Cop Time Managment Plan

Cop 3 Briefing Notes and Personal Specification

Cop Briefing Notes:

Personal Cop Specification:

In order to make sure I cover each aspect of the brief ILOs in my work, I have created a condensed check list to measure against. Ensuring nothing is forgotten and I am conscious of what I need throughout the project. This could be something I photocopy and check off for each week of work.

Pracical - Mimeorgraph Printing

I briefly looked at printing methods that could be used for the practical work, one of the theories I had was to make an authentic feminist publication based on women's rights pamphlet made in previous years. This could be to re-brand one in a modern setting, or to use modern content in a publication created using old fashioned printing methods. This included mimeography, which I did some brief research into. This could be something I explore further for the practical work.

Risomania - The new spirit of printing by John Z. Komurki

From this I realised that mimeograph printing is a painstaking stencil process and could be difficult to recreate, however presses do still exist as they are relatively cheap to use as do not need electricity. Risograph printing is an interesting and more available evolution of this process. Mimeograph is more important in the sense of what it stands for, its memorable impact was on 'small-scale independent publishing. Being so cheap, easy to use and flexible, it enabled artists, writers and agitators to disseminate their work more quickly than ever before.' It created a revolution in printmaking and allowed people to spread their ideas, without having to spend lots of money.

'Each of these small press momeo-gangs participated in a 'collage' aesthetic. Working as tiny collectives they experimented patching new media together in unique designs and cobinations. Presentation, delivery, politics and authorship were challenged... Ideas that were soon spilling over into the contemporary art scene battled there way awkwardly and beautifully through the pages of these small journals.' - Detroit filmmaker and beat veteran Cary Loren.

Essay - Presentation Feedback

Presentation Feedback:

The focus of my essay was going to be on the history of women's magazines and their contextual relationship with the status of women. Generally the feedback for this was that it was too broad. Although each aspect of the history was well researched, it wouldn't be applicable to current practices of design. The advice was to look at more current and contemporary magazines in order for it to be more relevant. I can reference history, but it can't be the main focus. I should look at current feminist publications.

Tutorial Feedback:

The tutorial took the the idea of the essay in a different direction. We talked more about feminist graphic design and how feminist movements co-opt graphic design to express themselves. Moving away from the magazine focus. This could be interesting to explore and may actually be more relevant to my personal practice. However, all my research up to this point has been about magazines, so I may have to be very selective about what I can use. Some potential themes were:

• The aesthetic of feminism vs the ideology of feminism. Do people jump on it for how it looks more than the body of thought? E.g. Frida Kahlo phenomenon.
• How do contemporary feminist graphic designers communicate with their audiences? How do they use graphic design as a tool for influencing change?
• Zine culture/digital zines.
• How has the history of feminist magazine design influenced contemporary publications?
• How feminist movements co-opt graphic design to express themselves.

Essay - Presentation

For the presentation I decided to go through each type of magazine I've looked at throughout history and compare that to the state of women at the time. I made notes on each section of the presentation, detailing key points of interest and linking pieces of information.

 I chose this topic because I wanted to expand my knowledge of feminist theory, for future conversation and referencing. I also thought it would give me some historical insight as I am looking towards a career in historical curation or something similar. Next to this, I also have a keen interest in publication design and studying magazines seemed to give a good insight into this.

1. Initially I discussed the first magazines made, this included the Ladies Mercury, created 1693. This was a direct result of economic changes, causing upper and middle class women to have increased leisure time. The magazine had a problems page which is comparable to modern magazines today. I then discussed the English Woman's Domestic Magazine, produced 1853, which was again a result of status change, with more women becoming housewives. Their master stroke was affordable fashion, which is something that has been carried forward in magazines throughout time. Finally I mentioned Peg's Papers which was introduced in the 1920s which was a fictional magazine produced for working class women, usually about 'cross-class romance'. Previous to this they would have had 'Servant's Magazine', so Peg's Papers would have been a refreshing change.

2. I then discussed suffrage pamphlets. Quite a few were created underground in 1850s and one of the most well known was 'Suffragette' which was made by Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter, Christobel.  Publishers kept being shut down, the urgency and cheap quality, even the distribution reflects a lot about the status of women at the time. I also briefly mentioned health pamphlets made in the 1910s, in particular ones produced to inform on sex and contraception - which were illegal to distribute at the time.Once the pamphlets were produced the creators would sometimes flee the country.
I thought it was important to mention that at this time printing required a sizeable budget, so even though these publications were made from a position of subversion, they still don't entirely reflect the worries and thoughts of working class women.

3. I also wanted to mention that during the 20th Century, advertising became more prominent in women's magazines. It became the case that magazines had to appeal equally to advertisers and the female market. This explains why a lot of magazines aren't very political as advertisers don't want to associate with any kind of statement.

4. I then discussed modern day 'Glossies', which typically cover sexuality, fashion, careers and celebrities. I wanted to mention that there is a big debate about glossies and if they allow feminists to indulge in fashion, sex and appearance with independence or if they oppress women, suggesting they have to look a certain way to be accepted.

5. I also then did a study of feminst outlier publications, such as 'Nova' and 'Riposte'. These were more about design and liberation, they want to shock and intellectually provoke. Nova especially was very ahead of its time but only reflected the opinions of a niche amount of people. They were trying to sell to the 'new woman', which didn't quite exist yet.

6. Finally, I looked a participatory media and zine culture in the 1990s. Zines are interesting as they probably more reflective of women's views at the time, as they didn't have to go through editors, advertisers or publishing houses. Very raw. However they were only made by a select number of women and cannot be said to really reflect women's status at the time.

In terms of the practical I found several quotes that inspired an idea. Several writers were saying that the first historical magazines were being forgotten and it was important for young feminists to know about their roots. I was suggesting that I could create a delicate publication that would be in the style of one of the first women's magazines, with current content as its focus. I thought this could be inspiring and significant, indicating to women the importance of the past.

Essay - Initial Question and Essay Plan

In order to establish an essay question using the knowledge I have gathered so far, I wrote each topic that sprung to mind on a piece of paper, and then tried to arrange them by theme.

I then divided these into topics, what seemed most clear was to organise them into 1st wave, 2nd wave and 3rd wave publication topics. This meant that as an essay it could move chronologically and lead to question being formulated.

1st Wave Feminism

2nd Wave Feminism

3rd Wave Feminsim

What is the historical relationship between women's magazines and the role of women within society?

• Introduction
• Rise of the class system and the first magazines produced in response to this.
• Suffrage publications and health pamphlets – select women looking for liberation.
• The rise in necessity of advertisements, appeasing advertisers and the female market.
• Domestic side of women's magazines and their lack of political stance.
• Feminist outliers and alternative publications, such as Nova, Riposte.
• Participatory media such as zines in 'Riot Grrrl' era.
• 'Glossies'.
• Discernible characteristic from first magazines to current.
• Conclusion – strong relationship, but perhaps magazines are becoming outdated? Can magazines truly keep up with the current role of women, at the same speed as the internet.

Essay - Women's Magazines 1693-1968 by Cynthia L.White

This book was referenced in 'Inside Women's Magazines' by Janice Winship as a good source of historical overview and analysis. It's discusses a wide range of magazines coming from the very first in 1693 to trends in the 1960s. The book is slightly dated in its view as it was published in 1970, however this means it has an accurate and unclouded view of the magazines at the time.

First Experiments in Publishing for Women

• 'The publications characteristic of this period was entirely individual in their approach. Intended primarily 'to amuse and instruct' the female reading public, their contents were determined more by the caprice of the author than by any objective estimate of the requirements of the women reader.' pg 23
• The Ladies' Mercury set out to answer any questions they were sent, answers to 'all the most nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage behaviour, dress and honour of the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows.' - run by a man, so potentially biased? Intimate problems were aired which was unusual for the time.
• Growth in female reading public at the turn of the century (1700) due to increased leisure forced upon upper and middle-class women by economic changes which reduced domestic tasks to a minimum. pg 24 Domestic servants were also becoming literate due to improved conditions.
• The Ladies' Diary made in 1704 by John Tipper who was determined that the contents of his diary should reflect 'what all women ought to be - innocent, modest, instructive and agreeable', an approach quite different to modern magazines (modern being the 1960s at the time of writing.) pg 25. The magazine did contain mathematical questions until 1707 when it was revised for cooking recipes.
• The Visitor created a magazine that was filled with knowledge for women, the Editor had high regard for female intellect and even called out a previous editor who had masqueraded as a man. pg 27
• Goodwill made a magazine called The Ladies' Magazine that whilst discussing crime, riddles, play reviews etc, also talked about the vulnerability of the female sex. 'It is the topical interest of such publications as Goodwill's which makes them unique in the history of publishing for women.' as many magazines already did this, but not ones aimed at women. pg 29-30 

The book also interestingly had a quiz from the 1950s about being the 'perfect housewife', it could definitely be something interesting to study further for practical work.