Visual Narratives - Tutorial Feedback, Looking Forward

The feedback I received in the group tutorial pretty much reaffirmed what how I was feeling and what I was thinking about this project so far; there is a story there, there is a lot of potential and there are possible directions to take what I have so far, but it's just a matter of piecing together the elements and creating the missing links between what I have gathered. Making sense of everything and finding the story is something I feel like I am almost there with but just maybe not so much how to tell that visually.

THE CONCEPT/STORY:

So what I have come to, with the help of my feedback, is that the most interesting direction is about the people and the place; in this case Ferrybridge and it's residents. It is not so much about pointing the finger and blaming an issue on something, not about presenting political views or opinions, and not really about the issue itself which I was originally pursuing; it's more about the people, than the problem. This is a story about how a wider, more complex issue effects a group of people in one area. It's an intimate and personal exploration of this place.

LOOKING FORWARD:

What actions to take now and how to step towards creating the start of a response to this story is the next challenge to overcome, and not one I believe I'm going to find particularly easy. I want to create something touching and informative and most of all interesting, to do the residents and their stories justice, as well as pushing my story telling and image making abilities and ultimately the visual work I produce.

The next steps:

Revisit Ferrybridge - I need some more stories, some more personal views and opinions and more subjects to work from and about. I only collected one conversation from my last visit and I truly believe I only barely scratched the surface of the wealth of material in that village.

Image Making - This is the part I really want to push and really try my hardest in. I need an engaging but different way of telling this story to how I usually would. How to do this, and what to try out to discover this is something I need to consider further. I've had a few ideas, and a few popped up in tutorials; - Not just drawing, but collage, photographs, words etc in conjunction with drawing, - Test out different print techniques, - Playing with a diagrammatic aesthetic, similar to that of the map I found, - Try a concertina layout.

I think maybe a more abstract approach could be an interesting way to tell an story, one which is not immediately obvious but more a collection of personal motifs, relevant imagery, quotes, stories, symbols and ephemera but all related and important, tessellated on the pages, maybe.

I just need to start.