Earlier on in my practice development I had created some mock train tickets and used them as an intervention within Manchester. I had also began collecting some images of the train tickets taken by some friends on their travels and it gave me an idea to develop this project further and into a zine entitled "Seeking Out The Misplace In Your Everyday".
The idea for the original train tickets was to take these items back into the environment which they were inspired by, to play with the fabric and ephemera of the city and to create something which challenges everyday objects and experiences. To be more direct with my work and to create something which would be picked up by the everyday user of the city and would convey the message of exploration directly to them and in the most effective context.
You can read more about the interventions here: Train Ticket Interventions
With this zine I wanted to broaden out the idea of the tickets and make them into more of a symbol than an item, for their everydayness to play with the scene behind it. I decided to both use everyday locations from Manchester as well as images from trips and adventures to re-enforce that idea that the extraordinary can be your everyday if you break out of that routine. To leave open to interpretation exactly what the "Misplace" is for you and what it represents: Maybe a trip or adventure of a lifetime in which the everyday worries are misplaced, or is it the overlooked factory which adds intrigue and excitement to your daily commute?
I have been writing a lot recently about my work and ideas and especially how they relate to ideas of both travel, lifestyle and entrapment in the everyday. For the wording within this book I used extracts from those pieces of writing. I wanted it to also feel quite fragmented and as such took sections out of order or in the middle of sentences to give more of a feel for my message than it being spoon fed which relates again to the idea of the individual and use of your own imagination.
Once again I have made this available to buy on LULU but as it is only a short zine it is much cheaper than my other offerings!
It is maybe a little hard for the details of the writing to be seen on these photographs but it is something I will be continuing to develop and will discussing further in another post and will be a central part of the wording and copy I use for the continuing development of my practice and lifestyle design/ blog. But here is a closer look at one of the pages which sums up the feelings I have currently about travel, work and my practice:
What is clear to me now is that these ideas which began with my practice and my urban exploration are becoming much stronger and wider, they are becoming about politics and lifestyle and are speaking much more about my desire to escape the conveyor belt, travel indefinitely and make the most of the life we are given. This I feel it setting me up for what I want to do after I finish university which will be to transform this blog into a dedicated travel blog (I will still have space and a dedicated page for my art and design) and to also gain experience and work on travel publications before setting off on a round the world adventure.
After a week in which I was given an opportunity to have an interview for a graphic design agency in Manchester I began to realise how most of these companies are in fact the epitome of where I do not want to be stuck and far from being creative they seem to want to stifle individuality. What began as a disappointing hit of reality became a lesson learnt and more fuel to my determination to have a life less ordinary and avoid "Settling".
