considering procedures no. 3 (in syllabus) :
“Students themselves will assign readings (or lookings) relating to their work (in consultation with the instructor), and lead discussions of those readings.”
I am expanding this procedure to encompass these three options —
- a bibliography (meaning: annotated list, that may also include websites and other sources/analogues), and a presentation to in seminar of your findings; should include a summary paragraph (or page), that makes explicit the relevance to your project. and/or
- lead discussion of an assigned reading (10 pages maximum), and/or
- a participatory/collaborative project (i.e., Madison, her template houses) that contributes to your own work.
These will be scheduled for Thursdays (3, 10, 17) in November.
Think about, and state what you would like to do, on Thursday (next Tuesday latest), 20 and 25 October.
Pinboard (bookmarks).
Mine are at pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/. Most of these are private, but those for (this semester of) Design Seminar are public. For Design Seminar generally, they are tagged
#405F22
For individual seminarians :
Thea Cannon : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.TC/
Stacey Clavijo : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.SC/
Katie Dasilva : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.KD/
Madison Gerace : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.MG/
Patrick Mardy : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JR/
Joshua Marsi : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JM/
Sarah Mason : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.SM/
John Russo : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JR/
this just in —
October 18, 2022
OW #9: “Preservation, not Perfection!” —
An Interview with the People’s Graphic Design Archive by Michele Galluzzo
In this issue of Other Worlds, designer and design historian Michele Galluzzo speaks with Brockett Horne and Briar Levit, co-founders of the People’s Graphic Design Archive, about messy history, bottom-up participation, institutional support and the awe that archival material can sparkle.
at Other Worlds : link
The People’s Graphic Design Archive : a crowd-sourced virtual archive of inclusive graphic design history. link
asemic writing (regarding Thea’s many-layered handwriting experiment)
Asemic means “without semantic content”
seme (n.), in linguistics, “a sign or symbol; the smallest unit of meaning,” from Greek sēma “sign”
JM : a sign points to — indicates — refers to — something other than itself. Asemic suggests absence of meaning, or a sign-like thing that has no referent. Asemic writing might be thought of as visual gibberish. The expression “asemic writing” has become a “thing,” so to speak, in recent years. A sort of genre that says, “Hi, I'm asemic” (I’m only partly joking). In a sense, it refers to itself, as being asemic.
Stylistically, at least, asemic writing may (or even can only) refer to other things, or to the language that it is not. Here, I’m thinking of Xu Bing's Chinese characters, that are not to be found in any dictionary of Chinese. See his Book from the Sky (1987-91) : link
- on papyrus (unattributed) : link
aside — It is not clear (to JM) how someone could know with certainty that the example is, in fact, asemic. I only know that I cannot read it.
- wikipedia : link
- a google image search will yield many examples.
Gibberish can elide into a private language, or accrue meaning over time. See the fascinating (and lovely) essay linked below :
This Kids’ Show Proves the Wisdom of Gibberish
“Pingu” teaches everyone, even adults, to find meaning in made-up language.
Gabriel Rom. The New York Times Magazine (October 11, 2022) : link
a stammering aside —
I suppose that asemic writing is drawing, under the constraint that it behave like — or at least be tethered by the idea that it somehow echoes — writing, whether alphabetic or logographic (Chinese, hieroglyphs). Maybe there are repeated strokes, or certain curves and straights that are found in otherwise different units, or uniform spacings between units; the marks may be approximately the same size. And so in a sense, asemic writing does point elsewhere, or include plural elsewheres in a kind of visual echo chamber, where semantic significance has long since been purged.
graffiti : its aesthetics of speed and clandestine-ity.
“Surreptitiousness” might also serve, or furtiveness. The discussion of Madison’s houses and repurposed cereal etc boxes dwelt on the sources of authentic graffiti: the fact that it is unsanctioned, illegal and is generally done quickly, furtively and at night so as to avoid detection/apprehension (by police or building security), has direct consequences for style: highly practiced, efficient, quick; a kind of shorthand.
JM mused about the hand (for writing by pencil on paper, and by chalk on slate) versus the use of the larger machine tool that we call “the arm,” for tagging a wall. This led to ruminations about where the “art” is, in graffiti. Is it in the performance of the artist, the large and small dance-like gestures and gesticulations as the tagging is done? (Madison recalled videos of Keith Haring at work.) Is graffiti (as practiced on American walls (not ancient Roman ones!) a form of dance, with a rhythm and vocabulary or grammar or syntax of actions? Is it choreography backwards? by which I mean, the “score” or visual plan comes only through and after the dance not before.
Were Madison to assign a template house of building again, maybe it would make sense to limit the time allowed. Say, one minute. The participant might well elect to use a different kind of markmaking tool, or use the length of a piece of chalk rather than its end, and work in a different style.
Consult wikipedia for multiaxis machining : link
The discussion of John’s Puma poster — link — touched on several points.
- Representations of Rome. Could it be several different sites (rather than the Coliseum, with not a person in view)? Could it be different times? We glanced at photographs of Rome in the 1940s, almost of all of which were black and white.
- And then, why Rome? What about Wakefield? or Beverly?
- A new shoe, or a worn one? New shoe old/ruinous place, old/worn shoe in new clean new place? etc etc.
- Rome is not all famous buildings; rubbish piles up : link (2017)
more recently, ‘mortifying’ scenes of rubbish : link (June 2022)
JM mistakenly attributed the “trash strike” to Rome, it was actually Naples, and several years ago.
- JM questioned whether an element of the shoe, or a logo, would be extended/incorporated with some other form. Ordinarily, the object, and particularly the logo, cannot be subsidiary to something else, or (too) cleverly merged with another object. It must be allowed to exude its inner qualities of vertú, that years of brand management have endowed it with.
- Finally, with regard to Rome in the 1940s well into the 1960s, one might be aware of the look of Italian neorealist films. JM mentioned several directors : Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and (above all, in his personal liking) Michelangelo Antonioni, whose films include:
"L’Avventura (1960)
La Notte (The Night, 1961)
L’Eclisse (Eclipse, 1962)
Look for still images (or passages) from any of these via google or youtube, and see wikipedia for a summary : link
Bottom line, continue making posters, and consider creating/using your own visuals.
Katie showed new and inverted (and even posterized) windows with Munsell chips, and provided some language about methods of choosing which Munsell color chip would go into each photo. She makes judgements about what colors are most in evidence, but also might select a color that is least in evidence, too.
The whole project, so far, is framed as a day in the life of a design student — one who can’t look out the window innocently (like a normal non-design person!), but must blot out the view by a color chip and/or name.
JM reiterated the idea — perhaps consistent with the idea of “inversion” — of photographing a window from outside perhaps by means of a selfie-stick.
Another idea : arrange that a Munsell chip is 1 or 2 (or some other distance) inches out beyound camera/smartphone lens (perhaps by attaching it to clear plastic sheet, folded and attached to camera), and photograph anything with the center of the view obstructed by that chip. If camera/smartphone allows “manual” focusing, either the chip or the distant surround could in focus, or even some middle distance. It was noted that the plastic “frame” might interfere with a clear image, and might even be scratched/bent etc to yield even more interference. JM thought that unintended interference might be enough.
Patrick showed two (slightly, by warping/skewing/twisting) animations: of Michael K. Williams of The Wire and a pair of air pods floating between two hands. The head abstracted (at left) into Patrick’s signature (so to speak) marbling-like or psychedelic patterns. There seemed to be some consensus, at last weeks review, that (1) Patrick might best focus on the objects or figures, and leave type/lettering/language aside, at least for now; and (2) try animating the pieces.
Markus Raetz (yes/no) came up; many images via google, videos and even a documentary (French language only) via youtube; and there’s wikipedia : link
Stacey showed showed three images of a pair of hands, holding (1) a red heart wrapped in heart-decorated ribbon; (2) artificial flower petals arranged in the shape of a heart; and (3) a “pop-up” white paper heart, again attached to the image of the two hands. Each of the three pieces had a background (one of decorative paper, one of artificial leaves, one of a wall and window).
Mention was made of the “language of flowers” (link). Good to know of the existence of this practice, that peaked in the 19th century; it is more about language (and dictionaries) than about design, but may be of use.
JM wondered what the consequences (for meaning) might be, of a sequence of hands holding more and fewer flower petals, even one only, and thought this worth exploring, before trying another flower.
Sarah will incorporate books, or book structures, not to mention flat pages, in her project. JM (as usual) talked about the abstracting and transformative quality of capturing non-flat things, on a flat page.
Regarding the body, body parts and the book, mention was made of books bound in human skin, and also of the Visible Human Project : link
There were some ethical issues about some aspects of that latter project, but other similar projects (and less troubling from an ethics standpoint) have been done or are under way.
Tauba Auerbach her RGB Colorspace Atlas (2011) comes to mind, if only for its interesting use of the codex book format : link
Why Be Normal?: Disability & Design Now
By Aimi Hamraie. Art in America (October 17, 2022) : link
JM quick (rough) experiment, relating to Katie’s Munsell color, day-in-the-life-of project.
3860 (distance)
3869 (near, poor image though)
