BUMF Issue 12 by Matthew Ponting

BUMF No. 12

M ay 2019

The Identity Issue

www.bumfmedia.co.uk

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Contributors

Executive Editors Matthew Ponting Sveinn Snær Kristjánsson Design Credits Jacob Fisher Jack Howden Shannon Sanders Content Manager Sarah Gomes Munro Gallery Co-Ordinator Elise Wootten Gallery Assistants Emily Grigg Jordan Verdes Stella Kajombo-lee Flossie Page Juliana Kremianskaja Exhibitors Louise Hall Tom Preston Isa Bascunana Labrador Ellen Stewart Front Cover Flo Field

Submissions Samara Elms Daisy Leigh-Phippard Müdra Aimee Haynes Sam Sheridan Poppy Holwill Jessica Jordan Immy Howard Chloe Firbank Georgia Tunesi Chloe Hughes Moesha Kellaway Jack Howden Laura Andrade Rivero Nate Sanger-Davies Ray Lee Katie Lock Sarah Gomes Munro Jessica King Ludovico Orombelli Flo Field Anna Luk Find Us Online bumf.media @bumfmedia SabbaticaI Officers Gio Garancini Chloe Harty

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Introduction

What is BUMF? BUMF is the official student media group for Arts University Bournemouth. We publish some of the most commendable projects from AUB makers both in print and online. Editor’s Letter So, what’s been happening recently for BUMF? In April, it was announced that our team had been awarded for ‘Best Magazine Design’ at the 2019 SPA awards! The SPA is the UK and Ireland’s largest student media association, supporting student journalism, media and production. It was a huge achievement for us to gain their recognition through the acceptance of this award. We’d like to thank both the SPA and our team for their continuous contribution towards the world of student journalism. It has been an honour to curate the BUMF platform during this academic year and to see it grow into what it has become. Thank you to everyone who has supported and submitted their projects to us, we wouldn’t have been able to put this all together without your participation! We’re excited to see how the platform will continue to develop in the future. All the best,

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Contents

European Cities Samara Elms

No phones at the table Jack Howden

Iris on the Move Daisy Leigh-Phippard, MĂźdra

Animatronic Sloth Bear Nate Sanger-Davies

You Are Not Alone Aimee Haynes

Woman in Red Ray Lee

BlankPoster Sam Sheridan

Barbie at 60 Katie Lock

Jaywick Sands Poppy Holwill

Medium and Form Laura Andrade Rivero

Onslow State Chariot Jessica Jordan

The Everybody Project Jessica King

Wonderland Immy Howard

Skint and Sustainable Sarah Gomes Munro

Caution! Enter Chloe Firbank

Quando il tempo si ferma Ludovico Orombelli

Homegrown Georgia Tunesi

The Uncomfortable Project Flo Field

Gold Touch Chloe Hughes

The Gestural Nature of Photography Anna Luk

Realities of an Illustrator Moesha Kellaway

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European Cities Samara Elms My project is inspired by the architecture found from various European cities. I am exploring the textures and colours found within these places to create abstract mixed media print pieces, as well as creating illustrative prints depicting the physical form of these cities. The aesthetic I am trying to achieve for this project is a fresh and youthful one, designing for a contemporary interior living space. Over the last couple of years, I have been lucky enough to explore these different cities such as Prague, Amsterdam, Budapest and other such places. I fell in love with the mood, colours, the richness and vibrant culture of these cities and wanted to try and take these things that I felt so inspired by and showcase them through making art. The prints I am making are mixed media and illustrate a sense of vibrancy which is me trying to create the excitement I felt while travelling these places. I am exploring a range of textile techniques within this project such as screen, digital and UV printing, laser cutting/ etching and various surface manipulation techniques

such as flocking, foiling, embellishments, embroidery and use of a punching needle. Some of my final designs combine a lot of these techniques all in one which I think flaunt a vibrant and exciting vibe. I am experimenting with an eclectic range of materials within this project. As well as printing and working with fabrics, I am making

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I think the world of interiors is more exciting and innovative now than it has ever been before.

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wallpapers, UV printing and laser cutting/etching onto acrylics and printing directly onto an up cycled wooden side table. For a long time, the home has been confined to mundane floral prints. I want to be a pioneer in discovering how far we can push the boundaries in interior design and live among bold colour and exciting print. This project has been me not only testing the waters within this idea, but also me pushing my own boundaries and exploring elements of textiles that I never have done before.

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Iris on the Move Daisy Leigh-Phippard It’s a Friday, and Anna K. McCallum and I are in one of the lecture theatres laying out programmes, arranging chairs and setting up a banner for the Iris on the Move Film Festival. It’s pretty casual, even if we do have the 2018 winner of the Iris Prize sat in the front row chatting with us. The Iris Prize celebrates LGBT+ films and tours its showcase around the country. It was now stopping in Bournemouth, and thanks to the people over at Bournemouth Film School we had been asked to take part in the Q&As, including one with Lara Zeidan, writer/ director of Three Centimetres. ‘I was studying graphic design in Lebanon, in a place called AUB also’ she laughs when I ask how she first got into film-making. ‘I started feeling that the courses that interested me the most were the film-making electives that I was taking. So, when I graduated from there, I started thinking how can I get into film-making? I decided to apply to film school in London – at the London Film School’. In fact, it was in her application that she first presented the idea for Three Centimetres, the film that would go on to win the Iris prize and show at over 50 film festivals all over the world. ‘The first year for me was really difficult,’ she explains to us and the audience. ‘I questioned myself a lot […], maybe I’m not in the right place. I felt like people knew a lot more about films than I did’. Honestly, this is something I felt upon joining film school too, so it’s nice to hear it from a now award-winning filmmaker. ‘But after some time – I think I had to put in a lot of hard work at the beginning – but then we were all at the same level, I’d say. For the second year it just felt like the right thing’. It’s afterwards that Berwyn, the festival director, says how glad he is that she stuck at it so that Three Centimetres could find its way to Cardiff for the festival. The film follows four friends as they clamber aboard a ferris wheel

in Lara’s hometown of Beirut. Young, vivacious and curious to explore their sexuality, the girls riff off each other until their conversation turns cold when Manal comes out, to the shock and surprise of her friends. The film is uncomfortably enclosed and yet unexpectedly exposed, and that was part of the point, Lara explains to us. ‘It started with some conversations I had with friends in Beirut. I wanted to find a setting for it and the ferris wheel is this combination of claustrophobia and at the same time it’s open air. And, it’s a public space, but it’s a space for them to have a conversation in private. There’s some conversations that you really can’t have at home in Beirut, so you have to find another place. […] Not really being able to escape the conversation was important to me.’ Rehearsals took place with five chairs and a broomstick in the middle, but there was more to this period than just going over lines: ‘we wanted to hang [with the actors] during preproduction so we would trust each other and also for my cinematographer – who doesn’t speak Arabic – to just start understanding the body language and how they speak’. She and Pierfrancesco, the aforementioned cinematographer, ‘both had this idea that it was in one shot. We kind of agreed on that without even speaking, it was how we imagined the film would be.’ ‘But we also thought that we might be wrong,’ she admits. ‘We had points where we could potentially do invisible cuts if we needed to’, to additional footage caught on the first day for safety. ‘But I was very convinced with one of the takes, so we didn’t have to do this editing process’. The film had 18 takes in the end, each playing a little differently. ‘What take was the one you like?’ Nina asks beside me. ‘15,’ Lara grins back. ‘So, it was my responsibility to say, on the walkie talkie, that they should stop the ferris wheel. And one time – I don’t know

Illustrated by MĂźdra

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what happened – they didn’t,’ she tells the audience. ‘It didn’t come through. It went for another round and this time [the actors] just had to improvise completely. Now the cinematographer had actually no idea what they were saying.’ At that, we all laugh, picturing the poor cinematographer having nothing to rely on but instincts alone. Which paid off, according to Lara. ‘The take was really interesting. It was my second option, it was almost going to be the film.’ Despite technical hitches, the ferris wheel really challenges the film. ‘It gives us a big contrast to where they’re low on the ferris wheel and when they’re open, like there’s just sky and the sea. So, we wanted to play with this light and dark, and the shadows.’ Someone asks if she could have used another setting instead, but Lara shakes her head immediately: it was considered in preproduction amongst some trouble

with the fun park, but it wouldn’t be the same. But shooting on a moving vehicle requires careful planning. ‘It was important when Manal comes out that she’s coming out from the darkness to the light. So, we had to work with the actresses to kind of have that rhythm.’ In the limelight of this improvisation were the actors, all natives to Beirut. ‘Three of them are actually friends of the makeup artist, so when he read the script, he had suggestions for me. […] It was just Manal, the character who comes out, that was really difficult for me to find. I was doing castings in acting schools, but I couldn’t really find the person I wanted.’ Lara cast her actresses to resemble their own characters. ‘I wasn’t going to be with them, so they had to have a lot of room to improvise and to deal with anything that’s going on.’ In the end, Lara asked her existing actresses if they knew anyone for the

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role, ‘and that’s how we found the actress for Manal, who’s not actually an actress’. Written for sunset, the first and last takes of the day were designed as rehearsals since the sun level and camera shadows interfered with the technical design of the shoot. ‘I went with them for a few rounds and then the cinematographer went with them for a few rounds. We wouldn’t fit all of us.’ Nina leans forward beside me. ‘Where were you when you were shooting?’ She asks. ‘So, it was me, the sound recordist and the focus puller three booths away. We had this small monitor for the focus puller and the booms from the sound recordist.’ ‘I also told [Pierfrancesco] that he as well should be comfortable to improvise and make his own judgement of where the camera’s supposed to be.’ It was a shoot that required a lot of trust, but this wasn’t too hard in the end. ‘It’s a crew of friends mainly. In Lebanon it was my friends and family helping out. In the UK my classmates. So my cinematographer, who’s Italian, who doesn’t speak Arabic, but managed to understand their body language and the way the story progresses to its end. My producer was from the UK, the sound recordist was from Ukraine. My cinematographer wanted to work with a focus puller that he’s always worked with. So that was my UK crew, and then my makeup artist was from Lebanon.’ ‘Most of my stories are set in Beirut. Most of the things I think about. Because it’s where I’ve lived the longest and it’s a place that inspires me, so it’s a very big part of my identity as a filmmaker.’ I ask if it’s important to her to show this story within the culture of Beirut, its strengths and its limitations, and she nods. ‘The girl who wants to enjoy sexuality but has to stay a virgin, that’s also one of the things that are struggles in Beirut for certain conservative families. And it is progressing in terms of LGBT rights, but at the same time it’s still considered illegal. But there’s a growing LGBT scene in Lebanon, so then it goes back to how people think.’ ‘There’s a really vibrant country there. In a way Lebanese people are very expressive. There’s a lot of emotions and a lot of art.’ It’s asked if, as a filmmaker, she feels any responsibility to

represent her Lebanese identity in her films, and Lara’s answer puts into words the struggles I and others have experienced in trying to balance representation and individual identity. […] Of course, it represents something about Lebanon, but I can’t think of it as representing Lebanon [as a whole].’ ‘In the last few years there has been a lot of attention for Lebanese films, so I think it’s getting better,’ she says when asked how viable it is for creatives to earn a living in Lebanon. Lara moved over to the UK to pursue her career through film school and is now producing films here. ‘There’s work in commercials, and there’s short films that are being made, and now recently there’s really a rise in the film industry. I was reading this economical report of Lebanon, where everything is regressing and the film industry is progressing.’ The Iris Prize offers the largest short film prize in the world: £30,000 to make your next short film. So, of course, we had to ask about Kaleidoscope, Lara’s next project being funded by the festival. ‘It’s a fantasy film about a girl who lives in a grey world and doesn’t want to live in it anymore, so she decides that she wants to live inside a kaleidoscope. And without thinking how – it’s illogical to live in a place like that.’

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If I want to express myself as an artist and filmmaker, I shouldn’t be bound by the idea of responsibility.

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Again, the story is heavily informed by Lara’s own experiences. ‘It has a lot to do for me with moving to the UK and the expectations I had about it, and illusions about both spaces. Beirut was a bit of an illusion, and so was the UK. So, it’s about breaking illusions somehow.’ The film is set to shoot in the summer, but for now I recommend you go and watch Three Centimetres.

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You Are Not Alone Aimee Haynes

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Disconnected communities could be losing the UK economy £32 million per year with over 9 million adults in the UK claiming to always feel lonely according to the British Red Cross Figures and Co-op, 2016. With 3.6 million people aged 65 years and older claiming they are lonely, they are one of the key areas affected by loneliness that is now an epidemic in the UK.

death, Seema Kennedy MP and Rachel Reeves MP then published The Jo Cox Loneliness Commission (2017) whereby 13 organisations came together to listen and react to issues of loneliness. In January 2018 a minister of loneliness, Tracey Crouch MP was appointed in parliament with a commitment to creating a loneliness fund and commissioning an England wide strategy.

Loneliness is worse for the body then 15 cigarettes a day (Holt Lunstad 2010) and makes you twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s, increasing mortality in over 65’s by 45%. The Jo Cox Commission was created by the labour MP before her murder in 2016 to run for one year and turbo charge the government’s action on this matter, as she herself had struggled with loneliness and could see the need for cross-party action. Following her

Following this charge many more organisations have been influenced to take control and help tackle the issue, providing a number of activities and social settings for the elderly and I think it is important to make these services known to those struggling. ‘You Are Not Alone’ looks at individual stories of loneliness and the groups out there helping to combat it, in a hope to raise awareness of this issue.

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BlankPoster Sam Sheridan BlankPoster is a website where a random word is generated every week for creatives to interpret. The word works as the only common guideline for all participants and there are no judges so everyone is free to answer the brief in their own way. The goal is to have a nice break from busy things and to be able to exercise creativity without restrictions. Before university, digital illustration and photo manipulation were my preferred mediums but since university, typography has become my primary method of visual communication. The BlankPoster weekly words are therefore the perfect briefs for me to exercise and combine my typographic and illustrative practices.

Most of my BlankPoster submissions are ideas and techniques that are unused from the commercial projects that work on every day. Working in advertising means that the majority of typography that I do is on the simple side to keep it one-hundred per-cent legible, but every project starts with big ideas and stunning type executions, until it is made simpler and simpler to communicate more directly. Although this is fitting for advertising, it seems a shame to let any of the more complex type experimentation I do go to waste. I then try to apply them to whatever the new word is each week in the form of a BlankPoster. There is no pressure and no time spent on thinking up your own brief.

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Jaywick Sands Poppy Holwill I have created a documentary series based in Jaywick Sands. One of the most deprived towns within the UK and mostly known for its feature on Benefits by the Sea. It’s based in Clacton-on-Sea and has received a lot of bad press in the news mostly for its poorly kept streets and the types of people that live there. Most of the residents I spoke to all praised this sense of community within the town, this togetherness and how they all look out for each other. I wanted to document life in Jaywick and share this community spirit to help change people’s perceptions and break the stigma associated with the residents. This project has given the residents a chance to show how they see themselves and how they want to be portrayed. The shallow depth of field excluded my subjects from their surroundings, taking them out of context to stop any negative connotations being made between them and their location. My landscapes capture the true beauty of the town, which shows this tranquillity. Although this is a deprived town, I have chosen not to show this side, as

that gets enough coverage and I didn’t want a negative attitude to be portrayed in my photographs. I went to The Happy Club which is run by Danny Sloggett, and a few of the other residents. It’s a monthly meeting that allows the residents to get together to raise any questions or queries about what is happening in the town. They have done a lot so far, making Jaywick a safer, cleaner and better environment. The Happy Club also hold events that bring the community together and each meeting consists of games and hot drinks afterwards, allowing a time for everyone to come together and socialise. Jaywick Sands is a hidden beauty full of misrepresented people. They see Jaywick as a lovely and friendly place which is what I wanted to capture and portray in my series. The people of Jaywick were so happy to be involved and I loved getting to know many of the residents and taking their portraits. I hope this series changes the way the residents and town are perceived, in a more positive way that will overturn the stigma of a run-down, unloved and forgotten town. Most importantly to highlight how close and supportive the community is. Shine on Jaywick.

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Onslow State Chariot Jessica Jordan The Onslow state chariot was an exciting project to work on. The project, called external brief, is about finding a client to make a model for. I started by contacting the National trust property Arlington court to see if they would be interested in displaying a model in their museum. The carriage museum curator was excited about the project and I went to visit to discuss ideas. Together the curator and I wanted to display the interior of the Onslow state chariot, as the luxury interiors are no longer on display due to damage. I was very excited to make a model that would give visitors back the opportunity to view the luxurious interior of this carriage. Using Rhinoceros 3D I used images of the carriage to

make orthographic plans to work from. The components I made in Rhinoceros 3D I could 3D print, which became the wheels and seated area of the model. The wheels were 3D printed in resin from 2 printers and the body of the carriage was printed on the Ulti-Maker a PLA plastic based printer. For the exterior curve of the carriage I used automotive clay to carve the smooth unique curvature. This was then moulded and cast in fast cast. One of my favourite processes during this project was spraying. Traditionally carriages were painted a beige colour and then layer upon layer of thin paint is applied on top to build up the rich shiny colour. The family crests wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been painted by hand on top of these layers and

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then coated in several layers of varnish. As I was making a scale model of this carriage it wasn’t possible for me to re-create all the traditional techniques used to make a carriage however, I did find it valuable to spray the model beige first and build up several layers of paint before adding the family crest and thin layers of varnish on top. The spray finish I am very pleased with and it was exciting to use inspiration from how the carriage I have re-created would have been made originally. This project introduced me to some new processes which I hadn’t tried before. The automotive clay sculpting was fun and is used in an industry which I really enjoyed researching about. As is done in the car designing industry, I made my own tools and stencils to be able to shave off thin layers of clay until the shape I’d formed matched the stencil, which I had laser cut from my CAD model. Another new technique I incorporated was annealing. This involves

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I was very excited to make a model that would give visitors back the opportunity to view the luxurious interior of this carriage.

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heating metal to a high temperature and rapidly cooling it so that it can be formed into a new shape, whilst keeping its strength. This was a valuable new technique to learn and has meant that the chassis of my model is sturdy. The finishing touches of the interior are made from foam and fabric which I stitched to make the seating and padded back rests.

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Wonderland Immy Howard Photography - Richard Wakefield Model - Lottie Goodchild Hair and Make Up - Sarah Russell Headpieces - Immy Howard Millinery Costume - Rosie Red Corsetry and Couture ‘Wonderland’ is Immy Howard Millinery’s debut collection of bridal headpieces, combining elements of fantasy and fairy tale with bold, timeless silhouettes. The collection itself comprises of ten pieces in total, each based around various themes including nature and celestial motifs, as well as a love for classic, vintage design. I love to experiment with texture and fabric

manipulation, and have learnt a lot of new techniques and how different materials work over the process of this all coming together. It was important to me for each piece to have a slightly whimsical, fantastical element to it, be that through the use of colour, fabric or design. Millinery was an incredibly special part of my degree, and, since my training over the course, I have been eager to create a conceptual collection of pieces that encapsulates my love for all things fairy tale, while still including elements of the craft of traditional hat making. Pieces such as ‘Constance’, a taupe silk boater with a matching crinoline bow, are hand blocked and deeply routed in traditional millinery. I love the process of blocking a hat, and could happily while away the hours at my desk doing so! There is something incredibly satisfying about manipulating and stretching material over a wooden form to make a headpiece, and I love how the shape seems to just transform and ‘grow’ from a 2D, flat piece of buckram or felt into something you can wear! Contrary to this, a selection of the pieces are created with handmade wire headbands, straying slightly from traditional techniques, but giving me a broad scope to really push the conceptual side of this collection. ‘Dawn’, a large, feather decorated headdress is reminiscent of the elegant movement of dandelion clocks, and it was a really enjoyable process experimenting with what material worked best to resemble the flowers.

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Caution! Enter Chloe Firbank

Caution! Enter, is an installation concerned with the different uses of land, and the boundaries connected to them. For this project, I visited Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight. I was drawn to this location mainly due to the fascinating colouration that can be seen within the cliffs. From deep reds, to pale pinks, the overall composition does not look like a typical British coastal landscape. Alum Bay is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and also a popular tourist attraction. The cliffs act as a natural sea defence separating the land from the sea however, through natural forces, these cliffs are gradually eroding. This inevitably makes them unsafe to go up close to. Despite being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, not much has been done to prevent further erosion. The only visible prevention is in the form of a couple of metal steaks, barely holding up a strip of caution tape. I wanted to bring this area of research into my installation. Using a

long steel pipe, I blocked the entrance to my installation. The audience is invited to either stay behind the steel barrier, or to cross under it to be able to view the work up close. Presuming that the cliffs would be solid, I discovered that certain areas that I documented were actually composed of a very soft, fine sand. In order to question this composition and ever-changing state of the cliffs I decided to print two of my close up images onto a soft velvet fabric. The scale of the cliffs cannot be seen, however there is a tighter focus on the structure and strata. After researching both protected areas of land like Alum Bay, and contrasting areas used for quarrying, I wanted to include an industrial aspect to my work. I like how the end of the copper poles have started to produce a bright turquoise patina, which like the eroding strata, is a result of exposure, and age.

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Homegrown Georgia Tunesi For my Final Major Project, I am creating a book with a collection of images and text that will show how we are connected to nature and how much it can affect our mental well-being. Establishing a good relationship with nature can help benefit not only the individual but everyone too, this is because green spaces create a place where people of all ages can come together and meet. It also creates a stronger sense of community amongst people as it helps with social interaction and provides more opportunities for people to get involved with activities. Contact with nature can help tackle stress, fatigue and can relieve symptoms of anxiety as it can have a calming effect. I want my work to inspire people to go outside and feel a part of something larger than themselves. There is a real danger that spending too much time indoors and away from the natural world creates a disconnection and makes it harder for individuals to relate to one another and the world we live in. Simply going for a short walk

a few times a week can help clear your head and have a positive impact on your mental health. Mental health issues have become a huge problem, especially in young people, I want my work to help raise awareness and to show that something as simple as surrounding yourself with nature can help tackle this growing problem. My book will be filled with bright and colourful

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I want my images to encourage people to talk about mental health and environmental issues more openly.

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illustrations, some full double page spreads, and others single page illustrations that flow into the text on the next page. I wanted the images and the text to work together harmoniously and almost become one. This will add to the theme of connection and to show that no matter how hard we try, nature will never truly be controlled and will always do as it pleases. My images display sensitivity and solitude within nature and the connection between ourselves and the wilderness. We are looking in on someone’s quiet introspection and in turn we start to self-reflect. When creating my work, I start by drawing out the artwork in pencil and then scanning it into Photoshop. I then play around with adding textures and colours with pieces made using acrylic paint. Even though I edit and create a lot of my images digitally I want to keep the handmade feel by using textures from paintings.

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Gold Touch Chloe Hughes This project created for my level 5 unit was an opportunity for me to identify my area of specialism and aesthetic. The shoot was inspired by the 80’s nightlife fashion scene, incorporating contemporary elements alongside the era’s disco aesthetic. I wanted to produce a modern fashion editorial with the subtle, yet clear, hints of 80’s visuals communicated though the styling and makeup. I was influenced mostly by Madonna’s striking array of fashion styles and edgy, bold make-up. I wanted to feature iconic fashion statement pieces in order to communicate a clear visual reference of the era in my work. The concept behind the shoot was to empower women, portraying the subjects as being liberated from social expectations and sexist restraints during the 80’s era and presently. I wanted to explore the stereotypes of the time as to how a lady ‘should’ dress, act and present themselves within society. I wanted to push these sexist boundaries and challenge the prevailing cultural idea of a women belonging in the kitchen. Instead I wanted to portray a women in nightlife garments out of a domestic environment, exuding power and style. I chose to keep a soft, elegant aesthetic throughout my editorial in order to maintain a feminine feel to the images. This project helped me discover my personal visual aesthetic and the recurring themes I want to include within my shoots. I am discovering a passion for portraying strong women in sophisticated and elegant ways by using soft tones and feminine elements. The heavy use of glitter and gold tones throughout the styling, set, and make up, was chosen to maintain continuity with the 80’s disco scene and to create bold, powerful looks to relate back to my concept of liberation. This shoot was a collaboration with the wonderful help

of my go-to make-up artist, Chloe Howman, reliable assistant Georgia Turnbull, and gorgeous model Sophie Talbot. All contributed to make this project work. It was a pleasure to work with a team who shared the same creative vision and enthusiasm for this assignment and a delight to work with an all-female crew of powerful individual women all wanting to produce a sophisticated and feminine editorial with a strong liberating message. I hope this piece of work expresses how far we’ve come since the 80’s in terms of sexism and stereotypes – and how much further we still have to go.

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Realities of an Illustrator Moesha Kellaway There’s quite a lot of us illustration students in second year. I think it’s around 100! All sharing a studio, that can be found pretty much in the middle of the AUB campus. Although after talking to my housemates plus some of my VisCom friends; it turns out we’re a bit of a mystery. (Well maybe just to them anyway?!) This mini series was just a small personal project created on a rainy afternoon, that depicts a typical illustrator through my eyes and some little traits and habits, that I have realised many of us have in common. Without a doubt, this is how many of my friends and family at home see me and I’m sure other illustrators will be able to relate! Alongside any other creatives and artists that can be found at AUB. After ignoring the existence of pencils for quite a while, I’ve found a new love for them and even digital pencil textures too! It turns out… they’re quite magical! Looking back at all of my projects from first year – each one looks completely different, with little

or no consistency at all. They don’t look as though they’ve been created by the same illustrator. It can be incredibly frustrating not feeling like you’ve figured everything out yet or thinking others at Uni know exactly what they’re doing – which I how I felt during first year. For me, I found that throughout the projects in second year using pencil in real life and also digitally really aided in my confidence, creating a ‘style’ and an aesthetic that I’m happy with and wish to create more of. This mini series reflects on the media of my current animation project and also the project previous to it (titled ‘Unlucky Dog’,) where I threw myself into digital and the use of bright colours and to my surprise really enjoyed it. This is an aspect that I would like to continue with in my work – whether that is Uni projects or personal work. This particular appearance of pencil on bold colours or a bright background is definitely the way in which I’m moving forward and wish to continue.

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I threw myself into digital and the use of bright colours and to my surprise really enjoyed it.

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No phones at the table Jack Howden This project was born out of a brief exploring the word lost. I chose to study lost communication, specifically looking into the use of phones at the dinner table. The output needed to be typography based so research into all the finer details was required. The concept of this piece was to illustrate multiple conversations happening at the same time. I chose to use a concertina format so that both sides of the situation can be viewed. On one side the texting conversation takes priority. Details between the son and his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spoken conversation are missed as the focus is on the phone. When read the other way, the same conversation takes place again but this time he is ignoring his phone and

focusing on the physical face to face conversation which he gains more from which in turn benefits him. The filters help to switch the hierarchy of where the attention is being placed, whether that be on the phone or to the person sat opposite, this means I can overlay the type making it look messier playing into the concept that we overcomplicate situations by trying to stay connected with everyone through our phones at all times. This project was a lot of work and research into areas of design I had not looked into before but I was happy with how the end product came out and I really enjoyed the whole process of developing the concept to hand stitching the final piece.

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Animatronic Sloth Bear Nate Sanger-Davies I was commissioned by ZSL Whipsnade zoo to make an animatronic Sloth Bear. It is for them to use for daily demonstrations, as guests can’t get up close and personal to the real bears there. The bear started off as a tiny sketch sculpt, then I welded together a steel frame for the body. I stuck some large blocks of polystyrene onto the armature and carved it down to create a vague bear-ish shape. After bulking him out, I used around 75Kg of clay to sculpt the (currently naked) bear. Once the sculpt was finished after about 2 days, the long (and very sticky) moulding process started. I split the sculpt into 19 parts and applied thick silicone

onto each. After the silicone set, I started to lay up the fibreglass shell (This keeps the mould solid when I eventually cast it). The moulding probably took the longest time of the whole project, just because of the physical labour it required… When the mould was all set, it needed cleaning up with a dremel and sanding down to remove any sharp bits. I could then release the sculpt from the mould! It’s kind of satisfying to destroy the original clay sculpt. The mould was opened, clay was cleaned out and then the fibreglassing process started again. For another week or two. Opening the mould to reveal the final fibreglass body is always very exciting and somewhat nerve-wracking. The body came out completely fine with a few holes and patches here and there, so after a bunch of sanding and filling, I had myself a white, naked sloth bear. All that had to be done next was a bit of painting of the face and eyes, moulding and casting some resin claws and applying a few meters of black fur! The animatronics were made as a separate project in 4 weeks. A new head had to be made with an open mouth, movable neck, new silicone lip and tongue and all the mechanical bits inside.

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Woman In Red Ray Lee

The inspiration for this project derived from multiple places. One of these forms came from my attendance of a lecture that looked at the comparison between the identities of past and present women. There are contrasting images of these profiles. During my research, I have found an old film called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Woman in Redâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. In one of the scenes in the film the actress comes out wearing a red dress, red high heels and red lipstick. In that scene, I began to research what red means to

women. What does red mean to women? Red colour has many meanings. Insecurity, enthusiasm, toughness, aggression and so on. In films and advertisements women sometimes use red lipstick. It can be used during temptation or when someone may wish to make a strong impression. Red can show passion and power, but can also relate to anxiety and aggression. I photographed this psychological behaviour with reference to the colour red. I also collaborated with designers with the outfits deriving from their collections.

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Barbie at 60 Katie Lock This project was created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Barbie. We wanted to celebrate Barbie as the role model she has been to young girls through the decades. Barbie started in 1959, but has developed into an iconic figure who is constantly striving to show girls and women what they can be capable of. On the 9th March 2019, Barbie tuned 60, so we decided to recreate the iconic swimsuit and packaging from the original doll. This was a project created by AUB Costume students in collaboration with a select few BA (Hons) Make-Up students.

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This has been a collaborative project and wouldn’t have been so successful without everyone that has helped out so far.

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The swimsuit was beautifully made by a costume interpretation student named Sophie Reed, accompanied by a matching box constructed by Fynn Ballantine, Modelled by Amber Collier and Hair and makeup by Nina Smith. As part of the costume department this project has been supervised by Michaella Mallett and Katie Lock, with assistance of Maisie Wilkinson and Fern Bartlett This project was a lovely way to celebrate Barbie’s birthday and female positivity. This photoshoot was only the beginning, as there will be more to come shortly celebrating decades within another photoshoot named ‘Barbie: 60 Years in 60 Seconds’. Our Barbie: 60 Years in

60 Seconds photoshoot features some of Barbie’s most iconic outfits and celebrates the 180+ careers that she’s had. Over the span of two days we’ll be photographing over 100 models of different shapes, sizes, and shades. This photoshoot also showcases the work from the first year costume students as they make their debut into costume interpretation.

Photography by Mark Sephton and Isacc Confue

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Medium and Form Laura Andrade Rivero Using identity as a focusing theme, my work questions connotations of the figure and how the body is visually consumed by the viewer within the abstract concepts of itself, whilst relying on an often dark, subversive undertone. When you’re dealing with the figure- you’re dealing with identity. Striking a tenuous balance between abstraction and figuration, the formal properties of paint are central concerns within the work. By employing a compilation of oil, acrylic paint and natural pigments with the expressive potential of colour creates a sense of potent fragility throughout the works. The human form consisting of both face and body, acts as a primary inspiration for me, with the intention to entice the viewer to look into the indefinable, through subjects who project a sense of inexpressible emotion. The technique within the medium itself, from the texture to the way the paint moves across the canvas synthesise themselves to tempt the viewer toward the subject’s intention. The progression of the paintings as a series can be seen as I experiment with limitations in mediums. In Asher (2018) for example paintbrushes were used, however three paintings later in Laura (2019) the paintbrush is discarded and replaced with a pallet knife. Both tools create different strokes, and consequently, emphasise different parts of the human form. While painting I

believe it’s important not to ‘overthink’ and let little, often insignificant or random things become significant for a larger, more metaphorical, and ultimately more personal message making the viewer take their own narrative from the work. In this way, a relationship is established both between the viewer and the painting itself.

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The Everybody Project Jessica King

For my final major project as part of my dance degree, I decided to focus on body positivity. I designed and delivered a series of weekly workshops based on connecting with our physical selves. The workshops were intended to encourage participants to listen to their own bodies, as well as those around them, to hold an accepting view of all kinds of bodies and appreciate all the wonderful things our bodies do for us every day. They included cardio, yoga, games, body mapping, mindfulness and other things that I have learned during my studies in dance at AUB. The workshops seemed to have a really positive effect on the participants and helped them be more accepting of their bodies the way they are. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Every Body Workshops were a great and unique experience that

sparked positivity within myself. Every week offered something new and different that engaged with being in touch with your body and being comfortable in your own skin. From my experience, I would highly recommend the workshops to anyone wanting to feel more positive about themselves and interact with new people.â&#x20AC;? (Participant testimony). To culminate this, I held a body positive catwalk at The Old Fire Station. The catwalk was to celebrate Every Body and push the boundaries of beauty standards and what we often expect to see. Designers that support the body positive message loaned clothes towards the event, we had a team of make up students, photography students, an event crew and of course, fabulous models. All the models were volunteers of all shapes and sizes that bravely stepped up to promote diversity.

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Skint and Sustainable Sarah Gomes Munro Veronica Velveteen is an independent fashion label set up by Fern Davie since her graduation from the fashion degree last year. Her time at university was fraught with setbacks, from medical complications to less than supportive tutors she left university thinking that she never wanted to enter the industry. She explains how the tutors were hard on them to get them used to the working environment, but if that is how you train people then that is how they will train the next generation of designers and there will never be any change. So, she hasn’t entered the industry, she’s making her own. There is a political centre to Veronica Velveteen, a rebellious girl behind the label sticking it to the fashion man by building her own, human and inclusive brand. Fern explains how her final collection whilst at university was extremely focused on the punk movement, whilst her clothes now are more an exploration of 70s fashion as a whole. Throughout it all though there is a real drive for affordable and sustainable fashion. Coming from a working-class background, routes such as unpaid internships in London simply were not an option and being savvy to source materials and save money were how she kept costs down whilst studying. This has now snowballed into a real drive for sustainable fashion at a low price, as Fern sees it: if you can keep the fabric sourcing low why do you need to sell the items for so much? As she rightly points out there is an entire market out there that would gladly partake in more sustainable and conscious fashion, if only they could afford it. She surmises in this excellent sentence: “Being skint and being sustainable go hand in hand”. She keeps all her off cuts and even collects her friends’ as she never knows what she could make with them: be they scrunchies

or sowing them together to create a fabric from which to create a new garment all over again, no textile has reached the end of its life if it’s in Ferns’ hands. At the minute Veronica Velveteen all happens in Boscombe. Either in Fern’s studio room or at the Vintage Emporium where she works part time as a trader and in the coffee shop. The label is still small but it’s growing every month and already there are happy repeat customers. She hopes to keep growing and bring on someone to handle the social media side of the business so that she can focus on the making. Already since leaving university Veronica Velveteen has collaborated with illustrator Megan Park to create posters for the garments and future projects involving leather offcuts and her brother’s painter touch are in the works. Fern explains that collaborations such as the posters are valuable as the “fresh set of eyes can bring something new to the garment and you can really rub off each other creatively”. She may have left university feeling rejected by an industry that she cared for so much, but from the inside out the self-made woman that is Fern Davie is changing it for herself. Whether through attending business classes or getting to know her clients to make sure she makes the clothes they want to feel great in, she is working every day towards something in which she believes. She explains that setting up a business requires a lot of self-sacrifice, but “that’s when you know you really love it, when you can’t wait to start working on it again”. If you want to have a look at her products, you can find Veronica Velveteen on Instagram and Etsy. Each item is handmade and bespoke.

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Quando il tempo si ferma Ludovico Orombelli at a personal and a historical past. ‘Quando il tempo si ferma’ is the title of the artwork, whose literal translation in English is “when the time stops”. The work is a process of construction and transfer of the elements of fresco painting, a technique that I believe is able to originate a feeling of suspended time, re-tracing a past that influenced the identity of the context where I grew up. Therefore, the work is the result of thoughts orbiting memories and moments of places. ‘Quando Il tempo si ferma’ starts from fragments of memories: the combination of the fresco technique and the places is visible through their coexistence and consequent disruption. Looking for a relationship between personal and wider contexts, my attempt to reshape lost memories is done through a process that involve “strappo”, a restauration technique which is used to bring mural paintings from original sites to museums. In this way, the work involved a creation of objects that were then disrupted with the purpose to bring their shapes on the canvas. The result is a reconstruction of objects that, like a memory, survive only partially. The work wants, therefore, to connect with past contexts This is an investigation of the cultural context that shaped my personal memory, realised through the use and manipulation of materials and spaces. In fact, the work is the result of a personal process that explains both my artistic language and the dialogue it has with the past. Materials and spaces are visibly the focus that gave rise to the painting: the architecture, the colours and the remains of Italian cities such as Rome and Milan. Italy and previous collaborations with my father who is a mural painter have always been interacting elements that pushed me to develop my own practice, by looking

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By digging in the mind and regaining architecture sections and fresco paintings, I go back to the origin of my cultural identity.

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playing between illusion and reality. The canvas (an explicit declaration that shows the artist as a painter) reveal a new display of the transferred materials where the tactile material of the elements of the painting seem to be interrupted by their new display. Quando il tempo si ferma highlights the suspension of time, allowing the viewer to think of the fragments as a clue to build a bigger whole where time, space and identity are brought together.

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The Uncomfortable Project Flo Field This still life editorial called ‘The Uncomfortable Project’ is to accompany the article ‘Why you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable’ written by Austin Pourmoussa. My images comprise of two disparate, unsettling, illogical combinations, that when placed together create an uncomfortable association. It is a series of paired juxtaposed images serving in combination to evoke a viewer’s reaction. I want people to have an emotional response to the editorials’ imagery such that they form an attachment to the various pieces and are thus more likely to remember them. I used a range of colourful backgrounds to make the images look engaging and eye catching. To come up with the different scenes created within the images I used questionnaires to see what people thought would make them feel uncomfortable and tried to incorporate these ideas within my project.

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The Gestural Nature of Photography Anna Luk ‘The Gestural Nature of Photography’ is a body of work that I created in response to the unit entitled ‘Concepts in Contemporary Photography’, and serves as an exploration into the ontology of photography, that is, the questioning of what makes a photograph a photograph. Concepts in Contemporary Photography encompasses a vast range of theories, but what most fascinates me is the notion of unpicking and examining the medium of photography itself, looking at how it is perceived and how it can be used beyond its often-assumed role of documentation. Through cameraless photography and abstraction, I am particularly interested in exploring how photographs can move past the faithful depiction of reality towards a more expressive and gestural approach of picture making. Every photograph in this project is created without a camera, a notion that some may see as being counter-

intuitive to photography. However, in actual fact, a photograph can be distilled down to three fundamental elements: light, light sensitivity (i.e. in this case photosensitive paper), and time. My works are created in the colour darkroom using these three components in conjunction with a painted transparency, which acts as a negative and allows me to combine the mark making capabilities of painting with photography. This blurring of photography’s borders between other mediums, specifically painting, and the pushing of the medium’s boundaries is a key part of my work. Since photography can reproduce reality so successfully, its expressive and gestural capabilities are often forgotten, with these qualities being seen as seeming somewhat more exclusive to imitative mediums like painting and sculpture. However, what I hope to capture is that photography too has the ability to move away from representation, into the realm of mark making. Photography has historically been seen as being intrinsically linked to reality, so much so that often the photograph itself, specifically its materiality and the processes that created it, are overlooked in favour of focussing simply on the subject it depicts. This can lead to the photograph becoming, as termed by Roland Barthes, invisible. With my work, I intend to use the medium to refer to itself, rather than using it solely as a means of depicting an external subject. In choosing to pursue abstraction I aim to shift the focus away from a recognisable subject, therefore hopefully forcing the viewer to slow down their consumption of the image, forcing them to question what they are looking at. By removing representation, I hope to create photographs in a way that is similar to that of a painter; without the pressure of producing a reproduction of reality, and therefore with more freedom to focus on colour and form.

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