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reasons to question the world by Rebecc a We st
1. W hat is you r na me ? Me and my friend Antoniya went to the art exhibition, Pick Me Up, at Summerset House and got 30’s inspired mug shots from the illustrated newspaper, Flamingo. Opposite I de bossed my initials in order to show an impression of my identity, after all, this is what def ines us on paper and in conversation as unique.
5. W hat a re you r hobbie s? My hobbies are more a way of life; they help me create, obtain knowledge and most importantly, live. I have written them as a list to portray how hobbies change and multiply throughout life. Again, they create an impression of who I am, but in the form of objects.
the constant stream of ordered chaos known as life 20. W hat i n you r l i fe i s you r g re ate st sou rce of ple a su re ? There are many pleasures in life, so life with all its systems, all its chaos and all its mystery creates all the little fragments of happiness. Therefore it seemed f itting to use pieces of scratch f ilm to express this, as photos often capture are most joyful moments. But moments in life change all the time, so you might as well enjoy every part of it.
45. De sig n a nd ma ke somet h i ng to sel l. Ma ke t welve of t hem, sel l ele ven, a nd keep one . Br i ng t he la st one to t he cr it , a long w it h t he objec t /s you bou g ht w it h t he mone y you made.
 *Spend no more t hat £25 on t h is projec t . Me and Karina lead Christian union, which since last March has gained more than 60 members. For this question we wanted to use this opportunity to make something to both promote and express the society’s heart. We always aim to grow our society, so we wanted to gain a stronger identity in university with our T- shirts. As well as crafting a hand scribed prayer into a book mark, that our third years and foundation students can take away as a memory of our union.
16 . W hat is Ps ycholog y ? Indeed what is it?, is it really in the mind? or is it rooted in something deeper than our genetic make - up? But whatever it is, it can be pinned down as the study of the mind/ behaviour. Whatever you make of any given behaviour is down to your own psychological understanding.
24. W hat is Dog ma ? Dogma is the religious part of any faith, but faith is the key ingredient to setting your spirit free. It is more than formidable rules and super - natural experiences. So read some dogma, its’ good for your soul.
22 . W hat is abst rac t ion? Abstraction is the act of taking away, thus minimising the amount of information. This is what makes it so fascinating, because as we begin to break down something recognizable, we see what makes it stand as a whole. This f lower needs its leaves, its stalk and a vase full of water to exist.
14 . De scr ibe t he s y nopsi s for a f a mou s f i l m i n f i f t y word s or le s s, a nd ma ke it i nto a n A 2 poster u si ng a c ombi nat ion of a na log ue a nd d ig it a l proce sse s. I loved this question, as it enabled me to exercise my fascination with f ilm. Film is my favourite form of escapism, as characters lives unravel before you , you begin to understand more about yourself and the world around you. I studied this play in college and the transition of what story you build in your head to what a f ilm adaptation constructs, tells me that the interpretation of narrative is personal. That the author’s original intensions on an audience will never effect everyone in the same way.
55. W hat doe s t h is col lege need? This university needs rather, might this be a problem in itself ? How an institution is labelled effects students expectation of what their education should give them. Whatever this art school needs it must be heard, as every generation changes the course of the next.
Pri nt a T-sh i r t w it h a de sig n t hat promote s somet h i ng i nappropriate. Instead of designing something based on religion or sex, I thought I would go somewhere in the middle and point the finger back at us, the individual. The T- shirt accuses us of having no depth, but by wearing it you as the T - shirt wearer suggest that you have something more in your life than everyone else around you. Therefore, the T - shirt can either alienate you, or make you stand out as special.
18. W hat is you r favou rite colou r? Somehow the orange has taken centre stage again. There is just something so vibrant and juicy about its look. Plus, I am pretty sure that the amount of oranges I eat help feed my fruit obsession.
The bin is death and life.
We can still use the waste, it doesn’t have to die. It can be reborn again.
37. W hat is wa ste ? These photos document one freegans weekly food shop into the bins of Epsom. To him there is only waste if you see no more use for it. So something purpose only seizes when we decide it is no longer useful. Not only is he wasting away because of his lifestyle, but so is the waste, as it lies in the bins as a heap of lost opportunities, rather than just discarded trash.
4 0. W hat is fa i lu re ?
I wanted to use quotes from people and information from packaging that def ined how we measured failure and success.
39. W hat is succe ss? In order to be successful, you need to fail - hence why the letterpress of ‘success’ becomes an expression of trial and error - we need to learn from failure in order to become better.
11. W hat a n noy s you most i n people ? A range of characteristics annoys me, so I decided to pin those thoughts onto people that could be seen by their expression, as living up to the harsh statements written beneath them.
54 . Re-st a g e a speci f ic c u lt u ra l e vent / moment /ima ge a nd docu ment it . Me, Emma and Antoniya star in the re - visit of the famous Hacienda club in Manchester, during the late 90’s. We re create the look, the hair, the make - up and the crazy psychedelic dancing of the predominantly male dominated club. The girls have come to teach the north how to dance!
28 . Recre ate , i mprove , a lter, de st roy, a n icon ic ima ge . Bringing the famous Western super model, Twiggy, into the same lime light as the stunning, but terrif ied Afghan woman, highlights how we should be looking to the War stricken Middle East. But instead we seek only to satisf y our own needs and aspire to look like all the other simulated size zero’s models, claiming to promote individual beauty. The 12 year old Afghan woman was not looking for a photo, but instead she has become iconic for a more powerful reason; to tell a story worlds apart from our own.
23. Usi ng i n fo g raph ic s, c on st r uc t a ‘por t ra it ’ of you rsel f. I think everyone is made up of 3 separate entities, mind, body and soul. Considering I believe most of what makes me, me is spiritual, you can understand how my physical aspects are just an extension or vehicle onto which I express my character. Yes, the Fro takes up a lot of that percentage.
35. Ma ke a c ontempora r y memento-mori / ‘va nit a s’ ima ge. Death is inevitable, its something we know to be true for everyone. However hard we try to ignore or stop it, we are f lesh and bone, and will f inally erode away.
51. W hat is secu la r? The divide between state and religion, so marks a rift between what is spiritual wisdom and what is government lead. The beaming Afro girl represents societies blinked satisfaction in just being lead by men, but not so much by God.
26. W hat is sacred? Being sacred is a term that I believe belongs to God. So my hands have been used to represent my love, for His holy name.
7. W hat is t he most beaut if u l t hing in t he world? Put simply, we are. Look how humorous and curious we are in the little routines of everyday life. Beautiful? yes indeed.
43. Ma ke a piece of work u si ng a book . My vision was to create the atmosphere one gets from escaping into a great book, using books and a projector. The high tower of books creates a fantasy like step, into a world of imagination, that defies the physics of this world. As well as portraying the beautiful physicality of the printed publication, in a world that is a digital mind f ield of eBooks and web pages. Lets pick up a book again please, and learn something real!
W hat do you t h i n k a re t he qua lit ie s of a life f u l ly lived? I lazercut 10 qualities of life into wood, that I think are wise guidelines to live your life by. Having a basic belief system will lay the foundations for your life, so these are the qualities of life that I believe in. They are perfect qualities, in an imperfect world, so shout about them!
8. W hat is Graphic De sig n? Graphic design exists to inform, us, the audience. It is a performance of ideas, symbols and colours, that we can either celebrate or ignore.
41. E xpla i n t he Z en doc t r i ne i n t went y word s or le ss, t y pe set & pri nt it . Zen seemed to me like being at one with a higher state of being. Thus Zen becomes unobtainable in the physical sense, but obtainable in a spiritual dimension. It clears out the clutter of the world and allows you to mediate above it.
W hy a m I here ? This piece expresses the life of myself contemplating why I am here. I believe I am here through a divine purpose of god and that it is up to me how I live my life through gods wisdom - He gave me life so, here i’ ll stay.
For further contact: Email: rebeccawestcreative@gmail.com Blog: http://bwest2.gdnm.org/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rebecca-west/70/a9b/830