There's something about it...

So I had the interim crit today for the 100 Club brief, I presented one key concept that I proposed to explore in two different ways. I have stuck with the idea of 100 Club's 'dated charm' and 'imperfect beauty.'  My first idea was based around producing a zine, that would either be a one off celebrating the club's imperfection or a more regular zine that would be published quarterly for example.

I presented some rough visuals based on my ideas about the venue, which made use of the anecdotes I had written about the club and the quotes I had collected





The reaction to the visuals was positive but everyone seemed to agree with my own assessment that a zine isn't such a valuable form of output and certainly doesn't have the edginess and originality it once did.

My second approach is rooted in my discovery of wabi-sabi the Japanese theory of imperfect beauty, since discovering this and its links to woodblock printing, I was keen to create wood block prints, but inspired by my experimentation with wood and the results I can achieve, I've abandoned the printing idea and have been carving directly into the wood.  Therefore the carved wood becomes the final outcome, rather than just a mechanism to print from.

Wabi-sabi combined with the inspiration I have taken from the architecture of the club itself, particularly the dancefloor and the stage my outcome is going to be a series of carved would blocks.  I intend to engrave the wood with messages inspired by the written material I have collected on the club, with the aim of expressing:

The history and heritage of the club and its charm which emanates from its dated and blemished architecture and hopefully my pieces will in some small way help to secure a future for the club, by highlighting some of the reasons the club cant die.

Initial experiment in carving and manipulating wood, inspired by the 100 club stage and dancefloor

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13/1/2011