Publisher: Christopher Kamper Copyright: © 2009 Christopher Kamper - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 All Photographs, Design, Texts: © 2009 Christopher Kamper
First Editon London, UK 2009
Placement Report School of Everything | Christopher Kamper 2009
Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1. Carrer tools 1.1 Curriculum Vitae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.2 Cover Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1.3 Online Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. Project Outline with Images . . . . . . . . . 19 2.1 Hula Hooping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2 Hontai Yﾅ行hin-ryﾅｫ Jujutsu . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3 Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.4 Taiko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3. Use of Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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Introduction The message of “context is half of the work” famously be-
skills were really needed. Furthermore, I was one of the
came the credo of the Artist’s Placement Group (AGP) in
first employees to ever engage with their customers in real
the 1960s. But what does it mean and how is it relevant to
life, providing useful information and creating a link.
my placement? The notion of “context is half of the work”
The internet start up School of Everything (SOE) em-
simply means that within a placement it should not be the
bodies a brilliantly simple concept: Teach anything - learn
artist’s main objective to produce some material artwork
everything. Anybody can register on the website to either
but much rather to engage in the working principles of
become a teacher or student (or both) for any subject im-
the company, to question them and help to improve them.
aginable. The reason to develop this concept can be found
A creative mind utilizes different strategies to overcome
within the shortcomings of the traditional educational sys-
problems than the strictly rational approach operative in
tem: The subjects and skills taught by this system answer
most businesses. In this respect, being in the place and us-
only to the needs of an industrial society; a principle not
ing these strategies should become the context of the place-
just hopelessly outdated but also potentially discriminatory
ment, which in respect already marks half of the work.
to people outside of the norm. The SOE concept hopes to
In my case, I was able to live up to these expectations.
ease these problems and provide a cure for people willing
The company I worked for had almost no prior experience
to step outside of the mainstream of classical educational
in utilizing photography for their purposes, so my creative
systems. 7
“At School of Everything, we believe that learning is person-
play of my work on the homepage of the SOE, we will also
al, and starts not with what you ‘should’ learn but with what
organize a small exhibition to display the pictures taken
you’re interested in. So we’re building a tool to help anyone in the world learn everything, and teach anything, how and when suits them - by putting people in touch with each other, not
cluding the teachers and students will be invited to attend
with institutions.”
the opening and engage in conversational exchange. This
(SOE website 2009)
conclusion advances the notion of “context is half of the
However, this concept is barely communicated on their
work” even further: I hope that the work done for my
website - and this is precisely where I came into play. SOE
placement will truly become something transcendent and
employee Dougald Hine asked photography students to
non-material this way.
send in proposals as he identified the crucial lack of photographic presentments on the SOE website. Luckily, I not only got the job but also gained complete creative freedom to tackle this problem. Please read the project outline in chapter 2 to learn more about my creative approach. Even when this report is already handed in, the placement will not be completely over. In addition to the dis8
for this project. Furthermore, all the people involved in-
1.1 Curriculum Vitae 3 Chaplin Close, London, SE1 8TU
Christopher Kamper
3 Chaplin Close, London, SE1 8TU
Date of Birth: 25/02/1986
Nationality: German
Academic
Telephone Number: 0207 207 6905
Mobile Number: 0750 335 00 91
E-Mail: christopher.kamper@gmail.com
Full clean international driving license
Online Portfolio: http://www.christopherkamper.com
Current Objective To enter an engaging work-placement where I can use my creative skills and expertise to gain valuable new experience and learn new abilities.
Relevant past projects 2007 -2008 In Real Life Photojournalistic project about three individuals with extraordinary hobbies, namely an Otaku, a Larp Gamer and a Lolita. This project was published in book format, please see http://irl.christopherkamper.com 2008
2007 – 2010
South Bank University – London, UK BA Hons Digital Photography (still studying)
1996 – 2006
Andreas Vesalius Gymnasium – Wesel, Germany Abitur (2,1)
1992 – 1996
Quadenweg Grundschule – Wesel, Germany
Interpersonal and technical skills
Excellent bilingual competence and communication skills both in writing and speaking (English and German)
I am highly flexible, creative and enthusiastic.
I work best in a team but also enjoy working alone.
excellent knowledge of photographic practices, specifically in the operation of digital SLRs, studio lighting, digital retouching, composing and printing
Homepage of the Leichtathletik Verband Nordrhein The Leichtathletik Verband Nordrhein is a non-profit sport agency in NorthRhine Westphalia organizing tournaments, supporting athletes and developing training curricula. I conceptualized, designed and programmed its main website in 2008, please visit http://www.lvnordrhein.de/
Christopher Kamper
expert qualification in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Joomla!, HTML and CSS
very good skills in Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, PHP, MySQL and webserver-administration
Work experience 2007 – 2009
Various freelance photography and webdesign projects, including
2006 – 2007
http://www.landhaus-stroh.de http://www.wtv-leichtathletik.de http://www.autodissel.de
Referees can be provided upon request.
Full-time work as a social volunteer at the Leichtathletik Verband Nordrhein. As I was responsible both for designing brochures, websites and various other publications as well as customer-service duties, I both greatly deepened my communicative skills in addition to my creative and technical abilities.
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1.2 Cover Letter
This is a screenshot of the e-mail sent to the School of Everything that granted me the placement. 11
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1.3 Online Portfolio A good online portfolio is mandatory for professional digital artist these days. It should not only display the work and skills of the artist, but also demonstrate a thorough presentation with a clear structure which is imperative for the work to shine. On the next few pages I am going to present my current online portfolio and the section most relevant to the application at the School of Everything in detail.
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This is the first site shown when you enter the URL (www.christopherkamper.com). It briefly describes my work and frames my identity as a digital artist. Five examplary projects can be reached from the righthand navigation panel.
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Every project has a distinct project description and links to further information if necessary. The project shown on this page was most relevant for my placement provider as it demonstrates my ability in a photojournalistic approach, a style very much alike the one used for my main contribution to the SOE. 15
Specifically for the website, I wrote a Photoshop-Action that processesed the PDF file from the project’s book and transformed every single page onto a curvy background to bring it closer to its material format.
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Both the increase of the book’s thickness on the lefthand side respecetively the decrease of thickness on its righthand side have been taken into account when writing the script.
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2. Project Outline As I have stated in the introduction, the SOE embodies a
and teach everything – it is not “professional teachers share
strong philosophy about learning, specifically about learn-
expertise with their highly qualified students”. Therefore, I
ing exotic topics that lie outside the scope of the main-
went for candid, natural shots; nothing should look staged
stream. That is why we have decided to find and contact
in any way (a rule that only had to be broken for some pic-
teachers of these topic in order to portray them; our search
tures in the Jujutsu series that would have been too dan-
included: Hula hooping, astronomy, astrology, jewellery
gerous to take otherwise).
making, TV presenting, yoga, meditation, pottery, knit-
The shootings themselves turned out to be of much
ting, homeopathy, taiko, various exotic martial arts, play-
more value to me than just some photographic practice: I
ing the didgeridoo and many more. I easily gained the
have learned a great deal about every subject photographed
support of many teachers by offering them all the pho-
and tremendously deepened my interpersonal skills as a
tographs taken during the session for no fee or condition
photographer working with real people instead of models.
other than stated in the “Creative Commons Attribution-
I have documented every step of each individual project
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0” license model.
and kept in touch with both my placement provider and
I have chosen to use a visual style that is as far away
the people photographed to involve them in the selection
from the polished looks as found in advertisements as pos-
process. I am extremely grateful that I had the opportunity
sible. The philosophy of the SOE is that anybody can learn
to do this project exactly the way I intended to. 19
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2.1 Hula Hooping Other than most people might perceive it, hula hooping is much more than some children’s game. A great variety of techniques can be performed with a hoop; many groups perform it on a professional level as performance. However, Diana Defries is not part of this performance culture. For her, hula hooping it is much more a spiritual and meditative experience concerning self-awareness and inner rhythm. But how could you find a course also teaching this specific aspect? The School of Everything was set up just to offer the right tools in this respect. I visited Diana teaching her regular class on two appointments. I very much enjoyed the energy and joy expressed during these sessions. The challenge was to find the right balance between capturing the ongoing rhythm and also be on the spot for moments of pure laughter.
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2.1 Hontai Yōshinryū Jujutsu Hontai Yōshin-ryū is an ancient Japanese school of martial arts dating back to the 15th century. As an authentic and unaltered Samurai school, it teaches both unarmed grappling techniques as well as the use of various swords and staffs in addition to knife defence. One of the few UK-based teachers of this school is Jeremy Carroll, who trained the art in Japan for more than six years before founding his own Dojo in London. I had the opportunity to visit one of Carroll’s regular classes in London to get the best out of this astonishingly quick and powerful training in self defence.
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2.3 Astrology As most people undoubtedly know, Astrology deals with the movements and relation of the celestial bodies and their influences on our personalities, affairs and future. Nick Hughes has been studying Astrology since 1996 and begun to see clients professionally in 2004. More recently, he also became a teacher to lecture aspiring Astrologers and private enthusiasts. The subject of Astrology is truly one that you would not expect to find in a regular curriculum at any educational institution. That is why Nick decided to offer his courses on the School on Everything where such niche subjects can be found by anybody. I tried my best to document his efforts in teaching this (photographically) fairly invisible topic when I went to one of his weekend-workshops in Wembley.
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2.4 Taiko Taiko is Japanese for drum. In recent years, the term has become generally used to describe ensemble drumming and performances with huge Japanese drums. In the UK, there are only two groups currently teaching and performing Taiko, one of which is managed by Liz Walters. Liz set up a profile on the School of Everything homepage in order to promote Taiko and give students the opportunity to learn this extremely rare subject. I visited Liz at one of her monthly beginner’s workshops workshop in High Wycombe to learn more about this fascinating part of Japanese culture. I have discerned that Taiko requires both physical strength and endurance as well as great mental power and concentration. In the following set of images I tried to fuse these aspects together with the fun and joy expressed during the session.
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3. Use of social media It is a fact that good networking is crucial for a successful
sages is key. In total, I have posted 38 messages related to
career in the digital artist’s sphere. The use of social media
the placement on Twitter using the application “Tweet-
to achieve this goal has never been more important. I have
Deck� which was a huge asset for this work.
chosen to use Twitter as my main tool for this purpose;
Apart from the #pha09 tag I have also used another one,
Facebook was another option but it appeared to be too
namely #SOE_PICS to signal uploads of new images both
personal and less easy to adapt for professional purposes.
to my placement provider as well as to the teachers and
I constantly reported the progress of my project over
students being shown in the pictures. It also important
the course of the placement with images I took in addi-
to note that the whole correspondence with every teacher
tion to smaller updates of what I am at right now and
from the School of Everything was based on social media
other relevant information such as talks concerning learn-
platforms (either the SOE website itself or MySpace and
ing processes and the educational system. I used Twitpic to
Facebook).
display the photos I took; however, I did not upload them
You can find examples for the usage of social media for
one-by-one but rather did a selection and stacked multiple
my project on the next couple of pages, starting with my
pictures on top of each other in Photoshop. I believe that
profile on the Twitter website.
too many single uploads defy the purpose of a platform such as Twitter, were clarity and the briefness of the mes61
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An exemplary post on Twitter combined with Twitpic 63
This is how I used Twitpic with multiple pictures in one single upload. 64
This is a screenshot of my profile on the SOE homepage. 65
This is the Inbox showing my correspondence with the SOE teachers. 66
Š Christopher Kamper 2009