For my final class project and exhibition of PLP was to discover what makes someone a community impact maker.
To answer this question we first started on a much broader global scale focusing on the “crazy ones” that have changed the world. This project was inspired by Apple’s famous Think Different advertising campaign. For this part of the project we defined what makes or doesn’t make someone a “crazy one”. Our final definition being: Someone who goes again the mainstream to make a positive change that pushes the world forwards.
We then zoomed in to the scale of a community. We again started with defining the definition of a community and what makes someone a crazy one or an impact maker on a community scale. The definition of community that we were using was: A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
Our definition of makes someone a community impact maker was: A person that identifies a problem and figures out and implements a solution. This action leaves an impact on a community or individual that changes our world. An impact maker makes our planet a better place to live.
The community impact maker I chose was Douglas Coupland
My Connection to Douglas Coupland and the reason I choose him was: As someone living in Vancouver, Douglas Coupland’s work and ideas have impacted how I see where I live. When I visited his exhibition, Everywhere Is Anywhere Is Anything Is Everything in 2014 as an artist, seeing his use of objects, colour and text changed my perception of what art could be. He is also someone who the more I learn about the more things I know I discover the is responsible for.
Douglas Coupland is a world famous artists and writer known for putting Vancouver on the map through his famous works such as Generation X, 1991, and Girlfriend in a Coma, 1998. Douglas Coupland grew up in Vancouver, where he attended what is now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, his rise to fame increased its popularity. His social commentary through his work and have had a lasting impact on many communities especially Vancouverites who connect to his social commentary on time and history because it is heavily influenced by him growing up in Vancouver.
For our presentation of this at the exhibition we had to create a portrait of our impact maker. For my portrait of Douglas Coupland I decided to take inspiration form his artwork using found objects or objects significant to a time in your life such as Lego. I then create a very pixilated grayscale portrait of him obscuring everything except the most prominent featured of his face forcing you to take a second look at it and think about who it is.
