Interview with Jon Jicha
Jon Jicha is an artist, designer, and a Professor Emeritus of Art in the School of Art and Design at Western Carolina University.
To learn more about Jon, visit jonjicha.com
Tell us a little bit about yourself?
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio during a very exciting and stimulating time. Rock and roll flooded the city with energy, art was questioning cultural mores, and social and civil rights issues were central to everyday conversations. I worked as an apprentice designer in several studios in downtown Cleveland during my high school and college summer breaks largely because of my father’s connections. He was an art director for D’Arcy Advertising Agency.
I had the good fortune of going to Kent State University from 1968 through 1972 as a BFA student, double majoring in Studio Art and Graphic Design. Those years were complicated—the mobilization of the student led-anti war movement and the shootings of unarmed Kent State students by members of the Ohio National Guard instilled in me, and others, a desire to make art that made a difference. For example, the 1970 Creative Arts Festival featured seminal giants in art like Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson—artists who continue to inspire me even today.
I worked for the university as a media designer after graduation and concurrently enrolled in the MFA Program in Graphic Design at KSU. After completing my graduate degree, I accepted an assistant professor position to shape a design curriculum at Coker College, a liberal arts institution in South Carolina. From there, I was hired at Western Carolina University to develop their Graphic Design Program. I am very thankful that all of my education continues to serve and reinforce teaching, art production and design practice everyday.
You previously taught an independent study course to a group of 8 students, which led to the production of the ambitious, multi-media project “Pavillon-Pavilion.” What was the impetus for the project?
The School of Art and Design has good students with varied backgrounds and interests. Several of them wanted to take an Independent Study course with me and I agreed. When Spring semester began and we met for the first time, it was clear that something other than ‘independent’ work was required. Collectively, the 8 students and I deliberated on our options. An exhibition was the answer. I promised to secure a gallery space (Revolve, in Asheville, North Carolina) and we thought it would be productive to do an on-line, interactive exhibition that was parallel to the gallery show. Our reasoning was that a virtual show was not limited by time, space or place.
As everyone knows, the election campaigns in the Fall of 2016 were front and center in all the media outlets as inescapable noise patterns. Most of it was incoherent, destructive, and nefarious. Everyone agreed...this is something to target with a responsive collective voice. The energy from that meeting produced an abundance of thoughts, ideas, proposals and commentary. One student came up with the words “pavillon” (bell-like shape to increase volume) and “pavilion” (sheltered gathering place). The nuance with the ‘I’ and ‘i’ replacement was rhetorically intentional. All students in the group began the wordmark play process with interactivity in mind. The final result works somewhat like sonar tracking... the dots representing locations for the individual projects and references within the exhibit. Each of the projects had some reference to current events backed by research from journals books, and articles on various social observations including media manipulation, demographic resourcing, cultural phenomenology, and organizational strategies. We sourced various authors including, Alinsky, Holmes, Ewen, Lippmann, McLuhan, Baudrillard, Duchamp, and others to better understand our themed environment.
Above: Exhibition/panel discussion with installation at Revolve Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, March 2017
Left: Origin of Pavillon-Pavilion word construct. Illustrations serve only to visualize P-P Collective concept.
Above: ATROPHY. Symbols are tools of compression. Detached from their ideas, they can produce an intensification of feeling and a degradation of significance.
Animated 2 minute loop experience with sound intended to invoke paranoid tension
Above: TALK@YOU. Actual quotes were pulled from actual chat-space entries commenting on a variety of issues. This presentation exposes those ‘anonymous’ voices through individuals (actors) within a simulated open broadcast format. Presented as an on-site video at the exhibition through a traditional VGA monitor with audio. Included in the URL site (pavillon-wcu.org.).
VHS video loop with audio
Once the theme was selected, how did students organize the production of work?
The project development may well be a case study for a new curriculum model. Since all the students had different class schedules there was a designated meeting time each week in my office/studio space. However, we also connected through Facetime, WhatsApp, email, or Skype from satellite locations. Sharing ideas and production strategies was made possible through this workplace hub each week. And, both physical (pop-up) and virtual exhibitions were completed in eight weeks.
Above: NEWS (sourced) FEED (unsourced). A common disinformation tactic is to mix truth, half-truths, and lies to manipulate content and context.
Three page from a 48 page book, format: 10" x 8".
What was the initial reception to the project and how did the project expand after the initial installment?
During the opening at the pop-up space, Revolve, the students elected four out of the group to be panelists to field questions. Each project’s premise was explained and vetted. The Q and A session that followed was lively and provocative. Other undergraduate and graduate students along with artists showed an interest in adding work to the existing core. Clearly, this project hit a nerve. While the initial group of students has graduated and are currently practicing professional artists/designers at-large in their respective communities, we have agreed to continue with the Pavillon–Pavilion mission. The outcome of this total project can be measured through the students’ independent and collective enthusiasm, their success in generating plausible media-driven arguments, and the excellence in design production and wayfinding strategies. Perhaps, above all, their curiosity to question immediate circumstances and interests in relationships, invoked through a larger public forum, empowered each of them to realize an effective voice of reason.
Above: HB2 Placemats (One of Series)
This is the so-called “Bathroom Bill”, North Carolina’s House Bill 2. It regulates bathroom usage around the concept of “biological sex” which it defines as “[t]he physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person’s birth certificate.” The Bill passed and then it was repealed over one year later under substantial public and economic pressure.
12" x 18"
Below: UNDERBRELLAS (installation at Revolve Gallery, Asheville, NC… March, 2017)
Images of sheep emblazoned with the P–P Collective subtext; Speak, Listen, Hear, See…are applied to the interior and exterior panels of umbrellas. The term ‘Underbrella’ is intended to advocate action from within this predisposed personal space into a public environment.