I framed this project in response to our “14” assignment, in which we were asked to create a project that viewed our thesis topic through a two week time span.
I decided to create a manifesto every day for fourteen days. Each booklet was printed black and white on various found paper in my studio space. I bound them in craft paper covers to add to the sense of immediacy and impermanence.
Around day six I began to loose faith in the form of the manifesto. The forceful rhetoric felt alienating, and every historically significant manifesto seemed to have a notorious counterpart written by a sociopath.
The subsequent booklets evolved to question, redefine, and probe the boundaries of manifestos. Is just calling work a manifesto enough to make it one? If a statement is made emphatic is it then a manifesto? In historical manifestos, who is excluded to make a clearer point? Is a manifesto’s most important function to open dialogue?
I housed the final booklets in a modified clamshell box. The formal and archival construction of the case countered the impermanent feeling of the booklets. I wanted to somehow reflect the idea of two weeks as a passed moment by giving it the authority of historical preservation.
The booklets are topped by a foldout, double-sided poster. It shows 14 different methods of distribution. The distributions reflect my arc of questioning, from the incredibly dramatic, to the introspective and personal.
G R A P H I C _ A C T I O N
Graphic Action started as a process showcase for Katherine Hughes's MFA thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design. Since graduation, it's devolved into a compost heap for graphic design scraps. Delicious.
March 17, 2008
