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Source: Victoria and Albert Museum (n.d.). V&A · Paper peepshows. [online] Victoria and Albert Museum. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/paper-peepshows.

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The V&A’s collection consists of over 400 paper peepshows and other optical devices.

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An illustration I made some time ago. Patterns and portraits could work well together with "costumes and disguise" as theme.

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For my proposal, I was thinking about the aspects that I enjoyed most from this unit but also at my practice as a whole, what are the themes, subjects I prefer to use.
I've recognised many of my artworks deal with pattern making and portraits.
Hence I've thought of costumes as theme for the next unit. This has been a recurring theme in my works in these months and I think it might be interesting to combine it with my already settled portrait skills.

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Tutorial on making paper peepshows (Victoria & Albert Museum, n.d.). I'd love to create one of these in the next months and maybe use it for my project.

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Paper peepshows are like pocket-sized stage sets unfolding before your eyes. Made from layered paper panels, complete with action-packed scenes, they expand to create an illusion of depth and reveal a miniature world. Try making your own with these free templates and guide designed by artist Clare Bryan.

This project was designed by Clare Bryan and features in the V&A book Paper Crafts: A Maker's Guide (2018).

The peepshow construction is simpler than it looks, but you will need a craft knife or scalpel for precise paper-cutting.
Download the instructions and print out the templates at home:
Make sure your printer settings are set to 100%. You can print the templates directly on to your mid-weight paper if your printer allows. Why not try sourcing your own imagery to create a unique personalised scene?

Clare Bryan's work involves the manipulation and cutting of paper, making scalpel drawings in what first appear to be blank book structures. She combines teaching at various London colleges with small-press work and often collaborates with other artists, on artists' books and boxes.
Paper peepshows at the V&A
Most commonly sold as souvenirs, paper peepshows appeared in the 1820s, at first in Germany and Austria. They often celebrated particular events, famous places or feats of engineering.

This early example was published in 1825. As the viewer peeps through the branches of a tree, a country scene unfolds, dotted with shepherds and their sheep. The eye is led towards the back panel, revealing a large country house, with ladies rowing across a nearby stream.

Need more inspiration? The V&A holds the Gestetner collection of over 400 paper peepshows and other optical toys, dating from the 19th century to the present day. You can make an appointment to view these in the National Art Library.

Find out more about our paper peepshow collection.

Discover more paper craft projects inspired by our collections in the V&A book Paper Crafts: A Maker's Guide (2018).

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Paper peepshows are like pocket-sized stage sets unfolding before your eyes. Made from layered paper panels, complete with action-packed scenes, they expand to create an illusion of depth and reveal a miniature world. Try making your own with these free templates and guide designed by artist Clare Bryan.

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In writing the essay, I divided the text in 3 subheadings and assigned approximately 500 words each. In this way I handled it with method and order, so in the end I did not find it too complicated to write it.

I made my Project 3 PDF considering my tutors as main audience. Because they will evaluate all my outcomes, the design is inspired by Project 2 (and then also the AV presentation), to give a consistent appearance to all the deliverables.

Other than references and my works, I added some maps and sketches to make the discourse easier to comprehend. I also included some of my previous works so that tutors could understand a bit more about myself.

For me, the design part was probably the best because I could be creative and imaginative with pictures and layout in communicating my written message.

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Thanks to constant scheduling in this three months-long Unit, I could manage my learning better and be more autonomous by giving myself weekly goals and to-do lists to complete.

I think time management is crucial in all self-directed projects as it helps be organised with time and keep track of one's progress, avoiding last-minute work.

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I had Peer Review in class with other students the other day. We showed an edited selection of five images that had to represent what we had done so far.

Both by speaking with my course mates and with my tutors I realised that I should do more experimentation and more trial and error work instead of polished and final images. They explain to me this is what the course is aimed to.

I think as an illustrator and in general as a person this has always been a sort of limitation for me. I always tend to overthink and control what I'm doing, planning in advance where my work should be headed to and partially limiting me from taking risks.

This is probably due to the fact that I feel the pressure of becoming a professional and make a living out of my own practice.

What I found interesting was also the fact that I was the only student who chose to show two visual references out of the five images we got to present.

I did this to demonstrate that I was doing some research and that my work is not purely from my own imagination but has consistent visual and theoretical backing.

However, it also shows that I tend to give lot of importance to research before picking up the pencil and start making - once again a limitation in spontaneous making.

Therefore, I think the biggest challenge for me in the next months and for this MA is going to be to overcome this problem, start making things without thinking too much about the purpose of them, just enjoying the process and seeing what comes out of it. Only by learning to let myself go I will be able to finally find my voice and thrive as an illustrator.

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MA Illustration_Unit 1_ Project 2_Process

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Overall, I feel very satisfied with Project 2. My design process was fluent and well organised in order to address my self-directed brief appropriately. I improved my strategical skills and also experimented more with lithography and digital mediums.

From the feedback I got from the Peer Review, I understood tutors were expecting a more experimental outcome.

I instead saw Project 2 as an opportunity to practice editorial illustration. Because this is the field I would like to focus my career on, I feel this project’s outcome as a relevant step forward for my practice.

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The last step was about refining the image. I decided to make it all digital with a resemblance of analog medium, just like I saw in Fernando Cobelo (2022) and Nate Kitch’s (2020) works.

Starting with my litho print as reference, I then worked on the pattern composition, making it interacting with the character. In this sense, the digital tools worked really well because I could edit the illustration endless times.

Seeing the work printed in an A2 format for the Peer Review made me realise some aspects that had to be improved. The colours had to be brighter and the other side of the weighing scale needed to have another character in order to communicate the sense of equity better. So I completed and refined the illustration adding Columbine on the right side.

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Having played around with collage to decide the shapes and colours, I then added them to a first draft on a lithograph print.

Even thought I did not used it for the final image, the litho print I made during the Technical Pathway these past weeks served me to study the composition of the various elements.

At the end of this step I felt I was gaining more critical consciousness over the Project, understanding better what worked and what didn’t. For instance, I realised the pattern in the litho print was too random and confusing, making the image too difficult to read. It needed a structure.

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Preliminary study on pattern made with collage

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The second stage was mainly about experimental trial and error. Having in mind the basic idea for the illustration, I tried making a final defined sketch on an A3.

My idea was to portray a group of masked people having carnival on a weighing scale. What did not work was drawing so many detailed characters in a small scale.

It was an important moment for me because I understood my practice is more drawn towards portraying big, essential elements/characters. I therefore decided to only portray one Carnival character, the most iconic one, Harlequin.

To give more substance, I also decided to add a pattern.

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I then tried to translate these ideas visually in my sketchbook. For instance, in representing the term “equal” I tried drawing a pyramid and a podium, finally opting for a weighing scale.

After a few sketches I then came up with the basic idea for the illustration. I felt satisfied with the result, confident it would communicate the message clearly, but also excited about how it would have developed.

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The process for Project 2 realisation could be divided in three steps.

The first step was about ideating the visual concept. I individuated the key words from the quote (carnival, rank, abolished, equal) and linked everything that came into my mind to each of them, either abstract or concrete terms. In a short time, I created a mind map of interconnected ideas.

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For Project 2 I decided to work on Andrew Robinson’s article (Robinson, 2011). I wanted to communicate the power of carnival in putting all its participants at the same social level. I consider this a key aspect of carnival and a relevant one to explore visually because I had not seen any illustrated response to this matter yet.
In particular, I decided to focus on a quote from the article which summarises this concept well:

“During Carnival, rank is abolished and everyone is equal”.

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Guy Fawkes mask: the most famous example of a mask used for political stance

Source: Snow, P. (2021). Mask up: how the Guy Fawkes became one of the most iconic design object in recent history. PIN-UP. [online] Available at: https://archive.pinupmagazine.org/articles/article-guy-fawkes-mask-v-for-vendetta#43.

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MASK UP: How The Guy Fawkes Mask Became One Of The Most Iconic Design Objects In Recent History

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From V for Vendetta to protests in Hong Kong.

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The article was fundamental for my research because it provides a different viewpoint on the matter. Robinson gives an optimist opinion on carnival and its effectiveness as political tool. For example when he speaks about Brazilian, German and Notting Hill carnivals he suggests that they “still provide platforms for alternative visions and for political critique” (Robinson, 2011).

Looking at activist movements like Extinction Rebellion (Martin, J. et al., 2019) and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (Beautiful Trouble, n.d.), I can see that carnival’s fundamental principle have indeed been used many times in the past for protesting.

I think this is a crucial point, an aspect we don’t usually think about when speaking about carnival. I would very much like this aspect to be my Project 2 main topic as I think it would be interesting to explore it visually.

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I found this article online by Andrew Robinson (Robinson, 2011) that observes the role of carnival in modern times. By referring to Bakhtin’s theory on the matter, the author explains that carnival today has still a social and cultural relevance because it helps building relationships among a community and continues to inspire local cultures.

Just like I saw in Umberto Eco’s essay (1984, pp. 1-10), Robison recognises that it is now a state-controlled event. However, he believes that the carnivalesque act of transgression based on laughter and costumes can inspire political opposition and social movements against the oppressive power (the modern hierarchical capitalist society).

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By Andrew Robinson
In the second and final part of his essay on Mikhail Bakhtin, political theorist Andrew Robinson reviews, and critiques, one of the central concepts in the Russian thinker's work: the Carnivalesque. Carnival and carnivalesque
In Rabelais and his World, Bakhtin discusses carnivalesque (or 'folk-humour',) a particular speech-genre which occurs across a variety of cultural sites, most notably in carnival itself.

A carnival is a moment when everything (except arguably violence) is permitted. It occurs on the border between art and life, and is a kind of life shaped according to a pattern of play. It is usually marked by displays of excess and grotesqueness. It is a type of performance, but this performance is communal, with no boundary between performers and audience. It creates a situation in which diverse voices are heard and interact, breaking down conventions and enabling genuine dialogue. It creates the chance for a new perspective and a new order of things, by showing the relative nature of all that exists.

The popular tradition of carnival was believed by Bakhtin to carry a particular wisdom which can be traced back to the ancient world. For Bakhtin, carnival and carnivalesque create an alternative social space, characterised by freedom, equality and abundance. During carnival, rank (otherwise pervasive in medieval society) is abolished and everyone is equal. People were reborn into truly human relations, which were not simply imagined but experienced. The body is here figured not as the individual or 'bourgeois ego' but as a growing, constantly renewed collective which is exaggerated and immeasurable. Life manifests itself not as isolated individuals but as a collective ancestral body. This is not, however, a collective order, since it is also continually in change and renewal. The self is also transgressed through practices such as masking.

Carnival is a kind of syncretic, ritualised pageantry which displays a particular perspective. It is a brief moment in which life escapes its official furrows and enacts utopian freedom. It is a form of life at once real and ideal, universal and without remainder. Its defining feature is festivity - life lived as festive. It is also sanctioned by the highest ideal aims of human existence, not by the world of practical conditions.

Carnival is also taken to provide a positive alternative vision. It is not simply a deconstruction of dominant culture, but an alternative way of living based on a pattern of play. It prefigured a humanity constructed otherwise, as a utopia of abundance and freedom. It eliminated barriers among people created by hierarchies, replacing it with a vision of mutual cooperation and equality. Individuals are also subsumed into a kind of lived collective body which is constantly renewed.

On an affective level, it creates a particular intense feeling of immanence and unity - of being part of a historically immortal and uninterrupted process of becoming. It is a lived, bodily utopianism distinct from utopianisms of inner experience or abstract thought, a 'bodily participation in the potentiality of another world'. The golden age is lived, not through inner thought or experience, but by the whole person, in thought and body.

An emphasis is placed on basic needs and the body, and on the sensual and the senses, counterposed perhaps to the commands of the will. It lowers the spiritual and abstract to the material level. It thus recognises embodiment, in contrast with dominant traditions which flee from it.

Prefiguring James Scott's analysis of 'hidden transcripts', Bakhtin portrays carnival as an expression of a 'second life' of the people, against their subsumption in the dominant ideology. Ir replaces the false unity of the dominant system with a lived unity in contingency. It creates a zone in which new birth or emergence becomes possible, against the sterility of dominant norms (which in their tautology, cannot cretae the new). It also encourages the return of repressed creative energies. It is joyous in affirming that the norms, necessities and/or systems of the present are temporary, historically variable and relative, and one day will come to an end.

Reading this in a contemporary way, we might say that carnival is expressive rather than instrumental. It involves the expression of latent aspects of humanity, direct contact among people (as opposed to alienation), and an eccentric refusal of social roles. It brings together groups and categories which are usually exclusive. Time and space are rearranged in ways which show their contingency and indissolubility. All of this is done in a mood of celebration and laughter.

In carnival, everything is rendered ever-changing, playful and undefined. Hierarchies are overturned through inversions, debasements and profanations, performed by normally silenced voices and energies.

For instance, a jester might be crowned in place of a king. The authoritative voice of the dominant discourse loses its privilege. Humour is counterposed to the seriousness of officialdom in such a way as to subvert it.

Carnival bridges the gap between holism (which necessarily absorbs its other) and the imperative to refuse authority (which necessarily restores exclusions): it absorbs its authoritarian other in a way which destroys the threat it poses. It is also simultaneously ecological and social, absorbing the self in a network of relations. Bakhtin insists that it opposes both 'naturalism', the idea of a fixed natural order, and ideas of fixed social hierarchies. It views ecology and social life as relational becoming. Perhaps a complete world cannot exist without carnival, for such a world would have no sense of its own contingency and relativity.

Although carnival succeeded in undermining the feudal worldview, it did not succeed in overthrowing it. Feudal repression was sufficient to prevent its full utopian potential from unfolding. But it is as if it created a space and bided its time. Bakhtin suggests that it took the social changed of the Renaissance era (the 15th-16th centuries) for carnival to expand into the whole of social life. The awareness of contingency and natural cycles expanded into a historical view of time. This occurred because social changes undermined established hierarchies and put contingency on display. Medieval folk culture prepared the way for this cultural revolution.

Bakhtin almost portrays this as a recuperation of carnivalesque: it was separated from folk culture, formalised, and made available for other uses. Yet Bakhtin portrays this as a positive, creative process which continues to carry the creative spirit. Bakhtin suggests that carnival and folk culture have been in decline since the eighteenth century.

Carnivals have turned into state-controlled parades or privatised holidays, humour and swearing have become merely negative, and the people's 'second life' has almost ceased. However, Bakhtin believes that the carnival principle is indestructible. It continues to reappear as the inspiration for areas of life and culture. Carnival contains a utopian promise for human emancipation through the free expression of thought and creativity. Rabelais stands out here for a style which is irreducibly unofficial and unserious, and irrecuperable by authoritarianism.
Carnival and the Grotesque
Carnivalesque images often use an approach Bakhtin terms 'grotesque realism', drawing on the idea of the grotesque. This style transgresses the boundaries between bodily life and the field of art, bringing bodily functions into the field of art. It also celebrates incompleteness, transgression and the disruption of expectations. It often performs a kind of symbolic degradation aimed at bringing elevated phenomena 'down to earth' - to the material, bodily or sensuous level.

This was not conceived as an absolute destruction but as a return to the field of reproduction, regeneration and rebirth. The spirit of carnival was personified as a fat, boisterous man who consumed vast quantities of food and alcohol - similar to Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Present.

The carnival body is seen as transgressing and outgrowing its own limits. This effect is achieved by emphasising the orifices and practices which connect the body to the world: eating, drinking, fucking, shitting, birth, and so on.

This is viewed as a kind of "materialism". The "material" in this excessive, consumptive, reproductive and bodily sense must be contrasted with the material conceived in terms of privatisation and accumulation, as well as in contrast to its medieval adversary, the spiritual or 'higher' plane.

In capitalism, the body breaks away from the generating earth and people. Later uses of grotesque realism in literature tend to lose the universalist and holistic implications of the folk view of the body. Instead of finished forms, the different forms of life - animal, plant, human - are portrayed as incomplete and as passing into one another (think, for instance, of gargoyles with mixed human-animal features. This testifies to a view of being as incomplete).

Bakhtin believes that the grotesque is counterposed to the classical aesthetic of ready-made, completed being. The carnivalesque body in contrast expressed ideas of simultaneous death and rebirth. It is counterposed to the classicist idea of art as the pursuit of the sublime.

In medieval times, Bakhtin believes, carnival expressed an entire folk cosmology or perspective which was usually hidden. In this worldview, the earth itself is a kind of grotesque, fertile body. Laughter, counterposed to the monolithically serious official world, is also part of this phenomenon. There is also a vision of time involved, which treats the new and the future as sites of regeneration and abundance.

This contrasts with official ideas of a past ideal time or a timeless order.
The dominant worldview of medieval Europe was of a natural order which is hierarchical, stable, monolithic and immutable, but poised on the brink of disaster or 'cosmic terror', and hence in need of constant maintenance of order. This is similar to Aristotle's view. For Bakhtin, such a view is oppressive and intolerant. It closes language to change.

The fear of 'cosmic terror', the pending collapse of order if things got out of control (or the threat posed by the Real to the master-signifier), was used by elites to justify hierarchy and to subdue popular revolt and critical consciousness. Today, we might think of this vision of monolithic order in terms of fantasies of 'broken Britain', of civilisation under siege from extremists, and a discourse of risk-management (and the crisis-management of 'ungovernability') in which 'terrorism', disease, protest, deviance and natural disaster fuse into a secularised vision of cosmic collapse.

This vision of collapse has infiltrated legal and political discourse to such a degree that any excess of state power seems 'proportionate' against this greater evil.

The folk view expressed in carnival and carnivalesque, and related speech-genres such as swearing and popular humour, opposes and subverts this vision. For Bakhtin, cosmic terror and the awe induced by the system's violent power are the mainstays of its affective domination. Folk culture combats the fear created by cosmic terror.

The celebration of the immortal collective body in carnival bolsters fearlessness. The amorphous fears are brought 'down to earth' through parody and degradation, turned into something worldly which can be overcome, stripped of its metaphysical pretensions. It tends to produce a complete liberty conditioned on complete fearlessness.

Against the timeless force of becoming, the pretensions of serious officials and rulers, and even of one's own serious self and ego, seem irrelevant and comical. Laughter overcomes fear because it is uninhibited and limitless. Carnival is differentiated from other kinds of humour because the crowd also includes itself in the world which is mocked, and which is reborn.

According to Bakhtin, the grotesque is widespread in folk culture, from the giants and demons of myth to colloquial swearing and insults.

Curses, parody and debasing are used to subvert the stabilising tendencies of dominant speech-genres. Today's swearing retains only the remainders of this culture, since it keeps only the destructive and not the reproductive elements. Still, its continuing attraction shows that it carries the remnants of the energy of folk culture and carnival.

The culture of the 'marketplace' also figures in Bakhtin's account of carnival. In contrast to today's use of the 'market' to signify official discourse, the medieval market was a site of transgressive discourse. This may explain how the rising capitalists were able to use references to the market to hegemonise popular strata.

Today, a genre similar to carnivalesque appears in shows such as South Park and Monty Python. The grotesque also remains widespread in various fields of art, and many examples can be found.

It is, however, against Bakhtin's method to treat all instances of carnivalesque or grotesque as equivalent to their historical precedents. Everything must be re-examined as a product of its own context. Today's Bakhtinians often read such phenomena in directly Bakhtinian terms. It is likely, however, that Bakhtin would have seen in them a pale, individualised and spectacularised shadow of the original culture of carnival. He would nevertheless recognise that they contain some of the energy of the original.
Carnival and Contingency: Bakhtin's Place in Critical Theory
Carnival in Bakhtin's account is a kind of de-transcendence of the world, the replacement of the fixed order of language - held in place by a master-signifier or 'trunk' - with a free slippage of signifiers in a space of immanence. The contingency of being/becoming can be embraced as an ecstatic potential, but it can also figure in literature as a horrifying monstrosity, as in the works of HP Lovecraft, and more broadly in the horror genre.

Does this express an unconscious longing for carnival which is at the same time disturbing to other layers of the psyche? We are here in the field of the dispute between affirmative theories of contingency (such as Bakhtin, Nietzsche, Negri, Deleuze, and Bey) against negative theories of contingency for which the openness of the 'Real' or the finitude and contingency of existence is always threatening (a repetition of the 'cosmic terror' Bakhtin critiques, ranging from Schmitt, Burke and Hobbes to Heidegger, Lacan and Laclau).

Why is contingency not universally celebrated, in a carnivalesque spirit? According to Reich, active force becomes threatening through being associated, as a result of authoritarian conditioning, with repressed desires and fear of authority. There are also questions of the effects of carnivalesque decomposition on one's own ego or sense of self, on identities, and on habitual social practices or familiar spaces.

Theories with an affirmative view of contingency tend to share with Bakhtinian carnival a belief in an eternal creative force which unfolds in difference - active force in Deleuze and Nietzsche, constitutive power in Negri, the instituting imaginary in Castoriadis and so on. Theories with a negative view, in contrast, believe in an eternal need for order which is constantly threatened by the contingent nature of existence. The establishment of order occurs with the decision, the master-signifier and so on.

Between these positions, a lot depends on whether the 'evil' of disorder is sufficient to outweigh the effects of repression. It seems to do so only from the standpoint of the privileged. From the standpoint of the excluded, it just makes things worse: the excluded are left with both disorder and repression.

Bakhtin's challenge is deeper than this, however. Bakhtin believes 'disorder' can be affirmative. For Bakhtin, immanence is non-threatening because it is associated with the dialogical nature of language. Because networks and connections continue to be performed in a space of dialogical immanence, the loss of transcendence is not a loss of meaning, life, or social being.

This reverses the Hobbesian account: rather than social death ensuing from the chaos of the collapse of meaning, social death is an effect of the artificial separation, rigidity and silencing which result from transcendence. As Benjamin has argued, disaster is not waiting on the edge of existence; the present is the disaster.

Authors such as Michael Holquist reduce the radicalism of Bakhtin's immanence by suggesting that monologue remains necessary to his thought, as the point against which transgression occurs. Bakhtin certainly takes aspects of language-use such as speech-genres and the self-other gap to be universal, but he affirms the possibility of a radically different type of genre which is open to its own deconstruction.

Each person necessarily has a perspective or frame, but these frames do not need to be unified, nor are they necessarily unchanging. A rhizomatic world such as carnival has its perspectives, frame, and patterns. It does not engender an existentialist 'lightness of being'.

But, precisely because these patterns are dissensual, holistic, reflexive, consciously relative and situated, they create a kind of freedom. This is neither a repetition of monologue, nor its redemption through recognition of its own contingency. It is an entirely different perspective in which dialogue and immanence are actualised.

Bakhtin's account of carnival is criticised by some authors, such as Max Gluckman, Victor Turner and Roger Sales, for ignoring carnival's temporary character. For such critics, carnival is a kind of safety-valve through which people let off steam. It ultimately sustains and is functional for the dominant system. It might even reinforce dominant values by contrasting them with their opposites. James Scott responds that, if this were the case, the powerful would be more sympathetic to carnival than was actually the case. Also, carnivals did, in fact, sometimes pass over into rebellion. And rebellions often used symbolism borrowed from carnival.

It should be added, however, that not every carnivalesque act is emancipatory, because sometimes, it can disinhibit reactive desires arising from the system. Bakhtinian theory is sometimes used to defend texts which arguably reproduce dominant values, but do so in an 'ironic' or 'humorous' way. This happens because of the layers of prohibitions: the system often promotes something (such as sexism), then inhibits its unconstrained expression.

Hierarchies were perhaps simpler in medieval times. We get into complexities today around the distinction between 'true' transgressions and those which repeat dynamics of the system at a deeper level. The system can use such 'false' transgressions to channel the carnivalesque into its own reproduction. Consider, for instance, how the transgressiveness of football culture has been displaced into the fascism of the EDL.

The tendencally resistant space of fan culture, by being displaced through repression, is turned into the pseudo-transgression of performative racism. At one level, racial abuse is transgressive (of liberal norms), but on another, it reproduces dominant structures (of underlying racism).

Such displays are similar to true carnival in their excess and expressiveness, but they ultimately uphold the transcendentalism of the in-group through transgressions which reinforce their privilege at the expense of an out-group. This is especially clear from Theweleit's work: reactionaries and fascists are terrified of being overwhelmed by the 'floods' and 'bodies' of interpenetration with the other, though they must constantly return to the point of the threat of interpenetration so as to ward it off.

If carnival brings down to earth, its rightist transmutation plants heads firmly in clouds, making the self feel secure in its place by putting the other in her/his place. It belittles the other and not the self; or it belittles both, but in such a way as to keep the gap between them.
Carnivalesque Activism
Carnival has become an underpinning for activist initiatives such as the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, the Laboratory of the Insurrectionary Imagination and Reclaim the Streets, particularly the Carnival against Capital. The free party movement can also be seen as a reclamation of the spirit of carnival.

The carnivalesque style of activism emphasises the deconstruction of relations, including those between activists and police, to create an uncontrollable space. Such tactics can be remarkably successful in disorienting and repelling the monologists of state power.

Abby Peterson's studies of the ethnography of militant social movements emphasise an affective structure similar to Bakhtin's carnival. The experience of lived immediacy and joy is constructed through a movement orientation to the enacted event with no separation between actor and audience. This serves as a means to integrate movements without reference to standard techniques of master-signification, though it does require 'action spaces' and in many cases adversaries. Peterson echoes Bakhtin's idea of the immediacy of activist 'rituals' as something distinct from theatre or spectacle. David Graeber makes similar reference to puppetry and creativity in protets movements.

Figures of carnivalesque immediacy can also be found in authors such as Hakim Bey and Feral Faun. One can also liken Bakhtin's view of creating new combinations with Situationist practices of derive and detournement.

Similar strategies can also be seen in social movements such as La Ruta Pacifica, who use techniques of 'social weaving' to recompose a sense of empowerment against the fear caused by civil war and state terror. Much of the state's power is based on anxiety. The Bakhtinian hypothesis is that anxiety can be neutralised through joyous experiences of collective festivity.

These occasions strip power of its performed mystification, breaking into its ideological reproduction. They show its contingency by exposing it to ridicule and distortion. And they create a sense of counter-power through the permanence of the creative force of becoming, counterposed to the fixed order of being. It doesn't so much confront state power as render it irrelevant and ineffectual.

Whether this is effective may depend on the tools the two sides have available to actualise their ideologies in spaces and practices. State tactics such as kettling are specifically designed to instil terror, as an antidote to joy. The popular culture which provided the basis for carnival is, in the most harshly capitalist countries, being destroyed by the penetration of the state into everyday life.

It persists, of course, in many marginal settings. We should remember here that the Europe Bakhtin discusses was itself a periphery in a world-economy focused on the Mediterranean. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that its modes of resistance look like those of marginal sites today.

Reclaiming contingency and carnival in the dead heartlands of the core, where people are strongly invested in their official identities and the preservation of an order which they believe protects them, is a more difficult task.

Traditional carnivals continue to exist in places ranging from Germany and Notting Hill, London to the Caribbean and Brazil. Other related phenomena, such as holi in India, also persist. While state regulation is a problem, such events still provide platforms for alternative visions and for political critique.

One can also point to carnivalesque aspects in practices such as graffiti, which may bring 'down to earth' such contemporary sacred as police cars, banks, or corporate logos. And why do children so often add giant willies, sex-acts, or swear-words to street-signs?

The grotesque, exaggerated body and the bringing down-to-earth of systemic abstractions are present even in such small, apparently apolitical gestures. They signify what is missing in the official picture - much as those who perform such acts are often excluded from the official world. They create a full reality in which the world is restored to its fullness and creativity.

Overall, therefore, carnivalesque remains a potential counter-power in everyday life and activism, but is 'cramped' in its potential by the repressive construction of spaces of monologue. Medieval carnival was possible because the spaces it inhabited could be carved-out and defended through the 'arts of resistance' and the power of the weak. There is a need to recompose such powers to resist, in order to recreate spaces where alternatives can proliferate.

Click here for part one of this essay.

Andrew Robinson is a political theorist and activist based in the UK. His book Power, Resistance and Conflict in the Contemporary World: Social Movements, Networks and Hierarchies (co-authored with Athina Karatzogianni) was published in Sep 2009 by Routledge. His 'In Theory' column appears every other Friday.

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In Theory Bakhtin: Carnival against Capital, Carnival against Power

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In the second and final part of his essay on Mikhail Bakhtin, political theorist Andrew Robinson reviews, and critiques, one of the central concepts in the Russian thinker's work: the Carnivalesque.

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Clowning as a subversive aptitude

Source: Beautiful Trouble (n.d.). Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. [online] Beautiful Trouble. Available at: https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/clandestine-insurgent-rebel-clown-army/ [Accessed Nov. 2022].

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Dive into the Beautiful Trouble toolbox, an interconnected web of ideas and creative best practices that puts the power of organizing for social change in your hands. Start anywhere and explore...

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Protesters against climate change dressed in costumes

Source: Martin, J. et al. (2019). Arresting the climate change catastrophe. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/17/arresting-the-disaster-that-is-climate-change [Accessed Nov. 2022].

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Our unsustainable lifestyles and commitment to perpetual economic growth have become the major drivers of climate change and loss of biodiversity on Earth ( Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse, 15 April). Our politicians fail to grasp the scale and urgency of the risk humanity faces. The UK signed up to the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015, but has yet to develop a coherent and rigorous national plan for their domestic and international implementation.

Encouragingly, the SDGs form a new roadmap for our future that in principle aligns the economy with the Earth's life support systems. Yet, a recent report by the Stockholm Resilience Centre shows that attempting to achieve the socioeconomic goals using conventional growth policies would make it virtually impossible to reduce the speed of global warming and environmental degradation.

The research team tested three other scenarios, and the only one that met all goals implemented systemic transformational change. A key element was reducing inequality by a redistribution of wealth, work and income, including ensuring that the 10% richest people take no more that 40% of the income.

We clearly have an unprecedented and immense challenge before us, with little choice but to engage as a mass movement to create a system-wide transformation in our politics and our economy.
Stephen Martin Visiting professor, University of the West of England
Stephen Sterling Emeritus professor of sustainability education, Plymouth University

Both Extinction Rebellion and the climate strikes are reminders that we need to rebuild our societies now if we are to avoid them facing climate collapse in the near future. But both initiatives need to avoid the fate of the Occupy movement, which had huge support 10 years ago but disintegrated because of a lack of precise demands and concrete policy goals.

Fortunately, many such policies already exist. The organisation I founded, the World Future Council, has identified the best policy solutions available in countries, regions and cities worldwide. British Columbia has a carbon tax. Maryland, US, has obligatory environmental literacy education. Rwanda has a successful reforestation policy. Japan has an effective energy conservation law. Costa Rica has an exemplary biodiversity law.

These provide starting points. But the UK has gone in the opposite way: 10 years ago the WFC helped MPs introduce feed-in tariff legislation (originating in Germany) to speed up the production of renewable energy. But the coalition government hastened to emasculate it. As many proposals are rejected over cost, a key recommendation is the adaptation of quantitative easing to fund the energy transition.

One WFC proposal is for central banks to buy fossil fuel "stranded assets" on condition the money paid is invested in renewables. How this can be done sustainably is explained in our study "Unlocking the trillions". As central banks cannot go bankrupt in their own currency, they can also buy - and add to their reserves - long-term and low- or zero-interest bonds to kickstart the required emergency reforms in poor countries.
Jakob von Uexkull
Founder, World Future Council

Larry Elliott is informative on a subject that matters, as usual ( Threadneedle Street's timely warning for banks and insurers: take climate change seriously, 16 April). But insurers have taken it seriously since at least 2009, when a representative of Munich Re wrote: "Climate change probably already accounts for a significant share of economic losses from weather-related natural catastrophes in the period since 1980, which totalled $1.6tn (in original values).

"In the light of these facts, it is disappointing no breakthrough was achieved at the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009. At Munich Re, we look closely at a multitude of risks and how best to handle them. Risks that change in the course of time are especially hazardous. Climate change is just such a risk of change."

But even the premium increases 10 years later don't appear to have cut emissions sufficiently. So the Bank of England must convince the government to take more effective action. For example, as in the second world war, introduce rationing of any production of greenhouse gases.
David Murray
Wallington, Surrey

Are US college courses teaching how not to be duped by bullshit really necessary ( 'Calling bullshit': the college class on how not to be duped by the news, theguardian.com, 17 April)? If students haven't developed their critical thinking faculty by the time they get to college, they are probably lost to the agencies of disinformation and manipulation.

In Britain, it is obvious that our education system, designed as it is to provide compliant labour to increase the wealth of a few, has failed when its cities are filled with humanity-saving, peaceful demonstrators. It is inspirational to observe their ability to recognise what is truly important and disregard the odium of passersby - normal people going about their business, in many cases to finance or produce goods harmful to humanity and the natural world. These protesters are the freethinkers who have escaped the bullshit net.
Geoff Naylor
Winchester, Hampshire

In This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein defines one legacy of the free market: "In virtually every country the political class accepts the premise that it is not the place of government to tell large corporations what they can and cannot do, even when public health and welfare - indeed the habitability of our shared home - are clearly at stake." In the streets, yes, but in the ballot box we bring about the inevitable and dismiss our free-market political class. We build a new system.
John Airs
Liverpool

I admire Ben Smoke's action at Stansted ( Journal, 16 April), but disagree with him about arrest, though agree about not glorifying it and being clear about the consequences.

I am a Quaker, a psychotherapist member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, which aims to support activists therapeutically, and a member of Extinction Rebellion. What we need is a mass movement with arrest as a possible and necessary part of it. When thousands join us in solidarity and put this issue before everything else, the state will have to listen and take action.
Nick Davis
Weybridge, Surrey
Read more Guardian letters - click here to visit gu.com/letters
Do you have a photo you'd like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we'll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition

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Arresting the climate change catastrophe | Letters

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Our unsustainable lifestyles and commitment to perpetual economic growth have become the major drivers of climate change and loss of biodiversity on Earth ( Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse, 15 April). Our politicians fail to grasp the scale and urgency of the risk humanity faces.

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A beautiful costume (Unknown, 1885). I especially love the decorations on the sleeves and the chest. I would love to draw a similar character.

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I found these Harlequin and Columbine puppets (Unknown, about 1880) in the theatre section. I really like the interaction between the two, how they seem to have a dance. The costumes too are well crafted and authentic. This might be an interesting source to use.

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The characters featured in this ink on paper work (Collins, 1963) are very similar to the Pierrot’s traditional European carnival costume.

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This burlesque costume from “Moulin Rouge!” (Zuber, 2021) reminds me of some Rio carnival costumes I have studied in these weeks (Rector, 1984, pp. 37-154). I especially love the quirky boots and the elegant hat.

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This dress from “Wicked” (Hilferty, 2006) uses various fabrics to give a more varied appearance. In the illustration field this would translate into different textures and/or collage materials.

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Costume from “The Lion King” (Taylor, 2010).

Interesting use of the mask which does not cover the face but it’s placed on top of the actor’s head. I think this gives the mask a more archetypical characterisation.

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V&A Visit: “Re:Imagining Musicals” and theatre section

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V&A Visit: “Re:Imagining Musicals” and theatre section

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This week I decided to go to this exhibition at the V&A about musicals (Re:Imagining Musicals (2022-2023)). Even though it is not strictly connected to my topic, I thought costume and theatre design might be a good source of visual inspiration for Project 2. Here’s some notes from the visit.

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This week I read a monograph on Miroslav Šašek (Salisbury, 2021).

The book was particularly useful for me for two reasons.
Firstly, because it made me realise the importance of Šašek as an illustrator and what impact his “This is” series had on local tourism at that time and on future generations of illustrators. Secondly, because the book gives insights on his methodology, how he collected information and how it reinvented them with his own visual language. As an aspiring illustrator, I am always interested in seeing how professionals work.

Thanks to this book I fell in love with Šašek’s geometric, stylised drawings. Even though he uses gouache and watercolour (two traditional painting techniques), he yet has a block-y/cutout approach (for example in drawing the cars or the titles on the covers). For this reason, I am sure I will use his artworks as main reference in my future experimentations.

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I found this work (Cobelo, 2022) on Instagram by one of my favourite illustrators, Fernando Cobelo. In questioning how to make technology more accessible to everyone, Cobelo creates a very charming composition. In particular I like how he created the characters digitally with an analog cut out feeling that highlights them from the background by adding a white silhouettes behind them. At a closer look, I noticed how the silhouettes do not always fit together with the outline of the figures. It’s a very subtle touch that yet gives a more “crafty” appearance.

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Yesterday I ran into Nate Kitch website (Kitch, n.d.). I simply love his work. The way he uses pictures of famous people to create bold collages, the abstract shapes, the metaphorical language his illustrations have. The image constructions are very ingenious, they deliver the message but are also aesthetically beautiful. As Sara Fanelli, Kitch uses not only collage but also paper cut outs and textures to create multi layered illustrations.

But Kitch has a more geometrical, block-y style, similar to the 50s modernists. For this aspect, I feel his practice closer to my sensibility and my visual language, which has been looking for quite a while at 50s graphic designers from the jazz scene (no wonders that Nate Kitch also payed homage to pianist Duke Ellington in one of his works (Kitch, 2020)).

Kitch inspires me to pursue with this multi-surfaced/geometrical visual language in my future illustrations.

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I found this book by Sara Fanelli, “Sometimes I think, sometimes I am.” (Fanelli, Warner and Heller, 2007). It is really inspiring for me because of the collage style the author uses, which also features paper cut, drawing, and painting.
I particularly like the quirky characters she creates and the hand-drawn lettering. For my future practice, I would like to experiment and combine various techniques as she does.
I think this approach provides a more “handmade” feeling and therefore a sense of authenticity that digital cannot give.

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I found the whole process quite fun despite some dull moments in preparing the stone.

Considering the final images, they’re not the best illustrations  I've ever made but this is because I did not have an image already prepared and so I improvised it directly on the stone, without the possibility to erase it (the worst part in litho). The collage bits, however, I think they reflect my general visual language and also the randomness of carnival.

Because you cannot erase your mistakes, I understood litho is a technique that requires a preliminary material before transferring it to the stone. It is also a very long process and it may take lots of hours to make a simple image. This long and premeditated process that leaves no space for trial and error might not reflect my methodology and way of working, which is based on a quicker and more approximate approach. Therefore, unless I use consolidated illustrations to print, I don't think this could be the main technique for my practice.

However, I very much enjoyed the workshop and learning another analog technique I had never tried before.

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"Colloquio tra baute" by Pietro Longhi (Longhi, 1750)

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"The Rhino" by Pietro Longhi (Longhi, 1751)

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The process was very long as it took a while for the image on the stone to print the tone of black I wanted. But in the end it resulted a playful image I wasn't expecting at first.

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Deciding the composition before spray-glueing on a new sheet.

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My tutor showed me some images Picasso made with this technique, in which he also added some bits of colour through coloured paper. Therefore I experimented this combined technique by spray glueing bits of paper I found in the printmaking workshop.

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After a first induction on lithograph, I started working on the image with charcoal and paint.

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"Il ridotto" by Francesco Guardi (Guardi, 1750) where most people wear "la bauta"

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These past weeks I've experimented with lithography.

I started my first illustration taking inspiration from some images I found on the Internet (Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, n.d.) about la bauta which is the most common Venetian mask.

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I made this collage starting from the “Synthesis” workshop, during which I found a chicken ceramic figure on a magazine and created an initial sketch of a portrait.

I then continued the work at home. For the cheeks and the dress, I used some craft and plain paper previously coloured with crayons and pencils that I then cut out in the shapes I wanted.  I then uploaded everything digitally and finalised the image on Photoshop and Procreate.

To show the two characters singing, I also added some notes I cut out from a music sheet I had at home, firstly doing some tests with real paper and then the final composition on digital. I think this addition works very well in terms of concept and also composition, because it gives a sort of movement to the still image and character to the subject.
I titled it “Papagena” in reference to the famous character in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” opera (1791) who is dressed up as a bird.

I think overall, this is the strongest piece so far. I did not have anything in particular in mind and just followed my instinct to created a coherent and well constructed image. What I realise now is that this instinctive approach works well with my collage and paper cut technique, because I can easily juxtapose the pieces until I’m fully happy with it. I would like to pursue this method for my future illustrations.

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I made this piece at uni from the “Synthesis” workshop.

using one of the prompts suggested, “erase”.

I firstly reflected upon the erasing and hiding of one’s identity through masks during carnival. I then used an image provided by my tutors to create a sort of headless men. The face of the man appears on a mirror he’s holding. In this way, just like carnival masks and costumes, the mirror creates confusion on the true identity of the man.

I think this is a strong piece conceptually speaking. Despite not being the best in terms of technicalities (I only had 30 minutes to make it), it still raises interesting questions and might constitute a starting point for a more developed illustration.

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Beautiful piece that, in exploring the themes of exploitation and colonisation in South Africa, gives life to an automatic puppet show. In these digital times, it was amazing to see an animation made with real-life puppets for once, moving with a mechanised choreography. Also very clever that the artist used a “childish” form of entertainment to talk about serious political and cultural topics. I simply loved it.

Source: Kentridge, W. (2005). Black Box/Chambre Noire. [Wooden theatre] Royal Academy of Arts, London.

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Concertina Book - I love how he used simple black silhouettes to create this group of people. The concertina format too works well in giving a sense of an infinite line. I think it might be nice for my project to explore this format…

Source: William, K. (2000). Portage. [Accordion-folded illustrated book with torn black paper on encyclopedia pages on paper] Royal Academy of Arts, London.

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Massive relief print. He used many papers that were then assembled. I guess this method might give more dynamism and sense of confusion to the scene portrayed. The carved pattern at the background too gives sense of movement.

Source: Kentrige, W. (2016). Mantegna. [Woodcut print] Royal Academy of Arts, London.

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A wall collage with paper cutout elements taken from "Ubu tells the truth" (Kentridge, 1996-97). I love the simplicity and boldness they express.

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The inner and the outer self. The inner is more detailed but I prefer the other. Simple lines, essential communication.

Source: Kentridge, W. (1996-97). Ubu tells the truth. [Etching] Royal Academy of Arts, London.

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Cinematic depiction of the same place (in and out) from various angles that create the sense of the space.

Source: Kentridge, W. (1985). The Conservationists’ Ball. [Coloured pastel and gouache on paper] Royal Academy of Arts, London.

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Work from Home: William Kentridge exhibition

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Work from Home: William Kentridge exhibition

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Notes from William Kentridge’s exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (William Kentridge (2022))

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I started my theoretical studies with an essay by Umberto Eco titled "The frames of comic 'freedom'"(Umberto Eco, 1984, pp. 1-10). A quite long document that presents many argumentations, the most important of which is about the political relevance carnival has.

According to the author, carnival is not a spontaneous revolution against the oppressive establishment but it is a transgression actually permitted by the ruling Power. It is not censored, he points out, but instead marketed and sold as a show business.

Eco suggests carnival does not pursue a real transgression of the rules but a reminding of the existing rules, eventually leading towards a law reinforcement.

I don’t fully agree with Eco’s rather cynical viewpoint.

Carnival may not be recognised as an effective form of revolution. After all, it’s still always a form of costume party, not comparable to more serious demonstrations. But, as I have seen from the paintings and artworks in these past weeks, carnival has nevertheless the power to raise awareness on certain social and political conditions. Through the act of dressing-up, the participants still point out a situation of social instability (Rivera, 1936), ethnic minority suppression (Homer, 1877), religious domination (Bruegel, n.d.) or social inequalities.

Therefore, I believe the correlation between carnival and political issues cannot be denied, nor the effectiveness of the celebration itself. Raising awareness towards a specific issue through crafts, fashion, music et cetera is still considerable a relevant political and creative statement.

Nevertheless, Eco’s essay aroused my curiosity and persuaded me to research more about theoretical studies on carnival, what it truly means to disguise oneself, to use masks and act subversively.

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When I got it printed the following week I was very surprised by the result. The details came out perfectly without need to carve too deep. The collar felt very graphic and the face decorations too stand out from the face brilliantly.

I would love to explore this technique further. With its simple block-y appearance, woodcut expresses my visual language adequately.

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Because I was not enjoying monoprint that much, my tutor gave me a wood block and some tools to experiment with. I chose a picture from the same book of the previous works, “Carnival in Venice” (Rowen and Rowen, 1989). By drawing directly on the block, I made a simpler version of a photographed man.

I guess it was because of the type of wood, but when it came to carving I found it extremely easy, more than carving hard linoleum for sure. This allowed me to work faster and without too much struggle.

I tried to get into very details, not sure how deep I had to carve. With lino you got to carve a lot to be sure that part won’t show in the final print. So I cut the background twice to be sure. For the small face decorations I could not do but one superficial carving, hoping for the best.

With wood it was easier to control the thickness of the strokes too, allowing me to create a varied pattern design for the collar and cloak.

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For this attempt I put the initial sketches under a transparent acetate and inked the acetate following the guide lines.

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The result looked way better, the lines were clearer and more definite. I then made two printings on the same sheet and surprisingly made a sort of pattern!

Painting on the acetate was however quite difficult as I could not get into much detail and be precise. I did not enjoyed this technique, I feel it does not really make the most of my visual language.

Despite the not so exciting outcomes, I appreciate we did this session so I could experiment with a new technique. As an aspirant illustrator, I think it is important to try new things out and see if they are relevant to one's practice.

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Today we had a monoprint sessions with our tutors. After a quick demo we were asked to select an image around our theme and report it in any monoprint technique we liked.

I firstly copied some costumes detail from “Carnival in Venice” book (Rowen and Rowen, 1989). I did not like the first results as I found them too messy.

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I took inspiration from this work by L. Schiavon (2022)

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I made some further developments from one of my responses from workshop 2. I uploaded the visual map on Procreate and decided to work with a combination of digital and analogue. I coloured a couple of sheets of paper with oil pastels and Liquin medium and, after scanning them, used as papier découpé materials.

Using the iPad programme, I then created the collage final image with the addition of key-words. Lucio Schiavon’s lettering in his work for Watch company in this case was an inspiring source (Schiavon, 2022).

Overall, this self-directed work constituted an encouraging exercise. Firstly, because I practiced hand-lettering and digital collage - two techniques I feel I am still not confident. But most importantly, because I now have a clear visual map of the themes around Carnival I have found in these past weeks which could turn useful for the next steps of this unit.

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3. What are the values that have been ascribed to your theme in the past and how do these values continue to inform it?

I wanted to focus on food and how it constitutes either a secular tradition for some carnivals (e.g. Italian carnival) or an occasion to reconnect with a community’s heritage (e.g. Notting Hill carnival). I took inspiration from some Notting Hill carnival pictures (Wills, 1996) and by using paper découpé I portrayed some Caribbean skewers and drinks. The overall collage appeared very bold and impactful. From confrontation with other students, I realised this was the best work out of the three. I think people particularly appreciated the sharpness of the elements. This gave me more confidence in pursuing collage-making in the next works.

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2. How have different cultures, communities, and people interacted with it?

I made a small concertina booklet where I sketched some costumes and patterns I saw in artworks from all around the world that I have seen in these weeks. Drawing constituted a great way to study the patterns, while the concertina was an effective format for immediate comparisons.

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Project 1_Workshop 2: Locating Knowledge

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Project 1_Workshop 2: Locating Knowledge

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Frame chosen: Heritage

1. What are the histories that exist around your theme?

I decided to respond in the form of a visual map, with icons and symbols that represent the various aspects that carnival embraces. For example I used a megaphone as a symbol for politics, a drum for music, candies for food. Despite not being finished, the use of pencils gave a more coloured and hand-made aspect to the composition.

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For this methods in practice workshop we were asked to record our journey from college to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich.

I chose to do half of the journey on the bus and half by walk with a final stop at a coffee shop for sketching.

Travelling on the bus allowed me to move faster and observe things from above. An efficient way of saving time.

At New Cross I got off the bus and walked towards Greenwich. Walking too was a useful method of my enquiry. It permitted me to get closer to the buildings and places I found more memorable and worth recording.

Having two hours to do so, it initially seemed a lot of time but when I got to the coffee shop to start drawing I realised I only had half an hour. This did affect my work, as I did not have the possibility to add colour to the drawings.
The sketches featured the exact time I had passed next to the portrayed places. This gave a more realistic aspect to the visual reportage.

I am very satisfied with the experience. The whole process was for me very spontaneous and constituted an interesting occasion for self-reflection of my journey.
It reminded me of the Drawing Waters workshops (Jaramillo, 2020) I red about on the article from our tutors’ suggestions. As the people involved in the article’s workshops, the visualisation of the journey towards Greenwich acted for me as a memory tool, a way to report and remember forever the interesting bits along the way.

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I also experimented more with scanning, moving the picks on the scanner.  It was a very interesting process as the results were of course all different.

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For this second relief session we’d been asked to bring a couple of objects related to our theme. I had three masks and a pack of pinwheel picks.

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I very much enjoyed using foam paper sheets to print. Because it is easy to carve, it feels playful and more versatile. The foam texture too created an interesting appearance to the printed subjects. I can’t say it has become my favourite technique but it can surely be a useful tool for mock-ups and preliminary prints.

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I have also made two posters combining printing and photography. I scanned all the picks in a photocopier and printed in black and white. I added some foam pick cutouts onto the photographs in various colours. The final results were two vibrant compositions made with two mediums. I was very satisfied with these two. I made them without thinking too much, just experimenting with what we had in the studio.

Thinking about my theme, the random compositions also reflect on the casual and spontaneous environment of carnival.

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I firstly studied them through drawing and then copied on foam paper sheets. Pressing a bit hard with the pencil was sufficient to carve inside the shapes and draw details. With the help of the roller and multiple inks, I then used these cut-out shapes to create a coloured composition under the theme of carnival. The process was very fun and I think more timesaving than linocut, as the medium was softer and easier to manage.