So BURO 2 is out! If you don't know, BURO is a collective publication produced by the MA art and design students at MMU/Manchester School Of Art. BURO 2 centred around the themes we looked at in our context presentations towards the end of last year. My presentation was entitled "Getting Lost On Purpose: Embracing Complexity" which you can read more about on my post here: Contexts Presentation and Lifestyle Revelations
Seeing as this is now the *counts in head* third post which is based around the same themes I will just summarise what this piece is about and leave some links to those others if you would like to read a little more about it. If I am honest this is actually part of an important series of pieces and indeed revelations about both my practice and general outlook but at the same time I don't want to be overly repetitive!
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| Here is the cover of BURO 2 which was designed by Ilsa Parry and uses my logo. |
You can read about my trip to Tokyo here: Tokyo, Japan. October 2014
My contexts presentation was entitled "Getting Lost On Purpose: Embracing Complexity". Here is an extract from some writing I did about it. "Looking at the difference between a tourist and a traveller, the idea of going somewhere and getting lost in the complexity of a new culture, a new place and new country, embracing all that information and in the process learning and developing a knowledge and understanding. But instead many only leave their countries to visit non place outcrops of their own culture gated away from the real place in the tourist complex that creates fear, distance and barriers. It creates a denial of that location, its people, its food and its culture; it prevents interactions, observations and connections and leads to ignorance and fear. These places are sold to use as luxury and safety, but really they are a way to control and condition it’s occupants for the benefit of consumerism and complicity. And yet people believe this because it is “normal”, it is never questioned, just followed"
Read more and see my presentation here: Contexts Presentation and Lifestyle Revelations
(You can also see some of my unaltered scans I used to create both my Japan zine and also this piece on that link)
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| One of my unaltered scans I used to create my Zine and this submission. |
After my contexts presentation the themes I discussed became much more relevant to my practice and the two began to come together quite nicely. So I decided that I would start to work through those ideas and create a zine which represented my experiences of Japan and those ideas which influenced both my presentation and current shift in focus. I felt that this was the logical step in bringing everything together before I moved on with other work within my main practice and at this stage was unaware of the plans for BURO 2 to be based around our presentations.
Here is a little extract from what I wrote about my zine:
"I liked the idea that someone could get a sense of Tokyo from my piece, but not the whole picture, there is something missing that can only be gotten by actually visiting. The broken pieces of imagery, text and ephemera setting off memories and feelings which represent both the chaotic and overwhelming nature of Tokyo itself and of travelling to a new place but also the dream like and distorted nature of memory and individual interpretation of a space. The hand printed nature also has an honesty to it and also inevitably leads to slight misprints and differences which enhances the themes and ideas of individuality."
To read more and see my zine have a look here: Tokyo Zine
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| Here is an selected page from my Tokyo Zine. |
Not long after I completed my Zine talk of BURO 2 began (Having done a shorter BURO 1.5 over the summer) and after a few discussions it was decided that we should use the research and work we had put into the context presentations as our theme. For many people this meant their only chance to create something either visual or more concrete with all the work they had put into the presentations and it was a great idea to round it off. But for me with my zine I had already tackled these issues visually and had begun to move on within my practice. It felt right that after putting so much work into my Tokyo zine and feeling that it really represented my ideas that I use that as part of my submission.
What is great about this edition of BURO is that each person has chosen to tackle their issues in different ways, many using writing as a method of communication. But for me part of what I like about my zine and also what many of my themes centre around is the idea of individual interpretation and experiences instead of a "mass" understanding. I wanted it to be simple and encompass all of my ideas in a way in which suggested but didn't force my ideas on the reader/ viewer. Something that is left open for exploration, complex ideas but simple execution, "Simplexity".
To read more about my creative and developmental process for my submission read my post here:
BURO 2 Submission.
I have been heavily involved in the BURO project from the start and also designed the main logo, to read more about this publication follow the links below:
Buro 2 will be being distributed around Manchester for free within the next few weeks so keep an eye out around NQ and other creative spaces.