Practical Investigation - Design Phase 2

Started to combine text and image digitally. I used my interpretation of the text and translated these through paint and other mediums to accommodate the text.

What a book is

'A book is a space-time sequence'
'A book is a sequence of spaces'
'Each of these spaces is perceived at a different moment - a book is also a sequence of moments.'

Focus on 'sequence':
Repeat pattern?
Order
Repetition

'But books, seen as autonomous realities, can contain any (written) language, not only literary language, or even any other system of signs'
- Opportunity to deform type

'In the new art the writer assumes responsibility for the whole process'
'In the old art the writer writes the text. In the new art the writer makes books.'

Photocopies
Hand written type using paint brush/ink
Shape and type

Prose and Poetry

'There will also always be people who like playing chess, gossiping, dancing the mambo, or eating strawberries with cream.'

Layering type over the paintings creates more engaging page compositions. I am aware that this may have a detrimental impact on the reading experience, however it highlights how the traditional manifestation of the book can be challenged - 'Verses ending halfway on the page, verses having a wider or a narrower margin, verses being separated from the following one by a bigger or smaller space - all this is exploitation of space.'

Combining physical and digital:

Introduced Baskerville Bold so that the publication contains traditional and contemporary typefaces.

Made sure non of the pages were the same in order to avoid creating a 'boring book' - 'A book of 500 pages, or of 100 pages, or even of 25, wherein all the pages are similar, is a boring book considered as a book, no matter how thrilling the content of the words of the text printed on the pages might be.' (Carrion)

Didn't edit the scanned paintings apart from using the MagicWand tool on Photoshop to simply delete the background. Apart from this, I kept all imperfections to keep an honest representation of manual processes.

Working digitally with the paintings was a really enjoyable experience as the inconsistent textures of the paint are complimentary with the formal typography. This was a really useful way for introducing colour to my publication. Whilst it would have been nicer if I had the original paintings inside the original book, this process shows how digital and physical media can work together in harmony.