Materiality
Inital experiments book Sarah Wickings
Initial Ideas & Inspiration
Inspiration from chapter in book (1980 - 1999). I chose to look at appropriation photography, as I enjoy collage & felt the concept of appropriation being different from copyright an interesting subject to dabble in. I looked on pinterest for initial ideas and tried to gain inspiration from them for my own experiments
Hannah Hoch
Maurizio Anzeri
Computer experiments I wanted to firstly experiment on the computer to see what the difference would be between computer and texturised collages. I wanted to use first hand images and not famous photos, so I used my friends who studies photography, so they wouldn’t be compared or recognisable. I wanted to use colourful and interesting photos so I was glad with the options I could experiment with.
Drawing workshop/ Amanda We had a drawing workshop with Amanda where I experimented with initial collages by hand and scanning them into the computer. I found this a helpful process to improve the collage and add different depth and layers to it. After working on the computer with experiments I decided to move on to more hand collages and try and come out with quick and detailed collages to see where my project could go.
Refining project
After a tutorial about my current work I decided to pull back my thoughts on Materiality and rethink the brief. I really enjoyed creating these collages and felt that it was something I want to continue to progress in but wasn’t sure if it linked well enough with Materiality and if I was passionate enough to continue in this relating to Materials. I deicded to go back to the first thoughts of my subject after some advise from Gabbi and began to think more about the definition and meaning of Materiality and how I can put my own stamp on it.
Definition
materiality - the quality of being composed of matter. "the exhibition explores the materiality of the body" LAW - the quality of being relevant or significant. "the applicant must establish materiality on the balance of probabilities" a material quality or thing. plural noun: materialities "giving a materiality to space"
To designers, the computer is the most ‘relevant or significant’ material and tool. They have expanded the design industry since the Macintosh in 1984 and allowed design to happen all over the world. This project is exploring the complexity of the computers materials and appreciating them. I have taken different elements of the definition, focusing on computers for there relevance and also looking into the materials used.
The Digital World and Materiality
First thoughts.. No obvious material used. ‘Digital world’ doesn’t use materials Don’t mix
How do they link? The material is the keyboard, pressing down on keys/shortcuts. Using the mouse - most used keys, most used shortcuts - relationship between hands and the keyboard
What are the Materials? Hands - Fingertips Keyboard Mouse Brushes on softwares
Target Audience? - Students - Universities
Font used: VAG Rounded since 2007, Univers from 1984 when Macintosh was first invented
Concept 1
Keyboards - said to be the dirtier than toilets Such a creative and every day tool is neglected and disgusting Need to realise more and pay attention. The dirtiest item is where the most creativity happens in today’s era. Catch 22 about the digital world?
Interesting visual response possible - the more letters pressed the dirtier it gets? How is such amazing work created on such a dirty platform?
Concept 2 Relationship between hands and the keyboard.
What keys are pressed most often? - shortcuts - keys, most common Think about infographics, cleverly arranged letters to symbolise keys and most used.
THINK ABOUT INTERACTION - guessing who used what shortcuts e.g. Graphic Designers, Journalists depending on the shortcuts highlighted - 3D piece - pressing the letters? Actual keyboard? - take a symbol away think about Embossing? - gives depth like the keyboard.
Information Is Beautiful
Think about interesting ways to share information. (David McCandless)
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Consider: Slogan in bottom corner - creates a series? - different programs? - different jobs/people What can the main focuses be? - what short cuts have what effect, consider using illustrations alongside. More depth - what is below the keyboard? Take it apart. What’s below the Material?
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More depth, think about opacity.. Create dark letters jumping out? What is the relevance.
The most used keys by Graphic Designers
What’s under the keyboard?
- Stream of connections - idea is more relevant to the topic, creates the digital connection with the material
Think about colours - mapping feel. Map of the digital world and materiality? Highlight technical aspect - could be interesting as an Ident. movement in tracks depending on what letters are pressed
Jennifer Argo - Pick me up Festival
Sketches of ideas for print outcome
Experiments
Linking to Neural Pathways
The computer is like the digital brain - many scientists have investigated if it’s possible to create a digital brain. Link between them - computers work like a brain. e.g. Siri
Experimenting with Typography
Tutorials w/ Phil and Gabbi
After the tutorials with Phil and Gabbi I began to think about ways to make my project clearer and show its meaning. I began to think about the definitions I highlighted before & incorporating them into the prints and outcomes, to make more relevant and clear. I want to experiment more with typography.
Adding typography & keyboard elements
To make more relevant and clear, I decided to add some elements to make it clear that this project is based around the computer and complexity. Compared to the first experiments with typography I feel this worked well.
Experimentation - Photography
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(previous two slides) I decided to add some depth to my project to photograph the computer and make this the base for my lines and print overall. I put them into photoshopped, selected the area and inversed the image and lines. To the right is the effect which I felt really effective.
Copper wire effect - colour palette
I changed the saturation and temperature of these images also to give a copper texture and feel to add more material elements to my work. This adds far more texture and realistic elements to my work and is much better than flat lines.
I then added a navy background as I felt this worked well with the gold/yellow lines. Here are some close ups of my final poster, which I printed A0 length and 500mm width.
Next print outcome
For another outcome I decided to think about showing the depth of my design through the use of acetate or clear plastic. I wanted to find some inspiration so looked online and began to look at different depths in design.
After seeing images I decided to put design onto a new indesign file and begin to think about if it would be possible to create a zine or concertina that would be completely clear or made of acetate to show depth and complexity of the computer. It also will show the detail of the material and make the audience appreciate them more.
Practise of Zine & Complications
I made a few mocks up of the zine/concerntina and realised a few complications. I wanted there to be elements of hidden text in the concertina, to show the hidden levels of materials in the computer itself. I realised when printing on acetate that the colour prints differently and it’s hard to get block colours. compared to normal paper. After a few mocks up, I improved the colours and some text errors.
Final Zine
Final outcome - I was happy with the style and tactile elements but felt the quality of printing wasn’t as high as I had wanted, and if I had time I would have reprinted and photographed for final piece.