Free fall from the edge of space- Manifesto project.

In this project I will be exploring what a manifesto is and with my discoveries, create my own manifesto.

Firstly we were asked to create pure own manifesto based on our chosen topic, which would then be filmed on a green screen to promote the manifesto and work to get it published.

• Manifesto image

To begin to create my manifesto, the first task will be to research into manifestos and explore what a manifesto actually consists of, how they are used and what context they are used in.

What is a manifesto?

“a manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives or views of the issuer. be it an individual, group, political party or government” They are often political or artistic in nature, but may represent an originals life stance. Furthermore, Manifestos relating to religious belief are often generally referred to as creeds.

Research in to manifestos.

The images below show the research I have explored and collected about manifestos,

• Research into political manifestos such as The Baghdad manifesto. It was a testimony ordered by The Abbasid Caliph Al-Qadir in response to the growth of the Fatimid-supporting Ismaili sect of Islam within his borders. They were declared to be descended from a Jew by the Name of Ibn al-qaddah, A Munafiq,which meant that the Fàtimid Dynasty were traced back to an infidel, an enemy of the faith. Threatened by a possible rebellion within his empire, the Abbasid Caliph asked esteemed scholars and jurists to issue an edict claiming that the Fatimids were not descended from Ali. This manifesto swayed the opinions of the masses and changed lives of many.
• 

The Cyborg Manifesto.

The cyborg manifesto is an essay written by Donna Harraway which was written to address the american social feminists and to explore feminists in america and the declining left fist politics. this is an example of a political manifesto and how the views of feminism are being addressed by Harraway. She uses the metaphor of a cyborg to urge feminists to move beyond the limitations of traditional gender, feminism, and politics.

The Artistic Manifesto.

• Declarations of intentions, motives used of an artist or artistic movement. Manifestos are a standard feature of the various movements in the modernist avant garde and are still written today. Art manifestos are sometimes written in rhetoric intended for shock value to achieve a revolutionary effect.
• Themes link to revolution and freedom of expression. Means of expressing and publicising the recorded ideas of an artist or group.
• The first art manifesto of the twentieth century was introduced with the futurists in 1909, followed by the cubists, the vorticists, deists and the surrealists. the period up to the world war created what are still known as the best manifestos.
• Manifestos cryptically consist of a number of statements which are numbered or in bullet points that do not necessarily follow logically from the next. 
• the”Why Cheap Art ?” manifesto , is a single sheet issued by the bread and puppet theatre in direct resonse to the buissinees f art and its growing appropriation by the corporate sector. there are seventeen statements most beginning with “art is” and ending with an exclamation mark.

• Here i have explored the sentences of conceptual art by Sol Lewitt. Looking at his manifesto and what it stands for and how its laid out.
• A set of numbered rules based on his rules or guidelines on his views on conceptual art. I shall experiment with using this technique of my own personal rules and also explore the layout.

The Biggie Smalls 10 crack commandments.

• Here a different approach to a manifesto created by musician biggie smalls. Smalls explains and demonstrates his crack commandments from his personal views according to his songs and lifestyle.
• This manifesto is more personal to he creators upbringing and experiences
• usage of rhyming slang and humour to influence viewers with shock tactics and entertainment.
• Humour makes a connection to a viewer/listener directly to the piece as they can be engages and gain athene from the manifesto.
• This approach uses a lyrical singing style to further imprint the manifesto through the usage of musical talent and sound.
• i like the idea of experimenting with humour when expressing my ideas or maybe feel a bit cheeky and have a sing song

I have also explored other manifestos such as the goals and rules manifesto by Lars Von Trier.

My first manifesto creation video

my first personal manifesto points

1. consumption today
2. don’t grow up
3. be yourself
4. don’t be branded
5. dare to dream
6. pressures to succeed
7. pressures to follow money
8. pressures to mature/conform
9. mental health
10. work related depression.

These points are issues that I have decided to address in my own manifesto because they have a personal meaning to me. They are the initial starting points from which id like to explore further as they are points that i feel strongly about and have an effect on my everyday life and emotions toward the way the world works.

• Initial text experiments for manifesto

Here I have started to experiment with just text using bold statements to grab the attention of viewers (gorilla advertising) with humour and rhythmic slang this adds more of a connection between the views and the viewer.

Here I have highlighted areas of importance that i will continue to look at throughout the project as they have influenced and shaped my overall concept for my manifesto.

research into themes

the pressure to succeed written by sarah wolmack http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1471689/how-the-pressure-to-succeed-is-creating-a-generation-of-unruly-depressed-teenagers.html.

• How the pressure to succeed is creating a generation of unruly and depressed teens
• The number of teens suffering from anxiety and depression has increased by 70% since the 1980s
• A rising anxiety an decline in mental health
• the chances of youths stealing, lying and being disobedient has increased.
• this has been influenced by the rise of academic achievement and the pressure to succeed and meet grade boundaries by outsiders that are not involved in the practice.
• a lot more time is spent working on things and not spent socialising or spending family time.

daily mail article generations refuse to grow up, no mortgage,  no children, no career plan.

http://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-776281/genreration-refuse-grow-No-mortgage-No-marriage-No-children-No-carreer-plan- like-30-somethings-marienne-powers-admits-shes-.html.

This article describes a new change in the way that people are spending their lives, it chronicles a new type of generation called the “peter pan” generation where we are refusing to accept our adult responsibilities such as marriage, children and careers until later on in life. Due to the pressures of society to succeed people have abandoned adult life and don’t want to grow up. The average age of married individuals has risen from 22-24 to 32-34 which shows the massive 10 year gap where people feel they are not ready to accept the responsibilities of adult hood and settle down. This has influenced me with concepts of averting responsibility and peter pan imagery.

Huffington post work life balance

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/karren-brady-work-life-balanceb3865964.html

Karen Brady explores the idea that by pursuing a career will cause a certain amount of stress. Due to the pressure to succeed in a demanding career in the current financial crisis and as it worsens so will the increase of stress. statistics show that people with work related stress has soared up 40% according to Nottingham university. Brady also explores the difficulty of doing well in university and getting a job straight after graduaution.

lucifer effect pressure to conform

http://www.lucifereffect.com/guideconform.html

The lucifer effect analyses the social phenomenon where we change our ideas, behaviours and views in response to the presence of others. where we conform to the views of others. Why we conform is a topic of great interest to social psychologists. Informative conformity  often occurs in situations of high uncertainty, and when paired with with unfamiliar situations and people we are likely to shape our behaviour reflective of other people. we become informed by people on what is right and acceptable which i am interested in because we as impression ate people growing up are ready decided to grow up to be a certain way and are expected to conform to the societal constraints that we are at odds against to achieve.

zine research/punk movement

I have chosen to research zines as they are a small circulation of original texts and imagery  which are used to include your own works and ideas based on a movement or an individuals concept.

• zines are often not copyrighted as and there is a strong belief that zines should be freely distributed and uncensored.
• cometbus roadied with green day and their fanzines created went on to become a famous punk diy scene.
• punk zines emerged as a part of the punk moven=ment in the late 1970’s these started in the uk and usa in which cheap photocopying had made it easier than ever for everyone to create their own zine.

The punk movement.

 

The music genre of punk rock is rooted in garage rock ‘DIY’ music and is generally formed with anti-establishmentarian lyrics. punk is often self produced and distributed channelling its diy ethics. I have chosen to look at the punk scene for my own manifesto as i believe the punk sub culture of expressing youthfuless rebellion and its characteristics of deliberate offensive clothing and ideas that go against cultural and societal norms, which is something that id like to address in my manifesto.

• Looking into punk zines i came across the theme of never growing up, this is often used in punk music such as the ramones album i don’t want to grow up and links to the peter pan generation addressed.
• i wil take inspiration from this linking to the theme of freedom that a person has before they have adult responsibilities, and the quest to keep the freedom.

black flag punk photos by richard pethbon

I have chosen to include the black flag punk posters as they stood for anti-establishment ideas and fuck you teen angst. Gorilla tactics are used to shock the viewer that brings attraction, obscene, rude imagery that is not usually seen and goes against the grain to get a reaction and stays in memory.

anti establishment links to freedom and world pressures against the normal robotic life we live in today, fighting cause as the punk scene. images are made to make a statement of anti establishment views.

I like all the imagery used above the black and white is very bold and works with the strong imagery. this will be good to take further fir my manifesto.

artist research

Here i have researched into jamie shovlin whom created a manifesto named lustfaust in 2006. He created an art show based on showcasing a fake glam rock bands memorabilia, created to confuse and trick people into believing the band was real, he used interesting advertisement and fictional stories which would be interesting to experiment with. It also links to the Lucifer Effect where people can be persuaded to change their ideas and views easily by other people.

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary street artist and activist who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He uses bold imagery and noticeable situations, even though the imagery has no meaning it forces the public to have a response de to its bold nature.

Grayson Perry is an artist that through the constraints self expression he has included themes such as suppressed creativity through upbringing, decreasing mental health due to standards and expectations  and employs humour to avoid stress and happiness to comfort the ideals within yourself.

“Art makes children powerful”

I have also explored children’s art as aesthetically the bright attention grabbing colours can be used to create recognisable imagery it is also very simplistic and gets to the point with bold statements and child like primary and pastel colours. i shall employ the contrasting colours and vibrant attractive style for my work.

Furthermore, Tracey Emins tapestries interest me in the way that i feel they return back to youthful ideas and a regression and ideal of a simpler life. She also lists her fears as a cathartic way of addressing her fears of the cultural norms and expectations of growing up and having a family, linking to depression from the ideas of acceptance and wariness of adulthood.

Daniel Johnston is an artist who i am also interested in personally as through his music and artwork he creates almost a manifesto about mental health, through art and his colourful childlike style and naive production of his work.

falling from the edge of space part b

experimenting with childlike imagery relating to daniel johnston and my chosen themes linking to a relaxed style of art.

initial sketches and idea’s for DIY imagery , looking at something with no rules or defended meaning fighting against pressures to conform and pressures to create in a certain way.

intial abstract designs linking to my theme using imagery ad text exploring pressure , and the effects it has on releasing a persons inner devil and how the pressures of work life today and to conform bring out the worst in people.

Initial Drawings- World Peace Advicate drawings 

here I have experimented with drawing familiar characters these images below show sketch idea’ exploring Bill Clinton and Elton john.

An alarm clock is something internationally used and worshiped and all most followed like a god like awakening in the world today , working on humour I have experimented to ban the alarm clock and have started to explore creatting imagery for posters , post cards stickers and badges.

Experimenting with money another pressure and obsession that is such a massive part of our culture as a planet , here creating the no care note that has no meaning and a bread and butter shock tactic of a penis , this is to show how i feel towards the system and how the world is full of money seeking “dicks”.

also other freely made imagery linking humour and cash and some linking pieces.

With the banning of the alarm clock could a policy of waking to morning glory be a vulgar alternative , this is a shock type effect and i hope it will come across in a naive light hearted way.

Also experimenting with type and imagery creating small motifs of my theme to be further developed for my promotional pieces.

badges and posters designs 

Inspired poster designs of freedom of speech and to do as you please beliefs , styles inspired by Daniel johnston and Illustrator Harry Mckenzie.

A written copy of some idea’s for presenting my manifesto , using this paper style simplistic list for the life of an anti establishment sloboholic , this to be rescaled for print and further improved.

Post card designs – Black board “I shall not work design”

Here some more poster designs with bold quotes to address and inform the viewer.

 

 

-VIDEO – to be completed when I get my hand back as only half complete.

(trolololololol)

During Creation of final Pieces I bought some sticker Paper and also a Badge it Kit Machine .

Badge Kit – Badges

stickers.

Posters

 

T-Shirt Print’s

 

 

 

 

 

Watch /Stickers