Screen Print Book; Research Trip

Our group was sent to research the location of the Leeds City Council Library for this one week screen print workshop brief. After arriving at the location we decided to split up for a couple of hours and meet back up again with whatever research or information we'd managed to acquire. During the hour I took some photographs and did some quick initial studies of people in the library as well as some of the interesting looking statues and taking rubbings of the old engraved graffiti on some of the staircase ledges.

After meeting up with the rest of the group in the library cafe to exchange ideas and thoughts, we found that a lot of our research had brought up similar themes or subject matters. For instance we found that most of the people there were elderly, and that they were also one the most interesting things that we'd come across during our visit. Over hearing their conversations or viewing them in the surroundings was something that most of us had found ourselves drawn to draw. However we still lacked a focus and perhaps, more importantly, an opinion on our location. Nothing had really got us excited as a group and so we decided to have some tea. And that is when we began to get excited.

As strange as it is, the initial ideas of a book began to form after we glanced at the remains of Emily and Amber's camomile tea. The organic remains reminded us somewhat of a swamp, and that's when we started thinking about the more abstract approach we could take to this brief. Through experiential research we'd found something that few other people ever would. And were able to take that initial experience and expand it further into something resembling more of a story.