Assignment 1
Empty Space I: Books, Paper, Scissors
Empty Space I: Books, Paper, Scissors
Sketches/written ideas : 11"x17" format, media: graphite, pen, felt tip marker, colored pencils
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Assignment 1
Empty Space I: Books, Paper, Scissors
The book I got for my project is The Nature of Things by Lucretius. It's a translated poem of a greek philosopher/poet, and discusses several parts of life over the course of six books.
You can find the interpretation in detail here.
The book itself is quite small, hard-bound, printed ages ago [1948], and suffering some wear. The pages are yellowing and have no finish, the print is fine and clearly made on a printing press, and the cover is worn and bubbling.
The main points I took from the book covered the topics :
- Fear of Death [unknown. carve into book and somehow maintain its closed position. middle isn't directly viewable = element of unknown]
- Material Nature of Man [ephemeral quality. beginning -> end -> beginning. circular pattern - same idea]
- The Struggle to Escape Oneself [something within another. co-existence. overlap. everything + nothing at the same time]
- Nothing to Fear in Death [before + after life = same level of fearlessness]
*bold = topic, italicized = initial thoughts
I felt the essence of the book described the nature of life and how quickly it evaporates, with all of its intricacies and unconceivable, minute moments that occur within the span of a lifetime - within an hour even - dissipating immediately and existing only in memory [a blurred impression of actuality]. All of the things conceived in the mind that can't be seen by others unless put into words and even then it's only a stilted, patched-together framework that attempts to make clear the meaning behind it. So I wanted to represent that somehow, the entirety of life beginning and end, frozen in a moment so that one could take a look at it and understand that the beginning is the end is the beginning.
My initial idea was to use a life-cycle motif, such as a tree growing, dying, and new trees growing beneath it, but that was very literal and compromised the project. My second idea was to use some form of circular pattern to represent the cycle but in a more abstract way. Third was to use a form that would represent everything all at once while still retaining its ephemeral quality, and so I chose the form of a breath in the cold. Something that indicates life but it remains unseen most of the time.
Empty Space I: Books, Paper, Scissors
The book I got for my project is The Nature of Things by Lucretius. It's a translated poem of a greek philosopher/poet, and discusses several parts of life over the course of six books.
You can find the interpretation in detail here.
The book itself is quite small, hard-bound, printed ages ago [1948], and suffering some wear. The pages are yellowing and have no finish, the print is fine and clearly made on a printing press, and the cover is worn and bubbling.
The main points I took from the book covered the topics :
- Fear of Death [unknown. carve into book and somehow maintain its closed position. middle isn't directly viewable = element of unknown]
- Material Nature of Man [ephemeral quality. beginning -> end -> beginning. circular pattern - same idea]
- The Struggle to Escape Oneself [something within another. co-existence. overlap. everything + nothing at the same time]
- Nothing to Fear in Death [before + after life = same level of fearlessness]
*bold = topic, italicized = initial thoughts
I felt the essence of the book described the nature of life and how quickly it evaporates, with all of its intricacies and unconceivable, minute moments that occur within the span of a lifetime - within an hour even - dissipating immediately and existing only in memory [a blurred impression of actuality]. All of the things conceived in the mind that can't be seen by others unless put into words and even then it's only a stilted, patched-together framework that attempts to make clear the meaning behind it. So I wanted to represent that somehow, the entirety of life beginning and end, frozen in a moment so that one could take a look at it and understand that the beginning is the end is the beginning.
My initial idea was to use a life-cycle motif, such as a tree growing, dying, and new trees growing beneath it, but that was very literal and compromised the project. My second idea was to use some form of circular pattern to represent the cycle but in a more abstract way. Third was to use a form that would represent everything all at once while still retaining its ephemeral quality, and so I chose the form of a breath in the cold. Something that indicates life but it remains unseen most of the time.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Assignment 1
Empty Space I: Books, Paper, Scissors
The task of a book is to ask the reader/viewer to understand and interpret it. Furthermore, the book embodies (it materializes) the author's sensibilities: it contains and/or presents his/her interpretation, conception, or idealization of the world.
...
You have been given a book. By means of representation (two and three dimensional), you should dissect, analyze, and explain: making diagrams, mappings, scores, three-dimensional mock-ups, etc. what you consider to be a central condition to it (conceptual, pictorial, formal, organizational, etc.) Using these, you should propose and execute a means of carving the book to reveal your findings and to represent through it.
...
The assignment is asking one to find the meaning of the book and by carving into it, creating something that represents this by means of physical materialization.
Examples were given in class of how to carve into books, however upon searching "carving books" many more examples could be discovered online, mainly by one artist, but other artists have followed a similar route.
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