Sunday 15 February 2015

Practice Based PhD

This site represents the whole of my practice-based PhD completed in 2003 at the University of Brighton. The finished PhD consisted of a tin containing the written element presented as a set of 9 limited edition hand-bound volumes and 9 artist's books/multiples. The artefacts can be either read as online PDF documents with hyperlinks or as PDF page turning readers. More complex objects are shown as a series of images including close-ups. There are links to external sites to support this presentation (so bookmark the homepage for ease of use).

The Safe Cigarette: Visual strategies of reassurance in American advertisements for cigarettes: 1945-1964. 


The thesis identifies specific design and illustration solutions in cigarette advertising such as considerations of artwork, photography, layout, typography, characterisation, and diagrammatic representation of process. The conclusions are then used as the basis for 9 books and multiples in which I explore, within my own artwork, the dynamics of visual instruction, and the devices for reassuring the anxious consumer using irony and humour throughout.



THE BOOKS and MULTIPLES
I photographed and documented the artist's books and multiples in a CROM that accompanied the 'tin'. I've now made this available via my website as a 'stand alone' set of files, this will open in a new window. It includes all the images used in my PhD research, gatefold illustrations along with the books.
I hope to reconfigure the whole thesis in the future so it can be downloaded digitally or read via ebooks. The actual 'tin' is held in St.Peter's Library in Brighton and registered at the British Library.



No comments:

Post a Comment