Share the Hydra

Learning Record Practice Two

The Divine Disease: Exploration of Depression

2013 Lisa Lorenz Manchester Metropolitan University

© Lisa Lorenz Manchester 2013

For further information on topic or content please contact the author:hej@frau-lorenz.de or www.fraulorenz.com

THIS IS A REFLECTION ON PRACTICE PART TWO OF THE MASTER PROGRAMME, DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION, OFFERED AT MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY UNDERTAKEN BY THE STUDENT LISA LORENZ. THE PROJECT HAS BEEN TUTORED BY CLINTON CAHILL AND WAS REALISED DURING WINTER AND SPRING TERM 2013.

‘In the next stage I intend to experiment more with the interaction and connection between depression and the recipient by sensual and audio stimulation. Consequently the question arises what shape this design tool could assume. Would an interactive, portable installation in unexpected places be the right tool? Maybe a temporary exhibition with video interviews would be a better method of communication.’

intentions in january for stage two practice taken from the first learning record

A LOOK BACK

Autumn and winter of 2012 gave me space to explore the topic depression broadly linked to creativity, working on different projects focusing on visualising the relationship between mental illness and sleep. It was helpful visualising the information I gathered - mostly interviews and surveys examining the role of depression in music, art and poetry. Upon reflection the outcome of my work was not participatory and interactive enough to create an impact or change.

Starting the MA my intention was to create a communicative tool to raise more awareness and openness about depression. Also one of my main interests is to work towards an honest and unpretentious design which can be aesthetically attractive but also serve a purpose of social change.

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At the conclusion of my stage one learning record I considered an interactive, portable installation for practice two. I embraced the qualities of this installation idea and turned it into a publication project.

During part two of my MA I conceptualised, organised, designed, edited and produced a participatory publication featuring written and visual work of professional and non-professional creatives orbiting depression and mental health - nous magazine.

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Before starting the master’s programme I had considered the idea of producing my own magazine. Mainly I was inspired by the ba project of Franziska Haube, ‹Obdach - eine Straßenzeitung für Mainz›, a magazine

created and sold by homeless people. As a designer she identified the visual and contentual flaws of existing magazines, equivalents to the ‹Big Issue›, putting the content in a professional framework and undertaking both

roles of editor and art director.

After researching a range of magazines focusing on mental health and philosophy I found myself in the same position. The content of these publications is often dry and soulless. This is what the topic needs least of all. There already exists so much content which we as designers can bring together and put in shape to create something rich and powerful as a tool for communication and social change and information.

‘There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.’

taken from first things first 2000: a design manifesto

FOUNDING NOUS MAGAZINE

F I R S T T H I N G S F I R S T

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Designing and producing this magazine was a challenge as I wanted it to accomplish two goals. ‹nous magazine› is offering readers the chance to approach the topic of mental health in an open-minded and personal way. On the other hand creatives can get their already existing work published to educate the public. This requires sensitivity for the topic, for the selection and matching of text and image.

The concept of ‹nous magazine› is very much inspired by the principles of fanzine culture and beat literature, particularly their charm and honesty. Both concepts rest upon their own fan base, content-wise and readership-wise. A charming idea, but ‹nous magazine› should be an inclusive tool for a broad audience. However, this fan

base and help build up ‹nous› when financing and production costs are considered.

I adapted the old but effective idea of a subscription system for ‹nous magazine›. This concept embraces the idea of supply and demand in the

same way the beat generation published their poetry newspapers back in the 1950s.

Nowadays a project idea is offered to a community online, on crowd funding platforms like ‹inkubato.com›. If people are willing to fund the project and the financial goal is reached, the initiators will receive the donated money. If

the project fails no one will pay and the idea will not be realised. The desire for the accomplishment of the project will push donators to spread the word and get other people involved.

H O W CAN WE S P R E A D T H E W O R D

C R O W DF U N D I N GP R I NC I P L E

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29th March 2013

Marina Abramovic and the recognition of the essential things.

Last night I watched Marina Abramovic’s biographical film ‘The Artist Is Present’, released in 2012. Just to give a short introduction to it: It is a film telling the story around the exhibition of her oeuvre at MoMa in New York. But the film is much more than that. It is drawing a picture of her becoming an appreciated artist and even a star in the art scene.

I think I managed to get a much better impression of her intents and ways of approaching the issues she is touching in her work through this film. Performance art being caught in between theatre performance and an art piece is so much more fascinating for an audience as a theatre piece or a photography, everything still can ever be. Performance art is reality.

Abramovic will show true feelings of pleasure, pain, memories.

Blood will be blood and no ketchup. Tears will be tears and not only water.

In her performance ‘The Artist Is Present’, during which she will sit on a chair with another chair sitting opposite her inviting the audience to take a seat and share a moment with her by looking each other in the eye, she will revive feelings and emotions of people she has never met in her life before.

Abramovic’s goal is to slow the audience down. Experiencing just to be there. Just be in the present. Not the past. Not

BLOG DIARY

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the future. Not somewhere else. But now and here. This nowness is something really rare in our everfaster spinning world of working, achieving, spending, working, achieving, spending.

I found it very useful to see Abramovic is aiming to the same outcome almost as I intend to with the ‘nous’ publication. Getting the public, the audience, the reader involved in caring about each other. Look another person straight in the eye. To create a connection.

What can the publication give the readers to make this commitment to themselves, to care?

http://pettingthehydra.tumblr.com/post/46604816107

still from marina abramovic: the artist is present (2012)

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18th march 2013

Working against the stigma.

I have not posted a posted update really since the last feedback we got after the winterbreak in February. This is about one month ago.

During this time I started to set up a magazine project for my practice two part of the MA. I am glad that I did some experimentation and tried out different ideas for the practice one.

Even though I felt a bit disappointed as all the small projects had potential to work one out in particular and not let them go after the first rough draft - in the end it was good to do a bit of testing out the area. The field of depression is so broad and to be honest: yes I had a vague idea of where I want to go with my MA but I did not have a clear focus.

So now that I moved on from practice one I can say that it helped me a lot to get into the area and find something which triggers me and hopefully also a broader audience.

Sleep.

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29th March 2013

On beat literature and zine culture: Just found out about the amazing literature and poetry newspapers being around during the 1950s and 1960s supporting young artists of the Beat Generation. This could be a role-model for nous.

http://pettingthehydra.tumblr.com/post/46600274226

klactoveedsedsteen, editor karl weissner, german literature magazine featuring beat poetryhttp://realitystudio.org/publications/death-in-paris/klactoveedsedsteen/

leroi jones and diane deprima editors of ‘the floating bear’ newsletter

© fred w. mcdarrah

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INSPIRATION AND IDEA

I wanted to keep production costs as low as possible to ensure ‹nous magazine› remained accessible. Glossy paper and high-end print finishing would not suit the content. The comparatively cheap Risograph printing, currently popular with the design scene, and handy format were inspired by the innumerable fanzines. Zine culture had its peaks with science fiction

‹pulp› literature in the 1930s, Punk in the 1970s and ‹riot girrrl› culture in the 1990s. It is the do-it-yourself aspect which makes these publications so charming and transfers the passion for the subject. These publications never intended to make a financial profit and were produced

in a small circulation. For being able to produce a larger amount of zines the zinemakers photocopied their issues in black and white to distribute them in cafés, bars and venues but also they were meant to be passed on to friends spreading the word about the issues they communicate.

This is the mentality of ‹nous magazine›.

B E A T& ZINE C U L T U R E

‘It was never sold and supported by the editors and donations. The people who received copies were considered part of a literary and creative community, all of them kindred spirits. It was a great tool of the times as this mimeographed newsletter would reach a few hundred people every few weeks. So, if your work was showcased, it was read and quick.’

newsletter concept of ‘the floating bear’ featuring beat culture literature and poetry; source: www.zinewiki.com/the_floating_bear

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call for entries poster distributed in manchester, glasgow and bristol

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To create content and connect with an audience, as well as artists, I mainly using ‹facebook› as platform. With the ‹facebook› page ‹nous magazine›, founded in January, I built up a communication tool serving as a mediator for ‹nous magazine› related information. It is an easy and effective way to advertise magazines and new projects, raise curiosity and interest. As a first step this was enough, as my network is quite widespread and diverse due to my times abroad.

It was interesting to observe how the audience reacts differently to posts. A video will be much more effective than a photograph post which on the other hand will get more attention than a simple text post. I am constantly feeding the page. Today ‹nous magazine› on facebook has 200 ‹likes›.

The promotion on ‹facebook› was used to create suspense for the content, savour the contributions and encourage followers to submit work.

I didn’t want to be solely dependent on responses to posters on campus, in bars and cafés in Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow. Instead I decided to find interesting artists online and sent out requests for their work which generated some high quality contributions. Also this made me aware of the importance of a popular description for ‹nous magazine›. People, especially those not working in the creative sector, had difficulty understanding my initial explanations. I had to clarify in order to be inclusive.

Testing the posters and manifesto I designed for ‹nous magazine› with friends and strangers was very fruitful.

M A R K E TI N G T O O LF A C EB O O K

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manifesto for nous magazine

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My project agenda consisted of three stages, each stretching over a one month period.

The first was the conceptual stage, writing the manifesto and creating ‹nous›’s identity.

During the second stage social media was established and pushed forward. A community around ‹nous› was built up online. I spoke to contributors and answered the constant stream of emails.

The third stage mainly consisted of collating and designing. I was art director and editor at the same time, creating the right framework for the submissions. Deliberately I started working on the layout after the

deadline for submissions expired. I didn’t know what to expect, what quality, format and tone the submissions would offer me and wanted the overall picture to influence the design process.

CONCEPT, COMMUNICATION, CREATION

S E L E C T A R TD I R E C T

What is my project trying to do? Do I want to remove the stigma? Do I just want to start a conversation? Do I want to blur the borders or establish a border for depression actually being a serious illness and not just a thing you can get over?

thoughts taken from my blog diary of the beginning of march 2013 www.pettingthehydra.tumblr.com

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After collecting and matching the poetry, prose, photography and illustrations I applied the design guidelines I had developed for the poster and manifesto to the magazine layout. Most importantly I wanted the submissions to stand out and be embedded in the design not the other way round.

I was facing multiple problems concerning a few poor quality submissions. They lacked asthetics as well as contextual connection to the

topic ‹insomnia›. Until the end of the layout process I considered using all the submitted material but for the sake of the issue’s concept I had to drop this intent.

I realised my duty as art director and editor is to be selective but thankfully the mixture of non-professional and professional submissions is still evident. Finally I know selection was the right decision, ensuring a professional platform for contributions as well as motivation for future submissions. Although I would have prefered to not have to disappoint contributors.

page twenty: project and design plan

F O R M FO L LOWSFUNCTION

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18th March 2013

I am using mainly facebook for getting people involved in submitting work and keeping them updated. I had quite a slow start as I wanted to set up an email account for the magazine and a reference website that does not look too bloggy. Today my facebook page hit the 100 likes. So far have 12 text submissions, 2 photographers and 4 illustrators who whant to submit work/submitted work.

I suppose that, as creatives love deadlines, there will be a couple of new submissions until the end of the call for entries by the end of the month. It was very helpful to get in touch with other MA courses, e.g. the Creative Writing, and some design collectives I know as friends and acquaintances are involved with them.

Usually the response was really positive on the project although, I had to redo the description on the website www.nous-magazine.de a couple of times as some things were not as obvious as I thought they were as I myself am already familiar with the subject and my project in general.

Nevertheless, by now I set all the guide lines and am still promoting my project online on social media but also offline with posters.

BLOG DIARY

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DESIGN PROCESS & EXTRACTS FROM SKETCHBOOK

logo design comparison left: french nous magazine (issue three), right: my nous logo

nous (British: pron.: /’naus/), sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real. It is also often described as a form of perception which works within the mind, rather than only through the physical senses

While researching I discovered an established magazine called ‹nous›, a fashion publication using the French word for ‹we› rather than ‹nous› in the sense it is used for my magazine. Nevertheless I decided to apply the name. The shape and sound of the word, also the term itself embrace the topic of ‹nous magazine› perfectly. The publications are distinctiveenough not to be mixed up with each other.

dictionary definition summary for the term nous

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logo design nous scribbles

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type experiment with insomnia the first topic of nous magazine

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layout scribbles for nous magazine

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BEING PRESENT ONLINE WITH NOUS

thoughts on the development of www.nous-magazine.de

I would like to get more into designing a proper website for nous magazine. Creating the blog for ‹nous magazine› as a platform for information was necessary but I would like to give it a more professional and explorative touch.

Intending to print the first issue of ‹nous› with a Risograph I wanted to adapt its printing aesthetics for my design. The Risograph creates inevitable uncertainties as the density of ink and the speed of the paper vary. This can create smudges, blurring and misplacement, giving every copy an individual touch.

top: nous magazine website bottom: gif announcing call for entries featured on the website

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These aesthetics go along with the topic of the first issue: insomnia. Distortion and losing parts of the visuals and text can be linked with the state between sleeping and being awake. A specific visual quality connects the different submissions and gives them a unifying tone.

i tried working with the logo of nous appying its qualities to the layout of the insomnia issue. even though the logo works well for the idea of nous the look and layout for the first issue had to be quite independent from it. as every issue will orbit a diffeent topic the look and feel will change too as part of the concept.

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Artificially applying the Riso effect to the identity and design of all nous magazine platforms and publications with digital tools finally created a consistent and rounded picture of the magazine.

First I was afraid the low-tech quality of the Risograph could destroy the aesthetics of some submissions. And I have to admit during the printing process I had problems with the darkness of some photographs and filigree on

one illustration. After consulting the mmu Risograph supervisor, Caitlin, we came up with individual solutions for each problem. I am sure in some of these cases Riso printing was not the most ideal method for publication as the touch and feel will definitely differ from the original.

I have learnt a lot about the production cycle of a magazine; taking on various roles was challenging but exciting. Without support ‹nous› might not be finished by now. This was also an important realisation of my learning outcome. Receiving feedback was essential.

Future plans are to push the magazine forward, work on the distribution and collaborate with venues and organisations for stage three of the MA. I am already in touch with performance poets from Manchester. A symposium or event in the spirit of ‹nous› could be something that takes the participatory aspect of the magazine a step further.

Above all I am excited about the launch of ‹nous›.

F O R M FO L LOWSFUNCTION

REFLECTION AND OUTLOOK

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CROWDFUNDING PROJECT ON INKUBATO.COM

top: project page bottom: post to announce on facebook that we have reached the goal in time left: inkubato.com project page of nous

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PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.COM

it was incredible to observe how these videos pushed the donations on inkubato and how much better people understood what my project is all about when i talked about it instead of relying on fancy written terms

two different shooting styles, two different responses. the close-up clip was promoted in the same way on the same weekday. still it had a better response. it was interesting to see how the audience reacts on my posts.

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SOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

editorial design

1 DK Holland (2001), Design Issues - How Graphic Design Informs Society; Allworth Press New York

2 Zappaterra (2007), Editorial Design - guide exploring the creative and technical process behind international projects including books and magazines, Yolanda Zappaterra

3 Foges (1999), Magazine Design, Crans-Près-Céligny: RotoVision

4 Moser, Moser, Wiesner (2003), The Art Directors’ handbook of professional magazine design: classic techniques and inspirational approaches, Hermann Schmidt Mainz

5 Leslie (2000), Issues: new magazine design, Jeremy Leslie

6 Harris (2004), Producing successful magazines, newsletters and e-zines, Carol Harris

7 Klanten, Ehmann (2010), Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print Media, Die Gestalten Verlag

8 Moser (2001), The Art Director’s Handbook of Professional Magazine Design: Classic Techniques and Inspirational Approaches, Thames and Hudson Ltd

independent publishing

1 Russell (2002), The Beat Generation

2 Lupton (2008), Indie Publishing: How to Design and Produce Your Own Book, Princeton Architectural Press

3 Watson (2006), Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Mini Comics, Graphia Books

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4 Triggs (2010), Fanzines, Thames & Hudson

5 Klanten, Mollard, Hubner (2011), Behind the Zines: Self-publishing Culture

6 www.zinewiki.com

MAGAZINOGRAPHY

beatculture

1 Di Prima, Jones (1961-1971), The Floating Bear, a newsletter, New York

2 Weissner (1965-1967), Klactoveedsedsteen, a literature magazine, PANic Press

3 Weissner, Ploog, Fauser (1973-1986), Gasolin 23, alternative magazine for contemporary beat and cut-up culture, Nova Press/Expanded Media Editions/Trikont

contemporary

1 Oase #84, Models Maquettes (2011), Journal for Architecture, NAi Publishers

2 Hohe Luft, Philosophy Magazine (2011-)

3 MindOverMatterZine, blog and printed zine featuring mental health issues, www.mindovermatterzine.tumblr.com, run by Faridah Newman

theory

1 Habermas (1992), Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, Polity Press

2 Poynor (2003), No More Rules: Graphic Design and Post-Modernism, Laurence King Publishing Ltd

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CONTENTS

A LOOK BACK .............................................................................................5FOUNDING NOUS MAGAZINE .....................................................7BLOG DIARY ................................................................................................9INSPIRATION AND IDEA ........................................................13CONCEPT, COMMUNICATION, CREATION ......................................17BLOG DIARY ..............................................................................................19DESIGN PROCESS & EXTRACTS FROM SKETCHBOOK..........21BEING PRESENT ONLINE WITH NOUS .............................25REFLECTION AND OUTLOOK .....................................................27

CROWDFUNDING PROJECT ON INKUBATO.COM .................28PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.COM ........................29

SOURCES.......................................................................................30