Briefing the students:

Street graphics & Guerrilla campaign 2005–2006 21 first year students Arts and Design Leeds Metropolitan University. Workshop #1 24-28 October 2005

Step 1 – I M, I B.

“Who am I”, is a first lesson often given to students attending an Art academy. It is a nice introduction to start expressing yourself with or on certain media. How would you express your identity and communicate this to others by using type and/or image? And what would you show or leave out? Would you show your name, nationality, religion, age, sex, work, pride, family, statement, hobby, ideology, favourite toy, music, pet, brands, your biggest fear, alter ego or what you might be ashamed of? And in what forms and colors would you present this?

One medium of modern urban culture is the T-shirt. It can be seen as a portable billboard, often personalised by the individual that wears it. We take this medium to express ourselves in a simple graphic way.

Step 2 – I M, U R.

“Who are you?”, is often a first question you ask when you start attending an Art academy. It is a question that should be asked more in nowadays multicultural society. Lately people tend to decide to be rivals above friends without even knowing the answer. A T-shirt can help changing this.

By making T-shirts you are able to show who you are or what you stand for. Can it be interesting to change this medium into an object beyond the billboard concept? Are we able to make union flags out of them? Showing friendships, shared views, allied forces or the rivalry in sportsmanship. Can we think ahead and do something new? We are going to try to make new objects out of the ‘ordinary’ T-shirts.

Step 3 – I M, U 2.

“Who are we?” is a question a group or class of artists will ask during the attendance of an Art academy and what they hope to answer by making work. Their teachers and audience could be able to give this answer. We are going to give an audience a presentation of our project by being part of an exhibition.