OUGD601 Context of Practice 03 Presentation and Development of Question Area and Methodologies

After our COP three presentations/crits I revisited my focus and question because I was told that perhaps my subject area was too wide to address in any meaningful depth. Despite having talked to Amber about reducing down the subject area by using the practice of Chalkboarding as a focus, I had trouble actually turning this into solid practical and literary research methodologies.

However, after talking this through with the class and the tutors I found that the central question I wanted to ask was why modern audiences seek out and respond to nostalgia and craft methods in this digital age. SO, from this I came up with the working title 'The renaissance of Chalkboards: Why?' Although this is fairly basic it allows a lynch pin for all the craft theory information and references I have accrued. I can still look at the major role of proximity I have identified in contemporary craft popularity but in the context of the single practice of chalkboard design and creation.

When looking at literary research methodologies I found a slight shift in the direction of my future reading would be useful. I looked at the historical context of chalkboards and found a book that looks specifically at this. I will have to see if I can track this down. There are also a number of hand lettering books that may well be relevant to the practice of chalk boarding and how they communicate and are created, because of the letterforms that are transferred over into this medium. I will still be using a kind of temporal triangulation with literary research from the industrial revolution compared to works in the last 50 years and the the most contemporary sources such as films, journals and written work from that last couple of years. Hopefully this will give me an idea of how craft theory has developed in relation to the society at the time and practitioners.

This leads quite naturally into practical research methods that could be employed. I want to look at this transition of mediums and how it effects the intensely communicative format of typography. I also want to integrate my extended practice work into this because I am doing quite a few chalkboards anyway. Because of the qualitative nature of this entire project I think I will keep a critical journal of a chalkboard brief along side my blog recording. Precisely analysing the process and looking at it in terms of craft theory. I will also be talking to other crafts people to get their opinions on these issues. My first of these is on the 20th of October with Roger from the Papercut Bindery. I will need to come up with a consistent plan for each of these interviews so that my data is as consistent as possible with such qualitative data