Week 3
Feedback from the previous tutorial (20.01.22)
Instead of presenting (visual presentation) the poem or the written source, you will use, try to communicate (meaning) it using the diagrammatic elements.
The version/iteration with just shapes, lines, and arrows is more interesting than the others (no text, no image) but this depends on the ‘caption’ you will give.
I can have a simple story, a simple caption to create my composition. This will make it easier for me to visualize things but will also help the viewer connect and understand things easier.
Meaning and context (theme, topic). This will change the experience of the reader/viewer and the meaning of the diagrams. It will hopefully also add function and purpose (rationale).
Reflection
According to the previous week’s iterations (based on the poem I found during travelling in the underground/tube), the one that seems to be stronger and more interesting is the one without images and text. A plain diagrammatic illustration consisting only of shapes, lines, and arrows can lead to very interesting narratives. This takes me back to the beginning of Unit 2, when I was researching how the interpretation is formed when the viewer is looking at such an abstract composition.
A topic/theme (use it as a source) could help me create narratives using my diagrammatic language. It will offer a series of diagrams that are interconnected with each other and have the same source. Adding a short caption along with a diagram helps the viewers understand what they are looking at, connect the elements, shape stories. It also makes the whole work interesting and sometimes intelligent (e.g. a series of black circles alone can be interpreted in any way, but what happens when I add the caption ‘4 people are waiting in a queue to buy food?’).
↳ I’ve already started thinking of a topic/theme to work with, in the second project. For now, I want to focus on the tool/technique and not in the ource.
Topics that I am interested in:
Everyday life (situations that I come across). (e.g. while travelling in the tube, while walking, covid, etc.) .Thing I am concerned about. What I feel. (personal stories, diary) – Even if the stories are mine and I have a specific explanation, the viewer can see something else and form a new story.One diagram per day – Diary (one incident happened during the day).- Write a random story (evreday life) and visualize it using my technique/tool/diagrammatic method. Having a story to work with and not various different ‘things’ will make the project/work more coherent.
New references
Constructivism: Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge
Karlssonwilker Studio
Dom Sylvester Houédard
Scott King
Inspiration
↘
Project 1
- Enquiry: Diagrammatic language and its use, with particular emphasis on its potential to construct or shape a narrative. Diagrams elements as facts vs interpretation, clarity vs ambiguity, subjectivity vs objectivity. (same as before, more in-depth research in only one type of diagrams).
- Tool/Technique: Diagram/Diagrammatic language/diagrammatic illustration (shapes, lines, arrows), using a digital software (Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign).
Constraints: 1 point size for all the elements I am using, same type size (7pt), black and white. - Source: A random short story developed while making the diagrams (writing/ceating the storylines and diagrams simultaneously).
MAIN IDEA:Having something as inspiration and source; a piece of information (image, text, etc.), using it to create something new; A diagrammatic illustration/composition; A new story. The aim of the project is to point out the value of imagination/thinking, exploring how people respond to things they don’t understand and how this confusion/misleading can form new interesting narratives (leaving space for imagination, striking a balance between clarity and ambiguity, objectivity and subjectivity).
“An exploration in the art of reduction. Breaking down the imagery into its purest form by discarding any unnecessary information.” –Duane Dalton
AIM
Trying to communicate a story* using the least possible amount of diagrammatic elements (shapes, lines, arrows) – VISUAL GRAMMAR.
“Less is more” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
*I have written a short random story to use for this project. The aim is to have a source in order to use it and develop my technique/tool.
I have also tried to keep it simple. The more simple the written text is, the easiest is the diagrammatic visualization. Also, the simple and short captions/ storylines will help the viewer to understand the diagrammatic illustrations easier (connect the elements).
+ The diagrammatic illustrations without the ‘captions’, can be interpreted in many ways (the value of imagination/thinking, exploring how people respond to things they don’t understand and how this confusion/misleading can form new interesting narratives).
Apart from the diagrams, I have also focused on the text(storylines), treating them in a way to express their meaning/function. Not only placing the text at a certain place in the paper but thinking about its position, layout, etc.
Have a look at how the story is developing so far:
the most meaning-less, subjectless, structure-less, use-less story.
A random short story I have started writing while I was in the park and developed while making the diagrams (writing/creating the storylines and the diagrams simultaneously).