Design Ethos: A Bugle of Change: Change Observer: Design Observer

A look at the schedule

Art, Design and Architecture in Our Space:
New Perspectives on Art and Design Practice in The Caribbean

7.30 - 8:30 Registration

8:30 - 8:45 Opening remarks - FHE, DCFA / VA

Art in Our Space Moderator: Dr. Gabrielle Hezekiah
8.45 – 9:00 G.A Gardner
9:02 - 9:17 Peter Doig
9.19 - 9.34 Shastri Maharaj
9.36 – 10.00 Q & A
10.00 – 10.15 BREAK

Design in Our Space: Moderator: Ms. Lisa Allen Agostini
10:15 - 10.30 Adele Todd
10:32 - 10.47 Richard Rawlins
10.49 – 11.04 Robert Young
11:06 – 11:21 Lesley Ann Noel.
11:23 – 12:00 Q & A

12:00- 1:00 Lunch

Architecture Panel : Moderator: Dr. Maarit Forde
1:00 - 1:15 Mark Raymond,
1:17 - 1:32 Vernelle Noel,
1:34 – 1.49 Geoffrey MacLean,
1.51 – 2:06 Jenifer Smith.
2:08 -2:30 Q & A

2:30 – 2:45 AFTERNOON BREAK

Art, Design, Architecture in the Wider Community Panel : Moderator: Ms. Marsha Pearce
2:45 – 3:00 Sean Leonard,
3:02 – 3:17 Keith Cadette,
3: 19 - 3:34 Prof. Gerard Hutchinson,
3.36 -3:51 Gary Turton.
3:53- 4:15 Q &A

4:15 – 4:30 Closing Remarks

Change of venue for Art, Design and Architecture in our space

Due to the overwhelming number of registrants for "Art, Design and Architecture in Our Space - DCFA One Day Symposium", the venue has been changed to The Auditorium, 2nd Floor, School of Education UWI - Agostini St, St. Augustine (near UWI doubles).

You can still register for the event, which takes place next Wednesday October 6th, with Marissa Brooks at the Department of Creative and Festival Arts - 663-2222 or marissa.brooks@sta.uwi.edu

Registration is free, but lunch will be available for sale at the Staff Social Club next door for $25-$40, at several other venues nearby, or you can feel free to bring your own packed lunch. We will circulate the Staff Social Club's menu to confirmed registrants early next week, so you can confirm your lunch order, or you can also order on the morning.
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One of the reasons that I started Gallery Yuhself has been to also introduce the reader to people who are actually working in alternative ways in Trinidad and Tobago. I have already interviewed Richard Rawlins, an Art Director who pushes the boundaries of design through his magazine and art projects. James Hackett who is an illustrator, designer and carnival maker. The third person is Alicia Milne, an artist working in a variety of media. Her blog reads like a personal diary and her insight into ways of seeing and creating is extremely refreshing.
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Alicia Milne
http://intriguingthings.blogspot.com/



I chose to ask Alicia to send me a paragraph explaining her work instead of doing an interview. She kindly obliged with the following missive-:

I am finding it very interesting making work these days. I always found it to be a bit of a struggle to get into a groove of producing but once I got to that physical and mental space I can get into a state of continuous and constant production. While I was still at school I now realize I was afforded the luxary of having a space and time set aside just for me by my family as I was a student so I suppose they believed I needed my 'study time'. Now that I have recently left my job to have a go at my work full time it is even more of a struggle! My living situation makes it very difficult to work without interruption. It is extremely challenging to make work when one seems to be in an almost perpetual state of interruption. But somehow I can push through it (sometimes!).

I am consciously trying to separate the thinking about the work and the making of the work. I am finding that if I talk too much about ideas and try to justifly, legetimize and contextuilize the work I get too intimidated by it. I am doing the making and then step back and think, discuss. It's valid because I have made it. Sure the talk is a very important aspect but at the end of the day if I have not produced all I am left with is just talk.

Interview with Illustrator / Designer: James Hackett

James Hackett
http://shizzies.com/blog/

Hello James, can you give me some insight into your working process.
what's your avarage day like?

Well I do not have a routine per se. I just usually work early in the day. I am usually awake around 4-6am in the morning. Early in the day it is just a little bit quieter and peaceful so I focus better when compared to later on in the day with noise, heat etc.



2. Your interest in comic book illustration has always informed your work, tell me about this against your background in carnival.

Comics pretty much gave me my start in art, my brother kind of initiated me with it and later on I became an avid collector and fan of these books. I was drawn to all the bold imagery and colours and pretty much the fantastic way that only a comic book can tell a story in graphic details.

It is the design and illustration aspect that got me very interested in carnival and the way one can tell this visual story through sequential layout of costumes. I believe I benefitted a lot by having experienced working with various local prominent artist involved in carnival and art locally like Peter Minshall for example and all the talented artists that were part of the camp in the 90s.

Over an extended period I worked alongside Marlon Griffith who is also quite an interesting creative mind and doing well creatively and getting more and more recognition worldwide for his work. He is also an artist that travelled some similar paths to mind and quite fond of carnival and comic art.



3. What do you think about the way both Art and Design are evolving?

It is a fun time for me I think. I like playing around in various media and discovering different ways to tell my story. It is kind of the reason I am doing fashion, but now there are so many advancements in print and film that you are starting to see interesting narratives in art occur now beyond just the traditional fine art painting. That is fun and exciting to me.


4. What are your views on design education and what would you like to see being done for Artists and Designers now?

I think new designers need to be able to work on a world level. We cannot learn about processes and styles and techniques that are outdated we have to keep abreast of what is going on worldwide. I think designers and artists now have to get off the back seat and be proactive about their world. No one else will understand what needs to be done other than us. This is why I like what the people at Alice Yard and the folks behind Draconian switch are doing for example.



5. You have always embraced alternative ways of seeing, how does this work for you?

I bore really easily. I am a restless individual. Anything routine or static I cannot do for very long. My big adventure involves some risk taking but most times it has benefitted me in the long run. As an artist I try to pay attention to what is happening what people are doing and most importantly find my own spin on something. For example I am a fan of anime and Japanese manga. I started illustrating to find my own interpretation of it, rather than just using the style wholesale with Trinidadian names, I wanted to create a visual animated, illustrative style that was Trinidad. This style however was still informed by the techniques and processes by the Japanese and even some American influence as well as local illustrative stalwarts. Alternative can just mean finding your own voice and being confident enough to use it.



6. Any advice for the student out there who likes drawing but doesn't know how to move forward?

Have to become confident, and never be afraid of mistakes. I spent several months sketching on cheap books and old drawing pads. It built up my confidence to move on to bigger projects and simply made me want to draw more.




7. What are you working on next?

I scrapped quite a few plans I had for this year, now I am just focusing on fashion illustrations and my other fashion related work. I have put off any solo exhibition attempts until I graduate because I am putting most of my energy towards these last two years of school.

Thanks so much James.

Thanks. I enjoyed answering the questions.


PS: You can get James' prints on his site, here -:http://www.shizzies.com/shop/products-page/

Interview with Graphic Designer : Richard Rawlins

Richard Rawlins

1. How did you come about using design in such an interactive way?

The decision to actively show work meant that I would have to negotiate some unfamiliar terrain. Our local artscape has it’s own set of unique rules, governed by levels of acceptance, economies of scale, exclusivity, relevance and tenure among others things. Design is about ‘communication for living’ and as such it presented me with the answer to some of the problems ‘plaguing’ the ‘scene’. I set out to circumnavigate those problems.

For me it wasn’t any different to what I did everyday in my advertising job. How would I be able to show and address all of these issues? I would employ design as the major tool of communication and then some.

I ‘DID’ it. By that I mean I literally D.I.D. it.

Defined it. Initiated it. Developed it. Defined an objective of what I wanted to achieve.

Initiated a position for where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.

I say initiate because this may have changed over the time and development of the work and I may have had to backward engineer. Last was the Development of a Communication strategy. What vehicle will we used to get from A to B.

"A" being the place we are currently and "B" being the place that we desire to be.



2. Did your ideas meet any resistance at first?



Resistance is objective really. I mean if you want to show in a gallery, but galleries would rather show other work that’s not yours and you appropriate a space and still show your work, the problem is solved. When I started sending out stuff from artzpub.com and eroticartweektt.blogspot and my own blog richardmarkrawlins.blogspot.com via Facebook, I got flagged for spamming. Maybe it was Facebook’s server or somebody with other interest other than my own who didn’t want to see me get ahead. I still beat that by embedding message codes in my statuses, using twitter, word of mouth and email. Before one of my shows someone tried to piggyback off of what I was doing by attempting to book a one night show of work supposedly similar to the work that I was showing in my one night show, the night before my own show. Of course from time to time you get the odd person here or there that will seek to pull you down over what you are doing and claim it’s only about self-promotion. There is always something…and there is always a way to beat it.



3. How did you bring people around to your way of thinking?



I didn’t have to. Having defined the problems with our local artscape and looking at its rules, I went the other way. Sun Tzu was Japanese warlord. Touted by some as probably the best there ever was. His father on the other hand it has been said was an ass, and did everything badly. Tzu learned from his father by going the other way and hence ensuring success. I go the other way…away from the norm. There are people out there that don’t need convincing about wanting something a little different. What I’m doing is a little different. That in itself creates interest and fits into my communication strategy.



4. What have been some of the projects that you have done and how did they come about?



• Speak UP 2007 – this was done as part of the Radical Designs group show of eleven artists and designers, who would employ Jeans as the medium for their expression. This was the beginning of a concerted effort on my part to show work. This work was the first time that I really began putting together the exploration of my own visual vocabulary. The work consisted of a pair of jeans and a book with representations of our local picong-patois-vernacular. Download it here:



http://www.artzpub.com/alt/pdf/SPEAKUP.pdf



• Draconian Switch 2008 – started this as a way of encouraging creative people in the advertising industry into expressing themselves in another forum, that might have been closer to their creative self and minus the mental blocks and frustrations of dealing with clients and account executives.


• Alice Bangie 2010 – my first foray into furniture and sculpture as inspired by the work of Surinamese artist Roberto Tjon Meeuw to build a FATU BANGIE a huge bench for friendship, community and liming.


• The Bag Project 2010 - a little experiment at showing online. This exploration in recycling using old jeans and turning them into bags facilitated an online performance art piece. Initially meant to show only online, the project jumped from art and fashion as the medium to fashion when it was shown as part of Jazzing Up the Runway. See the show online here:



http://richardmarkrawlins.blogspot.com/2010/07/richard-rawlins-bag-project-2010.html




• Button Project 2010 – the culmination of my political explorations from 2006 -2010. Held on the verge of the 2010 election. There is an element of political associations in T&T that’s like a fashion statement in themselves. We are asked to choose between colours. This show marked my foray into multi-media as well. I ran an animation on street, projecting animation onto a house opposite Alice Yard, and I would start my use of video for my artist statement. I really don’t believe in the long artist talk of 30 ‘over –intellectual’ minutes. What I have to say about my work can be done in under 10mins. This leaves the person coming to my event with the ability to chat, view the work, and hear and see me doing my artist statement at any point of the night (it loops), without feeling corralled to listen to what I have to say. My statements are brief to the point and perhaps even entertaining. Of course on the night of the show I’m still very accessible for discussion. My show is a human interaction piece afterall.




• Chinese Worker 2010 - this show was my homage to the Chinese Migrant Worker. The focus of this exploration was the affordability of art as well. I wanted anybody to be able to come to my show and “feel like they in the thing too.” We lament the fact that people don’t buy art, but I say people will buy art if an artist makes something that the average person can afford. This doesn't mean undervaluing your work or even working cheaply, but it does mean employing techniques toward the commercilisation and franchisement of work, something that the international galleries have long understood with their museum gift shops. Also as one friend pointed out we are in globalised recession so there are concerns about excesses in the art market and a certain amount of fiscal prudence being required. It’s art without excess. Affordable to make and affordable to buy...it’s I suppose trying to have a balance…create a market that’s sustainble...given the market we are in. Everybody wins the artist, the buyer and the "local art economy".


• The RMR Store 2010 – this venture is an extension of that exploration about merchandising. Long after my show, the work and items related to the work can actually be purchased online. The work, ‘works’ for me in the background while I continue to make more work or add to the inventory. Check out the store here: http://www.zazzle.com/rmraffinity*



5. What are some of your concerns about design in Trinidad and Tobago at this time?


My concerns are that not enough Design is being utilized. Design is about living. What does that say about us who aren’t making more use of it? I go to a bookstore and I see local magazines on the shelf, all badly designed and ugly. I see children’s books all badly designed. Not even the content structure is designed well. I look at our transplanted Miami template buildings and our packaged Made in China templates and it’s the same thing. There isn’t a conscious decision to employ and implore designers to do things. When I say designer we think Mas. We think Fashion Week. Do we think about street signs and highway signs? Do we think about environmental signage? Where is our design relevant Trinidadian design? Don’t get me wrong, Designers like Noel, Darbeau, Allen, and Young are exploring these fields but we need more. We need our own Alessi Design Factories, our own Wedgewoods and our own IKEAS. It shouldn’t be that one of the only avenues of employment for a designer is in advertising. We need more Abovegroups handling the design of identity. Maybe that is what we need a conscientious look at the overhaul of our identity as a nation. Maybe this a job for the newly formed Ministry of the People of Trinidad and Tobago. Getting Trinidadian designers to design our space. The UK design council is a perfect example of embracing growth and innovation. They have always championed the cause of Growing design to Grow Business. They hold at the centre of their being the concept of design as a building tool for a stronger economy and improved way of everyday life.



6. What do you think about the teaching of design and art, what do you believe is not being done and can be done better?



That’s hard for me to answer. I am not an educator in either of the disciplines. I would have to defer to people or peers that are practicing artists/designers and teaching. I look at life with promise and look at the graduating classes with the hope of the next big thing. Who knows what’s coming out of the programme. I recently saw the work of the UTT Animation Graduating class. I was so damned impressed. I did not feel as though I was watching student work at all. The collaborative teaching of the likes of Camille Selvon and people like Martin ‘Mice ‘ Raymond just showed through. I guess that is what I want. After four years of art school your work must no longer look first year “ish”.

I have hired COSTAAT students for my art department. I’ve never been disappointed. You come out of that 3-4 year Visual Communications Programme and you are ready to work. What we as artists and designers do is valuable and we must treat our craft with the respect it deserves, that starts with your education in the disciplines. With the likes of teachers like Adele Todd, Steve Ouditt and Lesly-Anne Noel teaching at UWI. I guess I expect a whole lot from that programme as well.



7. Do you have any suggestions to the up and coming designer or artist?


I always say just make work and make lots of it. I believe that creativity is God in Action.

When you look at his work (if you believe in God), you better believe that you have big shoes to fill. Don’t waste your time doing nothing. Practice, practice, practice…it’s what designers and artists do. They work. They are the real thinkers and revolutionaries of the world. We are the people that invent the stuff that does the stuff for people that don’t need to think about stuff. If we do it well enough people won’t have to even care that their life is better for it, they’ll just assume it was always so. Embrace technology and social media make them work for you. Archive your work. We debate the lack of appreciation for archivists and the act or archiving everyday in Trinidad. Archive your work. Explore it write on it examine and dessiminate it. Somebody somewhere will read it and care. Have valid and relevant content at the core of your work. Step out of the notebook and into reality. Invest in you and make things happen. Create your own action plan and follow it. Promote your self and have no shame for doing so. Phillipe Starck is the most self promoted designer in the world. Support for your work is the ticket to engagement. Ultimately this is what it all comes down to engagement.


gracias...




richard rawlins
richard.rawlins@cmbcreative.com

Meaning in Art and Design

There's nothing like an economic meltdown to encourage a spontanious drive to look within. A desire to bring meaning to "what now?" will always force a look at true values, and it is in so doing that we see the development of a variety of media being used to answer such questions.

why me? why this topic (First thoughts)

My embroidery project done in the environment on the status of crime in a paradise that is Trinidad and Tobago

The Bookmann in character as Betsy Ross Trinidad style

Tibor Kalman's excellent campaign for Benetton

When I was asked to be one of the presenters for the symposium on Art,Design and Architecture in our Space: New Perspectives on Art and Design Practice in the Caribbean, at first I was a bit taken aback by the request. I may be one of the lecturers, teaching part-time at the University of the West Indies, but I am also an Artist and a Graphic Designer.
I came about my career through a very crocked path. I never wanted to give up Art to pursue Design. In the time that I studied the subject at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, I was fortunate to encounter lecturers and teachers who were conscious of the very new splintering of fields.
Today it may not seem like such a big deal,these fields appear seamless, but back then, in the early nineteen nineties, as was the case with the invention of the home computer years earlier, there was the issue of new ways of seeing and creating. Some names that quickly come to mind and definate pioneers whose work cannot be denied were such people as David Carson,Neville Brody and Tibor Kalman (d.1999) who created design for magazines like Spy,The Face and Emirge.

Emirge magazine


These people helped push the boundaries of using drawing, painting, photograhy and Photoshop.
The beauty of all of this is that there is great design and design experiences happening all the time, you must just be well versed to see it. Here in Trinidad it comes out culterally, and my partner in design, Richard Bolai, alias The Bookmann, now deceased, and I spent a great deal of time looking and seeing, as well as making.
So it is with thoughts of my own experiences and goals for my career that I bring forth my process, my concerns and hopefully solutions and observations for the future.

A list of inspireing sites

http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/


>http://www.wreckthisjournal.com/



http://www.kerismith.com/


One cannot talk about alternative spaces and not show that it is happening all over the world.In this blog entry, I would like to show you a few sites that are conscious of this trend and are doing a lot of interesting things.

http://www.sagmeister.com/index.html

and of course amidst all of this, there are other fabulous women and I shall discuss that in the next entry.

More on the budget 2011 as it relates to the Arts

e. The diversity of our culture is our strength. We must now leverage our cultural energy to develop a culture based industry for both local and export market. We will partner with the Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago and other interest groups to act on a number of projects. Some of these include: additional funding for the music industry, creating a National Heroes Policy and publishing a Book of Heroes, restoring and recognising Heritage sites to promote destination tourism, as well as creating a National Hall of Fame and a House of Music, amongst other policies. These projects will reflect the rich heritage of our multicultural society.

f. The international fashion industry is a multi-billion dollar business. We must be prepared to enter this market. To do so we shall encourage our local fashion industry to market its strengths abroad. Trinidad and Tobago is known for creative design, expressed in carnival and other cultural and religious festivals. We must use this strength to build a thriving design industry that can compete internationally. We will support these groups to market their products abroad.

g. We will review the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company and the Trinidad and TobagoEntertainment Company to ensure that their mandates are consistent with their operationsand financial management. We will take steps to ensure that these companies areentrepreneurial and commercial entities. In addition, the National Arts Scholarshipprogramme will be expanded.

Excerpt from the 2011 budget speech for Trinidad and Tobago

This excerpt refers specifically to the allotment of moneys for the Arts-:
Increase in Art and Culture Allowance
Mr. Speaker, we recognize the invaluable contribution made by the arts and culture in shaping Trinidad and Tobago’s heritage.
As a result, the government will increase the Arts and Culture Allowance applicable under the Corporation Taxes Act from $1 million to $2 million.
This measure is estimated to cost $10 million and will require amendments to the Corporation Tax Act, and will be effective from January 1st, 2011.

The Paper

The much touted phrase "global village,' has put most of us working in the field of Art, Design and Architecture into a mindset of considering 'new' spaces for greater reach.
I have asked myself this very question as it pertains to getting the most out of not only making Art, showing and actually making a living, but also to the greater thinking of sustaining, advancing and expanding ways of seeing, making and being relevent in our instant media world environment.

My essay shall look at all of these facets of making and selling work today. The components necessary for success and the challenges at present as we build the future.

Art, Design and Architecture in Our Space - DCFA One Day Symposium

06 October · 08:00 - 16:00

The Visual Arts Unit of the Department of the Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA), Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine will be hosting a special one day symposium, entitled Art, Design and Architecture in our Space: New Perspectives on Art and Design Practice in the Caribbean to be held at the Institute of Critical Thinking, UWI, St. Augustine on October 6th 2010.

This event e...volved from the 2009 UWI Sculptural Project, which was spearheaded by artist Dean Arlen and proposed the installation of seven sculptures designed by several young Trinidadian artists. One of the seven sculptures was installed on the St. Augustine campus and has subsequently opened the discussion around public art and design in Trinidad & Tobago.
The 2010 symposium aims to initiate a dialogue on issues that affect the practice of art, design and architecture in Trinidad & Tobago and the wider Caribbean. The DCFA and Mr. Arlen have collaborated to develop a series of themes for four panel discussions during the symposium on Wednesday 6th October 2010:

Art in Our Space
Design in Our Space
Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism in Our Space
Art, Design & Architecture and the wider Community

Sixteen panellists drawn from thefields of art, design and architecture, as well as researchers from related disciplines will present papers at the Symposium. The Symposium papers will be published after the event.