Future Fastasteek!

The practice-based research brings together a trichotomy of investigation; art-zines and independent publishing; artist as social commentator and drawing as a means of immediate visual communication. The series explores obdurate boundaries between journalism and authorial illustration using satire to reflect notions of ‘Britishness’. The series can be read as a sequence, from just prior to the ‘credit crunch’ through to ‘Brexit’.
The series is independently published as a limited edition art-zine, with one issue per year. The approach is experimental, incremental and reflective focussing on both the microcosm and macrocosm of living in the UK. Visual humour is developed throughout as a vehicle for change, combining techniques such as pastiché, parody and socratic irony. Typography and images are juxtaposed to create new narrative possibilities. Language is explored using different ‘voices’ such as anecdotal, colloquial or profane. This text is then translated into drawn commentaries on etiquette, politics and advertising. The ‘anxiety of the individual’ is a running theme throughout the series with many reoccurring protagonists and antagonists soliloquizing their notions of ‘Das Unheimliche’.

The series also explores changing technologies with regard to notions of ‘the book’ with online versions of Future Fantasteek! available via a blog and online PDF reader (issuu and .swf). In 2016 Kindle versions of selected issues have also be made available via Amazon.