CONCEPT : What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?
After my group had brainstormed various ideas under the umbrella theme of community, we decided to focus our project on the idea of fashion, in particular how women’s fashion has changed throughout different decades. We chose this because we are interested to see how the future of fashion (both men’s and women’s) will look in the metaverse. For this project we will produce a 30 second film, through which we will show different fashion trends spanning over 50 years. We want to explore as many different production methods and ways of editing as possible, such as photoshop and embroidery.
A Zine is a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches. Zines can be created through a number of different mediums, sometimes by physically cutting and gluing text and images together onto a ‘master flat’ for photocopying, however more and more recently zines have been created to showcase a photographer’s work through computer editing and sequencing. Zine publication (of Zine’s most similar to those we see today) first began in the 1930’s, traced back to the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago’s sci-fi Zine called ‘The Comet.’ One of the most popular, and recognizable decades of the Zine, was the 1990’s – all thanks to the Riot Grrrl scene. During this time young girls were encouraged to make their own music, zines etc – in a male dominated industry this was a big moment for women to make a stand. Riot Grrrl was more than just a musical genre, it was a feminist movement, as Max Kessler wrote in Paper, “Whatever Riot Grrrl became – a political movement, an avant-garde, or an ethos – it began as a zine.”
Recently, Zines are created to showcase projects, illustrations, art, photographs – the list goes on. Below I have created a mood-board of zines that interest me, may it be with their layout, images, colour palette or storyline – I wish to discover more about why artists create the Zines they make. For more on the history of zines, click here.
James Jay; I Love The World I See
James Jay is an American photographer and artist who began photographing the world around him in 2005. Jay’s images are intimate and familiar, I was really drawn to their warm yet mysterious atmosphere. The project of work I am creating a reference for is Jay’s Zine entitled ‘I Love The World I See’, which is a series holding two separate Zines, one in black and white and the other in colour. What I love about the work in this project is the way Jay can capture a different view of the community that surrounds him everyday – it is almost as if he knows every alleyway or corner of the streets to walk to capture the sincerity and honesty of his local community. An exert from the beginning of Jay’s Zine states ‘I started to shoot the world around me, everyday things. Then came my online photoblog named ‘I Love The World I See’. It was a place for me to post things that I saw, made or thought. That blog no longer exists but the phrase I Love The World I See still stays stuck in my head everyday. I love the world around me, even the chaos that comes with it, I love being able to see those things that other people sometimes neglect to see, either because they don’t slow down to look around or do not care to see. I try to capture those moments.’
Why do I want to take inspiration?
James Jay’s Zine shares with us the community around him, giving the observer an insight into his life, and those lives that pass him by everyday. His street photography style reflects that of famous candid photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier with his black and white mysterious images whose ambiguity leave the observer waning more, stretching their imagination to decide who this person is they are seeing, why are they there, what do they want? I think this is what inspires me most about Jay’s Zine, I wish to recreate the feel of community, the familiarity and honesty that I see around me. I am always inspired by photographers that create strong narratives, storytelling is very important to me, I aim to take inspiration from ‘I Love The World I See’ by telling the stories of each different community around St Helier, using my images from my ‘Character of Community’ and ‘Sense of Place’ photoshoots. Jay’s Zine layout is also something I wish to take influence from, I really enjoy the way he uses a range of formats to display his images, some taking up the full page, some meeting in the centre etc – I believe it helps the fluidity of the Zine, straying away from using a symmetrical format reflects the natural environment of the images not needing to be perfect; another element I wish to demonstrate in my Zine.
We made a mind map of the different types of community, breaking down what ideas we could use for our project.
My mood board shows different examples of the types of communities that we though of.
Statement of Intent
The main topic for the NFT projects is community so we made a mind map and mood board of different types of community then using that we chose a few topics that we thought would be a good interpretation of community. Then we narrowed it down to generations then from that we would look at past fashion, showing the different styles from the 70’s to now and a prediction of the future with the progression of Jersey through the years.
A reflection of the past.
For our project we want to produce a NFT that reflects the change in fashion over the years and how trends have left and returned. To produce this we found old photos from the 1970’s and 2000’s to put behind the person we’re filming and taking new photos to use for 2021 and the future. For the background sound we thought of finding music from the time to reflect onto the filming of the set time line used.
STATEMENT OF INTENT: Reflect and review your mind-map and mood-board AND produce a statement of intent that clearly defines how you wish to interpret the theme of COMMUNITY as a 30 sec animated film and digital image:
3 words: Love thy neighbour
A sentence: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39)
A paragraph: The LGTQ+ community has been oppressed by various communities about their beliefs and practices, one being Christians. This is disappointing to think about because Jesus says to “Love thy neighbour” in Matthew 22:37; love not judge. As personally being part of both communities, I have found a way to balance same sex attraction and The Kingdom of God, so I found it my duty to show to Christians the sort of hurt and anxiety they cause to people part of the LGTBQ+ community, remind them that they should not judge but love and help these people. Another example that Christians should remember to follow can be seen in John 7:53-8:11:
53 Then each of them went home, 1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
This powerfully shows that Christians should not condemn anyone but help them in faith and love.
For this film we are not trying to agree or disagree with the topic of “is homosexuality a sin” rather try and find a balance and peace between the 2 communities.
We will do this by having same sex actresses go into a church, read the Bible to show that they are helping each other in the faith, then when they make eye contact the film cuts to snaps of them running away from society and judgement; we did this to reveal that sometimes the pressure is so hard on these people that sometimes it feels like just giving up and running away to live your fantasy. We then will snap to riots to powerfully show to the viewer the kind of pressure the LGBTQ+ community faces. Finally, the film will go back to the actresses reading the verse “Love thy Neighbour” strongly recommending not to push either community away but helping them and direct them to the Father (God) instead of condemning them.
