Week 19

Manifesto: The Future Collective.

The Future Collective (working title) is a group of like-minded organisations within the UK Arts & Culture sector working together to provide a response to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Our collective aim is to embrace the chaos caused by the impact of the pandemic and to harness that disruptive energy in order to realign the order of traditional modes of thinking, within the Arts & Culture sector. We want to cut up the pre-existing rulebook and to scatter those fragments to the wind, because in such uncertain times of unprecedented societal upheaval, how can we continue without adapting our perspective on our own contributions to the broader dialogue.

Piece it back together, disrupt the view!

Design Development:

Design Concept.

Cut It Up! A new approach is needed!

The last year has caused disruption to all aspects of our daily lives, posing a myriad of questions pertaining to a broad and varied range of subjects. Such uncertainty has had a damaging impact for so many of those working across the Arts & Culture sector, but for those whom have endured, there have been lessons learnt, and by embracing new modes of thinking and non-traditional approaches to every-day tasks, many of those organisations that have been left standing now find themselves in a new landscape, one in which the paradigm is changing. The question now is, can that change be the catalyst for a new and brighter future?

Yes, there has been a great deal of upheaval, however, one of the consequences of having to adapt to a tumultuous year has been the revisiting of previously sidelined topics of conversation. For example: The debate pertaining to the viability of a shorter work-week has long been dismissed by the corporate sector, and now, industry leaders such as DixonBaxi are trialing a four day work-week.

Initial Ideation: Advertising Campaign.

In-Bloom: We are making a new world.

In this series of proposed posters, I would seek to convey the concept of “Cut it Up” as being informed by a rich tapestry of ideas and influences, many of which can be observed within the artwork itself, and whose presences evokes thoughts of previous disruptive movements that had themselves, previously emerged through a response to political strife, or societal upheaval.

(Above) In this composition I had strove to conceive of a multi-panelled visual-narrative that depicts the life-cycle of a leaf. Going from bottom to top-left, and running clockwise, we observe the falling leaves, followed by the emergence of a new bud, and finally the blossoming of a new cluster of leaves.

This story is, of course, an analogy for the current changes taking-place across the Arts & Culture sector, and conveys to the viewer the natural processes that exist within the world around us and how they too, can be applied to how we respond to the challenges created by the impact of the pandemic.

In this iteration I had begun to introduce interchangeable panels into the composition, with the third panel now depicting a figure cultivating the new bud and conveying to the viewer their own role in responding to the impact of the pandemic. This addition of a figure acts as a more direct visual cue for the audience and engages the viewer in a none-spoken dialogue, and invites them to play a more active role in the rebuilding of their local Arts-focused venues.