COLLABORATIVE UNIT FEEDBACK: SOME THOUGHTS / ON ‘PERSONAL VOICE’.
After receiving my feedback for our recent collaborative unit, I wanted to use this space to reflect upon a couple of points mentioned in the comments, in relation to my developing practice.
1
As Lizzie points out, ‘the visual language of the final output is somewhat clinical’, and perhaps closer to a piece of capable graphic design, which is something I felt while putting the zine together, and something I’ve always struggled with when producing work digitally. There is a sameness to the sort of stuff I manage to make - a clear digital presence, so strong that it manages to eradicate anything in the semblance of a personal voice.
This is not the first time I’ve had issues with this. When I was doing my photography degree, I often saw the camera as an obstacle between me and the picture I wanted to capture, as something obtrusive rather than a helpful tool to create the sorts of images I envisioned. This is something illustration has led me closer to achieving. Though I still lack the necessary skills to make the sort of work I see myself producing in future (after all, it’s only been eight months since I first ditched my camera in favour of pencils, pens and paint), I feel working in illustration has granted me a freedom I never found in photography. This has made it easier to develop - or at least begin to develop - a personal voice, which I feel is now finally beginning to take form.
2
Lizzie also points out that this digital visual language, though ‘capable’, does not ‘communicate anything new or interesting within the field’ - it fades into the background, it blends in - which is something I seek to challenge as I further develop a personal style.
One of the things I grow increasingly aware of when thinking about a personal language is the need to move beyond formal considerations (what my images look like) and to focus more closely on their meaning. To have a voice is to have an opinion, and to be able to express that in a unique, personal way.
I find this hard, especially because my concerns and opinions connect most directly with those in literature and philosophy, rather than more accessible issues, such as those pertaining to the politics of gender, race, developing technologies, the environment, etc.
As I begin work on my personal project, however, I think it will be interesting to consider my place within wider discourses - particularly those pertaining to identity within a literary framework (i.e. monster-making as a metaphor for the creation of an ever-changing self), and to see what comes out of that.