Visual Communication Blog

To follow up on the post about the Carrotworkers Collective I would recommend having a look at the Arts Group website.  Very Good resource. They recently made an in-depth report about Internships and Unpaid Work Placements.

“The Arts Group is pleased to announce the official release of our report into internships and policy on improving them, ‘Emerging workers: a fair future for entering the creative industries’

The Arts Group is calling for legislation governing the practice of work experience, internships and placements. In its “Emerging Workers” document the Arts Group puts forward the case that Government action is needed in order to protect students and graduates in the arts and creative industries.

Many arts organisations and businesses are reliant upon unpaid workers, both on work experience and on longer term placements. Whilst the Arts Group recognises that some of these organisations are run on low budgets, it is not in the interest of diversity, equality or creativity for internships to remain as the preserve of the well off.

Kit Friend, Chair of the Arts Group commented “Access to the creative professions should be based on ability, not means. As the labour market is near saturated with those financially able to take up unpaid placements, equal access to the creative professions will not be realised unless internships are regulated by government.”

The Arts Group recognises that the creative sector is made up of a large number of small and medium enterprises, and calls for funding and bursaries to be made available to employers so that they are able to continue to offer internships that are genuine training and development opportunities.”

Just to add another David Harvey related link to the blog.
Here is a link to a really interesting article he wrote for the new left review titled ‘The Right to the City.’

In it he argues that

“The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is  one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.”

This idea has helped to inspire the Right to the City social movement that first emerged in New York in 2007 as a unified response to gentrification and a call to halt the displacement of low-income people, LGBTQ, and youths of color from their historic urban neighborhoods. Through shared principles and a common frame and theory of change, RTTC is building a national and international movement for urban justice, human rights, and democracy.

There will be a Right to the City forum in Glasgow on the 24th of July at Kinning Park Complex. Well worth checking out.

Address Details Below:

Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall Street, Glasgow, G41 1AQ (Kinning Park
subway opposite). 12.30 for 1.00 start prompt, until 5.00. Saturday,
July 24th.

Map:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=256889&y=664430&z=0&sv=G41%201AQ&st=PostCode&lu=N&tl=~&ar=y&bi=~&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

Silent Witnesses: Graphic Novels Without Words
Curated by Darren Diss

Venue: Danes Terrace, Lincoln
29 May 2010 to 30 Aug 2010
Admission price: free

This exhibition brings together the work of internationally recognised artists and illustrators from around the world working in Graphic Novel form. Spanning publications from the early twentieth century to the present day, the works contained in the exhibition are distinct in that all use the capacity of images alone to communicate narrative, functioning entirely without the use of text.

The exhibition celebrates the book form and in particular the Graphic Novel as an increasingly popular medium for artists and explores its enduring appeal to readers of all ages. By focussing on works without text it examines the underlying structure and mechanics of developing a Graphic Novel, exposing it as a unique art form. It looks at the Novel in the true sense, as an extended sequence conveying a narrative. The show includes preparation and working drawings, writings, flat plans, sketch books and character studies and associated works alongside complete book-works to reveal the various developmental stages in creating a Graphic Novel.

The exhibition combines works from a wide range of cultural contexts, from modern popular Graphic Novels, with scratchboard images by Eric Drooker produced for his novel ‘Flood’, to woodcuts by Frans Masereel for his his 1925 work ‘Die Stadt’, to original drawings by Sara Varon for her well loved books, ‘Sweater Weather’, ‘Robo and Hund’ and ‘Chicken and Cat’. Also in the show will be a large scale flat-print version of ‘A-Z’ by Lars Arrhenius, a novel produced on the iconic A-Z map of London. Shown in print form it allows the viewer to scan the intersecting narratives sewn through the map in a single image, creating ever new readings.

Works for the exhibition have been loaned to The Collection from the British Museum, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Klinspor Museum, Offenbach, Scott Eder Gallery, New York, and from the exhibiting artists.

The show’s curator, Darren Diss, is an established illustrator and Senior Lecturer in Illustration at The University of Lincoln. He has a specialist academic research interest in Textless Narratives.

Dear Friend,

Trump has arrived in Aberdeen and we have a present for him, but he’s not going to like it.

Join us in The Bunker now.

Today we are launching The Bunker, a plot of land, slap bang in the middle of where Trump wants to build his golf course. Just like Greenpeace’s Airplot that recently helped stop Heathrow’s 3rd runway, The Bunker is a plot of land that thousands of us can add our names to. If it comes to the point where Aberdeenshire Council agrees to Trump’s demands to throw local people off their land, they’ll have to deal with all of us too.

You can be part of the plot too. Join us in The Bunker now.

Over 15,000 of us signed the petition supporting Aberdeenshire Council to rule out Trump’s demands for the use of compulsory purchase orders in order to throw local families out of their homes, but they chose not to act. A recent opinion poll told us that Trump now has just 13% support on this basis. Aberdeenshire Council continues to fail to protect local families, from Trump’s demands for forced evictions.

So let’s take this matter into our own hands and stand side by side with the local families against the bully Donald Trump.

Please forward this email far and wide. Everyone is welcome in The Bunker. And we’ll be creating some fun on the site of The Bunker in the future, so keep an eye out for updates.

Many thanks.
Tripping Up Trump

this probably wasn’t distributed up here as Squatters Rights don’t exist in Scots law…

INDYMEDIA SOMEWHERE
Squatters In Tabloid Paper Shocker

MESHO, a spoof paper has been produced for the weekend of squatted autonomous spaces happening in cities across Britain (and everywhere else), this weekend.

MESHO, The 16-page tabloid spoof paper about squatting, homelessness and autonomous spaces is out! Apeing the METRO masthead, watch out if you see what looks like a METRO on a tube train or bus – it might be a MESHO.

Look out for MESHO in all the squatted/autonomous spaces opened up this weekend in cities across Britain.  Allegedly the paper nearly didn’t happen because three separate printers pulled out
at the last minute fearing a legal comeback – or claiming they didn’t have insurance. One excused themselves because they print METRO, before another finally obliged at the last minute.

What does MESHO mean? Well it looks like METRO but is an anagram of HOMES. So there.

Download MESHO on pdf (16 page, tabloid size, 4.7mb) at
www.schnews.org.uk/satire/pdf/mesho.pdf

With the support of Uninstal, as part of a two day exploration of critical urban praxis with radical sound art collective Ultra-Red, The Strickland Distribution are hosting a public walk on Sunday 9th May. The walk is intended as a means to investigate contemporary urban dispossession as a consequence of gentrification in light of historical forms of primitive accumulation in the city. Led by independent writer and researcher Neil Gray, in collaboration with a range of activists and artists and housing and community groups, the walk will take a digressive route through George Square, the branded ‘Merchant City’, Glasgow Green, and the Barras Market. In a form of live critical praxis, the walk will aim to illuminate such shadowed areas as the ‘Cancer of Empire’ and the dead hand of Victoriana; the secret of primitive accumulation, past and present; ‘the Selfridges effect’ and the rent-gap; the ‘arts-led property strategy’ and affective labour; slums, tower blocks and penthouses, and the continuing crisis in housing; and the neoliberal pulverisation and commodification of social spaces.

The title of the walk refers to ‘Shadow’ and his ‘Midnight scenes and social photographs’, a paternalist Victorian account of Glasgow slums written in 1858. In the Shadow of Shadow, we propose instead an investigative ‘history from below’; a critical exploration of gentrification set in the historical contexts of the ‘second city of Empire’ and contemporary city-building. While Victorian paternalists like Shadow promoted top-down, moralistic solutions to mitigate the problems of the urban poor, we know that social change only ever comes with broad-based organising from below. Participating groups such as the Scottish Tenants Organisation, Glasgow Games Monitor 2014, and the Glasgow Residents Network are already active in Glasgow, and this walk aims to provide the means for critical self-reflection and collaborative exchange, as well as instigating and sustaining wider solidarity and activity between anti-gentrification researchers, activists, community groups, planners and artists in Glasgow. We welcome all those with an interest in this project.

Please note that the walk will be audio recorded by Ultra-Red. Recordings from the event will then be used the following Sunday 16th May in sound workshops that explore the issues raised on the walk and the possibilities for new and ongoing forms of organisation and resistance to gentrification in Glasgow.

Day 1: Sunday 9th May. Meet 1pm at Queen Victoria statue (with horse) George Square.

A public walk from George Square to the Barras market, bringing in contributions from researchers, activists and artists in a form of live critical praxis (time: 1-4pm approx.).

Followed by a screening from Document’s archive of ‘Drumchapel – The Frustration Game’ (20 mins, de-classed elements, 1989) and discussion (time: 4-7pm approx.) in Laurie’s Bar, 34-36 King Street, Glasgow, G1 5QT Map: http://tinyurl.com/34v9n8z

Day 2: Sunday 16th May, 1-5pm, Kinning Park Complex, 40 Cornwall Street, Glasgow, G41 1AQ Map: http://tinyurl.com/32×7y2h

A practical sound workshop with Ultra-Red bringing together walk participants to discuss the issues raised during the walk. The aim of these workshops is to facilitate a deeper understanding of gentrification, and to instigate and sustain wider solidarity and activity between anti-gentrification researchers, activists, community groups and artists in Glasgow.

Participants include:

Neil Gray (writer and researcher)
Leigh French (co-editor, Variant magazine)
Simon Yuill (artist and writer)
Libby Porter (University of Glasgow, Department of Urban Studies; Planners Network UK)
John Cousins (radical researcher and historian)

Links/Groups:

The Strickland Distribution: http://www.strickdistro.org
Uninstal: http://www.arika.org.uk
Ultra-Red: http://www.ultrared.org/directory.html
Document – International Documentary Film Festival : http://www.docfilmfest.org.uk
Variant: http://www.variant.org.uk
PNUK: http://www.pnuk.org.uk
Scottish Tenants Organisation: http://www.scottishtenants.org.uk/about_us.htm
Glasgow Games Monitor 2014: http://gamesmonitor2014.wordpress.com
Glasgow Residents Network: http://glasgowresidents.wordpress.com
The Burgh Angel: http://burghangel.wordpress.com
East End Eye: http://gamesmonitor2014.wordpress.com/east-end-eye-paper/
South Side Crane: http://southsidecrane.wordpress.com/category/events/

Some background research by Neil Gray from Variant magazine:

‘Constructing Neoliberal Glasgow: The Privatisation of Space’
http://www.variant.org.uk/25texts/neolib25.html

‘The Clyde Gateway: A New Urban Frontier?’
http://www.variant.org.uk/33texts/3_V33gray.html

‘Glasgow’s Merchant City: An Artist-Led Property Strategy’
http://www.variant.org.uk/34texts/mechantcity34.html

‘The Tyranny of Rent’
http://www.variant.org.uk/37texts/13RentTyranny.html

The Untamed Tiger: the illustrator and the self initiated project

MA Illustration: Authorial Practice at University College Falmouth hosts its 8th annual illustration forum

Friday 12 March 2010, 9.30am – 4.30pm
Woodlane Lecture Theatre, Woodlane Campus, Falmouth
Tickets: £15 external visitors, £5 UCF staff and students

A day of presentations and debate on the theme of enterprising illustrators who generate their own projects, creating their own employment and work on their own terms. The Forum will explore the development of new autonomies and enterprising initiatives in illustration.

No Mean Streets is a new social network that intends to encourage cycling, improve the attitudes of other motorists towards cyclists, and hopefully improve the proficiency for cycling in Glasgow. It has been set up as part of an arts project led by The New Social Art School, who will also be participating in the upcoming Glasgow Reshuffle at the Pierce Institute on Saturday the 5th of Febuary.

The Reshuffle is a free hands on event held at the Pearce Institute annually. It is an event to start the year on a positive note, get some people into a community centre and have them leave thinking they have seen something new that could be of interest to them.

Here’s a small selection of links to organisations participating this year:
Galgael Trust, Open Source Mapping, Unity, Burgh Angel, Gamesmonitor 2014, Documents Film Festival, Radical Independent Bookfair, Electron Club, Glasgow Social Centre, Sunny Govan Radio, Bridge Network

“There are not enough magazines or if you prefer all magazines are useless…”

I was luckily given permission to photocopy the above introduction to Issue 51 of Arc Magazine. I found it in the old offices of OZ Magazine in Notting Hill, now home to a most civilised graphic design practice. The magazine comprised a series of loose leaf lithographic prints by some of the best illustrative talent the 70’s had to offer. It was edited by Sue Coe and Stewart Mackinnon and includes works by The Brothers Quay, Terry Dowling, Eduardo Paolozzi, Douglas Dent and Andrzej Klimowski. Perhaps the most interesting contributor not to have written a comment in the introduction is Sue Coe and to compensate for this I thoroughly recommend this article about her published in issue 21 of Eye magazine.