Coded Journeys – Year 3

How can ‘who we are’ and ‘what we feel’ be charted in the area surrounding us? The Coded Journeys project explored different creative mapping methodologies with artists Shiraz Bayjoo and Agnes Poitevin-Navarre. It focused on colours and layers of meaning with students from Newham Sixth Form College to create maps illustrating identity and emotions.

Agnes took the Plutchik Colour Wheel and the emotional tag that colours generate as a template for subsequent activities. The students charted and codified perceptual journeys within Newham and within themselves. They explored the articulation of their identities, the defining statements of ‘who they are’, ‘where they are from’ and ‘where they live’ through the media of animated photography, collage, and folded colour coded passports.

Shiraz took representations of cultural heritage including icons from popular culture as a starting point in investigating how identity can be expressed on a personal, and collective level. Images were deconstructed through collage, emphasising and exploring new associations and meaning. Using Monoprints and translucent layers of acrylic paint, four distinctive elements consisting of maps, patterns and cultural motifs were composed into multi-layered paintings.