Journeys on the A664 is a practice-led exploration of situated creative identity. In this research project, I travel on the top deck of the number 17 bus along Rochdale Road (A664), passing through familiar locations, recording interpretations, observations and personal memories during multiple excursions. Alongside the study of contemporary occurrences on each journey, a deeper investigation of spaces adjacent to the route of this bus journey reveal sites of historic cultural, social and creative journeys.
The emergent practice work devised for this project informed the creation of “The Wand’rin Star”, an original visual identity developed whilst travelling on the A664. This new creative identity was devised with reference to Psychogeography practice and formative personal memory of visual communication and popular culture.
Internal and external sites along the journey recorded by the “Wand’rin Star” employ Deep Mapping strategies to present evidence of location specific culture mapping. The visual presentation of the practice is informed by the vernacular typographic language of the journey, alongside Fluxus methods of visual typographic presentation. The “maps” created for the project are designed to be less definite recordings of spaces and more open to interpretation. The practice of personal and complex form of map making reflects the combined deliberate vagueness inherent in the methodologies of Psychogeography, Deep Mapping and Fluxus.
The final section of the thesis shifts focus away from an internal investigation of a personal creative identity to an outward facing methodology. Here, the process of developing “Journeys on the A664” is shown as an original practice-led methodology. The aim is to devise framework for original and distinctive personal identity for creative practitioners and students based on memory of formative exposure to creative practice and location specific vernacular visual language.
