Micro Genre - Initial Ideas

• Create/design a tote bag.
• Use sewing techniques, to reference to cotton trade.
• Using the words/strong typography, representing the lasting impression that slavery has on American culture.
• Another idea is to design a bag which represents what America has and what Africa could/should have had. 
• One side the commodities America is most famous for.
• The other side the bag is empty, what America and Europe left Africa with
• Critique vs celebration.
• Screen print the design onto the tote bag/ then sew parts over the top.
• Use batik printing on the tote bag, as this is what they use in Africa on the patterns of their clothes.
• Represents how slavery made Africans lose their sense of identity, and how gospel music was a way in which they tried to bring it back into American culture and combine the two. 
• Using the Antrik symbols, to show the hidden messages of their meetings and also represent the fact that slaves couldn't read or write, which is also why they copied the christian songs.
• They used lyrics of songs to say hidden, secret messages to each other. 
• One side using hidden symbols and based around African culture, the other side showing how Americans Americanised africans.

• Creating/designing tobacco packaging.
• Contrasting the taboo of smoking with the taboo of slavery.
• Use the African flags of countries within the design to represent where the slaves were taken from and how they lost their identities.
• Research into the materials that can be taken in Africa.
• Represents how Europe and America underdeveloped Africa and how that they could have these commodities if slavery had never happened. 
• Use printing methods used in Africa on the packaging.
• Image of tobacco packaging on a piece of cotton to create a flag.
• Map of the tobacco plantations.
• Using colours taken from African culture, particularly west Africa. 
• Research American brands of tobacco.
• Rebrand the tobacco as African using colours and design taken from their culture.
• Ceramic packaging?

• Design/create a garment or piece of clothing which critiques or celebrates the origins of traditional black gospel music.
• Using batik printing, traditional printing technique used inAfrica within their own clothes and textile industry. 
• Using natural dyes to create colour in the garment.
• Using the words which have been taken from Africa and are now part of American culture.
• Using the antrik symbols to make a more abstract design and representing how the slaves couldn't read or write and making the design purely visual. 
• Create a pattern which represents a graph or symbols showing the numbers and statistics of the trans Atlantic slave trade.