CoP3: Review of Work Thus Far

Here is a brief critical review of my work so far:

I have decided to tackle the rise of the Conservative government in my dissertation thus far. I have been using various news sites with differing political stances to gather my research. However, whilst I'm finding it easy to find articles vilifying Labour's policies, I'm finding it hard to find articles that actively support Conservative policies. This may be down to the idea that the media is targeted at the working class, yet support the Tories, two very different ideologies. This as a result is making my research very one sided.

Whilst gathering this research I have also been responding to topical news stories about the Conservatives by creating satirical comic strips about the 'Tory Chums'. These pieces, given more time investment and visual investigation, could work as a final piece to accompany my dissertation.

I have set myself a few tasks:
- Decide what should my dissertation title should be.
- Ask people if they know of any political authors that can solve my research problem.
- Ask as to whether I need to discuss the arts in my dissertation in some way.
- Discuss with my peers the possibility of the 'Tory Chums' strips working as a final practical piece.

CoP3: Tory Chums Zine Response

As a collected course, Levels 4 to 6, we today presented the work we had created over the summer. My zines were received well, particularly my Tory Chums collection, people informed me that there was a strong synthesis with my theoretical research. The Tory Chums idea is definitely something I want to push forward with after such positive feedback. However I feel that the strips will need a deeper visual investigation before they are worthy of being final pieces.

Here is my feedback sheet:

CoP 3: Tory Chums Zine

This morning I collected my recent comic strips into a zine to present to my peers at college next week. The front cover was a collaborative effort with Becky Firth who kindly produced the 'Tory Chums' text. The text I feel will suggests a sense of fun, rather than a boring collection political stories. The text is reminiscent of the Spitting Image logo in purpose, see below.



I faced a problem with the layout of the zine. The strips aren't in the same order in which they were produced as I needed to place the longer narrative strips across two pages. I felt if the reader had to turn the page to finish a strip, it could diminish it somewhat so place them on pages facing each other.

I printed the zine off in black and white for cost reasoning. If I had the finances to I would love to present my zine in colour for my peers to read. (See Print Version 1)

CoP 3: One More Time...

With the news of Cameron's alleged past activities surfacing yesterday, this piece almost managed to slip under the radar - the Conservative government is planning to cut free school meals for infant children. The scheme brought in last year under the coalition government is to make sure children are ensured at least one meal per day.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/free-school-meals-for-infants-set-to-be-scrapped-under-osbornes-spending-review-10509664.html

Meanwhile the Conservatives are using the police to deliver champagne to the location of their conference in Manchester. These articles in comparison effectively sum up the Conservative government in my opinion…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3243600/Never-mind-piggate-Tories-clearly-plenty-celebrate-crates-champagne-arrive-ahead-annual-party-conference-police-help-deliver-it.html

In response to this I made a comic strip in which David Cameron and George Osborne coach Educational Secretary Nicky Morgan in how to respond to the news of the school cuts. This plays on the idea the Nicky Morgan is an idiot who was brought in after Michael Gove’s failure as Educational Secretary. It also touches upon her underlying dislike of the gay community (which has been denied frequently), evidenced below:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/nicky-morgan-branded-a-hypocrite-after-backing-irish-gay-marriage-referendum-having-voted-against-it-in-england-and-wales-10272919.html

Here is the strip 'One More Time':

CoP 3: Piggate

The internet exploded today with the news that David Cameron had allegedly put a private part of himself inside a dead pigs mouth as an initiation of some sort a university. Now whilst these are only allegations, I couldn’t help by make a quick response to it this morning.

What interested me about the story was how long it took for the media to report on it, with social media being the more immediate source of news. Perhaps the media wanted to ensure it was an actual story before reporting. But, I feel the more logical option is that the media wanted to underplay it as is usually does with Conservative wrong doing.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/606695/David-Cameron-dead-pig-private-part-Oxford-University-student-Prime-Minister

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/conservative-sources-deny-david-cameron-pigs-head-allegations

Additional. Whilst trying to be vulgar within the image, I am quite aware that I have the odd younger follower in my social networking audience. Due to this I decided to keep Cameron's trousers up, hiding his private area, although I feel that this compromised the illustration somewhat. This is an interesting topic which I may discuss in PPP blog.

CoP 3: Take the Nip Nip

My Tory Chums strips clearly won't paint the Conservatives in a good light - so I've decided to push the idea to more extremes! I believe George Osbourne is a lizard person, so decided to incorporate this idea into today's strip. The notion of politicians being lizards, can be read about here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilians#Politics

In the strip 'Take The Nip Nip', Osborne is portrayed to have a lizard tongue, scaly skin under his clothes and several nipples (although I'm not sure how common nipples are in the lizard community). 

I feel that while the piece is dark and somewhat disturbing it truly works as a piece mocking George Osborn, however I feel that there is more visual investigation to be done concerning his appearance.

CoP3: Methodology and Research

To help me with my methodology and research within this module I have checked these two books out of the library. Hopefully they will help me write an informed, organised dissertation.

CoP 3: Working Tax Credits

Yesterday the Tory government passed a motion to cut Working Tax Credits. An important part of the welfare system that is being replaced by the minimum wage rise (but will still leave families thousands of pounds less each year). 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34260902

However rather than reporting on this today - the front pages of the tabloid newspapers were filled with articles concerning Jeremy Corbyn not singing the national anthem during the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Since becoming leader of the labour party recently the media has been savagely attacking him, further proving the control the Establishment has over our press. 

Here is my response to today's news, 'Tax Credits Cuts':

CoP 3: Welfare Hand

Today was spent toying around with the 'Tory Chums' idea. I have made note of a few less topical stories but will try to keep them as immediate responses to topical events as much as possible. The piece I worked on today however falls more into the former category, despite it's relevance. The 'Welfare Hand' strip was devised as a practical response to the Tory attacks on the Welfare State and how they appear to be creating a social purge. Here is the end result:

I used the process which I have been refining over the summer in which I collect a series of images and create a collage, forming a narrative story. After this I lower the opacity and draw over them with a realistic, yet still cartoon like style. I then remove the collage imagery, change the black line work to blue and print the piece off. Following this, I ink over the lines using fine liners. The work is then scanned back in, coloured and lettered. The process can be seen in the Issue document below:

Whilst I don't think the visual quality is particularly impressive, the piece works as a quick response to a topical piece, therefore completing it's primary function. These pieces will act as a synthesis between my practical and theoretical work.

CoP 3: David Cameron and His Tory Chums

I've been pondering the portrayal of politicians recently. After the bias campaign against Jeremy Corbyn in recent weeks I realised, in the recent years, there has been little in the way of satire towards those in power, save for political cartoonists such as Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. In the 80's and early 90's there was Spitting Image, a fantastic satirical program which mocked the Conservative Government when they were last in power.

I'm not involved in television, but love the idea of creating Spitting Image type comic strips that responds to topical events as Spitting Image did.

A few ideas I've been toying with recently involve the Prime Minister and his Tory chums. These strips will follow the ludicrous antics of the Tory Government during their time in power.

CoP 3: Labour Leadership Win

The Labour leadership race has been won by Jeremy Corbyn against all, reported, odds. So far his further left wing beliefs have seen him portrayed by the British media as an extremist and I fully expect this portrayal to worsen during his time as leader. He is my response to, in my opinion, fantastic news:

CoP 3: The Overton Window

I recently discovered the Overtone Window and thought it would make sense to discuss it. To do this I have paced my dialogue into an Issue document for ease of viewing:

Below is the text from which I sourced:

http://www.storyboardproductions.com/ehc/circle6/3overton-window.pdf

CoP 3: The Establishment Notes

Here are a few notes from my research concerning Owen Jones' 'The Establishment' book.

There is a large amount of text with quotations so I placed it into an Issue document for viewing ease: