Manifesto Project

When we were given this project I thought it was a good opportunity to produce a very personal piece based on something that I am passionate about. Despite this initial excitement, as with most of the projects, I found it very difficult to think of a topic to base my manifesto on. 

I have always had an interest in dance but this has become a more dominant interest and passion of mine over the last couple of years. I love to dance myself and watch others dance, however sometimes it can be very discouraging when on social media I often see dancers that are at a much higher level than me and this becomes particularly disheartening when I see such high levels of talent in individuals that are much younger than myself. I often wish that I would have had better training in this field when I was younger, however I am increasingly coming to terms with my own abilities and realise that with hard work one day I too maybe able to dance as well as and have as good technique as the dancers I look up to.

Because of this I wanted to make a manifesto motivating and encouraging people to work a little bit everyday to become better at what they do. This manifesto is intended for all people who at times feel discouraged by their own levels of talent in comparison to others. I wanted my manifesto to be something that, I and anyone else who feels the same way, can look at and be inspired by.

Once I decided on my topic I searched through posts on Instagram finding inspiring quotes from other dancers that I could include in my manifesto.

To put my own personal spin on this project, I decided to incorporate some form of illustration in my manifesto and using illuminated letters seemed like an obvious solution. Both Medieval and contemporary texts which incorporate this art form are made more interesting and intriguing by the delicate and detailed designs of these letters which often include the use of bright colours. To some people, reading can often feel like a chore, but the addition of these illustrated letters draws the viewer into the text and encourages them to read on. I also thought about how the illustrations surrounding the letters might be used to create a visualisation of the written word or help to tell the story of the passage as a whole. This strategy has been used by Mary Teichman, whose work is shown above, as she has associated the images in her illuminated letters with the text. This may in turn aid younger readers in the understanding of these passages.

I was quite pleased with the final outcome as I though that most of the illuminated letters turned out really well, however I did plan to type out most of the rest of the quotes in different fonts and colours but judging the size of the font to go in the different spaces proved very difficult. Because of this I ended up writing out most of the quotes which I feel make the manifesto look a bit messy. Despite my doubts about the visual quality of the piece, overall I was happy with the message I was sending out and how I could make my other passion of illustration work with my love of dance.