About place: visual storytelling & publication design

Course description

This week-long course will lead participants through research, drawing explorations and creative writing, resulting in the curation of their own publication inspired by a local destination. This place will be the starting point for investigations into location, people and ideas – participants will be encouraged to explore what intrigues them. We will look at image making, drawing and writing as ways to research, challenging participants to break away from more traditional ways of looking and learning. In the latter part of the week we will consider different ways to edit and curate the work into individual publications using practical skills like bookbinding. The course is accessible to creatives at any skill level who are open to experimenting. It is suited to anyone curious about combining words and image, looking to expand their ways of working or interested in making books. It will encourage participants to adopt new ways of investigating in their practice and provide a space to play.

Example course structure

• Day 1 – Introduction and immersion
  The course will start with an exciting site visit that will become the starting point for ideas, conversations, narratives and stories. We'll begin responding to our surroundings using drawing, recording and writing to document the space as well as looking at examples of other work exploring place.
• Day 2 – Exploration and ideas
  Back in the studio, we will continue responding to the site, expanding upon work made on the first day and generating new work focusing on individuals personal perspectives. We'll work through a series of image making workshops to introduce various ways to visualise and organise small narratives and visual themes.
• Day 3 – Writing and imagination
  Participants will spend the day exploring text and creative writing, responding to images made over the past two days and the location – these might be poetic, factual or nonsensical.
• Day 4 – Compilation and editing
  We will start to bring the work made over the past 3 days together to make the publications, using compilation and editing techniques to find meaning and tell stories.
• Day 5 – Curating and presenting
  The participants will finalise the publications and install them in the exhibition space, where we will review and reflect upon the course and the work made.

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What to bring

A basic list will be sent to you a week in advance of the course start date. All other materials are provided by Kingston School of Art (KSA)

Course tutors

The course will be taught by Charlotte Ager and Nina Carter. Charlotte Ager is a freelance illustrator with clients including New York Times, The Guardian and Penguin Random House. She has been nominated for the Klaus Flugge Prize for picture book illustration and is interested in how illustrations can connect to viewers emotionally. Nina Carter is an illustrator, educator and the Art Editor of It's Freezing in LA! – a magazine about climate change. She is passionate about how images can accompany text to help communicate and connect.