GDE720 W6 | Workshop Challenge

FINDING A STORY

This week’s challenge had us to exploring how to research and define a topic that reveals a new insight and critical understanding of visual culture, myth or story in your area via the following outputs

  1. Research and find two possible stories that reflect a viewpoint of your own town, city or locale.

  2. Create one image to represent both initial story concepts, using a variety of methods, which must be original and not sourced from the Internet or a third party.

  3. Present two short proposals with title, original image and a short 100-word synopsis (elevator pitch) about the concept of your article. Please note, we will provide a prepared Keynote slide template for you to present your findings.

The two directions I chose were:

  1. Beyond the Big Five: The Unaccounted Women of the San Francisco Psychedelic Design Era 

    • When history is reflected upon with regard to the psychedelic design movement of 1960s San Francisco, we notoriously only hear about the Big Five: Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, and Wes Wilson. 

      While these men made a huge impact on this fundamental period of design, the are all men.  The contributions of women artists of this experiential and experimental era of design are rarely, if ever, mentioned. 

      Where are the women? Did they just sew flowers into each other's hair. NO.

      This research project is aimed to shed light on the contributions of women artists of the San Francisco psychedelic design movement of the 1960s. 

  2. Through the Lens of Protest: A Photo-documentary of Freedom of Speech in San Francisco 

    • For more than six decades, the Bay Area has been the epicenter of protest movements like no other region in the United States.

      Free speech rights. The Vietnam War. Racial injustice. The nuclear bomb. U.S. policy in Central America. Wars in the Middle East. The AIDS crisis. Economic inequities. Police brutality. Animal rights. Women’s rights. Climate Change. Even the war on plastic.

      The Bay Area has a special place as one of dissent and free speech. And the coverage of this dissent through the photographer's lens tells the story. This research showcases the decades of protests in San Francisco via the contributions of documentary photographer.

My final piece can be found below:

REFERENCE:

Falmouth University (2018). Visual Written Communication - Research and Curate | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Lupton, E. and Miller, A., (1996) Design, Writing, Research: Writing on Graphic Design. New York: Kiosk Books

Robson, C., (2002) Real world research: A resource for social scientists and practitioner researchers. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Louisiana Channel (1916) Irma Boom: A Tribute to Coco Chanel, [online video]. Available at https://vimeo.com/142852186.