'Do it Yourself' Girl Revolution: LadyFest, Performance and Fanzine Culture

Riot grrrl began as an independent music and political movement in the early 1990s emerging initially in the USA and few years later in the UK. From the beginning riot grrrl embraced a 'do-it-yourself' ethos operating outside the mainstream music business organising independent music festivals, workshop events and encouraging self-published fanzines (fan magazines which were distributed primarily through word of mouth, music gigs, artists and zine book fairs or by post). These zines became recognisable forms of personal expression and made visible a specific DIY approach alongside the development of a coherent style of graphic language in the producer's use of the photocopier, handwritten and graffiti texts, cut-n-paste and ransom note lettering style, collage and the co-option of mainstream media imagery. These production techniques made fanzine publishing accessible and played a central role in the development of a non-hierarchical community. The main intent of this talk is to explore the idea of 'event as performance' using as a case study the specific activities of riot grrrl and focussing on a series of international events called 'LadyFests' and the graphic language of self-published riot grrrl fanzines. This will be achieved by examining the origins of today's riot grrrl performances (e.g. theatre, spoken word, music events) in 1970s feminist art, as well as locating the activities within the specific context of their counter-cultural predecesors including punk and punk performance

The School of Art

The School of Art is a fully-illustrated children's activity book which introduces basic design elements and key design principles to young readers (8-11 years old). The narrative follows the adventures of five expert professors in their art school studios who together, demonstrate key concepts - from composition and colour to line, shape and perspective - never previously brought together in a children's art compendium. The book is based upon extensive research into design, perception theory, key stage skill sets, and the history of art school teaching. The School of Art is co-published in Australia, USA; and, with translated versions in France, Brazil, and Russia. The School of Art appears on the shortlist for the prestigious '2016 Educational Writers'Award for Creative Educational Writing'; the '2016 English 4-11 Picture Book Awards' from the English Association Journal; and, amongst other accolades, has appeared on the Guardian newspaper's non-fiction children's book of the year shortlist (2015)

Riot grrrl punk: a case study in the personal politics of British riot grrrl fanzines

This 11,500-word book chapter takes as its case study one Riot Grrrl fanzine, Rebel Grrl Punk, and presents an in-depth analysis of the independent music and political feminist movement in the early 1990s that emerged initially in the USA and few years later in the UK. From the beginning, riot grrrl embraced a 'do-it-yourself' ethos operating outside the mainstream music business, organising independent music festivals and workshop events and encouraging self-published fanzines. The chapter is published in Visual Rhetoric and the Eloquence of Design, which features 10 scholarly essays steeped in rhetorical analysis of artefacts, alongside two visual essays on the topic of ornamental typography with accompanying verbal texts. Contributors include notable historians and theorists Gerry Beegan, Barry Curtis, Michael Golec, Jane Webb and Jack Williamson. Parlor Press is an established, independent peer-reviewed academic publisher focusing on ‘outstanding writing’ in specialist subjects including Literary Theory, Rhetoric and Art History. Continuation of this research also informed conference papers presented at the ‘Women’s Library Zine Festival’, London Metropolitan University (2010), and ‘A Carnival of Feminist Cultural Activism’ at University of York (2011). The chapter expands the author’s PhD research (University of Reading) and research for her Professorial Platform (University of the Arts London, 2009); and focuses upon primary research (author’s own collection of uncatalogued and rare zines and interviews) using theory drawn from political history, feminist studies and visual rhetoric. The first part of the chapter provides a historical context of fanzines and defines theoretical positions, including visual language, contemporary feminist narrative, and terminology such as ‘riot grrrl’. The main section focuses on an analysis and in-depth exploration into the British riot grrrl fanzine, Rebel Grrrl Punk (1997–2001), which is used as a case study of an emerging visual language for third-wave feminism

Fan culture: not forgetting Katy Keene (1945-1961)

While fan networks are not necessarily new (e.g. the first US movie fan magazine was founded in 1911), how many comic book characters can claim to be the focus of a loyal fan club and pen pals, with merchandising to match, and whose clothes, houses, and cars are created by the fans themselves? Created by American illustrator Bill Woggon (1911-2003), Katy Keene who made her debut in 1945, is part of a history of comic strips written about independent career women. Katy Keene was drawn to reflect the fashionable female image of America’s fifties post-war period - less exotic ‘pin-up’, rather girl-next-door - but one with ambition and drive to make it as a successful career woman. What makes Katy Keene significant is the process by which the designs for her clothes, possessions and other elements of the graphic page like the lettering of the story titles, were submitted by fans. While not the first to use fans’ drawings in a comic book, the way in which Woggon actively sent out a call to readers was unique. He would then redraw the designs to fit the comic book characters attributing each contribution with the fan’s postal address. This paper will explore Katy Keene’s comic book world and the way in which her creator broke down the barrier between artist and fan

Notes on the fan-scholar: feminism and DIY graphic ephemera

This paper will draw upon the work of feminist design historians (Buckley 1986, Scotford 2000, Attfield 2000) in order to reappraise the role that self-publishing print platforms have played in the construction of a feminist history. Mainstream magazines have been the conventional frame through which feminist and 'feminine‘ identities have been constructed and critiqued. However, it may be argued that DIY publications (e.g. fanzines and broadsheets) generated 'below critical radar‘ provide an equally rich resource for shaping a history/critique through both content and mode of production. Ultimately the graphic object becomes the vehicle through which subject/object relationships may be explored (Attfield 2000)

Commentary: Image-centric practices as global design strategies

‘Image-Centric Practices as Global Design Strategies’ presents a critical commentary on highlighted discussion points offered in Section 4 of the book 'Shifts towards Image-centricity in Contemporary Multimodal Practices' edited by Hartmut Stöckl, Helen Caple and Jana Pflaeging (Routledge, 2019). The book’s section authors - Knox, Wignell, et al., and Engebretsen – share case examples which foreground design and its corollary strategies to generate new ways of approaching image-centricity and genre development. My commentary, in response to their work, asks: what is the potential for design as ‘mediated action’, encompassing the designer as producer, designing for audiences, and designing as storytelling. It draws together the insights of the authors and posits an applied context for design

The critical turn: Education of a design writer

In the mid-1990s, in the early days of the internet, graphic designers lamented the ‘end of print’. However, the first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen an explosion of activity from graphic designers discovering their own agency to publish — often independently and, significantly, in print. A logical parallel development has been a growing interest amongst graphic designers to research and write about their own discipline. Drawing upon her experience as a design writer and educator, Teal Triggs reflects here upon her own influences, upon recent developments in critical writing in design, and upon what a ‘critical turn’ might mean for graphic design education

The future of design education — Graphic design and critical practices: informing curricula

Graphic design curricula must be flexible and responsive. As designers and educators we must strengthen the relationships between design and the sciences, between design and business organisations, and between design and relevant communities. There is little doubt that the design paradigm will continue to shift, as will the current economic, social, cultural, environmental, technological and political contexts in which it operates. We are witnessing a time when the graphic object is no longer the sole outcome of design practice. Posters, billboards, publications and navigational systems are still the domain of the graphic designer, but increasingly designers are involved in generating services, information visualisation and visual experiences. Designers are moving away from tangible object-orientation and toward experiential or service-oriented design solutions. As global contexts change, the need to form closer working relationships with those outside of the discipline, in fields like ethnography, psychology, human-factor research and policy making, increases. This understanding of co-operation may be broadened to include the participation of targeted communities tha

From Mapping to Data Visualisation: Re-evaluating Design Education at the Royal College of Art

In 1967, the Experimental Cartography Unit (ECU) launched at the Royal College of Art and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with the main aim to ‘advance art, science, technology, and practice of making maps by computers.’ (Rhind in Kemp 2008). The ECU was also tasked with working on new ways of communicating cartographic information. (Coppock 1968) Amongst the innovative approaches to emerge from ECU’s researchers was the development of a stereographic or anaglyph method for representing spatially statistical data on maps. Such advances in automated cartography techniques contributed significantly to the growing field of computer-assisted information visualisation. Nearly fifty years on, links between technology, science and design continue to be a key focus for RCA students and researchers alike. In particular, the ways in which students and researchers are ‘transforming information into experiences through design.’ As shifts in technological, informational and socio-political environments occur, so too has the need to re-evaluate the role design and education plays in addressing these new contexts. This paper outlines the current pedagogical challenges faced by the School of Communication, RCA, and exploring both relevant and forward thinking design curricula within an art school context