One of my foremost areas of enquiry is finding or creating a space for my voice. It has been difficult to build on spaces and voices defined by previous female practitioners. I have found it difficult to find a way of speaking that is not understood through a particular way of reading. I have explored painting, I have explored the use of textile and knit, I have explored film and photography. All wonderful vehicles for expression, but not for real communication. The message is interfered by the language of the medium. With painting and film the message struggles alongside the narratives of “feminist painting” or “female film”. Textile and knit as the feminine medium. Therefore, opening up a space for illustration in ‘digital’ or ‘video’ whose narrative is yet to be defined, is very seductive.
My working title is ‘Exploring Video as a platform for the voiceless. To discover if the aphonic can exist in the space of Video’. Or ‘Can video be defined as a language or distinct system of communication?’ The aim of the project is to explore the relatively new space created by video game software as a potential vehicle for illustration and art. Objectives within this aim are to define or understand this space, which I’m referring to as ‘Video’. Understand how to use this space for visual communication. Discover the neutrality, language and politics of the space.
As such the next stages of my practical research began with drawing images of redundant video game technologies. This was to familiarise myself with technology that used 8 bit graphics. The project running alongside these drawings is an investigation into 8 bit colour palettes, therefore it seemed natural whilst undertaking the colour investigation that I draw the machines 8 bit was built for.
This is a selection from a number of images I have made demonstrating part of a research enquiry into redundant technologies. This selection of developmental work contributes towards criteria 2.4 and 2.5 particularly as the drawings demonstrate confident use of media and technical expertise relevant to illustration practice. This is a selection of a series of drawings of redundant video game platforms and personal computers. The relate to each other in terms of subject and technique. The project preceding this was the Computer Chess project where I drew in black and white a number of late 70’s early 80’s computers. In this respect this series follows on from Computer Chess developing the investigation in colour. The project that follows, and runs alongside, this series of drawings is an investigation into 8 bit colour palettes. The link here is with redundant technologies and colour. Out of context the drawings are realistic renderings of old computer technology and could be printed as outcomes. So to a first-time viewer looking at the images they might get a sense of retro gaming, nostalgia, may be joy in the colours, or sadness in the loneliness. The wider research project is not expressed in these images which is why this series is an outcome but also a development project.