B O A S

Blogging On A Sunday... Here we are, on a sunny sunday afternoon, today has been a successful day so far, in terms of work and in terms of finding things. Our resident sculptor BH has found us a new table and chairs for outside which in the words of Jean Paul Sartre is 'tres bon', means we can sit on something other than the floor now. ARR is producing bright objects left, right and centre. NF is eating some lovely home made sunday dinner somewhere in the depths of london, so all in all a good sunday so far.

A/B/C

THE MODERN GENTLEMAN

APPEARANCE

BEHAVIOUR

CONCEPTION

CONCEPTION

I have received a fair few answers to the questions I asked a range of people about there thoughts on the modern gentleman, there have been mixed responses to all the questions, humorous, negative, serious, thought provoking. Its also been interesting what everyone says, because its always different, which I guess...

APPEARANCE - BEHAVIOUR - PERCEPTION

The idea of appearance and its inter-relation with behaviour is an interesting one, especially the fact that appearance is something visual that everybody can see, however behaviour is something only a select amount of people can experience, this is where the perceptions of people come into play, due to the fact that what...

APPEARANCE / BEHAVIOUR

There is one underlying theme behind all my research at the moment, from the questions I have asked people, to the books I have read, this is the interrelationship between appearance and behaviour, how do they interact with each other? Is it possible to have one without the other? Is it possible that you wear the clothes or do the clothes wear you? Its an interesting thought and I think this is the route I am going to go down, not too sure how yet but ill get there.

A. SAUVAGE - THIS IS NOT A SUIT

Here is a video from the designer A. Sauvage shown to me by Lauren Pires, the concept follows a simple logic within a strong framework. To explore the word suit and what it suggests. In each case, The designer invites subjects to wear garments from his collection and encourages them to express who they are whilst wearing a suit with no directorial...

HARD GROUND

Hard Ground is a book of Michael O'Brien's portraits of the homeless and original poems by Tom Waits. Waits 'the poet of outcasts' poems capture the nature of these homeless people of America, with fantastic photography from O'Brien, this book is something that is so simple yet evokes a lot of thought, I guess this sort...

TO MEET & GREET

At the 'Evolving English' show yesterday I noticed a book, that wasnt a guide to as such but almost a dictionary of how to meet and greet people, It was written nearly 100 years ago, and to an extend was relevant today in terms of behaviour, not in terms of the english language, it read,

How to meet a friend

'How doth your wife?'

'How doth your children?'

...to which you should reply

'They are fine thank-you'

Thought this was quite appropriate for the work i'm doing at the moment.

INFORMATION PLAYGROUNDS - ALAN STERENBERG

Today for info playgrounds we went to the British Library, to have a look round the exhibition they have there at the moment, Evolving English which is all about the English language and the roots it holds, everything from slang, medieval manuscripts to sound recordings. It was a interesting exhibition, which was well laid out, with clear and concise information. There was one part where you can give your voice to the British Library, in which you talk into a phone and they record your voice for their records, which I had to do, so did. We then went to a meeting room and had a talk from the head of exhibitons Alan Sterenberg. He spoke very honestly about the things that went on there which was good to hear, and about some points that he thought needed to be apparent throughout an exhibiton, these were things like,

Make sure when presenting things like books or other objects, to do it in such a way that it isnt boring.

Getting the message of the exhibition across quickly, so that people know what its about and if the only thing they take away with them is the desire to look up what the exhibiton was all about then at least it had some form of effect on them.

If people come out of the exhibiton having learnt something then you have succeeded

Word of mouth to promoto a show is sometimes the best method.

These among others were useful points that i'm sure will be utilised within the final year show, but only time will tell.

DOWNTOWN FROM BEHIND

Ben just emailed me Downtown From Behind which is an amazing blog based in NYC, its basically photos of people riding bikes from behind, such a simple idea but is amazing, also has the backdrop of New York which always helps things. You need to check it out.

THE MODERN/PRESENT

I feel that when I hear and use the word Gentleman I think of all the things that I associate a Gentleman to be, this personally is someone who wears a three piece suit, has a good haircut, has a nice watch a good pair of shoes, has good intellect and is nice to people. However the point of this work is to show that the sterotype of a gentleman has been lost.

However if you think of the modern man then other bad connotations may arise, the modern man could be very far removed from this gentleman figure that the connotations altogether of a gentleman are lost, this is why maybe mixing the two together is the right thing to do.

Having modern and gentleman all in the same boat, creates a new meaning for modern or present gentleman.

THE RULES OF A GENTLEMAN

I stumbled upon a site named 'The Rules of a Gentleman' a few days after deciding to work with the subject of the modern man, or gentleman. It is an interesting site, as it has little rules that come out every so often about things a gentleman should do, weather it is relating to appearance or behaviour, it is also interesting because you can add your own to the site, they also sometimes have a 'please note' at the bottom of them with something funny written about the rule or sometimes not. I feel that some of them are the obvious sterotype of what a gentleman should be however some are not quite as obvious, for example the more obious rule is

'Ties are meant to compliment a wardrobe, it should never be a main focal point'

and a less obvious one goes something a bit like this,

'Your outlook on life defines how you react to those life chaning moments' (please note - those reactions can define your life)

YOUR PERCEPTION

The preliminary questions for my work are as follows...

THE SARTORIALIST

Scott Schuman is the man behind the blog the sartorialist, I have been looking at this site pretty much every day for a good few years now, and feel that i take a lot of inspiration from the photos that Schuman takes. I really like the way he has kept true to his blog format, keeping the name the same and the look the same...

WHAT IT ONCE WAS

'To a degree, a "gentleman" signified a man with an income derived from property, a legacy or some other source, and was thus independently wealthy and did not need to work. The term was particularly used of those who could not claim nobility or even the rank of esquire. Widening further, it became a politeness for all...

BASQUIAT

The late Jean Michel Basquiat was an unknown graffiti artist living on the streets of New York, rising up to being the darling of New Yorks art critics in 1981. I have been looking at a lot of Basquiat's work recently, everything thing he did from being the graffiti artist samo to the critically acclaimed artist Jean Michel Basquiat...

THE GENTLEMAN

SELF INITIATED BRIEF 001

The notion of a gentleman has changed since fifty years ago, is there a definitive character of a gentleman anymore? Now that the class and race system have been broken down, what is the new perception of the modern man?

The first of my self initiated briefs is all to do with the modern man, and if the perception of a gentleman is still alive today, is being a gentleman about the way you dress, the way you act, both or something completely different altogether?

This project is all about modern culture, and social documentation of self expression from a range of people across Britain. It is also about the appearance and behaviour of the perceived gentleman and the inter-relation between the two of them.

UP CLOSE

I have said previously when I went to the 100 club i took over 200 photos and these were the final edited down photos which i used within my work, I think they are a nice range of photos, with things that generally look pretty horrible but somehow there is a nice feel behind the photos. The place is a dump but it dose take...

REVERTING TO TYPE - STANDPOINT GALLERY

Yesterday after our crit Henry and I went to the reverting to type exhibition at the standpoint gallery on coronet street. The whole exhibition was devoted to letterpress, with all the work having come out of the letterpress method. I dont think i've ever seen that much letter-pressed work in a room before, some of it was...

DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS

Over the last few days I have been experimenting with my designs for the 100 club poster, with tear off flyers, playing with type and pictures that i have taken, here are a few rough examples, think i'm heading down the route of the 2 columns and small bit of type. I want to basically have the feel of a gig poster for the 100...