We visited the jersey archives and got a real insite into what there purpose is and why , where they sore all this information. We were given a talk when we entered for about 45 minutes just going over the role of the archive and showing us some archival pieces of interest for our project. Many of these were old identification cars and red cross letters. Something interesting that i found out is that the red cross letters they were only allowed to write 25 words to there loved ones so it have to be really breef and may of these letters wern’t deviled for months after they had been written so people really didn’t know how there family and loved ones were ok or even alive.

The were letters from a couple who were split apart because the war.

Reading these letters made me feel so sad because you can really get a first hand account of how these people were feeling even through so little words. I shows you how people still had hope and would still keep writing these letters even if there was no reply of the receiving end.

Were were then given a tour of the archive building complex shown how there archives were stored and kept away. In the archives there weren’t just records related to the war there were many other types. They just keep any sort of information they deem valuable to history. Some examples of archival pieces they keep are birth certificates, death records, law agreements, maps.

They are all coded in different cardboard boxes with boxes containing the relevant information. Each section is on a slider and can be moved to open up the next section. When you walk into each archive room there is a huge blast of cold air to blast off any bacteria you are caring on you that could effect any of the documents.

Step laders are used for documents on the top shelves so nothing gets damaged or dropped. Also the archive rooms have no widows so the sunlight cant tarnish any on the documents. Also air con is used in the document holding areas it is very cold so bacteria are unable to multiply and means none of the documents will be damaged as a result of this.

They have many items coming in daily so the sorting and filing away process is non stop for the employees at the archive. A lot of pieces they are given have to be restored meaning that trained professional will spend time fixing and mending documents that ether are broken faded or have something wrong with them.

Each section in closed by a metal real that is turned manually. The sections that are left open are ones that are being used or awaiting arrivals of new documents to go in them.

There were many ID cards from the war many people who lived and died in the war these were kept in the archive. Many people have found out long lost relatives through these archives a lot of people make use of them when retracing there family history or making family trees

When entering the different room in the archives we were given the change to look more up close and personal as some of the archives most valuable pieces and the ones that link the best with our project. We were show some amazing art works and shown that they are actually pieces that the law was written on them.

With school we are going on a visit to the sociitte Jersey archives and then in the after noon we are going to visit the war tunnels. My plan for the morning is to listen to the presentation mate any notes that i feel are relevant to my project from the presentation we were given . Take photos of the overall building and find out why and how they store all the archived information and what information they do and don’t store. Also see if i can photography some historical documents that i can use to inspire my project.

Also to look at the historical documents available and see if i can find can family or personal connections withing the buildings archives which will mean that i can expand from this later on in my project. Seeing if i can discover something about my family history that i haven’t heard about before.

For the war tunnels my plan is to take any many photographs as possible get a real understanding and feel for the place. Also to gather as much information as possible to expand my knowledge of the occupation as much as possible. Talk to historians or anyone with extensive knowledge who works there and cry and capture the whole feel of the underground tunnels and different rooms through my photography.

I wanted to create a narrative through my zine and i felt that having a tital that fitted with that would be accurate and tie the whole composition of the zine together. I wanted the font to haven a element of white and black lines to replicate that theme of structure and lineage.

I liked the look of the images being full bleed across the page rather than having a border because the white border looked to bold. It was almost as if you were looking at that more than the actual image itself it was some what distracting.

Each sheet is printed as a piece of A4 it is put together. The pages are printed double sited and many image cross over onto different pages not being next to each other which was my intention. Each page is folded down the central line of the page and then slotted in in the order i wanted each of the pages. Then laying the zine flat with the central double aged open i stapled along the spine of the zine binding it together. At this point there was execs paper from each page so when folder over the zine wasn’t one clean opening line. I used the guillotine to over come this and trimed the zine so all the pages were identical and the edge of the zine was straight and looked professional.

I chose to have the middle page black but when printed it came out this this striped effect from the printer and i really liked it it looks as if it was meant to be that way on purpose because it fits with the narrative on the caged lines.

Many of my images carry across two pages but appear in different sectors of the zine. I did this because there is this repetitive orurance of lines and images emplying the emotion s of being traped, caged and being unable to escape.

When working on my zine i didn’t start from the front cover i started from the inside out because i feel as you create a narrative with you zine the front cover will build its self and i will understand what will fit with the over all design of the zine and how i will tie it all together with the front cover.

When making my zine i experimented with the idea of lines and the concepts of how this effects the images. I experimented with both horizontal and vertical lines on my images seeing the different effects that spacing and thinness of the lines had.

When importing an image in i would first make a box the size that i wanted the images to be whether than be full bleed to the edge of the page or that be a small box in the middle of the page. Once i have done that i pressed open and opend the image into the document and then the image would appear in the box . I normal have to do a small amount of re sizing just to make sure the image doesn’t become distorted.

At this point i had a idea for the tital it had to be something to do with the lines and how the fitted with the images. I brainstormed through a lot of words Such as trapped , bared, underground, but i felt caged fitted the best. It fitted because with the occupation and the entrapment that all the islanders felt withing WW2 and how they just couldn’t escape it.

I then went on the make the back cover incorporating the black lines and the image with German phrases related to occupation.

A zine is usually a non – commercial, non professional publication, kind of like a magazine but with a twist. The main difference between a magazine and a zine is that zines are not out there to make a profit but, rather, to add
other, often unheard voices into the mix. Zines are usually made out of interest and passion and are often self-published by the writer/artist/creator. Typically zines are made using collage techniques and are then photocopied
since these are means available to almost everyone.

Zines can be difficult to define. The word “zine” is a shortened form of the term fanzine, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fanzines emerged as early as the 1930s among fans of science fiction. Zines also have roots in the informal, underground publications that focused on social and political activism in the ’60s. By the ’70s, zines were popular on the punk rock circuit. In the ’90s, the feminist punk scene propelled the medium and included such artists as Kathleen Hanna, who produced riot grrrl out of Olympia, Washington.

A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier.  A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000.  Profit is not the primary intent of publication. There are so many types of zines: art and photography zines, literary zines, social and political zines, music zines, perzines (personal zines), travel zines, health zines, food zines.   And the list goes on and on. 

In class we were presented with lots of zines to look at and gain ideas and inspiration. These zines were typically all A5 many of them varied having lose inserts in the books. Some had pages smaller or larger than others. This showed a huge rage of diversity and ideas that i could use when creating my final zine.

Zine Plan

For my zine I want to create a flowing ascetic that can be seen on each page of the zine tying the narrative together. One idea that i though was really strong was incorporating lines into each one of my images. I thought this because a lot of my images contain vivid bold lines already such as the images with the metal grids and wires. I liked this whole ascetic of caged, almost trapped in which reflects directly back onto what life was like in WW2 because they were curfews they lived under occupation jersey was completely trapped. So i feel this will fit well with my story my images I already have got and create a real flowing story line behind the zine. When i actually get to putting the images next to each other that’s when i will be able to completely plan out how i want the images to look in coordination with each other. I want to have a mix of black and white images also images that are colored but no overly vibrant more just brown warm tones some images that I think i might use are:

What Occupation vs Liberation Means to Me

The occupation of Jersey represents the injustices and lack of remorse for the Islanders due to leaders in a heirachy. Jersey is a small island, it doesn't have prime ministers, it only has a small governmnet. However, Germany, a large country in a dispute with the rest of the world felt the need to occupy and control under harsh ruling a small island off the coast of France. The occupation of Jersey also represents determination and rebellion due to the stories of the Islanders. Characters such as Claude Cahun who was a Jewish, gender fluid lesbian who was in a relationship with her stepsister produced anti-nazi properganda and slipped them into the pockets of German soldiers. Although Cahun would've been brutally punished, she still took the risk to rebel, displaying the retallience of the Islanders. 

Landscape

For the overall project Occuption vs Liberation we visited Noirmoint point to explore the landscapes and bunkers of that area. We met Tony Pike who looks after the bunkers of Noirmont Point and he gave us an insight into the rich history of the area. By learning about the history of Noirmont Point I am able to have a deeper understanding of what it was like for the residents of Jersey and soldiers during the occupation, whilst also comprehending the natural and gradual changes of the landscape throughout time. Here are some of my favourite examples of landscape photography at Noirmont Point:

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Portrait

We were also given the amazing opportunity to photograph two individuals; Hedley and Joyce, who were alive for the occupation of Jersey. They gave us a detailed account of what their lives were like and unique experiences, in Hedleys case, where he got a German soldier drunk. We photographed them in the studio and I was able to develop key skills such as management of lighting, angles and dealing with subjects that are constantly changing due to movement. Here are some of my favourite portraits I took:

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Objects

Proceeding our visit to the Jersey Archives, we were lent some objects that were from the Occupation, we also visited the Jersey War tunnels where we were also able to photograph objects that were in the war tunnels. In both scenarios I had to learn to cope with different lighting, managing the different lights in the studio and dealing with the low lighting in the War tunnels. Here are some examples of my photoshoots: 

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Photomontage

I also experimented with photomontage which was brought on by the study of Rafal Milach. I experimented incorporating both images that I had taken myself and archival images from Societe Jersey. I used photoshop to cut the images and place them together and in some instances to also use the colour tool to create bright backgrounds. I also printed out some images and cut them out and stick them together using glue. Here are some examples: 

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Sewing

Following on from my photomontages, I wanted to further on my artistic abilities and decided to sew into on of my montages. I created cages out of the string. All of the characters had different colours for their cages which represents how although they are all in their cages of war, their individuals experiences are unique to them. However, the guard has his colour and the other colours of the other individuals because he has control over their lives making their cages of war part of his.

Personal Study

BELOW IS A MOOD BOARD:

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Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism’s dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term is associated with skepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.

The time period that post-modernism boomed was 1970 to present day. As an art movement postmodernism to some extent defies definition – as there is no one postmodern style or theory on which it is hinged. It embraces many different approaches to art making, and may be said to begin with pop art in the 1960s and to embrace much of what followed including conceptual art, neo-expressionism, feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the 1990s, for example, the infamous Andy Warhol.

Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism and created to be ‘anti-art’. Modernism was generally based on idealism and a utopian vision of human life and society and a belief in progress. It assumed that certain ultimate universal principles or truths such as those formulated by religion or science could be used to understand or explain reality. Modernist artists experimented with form, technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects, believing they could find a way of purely reflecting the modern world.

Characteristics of Post-modernism

Post-modernism is used to express references from outside of the artwork, including the ideas of politics, culture, social and underlying historical issues within society.

Post-Modernism artists and influences

Damien Hirst

Away from the Flock is a floor-based sculpture consisting of a glass-walled tank filled with formaldehyde solution in which a dead sheep is fixed so that it appears to be alive and caught in movement. Thick white frames surround and support the tank, setting in brilliant relief the transparent turquoise of the solution in which the sheep is immersed. Away from the Flock is unusual for a Hirst sculpture in that it exists in three versions, all created the same year, of which ARTIST ROOM’s is the third.

Andy Warhol

Jeff Koon