UEA Collaboration Project

As another part to BA8 we have been given a task to collaborate with a first year studying Creative Writing at UEA. I have been partnered with a student named Georgie Currie and the brief entails me initialling sending her one of my illustrations to respond to, and then working backwards and forwards in this way till we end up with two illustrations and two pieces of text. This was the image I sent her: 

This was an illustration I produced for a project I did in the second year for BA5 and thought I'd send this to Georgie as it shows a great portrayal of character and I really enjoyed drawing in this style. 

Georgie responded to my image with a well written piece of creative prose filling an A4 page. But what stood out to me was the first three paragraphs that she wrote:

I am flung into the darkness with the others. The impact of the drop ignites a spark in the lower of my back, causing a vicious heat to slowly twist up my spine, devouring and stinging each nerve like a swarm of hornets, until an agonising fever shoots along my temples and explodes behind my eyes. Crying out, I am certain that I will never see again.                                             

Around me I am overwhelmed by the suffocating stuffiness of second-hand cloth, of sweat that clings on strangers’ unwashed, uncared for clothing. A stench so profane and intense, it irrationally drives one stir-crazy and scrub themselves clean with soap and disinfectant until skin cracks and weeps wine. The weight of the outstretched bodies that tumble onto me stamps heaviness on my chest, making it hard to breath. I wheeze, cough, choke. In utter horror, I realise that they are slowly crushing me alive.                                                        

        But then there is stillness and the weight, although still unbearable, does not increase. I am left paralysed in a purgatory of confusion, a nightmare of the rat caught in a trap; it lacks the power of escape but is confined with the knowledge of its fate. All it can do is wait.

I thought the atmosphere created through these few paragraphs really encapsulates the reader. Leaving them questioning who the character of the narrative is and what is happening to them... 

Friday's Workshop (7th February): 

This workshop was set to make us think about a double spread of image and text can form and mean. As this will be the final outcome of the collaboration project, the relationship of the page and content is significant to conveying the narrative of the prose and image. Thinking about other ways than literally just placing an image next to an image on either side of the spread, the workshop made us think about a page, architecturally as an object and space as well as placement of the text within the space.

Here are the 7 spreads I ended up producing. I had to think playfully and ended up cutting into the page and placing the text into a way that extends and reflects the meaning of the narrative. The sentences I chose to use talked about confusion, a maze and waiting. This really helped me to look at double page spread in an open and interesting way. Developing ideas how the final outcome could be made and editing the text to get its full potential. Now the next step for me is to respond to Georgie's prose visually.