I thought that this was a really interesting task as this is something in our group which hasn't been emphasised enough. Although within our group when we are set into out smaller crit/induction groups we are fairly comfortable with each other but outside of sessions, these kinds of interactions don't really happen outside of our smaller friendship groups.
Whilst this task was happening I met a variety of people I may have passed by and not been able to have an actual interaction with them which I thought was really cool. I found out some info on misconceptions I may have had with certain people as well as finding out people with similar opinions on things I enjoy and do. This is something that I have tried to develop outside of the university as well as attending events held by the uni like when going to social events organised by the uni like the LGBTQ meetup at a Coffee shop a few weeks ago I had met a couple of Illustration and Animation students in their Third Year where we discussed out different practices and found things that we had in common which was really nice as I found listening to the different processes which take place on another course within the university to be quite interesting. As this interaction took place we had exchanged our socials afterward and they had offered some support on some things I was struggling on as well as offering help if I needed any help when it came to things I may be interested in doing outside of Graphic Design.
This task reminded myself of the interactions I have had whilst visiting the Strange Perfume print fair as well as the Over Here Zine Fest. The reason why I found these events appealing to go to was that they included individuals from a similar background to myself so being able to talk to people about their work whilst and the context behind them. One group of people which I found particularly useful speaking to was the collective called Daikon. I was able to speak to all of them across the two print fairs and whilst I was flicking through their zines they were really encouraging with wanting to speak to me which I especially at the strange perfume festival, even though part of myself wanted to visit it for the content; I also wanted to go to see how people include and involve aspects of their identity into their work. This was quite overwhelming especially at Strange Perfume as I have hardly visited any events like that surrounding LGBTQ+ although the people at the stalls made me feel very comfortable whilst I was talking to them about their work.
Whilst at the table for Daikon I had spoken about the struggle with being able to find representation or events locally for those from south Asian backgrounds who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. They had highlighted some of these issues that they had themselves and how they use their zines as a platform for Asian voices which can be quite often underrepresented in mainstream culture. As we were talking we talked about the kind of subjects they had also studied in their degrees and what I was doing as well. We had also exchanged our socials and they had invited me to contribute some work when they call out for submissions for their zines as they thought that some of the things that I had mentioned as well as the work I had posted on my Instagram would suit their publications.
I think attending events like this as well as interacting with the people who are there is really important for myself as well as for my practice as well because sometimes viewing work online for research can often get quite boring and being able to actually interact with people and find out the contextual definitions behind their work can be very useful to know.
No comments:
Post a Comment