Sketchbook Book intervention
Bri ef
Pick a book, one you really like or one that does not mean anything to you, and create something visual based on the chosen book.
m y book
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Plot: “Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is invited to give a lecture at the United States Capitol, with the invitation apparently from his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Solomon has also asked him to bring a small, sealed package which he had entrusted to Langdon years earlier. When Langdon arrives at the Capitol, however, he learns that the invitation he received was not from Solomon, but from Solomon’s kidnapper, Mal’akh, who has left Solomon’s severed right hand in the middle of the Capitol Rotunda in a recreation of the Hand of Mysteries. Mal’akh then contacts Langdon, charging him with finding both the Mason’s Pyramid, which Masons believe is hidden somewhere underground in Washington D.C., and the Lost Word, lest Solomon be executed.” (Wikipedia, 12/10-13) I do not remember if I have read The Lost Symbol or not, I picked it randomly because it was a hard cover book. I also picked another book called Grail by Stephen Lawheas, just to have a spare one if something would not work out.
first ideas
I found a quote at page 98: “Google is not a synonym for ‘research’. In these days of massive, worldwide keyword searches, it seemed everything was linked to everything.” I thought the quote was interesting because the word google does nowadays mean to use a search engine to obtain information on the word wide web, so it does actually mean some kind of research. I also found it intriguing because it says “in these days”, and my view of the plot of the book is that there is a lot of old and hidden clues that all are linked together somehow and they all help Robert Langdon to find what he is looking for. Thus, the clues are not from “these days” but they are still all linked together. So, the quote did not really make any sense to me, but in the same time I understood exactly what was meant with it. I started thinking of things that could be linked to each other, mostly based on the internet seeing that the quote was about Google. I also thought of how I could make the links visual. Some of the notes: - Logotypes and font faces could symbolize different companies or brands that are linked together. - I could use information graphics to visualize how everything is linked together. - The quote could be a seed from which things will grow. - I could put pages together to a poster and draw a network. - (7/10) Roads that turns into paths.
in spirati on
I looked for visual inspiration at Pinterest.com. My favourite pictures are the two big ones on top. I like the first one with the boat on the news paper because it is very simple and the text is not “the point� of the illustration, but yet the illustration would not be nearly as good without it. The other one, the New Yorker, I basically like for the opposite reason. The text is an important part of the illustration and it actually pictures something concrete (the skier’s tracks in the snow) so it has two functions in the picture at the same time (being a text and picturing tracks).
research
I started to google the word google and clicked on the link to the Wikipedia article about Google. And just to see how it all is linked together I continued to click on links in the text that led me somewhere else, and then I clicked on an other link that led me to another article or site, and so on. The notes to the left is what I found by just clicking around. The underlined ones are the words/companies/subjects that I found most interesting and wanted to continue working with.
re sea rch d evelopment
To make the google session a bit clearer I made a mind map over all the different links I followed up. The pink ones are the subjects that I found most interesting to use (later I changed some of them, so it does not match the finished result completely). I also made a plan over how many different links I would like to use. In the beginning I planned on using four different “levels�, the first one (where I used google as my keyword) would result in ten new ones, and each of them would result in four new, which all would result in two new links each. Later on I realized that it was far too many links to be able to fit it all on the poster, so I had to reduce the number of links and therefore also the number of subjects that should be presented.
sk e t c hi ng
I decided that I should visualize all the links as a map with roads and road signs. I tried to sketch how the roads should go and while doing that I realized that I really needed to reduce the number of links. I finally managed to sketch a pattern that I liked and got some new ideas from it too. For example I thought it looked like a subway map, so for a while I thought of changing it to that instead of roads (the quote that is situated in the middle of the poster could be the central station etc.). I was also thinking of making it more like a labyrinth or a treasure map, but I did not proceed far with those ideas seeing that they were not that good. (The sketches continues on the next spread.)
(The sketch that the final result is based on)
col l age
On request I made a collage of how I felt about my book project at that moment. I would not do a collage without anyone telling me to, but I am really glad I did because it made me narrow down my problems and understand exactly what I needed to do to be able to continue working with my ideas. Directly after making the collage I wrote this: Right now I feel very frustrated while thinking of my book project. I had one idea that I really liked, so I started working on it. But now I have started to doubt my idea because it is really similar to a flash film (as a concept, not the physical form), “A is for apple”, that we have seen and discussed in class, and I want my idea to be only mine and now it feels like I stole it. The collage is a puzzle with messy or missing pieces that I have to find or just “clear up” to make everything work together. If I could fin out what is missing, maybe my idea will feel more like my own again. While making the collage I was, as I have said, very frustrated because I felt that my idea had already been discussed and taken apart by all my class mates. Another problem I had that I did not mention directly in the text above is the two different reasons why I chose the quote, the link part and the google word part (I have described them more deeply under “First ideas”). I was really interested in both of them but I could not make them fit together. I know that you sometimes have to “kill a darling” but I somehow felt that I could make it work, I just did not know how.
fin d in g m issin g pi eces
As I have said in the text belonging to the collage, I started to doubt my idea. Therefore I asked myself “what do I want say by doing this?” and wrote down all the ideas I had. Finally I managed to put things together and came up with the work name The lost reason for my project (as a reference to the book title The lost symbol). The lost reason could be linked together with an number of my ideas, for example the word google has lost its actual meaning (the reason the word exists from the beginning), you loose yourself at the internet (the reason of your keyword search is lost) and I had lost the initial reason of my work (which I now somehow had found again). Finally, it also worked out very well with my idea of making a map, because if you are lost, you need a map. Some of the notes: - What do I want to say more precisely? - Look for more in the book - How make the map idea clear? - The word google is in the dictionary since 2003 (in Sweden) - Google skills - “Lost in... (translation)”? - To google something - Swedish word ogooglebart which means something that is not possible to google - Get lost: map - The book is about old treasures, but the quote is only about “these days” - Kleenex, thermos, jeep, cola: trademarks that have lost their rights because the brands have become words instead - The lost...research/word/trademark - The lost meaning? - The lost reason: I am lost, my reason is gone Why did I start the search from the beginning? Lost reason. Google has lost its meaning. Lost in thought, lost at the internet Why always a reason?
re fini ng
When I had worked everything out I made a new plan over which links I wanted use and what the point of my idea was.
m a k in g the lost reason
I finally started working with the actual remaking of the book. I made some sketches and decided that I was only going to write out the “end stations� of the search chain, not every stop, on the map. In that way it would get a cleaner look and it would be more exciting to have to figure out yourself how I managed to get from google to Ferdinand de Saussure for example. While working I also decided to use water colours, just to highlight some details in the map.
result
“Google is not a synonym for ‘research’. In these days of massive, worldwide keyword searches, it seemed everything was linked to everything.” The meaning of the word ‘google’ is lost. The reason for your keyword search is missing. The relevance of the links are gone. We are lost. Lost people need a map. Google actually is a kind of synonym to research. And things were actually linked together even before these days of massive keyword searches. It’s just easier to see and explore the links nowadays, when you actually can click on them. Google whatever you want, and you will end up somewhere else with no clue of how you got there. If you don’t have a map of course.
s i r i esk i l so n a dva nced v i su al c r eat i v i t y UWS 2013