OUIL501: COP2: Summative Evaluation

OUIL501 COP2 SUMMATIVE EVALUATION

In this project I built on and applied my contextual knowledge and skills in critical writing through my essay. I chose the subject of lad culture to focus on, combining it with elements of third wave feminism as a way to provide an alternative thought process to lad culture. Instead of privileging misogyny, third-wave feminism looks to create gender equality for all.

I combined this contextual research and critical writing with running a practical project alongside it. This helped me to explore these themes in a freer and more expressive and personal way. I used my practice as a method of research into lad culture using a combination of primary and secondary references. This variety of theoretical and practical research methods helped me to explore lad culture in a reportage way, through the investigation and resolution of my chosen question and my interviews.

I conducted my own report where I interviewed a number of participants asking them a few open relevant questions regarding their view on lad culture, feminism and banter. This was really helpful in providing me a starting point to the general consensus of lad culture around me. However obviously this group was extremely small in relation to British society so I continued my research using more professional and known references.

I found Laura Bates book Everyday Sexism extremely helpful on this issue, particularly in providing facts and a new view on feminism. The tasks also really helped me to explore different theories and ways of seeing the world and develop my critical awareness. Support from tutorials, crits, seminars and workshops was also really helpful in exploring ideas relating to my topic and hearing others views on this project. From talking to peers I decided I really wanted to try to make this work to be aimed at all, and definitely not target boys as a ‘bad influence’ as many males are victims of this derogatory culture or the pressures surrounding it.

I loved working practically on these contextual issues as I thought it was great to have so much knowledge that it could allow you to leave reference and work from memory and imagination instead; creating much more organic and emotive artwork.

I enjoyed investigating lad culture in my sketchbook with quick line drawings, exaggerating particular parts of the lad physic and mentality. These more abstract characters were created using just the primary reference of my imagination which helped me to be freer with the illustrations as I had no guidelines. This element of working purely from imagination is one that I felt comfortable working with because I had carried out so much research on my project that I knew the message and key aspects that I wanted to portray in my pieces.

My final piece was an A5 concertina book. There are two opposing/parallel scenes: one focusses on a Lad Utopia, the other looks into a Lad Apocalypse. These scenes provide the background for a more serious content. The content focuses on both female and male issues with lad culture. For men, there is the influence of macho conditioning that tells them to “man up” and demands that “boys don’t cry” on pain of mockery and humiliation. This results in a problem with asking for help and support when they need it. Those excluded from lad culture such as women and LGBT people are also negatively affected in more obvious ways.

Overall I am really happy with my final pieces and I am really glad I have managed to combine a comedy element with the scene, with the more serious content using quotes and statistics. I think it provides a good tool in educating people and opening their eyes to the reality of society regarding misogyny and its relevance in lad culture. If I were to do this module again I would have ago at creating a scene using characters and be really imaginative and expressive. It is a shame that I did so much work on the character of the lad, yet I didn’t include this in my final outcome. However I chose to do this in order not to isolate young males. I wanted the audience to be able to pick up this work with an open mind and not feel that it is targeting anyone in particular- more just providing information.

I think that the combination of analogue and digital was a good decision as it allowed me to be detailed and imaginative with the individual components whilst still being able to quickly add and investigate with colour etc using Photoshop and layers. The digital aspect gave it a much more finished quality however if I had had more time I would use it to work on these final pieces and make the scenes work better with the font in a more clear and thought out layout.  My sketchbook and my final work have been completely influenced by my ongoing research and investigation outside of my sketchbook, for example for my essay. I think this technique has really helped me as it allowed me to be a lot more imaginative and expressive once I had learnt a huge deal about the theories and context behind the project. In future I want to continue experimenting with combining context with my imagination to create more unique work, rather than relying so heavily on reference images.