LCC: Final Major Project
“The Abuse of Over-The-Counter Cough Syrup”
Illegal drugs are advertised in countless places. From reports published about them in the news to the glamorization of them in music video’s, the abuse of illegal substances generally remains a growing issue in today’s society. However, now that tracking down those who use illegal drugs has become easier, young people are finding new ways to ingest chemicals that provide them with almost the same side effects as they would if they were taking forbidden substances. The determination that these young people have, to find any way they possibly can to “have a good time without getting sent to prison” formed the basis of my research question. This project explores one of the biggest issues involving over-the-counter medicine.
For more information about how the project was produced, simply scroll down the page :)
The project’s visual summary and the major project report.
At the start of the project, while printing out images of cough syrup bottles, I experienced a “happy accident”. One of the images wouldn’t dry because I printed it out on tracing paper. I wanted to experiment with this idea further since I felt that the idea of the damage these medicines are capable of doing to your body was being strongly reflected.
To further investigate this concept, I decided to print out the packages on the back of glossy photographic paper. I waited for around 10 minutes for the ink to expand on the paper and then took pictures of the prints. The ‘ink_spreading process’ of each medications print is shown in this image.
The images at the end of the process for each cough syrup type/brand.
Top Image- Typographic Research:
While watching YouTube video’s of young people high on cough syrup, I took note of the dialogue which was taking place in some of them. Again, I applied the same experimental technique to these extracts of dialogue as I did to the previous image of the cough syrup medicines.
Bottom Image- Experimentation:
From the extracts of dialogue, I then decided to use screenshots of the scenes where the dialogue was taking place and carry out the same experiment on these images. Because these in my opinion were the most effective in terms of answering the research question, I chose to bring this process and these images to life by using stop motion animation techniques.
More scenes within the experiment, which appear in the final film as well as the screenshots in the previous image.
For the submission of the final film, I designed this CD Case.
Artist Book
Brief: Produce an artist book based on an artist of your choice
Chosen Artist: Jaroslav Hasek (1883-1923)
Jaroslav Hasek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer, socialist, anarchist, journalist, bohemian, and a practical joker. The book I produced on this artist was inspired by:
- His bohemian lifestyle and dadaist activities
- His regular journeys around Europe and Russia. His parents were living in poverty and as a child he was constantly living somewhere new, so he never felt like he had a permanent “home” or a permanent job.
- His self promotion using fake names and writing postcards to himself in order to sell himself as a writer.
The book includes a series of postcards to himself using fake names and collages on fictional animals he created for written work, which he was eventually fired for. It also includes his personal life and other written work he had produced in his lifetime. This is all presented in order the events took place throughout his life.
