IT'S DONE!

On Thurs. Dec.17, 2015 I presented the ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT graphic novel as my Master's of Architecture thesis at the University of Toronto's Daniels school!

The audience was half professors and half students, I've never seen so many profs at one crit; the discussion ranged from criticisms within the story of norms in architectural education, challenging conventional modes of representation and whether it was okay for me to be as arcane as I was being; and was the feminist bit intentional?

 One of the best parts was when a visiting critic from U of Waterloo mused, "I remember when I was a young architecture student and I got so frustrated with the school that I drew a cartoon, and I wanted everyone to see it, so I posted it on the front door of the school.  It stirred up a lot of reactions and some people even responded with whole essays."  I asked, had they been positive or negative? He smiled and said "Both. One of them even told me I was way out of line and who did I think I was?"  And the visiting prof turned to smile at the guy sitting next to him, who turned red and chuckled.  "Sorry, I was a lot more hardcore and intolerant back then."  They're obviously friends now!

But the best for me was a prof who didn't speak much, just said at the end, "You've brought everything back to a place of deep essential meaning for you.  We all need to do this.  Keep doing this."  And another asked me to keep drawing like this.

Many, many thanks to my advisor, Prof. David Lieberman--without his appreciation and guidance, the completion of this ten-year degree and the commitment to this graphic novel would not have happened!  I have become a better artist for it and I vow to continue.

 

Daniels School of Architecture final Thesis presentations Booklet - Dec., 2016

The  graphic novel is more than 2/3 done... near future plans:

a) Complete all the pages, lay out and publish the final product.

b) Launch at TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) Friday May 13th through Sunday May 15th, 2016.

c) Explore new avenues of professional growth.

 Thanks for all your support!  (And thanks to Utkarsh Singh​ for taking the photos of my presentation!)

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 10

 

A bit abstract - this page shows a plan view--think Google Perimeter--of Bagel Blue (little circle in lower left hand corner) walking angrily along the road away from the hamlet in which he grew up.  (Actually it's based on a painting by a certain Dutch modernist who liked grids!)

In other related news, I am excited about my upcoming thesis defense for my Master's of Architecture degree at U of T... it will be on Thurs. Dec. 17; the subject will be this graphic novel.  There will be a PowerPoint, original pages and a lively discussion.

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 9 + short re-interview with Val Peter

 

SHORT RE-INTERVIEW with Val Peter of "ARTIST UNKNOWN" 

This interview happened accidentally over Facebook as a

result of last week's posting. However, Val and Xyle did a long interview

with me for the online documentary channel Artist Unknown back on May 8, 2015

Artist Unknown chats Graphic Novels with Matthew Brown

Q & A with Val Peter, re: ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT

(Facebook, Nov.20/15)

Val Peter So what do these drawings have to do with Architecture? I'm missing something or I didn't catch something from way back...I figured architecture would be like buildings!

Matthew Brown Yes, indeed! a) The graphic novel explores the creation of worlds, which include the architectural and urban design scales, b) the process of considering the graphics and the discipline of creating them comprises discipline ingrained from the world of architecture, c) the story is about a young man in an alternate world who pines to go to architecture school although he's from the remote provinces, finally gets his wish, and several days later the world ends. He is preserved from the destruction of the world in the mystical city of Varanasi / Benares which is suspended above the universal cycles of cosmic destruction and creation on Shiva's trident, and commissioned to design a new world! smile emoticon

Val Peter Wowza!! So your new graphic novel is called Architecture Department?

Matthew Brown Val Peter Yup! It's called "Architecture Department," and I had it planned in sketches and notes before I even had the idea of returning to complete my Arch. degree!

Val Peter So the architecture degree is helping you with the whole grasp of perspective in your drawings? Is that the sole incentive or is it moreso for the completion of your degree?

Matthew Brown These are good questions, Val! The interview continues wink emoticon

Val Peter You beat me to the punch!

Val Peter I was going to say interview completed after you answered the last Q....lol

Matthew Brown a) Architectural representation has a set of expected drawing conventions, such as the elevation, perspective, section, plan and axonometric/isometric drawings. It also presumes orthogonal (90 degree angles) or something deliberately opposed to it, and includes attempts to portray the experienced quality of a space or succession of spaces. Finally, the drawings are expected to convey a richness of conceptual information... all of these have made their mark! (Pun intended.)

b) My incentives were plural... I wanted to complete what I had begun, follow up my love of comics and investment in doing them, and I wanted to integrate my love of architecture and urban design into my exploration of the human subconscious and its divine/mundane expressions in the graphic novel form.

 (Phew!)

And earn the #$%&@*!! degree.

Val Peter (No question.) So I'm looking forward to seeing some archetypal wonders in your next book!!

Matthew Brown Yes my friend, I PROMISE TO DO MY BEST!!!!!

 

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 16 (with colour by Gabriel Valdiviesio)

I've been posting the pages in sequence, but today a  jump forward to page 16 to showcase the brilliant work of my fellow student in the Master's of Architecture program at University of Toronto--Mr. Gabriel Valdiviesio.  He graciously showed me his colour virtuosity in Photoshop, when I happened to be working on my black and white scans.

What do you think? 

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 8

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 7

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 6