Posts Tagged ‘Woodrow Phoenix’

Woodrow Phoenix, who travelled to India with the Lit Sutra project last November, has produced this fantastic, exclusive piece of artwork for the British Council, inspired by his experience. Read about his journey here.

 On November 15th the road safety NGO, Arrivesafe, held an event as part of the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic accidents. The British Council teamed up with Arrivesafe in Chandigarh as Woodrow Phoenix delivered a presentation on his graphic novel about road accidents, Rumble Strip, and judged entries in a competition to design a road safety awareness poster. Read more about the work of Arrivesafe here.

day six – mummies, ninjas, ponies and bob the alien

The reading area of the Hyderabad British Library is set up with 120 chairs facing a screen and a flipchart. Children aged from 5 to 14 from three local schools are going to be playing the storytelling game with me, just as I did with the other group in Chandigarh. Two characters, one setting, some likes and dislikes. Go. This time we draw an adventure with a ninja (who hates pink) and an alien called Bob (who likes kissing). Read the rest of this entry »

day five – intellectual property in hyderabad

After the relative calm of Chandigarh, arriving in Hyderabad is like being plucked from a tub of yogurt and plunged into a hot bowl of minestrone soup. The continuous day and night honking of every kind of car horn, bus horn and truck horn reminds me of Car Horn Symphony, a composition made for 30 cars by Dennis Bathory-Kitsz. He could make his ultimate version here but he’d need five hands to transcribe it.

http://netnewmusic.ning.com/video/car-horn-symphony-no-2

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day four – arrive safe

My last morning in Chandigarh. From my window all I can see is grey fog so thick I can barely make out the trees ten feet away. Everything is drained of colour. Wolfman or Dracula could be looming out of this old fashioned black and white pea souper to claim another victim. An hour later it's starting to lift. I am just beginning to eat my cornflakes in the restaurant when the manager of the hotel comes over to my table, looking preoccupied. He introduces himself and just as I wonder what I might have done wrong he breaks into a big smile and tells me he saw my picture in the paper. Did I need anything else? An omelette, some coffee or tea?

We drive to Sukhina Lake. It's a beautiful man made lake set in parkland in the centre of Chandigarh that attracts thousands of people every weekend. So that's why it was chosen for an event to mark the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

day three – teaching through graphics

I write the word "contrast" on a flipchart in the Party Room of the Hotel. Thirty-five teachers write the word "contrast" in their notebooks. I’m showing them how they can use symbols in their day to day teaching. Smiley faces. Stick figures. how they can create a huge variety of moods and styles with very simple changes. How two dots and a line can transform almost anything into a face. And then I show them how to structure a very simple story that can involve everyone in the class in making decisions about what happens next. They aren’t too sure how this works so I make them do it with me, and we create the story of a tree and a piece of chalk. Tree wants to get water for her roots. Chalk is scared of water. Tree gets water and while watering her roots she spills some on the chalk who is partially dissolved. Read the rest of this entry »

day two, Chandigarh: 'text/image relationship: on writing a graphic novel'

A blank sheet of paper is a profoundly democratic thing. It doesn't care what you do with it. Banknote. Toilet paper. Airline ticket. Love letter. Manifesto. Thirty percent off everything this weekend. Death threat. Sales receipt.

Think of comics this way. Let's get started. Read the rest of this entry »

day one – new delhi: endangered species

The man next to me on the plane was trying to sleep, contorting his body into about every position it was possible to make with the number of limbs he had to work with. I was annoying him by having my light on.

I can't really sleep on planes. I passed the time watching The Poseidon Adventure because you really want to see disaster movies when you're thousands of feet up in the air. And then I subjected myself to a breathtakingly repellent comedy called Bride Wars which you'd only watch all the way through if you were in solitary confinement. There you go then. What perfect programming. Read the rest of this entry »

Tony Lee, Jake Arnott and Woodrow Phoenix are all arriving in India this week for a series of events. Please check our Facebook page  for more details