The ten book series, “The Outsider” represents the duration of time that I had studied at Hochschule Augsburg, in the city of Augsburg, Bavaria. Funnily enough I knew very little German when entering the country. At first, I thought of this as a real issue I would have with daily life. But as I continued to live and work in the city, I started to appreciate the silence and stoicism of my daily commutes. I could no longer eavesdrop into a conversation mid tram journey, or try to group an opinion over a set of friends having an altercation. I fully submerged myself into my own surroundings. I had become wallpaper, watching my city carry on without my input.
Inspired by the books ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Outsider’, each book works as a chapter leading towards the next, with correlation and links connecting throughout all of the books, yet each book still manages to be different enough to work as a standalone publication. As I created these books, it became apparent to me that I was obsessing over the everyday, I was performing an act of this character that I had crafted for myself. The books themselves came in waves of risk. For example, the first book displays just images of me looking at people from close-up or from a distance, when I got used to this, I decided to follow someone around Munich (the neighbouring city) for around forty minutes, as I felt that I had become almost invisible to the people around me.
Many of the categories show buildings, cars, mountains and differing times of the day. Every single one of these factors built up my overall experience of taking part in Erasmus. I created books dedicated to these kinds of events as they were totally alien to me when living back at home in the UK. I decided to fully embrace the idea of ‘culture shock’ and play it to my advantage.
The project was named "A Book About Places" led by my Professor Jens Masmann.
The ten books were Exhibited at Bellevue de Monaco in Munich on Monday 9th July, 2018