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Project context: Mature adulthood, it is still unknown to me. I interpret ‘Foreign’ as the unfamiliar future, something I haven’t experienced under the theme of ‘The foreign and familiar’. I am going to explore this topic in the fresh perspective of a young adult.

Project description: Since it is a topic that is unfamiliar to me, I will take inspiration from galleries such as The future starts here, a V&A exhibition exploring the power of design in shaping the world of tomorrow. I am inspired by Xu Bing’s Book from the ground: from Point to Point, which is a book without a single word and only uses icons to creative narrative. It challenges me to think about the possibilities of languages in the future. I will also explore materials that has a link to portraying a futuristic theme, such as Black Mirror, a tv series that explore futuristic technological advancement and its (most predominately negative) impact on people.

http://charleneman.com/Small-Thoughts

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/cecile-dormeau-230117

ANALYSIS OF THIS ILLUSTATIONS

What I really like about Cecile Dormeau's illustrations is that they are all very relatable and funny. She touches on important topic points within adulthood that people usually want to hide, whereas she would boldly put forth the project through illustrations. One of which is this illustration called ' Sunday times Sexless '. Even without the title, this simple illustration could be understood by many and holds a more specific and personal meaning to couples who are experiencing it. 

From the distance between to the two, we can interpret that they are very distant and apart emotionally especially when the male's face is indifferent and seems like he doesn't care, whereas the women have a sad expression. However, they are shackled together, which could mean they are married together because of the sayings about how marriage is a prison where you will be shackled to them forever. 

Potentially this simple illustrations could mean that this married couple are experiencing problems with their marriage yet they are not doing anything about it, hinting an unhappy ending. This could be interpreted that this is Cecile's views on marriage, that it drags women down. 

I was very inspired by the book from the ground that I saw from Art Basel Hong Kong 15', that I remembered it til now. I really like this book because one, I prefer deciphering pictograms instead of words and I feel I won't be the only one who thinks that. I love how for this book, you can't read through immediately and turn the next page, whereas you have to slowly look at each icon or emoji or photograph and decipher the meaning behind each one and how it connects with each other. 

This project, Mature adulthood is about looking into the future and what it might hold. I think a focus on language could be one of them. The world has been divided so much in terms of their ability to fully communicate with each other when we cannot even speak the same language, although English is quite universal already, many people still don't understand, know or speak it. I've felt that more since I've gotten into CSM foundation where I have a bunch of foreign friends and you feel that you're an invader and neglected if you stay with this group and you're the only one who doesn't speak this language. 

I really feel that book from the ground can be a starting point where we can develop a newer language that can be understood by all. Of course, I wouldn't be able to create one now, but I would like to use Xu Bing's method of communicating through pictograms for my project because I think its true that in this day and age, emojis or digital icons would be our next language.

"Every week, 84 men in UK take their own lives."

On 26th March 19, the organisation, CALM made a stand against male suicide. They created 84 statues in total and 72 of them were up on the high tower and then 12 on itv. This is to visually impact people, using statues and placing them in a high place that they are about to commit suicide. The disturbing visuals raise awareness and spread a positive message of hope about trying to prevent male suicides. 

Connection: Furthering the young adulthood project that focuses on the stress that young people are feeling due to their pressure and stress to achieve and succeed. I thought this, project 84 could be an inspiration to further that project to raise awareness for male suicides whether its about stress or underachieving or not.

For this project, I could be taking inspiration for this and creating an outcome that raises awareness about male or female suicides.

• No words to this book "Book from the ground: from point to point"

• Taken together, the images tell the story of a white-collar office worker over the course of 24 hours

• There are no words, at least not in any recognisable language
• “cross-cultural dialogue and understanding through the visual arts.”
• “I hope this could be a book not limited by languages or history,”
• It reflects cultural literacy and that of modern tools and technologies rather than traditional literacy.

•  younger generation is likely to find his icon language easier to “read” because they are more exposed to this digital age.

• holds Xu Bing's hope of creating a language that is literally universal to all people. that could be understood by all

IDEAS:

- Preconceptions of Adulthood? Possible likely responsibilities 

- hypothetical anecdotes when thinking of mature adulthood as a young adult 

- fear of aging

INSPIRATION: 

- THE FUTURE STARTS HERE (exhibition) - exploring the power of design in shaping the world of tomorrow

- Project 84 - societal pressure

- Black Mirror - (hypothetical further) advancement of technology and the effects on younger generation

Looking at Small thoughts, I was intrigued, I really like the small random, sometimes absurd but true thoughts. They are so precious in life because as we grow older, we will start only remembering thoughts that were very important such as important meeting dates or achievements instead of these small revelations where we can see our growth and thinking. 

Growing older, I want to be able to remember these small thoughts when I'm 30 or 40 or 50 and laugh about how stupid for only realising them then because its the small thing that really fill us up and make us happy and not the occasional big happy things. 

Inspired by that, furthering my idea in project 3 about reflecting the past and writing everything down in the past that affected you emotionally in order to let go of it. I thought that for this project, I can interpret this with the inspiration of 'small thoughts', I can try documenting the '20-year-old now' for my future self which will then be read as the past. I thought that it was a relevant and interesting idea because when I grow older to thirty or so, I feel like most likely I will forget what I'm like when I'm twenty or now or 19 or 16 because I'm so forgetful and i think its important that I try to remember all the random facts about myself at the age of 20 because its the age of experience and age. I think i want to see if there is a big difference in personality, hobbies, choices... etc when I'm older.

I'm really happy to have thought about this because this project is going to be a very personal project. 

“We need to show more body diversity everywhere, not only in body positive topics. Today I have clients who let me show more body diversity, which is very encouraging. On the other hand I unfortunately still have clients who tell me, ‘Oh Cécile we love how you draw women how they are, but please can you make her with thinner legs and a rounder butt?’

“The more I looked at body representation, the more I opened my eyes to how all girls in all shapes have a lot of complexes, and we’re losing so much energy complaining about it. Why so much hate for ourselves?” Cécile shared self-portraits from her teenagehood, saying how at the time she saw herself “as a monster”. Now she wants to tell the media-induced feminine ideal where to go. With her work, she wants to tell girls everywhere: “It’s normal to have flaws, we don’t all look the same. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Our personal value is more than just our appearance.”

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/cecile-dormeau-240316

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/cecile-dormeau

https://www.blinkart.co.uk/c%C3%A9cile-dormeau

https://www.lostateminor.com/2017/04/20/artist-depicts-womens-common-insecurities-playful-drawings/

CONNECTION TO PROJECT

Learning from and being inspired by this self-made illustrator, I want to try to touch upon social taboo topics within mature adulthood, things that are swept under the carpet to hide. By addressing it in a light-hearted and funny way, it makes it easier to be accepted by adults who have always seemed to have to protect their dignity and ego. They are more open to joke about it and possibly make a change if these simple, relatable yet funny illustrations can make them notice what they're doing wrong. 

The creation of Xu Bing's Book from the Ground documented and described in text, images, and photographs. Although the pictogram-only narrative in Xu Bing's Book from the Ground can be read by anyone, there is much more to the story of Xu Bing's wordless book than can be gleaned from icons alone. This companion volume to Book from the Ground chronicles the entire project, mapping the history of Xu Bing's novel creation from inspiration to exhibition to publication. In the 1980s, Xu Bing created Book from the Sky . Using garbled and nonsensical faux-Chinese characters, this installation expressed Xu's doubts about written language and provoked questions about the Chinese language. Thirty years later, with Book from the Ground , the artist expresses his hope for a single, universally understood language. Inspired by airport signs that communicate instantaneously through images -- directing a temporary community of modern nomads where to eat, shop, sit, and find a bathroom -- Xu began to collect images, icons, and logos from which he could construct a story. This book describes Xu's research, showing notebook pages and bulletin boards full of clipped-out images; offers commentary by the artist and discussions of reading, alphabets and languages; documents, with text and photographs, exhibitions and installations connected to the work (including a Book from the Ground pop-up concept store); provides a list of works; describes Xu's "icon lab"; and "translates" Xu's pictographic narrative into English.

In Xu Bing's most recent work, Book from the Ground, he is compiling a universal language created from existing international icons. The first icons came from airplane safety cards and airports, and later came from street signs, other safety instructions, advertising and other sources. The icons are chosen for their universality, and require almost no learning curve from most people who read them. His plan is to create a multilingual dictionary and software of these words (for universal translation) and to publish a novel written in this icon language. 

https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/20952/Xu-Bing-Book-from-the-Ground http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/06/first-book-you-can-read-every-language-once-310046.html https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/emoji-digital-language/index.html https://medium.com/@catherineannemoore/emoji-as-visual-literacy-cbebe37cb99c