials that will be used for book objects, or by using it as a starting point for other work that is related but uses other media or methods, elaborating it in visual or verbal form through reflection and imaginative transformation.
Documentation of developmental processes is an extension of the documentation of the gathering of the original material. Work in progress will be shown on a blog and feedback invited.
I hope to create one or more series of books with text and/or images, and a more sculptural work (which may also be a book object) related to this theme of journey. One possible series is about the material from dreams that relate to journeys and travelling; another series could be based on my daily route, elaborated with photographs and/or drawings; yet another, poems based on these routes, perhaps using found text during the journey. I would like to interview my work colleagues about their daily journeys, and replicate them, and then put these together in one volume. In addition, I’d like to take “the line” off the paper and translate into a 3D structure of some sort, possibly using media that are new to me.
The most important end product, for me, will be to elucidate what “journey” means to me; this process itself constitutes a journey. I am looking forward to seeing where I find myself at the end of the time-span allotted to this course, and also look forward to the excursions along many side-roads along the way.
Timetable
Research in (theoretical, academic) books and via exhibitions either in galleries and on the internet will continue throughout the project, but will become much more focussed as I determine more exactly what aspects of journey/travel are most relevant for me, and I know that as the course nears its end, my tendency to look outward for a broader view and yet more possibilities will have to change to looking inward and focussing.
During the first half of the course (the first of the two years of part-time study) I will be mainly gathering the raw material and researching in libraries, galleries, and on the internet. I’ll also be looking for ways to change the gathering format and what I might do with it to present it in book (and possibly non-book) formats. This is a period of broadening out the topic; projects set within the course have already opened up new possibilities. I hope to be able to recognise dead ends during this time, and in the second year I’ll be culling my research to focus on the aspects of journey/travel that are most relevant for me, and narrowing down the methods and materials to be used to produce the final works.
