Our project based on highlighting ideas about the metaverse and the idea of ‘2 Lives’ was an overall success. We were able to complete the project within the time frame to a sufficient standard. My artistic intention was to deliver a project which used a-lot of digital techniques to relay a futuristic aesthetic. I believe through the use of animation and various other effects, along with the sound-design we achieved this artistic direction.
I feel we effectively spread the workload amongst the whole group. Everyone had something to do at all times when working on the project.
Matthew
Camera man
Animator
Reuben
Actor
Secondary editor
Ollie
Director
Manager
Myself
Main Character
Chief Editor
This was valuable as the editing process was intricate.
Although class time was used effectively in this way, I do feel more out of class work could’ve been done to help iron out any creases in the film as I do think it has room for improvement. For example some sections of the film do not flow seamlessly but rather cut quite chaotically and therefore more out of lesson time could’ve been spent on transitions.
Our project represented the idea of having social circles online and in the physical world which reacted to the theme of community well.
Our work was inspired by artists like Beeble and I feel we effectively displayed this aesthetic using the digital style of work
Title: Online / Offline The concept behind our NFT video is that two friends each have two separate lives; one offline and online. Our video shows how anything can happen on an online medium, but real connection and friendship occurs in real life. As technology develops relationships of all kinds are growing apart. An example of this occurred in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. People only experienced contact with family members in the same household and the only way to speak to people outside was via an online medium. This effected the mental health of everyone and looking back on the first lockdown we can see how much we relied on technology to keep connected with family and friends.
Creators: Oliver Shiplee, Matthew Brown, Michael Kenealy and Reuben Jeanne
Before we planned teh shoot we established initial ‘job roles’ for the project:
Matthew
Camera man
Animator
Reuben
Actor
Secondary editor
Ollie
Director
Manager
Myself
Main Character
Chief Editor
We will shoot our video using a DSLR paired with a drone. Referring back to the story board, the DSLR will shoot close up shots and eyelevel perspective shots, while the drone will take the birds-eye-view shots.
We will shoot during the day time, during overcast weather to remove any harsh lighting and add drama to our footage. We found an open field area with a cliff which is were we will film as we plan for the main character to appear as he is isolated when shooting birds-eye-view shots. The cliff also adds to the drama and the cliff will add more sublime romanticism to our footage. We want our narrative to be obvious and we are using characters who will act out this narrative effectively. In terms of props we will be using a VR headset which we have crafted ourselves using accessible materials.
Behind the scenes:
Matthew controlling the drone while I ran towards it Me showing off the central handmade prop
Am I satisfied that I have enough images/ material? – Yes I am satisfied we have shot an abundance of imagery. What are you going to do differently on next shoot? – Do not rush the takes as much and refer to the storyboard more directly. How are you going to develop your ideas? – Add animation and editing to piece the narrative together and further add visual effect to the piece to relay a more emotive campaign.
Film Inspirations:
Editing:
Video
I began by laying delegating the task of finding a backing track for the video. We found a royalty-free electronic song with a fast paced beat which would complement the narrative and visuals well. I then laid the soundtrack in a new sequence in Adobe Premiere pro. Thereafter, I began introducing clips into the sequence and cutting them to the beat. Once satisfied with how the clips where positioned and the overall sequence, I moved onto the next element of post-production, colour grading and Effects. I added a grade on all of the clips using adjustment layers. I went for a high saturation and high contrast grade to dramatize the action in the video. I then added video-game style overlays such as the one below.
For the split screen concept I first had to motion track my face to stabilise the clip more so that my facial features lined up with the animation characters features. The animation was designed by Matthew. You can see his editing process for this HERE
This involved an intricate frame-by-frame masking process.
I added speed ramps to add a sense of hyperreality and the idea that time is controllable in the metaverse more. Finally I added sound FX to add a more immersive feeling.
Image
Matthew made the the digital image in photoshop. He used a screen grab from one of the videos of me wearing the VR, and the 5 animated scenes all at the same timeframe so the character lines up.
He then added some glitched text effect by using 2 layers behind each text. To make it better he added some blending mode features, such as, emboss and bevel, etc.
He used shapes and clipping layers to add all the images into to ensure all the shapes are even.
This is the final image which represents the whole NFT film. It shows the most important scene, which is the split scene that includes the animation as the NFT exhibition is called 2lives (online and offline), it shows the real world and the virtual meta verse.
As a unit we began to learn about the vast world of animation. This was done by receiving a presentation from an animator from Jersey, Liam Nunn.
Liam Nunn has spent over a decade smashing the creative industry with precision, energy and finesse. Working with many brilliant people on oodles of ravishing campaigns – including multiple locally and nationally award-winning ones. A multi-disciplined media monster, Liam was once described by a colleague as “quite good but sometimes a bit bizarre.” Wait…
Fact #1 Liam once illustrated an award-winning dog poo.
Fact #2 Liam is a three-time professional wrestling tag team champion of the world and he probably owns more spandex than you do. Gosh!
Fact #3 Liam produced a whopping 52 weekly self-portraits over the course of a year just for larks. You can see them here.
He began by giving an in-depth power-point regarding the basics of what animation is. From this I learnt about the intrecacies of animation in as a carreer in the industry and the different types of animators, for example;
2D animator.
3D animator.
Background artist.
Character animator.
Clean-up artist.
Digital ink and paint artist.
Image editor.
Key frame animator.
I gained a unique point of knowledge regarding the nature of how something can be made to look natural when being animated
Liam then proceeded to further my knowledge on Adobe After Effects, an important piece of software for any kind of animation.
He created a template for us to start experimenting with called a rig. I then learnt how to keyframe an animation together using the stopwatch tool
And the rig controls Liam set up for us
The following is my experiment with this animation template:
A storyboard is a collection of images that tell a story. Basically it is a sketch of the ideas a person is trying to portray. It is another way of showing a game plan to an individual with interest on what is going on. The visual elements along with the captions allow for the story to be seen by the person reading it. Disney is to be credited with the creation of storyboards since 1920. Ever since then, it has been a great way to share information.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
It was commissioned to celebrate the ‘William the Conqueror’s’ conquest of England. It begins with the events that led up to it – the death of Edward the confessor the King of England, and the succession of a new king; Harold. It runs through each scene of the Normans invasion and ends in the killing of King Harold.
Death of King Harold showing an arrow in his eye, Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux, Normandy, France, Europe
The Bayeux tapestry is one of the supreme achievements of the Norman Romanesque. Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century.
The Channel Islands became part of the Anglo-Norman realm when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold and won the English crown at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Jerseymen, or at least close relatives, serving under their Normandy lords, were said to be present at this historical battle. Just who was and was not at Hastings has been the subject of argument for centuries, but Onfroi, Mauger and Roger de Carteret, the sons of Godefroi de Carteret, are believed to have fought in the battle. It is likely that Onfroi’s son Renaud was the first de Carteret to become established in Jersey, and was thus the founder of the dynasty which ruled Jersey for such long periods over the centuries.
The tapestry is actually not a “true” tapestry in which the design is woven into the cloth in tapestry weave; it is technically an embroidery. It was embroidered on tabby-woven linen in crewel. It uses two main types of stiches: backstitching for the lettering and outlines and coaching for filling in the figures. Nine linen panels were sewn together to make the full 70m piece.
At least two panels of the tapestry are missing, perhaps even another 6.4 m . This missing area may have included William’s coronation.
Lisa Reihana is a New Zealand artist of Maori descent.
is a moving image interpretation of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique.
In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to produce Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804), a sophisticated twenty panel scenic wallpaper. Mirroring a widespread fascination with the Pacific voyages undertaken by Captain Cook, de Bougainville and de la Perouse, the wallpaper’s exotic themes referenced popular illustrations of that time. Two hundred years later, Maori artist Lisa Reihana employs twenty-first century digital technologies to animate Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique. Enlivened with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies, a vast video panorama is populated by a myriad of people drawn from across New Zealand and the Pacific.
Separated by two centuries, both the wallpaper and video are set against an utopian Tahitian landscape. While Dufour’s work models Enlightenment beliefs and ideas of harmony amongst mankind, Reihana’s reading of the past is darker and more nuanced. The artist foregrounds the complexities of cultural identity and colonisation by including scenes of encounter between Europeans and Polynesians.
in Pursuit of Venus is a major video project that has been in development for several years. It reflects the wallpapers utopian ideals, is eight minutes long and presented on two-screens. in Pursuit of Venus has been exhibited in historic homes, art galleries and museums – repurposing each presentation offers new insights and unique presentation opportunities.
This epic piece of living, moving, animated wallpaper eventually led to her representing New Zealand at last year’s Venice Biennale, where it was described as the best exhibit by critics including those from the Spectator and the Sunday Times.
Read article HERE in the Guardian and watch Lisa discuss the making of her film.
Embroidery
I learnt a lot from my experience with embroidery. Initially some inspiration based stimulus, to gain inspiration into a more tangible world of art, was given to us. I studied the work of El Anatsui who is a Ghanaian sculptor who’s work focuses on reusing materials in an in orthodox way to give it new meaning. Such as this piece below where he uses bottle caps to create a piece that looks flexible and embodies themes of consumption, transformation and the environment.
We then learnt about the different types of stiches we could attempt to use in our work.
I made use of the back and the satin stich the most. The back stitch is a good method to create a continuous line. It involves, as the name suggests, stitching cloth in a line and then stitching back onto that line to make it more continuous. Satin stitching is an effective way of filling/colouring in a section of your work and it involves a consistent long portion of string being stitched parallel to fill in a space. Below is an example of where I used these methods in the same piece of tapestry.
My embroidery experience involved a lot of experimenting and compiling of many different elements.
Because there was free reign of creativity I almost allowed my hand to guide the string where I wanted it to go to create visual elements that popped into my head. I decided to create a piece with a central focus with other elements and materials sewed to it.
My focal image was that of influential figure in the occupation and art scene of Jersey, Claude Cahun. I additionally decided to use various stitching methods to create an intriguing design around her face to mask her eyes representing the oppression she faced during the occupation.
To further showcase my workflow around my embroidery I created a GIF by taking continuous photos of my piece every few minutes. I created it in photoshop by following these steps:
1. Create layer for each image 2. Window > timeline 3. Select > Create Frame Animation 4. Drop Menu > Make frames from Layers 5. Timeline > select Forever 6. File > Export > Save for Web Legacy > reduce image size to 720 x 720 pixels
I believe making this gif inspired thoughts of how tangible art can be infused with digital art. I believe using inspiration from the work of Lisa Reihana this GIF can be developed into a more in depth digital movie with the addition of a narrative. The GIF could be improved by taking images more frequently to create a smoother animation and keeping the embroidery in the same location of the table – not move it around as much.
As planned in my Storyboard Blog Post, on October 14th my group went to shoot on location at Carmen’s grandmother’s house. We aimed to create images inspired by Lissa Rivera and Cindy Sherman, keeping our Clare Rae inspired shots for our video footage. Each member of our group took images on their own cameras for this shoot, however the final edits are comprised of my shots which we all worked hard on creating unique compositions and lighting for. I focused on photographing in areas of warm lighting, with side lamps, ring lights and natural sunlight as our source; I wanted to create an atmosphere of confidence and playfulness in these images. Each member of our group walked around the house to find rooms and areas where interesting images could be taken, we tried to focus on finding patterned wallpaper, similar to Rivera’s work, as well as rooms with mirrors, fireplaces and symmetrical backgrounds that could create dynamic changes. During our photoshoot we experimented with how using flash would disrupt or help the lighting of an image, for some it helped massively by providing natural highlights on our models face as well as illuminating the background – however, in rooms with an abundance of natural lighting the flash created highly over exposed images that did not reflect the warm tones as we had hoped. I really enjoyed experimenting with the White Balance, Shutter Speed and ISO of my camera to see how changing the setting slightly could effect an image so greatly.
Flagged Unedited Images;
In Adobe Lightroom I imported all 324 of our photoshoot images and used to ‘flagging’ tool to select which ones were the most successful. When choosing these I looked for photographs with interesting compositions, sometimes I found asymmetrical images a lot more intriguing as they showed freedom and fun, qualities of our fully empowered modern woman that, in some images, we wanted to portray. After flagging our favourite images (screenshots seen above), I went through them again giving them a 1 to 5 star rating. Any images with 5 stars I then went on to edit and refine, touching up exposure and brightness mostly, to link more to Rivera’s work and convey a sense of empowerment. When editing, I wanted to keep the warm undertones that I captured in the raw shoot as I believe they helped represent the comforting atmosphere of a woman in her own home, feeling confident and safe within herself.
Best Images – Edited;
Our images show understanding of stereotyping, taking inspiration from Cindy Sherman’s work by photographing our model in a stereotypically feminine outfit, stood/sat in exaggerated poses to create an ironic display of the female gender. We wanted to use these ideologies surrounding women to form a basis for our shoot, using irony to suggest our model feels proud of her femininity as she uses it for her own empowerment, not for the pleasure of others. Locations for these images around the house include bedrooms, offices and lounges – each holding a different stereotype being squashed by our models confidence and satirical representation of how women were (and still are) seen in society.
Image Analysis
I have chosen to analyse this image from my feminism photoshoot as it shows a clear link to all three artists I have studied with use of the formal elements and thematic composition. The first element of this image that I really enjoy is the warm lighting that creates an orange hue throughout, conveying a sense of comfort and security. The dominant colour of orange, as well as creating warmth, also helps the observer understand the subject better as the bright colour connotes ideas of confidence and happiness, things our ’empowered new-age woman’ feels in a free, equal society. The dark lighting that covered this location helped us form an image with depth and meaning from the colours that the natural sunlight, coming through a window out of frame on the right, created. This lighting also illuminated the space around our main subject, as if she were emerging from a place of purity and serenity, symbolic of a heavenly light that surrounds her while she admires herself. The range of tones in this image is quite unbalanced, with the focal point at the brightest point in the centre being surrounded by a much larger border of dark shadow. This creates an atmosphere of mystery and secrecy, linking to Clare Rae’s secretive images were she hides parts of her body so they cannot be exploited for the male gaze. The use of repetition in this piece is seen from the mirrors reflections around the edges, creating distorted versions of our models features eg. arms, hands etc, further linking to our studied artists ironic portrayal of the female gender. The reflections create some rhythm in the image, relating to the idea of flowing water around her; connoting ideas of freedom and fluidity. The overall composition of the piece adds an interesting take on the theme also, we cannot actually see the model’s physical body in the image, only a reflection of her standing out of frame. This raises the question, is she really there? Or is this maybe a ghost from the past looking in on a changed world, possibly an echo from future generations looking back on what women have accomplished – the ambiguity is for the observer to imagine.
Overall, I believe that our film and still image that we produced as a group has been successful, due to the fact that we have achieved our goal by producing a visual representation of the turmoil and discrimination that people who are members of the LGBTQ+ and religious communities suffer, and with the film offered a light-hearted resolution. Some aspects of the film that I believe worked well and allowed for this to happen, were the religious setting scenes, due to the fact that we were able to shoot on location, in a real church. Furthermore, by using clothing to signify the comfort of the characters in different setting, for example wearing conservative white clothing in the church and leisurely and comfortable clothing in the dream sequence, I think it helped to enhance our vision. Another thing that helped the filming process, was using a camera frame to make scenes in which the camera is moving look smoother. Although this doesn’t mean that the camera was perfectly steady, it most definitely helped us produce a more professional outcome. On reflection, something I think we could improve on is the riot scenes, as we used stock video to make it feel more authentic. However, I think that if it were possible, we could have used footage that related more closely to the subject of our film, such as religious protests about the progressive laws towards the LGBTQ+ community. With our digital image, I think that by using the medium of embroidery to stitch over the collage, it created a sense of trauma that these people suffer. This is as it helped to represent how these verses and comments on their sexuality cause harm to the target whilst piercing them and break them down emotionally. If I were to comment on something that could be improved within this image, it would be to make the colours of the separate photographs bolder, by having them printed on a fabric or canvas material, instead of the thick paper we used. When viewing the film it can be said that we used NFT artist Fewocious as a source of inspiration, due to our story of a hidden and repressed LGBTQ+ identity, that can also be seen through his digital art. In addition, the NFT artist Hackatao can be said to be an inspiration for the composition of our final image, due to the fact that our photographs incorporated protest signs that have a similar essence to the written text within their work. In conclusion, I believe that these two pieces of work were successful responses to the theme of community, due to their message of unity and acceptance between the religious and LGBTQ+ communities.
Benitah is a French visual creator UN agency worked for 10 years as a dressmaker before turning to photography in 2001, exploring memory, family and therefore the passage of your time. usually pairing recent family photos with skilled worker accents, like embroidery, beads and ink paintings, Benitah seeks to reinterpret her own story as a girl, married woman and mother.
By activity totally different faces and options, the folks photographed are nearly stripped of their identity. I selected to check Benitah as a result of I believe his art best represents the construct I hope to capture during this project.
With beads, coloured thread and scissors, French photographer Carolle Benitah has altered her family photo albums to explore the memories of her childhood, and as a way to help her understand her current identity.
Carolle herself has said:
I started to be interested in my family pictures when I was leafing through a family album and found myself overwhelmed by an emotion of which I could not define the origin.
These photographs were taken 40 years earlier, and I could not even remember the moments they were shot, nor what preceded or followed those moments.
But the photos reawakened an anguish of something both familiar and totally unknown, the kind of disquieting strangeness that Freud spoke about. Those moments, fixed on paper, represented me, spoke about me and my family, told things about my identity, my place in the world, my family history and its secrets, the fears that constructed me, and many other things that contributed to who I am today.
I decided to explore the memories of my childhood to help me understand who I am and to define my current identity.
To begin, I carry out “excavations”. Like an archeologist, I dig out the pictures in which I appear from family albums and the shoe boxes full of photographs. I choose snapshots because they are related to memories and to loss.
These photographs are fragments of my past. I interpret them from a subjective perspective as confessions. I order them, classify them, scan them, then I print them. I don’t do anything directly on the original photo; I transpose this reality on a different paper. Sometimes I crop a detail that calls out to me, and I choose my format. The work of interpretation begins with these steps.
Once these choices of images are made, I start to tell my version of the story. I turn my attention to my own history, sometimes with 40 years of distance and the life experiences that changed my perception of events. The past of a human being, unlike the remains of an antique temple, is neither permanent nor finished, but reconstructed in the present time.
For the next step, I add needlework: embroidery and beads.
Embroidering is primarily a feminine activity. In the past, the embroiderer was seen as a paragon of virtue. Waiting was tied to this activity: women embroidered, hoping for the return of the man to the home. Embroidery is intimately linked to the milieu in which I grew up. Girls in a “good family” used to learn how to sew and embroider — essential activities for “perfect women”. My mother embroidered her trousseau.
There is nothing subversive about this activity, but I pervert it with my purpose. I use its decorative function to re-interpret my own history and to expose its failings. The two activities — interpretation and needlework — come together again in a kind of dispute: embroidery is the sign of a good education yet the words that I speak don’t show me to be what I was supposed to be: a well behaved girl, a wise spouse and a loving mother.
With each stitch I make a hole with a needle. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It’s like an exorcism. I make holes in paper until I am not hurting any more.
– Carolle Benitah
Benitah’s work is linked to ours as both share the nature of images hand-composed to tell a story or present an idea through embroidery
Louise Bourgeouis
Louise Bourgeois was a French-born sculptor best known for her monumental abstract and frequently biomorphic sculptures that deal with men and women’s interactions. She was born December 25, 1911, in Paris, France, and died May 31, 2010, in New York, New York, United States.
Bourgeois’ early sketches were created to aid her parents in the restoration of antique tapestries. She received her education at the Sorbonne, where she majored in mathematics. She switched her concentration to art at the age of 25, studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and Fernand Léger’s studio, and in 1938 she married and returned to New York City with her American husband, art historian Robert Goldwater. She started displaying her surrealist paintings and engravings there. She began experimenting with sculptural forms in the late 1940s, making a series of long, slim wooden figures that she displayed single and in groups.
Those were the first of her autobiographical pieces, which were characteristically abstract but emotionally strong. In the decades that followed, she created a number of frequently unnerving settings out of latex and found materials, as well as constructions out of marble, plaster, and glass. Betrayal, anxiety, revenge, obsession, anger, unbalance, and loneliness are among the most common. She frequently revisited subjects, techniques, and forms that had previously piqued her interest. Because she refused to confine her creative output to a single style or medium, she became more difficult to label and remained on the periphery of the art world. She was given a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1982, an honor rarely bestowed on a living artist, and she represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1993. She was awarded the Praemium Imperiale medal for sculpture by the Japan Art Association in 1999.
Long into her 90s, the sculptor maintained her vibrancy and originality. She constructed a massive steel-and-marble spider (Maman, 1999) from which six monumental bronze counterparts were cast in 2003, and the bronzes were shown at various locations across the world. Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress, and the Tangerine, a documentary, was released in 2008. Her house and studio, as well as a neighboring town house in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, were opened to the public in 2016 as a museum commemorating her life and work.
Art analysis
Louise Bourgeois is an artist that implements her own life struggles and thoughts into physical art.
Substance:
This project was clearly created using physical works like wood, linen, thread, metal and more
This artefact is stored in a museum for the public to see.
This is called “Cell of Hysteria” and Louise states that in this exhibition
Composition:
The key focus of the project is obviously the sculpture sort of hovering over the bed which has “Je t’aime” stitched through ought.
The artist has also added an antique sewing machine in this exhibition.
The dominant colours here are grey and red, successfully suggesting dark and gloomy times that have come upon Louise.
Lighting:
In this exhibition, the lighting is set towards the sculpture; powerfully drawing the viewers attention to the dis-membered sculpture.
There are a variety of lighter tones across the model, which provides better illumination for the sculpt to concentrate on, resulting in a precisely exposed cut
Techniques:
Embroidery has evidently been used to stitch the word s “Je t’aime” repeatedly
Atmosphere:
This form makes me feel empathetic because of the following:
the sculpture is dis-membered. This suggests that Louise is slowly getting rid of a memory of someone, considering the bump on the carve we can powerfully see that she’s attempting to “kill” the memory of a man. I know this because she repeatedly has called herself the murderer for this exhibition.
Also, “Je t’aime” is repeatedly stitched throughout the bed in which the sculpture is lying powerfully suggesting that the memory of this man (her husband who passed away) is killing slowly killing/ hurting her, nonetheless she still loves her husband. This is suggested by the fact the sculpture is only missing bits of its body like head, arms, and feet successfully showing the slow “murderous” process of getting rid of a memory.
The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. We were tasked with producing a poster based on one of the following themes :
Constitution & Citizenship Communities International Economy Education & Sport Heritage, Culture & the Arts Environment
RESEARCH
‘Heritage is not confined to looking backwards in time but is an essential part of the present we live in and the future we build. It is the extraordinary range of landscape, monuments, experiences and stories that characterise Jersey, and it also encompasses our contemporary interactions with this inheritance and the meanings we ascribe to it. Heritage gives the Island its distinctive look and feel, attracts tourists, and can inspire both intercultural dialogue and a shared sense of place and belonging.Jersey is unusually rich in tangible heritage assets, some of which (such as the prehistoric site at La Cotte and Le Câtillon Bronze Age hoard) are of international significance. Fourteen thousand Islanders – one seventh of the population – are members of Jersey Heritage. However, the sector has suffered from chronic underfunding, a lack of dedicated Ministerial input, and the lack of a coherent Heritage Strategy for the Island, all of which the Board suggest be rectified as soon as possible.’
‘Jersey has a rich tradition of artistic endeavour, and an enviable intangible cultural heritage. This is not just historical; contemporary Islanders are producing high-quality work often inspired by the character of the distinctive place in which they live. From music to filmmaking, from painting to poetry, scores of Jersey citizens are now making careers and reputations at international level. The Board celebrated the fact that creative people and entrepreneurs clearly feel a sense of attachment and pride in the Island, and noted that some excellent organisations (such as ArtHouse Jersey) and events (such as the Festival of Words and the ‘Weekender’) are helping to put the Island on the global cultural map. However, given the extraordinary potential of art and culture to achieve almost all of the objectives associated with Identity – domestic and international – it felt that even more could be done in this sphere. The Board singled out the Battle of Flowers as an exemplum of the enormous power of cultural activity to express identity and provide an important social ritual. Its real value should be recognised by Government not as a tourist attraction as something which unites our communities in a creative, artistic endeavour. If le Carnaval de Granville can achieve UNESCO Intangible Heritage status, why not the Battle?’
WHAT MAKES JERSEY SPECIAL AND WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOU?
I think that what makes Jersey special is the widespread diversity which can be seen throughout the island, and the strong sense of kinship and community which fuels everybody to interact with each other in a kind and friendly way. Additionally, as the island is so small, people tend to interrelate more closely with each other, both in their working environment and their social lives.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ‘JERSEY’, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE?
Being ‘Jersey’ means living in a close, tight-knit community full of various cultures and ethnic backgrounds, which will hopefully grow and flourish. In the future, I would like to see more representation of our diversity through different mediums, such as the arts.
WHAT CAN WE ALL DO TO SOLIDIFY A COHESIVE AND POSITIVE ISLAND IDENTITY?
In order to solidify a cohesive and positive island identity I think that Jersey should aim to be more welcoming to those who are different from ourselves (i.e different backgrounds and cultures). If we want to create a positive place for everyone to live then we as an island need to ensure that everyone, no matter where they may come from, feels comfortable, safe, and happy.
ARE THERE BARRIERS TO A POSITIVE AND INCLUSIVE ISLAND IDENTITY? (WHAT REQUIRES A GREATER FOCUS AND WHAT IS BEING MISSED?)
I think that there will always be barriers to a completely positive and inclusive island, as some people may not share the collective mindset that everyone is welcome. In order to combat this, we need to ensure that there are places people can go if they ever feel unsafe. In addition, school-age children should be offered a more in detail education about different cultures around the world, not just their own.
