PhD Project proposal:
Illustrating the everyday: how might practice-based investigation of migration narratives in artists’ book form contribute a new understanding of migration experiences?
Aims
This practice-based research project aims to make a contribution to migration studies through the methodologies of participatory illustration in the form of artist books.
Objectives
a) To engage with the integration experiences of EU economic working-class migrant women through the observation of everyday rituals.
b) To interrogate the intermediality of illustration and text in artist book form.
c) To critically evaluate the value of the illustrator and book artist as socially engaged visual communicator in the field of migration studies.
d) To produce a body of illustrative work in the form of artist books.
e) To conduct a literature review to inform methodological approaches to artist books, illustration and socially engaged forms of visual practice. This is instrumental to establishing the position of my research within the field.
Description of research
This research arrives at a crucial time in response to contemporary discourse in socially engaged popular literature such as graphic novels, comics, zines, and artist books as well as illustration specialisms in reportage and authorial illustration. The project is of contemporary significance due to current public debate and growing global concern focused upon the migration experience. It will specifically look at the experiences of EU economic working-class migrant women. The European Commission claims there has been minimum efforts in identifying issues related to their integration into society, facing challenges and barriers as both migrants and women. (European Commission, 2018: online).
Form and subject will contribute as creative exploratory tools for communication which engages audiences through human stories and lived shared experiences. I will explore and question the public perception of migration, at the same time aiming to support understanding and knowledge. Alaca et al., (2017:54) state that:
[…] ‘artistic exploration on social issues such as migration may benefit from being illustrated, deepening the way we process and perceive events, for the illustrator and the viewer. […] illustration enables critical insight, with the potential to pose counter-narratives to typical representations of migration in the media’ […].
Part of the experience of migration is a change in language and culture. Conversely, everyday rituals may help to safeguard a sense of personal autonomy and dignity or preserve distinctive qualities of a threatened way of life (Felski, 2000). Lefebvre (1984) claims that gender has been a key factor in conceptions of everyday life, as women are regarded as the quintessential representatives of the quotidian. In ‘Telling migrant women’s life stories through comics’, McNicol (2018) argues how migrant women had a common focus on the everyday, insignificant, events in their daily lives. For the purpose of this thesis I would like to cite Paul Leuilliot’s definition of everyday life:
[…] ‘is what we are given every day (or what is willed to us), what presses us, even oppresses us, because there does exist an oppression of the present. Every morning what we take up again, on awakening, is the weight of life, the difficulty of living, or of living in a certain condition, with a particular weakness or desire’ […]. (Leuilliot cited in Certeau, 2014:3).
Contemporary illustration that engages with everyday stories of life can be seen in ‘Draw Duke Street’ (Miller, 2013). Reportage illustration has also focused on documenting migrants and refugees’ everyday stories of exile and displacement. ‘Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees’ (Kugler, 2018) and ‘Lieu de Vie’ (Carnec, 2017) use personal narratives and drawings to expose an objective ‘truth’. Although these approaches are relevant to this research, this project will seek to explore alternative unfamiliar narratives of integration in migrant women; the rituals, the mundane and the inconsequential of everyday life.
Equally, the use of socially engaged participatory artist books and zines are evidenced in ‘The Homeless Library’ (Meek, 2017), ‘Throw Caution to the Wind’ (Vormittag, 2012) and ‘Longing for Home’ (Khan, 2018). This research will argue how books as objects can be complex forms of social engagement and powerful tools of evocation. Shifting meaning as the environment changes, e.g., objects from home become important for people in diaspora as a means of enabling cultural memory (Bal, 2003).
Contemporary research investigates theories of image and text inextricably linked as equal partners in the meaning of making. This cultural shift from words to pictures, as suggested by Crow in ‘Left to Right’ (2006), will be investigated, challenging the notion that serious ideas are only communicated through words. Further evidence will be gained by drawing on Kooistra’s (1995) theory of bitextuality in book illustration.
Methods
In practice as research, the practice is at the heart of the methodology of the project (Nelson, 2013). This investigation will lead towards the creation of graphic interpretations based on photography, drawing, and digital illustration incorporated into artist books. Throughout the project, illustration and book art will be produced by:
The researcher
Guest practitioners
Students
Participant migrant women through community workshops
The documentation of creative processes and complementary writing will locate practice within a conceptual framework.
1. Fieldwork:
1.1 Auto-ethnography:
This methodology will inform the content of illustrations and stories. Ellis et al. (2011) define auto-ethnography as:
[…] ‘an approach to research […] that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience to understand cultural experience. This approach challenges canonical ways of doing research and representing others and treats research as a political, socially-just and socially-conscious act’ […].
By illustrating personal narratives as a migrant, I will examine the position of the illustrator/researcher and employ a dual identity approach, attempting to portray my everyday experiences and contextualise them objectively. I will investigate personal understanding in relation to the subject of migration to remember, evidence and reflect on differences, fluctuations and the idiosyncratic. From this position I will be able to document emotions of displacement and non-belonging.
1.2 Volunteer Engagement:
Case studies:
Considering the timeframe of the project, the research will engage with 5 to 10 case studies of EU economic working-class migrant women aged between 18-65. This age criterion aims to strengthen the study allowing for a wider range of cultural, social, and historical accounts.
Participatory/non-participatory observation, oral history interviews, storytelling, and visual/audio diaries, will be employed as data collection methods for the content of imagery and narratives. Through an active listening and rapport building approach the project will seek to create an inclusive collaborative method positioning the participant as co-producer. The researcher will familiarise herself with the principles and ethics of the social sciences for the requirements of the study and follow the methodologies of artists who have worked with communities. She will address this methodology in the literature review.
Participants will be approached through community groups on social media platforms such as Facebook. Attention will be given to ethical dimensions particular to visual methods: ownership, consent, anonymity, privacy, publication, and dissemination (please see document 1/Protocol/25.3.19 – 6.2 Consent). Correct data management will insure sensitive data is stored and protected.
1.3 Collaborative and participatory community based:
Participant EU economic working-class migrant women and guest collaborators will engage in illustration and book making workshops facilitated by the researcher. The aim will be to collaborate with local organizations such as Arthur and Martha in Manchester, who seek to help people through art. EU collaboration projects will be sought alongside Glyndwr University and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw, offering an educational approach of working with students and migrant community projects. An initial visit has been organised for April 2019.
2. Practice:
2.1 Illustration:
Practical elements of the project will be provided through methods of illustration. Location drawing, photography, and video content recorded from interviews and participant observation, together with first-hand experiences will be used in the creation of imagery and text.
2.2 Artist Book:
Imagery and text will be presented in the form of artist books. The books will be made using the bookbinding facilities at Manchester Met Art School. The use of the book aims to contribute to the narrative through its sensory and physical features evoking connections to author, characters, and storyline. Archival research will begin with MMU’s Special Collection including Paul Hogarth’s preparatory work for ‘The Artist as Reporter’.
As research journal and platform, I will use a WordPress webpage to evidence complementary writing and critical reflection. A digital sketchbook within the webpage will evidence creative processes in illustration and book making.
During the research, the dissemination will be through exhibitions, artefacts, conferences, and publications is proposed using the following forms of submission and method of assessment: a) exhibitions, b) documentation of practice processes, c) written thesis locating practice in a conceptual framework.
Impact
This project aims to contribute to the understanding of the transformative potential of socially-engaged illustration and artist books. Additionally, by engaging with EU economic working-class migrant women, and their unheard stories on integration, it may support and widen our knowledge of migration. As well as offering migrant women access to ways of representing their experiences through creative participatory practices.
Furthermore, the project will necessitate the development of a collaborative methodology. This will be transferable to students, practitioners, and academics working in the disciplines of visual practice and migration studies.
References
Crow, D. (2006) ‘Left to Right: The Cultural Shift from words to Pictures’. AVA Publishing.
De Certeau, M., Giard, L. and Mayol, P. (2014) ‘Practice of Everyday Life’. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
European Web Site on Integration - European Commission (2018) Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/feature/integration-of-migrant-women (Accessed: 21.2.2019).
Felski, R. (2017) ‘The Invention of Everyday Life. In Doing Time: feminist Theory and Postmodern Culture’.
Kooistra, L. (1997) ‘The Artist as Critic’. Aldershot, Hants. England: Scholar Press.
Onmus, I. and Veryeri Alaca, I. (2017) ‘Illustrating migration in a crossover picturebook: A Long Way, Journal of Illustration’, 4: 1, pp. 51–75, doi: 10.1386/jill.4.1.51_1
McNicol, S (2018), ‘Telling migrant women’s life stories as comics, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics’, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2018.1449125