Mock Newspaper Implanted Into The City!

I have recently been interested in creating some publications and also doing some interventions in public spaces. I felt that both suited the way my work was going and so decided to combine the two and create a newspaper which mocks the fabric and messages of the city. 

The idea to play with a newspaper came from trying to identify the things within the everyday city we all have interactions with whether it be reading the paper, glancing at the headlines or just in passing, they are an integral part of the experience of the city just as the train tickets were. (http://www.nichilditch-short.co.uk/2014/06/train-tickets-urban-infiltration.html). 

I used the website "Newspaper Club" to produce this and found the quality and ease of production to be brilliant for the cost so if you are thinking of doing something involving newsprint I recommend them. 

My newspaper is also available to view and download as a PDF from the link below:

http://www.newspaperclub.com/pugnic13/nkx3w35d-my-newspaper

The newspaper is again something we are so used to seeing as part of our everyday commute or journey through the city and as part of our journeys. We often see and read these without questioning the information it gives us or it's authority to do so or to occupy that space. Never stopping to question how we allow it to shape and control our beliefs and behaviors just as the stop signs and street plans do. It becomes part of this normality and conditioning we are taught never to question. 

I wanted to play with the layout, colours, font and traditions of the tabloid paper. Using the language of the paper to actually report on a lot of the work I have been doing recently to show the manipulation of the tabloid and to provide or show an ironic remedy for that.

I wanted to then infiltrate the city and place these papers within the usual locations for papers such as newsagent, shops and stalls. I used similar text and colour combinations as the other tabloids in order to blend in and hopefully be picked up whilst on autopilot to be presented with something totally unexpected and a challenge to that state. 

The train station is also quite important to my work because I see it as a typical example of a place with so much history and potential for exploration but is usually a place associated with frustration, contempt and the mundane drag of everyday transport. That maybe if we begin to see this place differently and have different interactions with the space we can start to take that outside of here and begin to see the world outside of that conveyor belt. To wake them up to the possibilities they pass by everyday. 

I then looked at taking this publications into some of the places it might be more expected, arts cafes, affecks palace, galleries and left wind establishments to gain another angle. What I found fascinating here is how this now stands out and actually looks out of place among people and other items which are actually more in line with the sentiments of this piece. 

How the tabloid style which would once engage the passerby and be a safety blanket of normality is now a red flag of wariness and distrust although ironically in both cases content and presentation being in conflict with the initial interaction. 

I also feel that with this piece I have succeed in creating something which represents both my work and ideas and could be used in a portfolio like manner and thus achieving the aim to create something unique and more inline with my work than the generic portfolio and justifying my decision to let that side of my work develop naturally. It also signifies importantly to me the coming together of my work and professional and lifestyle aims for the future.