thesis 2011 master of arts in visual communication

Transcription

THE SIS 201 1
M A S T E R OF ART S
I N V I S UA L C OMM U N I C AT ION
AND I C ON IC RE S E ARCH
1
ON THE CREATION OF V ISUA L MESSAGES
PROF. MICHAEL R ENNER
(HE A D OF THE V ISUA L COMMU NICATION INSTIT U TE)
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THE REL ATION BET W EEN
W HITE SPACE A ND T Y P OGRA PHY
MARTA AM IGO
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GRA PHIC DESIGN MANIFESTOS R EV ISITED
AMALIE BORG -HANSEN
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EX PL OR ATION OF THREE -DIMENSIONA L
RE A LIT Y OF A N IM AGE
YO OU N CHOI
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DISPL AYS IN DI A LOGU E:
THE EXHIBITION A ND THE BOOK .
L ENA F RIEDLI
MICHA EL HÜBNER
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V EHICLE: V ISUA LIZING INF ORM ATION
GEORGIOS GEORGIOU
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«BL ACK-A ND -W HITE IS COL OR ENOUGH».
THE DIGITA L BL ACK-A ND -W HITE IMAGE
IN THE PHOTOGRA PHIC TRA DITION
ERH A R D GONSIOR
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IN V ESTIGATING IMAGINATION
A S A COGNITI V E ACT
INDR E GRUMBINA ITE
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ICONOMICS – IMAGE A ND MA NAGEMEN T
DAR JA N HIL
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THE IMAGE A ND THE SENSE OF TOUCH
S U S ANNE KÄ SER
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S CR IP T A S IMAGE . A ST U DY OF
A LTERING LET TERS IN TO V IS UA LIZATIONS
IRI S KIRCHNER
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CRE ATING INDI V IDUA L EX PERIENCE
THROUGH NON-LINE AR NA RR ATIONS IN
MOV ING IMAGES
SA FAK KORKU T
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ATL A S OF SEV EN DAYS .
BETW EEN DOCU MEN TATION A ND DI AGR A M
NICOLE L ACHENMEIER
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PHOTOGRA PHING .
DELIBER ATIONS ON THE
PHOTOGRA PHIC DESIGN PROCESS
SV E T L A NA M A R CHENKO
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THE THINK ING EY E .
EX A MINED A ND A PPLIED
IN PHOTOMON TAGE
E FA MÜ HLETH A LER
89
V ISUA L R H Y THM IN TIME A ND SPACE
DA NIEL R MU ELLER
95
PICTOGRA M CRE ATION
IN THE CON TEXT OF
ZOOL OGICA L GA R DENS
L OR EN Z O MÜ LLER
101
IN DI A L OG W ITH THE FACE
A X EL ÖL A ND
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W E A R A ND GENESIS OF F OR M
A NNA PAP ANA S TA S IOU
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R ECON S TRUCTING
PHILIPPINE GRAPHIC IDEN TIT Y
S A R A H ROX A S
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COLL AGE A ND DESIGN
DI A NA V ILL A L OBOS
On th e C re ation
of V isua l Me ssage s
P r o f . m ic h a e l r e nn e r
( H e ad of th e visua l communication I nstitut e )
At the center of the
concept of the MA program
is the interrelationship of
practice-oriented design with
Image Research and Image
Theory. The program is
for students with a bachelor’s
degree in Art, Design, or
Cultural Studies. Practical
and analytical « image com
petence » is developed through
collaborations in inter
disciplinary project teams.
The degree prepares
graduates for work in various
areas of visual communication, cultural fields, as well
as teaching or research at
a college level. The degree
program is a collaboration of
The University of Applied
Sciences Northwestern
Switzerland, Academy of Art
and Design ( FHNW / HGK ) ,
Visual Communication
Institute and eikones, The
National Centre of Com
petence in Iconic Research
NCCR , at the University
of Basel.
As the poster announcing this year’s thesis exhibition suggests, the
creation of design and art is not a matter of a single gesture made
by a gifted individual but rather the result of sequential steps in
which talent, training and many other influences leave their mark.
The general statement «The creative ‹ act › is a process, not a moment,» 1 does not explain how meaningful visual messages are created, but it rejects the popular preconception of creation as an
isolated utterance of a genius. Furthermore this standard quote,
often used by designers to characterize their work, proves how difficult it is to describe verbally how unseen and meaningful visual
messages materialize.
Beyond the Bachelor level, at which the ability to create
visual variations for a practice- and goal-oriented context is the
main focus, the Master of Arts in Visual Communication and Iconic Research emphasizes the ability to conduct a reflected and at the
same time innovative design process in the context of iconic practice, research or teaching. To reach this ambitious goal the interaction and balanced relationship between theoretical and practical
knowledge is the core of the curriculum.
As we describe in the brochure of the MA curriculum, the
students with a practical background (a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual
Communication) deepen their experience in conducting complex
design processes and learn how to ground their decisions by employing theoretical aspects of the humanities and sciences. The
students with a background in the cultural sciences, on the other
hand, extend their theoretical and analytical ability through the
study of iconic theory and complement these studies with the practical experience of image creation.
With these concepts in mind, the design process becomes a
testing ground for the study of the relationship between theory and
practice. The verbal and the visual touch each other in the task of
creating a meaningful visual message. The visual and the verbal can
imitate, contradict, restrict, complement, or propel one another and
become more than two artificially separated categories in the proc
ess of image generation.
This line of thought leads us to the research field situated
between iconic and media research as well as the emerging field of
design research. The term of practice-led iconic research or Entwurfsforschung (Bonsiepe, 2004) circumscribes an activity with a
focus on the creation of images. Also here theoretical knowledge
and practical knowledge have to complement each other in order
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to engender new insight about visual messages and the process of
their creation.
In recent debates in design- and iconic research we often
find the reference to tacit knowledge as the guiding force behind
the decisions made in the process from the first idea to the final
visual composition. The term introduced by Michael Polanyi in the
context of philosophy of science to describe that ‹ we can know
more than we can tell › (Michael Polanyi, 1967, p. 4) is applicable in
the context of design to grasp the knowledge involved in the creation of images. Based on Polanyi’s reflection we can deepen our
investigation into the processes of design with the aim of developing explicit knowledge from what is hidden in the practical procedures by distinguishing specific factors influencing the decisions.
We can also extend the inquiry into the design processes by ana
lyzing the role between explicit and implicit knowledge. What do I
have to know explicitly in order to employ the implicit knowledge
successfully ? When does the theoretical knowledge restrict my
ability to use tacit knowledge ? This complex endeavor can be conducted with the methodologies of established scientific disciplines
or with the analysis and differentiation of the actual design proc
esses. A closer look into the design processes promises to lead with
time to a theoretical foundation directly derived from and therefore
related to the generation of visual messages. With this intention in
mind, we can look at the MA thesis projects in this catalogue from
the aspect of their processes. There are three main project types
which contribute in different ways to a community concerned with
iconic meaning and image genesis.
The first group of projects chooses a problem from the practice of visual communication as a starting point to conduct a reflected process of image creation. The visualization of complex data
in the context of architectural planning for example was explored
in a realistic context of an existing company. A variety of visualization methods were evaluated in terms of their effect on the collaboration within the architectural team, with their clients and
contractors. The thorough recording of the design development and
the reaction of the dialogue groups allows positive and negative
aspects of visualizations in the communicative context in this example to be deduced.
The second group of projects employed the design process
as a methodology to develop answers to specific questions regarding the generation of iconic meaning. How is the imagination of the
beholder, for example, triggered by images with an ambiguous textural quality and how individual are these projections ? When does
a letter of the Latin alphabet become a graphic form that is seen
rather than read ? How can the beholder become aware of our spatial perception in a sequence of moving images ? These kinds of
questions are approached through the study of theoretical aspects
regarding the field of inquiry and the creation of visual variations.
The evaluation of the image series allows inferences to be drawn in
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order to answer the posed question. These research-oriented pro
jects can be understood as a direct contribution to the understanding of the meaning of images.
The third group of projects is focused on the actual process
of image creation. They isolate the process of image generation
from a practice-oriented task and develop image series with the aim
of showing the characteristics of a specific methodology. These
investigations analyze decisions made by the designer in the proc
ess of drawing, photography, collage, photographic- or film-montage. A closer look at the photographic processes of image generation shows, for example, that the photographer can choose to focus
on a specific phase of the process. If the conscious planning of a
staged situation is chosen to create unique images then less focus
falls on finding the right moment to expose the photograph. If the
unique quality of the images is achieved by a specific camera, the
technical exploration will be a main occupation. These practical
reflections on the processes of image generation do not intend to
develop fixed formulas for how new images can be created, but they
provide a more conscious approach to find « what we can’t tell. »
In summary, I hope that the projects and their processes
presented in this catalogue will extend the understanding of visual
messages and the process of their creation.
I would like to thank our cooperating partners at eikones,
National Center of Competence in Iconic Criticism, and the Art
History Seminar of the University Basel as well as my colleagues at
the Visual Communication Institute of the Basel School of Art and
Design ( HGK FHNW ) for their efforts and support in developing
this unique Master of Arts in Visual Communication. With this pres
entation of the first-generation Master of Arts Thesis projects we
have reached a significant goal in the further development of our
Institute, the Basel School of Art and Design, and the community
related to our activities.
1
Anonymous Statement used by Gregory Vines for
the Design of the poster announcing the Thesis
Exhibition 2011 of the Basel School of Art and Design
( HGK FHNW ).
Re f e re nc e s
• Polanyi, Michael: The Tacit Dimension, New York, 1967.
• Bonsiepe, Gui: Von der Praxisorientierung zur Erkenntnisorientierung, in: Proceedings Erstes DesignForschungssymposium Swiss Design Network, Basel, 2004.
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T h e Re l ation b e tw e e n
whit e spac e
and t y pography
M a r ta A migo
Could white space be the
carrier of some content in a
page with text?
The concept of space has
always been regarded as one of
the key topics in graphic
design. Graphic designers are
confronted with white spaces
in every image that they create.
These blank spaces are perceived as nothing special, an
absence, the void … However,
by experiencing the void,
designers have learned that it
is not only emptiness that
they perceive: the moment in
which a letter comes in contact with this void, the invisible
becomes visible.
MARTA AMIGO
14. 05. 1973, Madrid, Spain
martamigo @ gmail . com
Academic experience
2009 – 2 011 Master of Arts in Visual Communication
and Iconic Research, FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland
2007 – 2 009 Studies within the Bachelor’s Program in
Graphic Design, California College of the Art (CCA),
San Francisco, California. USA
2006 Cultural Landscape History, University of
California, Berkeley, California. USA
2006 Graphic Design, UC Berkeley Extensions,
Berkeley, California. USA
1992 – 1996 Bachelor’s Degree in Publicity, Centro
Español de Nuevas Profesiones, Madrid, Spain
Work Experience
2007 – 2009 Member of the Graphic Design Team,
Ingalls Design, San Francisco, California, United States of
America.
2002 – 2006 Freelance studio with a partner, Design
studio De. Dos, Madrid, Spain.
1998 – 2 002 Member of the Graphic Design Team,
ELLE Magazine, Hachette Fillipachi, Madrid, Spain.
1996 – 1998 Member of the Graphic Design Team,
Sistemas Editoriales, Madrid Spain
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Scribes and typographers, like architects, have shaped visual spaces
for thousands of years. Within the field of graphic design, white
space, also referred to as negative space, is an important aesthetic
tactic utilized in the vast majority of graphical publications. In its
most generalized definition, white spaces are the strategic visual
sections of a page that are left unmarked and thus uncluttered by
any specific aesthetic detail. These blank spaces are strategically
located between the letters, words, and lines, between paragraphs,
stanzas or columns, and in the margins of the page. The true functional beauty of white spaces lies in their rather paradoxical function; they define and enhance the visual prominence of various
accompanying graphical-typographic elements but without containing meaning-content themselves. We tend to think that white
or negative spaces do not have any meaning apart from that which
is explicit in the text. But if we think about the space in a page, it
could speak aside from the content of the text. If this were the case,
would the possibilities of interpreting a text change? What would
happen if we give to the white space a specific content-form? Can
we find a way of visualization in which the main protagonist will be
the white space? How can be shown the possibilities that white
space have as the carrier of information? Would it help if I treated
the white space as a graphic element? My goal in this project has
been to open up the senses of the beholder to a new way to perception of the white space in a page with text.
Looking back into the history of art and graphic design,
several artistic and conceptual movements were found that helped
me to get perspective and put this project in an appropriate historical context. These movements ( Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Constructivism or De Stijl ) greatly influenced the graphic
language of form and visual communication, and helped to shape a
new way of looking at text. Their use of text in their projects was
named visual poetry, calligrammes, and later on concrete poetry. All
these movements dealt with the use of repeated letter forms, patterns, dynamic scale and different placement in order to convey
ideas about sound, motion, symbolism or fantasy. They experimented with pictorials forms in an attempt to create « visual analogies »
and « lyrical ideograms. » Due to the fact that they dealt with expressive typography in a page, they had to use white space to help them
bring about the emotions that they wanted to express. However,
in their approach white space was exclusively used as a means
of stressing decisive moments, for example when they needed to
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express a pause in their argument. Their main intention was to
bring the reader to a place where he could, by formal experiments,
see the story at a glance.
Within the context of the approach proposed in this project,
the use of white space as the carrier of a message will take the
reader to a new position in which, far from understanding the message at first glance, he will have to find a new way of learning about
the structure of the image in order to be able to read the two messages given by the two carriers. He will realize the power that the
white space has in a page, and how it becomes the main character
and the force that creates the pictorial image. As a whole, the composition will result in a surprising combination of motion and pictorial look, and the reader’s initial approach to the text will be
dominated by its physical-aesthetic appearance. From there, the
reader will progress to encompass several different forms until he
gets to the text recognition. Although visual elements such as letters will not be in all cases immediately identifiable, they will provide the observer with specific bits of information. By trying to
decipher the text, the reader will be constantly interrupted by the
white space, which will force him to revaluate his reading strategy.
In my experiments, the viewer will be clearly confronted with these
two different and powerful forms ( the form created by the text and
the form created by the white space ). Also, in some cases he will
find that the formal approach of the white space is related to the
text, while in others he will find an abstract form of white space
that will have nothing to do with the meaning of the text. As a result,
a shape is generated which may or may not enhance the tone of the
text; however, it will certainly generate a series of emotions in the
beholder’s mind.
This work has been conceived as a group of pictorial exercises which have given me the opportunity of pushing the bounda
ries of usual linearity of readability in a text. By deconstructing the
text, it is brought into a new intensely vital form. Thus, the study
allows me to analyze the perceptions of the beholder towards the
white space.
References
• Centre Pompidou, Paris. Voids. A retrospective
Exhibition. JRP Ringier, Zurich, and Ecart Publications,
Geneva, 2009
• Johanna Drucker. The visible Word. Experimental
Typography and Modern Art, 1909 – 1923.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994
• Martin Venezky. It is beautiful then gone. Princeton
Architectural Pres, New York, 2005
• Willard Bohn. The aesthetics of Visual Poetry,
1914 – 1928. Cambridge University Press, 1986
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3 | 4
1 | 2
These are some of the final experiments that I did
for my study about the relation between white space and
typography. All the images are generated from text in the
typeface Mrs Eaves 10 pt. All fragments of text used in
this project are taken from the book « Species of Spaces »,
by George Perec.
1
This fragment of text has the peculiarity of being
formed just by verbs. It is a list that describes the act of
moving in and out of an apartment. I applied visual
movement through a wave-like white form to support
the verbal movement within the text.
2
An abstract approach is applied to this piece of text,
which talks about the place that letters have on a page.
In this study the text is formed into a pattern of
lines. This shows that type can be more than text; and
it can become decoration.
3
This text talks about the meaning of having a space/room
that has no use at all. White space is applied to the text
suggesting a heavy force. The way in which the white
space breaks through the text makes it look like a book
laying on a flat surface with its pages being opened.
4
The white shape chosen for this study is a group of
different sizes circles. The image created in the layout
is dynamic and expressive At brief glance, the viewer
sees the white circles act as holes in the text and opens
his mind to a big range of interpretations.
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9
G raphic De sign
Manif e stos Re visited
Amal i e Borg-Hans en
This thesis is an investigation into the manifesto as a
form of writing in the field
of graphic design.
It is a preconceived notion
that graphic design is a practical profession, but the
ideas behind the work is the
integral part of the design
process. In this way, the
manifesto works as a bridge
between the idea and the
end product. Can the theory
and the practical work to
gether on a cohesive level?
Amalie B org-Hansen
27. 05. 1984, Copenhagen, Denmark
malle 385 @ hotmail . com
Academic experience
2008 – 2 009 BA in Graphic and Media Design, London
College of Communication (LCC), UK
2007 – 2 008 Diploma in Professional Studies, LCC, UK
2005 – 2 007 Foundation Degree in Design for Graphic
Communication, LCC, UK
Work experience
2007 – Present Freelance Graphic Designer, Editorial
intern at Eye Magazine, UK; Design intern at Anikst
Design, UK; Design intern at ico Design, UK; Design
intern at Dorling Kindersley, UK
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The term manifesto is derived from the Italian word manifesto, itself
derived from the Latin manifestum, meaning clear or conspicuous 1.
The words in a manifesto function as lethal ammunition, and they
come in all degrees of simplicity or complexity. These written proclamations show a critical awareness of the contemporary societal
state from which they derive, and serve to infuse an ideological plan
of action to invoke change. The history of the manifesto can be
traced back to the Ten Commandments, and more political documents like the US Declaration of Independence and the Communist
Manifesto. The golden age of manifesto writing was during the high
point of modernism and served as the language of the avant-gardes;
it was a new emerging genre that rapidly became addictive and
circulated the streets in all printed forms. The manifesto became
the very content of most art movements that we know and to which
we refer today.
The last few decades have been a fertile period for manifestos, particularly in art and design. But due to the fact that we live
in a time that has less cohesive art movements than in the avantgarde, it has become more challenging to distinguish the current
state of the manifesto written by creative agents. And with regards
to graphic design in particular, which is still seen as a young profession under constant development, it can be a difficult task to even
begin defining what a graphic design manifesto is.
The advantage of the manifesto is that it possesses a general quality which allows authors to represent their work as process,
and it provides an insight into the issues that are normally not seen
in the designed outcome. In this way, the written form of the mani
festo provides a type of communication that can specifically address the intentions of the designer in a distilled manner. Over time
this movement in design has evolved parallel to the idea of the
«designer as author » 2, such that the designer goes beyond problemsolving to take on the part of the creator and interpreter. The role
of the graphic designer as a visual communicator has been widened
as designers demonstrate their abilities in reflection and writing.
With the rise of postmodern tendencies in society, many
modes of communication have changed, including the manifesto.
The characteristics of the written form have gone from being shocking and aggressive to being vague and casual. There is a blurring of
boundaries taking place between the maker and the user – the interrogation and deconstruction that once preoccupied the avant-garde
no longer exists. But what is inevitable here is that every era has its
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own weapons, and they change according to the impacts of society.
With several recent publications being released about the
impact of the manifesto, it is evident that interest still exists to
impose these historical writings on our contemporary viewpoints.
We read them as pieces of inspiration, but there seems to be a lack
of critical inquiry into what distinguishes manifestos as key writings and what relevance they have today. Instead of merely acknowledging that manifestos are important, there needs to be a more
concrete resolution to how they can survive in our contemporary
society. This thesis addresses this issue: in order to continue the
tradition of manifesto writing, we need to criticize and re-assess
our work and surroundings.
The choice of medium to present this research is a newspaper that functions as a reference to the first avant-garde manifesto
of the Futurists, printed over 100 years ago in the Italian newspaper,
Le Figaro. Apart from being a platform for critical debate, this form
of media functions as an informational piece projected to the
masses. The newspaper is a haptic encounter which we associate
with power and relevance, and gives the reader an impactful reading
experience in the sphere of the printed matter rather than the Internet. The intention is to bring out the content of a selection of
design manifestos, so we see them as more than just pure text. The
selection is based on manifestos written in the last fifty years – fifty years that present the graphic design field in its most evolving
and progressive era. The reader is confronted with issues such as
changes in society and culture that have had an impact on technology and thus graphic design, and topics like the design process and
the application of the ideas into practice. Along with this analytical
revisit to the manifestos, there is an investigation into the rhetorical styles used to compose manifestos as well as articles and interviews to help broaden the reader’s understanding. These factors can
contribute to creating a stronger alliance between the intentions
of the manifesto author and the audience.
Graphic design manifestos contribute to expanding the practice in that they include a more direct critical engagement with the
surrounding world. And it is this form of engagement that infuses
inspiration and a deeper knowledge of the design practice.
1
«Manifesto» Definition. The Oxford English Dictionary,
2nd ed. 1989.
2
Roland Barthes «The Death of the Author» (1967);
Michel Foucault «What is an Author» (1979); Michael Rock
«The Designer as Author» (1996)
References
• Armstrong, Helen. Graphic Design Theory – Readings
from the field. Princeton Architectural Press. New York,
2009.
• Barthes, Roland. Image-Music-Text. Hill and Wang.
New York, 1977.
• Fulchéri, Fabienne. Le Temps des Manifestes.
Exhibition from 28 June – 3 October 2010 at L’Espace de
l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France.
• Obrist, Hans Unrich. Manifesto Marathon, Serpentine
Gallery. Walther König, Germany, 2010.
• Rock, Michael. «The Designer as Author».
Eye Magazine, No. 20, Spring 1996.
• Tankboys; Bizzari, Cosimo. Manifesto. Jinan Jidong Ltd.
China, 2010.
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1
2
–
3
1
The newspaper is designed in the traditional format
of the broadsheet. In history, the original purpose of this
size was to print proclamations, political acts and
official notices to be distributed to the public masses.
With this pre-determined usage and knowledge, the
choice of format for this thesis becomes a platform for
contemporary graphic design manifestos to express
themselves.
2
The handling of information is treated with two types
of visual experiences: the reader is confronted with the
traditional column-based newspaper articles, and then
typographic information design and big-sized statements
«break » with these conformities to introduce more
poster-like characteristics; the word manifesto being
the Italian translation of ‹poster ›.
3
The color scheme of black, white and red bring about a
huge number of associated connotations with their
bold and powerful expressions. When used together, these
colors create a modernist feel and recall aesthetics
of previous art and design tendencies related to creator
thinking. The color scheme has had the tendency to
be overused in graphic design and typography, even today,
but it is a re-occurring style (both consciously and unconsciously) due to the forward-looking associations.
In this newspaper, the colors are used to link messages
and elements together or highlight contrasting ideas.
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E x p l oration of
thre e - dim e nsiona l re a l it y
of an image
Yo O un C h o i
The project is an exploration into a three-dimensional
reality of an image by analyzing phenomena of human
visual perception. By showing
a two-dimensional image
that is created in an unconventional way, visual focus shifts
from what viewers see to
how they see. Thus, the expe
rience allows viewers to reflect
on their own seeing habits
and question how their visual
system works.
Yo Oun Choi
11. 06. 1987, Vancouver, Canada
mail @ yocdesign.com
Academic experience
2009 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design,
Parsons the New School for Design, New York, USA
Work experience
2011 – Present Freelance Graphic Designer
2011 SUPSI, Invited Lecturer and Workshop Assistant,
Lugano, Switzerland
2010 Ludovic Balland Typography Cabinet, Design
Intern, Basel, Switzerland
2010 VITRA, Photographer, Weil am Rhein, Germany
2008 MTV Networks, Design Intern, New York, USA
2007 – 2 009 DLS Design, Print and Web Designer,
New York, USA
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We are not always able to believe what we see. What we see may
simply be caused by a creator’s visual trick or a simple result of a
viewer’s conventional habits. Because the act of seeing is so natural
to us, we, the viewers, usually forget that seeing is always intertwined with the mind and what we as viewer already know about the
image. John Berger in The Ways of Seeing argues that reality or the
truth of an image is being measured by habits and conventions of
one’s own perspective,1 which makes it hard to distinguish what is
given to us from what we supplement in the process of projection.
The interaction between knowledge and a pure visibility of a picture may contradict when approaching an unconventional situation
of an image.
Further, in every visual experience, « recognition is always
based on dynamics ».2 Therefore, humans’ seen perceptions would
never be regarded as fixed entities. Reality or the truth of an image
would always undergo continual transformations, adapting any new
information that is given over time.
History of visual art gives us many examples that attempt
to reveal or to explore the gap between what we see and how we
see. For instance, the concept of Trompe L’Oeil involves formation
of an extremely realistic imagery in order to create optical deception and illusion. This method of painting was often used for murals,
but later, it was also applied to furniture and set design stages. With
the painter’s superior understanding of perspective drawing, the
two-dimensionally painted objects would appear as three-dimensional objects. It gives the impression of greater space to the viewer,
trapping the eye in a visual perplexity.
Another art technique that deals with visual trick is Optical
Art. «Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction
between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and
seeing, » 3 which enables the viewer to experience how vision functions dynamically when approaching such paintings. Although
many Optical Art pieces are flat and two-dimensional, the works
compose illusions of movement. This allows the viewer to experience an unconventional artistic situation leading to a reflection on
their visual system.
Overall, the two techniques of art, Trompe L’Oeil and Optical Art, show two-dimensional paintings that create dynamism on
the viewer’s retina. Although the projected image may remain constant, the viewer’s visual system fluctuates over time of reading.
Also, it changes how the viewer reacts to a reading of an image.
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Instead of taking a quick glance and assuming what the eye has
seen, the style of works allows us to spend a second glance to really
observe what is actually there. This disruption to the conventional
way of seeing allows one to be an engaged beholder rather than
simply being a sightseer.
Similarly, investigating the connection between an image
and a viewer in relation to seeing and knowing is the core interest
in this thesis. The objective is to explore a three-dimensional construction of an image. By investigating its unconventional spatial
set up, the aim is to have the viewer’s visual system experience
dynamism and explore different elementary phenomena of human
visual perception – the phenomena would include figure-ground relation, size illusion, dimensionality, image-reality relation, colors
and patterns. The experience would purposefully disorient the eye
from the conventions in images and slow down the process of reading for the viewer to eventually realize the unexpected reality in
the image. In the end, the image encounter would motivate the eyes
to adjust constantly in different ways of interpretation and to become aware of the subjectivity of one’s own point of view.
The viewer is not meant to use any special visual aids, or to
look cross-eyed, or stare to learn the perceptive effect when confronted with the set up I have developed. Instead, the aim is to allow
one to keep the traditional way of seeing an image and to simply
switch between different points of viewing in mind. Through a series of experiments and one final video that captures a complex
psychological struggle between the creator and the viewer, the pro
ject would allow the eye to visually experience dynamism and to
configure the three-dimensional reality in the created space.
In conclusion, this project offers the fundamental questions of the human visual system through both the theoretical and
the practical research method. The phenomenon of visual experiences in everyday encounter is an interesting research topic both
for a graphic designer and a viewer of the world because the eyes
are constantly dealing with the three-dimensional surroundings
that yield two-dimensional projection on the eye. Therefore, the
topic awakens the urge to experiment with the phenomenon and
raised the curiosity to find out how this influences both the eye
and the mind.
1
John Berger. Ways of Seeing. London:
Penguin, 2008. p. 1.
2
Rudolf Arnheim. Art and Visual Perception. p. 225.
3
John Lancaster. Introducing Op Art. London:
B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1973, p. 28.
References
• Arnheim, R. Art and Visual Perception:
A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley, Etc.:
University of California, 1974. Print.
• Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British
Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. Print.
• Lancaster, John. Introducing Op Art. London:
B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1973. Print.
18
19
1
2
–
3
1
The series of five images are different still shots from
one complete video. By choosing video as a medium, time
enables the viewer to slow down the process of reading
and understanding the image.
How the video plays is as follows: After five seconds
of seeing a still image, different figures start to appear in
the frame. Their role is to disrupt the image and
to deconstruct the elements one at a time. In reaction,
the viewer starts to visually conceive, recognize, and
render the three-dimensional construction of an image.
2
The two key experiences in the project are:
1. the perceptive transition from two-dimensional to
three-dimensional space, and
2. the realization of the different spatial depths and
illusions of the elements in the image.
This seemingly basic image with similarly sized
rectangles and geometrical lines is created employing
careful calculation of depth to appear as one contiguous
object and to create deception. The unconventional
situation of the image enables the beholder to reflect on
human’s flexibility of changing perception.
3
This image shows the real situation in another angle.
The installation is situated in an area approximately 5 m
by 15.5 m. The height of the depicted elements ranges
from 0.2 m to 2 m. Then, the whole construction is
cropped in a perpendicular line of sight so the viewer
has only a limited view of the situation in the video.
20
21
Disp l ays in Dia l ogu e:
th e E x hibition and the Book .
lena fri edli
m i c h a e l h ü bn e r
This project examines the
relationship between
art, exhibitions and books.
Exhibitions and catalogs can
be understood as premises
of display, which can be
referred to each other in different ways. In order to
grasp the multilayered relationship of the two displays,
they are contrasted in a series
of exhibitions. The situations thereby engendered
challenge conventional
structures, dismantling them
in order to show new possibilities for the presentation
of art.
Lena Friedli
16. 02. 1985, Basel, Switzerland
lena.friedli @ gmail.com
2010 – Present Co-Initiator/Operator of Project space
KECK Kiosk, Basel
2009 – Present Board member, Ausstellungsraum
Klingental Basel
2010/2011 Director’s assistant, Theater Marie (Aarau)
2008 BA, Art History and Cultural Anthropology,
University of Basel
2007 – 2 009 Volunteer assistant, Kunstmuseum Olten
2006 – 2 008 Tutor, Seminar for Cultural Studies and
European Ethnology, University of Basel
Michael Hübner
06. 10. 1983, Leipzig, Germany
hi @ micha-huebner.de
www . micha-huebner.de
2009 – Present Freelance Graphic designer, including
for Hauser & Schwarz, Basel; eikones NCCR Iconic
Criticism, Basel; OneTools GmbH, Mainz
2008 – Present Freelance Type designer, Publication
including in: slanted, Magma Brand Design, Karlsruhe;
Typolyrics, Birkhäuser, Basel; The 3D Type Book,
Laurence King Publishing, London
2009 Graphic designer with minigram, Berlin
2008 Diploma in Design (FH), University of Applied
Sciences Anhalt (FH), Department of Design, Dessau
2006 – 2 007 Graphic designer with Dream On, Paris
22
Both exhibitions and books can be understood as displays. A display puts something to show, it reveals, unfurls, exposes. It opens a
space in which a work of art appears. If one positions the exhibition
and the book in an arrangement of revelation 1 one to the other, then
a dialog unfolds. This expands and intensifies the space for a work
and for its reception. Created is room for negotiation between the
two displays as well as between the roles of the artist, the curator,
the designer and the observer. The goal of this project is to sound
out and strengthen the potential of these relationships theoretically and practically.
The interest in the question of the extent to which certain
spaces are opened by exhibitions and books, and consequently
what properties, functions and potential these spaces have, forms
the outset for the project. Space is thereby understood on one hand
in a physical sense, but above all in the sense of Michel de Certeau 2
as a room for negotiation. The exhibition space and the book space
each possess a display function, which is opened up through its
passage, or respectively through reading. These spaces enable first
the contemplation (information, documentation and illustration) as
well as the conveyance of a work of art. Without being displayed,
the work remains unseen.
Particularly the book as a medium of conveyance and its
relation to the exhibition has been insufficiently discussed until
now. What constellations can be thought of between books and
exhibitions? Where are there dependencies, where hierarchies?
What effects does the respective association with exhibitions or
books – as well as with their design – have on the reception, the
observer and the work itself ?
In a practical, experimental investigation, the research questions were to be dealt with on one hand by means of existing examples and on the other hand through the use of a self-developed
experimental setting. A local exhibition space in Basel became the
starting point for the exhibition series. In collaboration with invited artists, four exhibitions and books were developed. The respective situations thereby challenge the conventional relationships
between books and exhibitions. Proceeding from the artworks, new
forms of interplay were designed for these media. This generated
arrangements with new hierarchies, mixed forms and borderline
situations for the display of art. In a similar way the relation, or
respectively the type of collaboration of artists, curators and designers was purposely laid out differently. In once instance this was
23
shaped by close cooperation and overlapping of roles. On another
occasion the positions were highly delimited. The challenge of role
relationships came to be an integral part of the practical work.
The theoretical reflection on the experiments compares the
generated exhibition and book situations. What temporal and spatial relations have emerged, what hierarchies and authorities? In
what form did the dialogs between the two media become obvious?
In what relationships did the participants ( artists, designers, curators and visitors ) stand ?
«Displays in Dialogue» examines the field surrounding exhibitions and catalogs from various angles both theoretically and
practically. Sought after thereby are possibilities of transfer of the
respective conceptions in order to fathom a potential coupling for
us as curators and designers. The investigation serves as stimu
lation to see the presentation of art as an intimate connection
between space and books by challenging the relationship between
catalog and exhibition.
This term relates to the german concept of ‹Dispositive
des Zeigens› (Zeigen 2010.)
De Certeau, Michel: Die Kunst des Handelns, Berlin
1988.
1
2
References
• Michel De Certeau: Die Kunst des Handelns,
Berlin 1988.
• Wolfgang Kemp (Hg. ) : Der Betrachter ist im Bild:
Kunstwissenschaft und Rezeptionsästhetik, Berlin /
Hamburg 1992.
• Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland GmbH, Bonn (Hg. ) : Das Gedruckte Museum
von Pontus Hulten. Kunstausstellungen und ihre Bücher,
Ostfildern-Ruit 1996.
• Brian O’Doherty: In der weissen Zelle/Inside the
White Cube, hrsg. und übersetzt von Wolfgang Kemp, Berlin 1996.
• Juliane Rebentisch: Ästhetik der Installation, Frankfurt
am Main 2003.
• Alain Milon, Marc Perelman (Hg. ) : Le Livre et ses
espaces, Paris 2007.
• John Jennifer, Dorothee Richter und Sigrid Schade
(Hg. ) : Re-Visionen des Dis-plays. Ausstellungsszenarien,
ihre Lektüren und ihr Publikum, Zürich 2008.
• Zeigen. Die Rhetorik des Sehens, hrsg. v.
Gottfried Boehm, Sebastian Egenhofer, Christian Spies,
München 2010.
24
25
1 | 2
3 | 4
Exhibition views:
1, 2
Martina Jung / Roland Brönnimann «Mike»
9. 5. 2011 – 15. 5. 2011
3
Clare Kenny «Something and Nothing»
29. 4. 2011 – 1. 5. 2011
4
Thomas Tudoux «Régles de Speranza»
3. 6. 2011 – 5. 6. 2011
Main image:
See previous page for corresponding publications.
26
27
V e hicl e:
V isua l i z ing I nformation
gEor g ios g e o r gi o u
This design-based research
project investigates ways
of visualizing information
about automobiles.
The goal of information visualization is to discover the
structure of a data set in contrast to a system that already has a clear structure
such as a tube map.1
Through this informational
system a set of the most effective car characteristics are
visualized:
The first is a car’s environ
mental effect (CO 2 emissions),
the second is fuel consumption and the third is mobility,
the power of the car and the
magic of speed.
Georgios Georgiou
16. 01. 1985, Thessaloniki, Greece
mail @ gg 3 . gr
www . gg 3 . gr
Academic experience
2007 – 2 008 Bachelor degree in Graphic Design, Akto
Thessaloniki in collaboration with Middlesex University
of London
2004 – 2 007 Graphic Design studies, Akto Thessaloniki
in collaboration with Middlesex University of London
2000 – 2 002 Technical and freehand drawing studies
Work Experience
2006 – Present Freelance Graphic Designer
28
«We envision information in order to reason about, communicate, document, and preserve that knowledge – activities nearly always carried out on two dimensional paper and computer screen. » 2
The automotive industry is one of the world’s most important economic sectors by revenue.
Vehicles as products follow market rules and strategies. That
means vehicles are promoted and distributed under a company’s
strategy. It is said that automobile and other sections devoted to
some type of commodity are more «ad platforms» than news sections. Their task is not to critically inform readers about an industry or to address the social issues of that industry, but to create «a
buying mood» for its products. Therefore the kind of information
one gets about a vehicle depends on personal interest and research.
People are looking for the vehicle of their preference in car
magazines, at vehicle exhibitions, in advertisements and on the
streets. One can be informed about cars basically by reading reviews and charts. Magazines analyze monthly every little detail concerning vehicles, especially cars. Everything could be found about
cars in the huge magazines’ databases. So one can say that it is really easy to make a choice and find the vehicle of his/her needs. But
it’s not. What is really easy to find is an enormous amount of in
formation about cars, a complex data-analysis and reviews. In other
words information is given in numbers, diagrams and charts and
pictures of cars (photographic representations, car drawings). Means
are limited and visual information is not clear.
In short, information sources about vehicles are:
1. Car magazines (information given in numbers represented in diagrams, tables and charts. Photographic representations of cars, reviews and comparisons).
2. Manufacturing companies (manuals and data in numbers).
3. Advertising (marketing, promotion, «buying mood»).
4. Associations and organizations (research on the social and economical side of the car product).
So most of information is given in numbers and written information, though visualizations except diagrams are missing. A
diagram represents precisely numbers and complex data. It is a
two-dimensional geometric symbolic representation of information
according to some visualization technique. What is not visually perceptible cannot be imitated, thus a diagram that represents an abstract idea or numbers often transforms numbers into visual means
29
Lev Manovich.
2
Edward R. Tufte: «Envisioning Information». Graphics
Press. Cheshire, Connecticut 1990.
3
Roland Barthes.
4
Roland Barthes, «Der neue Citroën», in: idem,
Mythen des Alltags, Frankfurt a. M. 1964, original version
Paris, 1957
1
by using different techniques. Therefore the visual information is
still abstracted and comparisons depend on the difference of distances, sizes, colors and forms. Is there a need for an alternative
informational system about vehicles? Does the diagrammatic representation convey the needed information?
The challenge of this project is the success of the visualizations in order to create a visual language that transforms written
information and data into a visual system. This project attempts to
escape the strict structure of the diagram and investigates a visual
way of getting knowledge through images.
From the sociological point of view, the automobile is celebrated as divine. Automobiles spread across the world as the «messengers of supernatural.» 3 As Roland Barthes wrote about Citroen
DS «I think that cars today are almost exact equivalent of the great
Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived
with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in
usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely
magical object.» 4
In art, the car is represented as the cultural metamorphoses
of the technical into a fetish object. It can be seen as the pure
beauty as Futurists declare about car «the beauty of speed.» Pop
art represents the car as a cult object. For many artists the automobile stands as a religion and for others as a sex fetish.
My question is, what kind of images could appropriate visualize the functionality of the car.
This project investigates and visualizes through different
methods and techniques, a set of car characteristics: pollution (CO 2
emissions), fuel consumption and power /speed. The visualizations
are organized under a system in which each sign represents a different vehicle.
Through this system, numbers are transformed into visuals
using different processes. Speed /power is represented through a
blurring effect of the outer colorful circle (more blurring = more
speed /power), the CO 2 emissions are represented with the inner
circle (the darker it gets, the more CO 2 emissions are increasing),
the fuel consumption is increasing when colors of the speed circle
are less saturated. The color code gives information about the top
speed for each vehicle. The change of proportions e. g ., the use of
magenta signifies increase – top speed is higher.
References
• Martin Kemp, Seen /Unseen: Art, science and
intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble telescope. Oxford
University Press: Oxford 2006.
• Edward R. Tufte, «Envisioning Information». Graphics
Press. Cheshire, Connecticut 1990.
• Roland Barthes, «Der neue Citroën», in: idem,
Mythen des Alltags, Frankfurt a. M. 1964, original version
Paris, 1957.
• Timothy Lenoir, Inscribing Science: Scientific
Texts and the Materiality of Communication, Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1998.
30
31
3
–
4
1
–
2
5
1
Hummer h3. This is the sign for the one of the
strongest off-road vehicles. The basic characteristics
in numbers are: CO 2: 346 gr / km, fuel consumption:
17.5 l / 100 km, engine: 3700 cc, power: 239 ps.
2
Does this vehicle really exist? CO 2: 88 gr / km, fuel
consumption: 3.3 l / 100 km, engine: 8000 cc,
power: 1000 ps. The highest power of a Bugatti Veyron
with the least CO 2 emissions and fuel consumption
of a Smart for two. The flexibility of this visual system
allows this hypothesis to be represented on image.
3
Speed /power /engine size.
4
Fuel consumption 0 – 24 l / 100 km. (left top – right bottom).
5
CO 2 emissions 0 – 596 gr / km (left top – right bottom).
32
33
«Bl ack-and -whit e is col or e nough»*.
T he digita l Bl ack-and whit e image in th e
photographic tradition
Do good color photographs also make good blackand-white photographs?
During an educational internship an advertising photographer made – roughly – the
following statement: the quality of a color photograph
can be checked very quickly.
Make a black-and-white
blowup, and if the image still
tells a story well, then the
picture is good – and not just
colorful. The concept « a good
picture » stands in this project for good photographs and
photo series that tell a story.
Stories which draw the viewer
in. These photographs give
the viewer the sense that something is interesting, that
that’s how it was, that maybe
he wasn’t there, but now he
has a picture. Or as when Henri
Cartier-Bresson declared,
«A good photo is one that someone looks at for longer than a
second. » 1 This project attempts to plumb the effects
and differences of color photographs and black-and-white
photographs.
Erhard Gonsior
erhard @ gonsior. ch
www . gonsior. ch
Academic experience
2004 – 2006 Master of Advanced Studies MAS, Design,
Art and Innovation, FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland
Work experience
2009 – Present Photography projects exempli causa
«Arbeits-Elefanten» in Northern Thailand.
2005 – 2009 Art Director, Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
up to 2004 Freelance Graphic Designer
34
E rhard Gon s ior
« I only find emotions in black-and-white. Color photography
is a stunted way of seeing: color photos excite only the dealers
and the magazines. » 2 Henri Cartier-Bresson
«If photography had been invented as color photography, who
would ever have missed black-and-white?» 3 Judy Linn
Black-and-white photography primarily clarifies image structures.
Color photography makes picturesque qualities visible. 4
Photography connects high technical precision with continuously improved products and astounding innovations. Photog
raphy is omnipresent, whether with snapping tourists or in the
media. But the apparently simple question of what photography is,
can hardly be answered in a general sense.
Is photography black-and-white or color ? Photography is
black-and-white and color. Is photography analog or digital ? Photography is analog and digital. Is photography art or not art ? Photography is art and not art. Is photography a document or is it not
a document ? Photography is both document and not document. Is
photography creative will or coincidence ? Photography is creative
will and coincidence.
The starting point for this project was the question: are good
color photographs also good black-and-white photographs ? What
effects and what differences can be established ?
A glance into photographic history has shown that photog
raphy was at first monochrome for purely technical reasons. After
the invention of color film, black-and-white photography was linked
by some photographers with the issue of art. For a long time color
techniques were employed restrictively by photographers and print
media due to cost and production reasons.
The evaluation of image studies of color and black-andwhite photographs yielded the following differences or respective
qualities:
• Color emphasizes, apparently, the relation to reality.
• Color generates mood.
• Color can have a strong signal effect.
• Color has picturesque qualities.
• Black-and-white emphasizes the form of objects.
• Black-and-white emphasizes the graphic structure of surfaces.
• Black-and-white emphasizes moods that are created by the distribution of light.
• Black-and-white makes faces better and more quickly recognizable: it emphasizes form and structure.
35
* «Black-and-white is color enough» is a quotation from
Barbara Klemm. Source: «Schwarzweiss ist Farbe genug»,
TV-Porträt auf Arte, 7 August 2010, 6 . 4 5 h (Germany
2008, 43 minutes, Director: Burghard Schlicht)
1
This quotation is attributed to Henri Cartier-Bresson.
2
FAZ . NET: «Meister des ‹Moment décisif›,» 5 August
2004.
3
Moore, Crump, Rubinfien: «Starburst – Color Photography in America 1970 – 1980,» p. 12, German translation
Hatje Cantz Verlag.
4
Compyre Claudia Bahmer: «Ideengeschichte der Bildwissenschaft,» p. 188, and André Malraux: «Stimmen
der Stille,» p. 19 – 4 4.
This final point, that faces can be recognized better and
more quickly in black-and-white photographs, is possibly the reason why some people only work with black-and-white techniques.
Human sight is not just a purely optical process; the larger
part of seeing takes place in the brain. The way that we have learned
to interpret images is decisive. My daughter ( 15 years old ) immediately complained when looking at black-and-white photographs
about the missing colors, but then found them «somehow cool.» Her
grandfather ’s reaction, at 75 years of age, was completely different,
«These prints finally show some real photography again!»
One capability links the generations, connects us as human
beings. That is a capability which we train in the very first days of
our lives: the ability to recognize faces. Human beings learn, on the
basis of form and structure, to recognize a face and to read emotions in it. Faces are linked very early with the corresponding persons. These capabilities explain why we perceive a pho-tographed
face very rapidly as such despite the abstract form of black-andwhite photography.
Black-and-white photographs and especially black-andwhite portraits can convey their «contents» in a concentrated and
rapid manner. For this reason they often make a highly intense
impression. If the color itself is not the topic, then with black-andwhite photography the problem can be elegantly omitted that colors represent not only information, but may also distract from the
real subject.
Thus the absolute positions regarding black-and-white photography, as held for example by Henri Cartier-Bresson or Barbara
Klemm ( both photographed primarily people ), become more understandable.
A sweeping remark in the sense that black-and-white photography could replace color photography does not appear sensible. The statement by Susan Sontag that limitations are doomed
to failure is a wonderful response to the question of whether blackand-white photography isn’t as such the better photography. This
position gives every photographer the possibility of finding his or
her own monochrome or colorful way of showing motif, light and
emotions.
A black-and-white rendition is a good and simple method
of checking a color photograph for content and effect. To derive
from that, however, that black-and-white photographs are superior
to color photographs, would be wrong.
Even today black-and-white photography has high creative
potential. A black-and-white photograph is more than just a colorless picture. Black-and-white photography has particularly high
potential in portraiture. The waiver of color can simplify the work
of the photographer.
A particular question imposes itself as a result of this project:
what information give an observer the impression of seeing a face?
36
37
1
–
2
3
–
4
1
«Biototto» – Lebensraum, Kos
2
«Biototto» – Lebensraum, Kos, black-and white
3
Maesa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai
4
Maesa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai, black-and white
38
39
I nv e stigating I magination
as a C ognitive Act
I ndre Grumbina i te
Images and imagination
are considered to be natural to
our thinking. Imagination
In quotidian experience we deal with conceptions that have relatraditionally is regarded to be
tions to the natural world or sometimes fall beyond reality. Imaginamental capacity for experi
encing, constructing, or manip- tion helps to provide meaning to experience by constructing and
manipulating it. There are many other factors involved in these
ulating concepts, sensations
processes, such as memory, knowledge and emotions, and this exand mental imagery.
Focusing on imagination as the plains why the human faculty of imagination has been an area of
interest for centuries within different fields of study. Consequently,
capacity to form mental
the concept of imagination has a very complex range of meanings;
images, this project explores
between many others, it can be considered as the capacity to think
its role for visual perception
of things as possibly being so, as the source of invention, novelty,
and image creation.
and as the ability of forming mental images, sensations and conIndre Grumbinaite
cepts. Focusing on the theory that imagination involves our image28. 04. 1986, Vilnius, Lithuania
indregru @ gmail.com
forming capacity, this project investigates the role of imagination
www.indregru.com
Academic experience
for visual perception and image generation.
Imagining and seeing both involve visual experience, but
2007 – 2 009 Erasmus Exchange in Industrial Design,
the content of visual imagination does not have to be determined
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
2005 – 2 009 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Product Design,
only by the visual encounters. Philosopher Dominic McIver Lopes
Vilnius Academy of Arts (Vilniaus Dailes Akademija),
Vilnius, Lithuania
notes that to «visually imagine a scene is, in part, to have an expe2001 – 2 004 Studies of Fine Arts, Vilnius J. Vienožinskis
Art School, Vilnius, Lithuania
rience as of a scene.» This sensation of experience is the feature
Work experience
that imagining shares with seeing. Yet, imagining is not only having
2007 – Present Freelance designer
2004 – Present Independent jewelry designer
an experience of a scene in the absence of seeing it. 1 The property
of imagining is quite explicitly discussed in the essay «The Way We
Imagine» by Mark Turner, in which he claims that we are able not
only to imagine the stories or concepts that respond to the present
environment, but we can also connect them together and blend
them into a new mental experience. 2 And when we speak about
visual experience, we must consider a concept of mental image.
Daniel Reisberg states that the experience of visual mental imagery
is based on information stored in memory and not on external
stimuli. 3 However, thinking of mental images as of having multistable and manipulative quality, the influence by the stimuli from
outside must be considered as a part of an experience, thus visual
perception, should not be excluded from a framework of this whole
discussion.
Therefore, the question arises: how is it possible to investigate the ability of manipulation of the visual mental images in
which external and internal inputs merge? How can imagination be
treated as a cognitive act, as a process of thinking and decisionmaking? In the early stages, the research focused on stimulation of
mental images through visual means. In the tests that were conducted for this project, it is observed how visual and language-based
40
41
inputs have influence on the outcome through drawing. Within one
test series, abstract patterns were observed by the participants and
personal interpretations were drawn over the given patterns to try
and represent the mental image. The variety of the results spurred
the project on to include the text-based impacts over the process
of imagination and determination.
Abstract images that were used for the tests are based on
the so-called «chance image.» «Images made by chance are meaningful visual figurations perceived in materials – most often rocks,
clouds, or blots – that have not been, or cannot be, consciously
shaped by men. An awareness of such images is probably as old as
mankind itself.» 4 Drawing on a sheet of paper which already has
marks on it, suggests a special condition, where it has an impression that the solution is already given, and the drawer just has to
extract it from the «given.» The most peculiar feature of this act is
that everyone (or almost everyone) sees different things suggested
by the nature of the patterns or blots. This is where the image attains openness for various interpretations. Consequently, the more
uncertain it is, the more different envelopment it can obtain.
The focus of this thesis project is to discuss imagination
under the terms of human cognition of the visual information. And
by comparison of different information it attempts to answer why
and how different kinds of abstract images are interpreted in diverse directions. Since the whole subject is closely related to the
field of cognitive psychology, this research aims to explore internal
mental processes of comprehension of the image; it beneficially
encompasses the theories of gestalt psychology, with respect to the
principals of recognition of the whole form; in the field of visual
perception the research refers to pattern recognition, generalization and perceptual completion as processes of comprehension of
visual information. Additionally, in the field of pictorial representation, the investigation reflects upon three debates: the distinction
between recognition and recall,5 the role of the blank surface versus
a marked one as an initial stage of the image, and the impact of the
«chance image» on artistic imagination.6
The final collection of images created for this project is a
reflection on the extensive research and visual samples gathered
through various tests. This research endeavors to be a gateway for
understanding visual mental processes in the field of image creation.
1
1
Dominic McIver Lopes, Imagination, Philosophy, and
the Arts, Ed. with Matthew Kieran (London: Routledge,
2003), 208.
2
Mark Turner, «The Way We Imagine», in Imaginative
Minds, ed. by Ilona Roth (London: Oxford University
Press & the British Academy, 2008).
3
Romke Rouw, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Ronald Hamel,
«Aspects of mental images: is it possible to get the
picture?», in Cognition 66 (International Journal of
Cognitive Science, 1998), 103 – 107.
4
Horst W. Janson, «Chance Images», in Dictionary of the
History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Vol. 1,
Ed. by Philip P. Wiener (New York, Scribner’s, 1973), 340.
5
Ernst Gombrich, The Image and the Eye. Further
Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
(Oxford: Phaidon 1982).
6
Horst W. Janson, «Chance Images», in Dictionary of the
History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Vol. 1,
Ed. by Philip P. Wiener (New York, Scribner’s, 1973).
42
43
1
2
1
The experiment for this research was a drawing
test with twenty participants who were asked to draw
on a given set of thirteen patterns, varying from
being highly repetitive in the composition, to being
exceptionally defined. Each pattern had different
visual values and invited various ways of interpretation.
The pattern with curved lines lead participants
follow the given paths, construct the main shapes or
look for an original solution based on the similarity of the pattern with familiar objects. The pattern
that was made of repetitive, overlapping, translucent edgy shapes had a variety of interpretations, yet
the main focus fell on the individual shape’s resemblance of a particular item; not on the pattern
as a whole. The dark dotted pattern in all cases was
developed towards a misty visualization. The dots
appearing closely to each other were often taken as
facial features of the figures – eyes, nose and
mouth. The gray tones covering the spaces in between
the dots assisted the drawing without depicting
the additional details of the figures. The pattern with
a solid shape in the middle of the page provoked
challenge for the participants, resulting the
most creative and surprising solutions. The shape
had no depth or additional shades in itself and did not
suggest any spatial relations, thus it appeared like
a puzzle piece at first glance. Observation and instant
unconscious comparisons to familiar experiences
indicate a solution to which parts are missing in order
to obtain a complete figure. Analysis of the results
revealed aspects of perception that are important
for understanding how different visual information can
influence imaginative processes.
2
The coffee splash used for the illustration was a part
of a survey in the final stage of this research. The survey
contained a series of sixteen random blots and
splashes of coffee. None of them were meant to represent anything, however it is claimed that we tend
to recognize familiar shapes in such abstract imagery.
Among the variety of interpretations, this splash
was almost always described as a figure with a jacket, e. g.
«a man in a huge, heavy coat or cape, giving off a feeling
of arrogance and power, » «a man with a fur mantel
(on the right) who gives the hand to a little boy (on the left). »
Additionally, it has been identified as «a fish with
a strange tail » or «a butterfly on the right being next to
a flower. » When asked if they can see «a general wearing
his uniform jacket and little poor soldier being pushed
in front by the general’s right hand » 60 % of participants
agreed.
44
45
iconomics –
I mage and M anage me nt
Dar jan Hil
Iconomics examines the
possibilities of systematic use
of images in enterprises.
This can also be understood
as «visual management»
or as «visual communication
in management.»
dar jan hil
02. 02. 1982, Subotica, Former Yugoslavia
darjan.hil @ vizbiz.biz
Academic experience
2008 – 2 009 Certified Systemic Coach, DAA Germany
2002 – 2 007 MSc Business Informatics, University
of Vienna
Work experience
2009 – Present Freelance with vizbiz.biz
2007 – 2 009 Benmark IT and Management Consulting,
Switzerland
2006 – 2 007 IBM Consulting, Austria
2005 Benedicon Management Consulting, Austria
2003 – 2 004 H & S Innovation Factory, Austria
2002 Intership, Oracle Consulting, Switzerland
46
The attempt to employ specialized images in enterprises for purposes of communication and problem-solving can be understood
as an alternative to the present-day dominance of the «Powerpoint
company» and the currently existing tools (such as MS Excel, Photoshop, etc. ) which all to quickly abet solutions that lack reflection.
Edward Tufte characterized these results as flatland. With this concept he described the circumstance that today’s visual aids in general possess no intellectual depth, that the unanticipated moments,
the aha-effects, no longer occur, and that recurrent contemplation
unearths no new details or findings.
«We envision information in order to reason about, communicate, document, and preserve that knowledge. ( nearly always carried out on two dimensional paper and computer
screen ) Escaping this flatland and enriching the density of
data displays are the essential tasks of information design.
Such escapes grow more difficult as ties of data to our familiar three space world weaken ( with more abstract measures )
and as the number of dimensions increases with more complex data.» 1
Good design distinguishes itself not by being rapidly read,
but by provoking intense reading, an occupying of oneself with the
data and topic in contrast to a quick browsing. Through new findings the long-term rather than the short-term memory is promoted.
Iconomics is an attempt to apply these deliberations within
an enterprise – entrepreneurial – context.
In the practical portion of my thesis two situations are dealt
with out of the daily business of the firm Burckhardt + Partner AG.
Each of the designs which arose out of these situations serves another purpose. In the case of the first it deals with an annual review.
A visualization presented on several dimensions reflects on the performance accomplished by one of the department in the firm. The
4.5 m long and 1.2 m high poster contains the dimensions (skyline,
project data, photo documentation and the team ).
The second situation deals with a so-called cooperative
expert process, in which three architecture firms collaborate in
working out a building development study for the new central railway station in Vienna. The visualization conceived for this is a
working instrument, respectively it can also be understood as
«work in progress.» What is being dealt with here is a basis for
decision, developed in a participative manner with the following
dimensions: the requirements of the ordering party, the current
47
1
Tufte, E: Envisioning Information; Graphics Press
LLC, 1990, p. 33
2
Cross, N: Designerly Ways of Knowing; Birkhäuser
Verlag AG, 2007, p. 125
References
• Freyling, Chr: Research in Art and Design, Royal
College of Art Paper, 1993
• Horn, R: Visual Language; Macrovu Press, 1999
• Hartmann, F: Bildsprache, facultas . wuv Universitäts
Verlag, 2006
• Lakeoff, G. Johnson, M: Philosophy in the Flesh; Basic
Books, 1999
• Michel, R: Design Research Now, Birkhäuser Verlag AG,
2007
• Neurath, O. Eve, Matthew: From Hieroglyphics to
Isotype; Princeton Architectural P, 2010
• Tufte, E: The Visual Display of Quantitative
Information; Graphics Press LLC, 2001
• Tufte, E: Visual Explanations; Graphics Press LLC, 1997
situation and the environment, urban development measures, solution proposals, project organization, decisions / protocol, responsibilities and deadlines.
The theoretical portion of my project consists of the analysis of previously described artifacts, the communications and working instrument. The feedback of the participants regarding the
effects of such a visualization, should uncover the potential of such
a method on the theoretical level. Based on the definition of design
research by Nigel Cross, the further investigation is categorized as
follows: 2
• design phenomenology – study of the form and configuration of
artifacts ( products)
• design praxeology – study of the practices and processes of design
(process)
• design epistemology – study of designerly ways of knowing (people)
The research of design phenomenology refers to the two
visualizations in three main properties: profound, logically ordered
and multifariously useful. Profound visualizations possess a particular data and knowledge density, a detail and overview as well as
multidimensionality. The logical order avails itself of multiples, parallelism, layering and separation, and organization by way of grid
systems. When in use, the visualizations described in the case studies exhibit several functions such as exhibition document, study
document, decision document and living document.
The research of design praxeology reflects the process undergone in the generation of two posters. «Active collection» and
«critical questions of problems from a distance» form the common
point of departure for the preparation of both representations. The
dissection of the collected material into the smallest possible units
is the precondition for a subsequent «mapping» and «categorizing
into possible clusters.» The embodiment of the steps undertaken
appears fundamental for this process, and does not allow substitution through any computer or machine. From the «comparisons»
made, there resulted a sketch and a storyboard. The design process
described here should not be understood as something that proceeded in a straight line, but rather as a constantly recurrent «cycle
of causality,» in which the problem lay very close to the solution.
The research of design epistemology describes a new understanding of roles within the environment of design. The designer
thus stands under responsibility «to do what is right,» and no long
er or rather than «doing it right.» He can save lives by identifying
the right facts, and can take lives in the very same manner. The
design is no longer positioned at the end of a development process
as a purely executing activity. It means being involved in projects
right from the start, communicating capably and posing the right
questions. The designer is a universalist who must once again be
discovered.
48
49
1 | 2
3 | 4
1
The body plays a main part in the design praxeology.
By collecting, cutting, categorizing and selecting content,
possible solutions are validated and new questions and
problems discovered.
2
Overview, poster as an instrument of communication,
multiple dimensions (skyline, project data,
photo documentation and team), size 4 m × 1. 2 m
3
Overview, poster as a working instrument, multiple
dimensions (requirements of the ordering party,
current situation and environment, urban development
measures, solution proposals, project organization,
decisions/protocol, responsibilities and deadlines),
size 4 m × 1 m
4
In detail one can observe, browse, make sense of and
understand the information.
50
51
T h e image and
th e s e ns e of touch
s u s a nn e k ä s e r
« Perception is and should
convey the experience
of sensual wholeness, an exchange. This requires a
representational or perceptive
medium which enables
a co-presence of the senses.» 1
How does the perception of images change if
these perceptions are
combined with tactile sensory experiences?
susanne käser
24. 01. 1976, Menziken, Switzerland
su.kaeser @ bluemail.ch
Academic experience
2002 – 2 005 Studies in Visual Communication,
FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland, Major focus Image
1997 – 2 000 Professional dance training, Zurich,
Switzerland
1993 – 1997 Apprenticeship as decoration designer,
Aarau, Switzerland
Work experience
2008 – Present Scientific assistant, Visual Communication Institute, FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland
2005 – Present Independent graphic designer
2001 – 2 002 Furniture assembly, Thut Möbel, Möriken,
Switzerland
1998 – 2 001 Decoration designer
52
The sculptor Pygmalion fell in love with a female statue he created
out of ivory in long hours of handiwork. He beholds the sculpture
dreamily, stroking it fondly until it finally comes to life. The mythical story of the Roman poet Ovid is a metaphor for the animation
which inheres in the interplay of sight, touch, and the emotional
world bound up with them. In my project I substitute the statue with
images and pose the following research question: How does the
perception of images change is these perceptions are combined
with tactile sensory experiences?
The motivation for this research question emerges from my
interest in the development of new forms of documentation which
extend beyond visual forms. It is an essential cultural and historical
need to capture what elapses in images, in order to preserve knowledge for coming generations. In the 1920s the concept of the ‹ docu
mentary image › was first mentioned in a lexicon of photography. 2
The belief in the evidentiary value of photographic images is, despite our knowledge of the possibility that photos can be manipulated, very strongly anchored in our society even today. It is therefore important to sound out this concept once again and to examine
more closely the attributes of images which are meant to represent
reality. The senses of sight and touch are considered from the standpoint of various disciplines to be decisive in understanding facts.
For this reason I will focus in my project on the effects of images
in combination with tactile experiences.
In my investigations I proceed along lines suggested among
others by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson and their findings on
the theory of embodiment. In their publication Philosophy in the
Flesh they describe that our sense of reality depends very strongly
on the preconditions of the human body, and more precisely on the
sensory organs which have been formed by evolution and experience. Lakoff and Johnson reject a strict separation of a rational
consciousness from the sensory functions of the body, meaning a
division of body and mind. 3 They proceed on the assumption that
all the senses are commonly responsible for the generation of
knowledge, and that the sensory functions cannot be fully isolated.
I presume that through a guided coordination of various
sensory impressions, the statement of an image can be supported,
or respectively, that documentary images can be found more authentic if they are combined with a tactile experience. The combination of these two sensory impressions, through the comparison
of the tactile experiences with those from the visual area, enables
53
a new access to an image in which the ‹ inner image › is drawn into
perception.
In my project I examine the influence of tactile experiences on the perception of individual images. My experiments are
based on the methods of applied iconic research, which belong
among design research tools while also being rooted in the findings of iconic research. This method employs the drafting of images as instruments of discovery in order to gain insight regarding
the mode of action and the significance of images. 4 The combination of images with tactile material in different variations represents the experimental framework of my practical examinations.
The spectrum of image material serving as a basis for the experiments extends from photography to abstractly painted surfaces.
The selection of tactile material includes well known everyday objects as well as indefinable surface structures. I undertake the attempt to develop criteria for a successful combination of tactical
and visual stimuli.
In the cultural studies portion of my thesis project I will
address the hierarchy of the senses. The importance of the individual senses has been changeably assessed throughout history.
Since Plato the sense of sight has frequently been designated at the
king of the senses, since the distance between the eye and its object
represented for him the condition for authentic perception of the
world. Johann Gottlieb Herder reversed the hierarchy of the senses
which had reigned since antiquity by raising the sense of touch to
the peak. For him it was precisely the immediate connection to an
object that represented the condition for a true and authentic relation to reality. My interest applies not to the delimitation of the
senses against each other, but to the form of their interaction.
1
Hopmann, Erika Sophie: Die Organisation der Sinne.
Wahrnehmungstheorie und Aesthetik in Laurence Sternes
Tristram Shandy. Würzburg 2008 (p. 236)
2
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail: Wer spricht so? Einige Fragen
zur Dokumentarfotografie. (p. 4)
3
George Lakoff, Mark Johnson: Philosophy in the Flesh.
The Embodied Mind and its Challange to Western
Thought. Basic Books. New York 1999. (p. 1 7/20)
4
Gui Bonsiepe: The uneasy Relationship between Design
and Design Research. In: Ralf Michel: Design Research
Now. Basel 2007. (p. 24)
References
• Böhme, Hartmut: Der Tastsinn im Gefüge der Sinne.
In: Gebauer, Gunter Hg: Anthropologie. Leipzig, Stuttgart
1998
• Diaconu, Mădălina: Tasten, Riechen, Schmecken.
Eine Aesthetik der anästhesierten Sinne. Würzburg 2005
• Hamilton, Anne. Stillem Peter: Die fünf Sinne. Von
unserer Wahrnehmung der Welt. Frankfurt am Main 2008
• Hopmann, Erika Sophie: Die Organisation der Sinne.
Wahrnehmungstheorie und Aesthetik in Laurence Sternes
Tristram Shandy. Würzburg 2008
• Johnson, Mark: The Meaning of the Body. Aesthetics of
Human Understanding. Chicago 2007
• Serres, Michel: Die fünf Sinne. Eine Philosophie der
Gemenge und Gemische. Frankfurt am Main 1998
• Zeuch, Ulrike: Umkehr der Sinneshierarchie. Herder
und die Aufwertung des Tastsinns seit der frühen
Neuzeit. Tübingen 2000
54
55
1
2
1
Third experiment: The images in this series were
presented individually but in combination with a real
lemon as a tactile object in the experiment. The test
person sees and touches simultaneously and describes
his or her impressions.
2
Fourth experiment: The test person touches an object that he or she cannot see, and describes the inner
image which arises from this contact.
56
57
S cript as I mage .
A study of a l t e ring l e tte rs
into visua l i z ations
I r is K i r chn e r
This project concerns itself
with the question of what
happens when the graphicvisual representation of letters
emphasizes their form
through manipulation, thus
placing it in the forefront
of perception. The extent to
which the basic form of a letter
allows for abstraction to the
point of non-recognition will
be examined, such that beyond
a certain level the graphic
representation moves to the
fore, while the written character becomes relegated. The
influence this has on readability or even the importance of
legibility at all in this context
is also a point of inquiry.
Iris Kirchner
19. 05. 1985, Graz, Austria
ik _viscom @ gmx.net
Academic experience
2008 – 2 009 BA Information design, FH Joanneum,
Graz, Austria
2004 – 2 007 Course in graphic and communication
design, HTBLA Ortweinschule, Graz, Austria
2003 – 2 004 Study of Russian, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz, Austria
2003 Qualification for university entrance, BORG
Graz-Liebenau, Austria
Work experience
2009 – Present Self-employed in graphic design and
visual communication, including for josefundmaria in
Graz, Enothek Basel and University of Basel
2007 – 2 008 Graphic designer (full-time) in graphics
and advertising agency, Graz, Austria
58
Script is a representative system of signs consisting of abstract,
connotated forms which have developed out of images and which
still bear a high degree of imagistic quality. This quality can – depending on the context – be accentuated or downplayed, whereby
generally two different functions of script can be recognized. On
one hand script functions in an analytical, linear context, in which
legibility is the fundamental criterion in the simple transfer of messages in linear sequence. A letter functions here as a graphic representation of language, or respectively of thought, which is meant
to be conveyed to the recipient on a material level. The focus in this
application lies on the cognitive act of reading, within which the
form of individual letters is of secondary importance and they are,
so to speak, « invisible,» inasmuch as they function solely as intermediaries between the reader and the content. On the other hand,
script can also be employed as a creative and pictorial element,
such that primary attention lies on the visual expression of the letter and its connotation becomes secondary. Here the pure form, the
visual presence of the letter surges forth, while the factors of readability and linearity slip to the rear. The written character sheds its
function as a graphical service provider and in this context is perceived first and primarily as an image, as something which desires
to be read.
« As narrow as the line may be between readability and unreadability, so also does the fundamentally various handling
of script become clear. In one case the point is to capture something in reading, and in another to behold it for itself. Script
reveals itself once as script, and on another occasion as an
image. » 1
In this way perception shifts from the act of reading to the
act of contemplation. Through its employment as a creative element
a letter is placed in another context, in which it refers to its visual
and iconographic qualities and addresses the observer’s pictorial
perception. Here at the latest the question arises of the degree of
graphic abstraction at which the letter is perceived primarily as an
image instead of as a written character, as well as the extent to
which the letter’s original form can change until it is no longer
recognizable as such. This shift of perception from script to image
should be investigated both theoretically and practically.
In the theoretical portion of this project the focus lies on
the definition of image and script, their differing manners or types
of information transfer and the way in which these are perceived.
59
The attempt is made to work out the characteristics of the two disciplines and to place them in a context regarding the employment
of script as a creative element. The fact that letters themselves are
iconographic and beyond that have developed out of images represents the starting point of my considerations of the imagistic quality of letters. The differing expectations held opposite images and
script should also be examined, as well how these influence the use
of script as a pictorial element. A description of the background
underlying the establishment of script as a creative element and its
possibilities in the widest of contexts should also contribute to an
understanding of this complex topic.
The experimental, practical portion of the project consists
of creating a series of images in which the letters of the Latin alphabet are abstracted in five steps with the aid of visual tools to
the point of being unrecognizable in their fundamental form. This
yields at the end a repertoire of manipulated letter forms, with the
help of which images should be generated which make the shift in
perception from script to image more apparent. It will be examined
to what extent the basic forms can be manipulated until the pictorial, visual level assumes the foreground of contemplation, targeted
through the use of various materials. The chosen techniques of abstraction alter with each letter, thus suggesting a content which is
individual and freely interpretable. The reference thereby alters
between the visual and intellectual level. In addition it becomes
more evident what influence the alteration of the form of a letter
has on readability and whether the question of readability is even
relevant here.
1
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstbibliothek (2010):
«Welt aus Schrift – Das 20. Jahrhundert in Europa und
den USA», Bonn: VG Bild-Kunst, S. 161, Absatz 3.
References
• Barthes, Roland: «Der entgegenkommende und der
stumpfe Sinn», 1990, Frankfurt/M., Suhrkamp Verlag
• Strätling, Susanne / Witte, Georg; Hrsg.:
«Die Sichtbarkeit der Schrift», 2006, München,
Wilhelm Fink Verlag
• Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin:
«Welt aus Schrift – Das 20. Jahrhundert in Europa und
den USA», 2010, Bonn, Verlag der Buchhandlung
Walther König
• Flusser, Vilém: «Die Schrift », 4. Aufl., 1992, Göttingen,
Verlag European Photography
• Boehm, Gottfried; Hrsg.: «Was ist ein Bild? », 2006,
München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag
60
61
1
4
2
–
3
1
With the help of the repertoire of manipulated letter
forms, images can be generated which engage themselves
with the blending of image and script. The visualgraphic expression of abstracted forms stands in the
forefront here; connotation or respectively the
information of the written characters and words is in the
background. The designer decides thereby about the
degree of abstraction through the choice of specific steps
from the series and their combination. Depending on
the context in which and the constellation in which the
forms are employed, more or less readable typographic images emerge which should make the shift of
perception from script to image more evident. All
forms are usable as analog magnetic films as well as
digitally as font, thus representing an open, continuously
reusable system of design that allows the most various
of combinations and contexts, in which script can
function and be employed as an information carrier
and as a creative element.
2
Deformation of the letter «m» through the burning
of a printed film. The aspect of randomness plays
an important role here, since the designer has little
or no influence over the result of the experiment.
The levels of abstraction are not foreseeable, and one
achieves unexpected results and effects.
3
Deformation of the letter «a » in five steps through
radial cutting and shifting of the individual parts.
The successive alteration of the basic form to total
pictorial abstraction becomes apparent. The information
of the letter itself is lost within the manipulation
process and gives way to a freely interpretable form.
4
A step in the series of the letter «k,» painted on
glass and then smashed with a hammer. The focus of all
the generated image series lies in the shift of perception from reading or respectively the recognition of the
letter to the contemplation of a specific creative form.
The point thereby is to find out at what degree of abstraction the written character becomes of background significance and the pictorial level usurps the
viewer’s focus.
62
63
C RE AT I NG I NDI V I D UAL
EX P E RI E NC E T H RO U GH NON - L I NE AR
N ARR A T ION S I N MOV I NG I MAGE S
S a f a k K o r k ut
Film narrative is a way of
understanding data under the
illusion of occurrence; the
mind is capable of building a
set of rules to perceive it
as a narrated story even if the
pieces do not belong to each
other. This thesis project aims
to achieve a narrative structure that generates an indefinable number of stories,
thus the individual combination of the videos becomes
the key for the creation of a
narrative.
( Mehme t D ogan ) Safak Korkut
03. 12. 1983, Istanbul, Turkey
gmail @ safakkorkut.com
www.safakkorkut.com
Academic experience
2006 – 2 009 Bachelor of Arts in Communication
Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Work experience
2009 Video Editor, Haqihana Srl, Fenegrò (CO), Italy
64
The virtue of narration in cinema is in the flow, which is the process
from the start of the film to the final scene in which we see the
words, «The End.» It needs a temporal entity to be able to fully
comprehend the plot and be pleased by the story. In the nature of
film, the sequences follow each other and in this way a narration is
created. The video clips add up onto each other in a tempo-linear
order 1 (not necessarily in chronological order) and give a flow to the
narration. Roland Barthes mentions that in the control of this flow,
the viewer is often teased by a riddle that requires him to guess the
next piece of information to be revealed. 2 I raise my debate after
Barthes; when this flow is somehow manipulated with an unexpected event , 3 a clip which actually does not belong to that group, the
riddle is expected to grow and evoke a bigger curiosity and/or frustration over the viewer. The viewer is now heavily challenged to find
the right puzzle pieces to start solving the narration. Therefore, the
linearity is broken and the order has left its place to the navigation.
The aesthetic of the story in film is focused on offering fiction and illusions, in order to make the everyday surroundings appear different. The cinema concentrates its contents in a series of
events which projects a collective experience to the audience which
watches the film in the theater together. The individualization of
the experience is not a common discussion in the subject. Bill Viola
mentions that «the real raw material is not the camera and the
monitor, but time and experience itself» and adds «the real place
is not on the screen or within the walls of the room, but in the mind
and the heart of the person who has seen it. This is where all images live».4 He affirms that we relate, combine and create images
in our minds, together with the emotions that envelop us. If the
cinema is a collective experience with a single narrative structure,
then an individualization of experience should be acquired in a
different medium, in the mind of the viewer; and should be kept
unique for everyone who watches it.
By using a visual programming software – Isadora 5 – a complex algorithm for the selection of the videos from a database has
been created. The sum of all the possible trajectories through this
database serves as a concept to create multiple non-plots. The viewer, although unaware of the net of connections in the background,
is confronted with these trajectories and tends to build up a plot of
his own. Creating this form of space and time in a narrative is as
important as constructing a possible logic for the events that occur
in that time.
65
The practical part of the project consists of a four-channel
projection on a cylindrical screen with supporting audio. While the
viewer is confronted by a massive flow of videos in four different
directions of the installation, the ability to store vast amounts of
data in the mind, to classify them, link them, search for connections
and instantly retrieve them lead to new kinds of narratives. It requires a further characterization of each element to relate them and
separate them distinctly and in an abstract way. The audio, as a
form of seamless communication provides a common ground that
helps to paste the clusters of the data onto a solid narrative line in
the mind. In this project, the viewer is also invited to move throughout the space and therefore to remember what has been seen and
heard. Following the sequences themselves is not easy, and it is not
meant to be easy. It offers to the viewer neither a true psychological
immersion nor an easy navigation through the story. There is no
unique solution; however the project claims that there is at least a
single solution in one’s time and space.
Tempo-linear order means that the movie goes from
00 : 00 : 0 1 to 01 : 20 : 24.
2
«Roland Barthes, S/Z An Essay (New York: Hill and
Wang, 1974), 18 – 20». in Eden Taylor, Narrative. Accessed
July 13, 2011. http://www.slideshare.net/etaylorchs/
narrative-5566418 , 28
3
The unexpected event should create a contrast from
the scene to the next one in order to surprise. It should
give an undefined extension to the plot and also
should become a mystery to the viewer. Alfred Hitchcock
used often these extensions in his movies (e . g ., North
by Northwest (1959), Rear Window (1954)) and named it
as MacGuffins. The specific nature of the MacGuffin
may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open
to interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant
to the plot. In Hitchcock, extensions that are used as
MacGuffins do not serve to the story necessarily.
However in my case, they might have a meaningful relation to the upcoming scenes, or as well, might not.
4
Marie Luise Syring, Bill Viola – unseen images = nie
gesehene Bilder = images jamais vues, mit Beitr. von Rolf
Lauter (Dusseldorf: Verlag R. Meyer, 1992)
5
«Isadora is… graphic programming environment
for Macintosh and Windows that provides interactive control over digital media, with special emphasis
on the real-time manipulation of digital video.»
Designed by Mark Coniglio. Accessed July 14, 2011.
http://www.troikatronix.com/isadora.html
1
References
• Dr. Kia Lindroos, Non-Linear Narrative As a Form of
Political Action: Viewing Chris Marker’s Film Sans Soleil.
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Mannheim, 1999.
Accessed July 13, 2011. https://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR /
events/jointsessions/paperarchive/mannheim/w22 /
lindroos.pdf
• Roland Barthes, S/Z An Essay. (New York: Hill and
Wang, 1974)
• Edward Branigan, Narrative Comprehension and Film.
(London: Routledge, 1992)
• Seymour Chatman, Story And Discourse: Narrative
Structure in Fiction and Film. (New York: Cornell
University Press, 1978)
• Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media. (Mass.:
MIT Press, 2002)
66
67
1
–
2
3
1
The stock materials are generally used to fulfill the
needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer or a videographer. The content varies from
still-life shots to very specific situations regarding to the
potential broadcast needs or placed orders.
The images make use of huge online archives and
the rights shall be purchased through these agencies,
such as Getty Images or Corbis. Only in this way
can the owner have a high quality image or video without the watermark of the agency. The project uses
stock materials from different agencies and the watermarks are kept to underline that the pieces actually
belong to different trajectories or groups. When they are
projected on the screen one after the other one,
the viewer’s filmic experience perceives them as sequences of a narrative.
2
The sequence of the clips is different every time due
to a complex algorithm of relations of an application which is working in the background. After every clip
is played, the application selects the next clip from a
number of pre-determined possibilities of most
likely clips that has the potential to give a follow up to
the previous scene. This series of events continues
in all four channels until the randomly selected soundtrack comes to the end and everything starts from
the beginning once again.
3
The viewer is always used to seeing a flat surface while
he is confronted with a film or video. The traditional cinematic narrative aims to engage the viewer to the
screen. The borders of the projection surface are strictly
defined and everything visual happens in that space.
However the circular form of the installation
brings a spatial representation to the narrative experience. It suggests a path to navigate in the space to
understand and to play whether to analyze the received
information or just to walk around. The installation
and the information flow aim to psychologically
submerge the viewer within the space. It accomplishes
the same effects which hitherto were created by cinematic narrative. In this project particularly, the
cinematic narrative is broken, but the spatial bond is
strengthened. However, four different video flows
around the circular surface raise more questions to combine the pieces of narrative together.
Moreover, when the form is considered as a whole,
it creates a visually limited time and space, the other side
of the column, which is not visible, always remains
mysterious and stimulates curiosity, encouraging the
viewer to explore.
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69
At l as of S e v e n Days .
Be tw e e n D ocum e ntation
and Diagram
N ico l e L ach e n m e i e r
This Master’s thesis examines
the possibilities of developing
innovative methods for documentation of a specific location. It probes the potential of
graphic representation to
illustrate complex processes.
N ico l e Lach e nm e i e r
n @ niclac.ch
Academic experience
2004 Diplom, Designer FH in Visual Communication,
FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland
2001 – 2 004 Degree program in Visual Communication,
FHNW HGK, Basel, Switzerland
2000 – 2 001 Expert class in Design, SfG Basel
1999 – 2 000 Preparatory course, SfG Basel
1998 University qualification certificate Type D
1990 – 1 998 Gymnasium Leonhard, Basel
Work experience
2008 – Present Assistant, HGK FHNW, Visual
Communication Institute
2007 – 2 008 Freelance collaborator, Documentary
mandate Novartis Campus, HGK FHNW
2007 – 2 009 Freelance collaborator,
Neko Interactive, Basel
2006 – 2 007 9.6, Conceptual Worlds, Basel
2006 INCI, In Corporate Identity, Koblenz, Germany
2005 – 2 006 9.6, Conceptual Worlds, Basel
2004 – Present Self-employed
2003 Internship Büro 4, Zürich
Awards
2011 Award «Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2010»
2007 Award «Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2006»
70
The harbor area of St. Johann is for urban development an important location, well visible from the center of Basel, and is presently in the midst of a great transformation from an industrial zone
to a park landscape. An excerpt of this restructuring should be
recorded.The possibilities of information design as a component
of a documentary process are thereby a focus of interest. The hypothesis is that through new composition of a range of graphical
representation processes, interesting perspectives, new contexts,
greater knowledge and unanticipated interpretations can emerge.
In photographic documentation of the urban development
transformation in the harbor area I have missed a deeper presentation of the working processes. The practical portion of this Master’s
thesis attempts to show an absorbed insight into the project through
information design. So for example the side-by-side activity of archeology and the remediation of contaminated sites, their operational processes, should be better illustrated.
Innovative forms of graphic representation could provide
project participants and Basel inhabitants new insights into the
process of transformation, making what is complex more accessible.
Information cannot be designed or arranged immediately; rather a
certain translation is required in order to make it vivid (Stephan,
2008). Along the graphic interface between diagrams and documentary photography there exists potential to develop new forms of
visualization. I define this interface fundamentally as graphic representations that are based on photography and possess a documentary character. This is the object of examination in the theoretical portion of this Master’s thesis.
«Mapped pictures» is the designation used for graphical
representations which unite the visual authenticity of photographs
with the contextualizing, abstractive and explanatory qualities of
diagrams and can thereby illustrate more, explain better and serve
as evidence (Tufte, 2006).
«Most explanatory and evidential images (presented in scientific research, newspapers, textbooks, technical manuals, legal
proceedings, engineering reports, and the like) should be mapped, placed in an appropriate context for comparison, and
located on the universal grid of measurement.» (Tufte, 2006)
Or more openly formulated as a cartographic process:
«Mapping has emerged in the information age as a means to
make the complex accessible, the hidden visible, the unmappa
ble mappable.» (Abrams, 2006)
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Newhall (1984) also writes that before a photo can be accepted as a document, it must first paradoxically document itself;
it must first be specified to a particular time and place. This can be
achieved by bringing what is familiar together with what is unknown – within a photographic image or in the confrontation of
several images.
The practical portion of this thesis examines over a time
period of seven days three measured surfaces of varying size on the
former premises of the St. Johann harbor. Two of the surfaces were
subject to particularly high levels of activity during this time and
were selected for this reason. The focus of the examinations lies in
the analysis of the surfaces and the working processes of the archeologists and the soil reclamation team.
The goal is to develop a method of documentation which
links existing and new approaches and which can convey information through photographic images better. The method should also
be applicable to other disciplines as well or should serve as a basis
for further methods. As an inspiration in the work process, impulse
was taken from the scientifically documented procedures of the
archeologists and from the soil reclamation. Some principles were
adopted while others were used inspirationally.
The overlooked, unseen and invisible of this specific place
is shifted into focus as evidence and vestiges of life unknown or no
longer known. Through extreme close-ups for example of plants,
findings, structures, tools and machines, a proximity to things and
processes is developed which at first isolates them from the general context, but then through comparison with the other photos
or the data sources provided by the project participants brings
them back together again. Data include topographical maps which
serve both teams as working instruments, and for example also
indications of size, descriptions and time information. In the end a
comprehensive snapshot of the location should be created which
makes this knowledge visible.
The result of this investigation will be compiled in a kind of
atlas, an atlas in the sense of a visual reference work of the seven
days. It uses only few benchmarks, and thus makes the individual
topics easily comparable to one another.
References
• Abrams, Janet: Else/where, Minnesota, 2006.
• Beaumont Newhall: Geschichte der Photographie;
München, 1984.
• Stephan, Peter Friedrich: Information. In:
Michael Erlhoff, Tim Marshall (Hgg.), Wörterbuch Design,
Basel 2008.
• Tufte, Edward R. : Beautiful Evidence; Chesire (Conn.),
2006.
• Tufte, Edward R. : Visual explanations. Cheshire (Conn.)
(Graphics Press), 1995.
72
73
4 | 5
1 | 2
6
3
On page 73, excerpt of 25 out of 46 plants from the
collection. Without categorization and scale. The plants
are ordered according to visual criteria and size. They
were collected, dried in a herbarium and afterwards
photographed. All the plants were reduced in size by the
same percentage.
Image 1 – 3 are three surfaces which were examined
visually. The precisely measured surface is located
between the blue dots. All three photos were taken from
the fourth floor from the last building on the grounds.
Surface of the entire premises: 51000 m2
1
Surface one. Starting image, before the land reclamation
began. Size of the surface: 658 m2.
2
Surface two. Surface of archeological activity. Size of
the surface: 320 m2. The «block» of examination
is located in the building (removed from this surface).
3
Surface three. The unfinished surface of the bicycle
parking lot and relaxation area of the archeologists.
Former area of the tracks. Size of the surface: 260 m2.
4
Selection of the archeologists’ tools. Photographed onsite with an archeological scale. The images of the
tools are used to illustrate the archeologists’ working
process. These pictures serve as basic material.
5
Selection from the findings of surfaces one and three.
They were photographed on the same location and
archeological scale as the archeologists’ tools. These
pictures serve as basic material.
6
Selection of the ground structures found on starting day.
Photographed with an archeological scale.
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75
P hotographing .
De l ibe rations on th e
photographic
de sign proce ss
S v e t l a na M arch e nko
The specifics of photogenesis manifest themselves
in the technical nature of
Each of us in his or her life has had some experience with photog
image recording and account
raphy. Everyone has at least one camera at home, has photo albums
for the distinctiveness of
in which pictures of friends and family, important events and vacaphotographic design. This
tions are collected. These are like traces of life enclosed in amber.
is composed of a complex netIn a photographic image they serve a particular purpose: they capwork of related decisions
ture «beautiful moments.» Without hesitating for long we press the
which occur both before and
shutter and the picture is complete – just like that. This doesn’t
after triggering.
mean, however, that the generation of a photographic image does
In my project I wish to illustrate the stages of this process not include a design process. Even in the case of a snapshot in tourism photography, the one who takes the picture – even unconsciousand discuss the factors which
ly – experiences a process in which he or she makes certain deciinfluence it.
sions. Decisions about what will be photographed and what will
Svetlana Marchenko
not – even what’s considered beautiful or valuable – and how it will
13. 08. 1981, St. Petersburg, Russia
smarch @ gmx.ch be photographed – whether entirely or only in part, and of course
Academic experience
everyone should be in the picture and should smile!
2009 Bachelor of Arts in Media und Theater Studies,
In the conscious handling of photography this process is
universities of Basel, Bern, Wien
2003 Diploma in Cultural management, National
composed of a complex network of related decisions which come
Academy of Theater of St. Petersburg, Russia
about on the basis of the author’s intentions and constellations
1998 Completion of secondary school
dependent on the medium. This process can be considered that of
Work experience
2006 – Present Collaboration in a range of culture
photographic design. But where does it begin and what accounts
projects
2005 – 2 006 Management of Press and Public Relations
for it? In order to get to the bottom of these questions, more precise
Department «Design Gallery St. Petersburg»
2002 – 2 005 Cultural manager, Culture studio
contemplation and knowledge of photographic content and char«Nasledie i perspektiva»
1998 – 2 001 Assistant, Theater Festival «Baltic House»
acteristics of the production process are crucial.
When one turns to the texts on the theory and history of
photography, one notices a lack of works that devote themselves
explicitly to photographic design. The sources consulted within the
scope of this project are concerned with photography as a finished
object; they devote themselves to the aesthetic and content-related
qualities of the photographic image, or respectively to its contemplation and perception, its character as a medium as well as its
historical development.
Questions such as «Who is taking the picture» or «What does
the photographer do?» are in fact posed, but the response to them
often reduces photography to the moment of triggering, or to the
registration of the motif onto the light-sensitive surface of the film.
The instant of triggering, of tripping the shutter, is no doubt crucial
and essential for a photographic image – through it «what is specific to the medium of photography comes to bear.» 1 Nevertheless
this includes only one aspect of image genesis:
«… one {should} never forget, that both before and after this
moment … gestures and processes take place which are deeply
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77
1
Herta Wolf in Introduction to «Der fotografische Akt»,
Dubois, Philippe, p. 9.
2
Dubois, Philippe, p. 88
3
William Klein, Contacts.
References
• Contacts, Les plus grands photographes dévoilent les
secrets de leurs images, Vol. 1.: Le grande tradition
du photo-reportage, DVD, ARTE: France, 1988 – 2000.
• Flusser, Vilém: Gesten, Versuch einer Phänomenologie,
Düsseldorf 1991.
• Dubois, Philippe: Der fotografische Akt, Versuch über
ein theoretisches Dispositiv, Amsterdam 1998.
• Wells, Liz (Hg.): The Photography Reader, London 2003.
• Waibl, Günther, «Fotografie und Geschichte», in:
Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik
der Fotografie, Heft 23, 1987.
cultural and entirely dependent on personal and social, human decisions and options.» 2
Of what do these decisions and options actually consist?
Based on an idea from the American photographer William
Klein, in 1988 the first volume of «Contacts. The world’s greatest
photographers reveal the secrets behind their images,» subtitled
«The Great Tradition of Photojournalism,» came into being. 3 The
documentation consisting of short films grants a rare insight into
the working methods of masters of the medium, who present their
contact prints and comment on their own procedure.
The camera moves slowly along the images on a proof sheet.
Six rows with six exposures apiece, an arrangement which reads
like a text from left to right. Shot with a shutter speed of one onehundred-and-twenty-fifth of a second, the two hundred and fifty
pictures illustrate two seconds in the life of a photographer, as William Klein comments. What can they say about his work?
The «Contacts» are compared with a photographer’s diary:
«You see what he sees through the viewfinder: his hesitations, his hits, his misses, his choices. He chooses one moment, one
angle. Another moment, another angle. He insists, he stops. You
rarely see the contacts of the photographer. You only see the picture chosen. You don’t see the before or the after like you do on the
proof sheet.»
A row of instances, fractions of an event, an interaction,
which illustrate here the search for a particular, fleeting moment.
Despite the transparency an explanation is due: «Why is one picture
taken rather than the other ? And then why is one chosen rather
than another ?»
The selection of a detail, the aspect of coincidence, the mutual «provocation» of photographer and photographic subject, the
selection of camera settings and other characterizing aspects which
come up in the course of the process are named by Klein and his
cohorts. The enumerated factors provide access to elucidate the
circumstances that must be considered in photography and thereby form the most important points of reference for an investigation
of photographic design.
In my project, on the basis of a confrontation with the photographic process, additional aspects of image production should
be pointed out and examined through concrete examples from
personal photographic praxis the work of professional photographers should be examined. My particular interest is directed toward the symbiosis between the photographer and the camera, the
interaction of the photographer with his image motif as well as the
waiting – and waiting – for that decisive instant. From this should
emerge a comprehensive overview of the aspects and stages of photographic design.
78
79
The choice of scenery is frugal. A narrow sidewalk,
a one-way street paved with asphalt, a gray wall in the
background. I position myself with the camera on
the other side of the street. This allows me to forego use
of the telephoto lens. The monotony of this setting is
broken only by the bright yellow zigzags of the bus
stop markings. Those waiting to take the bus present
themselves as on a stage. Around them everything else is
moving: pedestrians, automobiles, rushing bicyclists.
The situation alters in rapid pace.
The detail is set and should no longer change.
A critical decision is about to be made: the moment
of triggering. The criterion is simple: every time
someone or something enters my arena, a shot is made.
A series of pictures is generated. Moments torn out of
the everyday flow. «In cutting something is always
happening. » (Philippe Dubois) The framework creates
relationships to the other elements caught within it,
yet in every picture in a different way. Colors, postures,
glances. If one focuses on the couple on the right
side of the picture, their story seems to appear every
time in a different light. On one occasion is seems so
central, and on another entirely marginal.
In one of the shots the couple and other occupants
of the detail appear in a line as if placed along the wall.
A passing taxi enters the picture, taking up nearly
two-thirds of the space. Crops the bodies so that they
are only visible to the midriff, like puppets in a
puppet theater. The white door of a car is situated in the
middle of the picture, vertically like the figures
on the sidewalk. The yellow taxi sign comes between
two of them. The straightness and flatness of the
composition is noticeable through the reflection of the
bent houses opposite in the taxi window. The space
of the image expands.
At the moment of triggering one could hardly imagine
that this image would appear. An interplay of
coincidence and intuition. A result of the search for
something unforeseeable.
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81
T h e thinking E y e .
E x amin e d and appl i e d
in photomontage
Efa Mühlethaler
This Master’s thesis examines
the interplay between seeing
and thinking. It questions
the relation in which these two
different processes stand,
and the role that visual per
ception plays in thought.
Drawing on personal experience in photography, the
topic is analyzed through
photomontage and illustrated
through images.
Efa Mühlethaler
11. 07. 1962. Bern, Switzerland
[email protected]
Academic experience
2004 – 2 006 Continuing Education Diploma
«Design /Art & Innovation,» Academy of Art and Design,
Basel, Switzerland
1994 – 1 997 Expert class for creative arts, School of
Design, Basel, Switzerland
Work experience
2009 – Present Video Documentation/Contract work in
the areas of Theater and Music
2007 – Present Manager in Department of Continued
Education and Preparatory Course at the F + F School for
Art and Media Design, Zurich
2005 – 2 007 Manager Department of Design,
Klubschule Migros Aare, Bern
2000 – 2 009 Docent for Video
1998 – Present Various exhibitions and creative projects
82
For a long time people believed that truth manifested itself exclusively in language. Saying something valid about the world was the
realm of the word alone. Thinking occurred in concepts, while seeing played either no or only a negligible role. Repeatedly positions
maintained that the sensory organs were unreliable and must therefore subordinate themselves to reason. Throughout history however,
we also find opposing positions which held that sensual perception
was the source of knowledge. Thomas Aquinas thought that the human being could not know anything that had not been experienced
with the senses: «There is nothing in the spirit which has not been
in the senses.» At the end of the 1960 s, Rudolf Arnheim attempted
in his book «Descriptive Thinking» 1 to build a bridge between seeing and thinking by asserting that «what a person conceives is inseparable from what he beholds.» Otl Aicher 2 interlocked seeing
and thinking in the concept of «visual thinking» and argued that
thinking is not only logical, but also visual. Paul Cezanne spoke of
«thinking with the eyes,» and Richard Serra asserted that «seeing
and thinking» were identical. Interestingly, the word ‹theory,› in its
original sense means «behold, observe, contemplate.»
Even if a large part of it takes place unconsciously, seeing
is an active process. The eyes move without interruption, taking in
enormous quantities of data and information, far more than can be
transferred to the brain. This means that already in the eye, contrasts are amplified and patterns are evaluated. This is spoken of
as elementary perception. This process is complex, and from it
Arnheim derives an intelligence of seeing.
The eye and the camera are often compared or even equated.
This comparison is tricky, because seeing is far more than the mere
reproduction of light patterns on a film. Compared with the intelligence of the eye, a camera is highly limited. It is however capable
of fixing an exact trace of reality onto a carrier solely with the use
of light. In contract to the images perceived through our eye, this
reproduction is stored much more precisely. Images we have seen
remain mostly only hazily in our memory, and with time they alter.
The precise storage of reality that cameras achieve makes us believe
that photography is the most realistic of the mimetic arts. Photography is, however, only ostensibly a medium of reproduction, and
is rather more one of construction of reality.
In this Master’s thesis, photomontage avails itself as a medium because on one hand through photography it creates a close
reference to visual reality and on the other holds the possibility of
83
arbitrarily dissecting an image and then reassembling it. Through
this the structures and relational arrangement of seeing and thinking can be examined. The images generated serve as a playing field
in order to be able to reflect upon these largely unconsciously functioning mechanisms in an exemplary manner. This action of deconstruction and reassembly is something we also find in structuralism,
an intellectual current which crested in the 1960 s and 1970 s. The
structural person, wrote Roland Barthes, takes what is given, deconstructs it, and assembles it again. Reflection here is not a true-tooriginal ‹cast› of the world, but rather is actually a creation of a
world which is similar to the first and approximates while not seeking to copy it, but instead tries to make it comprehensible. 3
In a first step individual elements will be segmented from
photographs and examined for their content. On the level of elementary perception, the formal level, these photographic elements
consist of forms, colors, structures and patterns. On another level
they contain information, or as Roland Barthes says, a message.4 In
order to decode this information to identify and name the objects,
knowledge is required, and we move into the realm of thought.
Barthes differentiates here between two types of messages: the uncoded and the coded. In the first type, the object or subject represents its absent likeness. It is not coded – an «umbrella» in a photograph stands for an «umbrella.» It is in this sense not yet a sign
which stands for something else. Roland Barthes calls this a literal
message, a message without a code. On another level the object
becomes a sign and conveys a «symbolic» message which requires
cultural knowledge for its decoding. The perception of images is
based on a process of interpretation. This always takes place in an
intimate interlocking of seeing and thinking.
1
Rudolf Arnheim, Anschauliches Denken: zur Einheit
von Bild und Begriff, 7. Auflage, 1996 DuMont Buchverlag,
Köln
2
Otl Aicher, Analog und digital, Ernst & Sohn, 1991
3
Roland Barthes, Strukturalismus, Kursbuch 5, Mai 1966,
S. 190 – 196 © Editions du Seuil 1964
4
Roland Barthes, Der entgegenkommende und der
stumpfe Sinn, Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1990
84
85
3
–
4
1 | 2
1
The material for the photomontages comes from a
documentary, private photo archive. The exposures were
made at various geographic locations, in different
cultures, from varying points of view and at different
times. The camera was used to store cutouts from
the surface of reality, as if the skin of reality were being pulled off. The archive developed over a period
of years and is documentary in nature in the sense that
nothing in the images was staged. The archive is
stored in digital form on the hard disk. It consists of
innumerable files, subjectively and systematically
ordered. The files have titles such as «places,» «people,»
«objects,» «architecture» or «landscapes.» In regular
viewings particular image elements were selected,
cut out of the images and made free. They were torn
out of their context.
2
These individual parts are then brought together
in new scenes; a staging occurs. The image elements become protagonists on the stage, props and actors.
The decisions made in mounting them are similar to
those in painting: choice of format, placement
of the elements, set-up of the background, the middle
ground and the foreground, work with the effects
of color, form and structure, and observation of the various levels of interpretation. On one hand there
are formal criteria which lead to an image, on the other
the emergence of meaning is continuously reviewed.
The scene is assembled step-by-step. The space
is opened. With the information from the background,
for example from the sky, the atmosphere is
generated.
3
The format could also be round, but we’ve worked
consciously with the rectangle. This corresponds to the
format that we all know and refers to our convention
of seeing placards, snapshots, Internet pictures, films or
remembrance photos. The landscape format is
one that has prevailed with increasing digitalization.
4
The image elements generate meaning not through
self-reference, but through the interweaving with other
elements. They refer to each other, changing meaning
depending on the context and environment. Some
elements already carry a strongly symbolic content in
themselves, while others are culturally less coded.
The elements in an image are assembled as far as possible so that the significance in an image cannot be
established directly. The telling of formulated stories
is consciously avoided. Although the montages are
fabricated such that they could correspond to a real
situation, the process of interpretation leads to the void.
The path of searching for meaning in an image is
not clearly shown, thereby making the observer conscious of his or her search for meaning.
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87
V isua l rh y thm
in time and space
d a ni e l R m u e l l e r
This project examines the
perceptive phenomenon
of rhythm in static as well
as in moving images.
Rhythm is a design element,
and describes the aesthetic
experience of order in
images, as it does in music.
The theoretical thoughts leave
its mark on an installation,
which expresses visual
rhythm as a natural phenomenon and as order in space
and time.
Daniel R Mueller
14. 01. 1983, Rosenheim, Germany
[email protected]
2009 – 2 011 University of Applied Science Department
of Design, Augsburg Master ‹Design- and Communication Strategies;› Degree: Master of Arts
2004 – 2 007 University of Applied Science;
Mediadesign Hochschule, Munich, Degree: Diploma in
Media design
2006 – Present Member of the band chromatic BLaCK;
OK! good records
2007 – Present Lecturer Mediadesign Hochschule,
Munich, film theory, motion design
88
As a temporal occurrence, rhythm can be perceived by all the senses.
It is thereby a sense-independent aesthetic experience, and finds
expression in all media. If rhythm is to be understood as a design
phenomenon which is comprehensive for all senses and media, then
it should be examined more closely just how universal the concept
of rhythm is in practice. Can temporal proportions in the visual and
the auditory be compared? Is a comparable effect achievable with
a particular order of image and sound?
Wave movements, such as they appear in the sand, illustrate
a concrete fixation of temporal order in space. Rhythmic countereffects can be manifested not only temporally but also spatially.
Rhythm can thereby be described as a cross-dimensional phenomenon. Nonetheless, can rhythms in time be compared with rhythms
in space?
To pursue this question an examination is made of the
possibilities that images provide to represent rhythm as a cross-
sensory (auditory and visual) and cross-dimensional (temporal and
spatial) phenomenon, and to make its experience as such possible.
Standing in focus thereby are experiments in which temporal proportions that are perceived as auditory rhythm, are translated onto a visual plane. It can thus be compared to what extent
order in a visual realm must be differentiated from that in an auditory realm so that rhythm becomes apparent.
Since the onset of modernity the attempt has been made to
transfer the effects of musical rhythm onto a visual plane. Paul Klee
and Wassily Kandinsky are two of the leading proponents in this
confrontation of a rhythm in images inspired by music. Their notion was to take up visually characteristics of composition and the
aesthetic experience of music. Another important artist in this context is Hans Richter, who examined rhythm in static as well as
moving images and compared their reception. This project can be
considered a continuation of these visual examinations of rhythm.
To make an exchange possible between musicology and image studies, rhythm must be grasped in an interdisciplinary manner.
Within the course of my Master’s thesis I developed a tentative
definition, briefly formulated as: Rhythm is the aesthetic experience
of a pulsing order.
This general definition conceives of rhythm as an individual occurrence (aesthetic experience), which can be brought in connection with objective criteria (order). It established rhythm as
a temporal phenomenon (pulsing). Though this does not exclude
89
References
• Brüstle / Ghattas / Risi / Schouten (Hg.) : Aus dem Takt.
Rhythmus in Kunst, Kultur und Natur. Bielefeld: 2005.
Dewey, John: Kunst als Erfahrung. 2 Aufl. Frankfurt
am Main: 1995.
• Eco, Umberto: Das offene Kunstwerk. Frankfurt am
Main: 1977.
• Huron, David: Sweet Anticipation. Music and the
Psychology of Expectation, Cambridge: 2007.
• Johnson, Mark: The Meaning of the Body. Aesthetics of
human understanding. Chicago, London: 2008.
• Klages, Ludwig: Vom Wesen des Rhythmus.
Die deutsche Form. 2. Auflage. Zürich/Leipzig: 1944.
• Müller K./Aschersleben G. (Hg.):
Rhythmus. Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Bern: 2000.
• Platon: Sämtliche Werke. Griechisch/Deutsch.
Griechischer Text nach der letztgültigen. Gesamtausgabe
der Association Guillaume Budé. Band IX: Nomoi.
Frankfurt am Main 1991, 664 e.
• Seidel, Wilhelm: Rhythmus – eine Begriffsbestimmung.
Darmstadt: 1976.
rhythm spatially, it nevertheless clarifies the necessity of a timebased reception. In the reception through static images there occurs a retranslation of the spatial signals onto a temporal plane.
Every rhythm is based on some order and is an expression
of movement. The order signifies something regular, while the
movement addresses a change. The two contrasting concepts do not
describe the phenomenon in isolation, but rather their interplay
clarifies rhythm at its core.
The regular perception of a change leads to the aesthetic
experience of rhythm if this demonstrates the proper measure in
variation, creates scope for what is unexpected and ‹plays› with the
possibilities of time-based relations. Order is an intellectual performance, and thus rhythm is not conceivable without a perceiving
subject and is likewise dependent on its recipients. These must be
familiar with the order but must nonetheless avoid fixating it.
The experiments make clear that there must be noticeable
sense- and dimension-differences in the objective order before they
can be grasped as rhythm. This can be traced to two main criteria.
The first refers to the differing manners of function and the absorptive capacities of the sensory organs. Different senses are conversant with varying orders. This reflects itself in natural as well as in
cultural rhythms.
In the second instance, a difference must be allowed for between a temporal, linear and a spatial, non-linear perception. If signals from static images are perceived simultaneously, there must be
a higher variance in their order for them to be sensed as rhythmic.
Despite the sense- and dimension-dependence of rhythmic
order, it is nevertheless sensible to deal with and comprehend
rhythm in a cross-disciplinary way, because only in this way can
questions of counter-effects of rhythm in image and sound be answered. Aesthetic experiences are generated not through isolated
sensory stimuli, but through their complex interplay. This characterizes the intermodality of rhythmic perception and its synergistic
effects. Media with audio-visual content such as music videos make
this interplay clear.
Rhythm as a game with our expectations (Huron 2007 ), as
a relation of extremes (Dewey 1990) and as an ordering of movement (Plato 664 e) find in music and images, however, only an imitation of what already exists in nature. With its temporal regularities
and its continuously variable new appearances, it reveals the most
expressive rhythms. Therein lies perhaps the reason why the human
being shows itself as such a rhythmic creature in the contemplation
of the elements.
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91
1
–
2
3
–
4
1
In order to translate order across sensory and dimensional borders, it must be possible to differentiate
it qualitatively. Order is thus understood as a system
of rules, upon the simplicity and clarity of which it
is measured. The simplest form of a rule is the perfectly
regular row with an alternation of two signals that
are different but of equal value. In a static image this
‘highest’ order is visualized in a chessboard pattern.
The variance of the order represents the pivotal variable
which steers the appearance of the rhythm across
the senses and dimensions. The increase in the variance
of the order occurs in this example through the variation of the signal arrangement.
2
Alongside the signal arrangement, the signal form
can also be varied to enhance the variance of an order.
In an image, criteria such as color, form, omission,
position, size and rotation help to categorize the signal
form. In additional steps these variation criteria can
be combined, increasing the number of different signals.
The goal is to examine which variance leads to an
order that can be sense as rhythm. Decisive thereby is
whether the variance appears regularly or unexpectedly.
3
This example illustrates the translation of the well
known ‹soccer rhythm› onto a static image. Through
shifting and omission of signals the variance of
the order is enhanced. It thereby becomes apparent that
for a rhythmic effect, the simultaneous perception of
an image requires a higher variance of order than in the
sequential perception of auditory signals alone.
The visual rhythm thus becomes increasingly independent of its acoustic model.
4
The moving image enables the combination of temporal and spatial orders – this distinguishes its rhythmic
complexity. In experiments, musical rhythms are
translated onto the moving image. In constant temporal
order the different possibilities of a spatial order are
thereby tested. If the signals are not arranged in space
in a linear manner, then it becomes difficult to
establish a temporal order. This is due to our reading
conventions.
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93
Pictogram cre ation
in th e cont e x t of
z ool ogica l garde ns
Lor e n z o M ü l l e r
This project evaluates the
process of pictogram creation.
Focus is placed on the specific
field of zoological gardens.
The experiments demonstrate
the procedure and possibilities
that are obtainable. The
depicted animals were chosen
from the Basel Zoo, which
provided a representative
group of species – diverse in
size and shape. The resulting
selection of pictograms
illustrates the final step of
the process.
Lorenzo Müller
22. 02. 1973, Cipoletti, Argentina
info @ lorenzomueller.com Academic experience
2003 – 2 005 Zurich University of Applied Sciences,
Teaching Network Infrastructure
1999 – 2 002 Zurich University of Applied Sciences,
Diplom Engineer FH Communication & Informatics
Work experience
2008 – 2 009 Bellprat Associates AG – Project Management for the «Media-Factory»
2007 – 2 008 Sicap AG – Software Test Manager for
Mobile Applications
2006 – 2 007 World trip – South America, Australia and
Asia
94
Research into the subject of wayfinding systems in the field of zoological gardens has revealed that zoos display a varied range of
animal depictions. In most cases these depictions differ strongly
from each other – often no clear language is defined. Zoos face a
constant change in their inhabitants – new animals are purchased
and others are traded. As these changes occur new images must be
created and added. Because of the lack of a pre-defined system, the
way the animals are interpreted and illustrated also changes. Two
main factors have to be considered – these changes are linked with
time – as the changes take place, different designers work on the
depictions. The second aspect is the way the designers choose to
illustrate the animal – in most cases designers prefer to make their
own interpretation of the illustration, instead of adapting their images to a pre-established system.
The starting point for the research was the zoo in the city
of Basel, Switzerland, which is also known under the name of «Zolli.»
The Zolli was founded in 1874, and the 137-year-old zoo is the oldest
zoo in Switzerland. The zoological garden communicates a range of
content in different ways – a wide range of images are used to provide information regarding the animals, information graphics, feeding schedules and wayfinding billboards. The images vary from illustration to photography and consequently their visual appearances differ.
To facilitate the orientation within its boundaries, the zoo
provides a map upon purchase of an entry ticket. This map gives an
overview of the facility including the location of most animals with
a corresponding illustration.
The illustration of the zoo’s inhabitants used in the map
caught my attention. The manner in which the animals are de
picted allows for a certain degree of misinterpretation. In some
cases the animals can easily be confused. The illustration of the
snow leopard can easily be taken for that of the lioness. The previous example and other similarities between other animals make
the reading of the map a difficult task. The access to the essential
information is made harder by the chosen depictions. This could
hamper the correct interpretation of the map particularly by
younger visitors. 1
The illustrations chosen for the Zolli map gave rise to the
question of other possible ways of representation – a way that would
allow for better recognition. This could easily be achieved through
the use of a pictogram system.
95
The choice of the animals to be used in the practical part of
the thesis is directly linked with the existing fauna in the zoological
garden of the Basel zoo. The Zolli has an extensive collection of
regional and wild animals. Over 144 different species are gathered
within the perimeter of the zoo. This large pool of animals provides
an enormous range of unique visual characteristics and has to be
limited to a feasible amount of specimens. A representative selection of animals will be employed in the practical experiment. The
practical work will investigate in depth the creation of pictograms
of the selected animals – these should be diverse in form, each easily identifiable while also distinguishable from each other.
The chosen depiction (pictograms) for the practical work
should be able to visually communicate their content. The reduced
figurative nature of pictograms should facilitate the perception of
the viewer for a more easily accessible recognition – without the
use of linguistic elements.
In our times the use of pictograms is widespread; they used
for a wide range of purposes. Some applications go even further
than the informative aspect that characterizes pictograms. The expertise of pictogram creation is not standardized, allowing for a
wide range of interpretations. Besides stylistic distinction there
also are differences in the quality standards.
The theoretical part of the thesis investigates certain aspects of the depiction of animals – focus was set in the examination
of reduced forms of depiction which could be used for the creation
of pictograms. This approach is not an attempt to reveal all de
piction possibilities, but it should give an insight into the process
of abstraction and reduction of animal depictions. A further aspect
of the theoretical work is the inquiry of pictograms and their most
important virtues.
The main goal of this thesis is to evaluate different creation
methods of animal pictograms. This analysis should help to find
methods to create a pictogram family of the selected animals.
Generally pictograms or pictogram families are developed
for a specific purpose or customer requirement. The pictograms
that were created within this thesis should be understood as the
result of the examination process and therefore applicable for different purposes. One of the possible applications could be for the
signalizations of a wayfinding system within the zoological garden
context.
1
Children achieve the ability to recognize abstract
forms between the ages of 2 – 6 years of age – in the socalled preoperational phase (Source: Robert S. Siegler,
«Das Denken von Kindern», p. 35/36).
References
• Bild und Auge, Ernst H. Gombrich, Stuttgart 1984
• Der Mensch und seine Zeichen, Zeichen
erkennen Zeichen gestalten, Adrian Frutiger, Paris 1978
• Piktogramme und Icons : Pflicht oder Kür?,
Ryan Abdullah, Roger Hübner, Mainz 2005
• Pictogram Design, Yukio Ota, Tokyo 1987
96
97
1 | 2
3
1
Reducing the image of an animal to a high degree
of abstraction, without challenging its recognizability
requires creative decision-making. The individual
complexity of each animal has to be «squeezed» into
a small pictorial frame.
From the brush sketch onsite to the reduced
pictogram – this sequence illustrates a possible way
of reducing an image to the border of recognition.
The direct translation from the brush sketch has to be
challenged by graphical means for a better visual
understanding of the depicted animal.
2
The view (in this case front view) is one of the many
decisions in the evaluation process. Depicting an animal
like the rhinoceros from the front requires adaptation
that differs from a realistic illustration.
3
The experiments implied the use of a wide range of
variations to establish a coherent way of representation.
In a further step the chosen illustrations are adapted
to suit the visual language of the pictogram family.
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99
I n dia l og
with th e face
Axel Öland
To recognize a face and enter
into dialog with it requires
complex thinking patterns
which induce expectations.
The break in expectations in
speculative image design
generates forces which suggest
the presence of unconscious
cognitive processes.
Axel Öland
17. 07. 1984, Hanau, Germany
[email protected]
Academic Experience
2007 Exchange semester at Bilgi University, Istanbul,
Turkey
2005 – 2 008 BA in Art and Design, University of
Applied Sciences Vorarlberg, Austria
Work Experience
2008 Internship at EKLTD, Istanbul, Turkey
2007 Internship at Panico publishing house, Stuttgart,
Germany
2006 – Present Freelance graphic designer and
photographer
100
Faces constitute an important part of human communication. Already within minutes after birth, newborns can recognize faces and
react to them. We rapidly learn to interpret them in more detail, and
optimize this capability well into adult age. Nevertheless the necessary but unconsciously occurring processes required for this recognition and interpretation are difficult to grasp and understand.
On the surface a face appears merely as the sum of eyes, nose and
mouth, but it is considerably more compact and multi-layered than
its components. Portraits themselves possess a vitality that can
captivate utterly. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa annually draws millions to
the Louvre, while the face of a politician on a placard can stir up
enormous sympathy for a person whom we have never met. Faces
hold something which we cannot grasp. Human beings use the face
to bundle communication, emotions and expectations. But faces do
not only absorb, they also reflect. A face also returns what we put
into it. Prerequisite for this though, is the dialog with the face which
we establish cognitively.
More precisely and quite literally, we can see our own possibilities in the faces of others. 1
In a fraction of a second we find categories into which we
can classify whomever we encounter. Young or old, pretty or ugly,
friendly or hostile, lively or tired faces. This categorization serves
as a yardstick against which we measure ourselves. If we see something that is very big, we become small, and if we see someone who
is weak, then we feel strong. The self is constantly in comparison
with whomever we confront. «In encountering what is different, certainties are jolted and challenged, and the world changes. One experiences that the world is not a place of unshakeable truths and
clear order.» 2 Jörg Baberowski provides this description of the dynamic experience of the self. To this comes also that we perceive
the world only indirectly – as a representation. The human being
creates an image of its environment – above all of comparable objects – in order to be able to recognize not only these, but itself as
well. The self-image emerges as a reflection of these images of others. Decisive for the reflection of light is the surface which catches
and refracts the light, and throws it back. Images are surfaces which
generate meaning, when they themselves are charged with meaning.
The face is also such a highly reflective surface. It possesses hardly
any materiality, consisting rather almost exclusively of the compacted meaning with which one loads it. A glance in the mirror
however always remains a monolog, since one’s own face can barely
101
1
p. 1, Shaun Gallagher: How the body shapes the
mind, 2005
2
p. 9, Jörg Baberowski: Selbstbilder und Fremdbilder – Repräsentation sozialer Ordnungen im Wandel,
2008
3
p. 130, Mark Johnson: The meaning of the body – aesthetics of human understanding, 2007
4
Nora Breen et al.: Models of face recognition and
dlusional misidentification: acritical review, in
Nancy Kanwischer: The cognitive neuroscience of
face processing, 2000
hold this meaning. It remains in tension between two poles which
at once attract and repel each other. Like magnets, two faces center
themselves opposite each other. They enter into dialog. This project
has the goal of describing the visual structures of the face which
make it dialectic in the first place.
I assume that the face originates from a pronounced image
schema in the sense described by the philosopher Mark Johnson.
He describes this concept as «a dynamic, recurring pattern of organism-environment interactions.» 3 With the face this pattern appears to be especially prominent in its complexity, because here
perception is both enormously tolerant and simultaneously sensitive. Furthermore it must be assumed that the face represents a
composite of individual components, which however in the overall
picture are no longer differentiated. This has been inferred by neuropsychological research with prosopagnosia patients, who are capable of recognizing individual parts of a face, but perceive the face
as a whole only in a distorted manner and cannot identify it. 4 Presumably the individual elements are directly fused into an image
of the face, such that the previously described function is fulfilled.
The image schema thereby functions as a template and catalyst of
this reaction, the product of which is a face as a hybrid out of living
flesh which dresses the skull, and an image surface which is projected upon the head. The similarity to the image suggests the
portrait as an experimental space, independent from the physical
space and time.
When we see faces, we experience not only the communication of the facial muscles sensomotorically; we can also comprehend the entire movement spectrum of the face as a whole. The
individual elements can be oriented in perspective by the image
schema, and a dialog can be virtually established. In addition, the
high levels of contrast of the different parts of the face as well as
their form and symmetrical configuration simplify the spatial interpolation. Since the parts of the face fuse from different angles
of observation, I attempt to exhaust the capacity of the image schema. Tensions result from discrepancies between cognitive expectations and visual speculation, causing irritations which provide evidence of subconscious cognitive processes.
References
• Gottfried Boehm. Bildnis und Individuum – Über
den Ursprung der Porträtmalerei in der italienischen
Renaissance. Prestel, München. 1985.
• Gilles Deleuze / Félix Guattari. Tausend Plateaus
(Das Jahr Null. Die Erschaffung des Gesichts). Merve,
Berlin. 1982.
• Mark Johnson. The meaning of the body – aesthetics
of human understanding (The Corporeal Roots of
Symbolic Meaning). The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago. 2007.
• Rudolf Kassner: Zahl und Gesicht. Suhrkamp,
Berlin. 1979.
• Jean-Paul Sartre: Gesichter, in: Gesammelte Werke,
Philosophische Schriften I, Die Transzendenz des Ego.
Rowohlt, Hamburg. 1994.
102
103
4
–
5
1 | 2
3
1
Compaction in perspective makes the face at first
appear horizontally compressed. Furthermore,
a high level of tension develops, distributed over the
entire face, giving the head a highly plastic effect.
2
In contrast to Image 1, the unfolded face appears
very flat and loses vitality. The face lacks the elasticity
which would hold it onto the skull.
3
Individual parts of the face can still be well distinguished, but they cannot be brought into context. The
cheeks close off the left half of the face, letting the
rest drop into emptiness on the right. A face without
nose and mouth emerges, embodying something
frighteningly strange.
4
Although the homogeneous form of the head suggests
a coherent face, attention is drawn to the divided
nose. The two halves of the face remain in balance, thus
hindering a decision for one of the two orientations
and causing an oppressive discomfort.
5
The displaced mouth appears to shift the upper
portion of the face to the right as well, although the eyes
and particularly the nose become more dominant.
This illustrates how strongly the whole head is drawn
into the frontal view.
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105
W e ar and Ge n e sis of F orm
Anna Papanastasiou
This project is an attempt
to show the unlimited potential of image generation
through a design process
based on certain limitations.
The experimentation began
on an extremely limited
basis using just manual energy
and paper. It made a lot of
sense to experiment with this
humble material, not only
because of its accessibility, but
also for its properties due to
its organic origin. Without
trying to force a specific form
on the material I formed
a partnership with it. Through
this interaction I aim to reveal its creative potential for
an endless image production
and succession of forms.
Anna Papanastasiou
31. 07. 1986, Thessaloniki, Greece
mail.annapap @ gmail.com
Academic Experience
2005 – 2 008 Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design,
Akto Thessaloniki, Greece
Work Experience
2008 – 2 010 Free projects
2008 – 2 009 Graphic Design Intern, Earth Design
Studio, Thessaloniki, Greece
2003 – 2 005 Graphic Design studies,
Akto Thessaloniki, Greece
106
Using a camera as a tool for documentation, I recorded the results
of the physical act of crumbling. The composition of the molecules
gradually transformed, bringing back the paper to its «infant» state.
Furthermore, it was possible to achieve different forms through different movements and by changing the parameters and printing the
paper on black the possibilities expanded, producing even more
interesting outcomes. Stage by stage an array of images with different levels of information appeared, employing different readings.
Every image structure, either homogeneous or heterogeneous, carries information and is capable of communication.
Complex, chaotic and seductive images emerged in contin
uous flow. In order to explain and evaluate the outcomes, the proc
ess of erosion was analyzed in continuous stages, relating one step
with the other in an inductive way. This created a framework which
allowed several descriptions and logical sequences. I proceeded
from the individual to the whole by moving inductively and in relation to the natural eroding process. Every former stage creates the
conditions for the next stage to come containing all the information of the former and providing the conditions for the succeeding,
indicating an irreversible process.
In the eroding process of matter, new forms come into being
in a continuous flow. The transition from matter to form, which is
the subject in Aristotle philosophy, takes place in various stages, all
of which are considered to be in a general sense movement.
The nature of images is didactic, images reflect ideas and
are able to communicate, for that reason we are delighted at looking
at images, as by observing them carefully, we establish knowledge.
The image flow analyzed in snapshots, can allow observation and
lead to validated conclusions. Isolating and documenting the different stages of the process produced images with micro and macro perspective, views on different materiality and simulations of
natural matters. Folds entrap the light and by the way the matter is
folded its materiality is suggested.
This project visualizes and supports ideas connected to
wear and morphogenesis. I borrow the word morphogenesis (Greek
μορφή ‹form› + genesis) from biology and geology where it is defined
as the development and formation of morphological characteristics and structures. The analogy between the technical erosion
(in the design process) and the morphogenetic process in biology
and geology is apparent, as there is a progression in which every
cause creates new effect. Furthermore, the word serves to describe
107
a process in the sense of new forms, which occurs in every stage of
mechanical erosion. Although in biology genesis is considered as
the source of morphogenesis, in this project morphogenesis derives
from wear.
By delineating a random process, new legible information
can be produced and images emerge which explain themselves
through a process of morphogenesis. Human understanding lies in
order, nature has its own order which we try to decipher by simplifying and quantifying as science does.
My initial intention was to visualize an entropic process.
The theoretical study concerning entropy involved different scientific fields which require specialized knowledge; a quite demanding
study which allowed a wider research into philosophy. Therefore,
the need for broader theoretical concepts to describe the process
emerged, and the research expanded, beginning from pre-Socratic
philosophy and extending to the chaotic world of contemporary
theories. Thus, the spectrum of study transposed from entropy to
connected notions of genesis and erosion; chance, disorder, randomness, probability and chaos.
Although the colloquial use of «chaos» implies a negation
of order, the mathematical definition refers to the tendency of certain systems to exhibit extreme sensitivity to miniscule factors and
to amplify the impact of those factors with breathtaking speed and
consequences. Because of this sensitivity, chaos is unpredictable
but is never random or in indeterminate.
Every genesis according to Aristotle is realized either from
nature or art, the basic difference is that the genesis of an organic
being is determined from a former existence, since the sperm which
derives from it has the potentiality of the new form, while in the
genesis of an artificial being, the form is in the mind of the creator,
and the potential of matter for realization in form occurs after conscious work of the artist on the receptive matter. Every change in
nature or art is a metamorphosis of matter from the level of potential to the level of realization.
References
• Aristotle on Generation and Corruption
• Aristotle on Poetics
• Gilles Deleuze, Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque,
University Of Minnesota Press, 1992.
• Chris Jennings essay on Strange and Quiet Noise, Tauba
Auerbach: Chaos, Deitch Projects, 2010.
108
3
–
4
1
–
2
1, 2
Coordinating my moves by folding systematically
results in a multiplicity of the same forms as
expected. Although the wrinkles are intended, the
repetition results in a declination of order with
unintended crinkles.
3
Throughout the process of crumbling, paper gradually loses its density becoming thiner suggesting its
materiality by the way it folds.
The mechanical erosion of paper can be compared
with any other material or being whose senescent is associated with addition of information
parallel to the extraction of strength.
4
The succession of images shows a gradual increase
of information where every next step contains all the
information of the former in continues flow. The
images present analogies with nature and therefore
they allow different interpretations in every stage.
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111
Re constructing
Phi l ippine Graphic I de ntit y
S a r ah R o x as
This thesis project explores
the possibilities of developing
a design framework estab
lishing Philippine cultural
identity through an approach
based on a nation’s heritage
and its graphic reconstruction.
It attempts to redesign the
encounter within the visual
and the material sphere
through contextual materiality
and experiential reference.
Sarah Roxas
20. 07. 1983, Manila, Philippines
[email protected]
Academic Experience
2008 Summer Institute for Graphic Design Studies,
Rhode Island School of Design, USA
2005 Bachelor of Science in Communications
Technology Management, Minor in French Studies,
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Work Experience
2010 – 2 011 Art Director and Publication Designer,
Collaboration: Invisible Asia Photography Book
2008 – 2 009 Graphic Designer, Philippine Film Festival
Geneva 2009
2006 – 2 009 Graphic Designer, ITU, Geneva
2004 – Present Freelance Designer
112
The word «culture» has been defined in numerous ways and in complex contexts. With respect to this thesis, culture is defined as «the
totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.» 1
Cultural identity, then, is a means for people to express these common beliefs and practices to identify themselves as belonging to
a group or to set them apart from others. It is often manifested
through visual means instigating numerous debates on visual culture and representation. Despite apparent contentions in this arena, some nations have established strong visual cultural identity for
themselves which instantly channel a notion of their nation with
just the appearance of certain images or graphic elements. The
tricolore of France or the red dot of Japan; the Huichol art of Mexico or the wooden masks of Africa; these present an intuitive link
to the visual element and the culture. The cogency of these cultural identities, however, does not always transpire in every culture,
as evident in the Philippines.
A history like the Philippines has undoubtedly contributed
to its problematic turn with cultural identity. The country has experienced centuries of both Western and Oriental influence such
that most fundamental beliefs and practices intrinsic to the culture
have been tainted or completely buried. From Spanish rule and
American imperialism to Chinese and Japanese influences, the Philippines has struggled to preserve an identity that is truly Filipino.
A lack of historical documentation of pre-Hispanic Philippine society has also added to this situation. While colonial rule preserved
writings of explorers and missionaries that documented the Filipino people and their practices, there remains a large gap in historical knowledge. This is due to the pre-Hispanic society being an
extremely heterogeneous and highly fragmented population. This
made it even more difficult to identify what qualifies as inherently
Filipino or what was before the Western colonial era. Needless to
say, the history of the country has thrown several cultures into one
pot creating a nation that is now the Philippines.
Aside from the vague cultural nuances that Philippine history has ascribed to its people, another identity struggle sprouts
from today’s phenomenon of globalization. We live in a world in
which borders and boundaries are becoming thinner and thinner.
The everyday use of the Internet and the convenience of cultural
exchange through travel have meshed different cultures together.
Media has also continuously bombarded us with information and
113
1
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/culture;
25 June 2011 4: 47 pm.
References
• Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations
and Signifying Practices. London: Sage, 1997.
• Julier, Guy. Culture of Design. London: Sage, 2008.
• Julier, Guy. «From Visual Culture to Design Culture.»
Design Issues: Volume 22, Number 1 (2006): 64 – 76.
• Lash, Scott. Critique of Information. London: Sage,
2002.
• Waterton, Emma and Watson, Steve. Culture, Heritage
and Representation. Surrey: Ashgate, 2010.
images, consequently further blurring the importance of meaning,
context, and historical tradition in creating images. Many images,
specifically in graphic design, have adapted and come to serve the
rise of aesthetics and advertising. This situation urges designers of
our time, then, to explore images in a more profound way to be able
to preserve core cultural values and meaningful cultural identity.
With this current challenge in visual communication and the
numerous factors blurring the concept of cultural identity in the
Philippines, this thesis project seeks to propose a historicized reflective approach in graphic design. This alternative approach attempts to bring history and the society together via a design experience between the artifact and the people. Different experiments
were done to produce works of graphic design that reflect both the
past and the present through two distinct methods: contextual materiality and experiential reference.
The design experiments were done in three main concentrations based on graphic elements which are color, materiality and
haptic. In the color series, a system was developed to extract colors
from a particular cultural visual such as street food, textiles, or
jeepneys. The extracted colors would then serve to represent the
corresponding visual and consequently the culture as well. This
series highlights how one experiences color through more than just
merely seeing it. For the materiality series, Abaca paper was selected because of its key presence in the Philippines’ past and present. Several design applications of the material were conceptualized and created with this material including poster, packaging and
apparel design. In the haptic series, the experiments aim to awaken
the senses while encountering the works. This series include applied design works such as print ad, poster, and book cover.
The three series seek to encompass the methods of contextual materiality and experiential reference. Contextual materiality
pertinently places the physical material of a work on a historical
level. It creates both an allegory and a physical experience that
molds and further strengthens the purpose of the design. Experiential reference, on the other hand, engages the spectator at a more
personal level by addressing existing knowledge and triggering certain experiences of the individual to grasp the concept of identity.
These methods demand a degree of self-evaluation and self-initiation from the subject to fully understand the encounter with the
design work.
To sum up, an archive of the experiments stands as a design
resource kit embodying contextual materiality and experiential
reference. This thesis project offers an alternative method to the
interaction between cultural identity and graphic design. The historicized reflective approach is a play between what we already
know from historical tradition, and what we can create and graphically reconstruct in the present to preserve and manifest the most
meaningful of values.
114
115
1
2
–
3
1
Color Series. Color is an essential element in
Philippine design. Daily life presents visuals that are
greatly driven by colors from the food that people
eat to the jeepneys that they meet on the road. Studying
the use of color provides a proper context to the
use of specific shades and hues in graphic design works,
as well as a deeper insight into the cultural perception.
A color system in which colors are extracted from
specific visuals was developed in this part of the thesis.
The extraction was done through a color extract
PHP application, and the result was processed manually
to create the color schemes. The color bars each represent the corresponding cultural visual element such
as street food, jeepneys, or northern textiles.
2
Materiality series. There is a value in the physicality
of a design work that can and should be explored
further. In this project, Abaca fiber, also known as Manila
Hemp, was chosen to reflect the Philippine cultural
identity. Abaca has become a stereotypical material of
native or «Filipiñana» connotation, which means
people tend to classify Abaca paper as non-modern and
non-urban. This series attempts to efface this misconception, and renew the notion of native materials
and their possible design applications.
2 – 1. The Abaca paper apron is conceptualized after
the blank white canvas or paper used by most artists to
begin with in their works.
2 – 2. To highlight the idea of a local produce, the
second experiment uses Abaca paper as packaging for
cane sugar.
2 – 3. In the third experiment, a poster for a fictional
design talk series on tradition within contemporary field
is designed with Abaca paper to embody the theme of
the event.
2 – 4. Abaca paper’s handmade character, both visually
and haptically, makes it the perfect material for paper
bags in a local pastry design shop.
3
Haptic series. As the proposed approach in this
study asserts, design works, for the purpose of reflected
cultural identity, need to advance to another level
further than the visual. This level is the haptic which
involves experiential meaning and reference. This
series of experiments dwell on the ability of each work
to trigger certain experiences with the culture.
It does not simply rely on nostalgia. It attempts to recreate the experience through this encounter with
the work. The series is comprised of the Sand-betweentoes Flipflops print ad, the Banana Leaf plate poster
and the Concrete book cover.
116
117
C ol l age and De sign
D i a n a V i l l a l obos
Is there a possibility to
show a heterogeneous collection of fragments in a
homogenous way ? Creating a
homogenous path throughout a whole collection /collage
of images from different
sources of the same content
(www , newspaper, books,
photography etc.) is crucial
and decisive for the meaning
and the aspect of truth and
reality of an image.
Diana Villalobos
18. 06. 1983, Mexico City, Mexico
diana. 3707 @ gmail.com
Academic Experience
2006 Cetified Flight Attendant, Alas de América,
Mexico City
2001 – 2 005 BA in Graphic Design, Universidad
Simón Bolívar, Mexico City
Work Experience
2004 – Present Freelance Graphic Designer, Vitra,
Flight Attendant at Aeromexico, Mexico City,
Design intern at Filmes & Art Post, Mexico City,
Freelance Graphic Designer for the artist Bradley
Narduzzi Rex, Mexico City
118
Collages are combinations of paper elements with or without images pasted on a surface. Not all pasted papers are consider collages. In the popular use a collage often applied to illustrate complex
concepts to have a better visualization of an idea or a whole situation. With no specific order ruling the whole, it should still maintain
a certain relationship. The art field continually pushes the bounda
ries between material, paper, or layering that are the main points
that constitute collage in this tradition. Collage’s attractiveness can
be understood as a subversive freedom of composition, which breaks
with expected combinations and creates exciting results.
Clement Greenberg studied the collages made by Picasso
and Braque in which flatness, depth and perspective were discussed
in his essay for interpreting Cubism that is still held as inseparable
from it.
« Collage was major turning point in the evolution of Cubism,
and therefore a major turning point in the whole evolution of
modernist art in this century. Nor does the internal or stylistic
evidence help enough, given that the interpretation of Cubism
is still on a rudimentary level.» Greenberg . 1
Living now in the era of «Remix Culture,» we deal everyday
with fusions of information. In order to understand this phenomenon better, the following investigation is a short approach to imagemaking processes addressed to collage. This technique has been
used by many artists and visual communicators as a recurrent tool.
Both fields have their own statements; studying both sides will
open up new ways to analyze images concerned with this technique.
The following approach to collage might lead us to understand the
image better as a single and group entity also regarding aspects of
truth and reality.
Gombrich remarked that Paul Klee was deeply impressed by
the experiments of the Cubists. To him these experiments showed
not so much an approach to new methods of representing reality as
to new possibilities of playing with forms. Cubism has a strong relationship to collage and its invention was a revolution of the form.
The field of Visual Communication is all about forms that should be
understood in a certain context and have to be «conventional.» For
this field «subject» and «form» are simultaneously developed. At the
end of this process a new «conventional» form should be defined.
Collage is a form by itself. The invention of layers to depict
spatial depth opened up millions of possibilities of interpretation
and raised questions about temporality and our place in space. The
119
www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/collage.html
2
Ellen Lupton & Jennifer Cole Phillips. Graphic Design.
The New Basics. (Princeton Arquitectural Press, 2008)
(p. 127).
1
References
• Brockelman Tom, «Introduction,» in The Frame and
the Mirror: On Collage and the Postmodern. Evanston,
Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2001.
• Branden W. Joseph. Random Order. Robert Rauschenberg an the Neo-avant-Garde. MIT Press. London 2003.
• Lupton Ellen & Phillips Cole Jennifer. Graphic Design.
The New Basics. Princeton Arquitectural Press, 2008.
• Krauss, Rosalind E. The Picasso papers / Rosalind E.
Krauss London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.
• Benjamin Walter, «The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction» (1936). In Illuminations,
edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn
(New York, 1969)
• http://manovich.net from Manovich, Lev. What comes
after Remix? 2007.
problem of collage was extended with the invention of computers
in which «Layering» and «Transparency» are important factors.
Technology has developed the opportunity to simulate some
statements of reality; it is important to mention that it directly
affects the meaning of the remixed work. Many artists are in the
search of form within the digital world. The digital process is more
about flattening an image when printing, putting all forms on the
same level, while an analogue process may refer more to the real
action of Cut & Paste techniques. Both analogue and digital proc
esses share the important factor of Layering.
Layers are simultaneous, overlapping components of an image or sequence. They are at work in countless media software programs, from Photoshop and Illustrator to audio, video, and animation tools, where multiple layers of image and sound ( tracks ) unfold
in time. 2
The complexity of a single image makes the understanding
of collage extend beyond language. Collage has to be studied more
as a relational system that has the capacity to stimulate many meanings and to excite our senses.
The following approach is also concerned with technological
issues comparing methods of image processing, which itself has
been passing through a total revolution. The Internet context is the
main source for the works developed. Printed media which was
fully explored in the past century is also retaken and put together
in dialog. In terms of Roland Barthes, we can say that if modernist
collage always involved a «clash» of elements, electronic and software collage also allows for «blend.»
The investigation is a direct question to reality as undertaken by the art tradition. Collage brings the physical object to the
work referring to more than the Visual Sense; it may help to define
reality as something that has to be experienced with our all senses.
As sources play an important role for the tradition of collage, the
ones appropriated from the electronic media are difficult to source
precisely due to the transformation process that each has undergone. Nonetheless it is important for this tradition to evoke the
medium and the context from which they originate, or at least make
clear that the images do not belong to the same source.
To help answer the main question a case study was selected
which refers to Immigration issues. The relation between heterogeneity, entity and community is suitable to collage and to immigration where levels of information are displayed in the same space,
blending, merging or coming out of the mass. This project intends
to generate a visual argumentation in which individuals, institutions and media provide their own information and open the discussion to the beholder, who takes part and is «inside» this collection
of images, exposed to different opinions.
120
121
1
2 | 3
1
Images selected as a starting point from different
sources for the concept «Border Gang.» These images are
assembled after an editing process.
1 – 1. Handmade Collage. Composition in which the sign
and the body of the man become one single entity.
1 – 2. The same image passes through a Decollage process,
which means removing the pasted elements.
The alterity here is more obvious due to a physical
action we cannot control hundred percent. The legibility
is lost, but the emotional character of this example
is stronger and more quickly perceived than any
other photographic or textual element from the previous image.
1 – 3. This example was made via computer. The emotional
part goes to a different level due to the composition.
Images inetarcts under a controlled situation were the
clash is given by the use of space were color layers
come in an out as well for the iconic relation between
the footprint and the skull.
2
«The cross»
3
«Causes»
122
123
THESIS 201 1
MASTER OF ARTS IN VISUAL COMMUNICATION
AND ICONIC RE SEARCH
UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
NORTHWESTERN SWITZERLAND
ACADEMY OF ART AND DESIGN HGK FHNW
VISUAL COMMUNICATION INSTITUTE
THE BASEL SCHO OL OF DESIGN
VO GELSANGSTRASSE 15
CH- 4058 BASEL, SWITZERLAND
TEL. AND FAX : + 4 1 ( 0 ) 61 69 5 67 5 1
HTTP: / / W WW. FHNW . C H / H GK / I VK / MASTER-OF -ARTS -EN /
IMAGE - RESEARCH
INFO. V IS _COM.HGK @ FHNW. CH
MENTORS
PROF. MARION FINK
INGE HINTERWALDNER
INVAR HOLLAUS
PROF. MICHAEL RENNER
PROF. PHILIPP STAMM
PROF. DR. NICOLAJ VAN DER MEULEN
CATALO GUE CONCEPT & DESIGN
JINSU AHN
PORTRAIT PHOTO GRAPHY
KAMBIZ SHAFEI
IMAGE EDITING
THOMAS LEHNER
TRANSLATION & PRO OFREADING
ANDREW DEB OO, LANGUAGE REFINERY, STEINHAUSEN
TYPEFACE
SUISSE BP TEXT, B + P SWISS TYPEFACES, IAN PARTY
PAPER
DAUNENDRUCK WHITE 1.8, 80 G/M 2
PRINTING
STEUDLER PRESS, BASEL
THESIS EXHIBITION CONCEPT
JINSU AHN
BENEDIKT JÄGGI
ANNIK TROXLER
MATTHIAS INDERMAUR
FABRICATION OF SHELVING SYSTEM FOR THE EXHIBITION
CHRISTOPH VON ARX
WE THANK THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES FOR
THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT
ROSER AG, CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL FOR THE EXHIBITION
CREAPLOT AG, EXHIBITION MATERIAL PRINTING
STEUDLER PRESS AG, CATALO GUE PRINTING
© 2011 HGK FHNW

thesis 2011 master of arts in visual communication

Transcription

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