Experimental animations on gender inequality and women's empowerment by Linda Mayoux. Developed for Visual Research Module, BA Visual Communications, Open College of the Arts, UK
The visuals I chose for my second set of creative translations are from stories already composed by farmers in two role plays – one by women and one by men – from a GALS gender training for Muungano Fair Trade coffee cooperative from DRC. I chose these images for in depth analysis because the role play narratives were very powerful and highlighted different things about women and men’s perceptions – echoing many of the issues about gender inequalities in the coffee sector from Uganda.
This was also the only clear set of visuals I have of farmers’ complete stories, as opposed to vignettes from drawings that I then interpret from interviews and other contextual information. The photos are of variable technical quality as they were taken in difficult bright lighting while I was focusing on facilitation and documenting the narrative. But many are very expressive and dynamic when edited as the basis for sketching and further development for animation. Importantly the photos provided a basis for developing my ability to draw local expressions and body language so that animations could abstract and clarify without resorting to stereotypes and potentially racist tropes. They also highlighted both the ways in which women and men perceive their own and the opposite gender – both seriously and as comedy.
These stories and effects of men’s control of coffee money, alcoholism and adultery and corruption of officials are common across all the coffee sector in East Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. So these role play stories have wider implications as advocacy in the coffee sector – Fair Trade as well as private sector companies.
The workshop itself was held in Rwanda because there was too much bombing in the area the farmers came from. Also to link them with women and men in Rwanda who were doing the same methodology.
The role plays were to look at differences and similarities between women and men in how they perceived women and men’s roles in coffee production and benefits from coffee. Participants were divided into one men’s group and one women’s group and given props so that women could play men and men could play women – adding a lot of laughter to the proceedings.
The idea was to combine the two role play stories into one, experimenting with different ways of sequencing of the storyline – as in Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story. Although I did not have good drawings or audio from this workshop, I did have some relevant media I could edit and add to increase the power and clarity of narrative.
The photos straight from the camera were of variable quality as I was taking them in difficult very bright light and shadow, and having to concentrate on facilitating and understanding translation of the role plays themselves for the job I was paid to do. Some of the most interesting images in terms of story were not always of the highest technical quality.
My first task was therefore to edit them in Lightroom to get more consistent colour and tone. And to make a selection for a narrative.
Women’s Theatre original photos: women do all the work, men get the coffee money and spend it on alcohol and women in town. But fight the woman, not the man.
Men’s theatre original photos: men use coffee money for drinking and gambling. This leads to fight and involvement of police. All the money – include mortgage of land – goes to paying off corrupt lawyers and police chiefs to get the men released from jail.
Uganda is one of the countries where I first started to develop the GAMEchange methodologies from 2002, building on other pictorial methodologies that already existed from organisations like Action Aid, and also local Ugandan artists working with development agencies. It is a country where I have a lot of photographs of community drawings and also contextual information from two coffee-producing regions:
Rwenzoris in Western Uganda with three organisations: Kabarole Research Centre, Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Union and local Community-Based Organisations like Mwana Mulho where I worked first between 2003-2016.
Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda with a Fair Trade coffee Cooperative: Gumutindo from a gender empowerment process funded by TWIN UK 2012-2014. This process was linked with Bukonzo Joint from Rwenzoris.
In my selection of images to work with I focus on images that contain sufficient narrative to translate as animation. In Rwenzoris people – many of whom could read and write when they started – have developed a very distinctive colour style and symbolic language to produce very complex pictorial narratives of their experience as infographics and/or information manuals with sequential illustration. Animated symbols could form the basis for interesting interactive infographics. They could also be animated as narrative, but this would require a lot of time, much more documentation on precise meanings and should be done with participation of the people concerned to develop the narratives.
The Gumutindo drawings from discussions of ‘What do you like and dislike about being a wo/man’ were very expressive ‘mini-narratives’ as individual images rather than a pictorial language of juxtaposed symbols. As such I decided they would be more suitable for my experimental animation, looking at ways in which animation can clarify or alter the meaning of the drawings based on documentation I have available.
Link to ‘Mother of the Nation’: Mary’s Story, Uganda
Gumutindo is a Fair Trade coffee cooperative on the slopes of Mount Elgon. As elswhere ion the coffee sector, although women perform about 70% of the work on coffee, men own the land and control the coffee money. Married women are generally not admitted as cooperative members – and so are not eligible for training and credit. GALS empowerment methodology was introduced as part of a gender strategy of TWIN-UK who were prominent buyers of Gumutindo coffee and did a lot of the training for them.
Men locked the store to stop the women getting hands on the coffee money. Domestic abuse and male alcoholism were very common (about 70% households). These were dominant features of the role plays at the workshop – see the three different couples in the photos.
The single-image vignettes by women about their situation shown in the slideshow below are some of the most expressive, poignant and raw that I have encountered. Each image manages to tell a story in itself that can be largely understood even by someone from outside. I have not acknowledged the artists because although they were happy that the drawings and photographs from the workshop would be used in manuals etc, that was on the understanding that they would not be identified in ways that might make them more vulnerable if they are known to express themselves in this way.
Equally interesting is the very graphic final drawing by a man of what he did not like about being a man – running after a woman with an erect penis – although he was too embarrassed to explain exactly whether this meant he did not like the fact of his arousal, the fact that women always ran away, or a particular woman was not interested in his advance. He later hid the drawing from view after another man made fun of it.
4 women with similar visions.
Entertaining visitors, Planting trees, Round table, Poultry, Maintaining the house, Building a commercial house, Small income generating projects, paying school fees, Build a shop and start selling stuff, Cattle for zero grazing (milk, manure for the coffee, selling the cow for generating money)
3 men 2 women with similar visions.
Father and mother working together, Nice compound, good house, flowers, Planting passion tree that will attract visitors, Cow for zero grazing (milk, compost, money for school fees), Planting trees (eucalyptus) to sell, Poultry (eggs to sell and eat), Trees in their compound for fresh air, Enough space in their compound for children playground
4 women 4 men with similar visions
Very good house/with a kitchen, Entertaining visitors, Kids going to school, Planting trees, Cattle grazing (generate money to develop their home), Buying a piece of land to plant more coffee
Money from coffee and buy a motorcycle, Piece of land and build a private school that their children can attend, Raising small animals for income generating, Money from coffee buy a motorcycle, then a car for business and educate the children, Install a big banana plantation and sell bananas then take care of their families.
1 woman 2 men
A house, Cooperation between man and woman, A car, Coffee as income generating to send children to school, A cow, Poultry, Goat, Flowers in her compound.
Question: What do Men/Women like about being a man or a woman? No documentation report.
Question: What do Men/Women like about being a man or a woman? No documentation report.
Question: What do Men/Women like about being a man or a woman? No documentation report.
Question: What do Men/Women like about being a man or a woman? No documentation report.
Community-based organisations in the Rwenzoris to the far West of Uganda: Kabarole Research Centre, Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Union and Mwana Mulho have been working with me to develop and adapting PALS since 2003. Women and men in the area have developed their own pictorial language and do very detailed diagram analysis for their own life planning. Organisations have also integrated the pictorial systems into their organisational planning and impact assessments.
Many of the drawings are very detailed in terms of information, colourful and organisational drawings, like those on the right, are often large and colour-coded with quantification in their adapted number system.
Many of the images are figures doing something that are quite easy to understand for people from the area who know the crops, trees etc. However because they have become a ‘pictorial symbolic language’, there is a tendency for drawings to become formulaic rather than innovative and expressive. Particularly in manuals produced by staff like those on the right where the more polished style is very noticeable. Though understandable as the aim of the manuals is clarity.
But as can be seen from the videos below, the drawings enable women and men to describe and analyse many issues in their lives, including sensitive topics about family relationships, adultery and land ownership that provide rich contextual information as background to the narratives from Gumutindo.
Narrative Context
‘Mother of the nation’??: Constructed Narrative
This video ‘Investing in women farmers in Africa’ is quite interesting for the somewhat patronising and complacent attitude towards women farmers – the compliant but neglected mothers who need ‘support from their men’ so that they can feed their families and feed and educate the nation. Issues of land rights and domestic abuse have been raised since the 1980s and still many countries have not changed. Even Fair Trade working with men’s cooperatives and increasing men’s incomes can simply increase alcoholism and enable men to marry more wives.
What is clear from the workshops in Gumutindo and Rwenzoris, and particularly videos from Bukonzo Joint, is that many women farmers resent many of the cultural practices and inequalities. Wanting rights to land, credit and profitable businesses. Many men after the workshops also support these changes – they have seen their mothers and sisters suffer.
But the video can provide an interesting counterpoint to the realities of women’s lives as they depict them in their drawings and role plays. And documented changes since the workshops can also provide a pointer to future possibilities.
HALL, R. 1995. The Cartoonists Workbook, London, A & C Black. HAMM, J. 1967. Cartooning the Head and Figure, New York, Penguin. SIMON, M. 2005. Facial Expressions: a visual reference for artists, New York, Watson-Guptill Publications. STANCHFIELD, W. 2009. Drawn to Life Vols 1 and 2, London and New York, Routledge, Focal Press. WILLIAMS, R. 2009. The Animator’s Survival kit, London, Faber & Faber.
I want to explicitly link my visual communications visual experimentation and research with my professional consultancy work on participatory visual methodologies for development agencies in order to increase my ability to communicate the voice of farmers across contexts and to powerful people.
Key interests are the integration of textless design and storytelling principles of illustrators and animators with theories of change and stakeholder participation in international development. This is obviously a long term and multi-faceted process – particularly because my professional work covers a range of issues and I work in a wide range of media where I am keen to improve my skills.
A key challenge was therefore to narrow the question down to focus on specific technical skills most central to communicating the voice of farmers. For that reason the main focus is on Adobe Animate as a way of collating drawings and worked photographs of farmer role plays. Improving also my skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I also selected empowerment and leadership as crosscutting issues for my work and for which I have the most interesting cross-cultural farmer visuals.
RESEARCH QUESTION: ASSIGNMENT 1 RESEARCH PLAN
Which design and story-telling principles used by animators and illustrators creating textless narratives are most important in converting farmer drawings and photos into powerful representations of farmer voices on empowerment and leadership in development?
Visual work options
My visual work will start with selection of a library of the most powerful drawings/concepts of empowerment and leadership and photo series of role plays from different cultures and selection of which farmer images to work with.
These images will then be digitised and worked on in different ways that aim to keep the energy and immediacy of the originals.
These images will then be collated into textless visual narratives as:
one page comic/infographics
60 second animations
Interactive presentations combining the two
Experimenting with different solutions applying different principles from other illustrators and animators who have produced powerful textless narratives.
A selection of these will then be shared with farmers and development agencies for feedback of which solutions they find most powerful.
Finally a selection of 2-3 of the most successful solutions agreed under each head will be finalised for on-line publication.
Key texts, resources and gatekeepers
The key texts will bring together:
visual communications theory and participatory development theory to provide a framework for participatory visual communication for empowerment.
in-depth analysis of the work of illustrators and animators who have produced powerful textless, or nearly textless, infographic comics, animations and interactive experiences.
This will be combined with cross-cultural comparative analysis of:
drawings and photographs from participatory empowerment and leadership workshops in Asia and Africa
My own visual research will draw on inputs and feedback from colleagues on the ground in Africa and Asia and in international development agencies as well as visual communications networks and OCA VisCom students.
For a list of resources collated so far see: Bibliography and the links in the menus in the righthand column of this page.
End February 2019 Assignment 2 theoretical framework from VisCom and development literature, including analysis of design and animation principles used by other illustrators and animators and collation of bodies of images to be used from farmers.
End October 2019 Assignment 3 upgrading of technical skills (particularly Adobe Animate), drafting of infographics and animations and sharing with development networks.
End December 2019 Assignment 4 refining most successful infographics and animations and sharing with VisCom networks, reviewing and extending reading and consultation of background resources,
End March 2020 Assignment 5.
Strengths, weaknesses and strategies
Key strengths and opportunities for this proposal are:
my professional development experience and links. I have a good body of farmer drawings and photographs from which to select images to work with. Because the project addresses a key challenge in my work I am hopeful that I will get the feedback I hope for.
I am not planning to take on so much professional work this year for a range of personal and professional reasons. So I should have a lot more time to devote to my degree.
Key weaknesses and threats
Although I plan to take in much less professional work, I do need to earn some income. This means I may unexpectedly need to alter my schedule.
I suffer from RSI that I have managed since 1994. This means that I have to be careful how much computer work I do at any one time. I have to diversify my activities and limit computer work for my degree if I have a lot of paid computer work.
I am doing this module alongside the Advanced Practice module. This focuses on physical skills and so should help diversify my activities. But I need to sequence assignments carefully.
I tend to have very many ideas and get intensely interested in things. I will need to be careful to keep focused and not take on too much. Exactly how I do this will become clearer once I have done Assignment 2.
Although I have postdoctoral research experience in my field, I am much less familiar with VisCom research and not so good (or motivated) at theoretical debates and critique in VisCom. Coupled with my RSI issues I will have to pace myself and spend quite a lot of time on reflection. Concept maps of theory will help.
I do not need to finish this module before end September 2020 and my work plan leaves plenty of time in case of overshoot.
Review and analysis of progress
I started this project with a broad idea of the types of ways in which I could integrate my work interests and visual communications work. With very many ideas. Initially doing very many maps appeared to be a bit repetitive. But as I continued I found that each idea thread could become more focused.
I think the research question I now have is reasonably clear, and can be answered in the word limit of the written assignment. Bringing all these maps together in Question 4 was particularly useful – and the collage process one I can use for other purposes in future in my work.
The topic is very important to the alternative participatory visual communications framework I am trying to develop in my work. I am very therefore fully motivated to go into detail on the relevant visual communications theory. I am planning to increase my design proficiency in concept mapping software in my syntheses of VisCom debates – but starting with pencil/physical draft maps and moodboards in my sketchbook – and seeing how far I can also represent some of that visually.
The visual research is also something I am extremely motivated by I will need to do a thorough review of all the various processes I have been involved in to see which drawings and photos are most interesting to select. This may lead to either a broadening out of the topic from empowerment/leadership to include value chains to focus on cross-cultural comparisons, or a narrowing down to just gender or leadership or another topic.
The actual visual outputs I produce are not yet completely specified. I can see a logical progression from drawings and photos 1-page layout to 60 second animation to interactive experience using Adobe Animate. Using selected material on one issue in 2-3 cultural locations. But depending on my in-depth review of the materials I have, I may decide to focus on one set of drawings/photos and take that through. Or a broader set of drawings/photos/issues and do a cross-cultural comparative set of experiments in only one of these.
I think that my understanding, and maybe the research question itself, will continue to evolve and be refined and re-focused when I have gone deeper into the theoretical framework and had time to review all my secondary material from farmers and development agencies. And now also the relevant literature from development theory.
It will not be until the end of Assignment 2 that my plans, blog structure and thereby resources/gatekeepers etc will be completely clear. I will have to set that as a time limit, and leave any pending issues at that point for another project.
Assignment 1a Initial ideas
Exercise 1.1 Initial ideas
E1.1.1 Overview of aims and plans for VisCom degree
My Visual Communications practice and work on OCA courses is currently split between:
graphic design and photography/video/web design interests related to my professional consultancy work on participatory empowerment methodologies using community drawing and diagramming and presentations for development agencies (see work blog https://www.gamechangenetwork.org)
I currently have separate websites, on-line identities and networks for each. To some extent this separation will continue. A key issue being my need to diversify my physical activity away from computers and even iPad to avoid/manage RSI.
Plans for VisCom degree
In the VisCom degree as a whole I am planning to focus on:Module 1 Advanced Practice: establishing a distinctive socio-political ‘Zemni voice’. Looking first at what that might mean for documentary and briefs like ‘Spirit of Place’ for a tourist market. Then for more explicitly feminist work on image and text, exploring concepts of leadership. Finally developing some of the more imaginative work with a feminist narrative. On a technical level the emphasis will be on mixed media and printmaking. I want to focus on improving physical illustration skills: drawing from life and imagination, painting, collage and taking these to printmaking. Digital skills will continue to be part of my workflow, but not the main focus. (See new level 3 Illustration blog)
Module 2 Visual Research: I want to explicitly link my visual communications with my professional consultancy work on participatory visual methodologies for development agencies. As outlined in more detail below this will entail significantly improving my expressive concept drawing/cartooning, info-graphics/graphic design, animation and web design skills using locally available images and different cultural styles collated in Adobe Animate.
Module 3 Sustaining YourPractice: is yet to be decided based on how the other two modules go, but will continue to link my VisCom work with my consultancy. Possibly focusing on producing visual campaigning resources around ‘Building chains of value’ for organisations and companies I work with on chocolate/cocoa/coffee and tea.
Plans for Visual Research
I am therefore seeing Module 2 Visual Research as an opportunity to build on and contribute to my professional consultancy work. For a range of health and personal problems (65 in May! but need to keep earning) I am now needing to make my consultancy work more UK-based (also cheaper and more environmentally sustainable for development agencies). Linking my work on this module to my consultancy experience and interests would increase my potential to add more of a UK-based illustration and on-line component to consultancy contracts.
It will provide a focus for me to use a theoretical VisCom perspective and inspiration from other illustrators, designers and artists to look at innovative ways to address some of the challenges faced in my work – specifically the need for textless pictorial communication because of the commitment to inclusion of people with no formal education, cross-cultural communication and very limited budgets for translation etc – even if that was possible into the multiple local languages that can be there even in one community.
In terms of my VisCom skills development I want to significantly improve my visual rapid brainstorming skills and my ability to build on community-level drawings as the basis for participatory logos and ‘professional graphics’ that can be incorporated into presentations for development agencies and disseminated on-line. This requires improving graphic design, animation and interactive/web design skills using Adobe Animate (image-based Powerpoint files are much too large).
Inspiration: secondary sources
A key source of inspiration are community drawings from participatory workshops I have facilitated on empowerment in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes:
expressive figure and symbol drawings on empowerment dimensions done by participants in pencil and marker pens or biro on white and coloured paper.
photos/videos of dances and role plays about empowerment
video and photographs of diagrammatic ‘infographics’ with individual or quantitative information on empowerment processes.
I will do a review of NGO illustration and graphic design styles. But much of this I find a bit monotonous – with a few exceptions. One of my main aims will be to explore and adapt innovative styles from beyond the Western ‘International’ style. The main sources of inspiration will be:
For drawing, cartooning and animation:
Islamic protest artists and illustrators like Marian Satrapi (Persepolis graphic novel and animation) and Middle East Street Art.
African artists and illustrators
Indonesian shadow puppets
Western political cartoonists, caricaturists and illustrators like Art Spiegelman (Maus), Ralph Steadman, Steve Bell, Steve Brodner
Minimalist surrealist illustrators like Alessandro Gottardo and David Shrigley
Japanese cartoon and manga artists including Yoshimoto Nara
For graphic design:
African geometric styles??
Islamic geometric styles??
Western graphic designers: Neville Brody, Philippo Marinetti, Wolfgang Weingart, Sarah Fanelli, fanzines.
I will also draw on traditional styles from art and sculpture from different cultures in museums like British and Victoria and Albert Museums.??
E1.1.2 How will it extend my previous projects? Primary research
My primary research material will be experimenting – digitising, working over and collating the secondary community-level drawings and photos – with:
Digitising, tweaking and combining community drawings into narratives that can be understood by people from different backgrounds
Creating narratives using my own photos of role plays and other participatory exercises using painting/drawing on top for clarity and collage
Ways of collating this into animations and interactive presentations in Adobe Illustrator, Animate and InDesign and the relative advantages of each for the type of downloadable mobile content I am aiming at.
Some of my work community-level work – innovative and distinctive within my professional field – was presented but not successfully applied in:
Book Design 1 Image and Text
Illustration 2 Project 4.4 Street Art
Illustration 2 Project 4.5 Contemporary Ceramics
Unfortunately I no longer have these images – as they were not successful, they got deleted in a clear out of files I thought I would no longer need. Better examples of some relevant materials I produced (but want to apply design principles to are shown in the Flash videos in the righthand menu and infographic toolkit animations for a financial education module (in Illustrator and After Effects) on https://gamechangenetwork.org/fals-toolkit-oikocredit-aski-nwtf-philippines/
The research will build on and further develop;
my expressive drawing skills in eg Illustration 1: Puberty and Book Design 1: Fanzine
conceptual abstraction/imagination from eg Printmaking 2: Abstract self-portrait
collage from Illustration 1: Making a Cup of Tea
photos with gouache and crayon overlay from Illustration 2: Oromia Reflected
It will also aim to significantly improve my graphic design and illustration skills that I started to develop in:
Book Design 1: Assignment 3 Good Typography
Book Design 1: Assignment 4 The Greed Game
Illustration 1: Making a Cup of Tea (collage of tea supply chain from farm to company CEO/supermarket)
Illustration 2: Pixelated images
and build on e-book and animation work I did in:
Illustration 2: Assignment 5 Oromia Reflected
Illustration 2: Flickbooks
Although the research is a project driven by my professional consultancy needs, it is nevertheless very much in line with my artistic ‘voice’:
• What makes your work different from other people’s? A distinctive dimension of my work as I see it developing going forward is clarifying and promoting a more political/developmental voice around issues of gender, environment, economy and sustainable development.
• How do you produce your work? I produce my work in a range of different ways. This project would build on some of my rapid expressive sketching and widen my ability to deal with theoretical concepts, rather than building on my more digital evocative work with found images and textures.
• Do you have a specific style? My style to date has often been complex and multi-layered. I envisage learning a lot from this research project about clarifying and simplifying images/animations/interactive experience while retaining potential complexity of message.
• Do you predominantly use certain media? I work with very many different media. This project builds on my drawing and digital editing skills, but focuses particularly on developing my animation and interactivity skills using Adobe Animate.
• Do you tackle certain topics? My work on previous courses has ranged across a broad range of personal, aesthetic and political topics. This wider range is likely to continue but this project will provide a focus for deepening my ability to communicate political issues – something I am used to doing verbally for publication but where my awareness of the complexity of issues hampers the clarity of my visual work.
Take another look at the critical reviews you produced at Level 2 and your tutor’s feedback to these. What do you need to improve now that you’re working at Level 3?
In terms of analytical thinking, this research project will focus on sharpening my ‘Ockam’s razor’ paying attention to symbolism and visual dynamics and the universals/cultural relativity of visual communication.
a) SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and b) PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological)
My identification of initial ideas from a very broad brainstorming on the very many various things that interest me led to some narrowing down to a number of broad areas for visual communications research that would be very useful for linking with my professional consultancy: political illustration, textless illustration/animation, visual communication for development and infographics. Click on the mind maps below for more details.
Concept map
Click on the annotated Concept Map on Empowerment that provides the basis for the current arrangement of this blog:
After much thought and reading the rest of the course guide and requirements for the research as whole I thought that a focus on one concept: ’empowerment’ would provide me with a good handle on which I could hang many of my more technical research interests. The focus remains on textless communication (complementing other text and image work on feminism and leadership planned for Advanced Practice) but moves from visioning/logo to infographic to story-telling comic/animation and then some alternative media possibilities and interactivity. The aim would be to see how much I can communicate through using very simple locally available tools and stick people (different types of line, shape, colour). Drawing on community drawings and some of the work on wordless illustration/comic animation from other illustrators and designers – even if they have a more complex visual style some of the approach on eg narrative organisation, composition or perspective/viewpoint would still be relevant to making simple stick people more engaging.
Exercise A1.2: Getting started
E1.2.1 Getting organised
My work will be organised in two main ways:
Experimental Sketchlogs
My first level of organisation will be flexible and somewhat disorganised to allow lateral thinking and free experimentation. This will consist of a series of A3 or A4 ring bound sketchbooks bringing together my review of primary and secondary resources and experimentation – places to try out options and scribble over examples, annotating with cross-cultural analysis and comparison of that are then summarised on the blog:
Concept maps and theory diagrams from Assignments 1 and 2 – handrawn and/or in diagramming software
Textless cartoons from selected farmer drawings: analysing drawing styles, visual dynamics and symbolism/concepts
Worked into photographs from role plays and other activities
60 second Animation: looking at forms of narrative and storyboarding
1-page Information graphics: looking at types of mapping diagram, visual dynamics and integration of quantitative and qualitative information
Interactivity, user design diagrams and web maps
These will all include examples and experimentation from different cultures, particularly different Islamic and African traditions.
On-line blog sections
The blog will be organised along two axes:
A clear Assignment menu on the righthand side column will point the assessors to my work on each assignment to track development of my ideas and research. Posts will relate to my secondary research and portfolios to my own visual experimentation and be listed in section-specific pages under the appropriate assignment.
The top menu will be thematic for use by development practitioners:
VisCom4Dev overview: My visual research portfolio, the research document and this project proposal. (Assignments 1,4 and 5)
What is empowerment? leadership? with original secondary sources from communities and development agencies, theory of change and participatory diagramming methodologies in development (Assignment 2)
Visual Communications Theory outlining the design and storytelling principles I identify as useful to incorporate in my own visual research. With posts on areas like semiotics, communication theory, participatory methodologies. Then posts on my selected animators and illustrators working with textless (or near textless) images and narratives. (Assignment 2)
My visual experiments portfolios on analysis of community diagrams, annotated worked into photos, 1 Page infographics, 60 sec animations and interactive presentations with details of my working process, stakeholder feedback and final revisions in response to feedback (Assignment 3)
Map of blog organisation
E1.2.2 Time Schedule
I am planning to complete this module by end March 2020 – leaving time for any overshoot before the final module end date in October 2020.
January and February I will have related work on my professional contracts but enough time to focus on the more planning and conceptual dimensions of the project. Weather will also not be so good for the documentary sketching etc planned for Module 3.1 Advanced Practice. So I envisage being able to advance quite quickly with:
Part 1: Project proposal finish end Jan 2019
Part 2: A theoretical framework end Feb 2019
I will then spend much more time gathering data and producing my own visual experiments, as well as work on Module 3.1 and fully developing my skills in Adobe Animate. So:
Part 3 Gathering data end October 2019
Part 4: A working draft end December 2019
I then hope to have one further month to finish my submission to send to my tutor (then some further time before assessment while I complete my other two modules)
Part 5: Finalising your submission end March 2020
E1.2.3 My learning style and writing habits
I don’t usually find the process of writing difficult – I have to do a lot of writing for my professional work. I generally start with an outline of topics, drafted (depending on the topic and balance of image/text) in iThoughts or as a Word outline or as pages in InDesign or a One Note page/folder. I then just put what I think – working on the easiest sections first.
When I have got as far as I can, or have to get on with other things I get a printout, leave things to mull over for a while and come back later, working first on the printout. I often use One Note for recording thoughts as they occur, or pencil jottings in a notebook/sketchbook/piece of paper.
If I start to get stuck I just go and do something else – work or exercise. Then thoughts flow much better than sticking at my computer.
I repeat that process until I feel the text is ready to send for feedback. My main challenges are RSI and when I am too tired to properly copy edit (normally done by a colleague or professional editor). For OCA work I can ask a family member to read things through.
Exercise 1.3 Identify Resources
I already have a very wide range of references and sources on artists and illustrators from Google searches, earlier courses and books I have at home. I joined AOI and House of Illustration.
Very many NGO resources on empowerment and pictorial methods are on the internet if you or I can request them from colleagues. I have been collecting these.
I have a number of books on Adobe Animate, and subscribe to training resources on Lynda.com.
I subscribe to various social networking sites and have access to many libraries in Cambridge, including the University. I could also make more of contacts on Linked In and correspond with people individually.
My challenge is not so much lack of ideas and resources as too many, and the need to focus before I go wider on gaps.
1.4.1 Is the project driven by visual or written work.
This research is driven by visual challenges thrown up by my professional work on empowerment and leadership through participatory workshops with farmers, companies and development agencies. It is part of the development of a new model for participatory visual communication in development (see modelling above).
Addressing those visual challenges to translate drawings and photographs from the participatory workshops into powerful narratives that can work over multiple contexts to promote communication between farmers in different places and companies and development agencies requires research on other illustrators and animators who have developed engaging textfree narratives. This will establish some guidelines and principles that can be generalisable to other participatory communication processes – replacing currently ‘professionalised’ design with communication based directly on farmer visual images.
1.4.2 Action Plan
February – July 2019 Assignment 2
Review and cross-cultural analysis of existing farmer drawings and photographs in different countries in Africa and Asia from my own archive and from other colleagues – community farmer trainers and staff in companies and development agencies.
Download and analysis of known internet resources and search for other material on empowerment and leadership
Facebook discussion on VisCom4Dev set up on gamechange Facebook page
Review and analysis of books on textless (or near textless) infographics and 1 page comics
Review and analysis of textless animations on-line and methodologies of designing 60 second animations and interactive presentations.
Development of underlying viscom framework for the research and experimentation
Learning Adobe Animate in depth from manuals
July – December 2019 Assignment 3
Visual research and experimentation with converting selected farmer images and photographs into 1 page infographics, 60 second animations and interactive presentations
Sharing of my experiments as I proceed to get ideas and feedback from development colleagues (I want to get the development content agreed first)
Refinement of the experiments on the basis of feedback (depending on my consultancy work, I hope to be able to test directly with communities)
January-end Feb 2020 Assignment 4
Sharing the revised infographics, animations and presentations with visual communications networks for feedback on design and aesthetics and communication to a wider audience
Further revisions to the materials in the light of that feedback and revisiting the theoretical research from Assignment 2
Drafting the Research Report
Feb-end March 2020 Assignment 5
Final revisions and review
1.4.3: Visual research: What do I want to achieve?
I want to develop skills in designing simple textless infographics and animations with interactivity in Adobe Animate.
I want to consolidate skills in:
ways of converting farmer drawings into usable digital form using image trace and blend modes etc in Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop and/or Animate.
use of my own and other photographs eg through working over them in gouache/pen/crayon and/or collage to tell ‘reality-based’ narratives.
I want to produce:
a series of textless one page info-graphic comics, 60 second animations and interactive presentations based on farmer drawings and role plays about empowerment and leadership for download onto mobile phones to increase farmers’ voice in communicating with other farmers and companies and development agencies worldwide.
a short set of principles and guidelines on making engaging textless animation that can be applied by farmers and local organisations using locally available Apps on mobile phones
This will require review of:
farmer drawings on empowerment and leadership from participatory workshops I have facilitated
company/NGO/academic ‘expert’ empowerment training materials
Design principles used by illustrators and animators who have produced simple wordless narratives, particularly those working in Flash
Types of Apps for local mobile smartphones
I want to promote my work to:
Farmers in Africa and Asia through on-line social networks and contacts I have
communities, companies, agencies and researchers interested in farmer empowerment
Illustration/animation forums interested in participatory/community VisCom
I want to refine my own skills in expressive textless visualisation and video design principles to be able to make the best use of farmer drawings
I want to explore
How textless visual communication works – types of framing, juxtaposition and contrast, role of humour/tension, timing etc
Differences in audience response to drawing and photo-based information and different roles these might play, can they be combined?
Different layout options for one page comics/infographics
Different methods of animating : stop motion of drawing process or role play, frame by frame and tweening
How far the same images can be used in layout and animation and what design adaptations might be needed going from sequence/infographic to animation.
How the original drawings are best done and preserved to maximise the ease of digitisation/photographing
How far these methods and principles can be applied by farmer organisations and local development organisations using software available to them
I want to prove that:
it is possible to create powerful textless one page comic infographics and short animations and presentations based on farmer drawings and role plays.
It is possible to do this at least to some extent using media available in communities and software that is available to most development agencies.
I want to involve:
farmers, local organisations and companies facilitating empowerment and leadership capacity-building with whom I am in regular WhatsAp/Facebook contact with in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Philippines.
others working on empowerment and leadership in international development agencies and academic institutions
infographic designers and animators and OCA VisCom students who might be interested in giving feedback from a design/aesthetic perspective
I want to integrate:
visual communications theory (semiotics, post-modernist/feminist approaches), design and animation principles and
participatory development theory: theories of change and empowerment and leadership methodologies.
to develop a new model of participatory visual communications that enables the voices of farmers to be powerfully represented in strategy and policy.
5 Narrowing down your research topic
E1.5.1 Look through and identify main areas of interest
I started by printing out and pasting all the elements from my previous maps that were relevant for my answers in Question 3. The remaining elements I pasted on a separate page for possible follow up later in other modules or outside this degree.
E1.5.2 Take each starting point and turn it into a series of questions
My starting points focused on a range of different types of output:
How can information graphics best communicate voices of women, youth and men farmers to global companies, development agencies and researchers using insights from visual communications theory on semiotics and cross-cultural design?
Most infographics integrate text and image. How far can the text be eliminated? When is text really needed? (involving me working with existing infographics by development agencies and seeing how far I can simplify and remove text, drawing on examples from illustration)
How can collage and layout design principles be used to produce clear textless infographics using photographs of farmer role plays and drawings of empowerment and leadership?
How can textless animation design principles be applied to farmer drawings and role play photographs to create powerful 60 second animations on empowerment and leadership?
How far and in what ways do animation and interactivity add to clarifying textless communication farmer-identified empowerment strategies ? What lessons can be learned from illustrators and animators?
Which design and story-telling principles used by animators and illustrators creating textless narratives are most important in converting farmer drawings and photos into powerful representations of farmer voices on empowerment and leadership in development?
