Interim review slide

LENA YOKOYAMA
BA3 ILLUSTRATION
JANUARY 2020

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
Riso business

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
ROKO PRESS
- building brand identity
- collaboration with artists
- getting to know the publishing industry
- selling work
Instagram: @roko_press
Wesbite: www.rokopress.wixsite.com (wip)

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
ROKO PRESS
Preparing for Blackheath Christmas Market

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
ROKO PRESS
Blackheath Christmas Market Stall

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
ROKO PRESS
Bower artist edition commission.
Artists on Show:
Lucy Gunning
Jessica Higgins
Mary Hurrell
Frances Scott

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
Developlent of visual language

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
The doomsayers admit that this apocalypse may take
some time – years, or decades, even – to unfold. But the
direction of travel is clear. As things stand, it is left to
a few heroic individuals to raise their voices in warning
about the dangers of doing nothing to stave off this threat.
“There is a worrying trend of adults mimicking teenspeak.
They are using slang words and ignoring grammar,”
Marie Clair, of the Plain English Campaign, told
the Daily Mail. “Their language is deteriorating. They are
lowering the bar. Our language is flying off at all tangents,
without the anchor of a solid foundation.”
The Queen’s English Society, a British organisation, has
long been fighting to prevent this decline. Although it is
at pains to point out that it does not believe language can
be preserved unchanged, it worries that communication
is at risk of becoming far less effective. “Some changes
would be wholly unacceptable, as they would cause confusion
and the language would lose shades of meaning,”
the society says on its website.
Illustration by Lena Yokoyama
Why it’s time to stop worrying about
the decline of the English language
By David Shariatmadari
The 21st century seems to present us
with an ever-lengthening list of perils:
climate crisis, financial meltdown,
cyber-attacks. Should we stock up on
canned foods in case the ATMs snap
shut? Buy a shedload of bottled water? Hoard prescription
medicines? The prospect of everything
that makes modern life possible being taken away
from us is terrifying. We would be plunged back
into the middle ages, but without the skills to cope.
Now imagine that something even more fundamental
than electricity or money is at risk: a tool
we have relied on since the dawn of human history,
enabling the very foundations of civilisation to be
laid. I’m talking about our ability to communicate
– to put our thoughts into words, and to use those
words to forge bonds, to deliver vital information,
to learn from our mistakes and build on the work
done by others.
People often complain
that English is deteriorating
under the influence
of new technology,
adolescent fads and
loose grammar. Why
does this nonsensical
belief persist?
With a reduced expressive capacity, it seems likely that
research, innovation and the quality of public discourse
would suffer. The columnist Douglas Rushkoff put it like
this in a 2013 New York Times opinion piece: “Without
grammar, we lose the agreed-upon standards about what
means what. We lose the ability to communicate when
respondents are not actually in the same room speaking
to one another. Without grammar, we lose the precision
required to be effective and purposeful in writing.”
At the same time, our laziness and imprecision are leading
to unnecessary bloating of the language – “language
obesity,” as the British broadcaster John Humphrys has
described it. This is, he said, “the consequence of feeding
on junk words. Tautology is the equivalent of having
chips with rice. We talk of future plans and past history;
of live survivors and safe havens. Children have temper
tantrums and politicians announce ‘new initiatives’.”
It is frightening to think where all this might lead. If English
is in such a bad state now, what will things be like in a
generation’s time? We must surely act before it is too late.
B
ut there is something perplexing about claims
like this. By their nature, they imply that we were
smarter and more precise in the past. Seventy-odd
years ago, people knew their grammar and knew how to
talk clearly. And, if we follow the logic, they must also
53 Editorial 54
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
Illustration for a Guardian article titled ‘Why it’s
time to stop worrying about the decline of the
English language’ by David Shariatmadari.
The brief was answered using two different
approaches. One through digital illustration and
one traditional crayon illustration.

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
SMOKING
ONE CIGARETTE ‘MAY LEAD TO
HABIT FOR MORE THAN
TWO-THIRDS OF PEOPLE’
Written by Nicola Davis
Illustrated by Lena Yokoyama
Almost 69% of those who tried smoking went on to
smoke daily, analysis of global survey data indicates,
highlighting importance of prevention measures.
TMore than two-thirds of people who smoked daily for a period after trying a cigarette.
try just one cigarette may go on to
become regular smokers, new research
suggests. Researchers found likely to be skewed by smokers being less like-
The team also looked at whether the results were
that just over 60% of adults said they ly to respond in surveys than non-smokers, but
had tried a cigarette at some point in their lives, no strong effect was found. However, the authors
with almost 69% of those noting that they had, note that the study also has other limitations, including
that the findings are based on respond-
at least for a period, gone on to smoke cigarettes
daily. ‘[This shows] prevention, providing [fewer] ents self-reporting information, meaning the resulting
figures are only an estimate. ‘It is possible
opportunities or reasons for young people to try a
cigarette, is a good idea,” said Peter Hajek, co-author
of the research, from Queen Mary Universi-
try a cigarette when they were a kid but it didn’t
that somebody who is a lifetime non-smoker did
ty of London.he research, published in the journal make any impression on them, and they forgot it
Nicotine and Tobacco Research, is based on data or don’t see that it is important enough to report,”
pooled from eight surveys conducted since the said Hajek. But, he added, “I think even if you assume
there is a recall issue and other things, you
year 2000, including three each from the UK and
USA, and a further two studies from Australia are talking about more than a 50% [conversion
and New Zealand. Together, the surveys included
more than 216,000 respondents, with between Hajek added that declining rates of smoking among
rate from trying a cigarette to daily smoking].”
50% and 82% saying that, after trying a cigarette, younger people suggested that measures such as
they had gone on to smoke on a daily basis – at restrictions on sales and a shift away from portraying
it as glamorous were having a positive effect.
least temporarily. Further analysis showed that,
taken together, an estimated 68.9% of individuals But, he noted, the influence of e-cigarettes should
53 Editorial 54
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
Illustration for a Guardian article titled ‘One cigarette
‘may lead to habit for more than
two-thirds of people’ by Nicola Davis.
This illustration now combines crayon and digital
in one. Crayon was used for the sketch which was
then digitally coloured on the Adobe Fresco.

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
- Application for the SE5
Community Bridges Magazine
- Magazine about community and mental health
- Head Illustrator for Camberwell
- Board meeting once a month to generate
new content

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
Working with an outside collaborat

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
TATE CHRISTMAS CARDS
- considering format and paper
- meeting about commissioning and royalties

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
Continuation of Dissertation and Course Project
Combining translation and image development

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
LITHOGRAPHY
Getting back into making and printing

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
JAPANESE FOLKLORES
- Exhibition ‘WOW - City lights and woodland
shade’
- introducing AI to Japanese folklore
puppets ‘kokeshi’, interactive installation
- translation of a Japanese tradition through other
mediums and process as a contemporary approach

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
JAPANESE FOLKLORES
- Translation of tradition into medium of
printmaking.
- Application of own style.
- Adaptation to a different and contemporary
audience.

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
CUBIST INSPIRATION
- Paul Klee
- Pablo Picasso
- Ben Nicholson

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
JAPANESE FOLKLORE 1: MOMOTARO
Plan:
- hommage to the print
- A3+ book, hand printed, handbound
- quality high paper (somerset maybe)
- one etching per story
- typeface to accompany drawings
- figure out a way to letterpress with laser cutting
- possibly rewriting/shortening the stories.

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
JAPANESE FOLKLORE: SCULPTURES
- making and mixing black slip
- apply to ceramic (unfired) objects and scratch into
it, similar to lino printing
- bringing characters/ props from the story alive
into a physical object
- could be a practical object or decorative
- reduction firing with Adamina once a month

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
JAPANESE FOLKLORE:
- digital typeface made from shapes used in
illustrations and backgrounds
- will be used for titles/book cover

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM REVIEW
Interview with Akio Yokoyama, Monday 1st July 2019.
Summary: (translated from Japanese to English)
•
• Untranslatable term defined by Akio: Religion and (lehre), or 'Sie und du', it’s
always hard to explain it in words
• Akio says the basis of a culture has to be explained. The how is the difficult part.
• With our project we shall concentrate on ‘Aida’: space, emptiness, white
• This is interesting he thinks because it is a term that is used in everyday life,
carrying everyday meanings with no deeper thought to it. But how might this term
be interpreted differently by individuals like you and me? This difference is the
interesting part of the research.
• How does he picture it? How do I picture it?
• Words that are used in everyday life are more intriguing than words that are already
abstract like wabisabi (popular, well studied, already got a lot of connotations, also
in the west) futsuu no kotoba no hou ga ii.
• Q: How do you think of 'Aida'?
A: I actually do picture white. Aida implies space in between the things, there is
potential to do things.
• Akio's Idea: Title each image as 'Zwischen als … 'x'.
i.e. 'Pause’
• Q: Wittgenstein no kangaekata, Macht das Sinn?
A: In German, there are many English words contained right? If german implies
Japanese words in their language, the concepts need to adjust to the German
world, which isn't ideal and will have a negative or missinterpretative effect on the
perception of the Japanese culture.
• Maybe we need to create a new world in the ‘in between’/ in the 'aida' where both
worlds can exist without compromise
• Q: What do you think of other means of translation that are not literal?
A: Anima and Manga are visual ways to communicate the Japanese 'basus' to
western people, a lot of young people are aware of the japanese ‘basis’ because of
being involved with these mediums, combines visual + story. It's done very well.
Maybe we can establish something similar.
Silent Post
descriptions of visuals
August 2019
1. さいとう。 社 会 の 間 を 生 きる。Ein Mann, der in Lücken der Gesellschaft lebt
2. 新 幹 線 の 旅 。 仕 事 の 合 間 。Zwischen als Pause
3. 奥 羽 本 線 青 森 発 弘 前 行 き。 車 両 の 間 zwischen zum Durchgehen
4. 弘 前 のレストラン。 個 室 の 扉 。 間 の 間 。zwischen des Zwischens
5. 木 漏 れ 日 Licht, das das Zwischen erfüllt
6. 木 漏 れ 日
7. 木 漏 れ 日
8. 弘 前 城 石 垣 kräftiges Zwischen
9. 黒 石 歩 道 begehbares Zwischen
10. 水 路 Zwischen, das fließt
11. 黒 石 鳴 海 氏 邸 床 の 間 Zwischen als Raum für den Blick
12. 鳴 海 氏 庭 園 、 石 と 石 の 間 Zwischen als Abgrund
13. 鳴 海 氏 邸 、 内 と 外 の 間 Zwischen Innen und Außen
14. 函 館 五 稜 郭 の 松 の 間 の 空 、 空 の 間 の 松 Zwischen den blauen Flächen
15. ゴジラ 背 中 Zwischen Realität und Fantasie in der Realität
16. ゴジラ 歯 の 間 にビル
17. ゴジラ 歯 の 間 に 空
18. ゴジラ 歯 の 間 に 空
19. ゴジラ 歯 の 間 に 空
20. アメ 横 魚 Zwischen echt und falsch
21. アメ 横 Street zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart
22. アメ 横 Zwischen Unten und Oben
23. アメ 横 道 の 間 Labyrinth der Stadt
24. アメ 横 道 の 間 と 空
TRANSLATION ‘MA’
currently on hold
plan:
- continue the ‘chinese whisper’ process
- develop film through process
- possibly experiment with cyanotype

LENA YOKOYAMA INTERIM SHOW
- Catalogue for degree show
- develop and plan IPS
- realise internship/project opportunity with Red Bull
- working on defining my creative assets
- updating my website to tailor to the market I want to move into
ONLINE PORTFOLIO
Website: www.lenayokoyama.art
Instagram: @lena_yokoyama