Publication Focused

So from 'Our Betty' to the dictionary. This came about because 'Our Betty' and Liz Smith herself is such a tradional woman, her generation is completely different to mine and to those who GILIL project want to attract to the library: the massive shift in traditions, society and behaviours interests me greatly.

I'm planning on doing a still life based/collage photoshoot focusing on stereotypes by examining these new words that have been added to the dictionary over recent years, words such as chav, twitter, cheeseball, simples etc. I want to use the new vocabulary to come up with my final 6 words/themes/stereotypes. I want to pick 6 words to focus on and then look into stereotypes and associations with each word (showing that a variety of different people visit the library) then source objects/fabric/accessories/shoes/clothing that reflects that stereotype to the word.

For instance if I look at the word chav, I will take photos of things that are associated with chavs (burberry, knuckle dusters etc) I will literally take photos of these found objects then use the photos to create a collage, I will create 6 of these to 6 different words/stereotypes. These collages will become my final 6 different fashion images looking at stereotypes with the influence of words.

Each image I do will literally have the word for the stereotype on the image, each image will have the photographs I have taken of the sourced objects, these photographs will help aid the story and show each stereotype.

And my, oh my, how many new, unusual words have been added to the latest Oxford. Some include; Chav, Simples, Chindonesia, LBD, Chillax, microblogging, social media, silver surfer, Nurdle, Screenager, staycation, geek chic, Chill Pill, technophobes, Credit Crunch, gal pal, Lipstick Lesbian, twitter, facebook, Newbie, mwah, toxic debt, Cheeseball.....the list could go on and on, every year there's a tonne of new words added to the dictionary, some really unusual and some very current. For instance, the rise in use of social media sites, including Twitter and facebook, all these words are part of our society at the minute and seem to be key to the youth culture.

The dictionary is a publication that is always in the process and is never and will never be finished, this is something I find really interesting because I'm interested in people and their behaviour and like it states on the BBC's website, the dictionary is something that ,

'Aims to reflect current trends in the usage of English Words',
BBC.co.uk, 19/08/2010