30 years a slave

On Friday night I watched a documentary on Channel 4's Unreported World. Reporter Marcel Theroux investigated claims of modern day slavery happening on islands just off the coast of South Korea. He spoke with a man who had been kept on the islands for 30 years. The most shocking fact was that he suffered from learning difficulties and was easily led by strangers. Scenes of many other people with similar problems showed how they lived on the edges of society, sleeping on the streets. These people were being pursued by traffickers who made a good profit from supplying the salt and seaweed farms with such labour. The islands are rather remote so they are hard to escape from, whilst many get hidden when inspectors come snooping. This program highlighted to me the depth and scope of the issue of modern day slavery. However it also showed me that others are also trying to raise awareness of such acts of inhumanity.

The True Cost

A few days ago I watched a documentary titled The True Cost. The film delves into the fashion industry by showing how it impacts the world we live in. Depicting the human perspectives of those working directly in the industry to the farmers who supply the raw materials. Questioning the disparity between the high end fashion world of catwalks to the sweatshops that supply our high street shops. Environmental impacts are also highlighted through this documentary in several ways. In many cases the environmental impacts are combined with the suffering of humans.
The film does not try to blame anyone, it does raise many questions and tries to show people who are trying alternative methods of business models. Arguments are made for sweatshops being a good thing which shows debate is growing on about the issues involved. Are these people slaves or are they just being exploited by multinational companies? What really struck me was that the director had a very similar aim with this film as I do with this project. He didn't want to try and say what is right and what is wrong, there are major problems within this industry ones he wanted people to be aware of. The film can be streamed through various suppliers, I have attached a link to the website and have shown both the trailer for the film and an interview with the director Andrew Morgan.

http://truecostmovie.com

https://youtu.be/OaGp5_Sfbss

https://youtu.be/TrvxwjSqRrM

Research Proposal

Today I uploaded my research proposal for this project. Compiling this has taken up most of my week through both the writing itself and further research. I realised as soon as I began trying to write the first draft that much of the research I had carried out was of no real use for this proposal. This was in large due to me gaining a clearer idea on what my project was actually about since creating my recent mind map. The map itself showed that my project lacked research into the topic of slavery.
When considering my proposal I also took time to understand more about what my actual aim was for the project. What I wanted to achieve and the reasons for this project, raising awareness became my clearly defined goal. Along with this came my objectives which were centred around the production of a dummy version of the picture book. The research I had been doing into visual metaphors etc will not be wasted, this will be useful later in the project. These aspects are still part of the project, however they seem to be more subsidiary than being at the core. The three key elements of the project are the picture book medium, the topic of slavery and the issue of raising awareness. With this realisation coming very recently I have had to research further into these topics. This has been difficult but has made my project seems far more solid with definite goals and purpose now. The project also seems far more interesting to me and certainly not trivial. The proposal also allowed me to plan out the rest of the project. I produced a gantt chart much the same as the one I had been using up till this point. I will continue to use the same method of checking progress, reflecting on findings and detailing my ideas on a weekly basis. This has worked well for me so far as I never really consider much further than the week ahead. This allows me to focus on the tasks required for that week by breaking everything up into more manageable chunks. This also allows me to prioritise the tasks on a weekly basis, reducing the risk of things getting out of control or becoming unmanageable. A copy of the proposal is shown below.

wc 16/11/15 Progress, reflection and ideas

Progress

Last week was spent trying to write my research proposal, this in itself threw up some major issues with my project. I realised that much of my research might have been slightly misjudged. This had lead to reading more journals in order to get more of a grasp on the topics of slavery and picture books. Over the weekend I also attended the first of the Picture Hooks talks held in Edinburgh. This week I shall be focused on writing my proposal as the hand-in is on the 23rd November. This will possibly include finding more facts to back up my proposal within the contextual review section. The aim is to have it completed by the 22nd to allow me to upload earlier and then be able to attend my daughters parents evening on the 23rd.

Reflection

Last week threw up a major issue showing me a huge hole in my research. This was due to me finally working out what is at the core of my project. The issue of slavery and the medium of picture books are the core topics within my project, all other topics seem to be more subsidiary in nature. Researching areas of visual metaphor, morphism etc are more to do with how I will experiment within my project. However I am aware that the issue of slavery has only came to the forefront recently so perhaps this was the route I had to take just to get to my current position. The previous research will not be wasted as this will help once I am creating the picture book. Trying to write the proposal has helped me define what my project is and what the most important factors are concerning the work itself.

Ideas

The research proposal has taken me away from trying to think of the project as a single question. There are many questions, which are the most important will have to be decided this week. The title of my proposal will now be along the lines of Exploring methods of representing slavery through picture books. This paints a more accurate picture of what it is I am proposing to do through this project, it seems far more fitting than the question I used in my presentation.

Journal study: Human Trafficking and the UK Modern Slavery Bill

This article was written by Gary Craig, is titled Human Trafficking and the UK Modern Slavery Bill and was published in 2015. The aforementioned bill is the first of its kind in over 200 years by the UK government. This particular bill was something I found out about during my visit to the Houses of Parliament last month. The paper discusses how the UK government have finally woken up to the fact that slavery still exists, not just in lands over the other side of the world but also here in the UK. Slavery has evolved, it has become more of an underground organised crime rather than the historical state ran versions we have seen portrait in art, novels or movies of more modern times. Examples are given such as the 23 Chinese cockle pickers who drowned off the English coast in 2004. New forms of slavery such as the workers imprisoned within cannabis factories, forced begging and theft or trafficking for organ harvesting are touched upon. These types of issues show the diversity and change within such a sordid trade. The paper delves into the issues in passing such a bill, the debates about the content, understanding of the matters involved and conclude that it will provide a focus for further debate and improvements on the issue. This paper again highlights to me why this project is of importance, the issue is something the UK government have been debated for the last few years prior to enacting this new bill. The new forms of slavery discussed should be shown in my work although my challenge might be to somehow still keep them slightly concealed as they are in real life. The UK Modern Slavery Bill is something that is available to anyone, I have downloaded a copy to see what is contained within and see how this may affect my project. Extracts from the paper and the first contents page of the UK Modern Slavery Bill are shown below.

Journal study: do definitions matter?

I have read a paper written by Fiona David titled When it Comes to Modern Slavery, do Definitions matter? Fiona discusses the terms used for slavery, trafficking and forced labour. A particular case involving the Indonesian government and the island village of Benjina forms the basis of the reviewed topic. Debating upon terms, seeing from the perspective of the victims and touching upon political views and differences. The case itself is particularly horrific with men being held in cages suffering both mental and physical abuse. Most importantly for me touches upon the general public, their awareness, their possible influence through consumer choices etc. This is one of my primary aims of this project is to invite the reader to consider their own actions in regards to slavery. Fiona David is highly regarded within this field as a lawyer and criminologist, the paper was only published this year highlighting to me that I am dealing with something that is very current and a major issue of our times. The question she asks about definitions seem to have more to do with criminal law practise especially pertaining to international law. In my own opinion the definitions may give guidance into what has happened but any person who has been trafficked, were forced to work or were enslaved are very unlikely to care about how it may be defined. The highlighted paper is shown below.

Picture Hooks: Talk 1

On Saturday I attended the first of the Picture hooks talks to be held at the National gallery in Edinburgh. The talk was given by Tracey Smith and Vivian French. Tracey has been mentored by illustrator Cate James over the last year, unfortunately Cate now lives in Australia and was unable to attend this talk. Tracey spoke about her experience of being mentored and how it has enabled her to grow in confidence and helped her in trying to find her voice as an artist. The prints that are on display in the gallery derived from her work within a spanish speaking group run in Dundee. She explained how they were talking about language and how we use phrases such as "going back to" or "chopping down" which are not easily translated because they are a special type of verb. These led to her thinking about the cottage she has moved into recently as the phrases used to describe the work that is going on in the renovation process. The images produced are not part of any narrative as such but she wishes to continue with this process. These may eventually form a book similar to some Portuguese picture books that were discussed. As Tracey lives in Dundee I spoke to her about her work at McManus and DCA and her dealings with Claire Brennan from Abertay. Seeing the processes that Tracey uses and hear her talking about them was really interesting. From initial sketches to working on tracing paper to see how layers could combine, roughs done digitally then the final prints showed how her works develop at each stage. Tracey uses a simplistic style but really goes for bold colours such as the blue shown below (four on left).

Vivian French is one of the founders of the Picture Hooks mentoring scheme. She explained how herself and others set up the scheme as they noticed a gap between students graduating and becoming fully fledged professionals. Writers are offered many such schemes but illustrators are not so fortunate. This is a scheme I myself will be likely to apply for after graduating when I feel support might be just what I need. Vivian is an accomplished writer, one who I had previously met when I attended one of her workshops last year. I had a good chat with Vivian about my honours year project and explained my aims and what I was researching etc. She seemed pleased that I was trying to tackle such a tough subject and was glad that I was trying to raise awareness of such important issues. She agreed with my choice to only create a dummy version of the book as most publishers would be very likely to ask for changes to both text and illustrations. Keeping it in such a rough format would allow this process to occur easily without me wasting time on creating a finished product. We discussed the end of year exhibition and I told her I would send an invite as I already have her email. If Vivian cannot attend I will probably send her a digital copy anyway to try and get some valuable feedback.