The last couple of weeks have been really hectic. My planned hiatus from the LPAP summer school has been pushed back thanks the antics of the Passport Office. While things have been on hold, it occurred to me that I've said a lot about what other artists are up to but I've been near silent about my own work.
I was really intrigued by Sarah Silverwood's work, Longbridge Mass Observation, and I decided LMO was relevant to some of my work I finish the summer school.
After my success with sign writing in the space, and with the above taken into consideration, I am pursuing a typography project, using quotes from the LMO archive.
There's important ethical considerations to think about while I develop the specifics of my project brief. A lot of the contributors were teenagers and school children, and I know that personally, I would not have been comfortable as a child had I contributed to the archive and an artist had put a spotlight on specifically my contribution, depending on the context of what I'd submitted. I wouldn't have liked the attention and I would have felt like I'd been stolen from.
I think I'd prefer to take stuff out the archive than to do original research myself, not because I don't enjoy research, but because I have to priortise and make effective use of my time at LPAP. I'd prefer to use my illustration to promote the whole archive, which provides a more accurate overview of Longbridge than I could on my own.
I'm hoping to be back in Longbridge by the 10th/11th August, and plan on having a defined brief by then.