CONTEXT

The Institute blog. A collection of information, essays and polemics relating to industry, culture and technology.

Business cannot exist in a vacuum. We examine the nature of ideas, communications and change within our contemporary cultural and technological landscape. We highlight potentially harmful actions and advocate for the freedom, meaning and agency required for human industry to thrive in a complicated and uncertain world.

Graffio Arts 4/5/24 Graffio Arts 4/5/24

William Latham: Mutator Infinity

MUTATOR INFINITY is William Latham’s first solo exhibition in Berlin. On view are generative art from two key periods: from 1987 to 1993, when Latham gained a world-wide reputation for his pioneering evolutionary art, and his series MUTATOR INFINITY from 2022 to 2024.

14 May-4 June 2024

We have been contacted through our network and asked to promote this exhibition.

The MUTATOR INFINITY drawings incorporate 3D physics and show an evolution from Latham’s early minimalist organic style with forms set in a black void to a style that is deeply ornamental and could be described as "Organic Gothic." Latham was inspired by electron microscopy imagery. Within the complex and entangled generative imagery lurk emergent forms, which the viewers will encounter as their eyes move across the artwork.

William Latham is well known as an early pioneer of Generative Art through his Mutator Evolutionary Art created at IBM in the late eighties and early nineties. His work, which shows strange organic, often serpentine, forms, is produced using his “alternative evolutionary software system” (developed with Stephen Todd and team), which William uses to pick and breed 3D forms freed from the limits of the human imagination. His work was widely shown in museums and touring shows in UK, Germany, Australia and Japan at that time.

William’s work is focused on using evolutionary processes to create art centred on the idea of “Artist as Gardener,” an idea which originated from his time as Henry Moore Scholar at the Royal College of Art in the early eighties where he created his FormSynth drawings and etchings which were to become a blueprint for his later Mutator work.

On leaving IBM in the mid-nineties he set up a studio in Soho and moved into working in Rave Music where his organic art had built up a big following in the emerging Rave and Cyberculture scene. After three years he and his team of around 70 people then moved into developing games working with Warner Bros and Universal Studios, in 2002 they created the hit game “The Thing” based on the John Carpenter movie which used his organic style. In 2007 he moved away from entertainment and become a Professor in Computer Art at Goldsmiths where he restarted his creative collaboration with IBM mathematician and programmer Stephen Todd. They resurrected and extended their old Mutator code and pushed the technology into VR creating highly novel organic immersive experiences for the public. The VR work has been shown in many touring exhibitions in China, Japan, Peru, Belgium and UK. Mutator VR uses his core evolutionary ideas but also shows strong influence from Rave and interactivity from games. Recently he has worked on his Fantasy Virus Mutator series and more recently again has been working in B+W on his Infinity Mirror series of images that can be described as “Computer Gothic”, influenced by Dürer’s engravings on the one hand and electron microscopy on the other.

William’s work is in the permanent art collections of The Pompidou Centre Paris, The V&A, The Gulbenkian Foundation and The Henry Moore Institute.

Expanded.Art

Contact Details:

Prof William Latham.

Goldsmiths,

The University of London.

威廉雷森

Gallery address: Friedrichstrasse 67 Berlin

Graffio Arts 4/3/24 Graffio Arts 4/3/24

Is Granny a Racist? Scotland’s Controversial Hate Crime Act Explained

For some, this act is a necessary evil in the fight against hate. For others, it has all the potential of a misguided and potentially dangerous, April Fools’ prank.

The Hate Crime and Public Order Act was introduced on the 1st April 2024. For some, this act is a necessary evil in the Fight Against Hate. For others, it has all the potential of a misguided and potentially dangerous, April Fools’ prank. Article by Guy Boyle.

Institute is interested in ideas and the multitude of ways that they can be communicated across our increasingly complex culture. We champion creativity and the free expression of ideas. We create communications for brands, we help creatives develop their voices and we educate young people with the skills to succeed. Should we be telling them that they no longer have the breadth of expression that we enjoyed?

The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament on 11th March 2021 and received Royal Assent on 23rd April 2021. What does it change, what’s all the fuss about and how might it be enforced? Let’s start at the beginning…

The Legal Context: The Council of Europe and The European Convention on Human Rights

This legislation builds on two previous acts. Those acts are The European Convention on Human Rights 1953 and the Public Order Act 1986.

The ECHR emerged from The Council of Europe and was drafted in 1950 and passed in 1953. With this bill, the citizens of Europe were granted the right to individual expression.

Source and copyright Source: Het Federalistisch Congres in de Ridderzaal. Lamme, H. Den Haag: Haags Gemeentearchief, 07.05.1948. Noir et blanc. Copyright: (c) Haags Gemeentearchief — Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

It is important for us to understand the two part nature of this act. The tension between these two parts is the foundation for debate on this subject. Let’s break it down.

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

It is worth noting that this act regards the people of Europe as citizens rather than subjects of any local monarchies. There are also similarities between this act and The American Declaration of Independence where one states Everyone and the other uses Human Events and Mankind to signal that this is a perspective that is believed to encompasses all of humanity. These are ideas that emerge out of the intellectual and moral frameworks of The Enlightenment and this is (in the words of the American Founding Fathers) the self evident lens through which we should understand and engage with humanity regardless of frontiers.

2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

The second part highlights the duties and responsibilities that come with these freedoms in a democratic society. Article 17 describes how part 2 can be used in law to negate part 1 of Article 10.

This is where the citizens of contemporary society clash as we seek to define such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law. This implies that we are likely to create new laws that seek to in some way regulate how we express ourselves in regard to the protection of the reputation or rights of others.

It is clear that the ground on which we draw lines that separate these two perspectives, for many, is no longer self evident.

The Legal Context: The Public Order Act 1986

The Public Order Act 1986 Part 3 dealt with public safety in regard to race, specifically outlawing racial hatred. Let’s break this down. This is the text from this section of the act:

PART III

RACIAL HATRED Meaning of "racial hatred "

17. In this Part " racial hatred " means hatred against a group of persons in Great Britain defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.

Acts intended or likely to stir up racial hatred

18.-(1) A person who uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting, is guilty of an offence if-

(a) he intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or

(b) having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.

(2) An offence under this section may be committed in a public or a private place, except that no offence is committed where the words or behaviour are used, or the written material is displayed, by a person inside a dwelling and are not heard or seen except by other persons in that or another dwelling.

(3) A constable may arrest without warrant anyone he reason- ably suspects is committing an offence under this section.

(4) In proceedings for an offence under this section it is a defence for the accused to prove that he was inside a dwelling and had no reason to believe that the words or behaviour used, or the written material displayed, would be heard or seen by a person outside that or any other dwelling.

(5) A person who is not shown to have intended to stir up racial hatred is not guilty of an offence under this section if he did not intend his words or behaviour, or the written material, to be, and was not aware that it might be, threatening, abusive or insulting.

(6) This section does not apply to words or behaviour used, or written material displayed, solely for the purpose of being included in a programme broadcast or included in a cable programme service.

The act states that a crime is committed only if the perpetrator intends thereby to stir up racial hatred . It states that an offence may be committed in a public or a private place but caveats that with no offence is committed where the words or behaviour are used, or the written material is displayed, by a person inside a dwelling and are not heard or seen except by other persons in that or another dwelling.

This is where concepts start to become challenging. We don’t really think about this on a daily basis and when you put it into words it can be a little surprising. We could hold a conversation with a host of different people and disagree with the ways that they understand race. It’s incredibly circumstantial and even our use of terms in regard to race change over time. What is deemed racist may change across a cultural line, within a given community or over time. An institution committed to anti-racism may be deemed racist by someone that believes drawing attention to race in a given way, is itself racist.

This is actually not an anti racism law. No matter how ugly or uncomfortable we may find it, racism is not a legal offence. They way that we think and talk about race can be crude or nuanced and flip month by month. This law captures a belief that most people share- if someone intends to stir up racial hatred towards another race then they forfeit their right to personal expression. The words intention and hatred are key here. It should be noted that the words offence and debate are absent as they aren’t relevant. This is about someone intending to spread hatred, it has nothing to do with any potential perceived offence in the mind of any particular party. It is purely about defining intent and pointing to obvious hatred. The belief here is that people promoting hatred are not taking part within a reasonable debate. They are not upholding their duties and responsibilities as citizens of an enlightened society.

Why is this Act Controversial?

When defining terms within these legal frameworks the subject is called a protected characteristic. The choice of characteristics is important. We might not want to protect music or Marmite for example as we have some joyful tolerance for ‘hate’ within those areas.

The new Scottish act adds to race as a protected characteristic with the following: age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics. It aligns the concept of stirring up hatred in relation to these characteristics.

Although intent and hatred are included in a similar way to the 1986 bill, they are proceeded by this:

PART 2

Offences of stirring up hatred

(1) A person commits an offence if—

(a) the person—

(i) behaves in a manner that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting…

This is a fundamental change. Intent has been swapped for a perception of threat, abuse or insult. As you can see this fits under the heading of stirring up hatred. Previously we only had to point to obvious hatred and understand the obvious intent behind this. Now an insult against a listed group is now considered an offence. The bill goes on to caveat this with calls back to the human rights act but it does so only after it has stated that behaviour that could be perceived as insulting is an actual offence.

This is where the act becomes problematic. It is part of the functionings of society to push at the boundaries of ideas as part of our duties and responsibilities as citizens of an enlightened society. Now we do have to actually worry about offence and how offence can be transformed into stirring up hatred. We cannot know how other people think and the time spent developing and testing ideas would in theory have to now be spent guessing what would offend any member of a currently selected group.

A Comedy of Errors?

To test if this idea make sense we could try a thought experiment. We could select the same groups as the bill or pick another set of groups. We could examine all comedy, film, tv, internet discussion, music, poster, book or home, pub or work discussion and look for those that felt insulted by any of those ideas from culture over time. We would have to turn huge parts of Scotland into prisons to cope with the biggest crime wave the UK has ever seen. Would Scotts be clambering across the border like those that attempted to flee East Berlin during the Cold War? Would we need to start burning books? This silly example highlights why this act is controversial. You can’t usually do that with laws. They usually just make sense. When you start to think that burning books (communicates to another person material that…) so that you aren’t insulted, the penny should drop that even if you believe that you’re right, you’re actually one of the bad guys.

If we considered the safeguard that these are infringements that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive… (and removed the word insulting) then it wouldn’t go that far. Precedent would be set. If that was the case, then why do we need the bill? Is it just badly worded and the real goal is to add to the list of protected characteristics? If we add the word insulting back in, then there is the potential (however ridiculous) that incredible situation could play out.

Our cultural communications often include a variety of different, engineered sets of insults and all reasonable people would agree that, yes, those insults are actually insults. It is vital that we all understand our laws and that those laws can encapsulate a spectrum of reasonable (and challenging) human behaviour. When you believe that those that insult you, belong in prison, it really is a slippery slope.

Lorcán Price, a barrister specialising in European and human rights law, explained the problem: “Say your friend made a joke in private that you found offensive. The possibility would be there to prosecute.” This may seem an unlikely outcome, but only one source is required to verify a hate crime – the supposed victim.

The consequences of current ambiguities in the law are already making themselves felt. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the UK in 1976, was given clarification by the UN Special Rapporteur in 2001. It recommends that any law prohibiting “hate speech” must ensure that “no one is penalised for true statements” and that “no one should be subject to prior censorship.”

Is Granny a Racist?

Another controversial aspect of the act is that private conversations within the home are not exempt. Have you ever felt insulted by a family member? This could add a whole new dimension to family get togethers. Never liked your 2nd cousin? Catch them out by flipping your pronouns and their next Hogmanay might be spent behind bars. Ever been disturbed by ideas held by a different generation? Now you have the mechanism to really set Granny to rights. There have many criticisms of the act by lawyers regarding the ability to enact revenge or pursue grudges, particularly within private environments. There have been 3800 complaints during the first 24 hours suggesting that there is currently an opportunistic aspect to the reporting of hate crimes. This will likely decrease as the police explain how they will set the bar with communicated guidance,

When you can easily draw parallels to an eager young member of the Hitler Youth informing on their parents or those that were encouraged to inform on work colleagues that held left wing affiliations during McCarthyism, it might indicate that even though it might be well intentioned, this act is probably a bad idea.

“This is an astonishing attack on freedom of expression which, read as I read it, threatens the publication of nearly all books published before the twentieth century”

— Francis Hoar. Barrister. Public law and human rights

Race in, Religion out

The section of the bill that covers protection of freedom of expression allows for discussion and criticism of topics related to the protected characteristics but the word (and allowance of) insult is reserved for religion. You are also allowed to dislike and ridicule religion. In terms of grading these characteristics, religion is firmly at the bottom of the list in terms of protection. If you’re a stand up comedian in Scotland, its official, religion is back on the menu. If want to cover anything else, you may need to segment your audience (and pray they aren’t insulted).

Making Room for a New Religon?

Is it going too far to draw parallels between a medieval religion with an accepted, enforced set of beliefs and the concept of a new, civil religion with it’s own set of beliefs that are enforced within a secular framework? There does seem to be an aspect of righteous zeal, a sense that this is the way to some kind of moral redemption. When conversations are monitored and certain viewpoints are deemed ‘heretical’, out of the scope for any conversation, there do appear to be overlapping factors that could be used to develop that argument.

The Pressure on the Police

The inherent problems with enforcing this act falls on the police force and the justice system. This change places an unprecedented power, and burden, in the hands of the police and courts to determine the criteria of a hate crime. David Kennedy, the General Secretary of the Scottish police Federation has stated that the main training resource for this act is a two hour online training course that is not fit for purpose and noted that ‘‘we are asking officers to police a law that they are unprepared for’’. Brent Haywood of Lindsays Lawyers explains that '‘Law should be certain and the citizen should know what conduct is or is not criminal’. Despite this, the Scottish Police force says that will will investigate every complaint. This is within the context of a list of offences that cannot be fully investigated due to lack of resources. It will be interesting to see how messaging changes after April 1st. Will the police encourage complaints relating to insults and behaviours like micro aggressions or focus on more established ideas about serious hate crime.

Concept Creep

It used to be taken for granted that we could debate freely and we were very aware of the steps that lead to physical harm. We just knew how it worked. This was within the context of the atrocities of the 20th century. You denigrate people with words and then actions and eventually you end up justifying murder. The word harm meant physical harm. The process of dehumanising through words spread through a specific culture and eventually built a context that enabled those in power to physically victimise a given group of people.

To distort this to the point where hearing something that you find offensive is, in itself, harm is a fundamental change to this rationale. This new claim must be justified on a case by case basis. It is concept creep that flies in the face of established wisdom and nuanced, workable frameworks.

If you want to ditch history and conventional wisdom, you have a hill to climb and you should be concerned any time that you achieve a victory. Smarter people than us developed these ideas within an historical context that enabled freedom of speech and incredible human flourishing. What could you be missing? What power could you be abusing? What impressionable minds are you changing? Article 10 highlights the need for responsibility.

Crossing Lines

We all want a better society but we have to very carefully way up our cures for ills. If we aren’t careful, our solutions to problems cause new problems. When we cross common sense lines in this manner we create a host of activity and anger that has nothing to do with the experience of real victims of prejudice and hate.

Links

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/what-is-the-european-convention-on-human-rights

https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/convention_ENG

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64/pdfs/ukpga_19860064_en.pdf

https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/legislation/bills/s5-bills/hate-crime-and-public-order-scotland-bill/stage-3/bill-as-amended-at-stage-3.pdf

https://www.lindsays.co.uk/news-and-insights/insights/an-analysis-of-scotlands-proposed-new-hate-crime-law-with-reaction

Graffio Arts 12/30/23 Graffio Arts 12/30/23

The Life Drawing Sessions

Institute hosts an ongoing series events for anyone interested in developing their drawing abilities.

Institute is hosting an ongoing series of sessions for anyone interested in developing their drawing skills. Classes are organised and lead by Martyn Blundell.

The sessions have proven very popular and sell out fast so keep an eye on social media for new dates.

Martyn has an MA in Fine Art and has been teaching drawing for more than 20 years at Loughborough University, Central St Martins, Nottingham Trent and Norwich University of the Arts. He has worked with fine art, graphic design, textiles, fashion and 3D design students. He is very widely travelled and currently organises drawing holidays to Spain, Poland, Thailand and Indonesia.

Institute is interested in developing creative knowledge and skill within the local area and drawing is probably the best place to start for new creatives and the backbone of much creative work. The sessions do not require any drawing experience and you will be taken as you are and encouraged to find the ways to draw that suit you.

“I believe that drawing is a natural part of human expression. At an early age we all draw fluently and beautifully but most adults, perhaps for the moment, have just forgotten how!”

— Martyn Blundell

SEASON 03 BOOKING

We are about to launch Season 03 of The Life Drawing Sessions.

27th January Life Drawing Session: 3 hours /@ £12 / 10 places / 2-5 pm

GET TICKET

17th February Life Drawing Composition Workshop: 4 hours @ £26 / 8 places / 12-5pm

(will have an hour lunch break)

24th February Life Drawing Session: 3 hours /@ £12 / 10 places / 2-5 pm

GET TICKET

2nd March Life Drawing Session: 3 hours / @ £12 / 10 places/ 2-5 pm

30th March Life Drawing Session: 3 hours/@ £12/ 10 places/2-5 pm

13th April Life Drawing composition Workshop: 4 hours / @ £26 / 8 places/ 12-5pm (will have an hour lunch break)

11th May Life Drawing Session: 3 hours/@ £12/ 10 places/2-5 pm

GET TICKET

Graffio Arts 11/13/23 Graffio Arts 11/13/23

Design Jam: Dark Patterns

We recently held our first Design Jam with MA Graphic Design and Visualisation students from Loughborough University.

We recently held our first Design Jam with MA Graphic Design and Visualisation students from Loughborough University. We asked them: what are the changing roles and responsibilities for designers in an era of quasi-intelligent media?

DARK PATTERNS

The Design Jam was designed to fit within the MA courses Dark Patterns module and focused on some of the more questionable aspects of digital media tools and services with a focus on AI.

We broke the day down into two sets of discussion and activity. The first session set the scene but was followed a student research session to uncover potential new tools that might empower the students in their future professional practice. The second session developed the idea of integrity in terms of intent and usage of tools that resulted in the students developing a personal media manifesto.

We had an amazing day. Thanks to the students and staff for showing so much enthusiasm and really engaging with the subject matter. We live in interesting times and it really is up to us to shape the ways that we would like to work with OUR media.

FINDING MEANING

We are living through a complex time and it’s full of contradictions. Generally we are wealthier than we’ve ever been and yet we feel poor. We know that there is rising inequality but we cannot agree on ways to rectify it. We have access to more knowledge than we’ve ever had and yet we cannot solve fundamental issues. As our media has become more open and democratic, we can all have a voice and yet, the things we choose to say fall within increasingly narrow conceptual margins.

For the fist time in history, we are negotiating with our tools. These tools are created by a specific group of individuals, in a certain part of the world. This group includes those that have attended certain courses that have trained them to develop data driven, digital manipulation. That industry is lucrative and where there is money, there are a certain group of people ready to dive in and develop our digital futures. This group will have certain agendas and we are quite aware that the developers of a very social media might, just might, not be the most socially well rounded individuals.

This is the cultural landscape that a new generation of students must navigate as they define for themselves the nature of graphics and develop communications for themselves and for potential clients.

This is a world where brand is god, where marketing is all pervasive and right and wrong is dictated by algorithms. How do you deal with this? How do we prioritise personal agency and develop meaningful brands that accurately reflect business in motion?

IS CODE THE NEW DRAWING?

Those that have been to art college will be familiar with the mantra ‘drawing, drawing, drawing!’. As our digital media develops and our options for communication multiply, wouldn’t it be empowering for creatives to code? With AI assistance, this is now possible. Could creatives build interfaces and could they design systems that build generative identity systems? We are living through a gap between paradigms. There is the world before and after the advent of generative AI. There are incredible opportunities available. Each time we use AI it has the potential to offer up clues for new uses. This progression will be exponential and it’s important for creatives to be engaged in potential developments.

While industry markets creative tools to creatives, it is up to the creative community to find the ways to use the tools to fit their own agendas, within a broader cultural framework.

DEVELOPING MODULES FOR EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY

Institute seeks to help develop communications across disciplines and across the boundaries of education, practice, institution and industry. The more we share our knowledge and skills, the more we all benefit. We have to take cultural contradictions head on and become more collectively proactive as we build our joint futures.

If you’re interested in joining the dots or you’d like us to develop an education module for your course or business then get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

Graffio Arts 10/22/23 Graffio Arts 10/22/23

Ama Dogbe's Game Engine Art

As a broader demographic has become involved not only in the playing of games but in the development of games, the landscape has shifted…

The tropes and cliches prevalent within the realms of computer gaming have been questioned for many years. As a broader demographic has become involved not only in the playing of games but in the development of games, the landscape has shifted.

This change has been in part powered by the groundswell in the number of quality Independent game studios and the availability of new, powerful and affordable software. When this kind of software becomes available, it doesn’t take much time for creatives to develop an understanding of this new media and imagine new ways to solve old problems. This often includes: how do I express myself?

Ama Dogbe is a young British-Ghanaian artist whose practice sits within digital realms. She has produced experimental animation of various kinds and is currently developing video games using a variety of self-taught digital mediums. The work on show at Institute was created with Unity

We presented two new game demos by Ama: Alien Invasion - No. 1607221 and Alien Invasion - Compartmentalising, as part of an audio-video installation. In Alien Invasion - No. 16072216, figures descend upon a garden-like world, and players follow paths to uncover talismans, relics and icons.

Using physical and digital repetition through photogrammetry (the process of creating 3D digital outcomes from photographs), Ama created a web of symbols that were both strange and familiar. The project was commissioned by MPND and funded by Arts Council England.

This event ran as part of Loughborough Lates, a free event open to the general public. The games ran on Mac computers and through Institutes exhibition screens. They were playable with PS4 controllers. It was intriguing to see children and adults engage with art in ways that they probably never have before.

The controllers would be familiar to some as would some of the game-like mechanics of navigation but the visual language and the use of space and the meaning of symbols were unique and had to be de-cyphered by the user.

There is much that we have learnt over the last few decades from digital gaming. We have created new worlds and developed communities as we populated them with our digital selves. We have negotiated time and money in favour of rewards and we have traded assets that resulted from our digital endeavours. We have become addicted and also frustrated- we have expressed the joy and anger of the physical world in virtual worlds. We’ve made friends and enemies. We’ve built clans, communities and businesses. We’ve stolen, we’ve conned, we’ve married, we’ve grieved. We’ve changed race and gender (often for a fee). We’ve planted crops and harvested them. We’ve built our own houses, developed new mythologies and made friends with people across continents.

As we move forward with VR, AR and the eventual mix of both, it is important that we capitalise on the learnings from gaming- the good and the bad so that we might capture the joy and empowerment that gaming can foster. It is also important that artists are equipped with the software and skills of new media technology as it emerges so that inquisitive, potentially contrarian voices become part of the discourse that develops our digital futures.

You will be able to see an online version of the project between 3rd November 2023 - 27th January 2024. The game is accompanied by a soundtrack of electronic, ambient and contemporary hip-hop by musician Louis Jack. The video game will be available to play via the Modern Painters, New Decorators website.

You can see also see more of Ama’s work here: https://www.instagram.com/artyfartyama/ and download Unity here: Download Unity.

Graffio Arts 8/14/23 Graffio Arts 8/14/23

Aligning Tone to Intent with TWAT Corp.

A social media experiment focusing on cynical attitudes in the Marketing community.

TWAT Corp. is a fictional US branding agency headed up the crass but brutally honest, ‘Chief Values Officer’, Terry Toenails.

Through the voice of this crude, cynical protagonist we are able to poke fun at the less noble activities of the marketing community.

There is much talk of ‘tone of voice’ but little discussion of the intent behind communications. Where there is a disconnect, TWAT corp is able to point to the real objectives in a way that is often ignored by those that claim to be brand strategists. Terry is crass and boastful, gleefully highlighting his real agendas as he maps out the way that this is distorted in the eventual messaging.

The marketing community is larger than it has ever been and includes groups that might not necessarily hold the knowledge, experience or skills that they aspire to master. This group are often desperately keen to highlight their credentials through various behaviours. This often includes mundane, school -level posts with obvious work methods labelled as ‘insights’, superficial discussion and ultimately in the production of self published books where they outline supposed keys to marketing success.

All of these TWAT cop posts are experimental and have a time limit applied. The development of each idea, the production of assets through to posting must take no longer than 1 hr. There is an element of professional scorn here- we will not put in more effort until this community is willing to put more effort into developing their critical thinking and required skillset.

This is quick fire, social media trash and it is treated as such. This clumsy production reflects the lack of sophistication of the antagonist and the attention span of this audience. Oscar Wilde wrote about ‘playing nicely with ideas’. It may be that it’s not appropriate to play nicely, until those within the playground learn to treat each other with less cynical disdain.

The posts are often confused and confusing, misrepresenting history, facts and attitudes, highlighting a trend for social media activity that promotes misinformed ideas across a spectrum of arts and design activity.

We do not know where this will go, what conversations it might generate but we do feel that it is important to question behaviour that is disingenuous in nature.

A SELECTION OF POSTS

Graffio Arts 8/10/23 Graffio Arts 8/10/23

TERRY MIQUEL IS LOST FOR WORDS

This exhibition is a timely reminder in a culture of screen based media that painting was rarely about imagery…

A retrospective of the work of local artist Thierry Miquel. The exhibition started with recent paintings that were a response to current uncertainties and back through time as Thierry has responded to life, armed with loaded phrases that emerge as part of work that is... constructed.

Thierry started his career in furniture design and you can see that in the work. It's built with paint, and found objects.

Painting was arguably the dominant medium for exploration and expression in the arts. This is a timely reminder in a culture of screen based media that painting was rarely about imagery. It is a fight with materials on the surface on an object. It has meaning in it's form, in its 'construction' and when you stand back from it, you observe a minute in time where the artist left that fight and moved on to the next.

Where should painting go tomorrow? What should we learn from it?

“All my work is based on words. I see an aesthetic beauty in words spoken and written. I love to play with the sound as well as visually dismantling the meaning of the words to create an alternative story or poem”

— Thierry Miquel

This exhibition was part of…

Loughborough Lates: Evening art and culture in town and on campus. Friday 28 April 2023, 6:00-8:00pm, #LoughboroughLates, mpndprojects.co.uk/lates

Loughborough Lates is an event hosted by art and culture venues spread across our town centre and campus. Loughborough will come to life with visual art exhibitions and events - all free to attend and participate in. Maps are available at participating venues on the day.

You can view more of Thierry’s work here: @thierrys_art

Graffio Arts 7/24/23 Graffio Arts 7/24/23

Dum-Dum Bullets

A series of critical shots across the bow of social media. A social media experiment.

It has long been a role of the arts to hold up a critical mirror to society. In uncertain times, where so many things that we should hold dear are in potential jeopardy, we feel obliged to evaluate and critique, ideas that we find to be harmful or unproductive in nature.

These ideas could be as simple as 'influencers' peddling nonsense to young creatives, marketeers promoting 'content' over meaningful communications through to the propagation of dangerous social and political agendas.

CRITICISM IS GOOD

This is about developing ideas and its happening in real time, here and on social media. There is no universal right and also, no wrong. All we really have is our ability to develop our ideas and convince others that they could be useful. These ideas become stronger when they confronted with criticism and adapt to become more fit for purpose. They may drastically change or be discarded as they fail to prove themselves. We invite you to engage with us on social media and discuss the development of these ideas (as well as your own) and examine the ways that we can communicate them across our cultures.

#DUMDUM

Expanding bullets were given the name Dum-dum, or dumdum, after an early British prototype produced in the Dum Dum Arsenal, near Calcutta, India. Expanding bullets, also known colloquially as dumdum bullets, are projectiles designed to expand on impact. This project is a critique of certain social media ‘content’, behaviour and communications. It is hoped that any shots to the metaphorical head, expand the conversation. Social media posts linked to this project will carry the #DUMDUM hashtag.

“I hear the roar of a big machine
Two worlds and in between
Love lost
Fire at will
Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill
I hear dive bombers and
Empire down
Empire down”

— The Sisters Of Mercy

THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Our battleground for this debate will be social media platforms. Most platforms have mechanisms to post video or images and then the opportunity to add text. This is often accompanied by hashtags. Hashtags are used as the vehicle to find posts related to a subject. Posts are usually related back to a profile. These platforms are usually free to use.

Can these platforms be used differently? Are we worshipping the algorithms and following the prescribed commandments as we fail to consider how things could be better? Do we have to play along and if that is the case, wont we spend all of our time and energy doing that rather than criticising it? How will things change if we all carry on in the same way, where the only difference is the flavour of the ‘content’?

These are the front facing tools and they are simple to use. We are examining the nature of these platforms and choose how we behave. The only constrains we have, we largely impose ourselves. If our communications hit a given tripwire, then the account could be banned. In that situation we may decide to create another account.

We’d like to think that this sits in a removed framework from ‘trolling’, ‘toxicity’ and ‘safe spaces’ and falls within the sphere of cultural criticism and debate. We could be deceiving ourselves. That’s for you to decide.

We know that each new generation of tools has its own characteristics. Our tools have never had their own agenda. A shovel didn’t want to dig up a given amount of soil a day. A pen didn’t feed back on the success of your letter and your letter wasn’t peer reviewed by people that you will never meet, across the globe. It seems that we have more to think about than we ever have but at a time when we are more distracted than we’ve ever been.

If a post or advert is put online on a social media platform then it comes with certain propositions. There is a way to signal positively with a like. What does this mean? does it signal interest in the ideas presented, the creator of the work or interest from the viewer? If some is talking about their business and there is the chance to comment and this media is ‘social’ what are the parameters for the conversation? Is the viewer invited to break down and discuss the viability of the business as they see it? Should they feedback on their understanding of the success of this kind of advertising? Are the lines blurred between promotion and the recording of day-to-day activity? How aware are we of that strategy and the implications for human behaviour?

We will take the view that everything and anything is up for discussion regardless of current norms. This means that any post promoting an idea or business, is an open invitation for productive criticism.

We will only be able to entertain the idea of development and change with our media if we examine it from the top down. We need to decide if it is our media- the means that we choose to communicate or if we are products within it, that should behave in certain ways. It may be that Critical Theory turns towards social media and this could be a precursor to that but in the mean time, we might argue that there is a long established tradition of cultural critique.

HIERARCHIES

We will take the stance that there is a very real structural hierarchy and that cultural communications should be aware of that. We will start with the planet. Then human survival. Then our cultural, political and social systems. Then our industries and their brands and their marketing. Finally we end with a individual- their chosen career and their potential for meaning and happiness within the framework above. An example of this might be an individual receiving dopamine hits from ‘likes’ on social media as they promote a greenwashing campaign that could cause harm to our planet. Social media encourages us to forget the pragmatic realities that we could use to develop priorities and replaces them with agenda-laden algorithms requiring aligned human behaviours.

ROLEPLAYING HUMANS

Algorithms encourage conflict and rewards are superficial, encouraging us to act in curious ways as we interact online. This is coupled with received wisdom within the marketing community that turns the ways that we generate ideas and then from this, generate communications, upside down. ‘Tone of Voice’ is a phrase that is now common place and focuses on how communications ‘feel’. The way our communication feels used to directly relate to it’s intent. This had defined our communications for millennia and its very involved. But something changed. The idea that meaning and intent is not only, not important, but should not even be considered, takes us to a very strange place. Chat GTP and other predictive text systems are often used as enablers that help to fabricate this ‘content’.

We are finding, through online conversations that marketeers and those wishing to promote themselves often know very little about the subjects that they purport to cover. When questioned about the meaning of their words, many will become very uncomfortable. It does appear that genuine conversations about the nature of ideas now only take up a small percentage of the communications that are pitched as idea conversations.

INTEGRITY

Being seen to be an informed, professional, aware, connected, employable, secret-sauce-holding idea expert, is much more important than genuine expertise. We would argue that an individuals ability to develop knowledge, skills and integrity is diminished when presented with these superficial goal posts. We will examine the idea of ‘integrity’ in play, from many angles. We might discuss an ethical dilemma in industry but also examine the structural integrity of a concept going from the initial idea to an eventual outcome such as an advert or claim of knowledge.

It seems absolutely acceptable for us to mark the change from an older platform for advertising like a billboard that has no elements of interaction to a platform that encourages interaction. We are used to a passive intrusion on our sense with a traditional ad but limit ourselves when we have the chance to discuss one of these ads. Our stance: any promotional material presented in a social media context is presenting itself- the company or individual behind it and the promotion, for critique.

EXPECTED LOSES

This is a research and development project focused on the nature of the Marketing community as it communicates on social media. We will poke it with a stick and observe the things that crawl out from beneath it’s shadow. We will be critical and in doing so, suggest context. When there is a community that is fond of phrases like ‘thinking outside the box’, how might they feel when a specific box is described? Do they actually perceive it? Would they prefer that it wasn’t mentioned? It’s apparent that we are coming at this with some prejudice. We are. We do believe that certain behaviours and perspectives are damaging and we are critical of them. Let’s see how it all plays out…

IS THIS MARKETING?

No and…yes. We feel compelled to criticise the contemporary state of play. We would do that on social media, regardless of benefit. We work in this field and are constantly disappointed by the behaviour and self serving advice of some marketeers. It doesn’t have to be this way. The opportunities that our contemporary set of media tools offer us is staggering and we see this empowerment made manifest across our screens. But there is a cost to human agency when we accept, without question, that the code that these tools run on, wants to manipulate us.

We have to come back to our own hierarchy. We feel compelled to take actions like this, because we believe that it is the right thing to do. We may make enemies, we make make friends. We may end up working with someone as a result of one of these cultural bullets hitting the right person at the right time. If that happens, we could say it’s marketing as we end up selling a service. Regardless of that potential, this project is focused on investigation. An investigation into the nature of contemporary marketing.

UPDATE: WHAT IS OUR EXPERIENCE SO FAR?

To draw certain substantive conclusions would require an in-depth set of surveys that produced quality data around certain behaviours. This isn’t that. This is an examination of communication within the Marketing industry from the point of view of those inhabiting this world. An examination of received wisdom and working practices linked to industry concepts.

We believe that we are almost exclusively engaging with intelligent, educated, media-savvy individuals. Unless we delve into the bowls of more exclusive communities then this is probably to be expected.

The pattern does seem to be that the priorities for posters are self promotion of some kind. There seems to be rules of conduct that are taken for granted. We might call this a ‘Culture of Content Creation’. There is a belief that there is a unique ‘essence’ that exists for each individual and that this is also available to a business or organisation. This quickly translates into ‘brand’ and brand is what you need to communicate effectively. There is an idea that this is ‘unlocked’, that it exists in a metaphorical DNA. The building blocks of this ideas DNA are ‘values’. We value values and values are valuable are monetary and cultural currency and they are essentially the same thing. Or one is required for another. Something like that.

Communicating these values, a ‘value proposition’ comes next. If we can just manage to communicate this, then success is the next step. Success is defined as that thing that validates your values. Your life, your brand, centred around those values is supported financially to flourish and then thrive.

It’s all very wholesome isn’t it? It’s the American Dream. But we know that these systems have their faults and there are casualties. There is good data for the affects of social media on young people. If Critical Theory turns its gaze on SM as an entity in itself, it might deal with inequities relating to power but we are interested in the integrity of ideas and their communication as part of a community that holds responsibility for the actual communications.

Back to ‘content’. The general stance is that post commenting should fit within certain rules. Posts will often have very obvious, bland proclamations like: ‘don’t force creativity’. The viewer scrolling past a sea of neverending posts is expected to hit a ‘like’ icon if this post resonates with them. The bar is incredibly low but it is expected that this is the norm and that’s okay. The nature of what ‘resonates’ and why is quite primal (for want of a better word) and would probably overlap with the human version of a dog wagging it’s tail.

Comments that endorse the post for it’s profound or more likely, inane positivity are the expectation. If you experience any thoughts or emotions out of this range, then you continue to scroll. There is no record of more sophisticated ideas. There is no mechanism that can highlight a desire for change. This system rewards the superficial and even though the mechanisms for ANY conversation are present, we, as humans have decided that this is a step too far.

Is any of this news? Probably not. But it is very rarely discussed within the available conversational mechanisms of social media. We are seeing very little behaviour that questions the system. We are seeing those that push the system to the limit for themselves and on behalf of their lucky (or discerning) clients. Advertising continues to push the boundaries as it finds itself on new media platforms. But this activity is usually confined to the creation of assets rather than any social aspect that isnt manipulative in nature.

It might be useful to break things down and look at these components afresh. Whatever the ‘content’, there is usually a mechanism available for discussion. We might have more power than we realise and we might be able to discuss more things and in broader terms. We might find that positive change can come from within, from us. Is it unreasonable to imagine the ways that we could develop a potential check list for change if we discussed it and defined it? We might more freely acknowledge that we are setting rules for ourselves and these rules encourage us to be a little less human that we need to be. If we value individuality, why do we act like a pack? Is there a space that we could develop that ignores ‘trolling’ at one end and banality at the other and more closely resembles productive cultural criticism?

We do not need to be poltergeists, haunting our media, content to hurl ‘content’ around our virtual spaces. We could be more present with more tangible aspects of our humanity at play.

Graffio Arts 7/20/23 Graffio Arts 7/20/23

Student Life Hacks

Recently, Compound hosted the fist Hackathon at Loughborough College, engaging T-level students with some real-world problem solving.

Recently, Compound hosted the fist Hackathon at Loughborough College, engaging T-level students with some real-world problem solving.

Compound brought a team to Loughborough College. They explained basic principles of low code systems and introduced the students to some easy to use tools. The students were broken into teams and went through to complete a sample project surprisingly easily.

At lunch time and in the spirit of coding culture, a huge stack of pizza was devoured. In the afternoon, the student teams pitched their own projects based on the mornings discoveries. At the end, the teams showed off their work and prizes were given out for the most ambitious and promising results.

The hackathon was a day to show the students some examples of real-world code applications and working practices. We kept an eye out for promising students and we be heading back to Loughborough college in September to offer some of them, Institute internships.

If you’re interested in software solutions, lowcode system development or Institute’s mix of art, design and technology, get in touch here.

Institute Admin 1/24/23 Institute Admin 1/24/23

Archive Fever

Five venues across the town kick off a new series of cultural events aimed at the local community.

Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across the town centre and campus. Loughborough comes to life with visual art exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events - all free to attend and participate in.

ARCHIVE FEVER

Archive Fever by Josie and Joshua Jones was shown at the Institute Research Lab at Loughborough Lates and will now be premiering on YouTube on Thursday 15th of December. In response to our 2022 Archive Fever exhibitions, this multi-screen installation shows interviews with six artists and contributors about the Leicestershire Museums Collection. Their conversations cover an array of topics, from nostalgia, conspiracy theories, preservation, and the personal responses they had to the objects within the archives. About Archive Fever The films shown in this installation are commissioned by Modern Painters, New Decorators as part of their exhibition programme, also titled Archive Fever.

The project centred around four solo exhibitions by visual artists; Joanne Masding, Jagjit Kaur, Daniel Cowlam and Katie Schwab. These projects began with a series of research trips to the Leicestershire Museums Collection, facilitated by Alison Clague, Senior Curator of the collection. The collection features a range of items relating to the county's history, including; rare butterflies, old farm tools, Victorian costumes, 1970s' Action Man', Neolithic stone axes and 19th-century engravings.

The artists used this research to produce new work inspired by the collection, and a selection of items from the collection were displayed alongside the newly created artwork. About Homespun Joshua and Josie Jones live and work together in Loughborough. They are also known as Homespun. Since graduating from the University, they've been developing as storytellers – mainly through photography and filmmaking, but more recently, this has opened out into all sorts of other creative practices. They spend much time with artists, charities and small businesses, working together on projects. They are part of the Modern Painters, New Decorators team and have documented their art programme for several years.

Participating venues: Charnwood Arts, the Institute Research Lab, LU Arts, Modern Painters, New Decorators and Sock Gallery.

THE FUTURE

A big thank you to @mpndprojects @sockgallery @lborouniarts @charnwood_arts and all those that turned up and took part. It always tricky to get this kind of thing organised and to get people together but it really is worth it. We met some great people and look forward to more Lates in the future!

#LoughboroughLates Contact mpndprojects@gmail.com for inquiries

Instagram @charnwood_arts @institute_lab @LUArts @mpndprojects @sockgallery

Institute Admin 1/17/23 Institute Admin 1/17/23

An Evening of Art, Design and Technology

Institute was one of the participating venues in the Loughborough Lates launch. The night included visual arts exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events.

Institute was one of the participating venues in the Loughborough Lates launch. Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across the town centre and campus. The night included visual arts exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events.

Loughborough Lates is a new event hosted by five art and culture venues spread across our town centre and campus. From 5:30pm on Friday, 16 September, Loughborough will come to life with visual art exhibitions, creative workshops and interactive events - all free to attend and participate in. Maps are available at participating venues on the day. Charnwood Arts, Institute, LU Arts, Modern Painters, New Decorators and Sock Gallery, are the venues involved.

THE VENUES AND THEIR EVENTS

Charnwood Arts: 27 Rectory Place, LE11 1UW
Breathe, Create: Exhibition and Activity
The Charnwood Arts ‘Breathe, Create’ sessions are about engaging in mindful creativity. See our ‘Breathe, Create’ exhibition and try one of the activities with artist Khyati Koria Green, 6-7pm. We will also be showcasing the story of Songster, Loughborough's own War Horse, with author Alison Mott and artist Liz Waddell. Visitors can access us via our wheel-chair accessible front door.

Institute: Upper Rooms, 11 Baxter Gate, LE11 1TG
Ambient Visions: Martyn Blundell
A video installation that subverts the conditions in which we usually experience patterns, made up of shifting colour fields and ‘weaves'.

Crystal System: Leonie DuBarry-Gurr, Andy Harper and Todd Finnamore
An immersive and accessible sculptural installation with an interactive, contemplative soundscape.

LU Arts: Martin Hall, Epinal Way, LE11 3TS
The Domestic Academics: Finding the time to write and care
This project brings together twenty-three women academics with caring responsibilities, each responding to a call to create a quilt panel reflecting their experience working during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The gallery is located on Pearce Square, in Martin Hall. It is advised to park in the Cope Auditorium car park and walk across Epinal Way. It is directly opposite Cope Auditorium, which is next to Loughborough College.

Modern Painters, New Decorators: Carillon Court Shopping Centre, LE11 3XA
Hosiery Abstracts: Katie Schwab
Katie Schwab is a maker who works with installation, textiles, print and video to explore histories of craft, design and education. For this project, Katie immersed herself in local histories of machine knitting and attended a machine knitting course, learning techniques that have inspired new knitted artworks and a wall-based work. Visitors can enter our gallery via the Swan Street entrance of Carillon Court Shopping Centre.

Sock Gallery: Town Hall, Market Place, LE11 3EB
Our Charnwood and Beyond: Russel Taylor
Russell has an intense desire to capture the joy of the landscape. Working exclusively with acrylics, a completed painting is often a journey of chance! The gallery will be running a competition in the evening with a chance to win an exclusive Sock Gallery prize. Visitors enter the space through the front doors; everything is on one level.

AT INSTITUTE

We exhibited two exhibitions. In Studio 02, a screen based series of five video works by Martyn Blundell and an interactive installation by Leonie Dubarry-Gurr and Andy Harper in Studio 04.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM

There were curious looks on the faces of members of the lab as Leonie and Andy spent the week prior to the launch working on the technicalities of the installation in Studio 04.

An immersive and accessible sculptural installation, Crystal System offers new vantage points from which to come to terms with one's existence, in relationship to the world and others around us. Inspired by crystallised rock formations in the natural realm, Crystal System proposes an opportunity for contemplation via the meditative qualities of refracted and reflected light.In addition to the sculptural elements, the public can interact with a ruminative soundscape which supports contemplation.

Crystal SystemAcrylic, Wood, Light fixtures, Found objects.

Conceived by Leicester-based artists Leonie DuBarry-Gurr and Andy Harper in collaboration with Todd Finnamore.
www.andyharper.co.uk // @isandyharper // www.leoniedg.com // @beautiful__remainswww.monoworks.shop // @mono.works

AMBIENT VISIONS

Martyn Blundell is joining Institute as an associate. He kicks this off with a series of screen based works on display in Studio 02. If you ever wondered what would happen if you were to weave together the view a passenger might have during a series of global road trips, this might be it. They are beautiful, hypnotic and a little trippy! You can view Martyn’s video based art below.

These works belong to a series that has evolved, in part, from the idea of weaving space and time. Ambient Visions is a video installation that subverts the conditions in which we normally experience pattern. Shifting colour fields and ‘weaves' become a kind of metaphor for that feeling you get when travelling; an attempt to convey something of the porous state we fall in to when staring through the window of a moving vehicle. A dream-like travel metaphor.

THE FUTURE

#LoughboroughLates Contact mpndprojects@gmail.com for inquiries

Instagram @charnwood_arts @institute_lab @LUArts @mpndprojects @sockgallery

Graffio Arts 12/31/22 Graffio Arts 12/31/22

REAL: Taking the Initiative with Phoenix Arts

We coached 25 film makers and digital artists with business start-up training to grow their new businesses.

Graffio Arts have just finished the REAL incubation programme at Phoenix Arts in Leicester. 25 film makers and digital artists are now moving ahead with their new businesses.

Course design and leadership : Graffio Arts. REAL initiative coordinators: Nick and Julia Hamer.

REAL Incubation will run from April 2022 to May 2023. The programme includes: Free access to a large co-working space at Phoenix Arts, access to industry standard production facilities, and film / digital art kit, screening and exhibition opportunities, including REAL Film Festival in April 2023, business start-up training to establish and grow your new business, inspiration from established documentary and digital art practitioners, mentoring, coaching, support to introduce their film, art or service to the market and help from experienced professionals to work on a passion project, with a focus on documentary or digital arts.

The course will be led by Steve and Guy, Directors at Institute/ Graffio Arts, and will include contributions from other industry guests.

Steve Barradell has worked with SME’s through to international blue-chip companies for over 20 years, specialising in business development, project management, marketing and insight for creative-lead businesses. Steve spent six years as a creative business consultant and was an accredited Growth Accelerator Business Coach.

Guy Boyle has spent over 25 years in the arts and has worked across many disciplines; design, digital imaging, branding, animation and film art direction for some of the best-known global brands. Guy spent seven years as an Associate and Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts London / Central St. Martins, covering design and media practice and has a flair for developing young creative talent through education and industry.

“Our goals for the program were to increase the creative’s understanding of the relationship between personal creative goals and viable commercial opportunities. Now, at the end of the programme, the delegates are taking their first informed first steps into industry.”

As part of the programme, delegates were supported to propose and work on a self-directed ‘passion project’, to develop their portfolio. REAL Incubation will surround you with inspiration to help shape your ideas. Examples of passion projects may include:

A short documentary film or video
An interactive documentary
A piece of digital or immersive (VR/AR/MR) art
An audio or sound art piece
A musical score/key artwork for a film
A treatment/pitch or development product associated with a new project

Some delegates had to develop a service offering or develop their creative practice in relation to commercial activities in different ways. This may require bolstering the ability to secure funding streams or to develop their marketing scope or focus. The key objective of the programme is for the delegates to develop their ability to express their ideas creatively and to find commercial vehicles for this expression.

There are a huge variety of people on the programme and it’s been a humbling experience to witness some of the history and experience of the veteran delegates and the enthusiasm and ambition of the relative newcomers to their fields in documentary film making, video, immersive art and beyond.

We’d like to extend a thank you to Phoenix Arts for helping to make this programme possible, Nick and Julia for making REAL happen and to the delegates for their open minded enthusiasm. You can find out more below.

LINKS

realinitiative.phoenix.org.uk

www.phoenix.org.uk/real-initiative

DEVELOP YOUR CREATIVE BUSINESS

One of our key ambitions at Institute is to help others develop their creative practice and to be creative about how this practice can and will, pay the bills. If you are interested in becoming involved in this initiative in the future, then contact Nick and Julia here. You can find out more about the spread of Institute’s services here.

Graffio Arts 6/22/22 Graffio Arts 6/22/22

How to Market Misery, Suffering and Death

Welcome to propaganda marketed by Millennials. Is it as clumsy and deceitful as the ideas of the generation it seeks to represent?

On the left is a piece of work featuring an east African republic, with a history of genocide, put together by a designer working for the British Government. On the right is a poster for a fictional dystopian film set in South Africa.

Welcome to propaganda marketed by Millennials. Is it as clumsy and deceitful as the ideas of the generation it seeks to represent?

Article by Graffio Arts.

MARKETING MISERY

Institute is about the communication of ideas. What’s a useful idea? What’s the context? How can we communicate your idea to the people you want to talk to?

Sometimes we hit a hurdle and this hurdle is the biggest we’ve seen for a long, long time. We are human and these are ideas that we want to share with other humans. These ideas usually turn into well meaning outputs and we usually jump into the development of these with a shared ambition to say what you want to say, efficiently, for the good of all, or at least in a way where no one gets hurt.

But what if we are dealing with ideas that could potentially harm our fellow humans? That’s not good. So, put the kettle on, find a comfy chair and lets discuss how we market misery, suffering and death.

KILLING HOPE

This campaign is designed to illustrate how a sitting government is taking dynamic steps to deal with an apparent crisis. This is a government that uses catch phrases and simple, get-it-done concepts as key foundations for its communications. Focusing on the achievement of results (regardless of consequence) works for them and it will likely continue until the point where it stops working.

We’re going at the edges of this. Maybe that’s because it’s easier, maybe we’re cowards. Maybe we just think that this goes beyond politics. To borrow from another group that travelled across seas and oceans in the search of a better life, the human rights under threat here, we believe to be self evident.

Let’s start breaking this down. It’s all about hordes of troublesome, potential immigrants and the gangs that orchestrate the logistics of their travel.

The pitch is that the goal is to stop immigration and the suffering of those involved in these dangerous journeys. The plan will dissuade them from embarking on these journeys in the future and if that fails then there is a mechanisms in place to physically export them to Rwanda.

You may argue that, considering the financial cost associated with these plans, either way, we, the public don’t get to see them, and that is the key political goal here. One strand of this pitch is apparently about changing perceptions and the other is about the politics of a human and their requirements within a state. It’s a belt and braces approach. What’s not to like?

If that wasn’t problematic enough in terms of the Immigration plan, the marketing for this is largely hidden away in Facebook ads or in other discreet media outlets. These ads are paid for by this government and they are targeted to discreet audiences. This might give you an idea of the real audiences these ads are aimed at…

The premise is that this is part of the two pronged strategy- this is to dissuade potential immigrants and traffickers from embarking on a journey to the UK. Its about killing that dream. How would you target that specific audience? How would you deal with the varied languages? Are you using international ads? Do they even Facebook?

This isn’t what it says on the tin. This is for a specific British audience and its about affirmation of political ideas. The headline: New measures will make it harder for you to reach and remain in the UK is disingenuous to say the least. It should read, them. We are talking about them, those, those other than us.

Did they use specific science fiction tropes to indicate the other, the alien? We’ll look into this later but it does seem that this is a result of visual ignorance and lack of empathy rather than the development of a sinister visual language. The colour purple has been injected into the design of the ads above. Why do you think they did that? Is this about bleakness, alienation, isolation? Is this clever in an evil genius way or is it just clumsy?

Is doing something that’s bad, badly, good? Are we lucky that this could be something bad, done well and that would be really bad? How confusing. This equation doesn’t usually involve bad at the start and you have to wonder what was going through people’s minds when they embarked upon this campaign. We’ll come back to this point.

LET’S PRETEND THAT THIS IS HONEST COMMUNICATIONS

There is an argument that immigration isn’t really a problem, that making it a problem, is a political act. There is strong evidence to suggest that this initiative will not stop new journeys across the channel and that immigrants to Rwanda often stay for a limited time and then re-attempt the same journey or a new journey with a different destination, across Africa. It is difficult to maintain the idea that this initiative will stop gangs of human traffickers.

This campaign is used across social media. This is probably largely aimed at voters but we are hearing that this messaging is supposed to reach potential immigrants and to dissuade them from making the journey across the channel. If they are the ultimate audience and a proportion of them will die each year, this audience shrinks slightly but is replenished by new potential immigrants. If the messaging is supposed to end up with gang leaders, is the plan that they reassess the viability of their business in relation to this messaging?

Marketeers involved in the delivery of these campaigns are usually obsessed with audiences and data. Is death ignored here in the same way that we could say, the elderly receiving messages about the NHS will lose a proportion of their demographic as they die each year?

DOING BAD, BADLY

We believe that the underlying immigration campaign was designed by FCB INFERNO and that the Rwanda campaign was produced by Digital teams at no 10 or The Home Office in or collaboration across these teams. We asked key members but have not received a response. FCB INFERNO’s contribution was disclosed under a freedom of information act and the specifics of their involvement was addressed in an online article.

Looking through social media profiles, the Digital teams seem to be mostly in their mid to late 20s, career ambitious and proud to be producing ‘hard hitting’ work. Across government social media the campaigns produced are simple, clear and statement orientated. A few minutes of scrolling through Home Office feeds though, could make you feel that you’d been hit by an emotional truck. We accomplished this, here’s the numbers, we stopped this, we made this happen, more numbers, we made these people do this, rinse and repeat. All of these communications assume that the audience is okay with these decisions. The bullet points, the numbers, the evidence of accomplishments are brutally stark and the output is a bizarre visual soup of disjointed ideas, executed in mundane and inappropriate ways.

This is propaganda and it’s badly done. The visual language emerges out of the online ad space. There is very little understanding of graphic language or typography. The layouts are clumsy and the colour choices are just…silly.

Here’s an example from the New Plan for Immigration campaign. This is an animated sequence and shown above are four of the key frames. We are presented with a Union Jack background and a bold, positive logo. That tells us that something very patriotic is going on, its a bold endeavour and its progressive. Then we get a short story highlighting activities. People with no right to be in the UK were removed. The audience has to believe that this is a good thing. Is there context? It turns out that they are foreign, they are offenders and they are trying to abuse the British asylum system. The numbers are a counter and the 246 shown here shoots up to 527.

Why is this so simplistic? Why spend literal time on counting numbers? That border animates- it makes a journey around the square. It has a notch in the top left as if the frame somehow has 3 dimensions. The text and frame is in a bizarre lobster pink. Why do you think that is? Why would the designer spend time messing around with that silly frame? We are told that the information is about 527 criminals convicted of rape, manslaughter & attempted murder. Is that the colour of rape? Is that the colour of offence of any kind? What does the frame signify? Would it be inappropriate to suggest that someone involved in this wished that those attempted murders were actual murders? That would really hammer the point home. Is that statement a step too far? This is what happens to your rationality when you try to score political points within dehumanised systems of your own making.

In the same way that you could argue that these policy statements show little human empathy, the visual language is a step removed from the subject matter. Why are the people making policy and the designers involved in these communications one step removed from the subject and not displaying the competence usually required with these roles? Shouldn’t these roles attract the best of the best? Both of these parties are telling us that they are doing a good job.

Priti Patel has been working with a Digital team to produce a series of ‘hard hitting’ pieces about the ‘big issues’. This is a campaign where various people are brought in and filmed with Patel while she patronises them and turns what they say into sound bites. We know the way these people are treated could be better. We know it’s politics, we’re used to the ins and outs of that but it’s even more depressing for us when we see creatives collaborating in this way. It’s complicated and we maybe have a romantic view, but there was a time when the decision to go into the arts was a statement of intent. A willingness to see the world in new ways, to drive our culture forward, to enhance humanity, even if we’re stumbling along, doing our best in quite a humble way.

As the world of politics continues to change within a larger culture that continues to change, more and more young people are entering the arts. With that comes a larger spread of views and larger pools of roles available post University. Young creatives are increasingly seeing design, not as a process but as the way things look. The word aesthetic is now being used to purely mean, the visual. Design should be a process, not decoration. Contemporary creative courses and Industry should not be encouraging young creatives to be blandly professional and to do the stuff that looks like, the stuff. We shouldn’t know what the stuff should looks like until the end of the process. We used to know how to manage this danger and we valued the rewards.

Creatives must be ready to see things differently, to ask questions and they must take some cultural responsibility for the things that they produce. In the same way, those that are more experienced should be fostering an environment where questioning everything from the start is promoted as a healthy thing to do. They should be providing frameworks that have space for the development of appropriate outcomes- original outcomes, fit for humans, that contribute to society in meaningful ways.

The Digital teams across government should be asking themselves: ‘Did I take a career misstep? Should I really be in the cake decoration industry? Is that a vocation better suited to my abilities?’ When you are decorating a cake, the cakes been made. You don’t have to take any responsibility for the main job. With any luck, it’s delicious and if not, that’s not your fault. As long as it doesn’t contain anything that causes an allergic reaction and you don’t drop it, it’s all good. You only have to decorate it. There’s the top to deal with, maybe the sides if you’re feeling adventurous. Just grab that pink icing and start drawing silly things on the surface and then stand back and celebrate your genius. Voila! Your job is done.

This is the level that these people are operating at. It doesn’t matter what kind of cake it is, it doesn’t matter if its poisonous. It’s cake and cakes are amazing, therefore what they do is amazing. They messed around with some icing on the top. They drew a boat. The icing was pink and sugary and no one complained about how badly drawn the boat was. The boss loved it. They took a photo of it, put that on social media. Job done. Congratulations.

Maybe we’re making this more complicated than it is. Could it just be that bad ideas attract bad creatives?

KEEPING TALLY

Within a studio designers and artworkers are usually encouraged to take responsibility for the production of their work. They need to check if the work is the right dimensions, the logos are correct, messaging, colours, fonts are all good before they hit save and pass the work on to be published in one or more formats. They don’t usually have to assess human suffering. At what point is this discussed? Does the manager take responsibility or the artworker? Is there a debate between the manager and someone else at the Cabinet Office? How much of the messaging comes from an external source or is this creative team producing the messaging? With this change of policy does the creative team take note of the people that die each year before and after this campaign? If so and the tally of deaths is higher after a year of this new policy in place, do they resign? What kind of yardstick do they use to measure their contribution to our culture? If one of their audience dies they are no longer part of any culture.

CONTEXT NEUTRAL

In a situation like this, how do we measure success? What metrics do we use? Is this the continuation of the speech writer that wrote those memorable lines that helped get President X elected? This is just contemporary political communications right? In this situation, the digital communications emerging on social media are either incredibly naive or fuelled by some of the tricks we’ve already played out in dystopian future fiction.

You may be forgiven for thinking that the idea of social media savvy really just describes an ability to use the software, place text and images in bland but satisfactory configurations, and to remain conscience and context neutral at all times.

It’s at times like this, that we realise how lucky we are. We are managing to work with talented young creatives that we learn from every day, that often show more creativity, grace and common sense than we do.

ARE WE THE BAD GUYS?

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject."

-John Stuart Mill

For a very long time, most societies have incorporated groups of people capable of helping to deliver ideas that change society. These ideas have affected peoples states of mind; their sense of self, their perceptions of themselves in groups, their sense of urgency, their understanding of geographical location and boundaries, their concepts of ownership, power structures and their understandings of right and wrong.

Just because we can do a thing doesn’t mean that we should do a thing.

WITH THE MEANS WHICH HE HELPS TO SUPPLY

Imagine a gentleman with a German accent and a name that sounded a little like gerbils, approaching us with this brief: “I’d like you to help my brand conquer Europe. My blue eyed mates need a bit more room, y’know? Oh and we don’t like those guys…”

We know how this works. First of all, you need borrow from The Romans. They were pretty good at this style of branding. You’re going to need some compelling justifications for this. We could hijack some religion, maybe grab some pseudo-science? Your tone of voice needs to be a little shouty. Three colours will really show authority. You’re also going to need some sharp uniforms and we’ve got a cracking idea for a logo.

This stuff is easy in retrospect for those trained in this area and we’ve seen how well it works.

Tucker Carlson, a US media celebrity with a prime time spot on the Fox network promotes a fairly disturbing agenda and this isn’t inhibited by the fact that he’s never owned a TV. He has a writer. A second writer actually. The first one had to be dismissed when caught contributing to extreme right wing message boards.

Neo fascist organisations cite Carlson as the guy they learn from when they want to communicate across media outlets where tiki torches and white pointy hats are not quite de rigueur. There are certain tricks the writer uses that hint at certain ideas (if you know what you’re looking for) but seem innocuous enough to be palatable during prime time.

It is not impossible to imagine providing media advice and support that would galvanise opinion around extreme organisations that would eventually result in deaths. Should we do that? Of course not. But where is the line for those responsible for the communication of political ideas? If a political party is elected, it has a mandate. Does a creative employed by that party have a conscience free obligation to help them communicate? Are they in the clear if they are an office for communications that serves whichever party is currently in power?

REAL LIVES, REAL CONCERNS

Did that designer agree with the politics behind this social media campaign? Did they consider potential implications for those migrants? What were they thinking when they hit the save button? Do we, as creatives, take responsibility for communicating any ideas to the best of our ability or do we need to take a larger responsibility when these ideas can potentially lead to misery and death for thousands of people?

A quick web search prior to launch would have provided a host of questions and concerns around various humanitarian, economic, and logistical consequences of this plan. How were these fairly obvious concerns processed by the designer?

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE CRITICISM AVAILABLE PRIOR TO LAUNCH

The UK > Rwanda Migration Partnership is part of The New Plan for Immigration policy. Below is an open letter by refugee Action that criticises the plan and the consultation process surrounding the plan. This is The New Plan for Immigration policy statement.

JOINT OPEN LETTER IN RESPONSE TO NEW PLAN FOR IMMIGRATION CONSULTATION

On 23rd March 2021, the UK Government announced sweeping changes to how they will treat people seeking safety in the UK. Instead of fixing a system that’s been failing people for years, these changes take a wrecking ball to the very principle of asylum.

The UK Government has since invited public feedback on these plans. This would usually be a chance to challenge their plans, raise important details and hold the Government to account. But, as with the inquiry stage for the recent Sewell Report on institutional racism, this consultation is a sham.

The ‘New Plan for Immigration’ is a half-baked political manifesto. It lays out vague, unworkable, cruel and potentially unlawful plans justified by misleading or simply incorrect evidence, wrapped up in racist and divisive language.
The consultation is poorly designed, confusing and inaccessible. The documents are only available in English and Welsh. The questions are clearly designed to lead people into endorsing the Government’s plan.
The Government left people fewer than six working weeks to give their thoughts on the largest changes to the asylum system in two decades.
Normally consultations like this last at least 12 weeks. These six weeks also include Easter holidays, a May bank holiday, Ramadan and an election period during which those involved in local, mayoral and devolved nation elections are restricted in what they can say publicly.
Most incredibly, this consultation does not prioritise the views and experiences of refugees and people seeking asylum. Not one question in the official consultation document asks people about their personal experiences of fleeing persecution or seeking safety in the UK. And the inaccessible process will make it more difficult for many of the most important voices of all to be heard.

This is not a process designed by a Government that genuinely wants to listen or has any interest in being challenged or changing its approach. We can only conclude this is a thinly veiled public relations exercise with a pre-determined outcome that we’ve been reading about on the front pages of newspapers for months.

It seems the Government has already forgotten the shameful legacy of Windrush. Just weeks ago, the Home Office signed a legal agreement requiring the department to properly consider the impacts of its policies on the groups of people they affect. It is our view that the Home Office has already failed to meet this commitment.

This Government already punishes refugees at every turn. Instead of fixing this injustice, they are doubling down on it. They are planning to leave traumatised people stuck in refugee camps on UK soil or in dangerous situations abroad. Their proposals are cruel, unjust and deadly.

“We believe in a caring and connected society, where everyone is included, and we can all thrive. These plans are a direct threat to that society. We will oppose them at every possible stage, and keep building the future we believe in.”

This letter is signed by the following parties:

#Together100
Abigail Housing
African Rainbow Family
All Out
Anti-Slavery International
ASIRT (Birmingham)
ASSIST Sheffield
Asylum Link Merseyside
Asylum Matters
Asylum Support Appeals Project
Asylum Welcome (Oxford)
Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID)

Bail For Immigration Detainees
Baobab Women’s Project CIC
BeHarrogate District of Sanctuary
Belfast Islamic Centre
Belfast Multi-Cultural Association
Ben & Jerry’s Europe
Blandford Cares (Dorset)
Boaz Trust
Bradford City of Sanctuary
Bradford Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Survivors Service
Bristol Refugee Rights

Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group
Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign
Caritas Shrewsbury
CAST-COMMUNITIES AND SANCTUARY SEEKERS TOGETHER (Southend)
Central Asylum Yorkshire
Cheshire, Halton & Warrington Race & Equality Centre
Citizens Advice Rotherham
City of Sanctuary Sheffield
City of Sanctuary UK
Co-Conveners Brighton & Hove Stand Up To Racism
Committee on the Administration of Justice, Belfast
Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Croeso Menai Community Sponsorship Group
Cornwall Refugee Resource Network
Coventry Refugee & Migrant Centre

Darlington Assistance for Refugees
Derby City of Sanctuary Network
Derby Refugee Forum
Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity
Detention Action
Detention Forum
Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support
Displaced People In Action
Doctors of the World
Doncaster Conversation Club
Durham Student Action for Refugees

ECPAT
End Deportations Belfast
English+, Norwich
Enthum Foundation (East Sussex)
Entraide (Mutual Aid)
Ethnic Minority Sports Organisation Northern Ireland
Europe Must Act

Falmouth & Penryn Welcome Refugees
Family Refugee Support Project (GM)
Faversham and Villages Refugee Solidarity Group
Finchley Reform Synagogue
Freedom From Torture
Friends of the Drop-in for asylum seekers and refugees (FODI), Sunderland

Galeforce Productions Universal CIC
GARAS (Gloucester)
Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group
Govan Community Project
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Growing Together Levenshulme

Hastings Community of Sanctuary
HASVO Harrow
Health Energy Advice Team (Liverpool)
Helen Bamber Foundation/Asylum Aid
Heart4Refugees, Wirral
Herts for Refugees
Home4U Cardiff
Hope and Aid Direct (Essex)
Hope and Dignity Hearth (Sheffield)
Horn of Africa People’s Aid Northern Ireland (HAPANI)
Host Nottingham
House of Guramayle
House Of Rainbow CIC (London)
Hull Help for Refugees
Humans for Rights Network

Institute of Race Relations
Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality

JCORE (Jewish Council for Racial Equality)
Jesuit Refugee Service UK
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
Justice First – Stockton
Kent Refugee Action Network
Khai Tzedek CIC (Stoke)

LASS Lesbian Asylum Support Sheffield
Learn for Life Enterprise
Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network
Leicester City of Sanctuary
Lesbian Immigration Support Group
Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network
LGBT+ Consortium
Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary
Light Up Black and African Heritage Calderdale
Liverpool City of Sanctuary

Manchester Migrant Solidarity
Manchester Refugee Support Network
Manuel Bravo Project
Mary Seacole House
Mary Thompson Fund
Maryhill Integration Network, Glasgow
Maternity Action
Medical Justice
Mermaids
Merseyside Law Centre
Merseyside Refugee Support Network
Micro Rainbow
Mid Wales Refugee Action
Migrant Action
Migrant Advisory Service (Kingston)
Migrant Advocacy Service
Migrant Voice
Migrants at Work (Oxford)

NACCOM
New Beginnings Project, Blackburn YMCA
New Routes Integration (Norwich)
North of England Refugee Service
North West Migrants Forum
Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group
Norwich City of Sanctuary
Notre Dame Refugee Centre
Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum
Nottingham Arimathea Trust

One and All Aid
Ozanne Foundation

PAFRAS
Penrith and Eden Refugee Network
Plymouth Hope
Positive Action in Housing
Pro Refugee Alliance
Project 17 (London)

Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network

Rainbow Home
RAS Voice
Reading Refugee Support Group
Reclaim the Agenda
Refugee Action
Refugee Action in Somerset East
Refugee Action Kingston
Refugee Compassion (Ayelsbury)
Refugee Rights Europe
Refugee Roots, Nottingham
Refugee Support Group, South Somerset
Refugee Women Connect (Liverpool)
Refugees Welcome Committee (Ken and Chel)
Rene Cassin
ReportOUT
Restore, a project of Birmingham Churches Together
Right to Remain
Ripon City of Sanctuary
Rural Refugee Network

Safe in Scotland
Safe Passage
Safety4Sisters North West
Sahir House
Samphire
SHARE (Supporting and Helping Asylum seekers and Refugees) Knowsley
South Yorkshire Refugee Law & Justice
Sanctuary on Sea (Brighton and Hove City of Sanctuary)
Scottish Refugee Council
ShipShape Health and wellbeing
Shropshire Supports Refugees
Solace Leeds
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group
South Yorkshire Refugee Law & Justice
Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers
St Augustine’s Centre, Halifax
Stafford Welcomes Refugees
Stonewall Equality
Student Action for Refugees
Sussex Interpreting Services

Tees Valley of Sanctuary
The Bridge + (Norfolk)
The Oasis Centre, Gorton
The Refugee Buddy Project Hastings, Rother & Wealden
The Voice of Domestic Workers
The Welcoming Association, Edinburgh, Scotland
The Well Multi-Cultural Resource Centre Glasgow
Theatre Company of Sanctuary (Southampton)
Thousand 4 £1,000
Time to be Out (York)
TransgenderNI
Trinity Safe Space, Halton
Trinity Safe Spaces, Runcorn and Widnes

UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG)
UK Welcomes Refugees
Upbeat Communities

Vauxhall Community Law Centre
Voices in Exile
Voices in Exile (Brighton and Sussex)

Waging Peace
Wakefield District City of Sanctuary
Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees
Welsh Refugee Council
West End Refugee Service
Westminster Justice and Peace Commission
Wiltshire For Refugees
Wirral Change
Women for Refugee Women
Women With Hope
Women’s Resource and Development Agency (Northern Ireland)

Yarl’s Wood Befrienders
Young Roots

How did the designer process this? “Their proposals are cruel, unjust and deadly.” Surely these organisations have more knowledge on the subject than the designer? They are clearly concerned. When the plan hit the news outlets and more concerns, from more sources, started to air, did any of the team resign?

This information was easily available to the designer. If they were handed the brief in the morning, they could search online for this information at lunch time. If they received the brief in the afternoon, then they could find this information that night. Could we imagine that the team received the brief and the turn over was so fast that they didn’t have time to consider the implications? Within The Cabinet Office Digital team is there any room to boycott a given brief?

NEUTRAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATIONS?

What is the role of social media for a sitting government? To question policy? Communicate policy? Discuss or inform on the impact of policy? Aren’t there more democratic, productive and open ways that we could use these platforms rather than streaming propaganda? If those involved in political policy and those communicating it can’t behave in a sensible way, maybe we should play them at their own game and take away their toys?

In 1988, Fritz Gahagan, a former marketing consultant for US big tobacco, provided insight into the fundamental paradox faced by the tobacco industry: “The problem is how do you sell death? How do you sell a poison that kills 350,000 people per year, 1000 people a day?”

Television advertising of tobacco products was banned in the UK in 1965 under the Television Act 1964, which was later reinforced by an EU directive in the 1980s. The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 banned the direct and indirect advertising or promotion of tobacco products. In May 2016, the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 introduced tighter restrictions in relation to certain vaping products and electronic cigarettes. Standardised packaging for these products has been required since this time.

Could we imagine a system where political messaging was allowed one statement, had to be fact checked and had to be set in Helvetica and this could only be presented in black and white? This is a what if? proposition. Here’s another what if? Imagine a world where we all cared more about the lives of those other than us. A world where creatives believed that they had a role in society to question our norms and values and to express this investigation through their creativity, for the benefit of our culture. This requires as much discipline as it requires creativity. It does require some brave decisions at some points and some risk at others but the rewards are worth it. The rewards can be life affirming. They get us closer to the truth and occasionally these interventions become part of our cultural history. They become a flag in the sand, a clarion call urging us to do better.

THE CALL TO ACTION BIT

This is the end of the article and it’s the time where we think about a suitable call to action. This is traditionally a message and a link to somewhere that’s related to the subject. But this time its a different kind of call to action and it’s just this: before you hit save, just stop and think. Are you doing the right thing?

Graffio Arts 4/25/22 Graffio Arts 4/25/22

Aliens, NFTs and the Art of Sharing

As the land grab for virtual assets continues, 18 ALIENS is a light hearted experiment in physical and virtual sharing.

18 ALIENS & ARtv

18 ALIENS was a light hearted experiment in physical and virtual sharing. We gave away 18 sets of aliens on a first come, first served basis at Beta X in Leicester in March 2022.

Concept, design + production: Graffio Arts. Pixels: Jonathan Feuillet. 3D objects + animation: Jack Ellis. The brains behind the Beta X project: Seed Creativity. Funding: LCB. Beta X project manager: Ady Alexander.

WHAT IS ARtv?

ARtv is an augmented reality content delivery system. Show video or activate 3D objects whenever you point your mobile device at an ARtv symbol. Each symbol can be unique and each can deliver it’s own content. A symbol could be a picture, a graphic or a logo.

Symbols can be displayed anywhere that you can imagine - on a poster, a wall or even as a tattoo. If you’d like to find out how you could use ARtv for your project, then get in touch.

18 ALIENS AT BETA X

These aliens have no monetary value and are comprised of pixels. Each alien was presented as an augmented reality marker on a series of cards. These cards can be shared with friends, family or random strangers, as you see fit, sharing your ownership of the alien. Anyone that owns a card can download the Graffio AR app and point it at the card to summon their alien from a galaxy far away!

The concept of virtual ownership is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. When viewing a movie, we used to purchase a physical product, like a DVD. Now, it is more common to pay a gatekeeper to allow us to stream content. In this interaction, we no longer own a physical object and our access to the content may only be for a limited time. Virtual properties in virtual worlds continue to develop in terms of status and real monetary value.

Crypto currencies are on the rise and NFT systems, designed to protect the intellectual property rights of creators are now a part of a frenzied land grab of virtual assets. Meta seeks to control our experience of the Metaverse. As these new frontiers continue to develop should we stand back and ask what we want from virtual worlds? How do we want to interact with each other? What do we value? Is it all about individual or corporate ownership? Remember when we used to share?

THE POSTERS

ALIEN PERSONALITIES

To establish the idea that each alien was an individual and worthy of collection, each alien had a backstory created. These were brief introductions with a name and a biography that was part hard sci-fi and part, a tongue-in-cheek riff on popular culture.

ALIEN BEHAVIOUR

The aliens had individual sounds, breathed and performed different actions when touched. Some would react if you got within a certain distance from them.

AUGMENTED REALITY AND YOU

A new world is opening up and if things play out in the ways that we are told that they will, it will have an enormous impact the ways that we do things. The increased use of augmented reality technology into our every day lives will likely be accelerated by brands like Apple that are investing huge sum of time and money into transforming our relationship with their current technology. We know this stuff is coming and its likely that we’re going to be using it as an addition or substitute for the technology that we current use. The day that augmented reality glasses become adopted as a mainstream device, is the day where mobile phones may start to look the quaint product of a previous generation.

The 3D aliens in this project use technology that is only currently, universally available on Apple devices although large parts of the project also worked on Android devices. We tend to create projects that have mixed functionality, so that they are as inclusive as possible.

If you’re interested in using some form of AR for a project, we can help you work through the kind of options available. Once you understand the basics and the limitations become clear, the fun starts as you consider all the things that you could do. There is incredible potential for new types of engagement, user journeys, brand associations and relationships to physical locations with augmented reality.

Want to do something incredible with AR? Tell us what you want to do!

Graffio Arts 3/10/22 Graffio Arts 3/10/22

Introducing Jack Ellis

A 3D design focused internship leading to Jack working on his first live project at Beta X.

Design + animation: Jack Ellis. Mentoring: Graffio Arts. Video interview recorded by Aidan Matthews. Editing by Jonathan Fuillet.

Jack is a recent Digital Media Graduate from University of Lincoln and spent six months at Institute Research Lab on a Kickstart Internship. This is what happened…

We were familiar with the kind of folio that Jack turned up with. It’s often the case that young 3D modellers tend to gather in online communities that are linked to the game industry and other markets but don’t get the opportunity to develop a broader understanding of their practice.

We brought a specific premise to the table with Jack- creating 3D models is an alternative way of drawing or a virtual way to build. So what should you be drawing or building? To answer that a good starting point is to look at what creatives are dealing with in other areas of the arts. We bombarded Jack with concepts from across the arts and his understanding of why other creatives do the things they do, started to develop. Jack started to see how his work could be valuable in a host of different situations.

Jack really wanted to develop his 3D modelling abilities so he stuck with the 3D modelling program, Blender and explored it’s limits as we threw progressively more involved work at him.

When we can, we like to get interns to work on live projects. In this situation we ensure that there’s plenty of time available to develop the project, we create a back-up plan in case things get tricky for them and we make sure that their contribution to the project develops their practice and provides work for their folios.

Before we could get started we had to finish getting the lab ready to open it’s doors. We asked if he’d like to start after all the renovations were finished or if he’d like to help us with this. Jack chose the later and spent a month working with us pulling up flooring, painting and cleaning. By the time that was done, we were very grateful and he was itching to get on with some ‘real’ work.

Jack created an accurate scale model of the physical space.

The first project was the model and animate a virtual version of the lab. We set some parameters- it all had to be black and white and it had to fit a visual language we’d been developing for lab promotion.

The TV avatars float through the space as they engage with their mysterious research.

Jack completed a site survey of the physical space and then set to work modelling it. Jack explored the idea of avatars using analogue TVs that are in use in the physical space and used icons that represent the senses on the screens of these TVs as if the virtual members of the lab are conducting media research. Modelling in black and white with no grey that would help to show the form of objects was quite a challenge. Adding white lines to this of varying thicknesses just added to the complications.

Studio 2 is a flexible workspace. Jack showed the different ways that the space could be arranged with animation.

With each new challenge, we outlined the problem and asked Jack to find a way to tackle it. We were blown way by Jack’s ability to solve problems and his open mindedness and flexibility towards his work.

A fly through of the 18 alien models.

The alien models as part of 18 ALIENS at Beta X. Editing by Jonathan Fuilllet.

Each of the aliens had it own style of movement to represent it’s personality.

The second project was 18 ALIENS. This project had a tighter time limit. Jack worked quickly to create and animate 3D models based on sprites created by Jonathan Fuillet. Each alien was rigged to ‘breathe’ as well as having its own movement system.

Both of these projects were in some degree, experimental in nature but as Jack’s confidence developed he began to take this kind of work in his stride.

We wish Jack the very best of luck for the future. If you have potential work opportunities for Jack, you can contact him here. We have internship, collaboration and co-working opportunities for other outstanding creatives. If you are a young creative with an impressive folio then get in touch.

Graffio Arts 1/31/22 Graffio Arts 1/31/22

Augmented Reality and a Sense of Place

How does graphic design in the urban environment affects your sense of place and how this might change through increased use of AR technology? Discuss!

As part of Design Season and hosted at LCB Depot in Leicester , we were asked to take part in a talk with Dr Robert Harland from Loughborough University and Dr Sean Clark from Interact Digital Arts. We were asked to consider how graphic design in the urban environment affects your sense of place and how this might change through increased use of Augmented Reality technology.

THE PROPOSITION

How does graphic design in the urban environment affect your sense of place? How is this changing through increased use of Augmented Reality technology? What new opportunities does this create for artists and designers? These questions and more will be discussed during this free session involving Dr Robert Harland from Loughborough University, Sean Clark from Interact Digital Arts and the directors of Graff.io Arts. There will also be the launch of Cuttlefish Mapps, a new locally-developed platform for distributing location-based content.

INTRODUCTION

This was the perfect chance for us to unravel our thoughts & idea's about the impact that Augmented Reality will have on communication, the art & design world and culture. Designers are starting to realise that with UX design that there are social/well being implications for their decisions so another discipline in the area of ethics should be brought to the table. With galleries like the V&A experiencing almost x10 the traffic online now, will AR help bring traffic from an online world to experience the physical? Will a city retain the rights to an augmented or virtual world or are we to expect a "land grab" on markers - who is in control? This was also a chance to unveil the Beta for our new Graff.io Arts Augmented Reality app & to demo it on a series of AR artworks.

AN EXCERPT OF THE TALK

We've looked into Augmented Reality and we've thought how do you do this? We've looked into apps that are avail & different technologies, The only way that we could find to really do it is to collab with @swipeandtap. A Leicester based tech company building a prototype Augmented Reality app with us.

We've got some pictures, we can show you some examples of augmented layers later.

We are GA. Small co based in Loughborough, there's only four of us. We do a lot of creative collabs. We say that we're an art shop. This is our opening statement, written about two months ago, And we're finding that it's already out of date.

We are exploring these new areas, which encompass the kind of things that are coming up within that shop experience. If you go to a museum & you're dealing with art in a museum. Or if you're dealing with a shop and you're buying online. There are all these different channels & projects coming up. We've met Sean Clark and formed Gallery Without Walls together. We have Robert ( quote ). There's a lot happening right now locally in Leicestershire. I've worked in London for many years & I'm so glad that I've come back here. I've worked in London for over 20 years and I'm so glad I moved back here - I'm seeing more doors opening here & more easily and more accessibly here.

One of our company agenda's is how can do innovative creative collabs & projects here and not go bankrupt! We're looking at ways of doing this and working out if there are ways possible to stop the "brain drain". Is there any way of doing collaborative projects here and not have to move to the capital. Get as much going on locally as possible.

We've got issues here: We say we are an art shop and we sell online. We also have a problem here where we talk about the real word. What is the real world ?

So we are finding ways that a company, that's traditionally a certain kind of art shop has to change and emerge and go forward. We're looking at all the steps around looking at art and experiencing art and all the things involved in that and how we might have to change with it. That's why we're interested in AR and XR tech, because there are all these different layers.

So this sums up where we're at right now, the genie is out of the bottle! This new tech means things will never be the same.

With Minecraft & Pokemon, the kids are all used to it's commercial. Within the arts, I've been into this since William Gibson in the 90's. It's been in the creative sci-fi and cyber punk mind set for a long time. Now the tech is here for us to finally get on with it !

If we are a company thats looking at selling art or dealing with art, and how does that relate to how a museum or a gallery would deal with it? And the core journeys to experiencing art.

So how do we find out about art?

If there's an exhibition on or a print is online for sale, you don't just wake up and a canvas it lands on your head! you have to find out that it exists. In the analogue world, you might see a physical advert on a bus or get a leaflet & other physical ways that you find out that something's available?

If we were selling stuff online, this might come from a facebook ad or a comment somewhere. If it's a gallery they're putting money into leaflets or it's word of mouth. ~There's all these things going on behind the scenes.

Then how do you decide to see it? If you're online, you might click it - or not. In the analogue space this would be able your initial experience of walking into a gallery space and experiencing the architecture etc. And your REAL experience of the art.

Then your real experience of the work. At this point, we could be looking at how Augmented reality could be used to add more layers to the art. So where you needed for example Paul McCartney to sing there, we could add another layer, we could add Paul McCartney! If it was a painting, we could add an overlay through your phone to give more information about that artist. These things are real tools that help industry and help the arts in different ways. This could be able art or the arts, but we might end up needing teams of people.

So where Robert is talking about physical cities, you've got town planners then engineers, then signage...

If you’d like to talk to us about any of these themes, including augmented reality, gives us a call or email us here.

Graffio Arts 1/24/22 Graffio Arts 1/24/22

Spatial 3D AR Development with Flexi-Modal TV

Experiments in 3D Augmented Reality.

Media technology: Graffio Arts. 3D model/animation: dspall

We have been working with Wigflex and Flexi-Modal TV on some augmented reality installations for the Wigflex City Festival. There are some incredible people involved (listed below) and we’ll let you know more as things progress.

A NEW WAY TO DO 3D IN AUGMENTED REALITY

The prototyping shown here takes advantage of the transparency features of augmented reality for iOS. You are viewing a video file of an animated 3D model rather than a 3D model sitting with the space. The model had previously been animated and rendered. This animated video is playing on the screen with a transparent background giving the appearance of a 3D object.

Notice the people walking behind the iPad screen, clearly visible through the transparency of the video. When you want to define how a 3D scene should appear within a space, this is a very practical way to curate the size and relationship to the viewer. For projects where interaction with the object, control of behaviours and size should be in the viewers hands as priority, then real 3D models are the way to go. See our 18 ALIENS project for an example of this.

FESTIVAL MUSIC

Actress, Adam Curtain, Adam Pits, Aicha Audiobahn, Ben UFO, Call Super, Congi, Coralie, Daisy Godfrey, Danielle, Darc City, Daseplate, desmond, Dudley Strangeways, Frost, Geoim, G3CKO, GiGi FM, Hizatron, Ido Plumes, JAY, Kay Fabe, Kassian, Kiara Scuro, Lisene, LNR, Lone & Esqueezy, Lukas Wigflex, LvndLxrd, Metaphi, Midland Niks presents the best of black bandcamp unreleased featuring: NVST, Parris, Peach fuzz, Peder Mannerfelt, Perspective, Pete Beardsworth, R.O.S.H, Snowy, Son of Philip, Sonja Moonear, Stem, Sybertekh, Tamer Sallam, Toe Syszlak, Unbound, Vandall and Yazmin Lacey.

FESTIVAL VIDEOS, ART AND PERFORMANCE

Alice Nimier, AVVA Studio, Baba Swettham, Diogo Olivero, Dspall, Gabriel Balagué, Julia de Martino, Ixian Optical, Manjit Sahota, Marija Marc, Mathilde Avogadro, Multimodal, NINA NANA, Oil Productions, Olly animator, Poets Against Racism, Prefix studios, Render Gal, Simone Salvatici, Will Plowman and the award winning artist Wolfgang Buttress.

Graffio Arts 1/23/22 Graffio Arts 1/23/22

An Exhibition about Technology and Worthless Art

More and more of our experience of the world is going to be mediated and that includes our experience of the arts.

We were asked by LCB if we had anything for an exhibition for their Lightroom Gallery. AREXTRA Street had just launched as posters aimed at the general public. Those posters were printed onto durable, self-adhesive vinyl, designed to be plastered across empty shop windows. How would we take that into a gallery situation? Would it be appropriate?

FROM THE STREET TO THE GALLERY

AREXTRA [Street version] was a vehicle that used augmented reality to increase exposure to the arts for the general public. This was a system where people walking through the streets of the city could experience the arts without having to visit a gallery. The audience had now changed and now expected to be confronted by the arts.

This was an opportunity to engage with some of the big questions that arise from augmenting art. In this situation a 2D representation of the work is recognised by the technology and used as the platform for augmentation. Traditionally a piece of work within a gallery is considered to be an object. That object is assumed to be loaded with cultural worth. A set of factors are used to agree a monetary worth.

Augmented reality doesn’t play by these rules.

A painting, traditionally using a canvas as the place where paint is applied is now read as an image. Our understanding, development and agreed rules of engagement with painting have changed over time. It could be argued that painting was used in illustrative terms, as imagery at certain points in history but through the 20th century we have developed a sophistication and engagement that recognises the application of paint to a surface as a the battleground where an artists fights through their practice.

The results of this are hung on a wall where this creative fight, the development of their practice is evidenced and forms part of a larger conversation.

AR ignores the physicality of the work and uses a snapshot as the basis for something else. The viewers experience is largely of this something else.

To draw attention to these issues we stripped the art of traditional cultural and monetary value- we called each piece a marker (the thing that AR technology recognises). We printed these onto sheets of paper of a unified size and pinned them to the wall. After the exhibition these sheets of paper had performed their job and were destroyed. Viewers could view the exhibition with our AR app and explore the augmented reality layers- the new focus for this work in this context.

We used Lewis Carroll’s excerpt from Alice in Wonderland to highlight the idea that the genie is out of the bottle. New media technology continues to change the way we interact with the world around us. More and more of our experience of the world is going to be mediated and that includes our experience of the arts.

How would we like to proceed?