Year 3 formative submission by Agata Rybicka

agata rybicka formative folio

FMP PROPOSAL The proposal came out of my wish to make a book for my Final Major Project. Initially I wanted to take an existing text - a family member’s blog - illustrate it and print a run of books. The feedback I got was that this was not a good direction to be taking, and that if I wanted to make a book I had to generate my own content. This brought some confusion and it took me a few days to get some ideas together. After presenting them to Mike at a tutorial I decided to go with one he seemed most keen on - a book about my father, artist Ryszard Rybicki. To test out how I could gather material for it I went along to his studio during an Open Day. This brought unexpected results in that at the end of the day I had 7 pages of dialogues and over 90 photos. After that day I had the confidence to go with this idea.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT PROPOSAL 13th December 2012

Project Goals To produce a book or series of books about my father - artist Ryszard Rybicki, As yet I have not decided on the title because I would want it to come out of the content. But possibilities include: “Things my father says”, “A portrait of a man as an artist”, “RyszART” My aim is to generate unique content and allow it to dictate the style of the book accordingly. I will try to put it together in a manner that will be of interest to a wide audience.

I will start the process by gathering spoken material. I found it quite distracting to record sound and take photos and talk to people at the same time. I think the easiest way will be to do specific things one at a time. So I think I probably need about two weeks of recording sound (add to that the same amount of time for transcribing it from the recording and translating all the bits spoken in Polish), then a week of taking photographs - shadowing my father in his studio or wherever he is. I would also like to include some drawings that we do together - or my drawings of him.

Audience I will try to make the book quite available to a wide range of readers. It might involve activities like drawing something from a photo, or a page long monologue on the changes to society in the 20th century. My father is a very eccentric character and it is completely unpredictable what he’ll say or do next, which I think is quite an exciting opportunity to leave my comfort zone of planning everything ahead and keeping to straight lines of design, and make something interesting and unique. Therefore I don’t want to define the style of the book for now but am conscientiously leaving it open to be able to get carried away by the process. Process After the experimental day at my fathers studio last week I have gathered quite a lot of material. It was a really good experience to be an observer and record all the things that Ryszard said. He isn’t afraid to say profound and sometimes quite personal things which affects people. He makes friends (or enemies) instantly. There is no in-between for him, which always seems the case with me.

Timings - sound recording and transcribing - 2-3 weeks - photography - 1 week - drawings + (scanning in) and possible interview - 1 week - research printing options - 2-5 days - draft design - 1 week - development and refinement of designs 2-3 weeks - preparing for print - 3-5 days - production - based on experience, if I have a date booked in with printers - 1 week

FMP TIMETABLE After the Christmas and Dissertation break we were asked to submit an updated proposal or a plan of action with week by week breakdown of tasks. I did mine working from the deadline backwards. Looking back I can say I underestimated the time it would take to transcribe and translate the recorded interviews as I have not yet finished that part of my FMP. Quite a few things have changed, mainly the printing time as I want to make sure the book is printed before the 11 April. This means that this task has been brought back at least a week.

MONDAY

FEB

TUESDAY

CONTENT GENERATION

FEB

WEDNESDAY

CONTENT GENERATION

12 CONTENT GENERATION

18 CONTENT GENERATION

CONTENT GENERATION

FRIDAY

CONTENT GENERATION

THURSDAY

CONTENT GENERATION

14 CONTENT GENERATION

20 CONTENT GENERATION

15 CONTENT GENERATION

21 CONTENT GENERATION

22 CONTENT GENERATION

FEB

MARCH

EDITS & PRODUCTION

27 EDITS & PRODUCTION

28 EDITS & PRODUCTION

FORMATIVE VIVA

12 FORMATIVE VIVA

18 CONTENT GENERATION

APRIL

CONTENT GENERATION

2 EDITS & PRODUCTION

CONTENT GENERATION

3 EDITS & PRODUCTION

CONTENT GENERATION

EDITS & PRODUCTION

CONTENT GENERATION

EDITS & PRODUCTION

FORMATIVE VIVA

CONTENT GENERATION

APRIL

8 FORMATIVE SUBMISION

MARCH

PRINTING

MARCH

29 EDITS & PRODUCTION

PRINTING

FMP SUBMISSION

APRIL 15

16 VIVA

17 VIVA

VIVA

APRIL 22

By CONTENT GENERATION I mean either gathering material by spending time with my subject, going to museums and talking, taking photos and recording, or, transcribing all the spoken text and translating into English, putting it all together, sorting and evaluating. By EDITS & PRODUCTION I mean typesetting and laying out the gathered material.

WEEK 1 The first week of the project was a difficult one, as beginnings usually are. The hardest thing about it was the fact that I was very confused about what I actually wanted to get out of Ryszard. It was probably due to the fact that I always rely on a “brief” and with this project I wanted to take a step back and just see what happens. I never thought it was going to be easy, but I needed a few days to adjust to that. In this week I did gather a lot of spoken material and photography but mostly of my father as a subject. I want to highlight here that I do not think of myself as a photographer and do not aim to be one at all, for me it’s just another means of recording the process. In week 1 we also discussed a possibility of Ryszard doing a “happening” one evening. The idea for it was that he would get an audience together and present or paint something, which would give me a more behind the scenes view into how he works.

WEEK 2 This week was a crisis week because we just did not get on with Ryszard. It was also difficult because I lost a bit of direction with the project and could not get any ideas together. I decided to not go in for a few days and instead to do some research. I discovered a German publisher Steidl and watched a documentary about him. I also went to the library a couple of times to look through some of the books that were published by Steidl, which are in the library. This brought me back on track with my ideas and gave me energy to continue with the work. The few days I did go in we talked about portraiture and identity. It became obvious pretty much from the beginning that all the activity based outcomes I wanted to get out of it are not going to work. We both have to want to do something to actually do it and just saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we are going to draw all day todayâ&#x20AC;? is not going to do it. It does mean that the project is not going to be as vibrant and as varied as I was hoping but I still hope to make it interesting.

WEEK 3 This week has been quite good in terms of the dynamic between me and Ryszard. I think it is because of the fact that I have decided not to worry to much about what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to get wrong. This week we talked about Ryszardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings more, and I have realised how little Ryszard is aware of the influences on his work. Another thing was that Ryszard had a new idea for a piece of work. Not a painting, but a sculpture this time

WEEK 4 The main thing this week was the planned happening. I must say I had high hopes for something quite substantial - for it to be the basis for the book, but as these things go, it did not all go to plan. First of all Ryszard decided not to speak as he usually does, but to live-paint a picture with his new experimental technique. This only confirmed my theory that my father is unpredictable and I am only glad that I did not have a detailed plan for the time spent together because it would not have worked in any way and would have been an obstruction. This week I focused mainly on transcribing the recordings which took much longer than expected.

Printing options / format This has been the most frustrating part of the project. To begin with I did not really know how I wanted the book to look like. One of the fist ideas I had was that it would consist of a series (4 maybe 5) smaller pamphlets similar in size and dedicated to different subjects. Very soon into the project I realised that this would be quite impossible because of how things were progressing with Ryszard. I then decided that going to print with one of the online â&#x20AC;&#x153;photo bookâ&#x20AC;? printers would be the way to go because of the costs involved. I then did some research and that clarified my idea of what I wanted from this book. So I set my heart on an A4 landscape format, which would lay flat when opened. And this is when problems started as none of those companies offer an A4 landscape option. So to understand the different formats available I made mock ups out of card. I also made type blocks in different sizes to see how the type would sit on the page. I found this was an easier process than drawing everything out by hand. As I could not find any format that I liked I decided to ditch the online stores and enquire with some printers I have worked with previously.

I did not have to look very far as my first point of call was my trusted printer in London, who came back with a reasonable quote and a turnaround time of one day. I had a few reasonable quotes from other places I contacted so I decided to bring my printing deadline back so If anything goes wrong I will still have another week to print the book again.

Typography Because of the bilingual aspect of the book I thought that the type should be as simple and clear as possible. I short listed 6 typefaces: optima, futura, serifa, minion, joanna, and caslon. I then printed them all out in both languages side by side and compared legibility. After that I decided to go with the slab serif Serifa as it was most simple and created a nice type area that was clear to read and not crammed. I really want the book to be understated and use as much white space as I can to create a simple and legible look. I want Ryszard’s art to stand out and speak for itself. This was also a contributing factor in how the text looks. I want to keep it simple and deliver it to the audience in small paragraphs so it is not overwhelming.

Futura BT 9.25pt/13.75pt

Serifa BT 9.5pt/14pt

Maybe I’ll begin with explaining why I am an artist, that’s a good question. It’s a kind of therapy, my way of living life, to find peace and get things of my chest. If I weren’t an artist I probably would have ended up as an alcoholic, or worse. And this world that surrounds us is not even interesting, if I didn’t have a way of getting my frustrations and pains out, if I didn’t find a way of making it all bearable, and interesting, so that I didn’t get bored I would have gone crazy. The world isn’t a nice place to be. Art is everything to me. It is a way of life, a medicine; it’s a motivation, surprise. You never know what will happen. That’s why I love London so much, it’s so unpredictable. You can’t predict anything and you have to catch every opportunity thrown at you because it might never happen again. And I think it’s is the only place in the world when you can be totally anonymous, it’s a matter of identity, I don’t feel Polish. Here, after 10 years I feel a Londoner, this is my playground. Especially with my bad memory - the past almost doesn’t exist. I don’t remember it; it’s irrelevant.

Joanna MT Std 10pt/14pt Maybe I’ll begin with explaining why I am an artist, that’s a good question. It’s a kind of therapy, my way of living life, to find peace and get things of my chest. If I weren’t an artist I probably would have ended up as an alcoholic, or worse. And this world that surrounds us is not even interesting, if I didn’t have a way of getting my frustrations and pains out, if I didn’t find a way of making it all bearable, and interesting, so that I didn’t get bored I would have gone crazy. The world isn’t a nice place to be. Art is everything to me. It is a way of life, a medicine; it’s a motivation, surprise. You never know what will happen. That’s why I love London so much, it’s so unpredictable. You can’t predict anything and you have to catch every opportunity thrown at you because it might never happen again. And I think it’s is the only place in the world when you can be totally anonymous, it’s a matter of identity, I don’t feel Polish. Here, after 10 years I feel a Londoner, this is my playground. Especially with my bad memory - the past almost doesn’t exist. I don’t remember it; it’s irrelevant.

Minion Pro 11pt/14pt Maybe I’ll begin with explaining why I am an artist, that’s a good question. It’s a kind of therapy, my way of living life, to find peace and get things of my chest. If I weren’t an artist I probably would have ended up as an alcoholic, or worse. And this world that surrounds us is not even interesting, if I didn’t have a way of getting my frustrations and pains out, if I didn’t find a way of making it all bearable, and interesting, so that I didn’t get bored I would have gone crazy. The world isn’t a nice place to be. Art is everything to me. It is a way of life, a medicine; it’s a motivation, surprise. You never know what will happen. That’s why I love London so much, it’s so unpredictable. You can’t predict anything and you have to catch every opportunity thrown at you because it might never happen again. And I think it’s is the only place in the world when you can be totally anonymous, it’s a matter of identity, I don’t feel Polish. Here, after 10 years I feel a Londoner, this is my playground. Especially with my bad memory - the past almost doesn’t exist. I don’t remember it; it’s irrelevant.

Optima 9.5pt/12.75pt Maybe I’ll begin with explaining why I am an artist, that’s a good question. It’s a kind of therapy, my way of living life, to find peace and get things of my chest. If I weren’t an artist I probably would have ended up as an alcoholic, or worse. And this world that surrounds us is not even interesting, if I didn’t have a way of getting my frustrations and pains out, if I didn’t find a way of making it all bearable, and interesting, so that I didn’t get bored I would have gone crazy. The world isn’t a nice place to be. Art is everything to me. It is a way of life, a medicine; it’s a motivation, surprise. You never know what will happen. That’s why I love London so much, it’s so unpredictable. You can’t predict anything and you have to catch every opportunity thrown at you because it might never happen again. And I think it’s is the only place in the world when you can be totally anonymous, it’s a matter of identity, I don’t feel Polish. Here, after 10 years I feel a Londoner, this is my playground. Especially with my bad memory - the past almost doesn’t exist. I don’t remember it; it’s irrelevant.

ITC Caslon 11pt/14pt Maybe I’ll begin with explaining why I am an artist, that’s a good question. It’s a kind of therapy, my way of living life, to find peace and get things of my chest. If I weren’t an artist I probably would have ended up as an alcoholic, or worse. And this world that surrounds us is not even interesting, if I didn’t have a way of getting my frustrations and pains out, if I didn’t find a way of making it all bearable, and interesting, so that I didn’t get bored I would have gone crazy. The world isn’t a nice place to be. Art is everything to me. It is a way of life, a medicine; it’s a motivation, surprise. You never know what will happen. That’s why I love London so much, it’s so unpredictable. You can’t predict anything and you have to catch every opportunity thrown at you because it might never happen again. And I think it’s is the only place in the world when you can be totally anonymous, it’s a matter of identity, I don’t feel Polish. Here, after 10 years I feel a Londoner, this is my playground. Especially with my bad memory - the past almost doesn’t exist. I don’t remember it; it’s irrelevant.

presentation While at my fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s studio I helped him do a clear out. One day I found this piece of wood which Ryszard used as a palette and some paint spilled to the other side of it. I was really inspired by that and decided to use it for my book. The idea is to make a box for the book - like a slipcase, which would be made out of wood. There would be some paint coming out of the gap between the top and bottom of it - like in that palette, making it look like there was some wet paint inside the box. I knew that it would be difficult to make a box like that but then I had another idea - I could use a box easel for the box which would also make it a stand for the book when exhibited at the final show. I have already got one and cleaned it out in preparation for the paint.

The book To this point in my FMP progress I have generated 6 hours of recordings which I then transcribed into 6.000 words in Polish, translated more than half of it into English (I have about 10.000 words all together as of today), took over 600 photos, chose a format for my book and found printers to print it as I want it, and decided on how I am going to show it. The book is based on conversations I had with my father throughout February. It will hopefully be of interest to audiences interested in art in general but also clients of his work and people who know him.

Between now and the Final Submission I have to edit both texts in Polish and in English as I want to make the book as interesting as possible to a varied audience. Another task is to categorise the texts and make at least 3 sections into which the book will be divided. An introduction, a personal reflection by me of the whole process. A longer section which will include Ryszardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biography and his process behind his most successful paintings. The third section will be a catalogue of his art, without any text. Ryszard is a very difficult person to work with - he gets very excited about an idea but 5 minutes later he thinks it is bad and never want to talk about it again. This has been a major difficulty for both of us working on this project; for me, because I do not work well without an â&#x20AC;&#x153;agendaâ&#x20AC;? and for Ryszard, because he can not work with one. The process of making this book is definitely a bonding experience for us and I hope I will be able to produce a book we both will be proud of.

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BEGINNING

ąćęłńóśźż Moze zaczne od tego, ze czemu wogole sie zajmuje sztuka, to jest dobre pytanie. To jest rodzaj terapii, moj sposob na przezycie zycia, zeby znalezc spokoj, jakies ujscie. Ja mysle ze jakbym sie nie zajal sztuka to bym zostal alkoholikiem albo bog wie czym. I ten otaczajacy swiat, wcale nie jest interesujacy, gdybym nie mial ujscia moich frustracji, mekow to bym nie znalazl sposobu zeby to bylo ciekawe, zeby sie nie nudzic to bym zwariowal. Swiat nie jest wcale przyjemny. Sztuka jest wszystkim dla mnie. Jest sposobem na zycie, jest lekarstwem, jest motywacja, niespodzianka, nigdy nie wiadomo co sie wydazy, dla tego Londyn tez uwielbiam, tez nie wiadomo co sie wydazy. Nie mozna przewidzie niczego, I trzeba sie nauczyc chwytac kazda okazje ktora sie przydarzy, bo moze sie wiecej nie przydazyc. A pozatym to jest chyba jedyne miejce na ziemi ze sie mozna zatracic w tym, ze ja juz nie jestem polakiem, to jest kwestia tozsamosci. Tu po 10 latach sie czuje Londynczykiem, tu jest moje podworko zwlaszcza przy mojej slabej pamieci jaka mam to przeszlosc prawie nie istnieje. Ja juz przeszlosci nie pamietam; ona nie istnieje.

How did you start painting? When I was little I always made little sculptures of animals out of bread and butter, I couldn’t eat it otherwise. And when other children were making snowmen in the snow I made polar bears. And when someone was building something out in the street and they dug out some clay I had to make clay pots. The whole flat was covered in them; the clay was everywhere. Imagine seven people in a 50 square meter flat, and clay pots everywhere. And no one minded. And then when I went to school I took part in all those art competitions. When I applied to the Art Academy in Gdansk, at the interview they asked me if my paintings were copies of impressionists, I’m glad I didn’t get in. I would have had a different life. But I wouldn’t have been an artist; I wouldn’t necessarily know what I was about.

Jak to sie stalo ze zaczales malowac? Jak bylem maly to zawsze robilem z chleba zwierzatka, zeby przelknac musialem cos wyrzezbic w masle albo w chlebie. Jak dzieci epily balwana to ja robilem bialego niedzwiedzia ze sniegu. Przeciez jak gline wykopali pod domem to zaraz musialem pojsc i ulepic mase garnkow, w calym mieskaniu byla masa garnkow. Wypalalem je w piecu. W calym domu byla glina. Wyobraz sobie 7 osob na 70 metrach kwadratowych a ja zaklad garncarski otworzylem. I nikt nie mial nic przeciwko, wrec przeciwnie! W lazience mialem gline, wszedzie naznosilem tego do domu. A potem poszedlem do szkoly to sie zaczelo, konkursy plastyczne. Jak do gdanska zdawalem to sie pytali czy moje obrazy to kopie impresjonistow…na sczescie sie nie dostalem. Napewno bym mial inne zycie, moze bym byl dyrektorem galerii el (wytlumacz) Ale nie byl bym artysta, niekoniecznie bym rozumial o co mi chodzi…

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LET IT BE

Let it Be is one of the first paintings from when I was really happy at Mary Ward House. I had the most beautiful studio in the world. I was so happy to have such a beautiful place to paint, but they didn’t see that. We went away and ‘they’ put some paintings out in the rain and they all went mouldy. When we came back Maria told me to throw them out, so I cut them out of the stretcher and tried to preserve them to the paint wouldn’t fall off. The title came out of the fact that I accepted the situation; that something was destroyed, and the world had some influence on my art, like I do on the world. So because my work was destroyed I turned this failure into a victory. It’s almost conceptual. It works on different levels. It’s an acknowledgement of the fact that I’m also decaying. I have to accept that. This painting is a kind of taming of the idea.

Let it be to jest w sumie pierwszy taki obraz, kiedy bylem szalenie szczesliwy w Mary Ward House. Mialem najpiekniejsze studio na swiecie. I poprostu tak dobrze mi tam bylo, ze mam takie miejsce, ze tam moge malowac. No ale oni oczywiscie tego nie uznali… no i my gdzies chyba pojechalismy i oni ten obraz gdzies wystawili na zewnatrz, na deszcz, i te obrazy wszystkie zbutwialy, one zgnily od tego deszczu. I jak wrocilismy to Maria mowi, wez to wywal, a ja mowie, niekoniecznie, i jak tu mialem ta pracownie, udalo mi sie zabezpieczyc zeby bardziej ta farba nie odpadala, I wycialem z drewna i naciagnalem na nowy strecher. no a tytul powstal z tego ze zaakceptowalem ta sytuacje znisczenia, ze cos uleglo destrukcji, ze swiat mial tez troche wplywu na moja sztuke jak ja. Przez to ze zniszcono moja prace, ja ta porazke przekulem w zwyciestwo. It’s almost conceptual. I works on different levels. To jest taka zgoda z tym ze sam sie rozpadam, musze to zaakceptowac. Desintegrate jak ta farba z tego obrazu. Ten obraz jest forma osfajania czegos, przyjmowania do wiadomosci czegos.

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1 / LET IT BE / diptych 2012 / mixed media on linnen / 130 x 175 cm

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bibliography TBC Birdsall, Derek. (2004). Notes on book design. London: Yale University Press Wetzel, Gereon. (2010). How to make a book with Steidl [videorecording] McGrady, Patrick. (2008). Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg press [videorecording] Watt, Alison. (2008). Phantom. London: Yale University Press Heller, Stephen. (2010) Graphic. Inside the sketchbooks of the world’s great graphic designers. London: Thames and Hudson Bolofo, Koto. (2008). Venus. Göttingen : Steidl Harlech, Amanda. (2007). Palazzo. Gottingen: Steidl Lagerfeld, Karl. (2006). Karl Lagerfeld : Room Service. Germany : Steidl Bavington, Tim. (2006). Tim Bavington: paintings 1998-2005. Gottingen: Steidl Dine, Jim. (2001). Birds. Göttingen : Steidl Dine, Jim. (2007). L’Odysée de Jim Dine : a survey of printed works from 1985-2006. Göttingen : Steidl