Drafting the Narrative

I am trying to write my field notes into a narrative form. It’s really interesting. I’m only afraid this will be a really long text…

“Setting

I type word “african” to the search field of dreamstime.com and limit the search to illustrations. Images of dry savannahs and half naked women carrying water in the heat of Africa create a striking contrast to the cold and wet reality of Finland in December.

I scroll down trying to ignore the countless safaris with smiling crocodiles and cute little monkeys. My hunt is after human characters. Majority of the human characters I meet are women. Two female types emerge: the half-naked pitch dark rural woman stuck in the ancient times and a modern light skinned woman usually labelled as “African American”. Only few modern looking female characters remain after I mentally filter the African Americans. I note that my definition of modern means presence of appliances or Western looking clothes.

I head to Adobe stocks and meet the same rural women carrying loads on their heads. This tome however some male characters are also present. I also make notice of the abundance of desexualised breasts on display not related to breast feeding. I try to imagine a white character presented in the same situation. Quick browse for toples white females result in mostly very discreet images of women hiding their breast behind their arms.

From Fotolia I find a little more images of males though they too fall into the category of rural folks, often labelled “tribal” or “traditional”. Shutterstock is even more gender balanced and even provides a delightful variation of modern characters. Also iStock has decent amount of modern male characters to offer.

I take sceen captures from 50 first search results showing human characters from each microstock image bank and store them in my computer. My overall impression is that majority of illustrations show a decorative exotic woman carrying something on her head but otherwise having no function, story or personality. I am hoping to contribute to the collections with illustrations of characters that have more depth.

First Sketches 

I want to draw a character with confidence and pride. The idea behind is to provide an alternative to victimising images that I remember vaguely having seen on various charity advertisements. The character should preferably be a modern male to balance the abundance of rural female characters available at the microstock image banks.

I feel a bit intimidated by the task at hand. Will I be able to provide any better illustrations than those already on the market? What if I fail miserably and fall in to using stereotypes and clichés? Feeling uncertain I first head to Google image search. I type words “powerful man”.

Richard Avedon’s portrait of Putin looks down on me from the search results. In awe of the rhetoric in the photo I take out my pencil and sketchbook and begin to copy. I modify the image replacing the world leader with an athletic African male seated on throne leaning on a globe. The image looks far from African, so I add a West African Adinkra symbol and some bright colours. I begin with colour red but quickly change my mind as the image starts to resemble Nazi parade. I also remember that in Ghana red is associated with witchcraft and funerals. I choose instead a golden yellow colour scheme borrowed from images of royal kente fabrics of Ghana.

I take a deep breath and take a look at the result. I have drawn an arrogant macho showing of his wealth and power. A drug lord or a dictator comes to mind. Not really what I was looking for. “

Writing rubbish

 

I have been writing the results chapter and I feel confused. I have difficulty staying focused on relevant issues and seem not to be sure of what is it that I really wanted to even study. I think I will just throw anything that comes to my mind to the paper now and when I’m finished I will have to take a brake before continuing. I will need some distance to make things clear.

You find the current version of the text under the “Thesis” section at the navigation panel. It’s really rubbish at the moment. Paragraphs don’t seem to join and things like that. I hope it will all make sense one day.

The Beginning and the End

The illustration project started as a mission to provide more variety to the illustrations about African characters in microstock image banks. Along the way my mission evolved into a personal sensemaking attempt about my role in a complex social setting. The outcome was a series of personal art works which I am hesitant to sell out to the microstock collections. I might end up putting out to the markets only the simple silhouettes and keep the final illustrations to myself, showcasing them on the blog and perhaps producing a few quality prints from them to be sold as fine art. Part of me would hate to see them placed out of context, which is inevitable if I offer them to image banks.

The process behind making the pieces has been so emotionally involving that it has changed the way I look at the illustrations. They have become more than objects to me. They seem to reveal something intimate of myself. I may have to take some distance from the work before I am able to make the decision of how to use them.

Framed Illustrations

Final illustrations in mock up frames.

Sweeping

Fufu

Worship

Laundry

Scrubing

Ampe

School Girl

Discipline

Baby Sitter

Colonialism in a nut shell

 

Brief history and definition of colonialism.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Colonialism

This is what I got out of it:

Historically colonialism refers to invasion and political rule over a territory by a metropolitan state. In the course of colonialism indigenous populations are ruled over or displaced. Often the colonisers have a sense of superiority over the colonised which is used to justify their ordained mandate to rule.

Colonialism as a phenomenon reaches trough out the history and over the globe. However, mostly the decolonisation discourse refers to the European overseas colonialism over territories in Africa, Asia and the Americas during fifteenth to nineteenth centuries and its legacies.

I assume this is all general knowledge and I need not to make reference.

I wonder if it I can talk in first persona here (see the underlined). Mostly I see research text written in passive voice. I just can’t make my topic to fit that convention.

Colonial heritage is the aspects of culture that have influenced the parties involved in colonisation. The influence of colonisation reaches both the colonised and the coloniser and to some extend the world at large. In this study I examine whether the colonialism has had an effect on myself as a descendant of the colonisers (as a European) and as an outsider (as a Finn) and if I have unconsciously contributed to maintenance of the inherited colonial attitudes trough my work. 

Or should I put it to passive. It sounds so funny.

…This study examines whether the colonialism has had an effect on the author as a descendant of the colonisers (as a European) and as an outsider (as a Finn) and whether she has unconsciously contributed to maintenance of the inherited colonial attitudes trough her work. 

Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview

Wikipedia sited Roger Tinor’s preface to Jürgen Osterhammel‘s Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview:

“Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are often defined in a distant metropolis. Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.”

This seems like a very interesting book. I wonder how deep I should go to studying colonialism. I mean I don’t have all that much time to go side trails…

Oh well, If I do decide to read the book it’s available here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9781558763401

I somehow like that sentence: “Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule.” Actually I find this attitude even amongst westerners visiting Africa. They have in the back of their minds that they are somehow superior. This is even highlighted when people embark on so called short term aid work excursions.

Coming to think of it, I myself have fallen to this pit many times. I do see my morals for example sometimes superior without taking into consideration the local culture. I have been a fierce advocate for children’s rights in regards of banning physical punishments in school. But have I really taken the culture into consideration. Maybe my culture is not correct. Maybe children would benefit from different kind of upbringing. This would be hard for me to admit because of the culture I am surrounded with and it would take considerable convincing to change my mind. Still at least I acknowledge the possibility. And as long as I’m not african, how could I claim to know better? This does not mean I would not have the right to race awareness about things I find damaging in the culture, as long as I do it with respect acknowledging the equality of cultural practises.

Watermarks

I added watermarks to the vector illustrations. If I am to sell them in the future, it’s not a good idea showcase them here without a watermark. I might publish smaller images of the ready works without watermarks.

Dark

I almost forgot to make a colour version of this one.

I used Ghanian funeral cloths as the source of inspiration. They are usually combinations of red and black plus some other dark shades.

I made two versions. I am yet to decide which one to use.

Attachment 28: Discipline, multicoloured, version 2

Attachment 31: Discipline, multicoloured, version 1

Abstract Sent!

I have submitted the abstract to DEFSA and keeping fingers crossed.

“Illustrating the Other   

 This study seeks to understand the factors affecting design process when portraying out-groups. Specifically it explores the role which surrounding visual culture, colonial heritage and personal experiences play when an European designer illustrates African characters. Furthermore the study seeks to explore the effect of consciousness of the designer’s personal racial biases in the design process and outcome. 

The study uses auto-ethnographic method. A micro level approach is taken to deepen understanding on the role of social bias in the design process by going through personal experiences from the perspective of a graphic designer/design student. The study is an additional point of view to the ongoing conversation about de-colonising design, attempting to provoke further conversation on racial issues in graphic design. 

Series of illustrations of African characters are produced. The design process is recorded in field notes accompanied  by reflections of events in the past that have led to the designer’s present perceptions. The field notes are reconstructed as an auto-ethnographic narrative.     

Key words: colonial legacy, racial bias, design, illustration, auto-ethnography “

 

Finetuning

I did some finetuning on two of the illustrations.

I made the print work appear a bit off, like in some of the cheaper wax prints. Actually this is sometimes desired and used deliberately to create interesting variations.

On this one I muted the orange a bit. It appeared a bit too “flowerpowery.”