Beth Gray

The first brief that we were given this year was called ‘Where Are You? I Am Here!’, We were asked to create  a personal ‘map’ to represent and detail an area of our lives that others may find confusing or difficult to understand. The map could have represented us, a place, a journey, your friends and family, your philosophy, physiology, psychology, mindset or our immediate surroundings – or any other personal subject of our choosing, which we felt would need clarification. It was designed to give us the chance to develop and voice our own unique styles.

I really enjoyed this project, although I like working from the computer, I am always happiest working off screen, physically making, drawing and crafting things, such as my sewing illustrations. I liked how this project allowed me to do both simultaneously.

I chose to look into my past and map an area of my life that not many people up in Lincoln knew about, my hobby of ice skating! – At college I managed to include my love of ice skating in most projects (I am planning to upload some of those soon)- this is something I’ve tried to tone down a little since starting at university!.

I began by listing every element or ‘trick’ I learnt in the order I learnt them, alongside where abouts on the ice rink I was when I learnt them. From here I then drew a icon for each element based on the pattern that it leaves in the ice.

Below I have shown the key for this, as it appears in the beginning of the book.

Here is my rationale for my book:

‘Ice skating has been an important part of my life since the age of 12. Progress in this sport demands dedication and commitment, cold, early mornings and occasional hard falls. I have chosen to represent my skating development through a physical map of the Norwich Ice Rink, since I retain vivid memories of the exact locations on the ice where I landed or learnt each element. By superimposing consecutive overlays of sami transparent paper, each representing my conquest of the different ‘patches’ on the ice, my skating journey can be mapped, and looked back over, right to the beginning of my journey.

I have chosen to work with materials reminiscent of the ice, in particular, its textures and translucent qualities. Representations of each required element are given different cool toned colours and are depicted graphically by symbols that mimic the actual of physical movements required for each jump or spin etc. The backing of the book consists of clear perspex, this is because the book is designed to be viewed over a light box, which would illuminate all of the pages to show a clearer map of my journey.

Finally, I bound the finished piece in a style reminiscent of lacing up my ice skates.’

The title page of my book, I experimented with the layering of the paper, a few sheets further into the book, you can see a list which shows the order and list of all the tricks I have currently learnt as they appear in the book.

Ideally I envisaged the book to be a much larger size for instance, a2- this is to really showcase and celebrate the seemingly insignificant trails that the skates leave on the ice, however it proved too difficult for this project to construct to that size.