Open Studio Workshop took place in the Univeristy for the Creative Arts, in Canterbury, on the 28th of November, 2019. The idea behind it was to embrace collaboration and experimentation between the students and make them participate in a studio where there is freedom,solidarity and equality.
Participants
Alkis Peppas Ayue Wu Boyana Gerzilova Cheng-Yang Hung Judy Jow Katy Austin Megan Newton Tsai-ling (Judy) Chu
Creator
Alkis Peppas
From 17th century, in Paris to Beat poets, in America to Andy Warhol’s “The Factory”, to the 21st century. What happened in these years that drove us to isolation? Collaborating only when it is absolutely needed or asked of us from our bosses and project managers. The fear of someone else stealing our ideas made us secretive. The constant exposure to imagery through the internet makes us question our quality work more than we should. We subliminally get so much information on an everyday basis that creates so much congestion in our heads. Images of violence, riots and aggression is constantly on television and internet. To most people these images are disturbing and feel like a very far away issue from them, but to some of us was or is a daily life. By creating a workshop that promotes and embraces solidarity, teamwork and experimentation it would be a waste to not try to make a statement about what is happening in the world right now. Hong Kong, Chile, Greece are in constant conflict. Syria is at war, hundreds of people get affected daily by govermental or not violence, not only physical but psycological as well.
In this workshop people from different countries collaborated by having in mind the word “violence”, and the events of our days. The main goal was to create artwork by combining designs through the risograph printer. They are not trying to carefully position each of the designs on top of each other. It is a random process in order to replicate the chaotic element of the riots and the overlayering of posters. Printing was chosen because of the random factor that has and the risograph for his unique combination of machine-human interraction.
Creating posters for the sake of creation and experimentation, but at the same time having a meaningful outcome. Each of the participants had to bring a design or a photograph of their choice.
Chapter1 Day of the Workshop
C1 this is on the paper along the photo
hapter
acing paper this is on the tr
Intro
Why printing and particularly Risograph? Printing has this random factor that when you pick your screen up, move away the mat of the press (if you use one,if you don’t-use one), or create a riso master and wait for your printout, you do not know exactly what you will face. It may be as you imagined it, it may not. A similar way as of how a protest can go. You may get what you ask for you might not. Riso was an easy way to start, since we didn’t need to expose screens or make stencils that would have taken us more time. I wanted people to work together as simple and as fast as possible. Do first, think after. What I had in mind before organizing this workshop was that
“Error is superior to art”
maybe that can imply to design as well(?)
MANOLIS ANGELAKIS/TIND Silkscreen printer extraordinaire
Tsai-ling (Judy) Chu
Katy Austin
Before the workshop, all the participants gathered to talk and discuss about the subject of the workshop, which was violence. The year 2019 has been really hectic. Corruption, taxes, climate and much more made people get out on the street. Experts, characterised it as, “a tipping point of ordinary people, fed up with measures imposed by ruling elite”. people of all ages potested about their basic rights in some situaions. Years of corruption that now came to a boiling point. Corrupted politics, military and religious leaders taking advantage of their status to gain more. The answer of the goverments is nearly always the same. Let the police force or even military to handle it. Most of the times if not always, this leads to excessive use of violence.
Internet these days can help people that haven’t felt or even seen this kind of violence first hand, respond. Care. Skip the sugarcoated media view and research for themselves. Understand that the world is not only what happens in his/her town. Awake the feeling of solidarity and through that leave the isolated space we are “trapped” nowadays. We become isolated to our own problems and all this turmoil that there is in our head becomes stress and anxiwety. So all this mental turmoil became reality in many countries this year. Not only Honk Kong and Chile, India that most people know, but in Porto Rico, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Greece. People couldn’t stand all this exploitation anymore so they united under a single cause. Causes may differ but the actions are similar and it’s what matters.
With that in mind, this unity and the feeling you are part of something bigger than yourself is what I wanted to achieve through collaboration. Sharing is something really important, not only for work, but for ourselves as well. Trust and talk about our prolems in a safe space we created. This combination of a safe and a creative space is what I am looking forward to. The open studio idea has something very intriging for me since it can help you with many problems the modern society faces. Many students want to get into advertisement or join studios that specialize into a very specific field in the spectrum of graphic design. There is a very high chance they will be asked to collaborate with their collegues. Teamwork
has become an essential asset that everyone is claiming to have on their interviews and CVs. A workshop that focuses on collaboration is a first-hand encounter of that. Understand the problems that you might face and experience the convenience that can provide. Two very common problems that creative people stumble upon are creative blocks and procrastination that might relate or not with that block. This is another field that collaboration can have a positive effect on. Since we are in a creative space, revolved around creative people and nearly no distractions, we can focus on the subject in front of us. In addition you can constantly get inspired or combine designs, as in this specific workshop, that they may first seem unlinked. Embrace and introduce the randomness of printing in our mindsets.
Chapter2 Outcomes
this page unfolds
Deaths: 2 (as of 24 December 2019) Injuries: 2,600+ (as of 9 December 2019) Arrested:6,000+ (as of 9 December 2019)
40.000 protesters gathered outside the Government Headquarters.
12th of June
this page unfolds
Honk Kong, 2019
tracing paper
r tracing pape
25th of October
Deaths: 26 Injured: 11564 Arrested: 7259 (as of 27 Novenmber) Detained: 6362
Over a million people throughout Chile protest against President PiĂąera 26th of October Deaths: 19 Injured: ~2500 Arrested: 2840
Chile, 2019
from posters
for posters
More posters
Chapter3
These posters were made digitally, by combining the scanned final outcomes of the workshop.
utro
owner of this book. It is a piece of artwork meant to be seen and distributed in order to make people more involved and encourag
Many
thanks to all the participants. This is a piece of collaborative work. There is not only one
e them to share instead of hoard.
tra
cin
The envelop contains the designs people used to create the posters that are in this book.
gp
In a similar way you can create your own by overlayering these or even use some of your own. You may have not been at the workshop but still you can engage and create with the people around you or yourself. <--- Put the envelop between these 2 pages
ap
er