Summative Evaluation

I have quite enjoyed this module as I think been given the opportunity to research and create a body of work on something of your choice is quite a luxury, especially having as much time to do so. I started off really liking the topic I chose as its something that I am interested in anyway. But as the module went on I feel like another topic would have been better, I say this because I would have liked a topic that is current with social issues going on today. There are a lot of things that I could research when looking into Subcultures, like discrimination and racism, although I think choosing a topic that is relevant to today's society and culture could be more meaningful and evoke more feeling and passion.

Speaking to others in peer reviews and crits I realised that although I have really enjoyed working on subcultures, that if I chose another topic, I would be more passionate about keeping with the same topic for Cop3.

I found the essay quite difficult, I am not a natural writer and I don’t have a vast vocabulary, which makes things difficult when trying to write and educated, critical analysis of something. For my first draft, I received feedback, which said it read like a story, which it did, and that is my downfall. I did improve by adding more evaluation to it; although I think with extra time I could have improved it even more so by going to student support for some help.

With the practical side of the module, I did struggle at first trying to come up with a way to show my argument, that subcultures like we stereotype them, no longer exist in today's society. I didn’t know how to illustrate it properly, which ended up me having a really slow start to this part of the module. I found group crits and peer reviews really helpful in this instance, I got to talk to others about the problems I was facing and I found it really beneficial to me, as it was these times when I got my best ideas and feedback.

When I started my practical work and was happy with my concept, I really enjoyed creating it. I was excited to make an interactive publication and along with the concept, it excited me and motivated me to see the finished product. At some points, I definitely felt restricted by the requirements in the brief for instance, the page count for the publication. I only felt restricted because of being limited to printing one-sided, to be able to cut the pieces out. I tried different formats and ways of how to create a publication where I could use more space and ended up with an A3 publication.

I am really happy with the artwork within the book, I spent quite a while making sure each garment would fit the paper doll so the book could be functional. The main thing I would change about the content is the order form within as I think it is way too large and I should have thought about the scale of the book more whilst working on screen.

I definitely think that I need to improve on my time management skills; I think I should go by the college’s recommendation of set days for set modules and try hard right from the beginning. I think I sometimes slack a bit with work at the start of the module and then I realise how much work I can actually produce when it gets closer to the deadline, which just makes me feel like I’m doing myself an injustice. Also, I definitely need to keep on top of my blogging, although at periods through the year I can keep up to date, sometimes I let it slip and it can be quite detrimental, especially when documenting and evaluating key moments.

Overall, I am happy with the work I have produced for this module, although there are things I would change with both the essay and the publication, I definitely know what I would do differently next time and coming in level 6 I am going to seek advice from student support for writing essays as I think that would really help me in the months to come. Although I know I can improve on things, it has been really insightful in to what exactly I need to improve on next time.

Cop3 Proposal

Essay

Final Publication

This is my final Publication, although it is missing one page as i last minute created another page when i went to print so i had 12 pages and it was a multiple of 4, the other page i made was created in the print dungeon so after i printed ive lost the file. It was very stressful at the time of printing as I had created enough work for 10 pages as i thought that was the requirement so because it wasnt a multiple of 4 i would either have to take out two pages or add 2, so that meant i had to make another page of work so i quickly used the drawings i had already done and changed the colour using the hue and saturation tool in photoshop and created another page so i could print it out. It was very time consuming but in the end i think it looks really good.

Overall, i really like my publication, there are things i would change if i was doing it again for instace, the order form is over sized for the publication and that was a mistake on my part, forgetting what scale i was working on whilst working on screen. I also would have liked to have worked out how to make cut lines for the dolls but i did think about this and if i did them around the drawings, this would not be correct as they would need to cut on the line for the clothes to fit, but then that would look strange, so i went with the reader having initiative.

I also would have liked more time to use Photo shop on the images and make them a bit more professional. Other than that i am really happy with my piece, i really like the front cover and i spent a long time on the illustrations. I also really like the function of the book and think it really conveys the concept i was going for, mirroring what i was trying to say in my essay.

Title Page Ideas

I have kept my ideas for the title page until last minute as i was unsure on what to call the shop and how to make it. So i started to look into artwork from subcultures but i immediately thought of Jamie Reid and his collages, which were pivital in the Punk Movement, making album covers and artwork for the Sex Pistols. His artwork had a lot of meaning and are iconic, so i would like to use a similar style to contradict the mainstream concept.

Practical Development

Ive started the work for my publication, im working on A3 as that will be the size of my publication. I started drawing the paper dolls, i went for fashion poses to keep with the mainstream theme and used a lightbox so the clothes would match up and the publication be functional.

I really like what i have done so far, i used watercolours to keep the hand-made feel but i need to photoshop them and rearrange them yet.

Practical Response - Initial Ideas

Ive started planning what i want to do for my publication, the only problem that i have is that the specification for the publication is 8-12 pages and i have to have one-sided pages as the elements have to be cut out, i did ask if i could do more pages but we have to stick to the specifications. This means i cant do a seperate page for each gender of each subculture, I spoke to my tutors and we tried out different ways of doing the publication, for instance a hot dog book, and consetina, and both would have the same problem, so ive decided to randomly place the items of clothing on the pages, being somewhat radical (not really) but not being uniform in layout. Plus i think i am going to drop the idea of doing hippy clothes, to save space, but also because the hippy subculture was known for making itself mainstream so i dont think it would have been as annoyed about being in a brochure compared to Punks, Skinheads and Mods.

Peer Review

Im still a little unsure about what i would like to make for my practical work but in my peer review, we went in to depth about our topics as there wasnt many people there. I spoke about my idea for the brochure, which people liked but it all got a bit mixed up when my tutor told me to be radical. That got me thinking, could i just do a publication without anything in it, as it would be going against the system but i thought i could possibly fail by doing that. I then started to think about how i could possibly change my idea but keep the same concept, this got me thinking about making a brochure that was for a shop (unnamed) and making paper dolls, which i could make clothing for but use stereotypical clothing from classical subcultures. The idea being that being able to try the clothes on the doll, to see what they look like and selling them, is like style over substance, which is what i am trying to portray in my essay about modern subcultures.

I really like this new idea as it would be an interactive brochure and would be quite fun to make.

Practical Research

These are examples of some of the artwork I have seen 

Peer Review

I went into this peer review with not much of an idea on how to create this publication, the only idea i had got was to make a publication which was almost like 'Where's Wally?' but more like 'Spot the Subculture" and all the characters being a modern subculture as it is the norm to see them now. But my group, although liked my idea, stated that it is more of a dissertation piece as it sounds quite time consuming. After that, i was pretty stumped for ideas, although through conversation, more ideas came to mind, I thought about the subculture lecture we had before and remembered it saying how diagrams of skinheads were printed in the newspaper saying what you need to wear to be one and Skinheads hating it. So with the media being a big part of the demise of most subcultures even though mainstream culture is what they hated, i thought i could make a brochure selling subcultures for £30, i thought if i created it by hand i.e. screen print or painted then it would be like how most subcultures started, but with it being a cheap brochure (almost like a corner shop bargain brochure), then it would be mass-produced and commercialised, like the subcultures.

I came away from this session feeling like it really helped me in this module, i think just getting feedback from people who weren't too close to it really helped.

Practical Response

I am struggling at the moment to come up with ideas on what to produce for the practical side of the module as in my essay i am arguing that i believe subcultures like the used to be, dont exist. But how do i go about drawing something that isnt there? I feel like this is something i could possibly bring up in peer reviews and group crits to get feedback on how i would tackle this as i dont want to make something really literal.

Goths as a Subculture

I have done some research on goths, i was trying to find what goths believe in to see if there was an underlying message they were trying to convey. The best research i found was on blogs, were it's more of a discussion between strangers, the answers i got were mostly that they acknowledge that evil things happen in the world and death happens and choose to wear black clothes and listen to particular music to show that. It is also called a subculture by some, although i dont specifically categorise it as one, as i think its just a belief almost like a religion, which wears other clothes to other people.

It gets me thinking if people call groups who wear different clothes and listen to different music a subculture as its not the norm, then what is the norm? Are we supposed to just wear boring clothes and listen to whats on BBC radio? who says that we are the norm and not goths? I feel like calling people a subculture because they are different is almost like a way of control, and this is why people would want to fight back like the classical subcultures because who wants to be put in a box?

Essay Draft

Ive just received feedback for my first draft of my essay and i was told to add more information about modern subcultures as it reads more as a story instead of being evaluative. I agree with the comments so i am going to look at some more of the modern subcultures in further details.

Essay Plan

Subcultures and How They Form

After reading more into Subcultures, i have definitely learnt more about why they started, i started my researching only really knowing that they started by wanting to be different to everyone else and that there wers some cultural and social issues behind it but after reading more into it, there were very strong social class and political issues to why people deferred from the social norm. The times were very different, political termoil, especially in the thatcher years, people were treat very differently to how we are treat now. Radical Punks, Green Hippies, Working class Skinheads, they all had different but very similar reasons for creating subcultures. I mean, how can we say there are subcultures now? it depends how you look at it really, you can call people a subculture just because they are different, yes. But can you say they are the same type of subculture as the ones from the 1900's? Im not convinced, like Dick Hebdige says, you need a long term struggle or something to rebel against, music and style to be a subculture, and to me without having that reasoning behind it, theres no context other than style.

Vice - Police and Subcultures

I found this article really interesting, it states how the police are part of the reason for the demise of each subculture, putting them to a stop in different ways. I do think the police did have a big say in what went on as the police were a lot more brutal in the ways they handed situations in those days but i think it was more the system than them themselves as they were only allowed to do that because someone higher was either telling them too or letting them.

Obviously times were different then, but i dont think radical subcultures would be let off freely anyway, not if it would questions people in power.

Beneath The Skin

I came across this documentary online, which interviews a set of skinheads and they talk about their journey from when they were younger, until now. They describe the struggles in society at the time and how their social class weren't treated that well, hense why they joined subcultures to be with other people who were going through the same thing as them.

These particular set of skinheads were in a newspaper article for violence, but what the article didn't mention was that they followed them around for a whole day and put them into situations to catch them in action for the article. This just shows how the media twist stories to sway peoples opinions, especially on people who aren't conforming to social norms.

This Is England

Well i'm going to admit it, this is definitely my favourite film and tv show. The filming is great but i also think it depicts the subculture brilliantly, with great fashion, music and back story. I do think it address some quite sensitive issues within the film and tv show, but it does so very well and shows what life was like back in those times.

This is why i think subcultures aren't like this anymore, you watch this and can see they were something different, unlike everyone else in society, without caring what anyone thinks. Today isn't like that, i'm not even sure if i would recognise a new subculture now as they are always changing and getting so widely commercialised that they seem more like trends.

COP Task

In our lesson we were told to go off for an hour and take some photos that had something to do with our topic. With mine being subcultures, i found it quite difficult to gather anything to do with what i had. I ended up taking some photos of students as they are considered a culture of their own. I guess i could have spotted more as people consider a lot of different group as subcultures, but i dont know whether it is just my opinion but i just dont believe that you walk into subcultures in the street anymore, what people think is subculture, i just see as style. Another girl in my group had chosen subcultures as well and she went and took photos of people wearing doc martens, which i thought was a really good idea. Although, later i thought, even though doc martens are an iconic fashion piece from the skinhead subculture, it doesn't really mean anything if your just wearing it as a fashion statement. Don't get me wrong, i own a pair myself and i think they're nice, but i am not saying im part of a subculture by wearing them either. I guess we could say the subculture was so influential that the fashion has stuck up until now, which is a good thing, but i think its how i feel about all of these so-called subcultures, they're just a style.

My pet hate is definitely that 'hipsters' are a subculture. I mean, what are they standing for? are they just not 'conforming' by just wearing different clothes and wanting to look different? A lot of celebrities like lady Gaga wear things most people wouldn't dream of wearing, but i wouldnt say she was uprising and forming a subculture called 'little monsters', so why are hipsters any different? It will probably because its the youth culture that is doing something different to everyone else, but to be honest, they probably just want to be polar opposites to their parents and call themselves individual, but everywhere i look there are hipsters, maybe im the subculture because i dont dress like a hipster.

Dick Hebdige

I have begun to start reading Subculture: The meaning of style by Dick Hebdige as it was mentioned in our lecture that it would be a good book to read for this topic. The book is really informative so far, it goes into detail about every subculture, why they started, what they did and how they ended.

Essay

For my essay i have been thinking about looking into Subcultures in Britain. I am quite interested in this topic as i have grown up around the skinhead subculture and i have seen both positive and negative sides of it. I really want to look into why subcultures in the 1900's ended and why there isnt really any subcultures like that anymore, even though people claim there are.