Final Crit

This was the final opportunity for critical summative feedback. I submitted the following text in support of my visual work:

The project documents elements of community in Levenshulme. As the work is about the community, this has led to a desire to produce a zine for the community; this will be a visual and text-based piece about Levenshulme which will encompass the different strands of work from throughout the project. The audience is likely to be primarily young, middle-class people (probably in the creative sector) in Levenshulme, however I also hope that the zine will be picked up by other members of the community – I will try to vary the locations of distribution to encourage this. 

The current images focus on people who campaign for Levenshulme in some way, or who work towards making the area a better place for its residents. Subjects include individual campaigners, the director for Levenshulme Market, and the director of Love Levy, a community project working towards improving green spaces in the area. Further shoots are planned with the director of Levenshulme Inspire community centre, the creator of Levenshulme Timebank, a blogger and further individual campaigners.

Subjects are photographed and informally interviewed about their work for the area. The exact interview method is still being trialled but the recordings/text will contribute in some way to the finished pieces. The work continues to be heavily influenced by Len Grant, and has also taken influence from Rebecca Lupton’s projects on Levenshulme People and The Mothers.   

Work will be exhibited as prints accompanied by text (and possibly audio), and will also form part of a zine and website/blog. This will be distributed in shops in Levenshulme, and at the market .

The zine/blog will contain various elements of the work I have produced for the Levenshulme project. They will also contain illustrative work by Peter Swain and me, and will be designed by a graphic designer (Sara Nilsson). We plan to continue producing work for future editions of the zine, to be distributed in Peter’s soon-to-be-opened zine shop/exhibition space on Levenshulme high street.

I have decided not to include any explanatory text as I would like people to consider for themselves what the work is about and leave it to them what they think – whether they view the work as casting a positive or negative light on the area. I do not want to be too prescriptive about people’s experience of viewing the work. I will however, create a title for the front cover that encourages people to pick the zine up, and also gives a brief hint at the content   

I have decided on a concertina booklet format for a number of reasons: it will provide a visual representation of the length of the high street – a continuous flow of visual imagery; it is a relatively simple design to produce in practical terms; it offers something a little different to the traditional stapled booklet zine.

I am very excited about the project now and the prospect of collaboration on a long-term publication. The sense of contributing in some way to the community has really helped to make the project more interesting.



Feedback:

You still need to resolve some of the ideas for your exhibition. How you intend to exhibit the text needs further consideration, as it seems to over complicate things. There are some interesting things in your texts but I think you do need to edit the interviews and offer the viewer the edit, the full text could be inline and this could be incorporated in the MA proposal (MACS with blog/ online zine).

The idea of large-scale prints of portraits seems to counter some of the thinking that underpins the project. We suggest you keep your presentation simple consider standard photography scale and framing (16x20, 20x24). This would offer a level of intimacy which larger prints lose. Obvioulsy bring files to feedback and test out the scale.

You have great enthusiasm for your work and this is obviously a long term commitment. Perhaps this is why you have a tendency to over design the work and incorporate so many things. Keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.
You seem slightly confused by who the audience is for the work and who the reader would be for the zine. You use the word community but there is a level of uncertainty as to who this ‘community’ is. Take care you are not trying to speak for everyone, as this is impossible. There needs to be a level of honesty about who you are representing. As a young mother engaging with a community of like-minded creative educated people, you are involved with a very particular group and it would strengthen the project to acknowledge this and focus.