Ideation: Modelling session

We were asked to model various elements of our model that we selected during this session. There were different types: the doll-house model, the mask and the prop.

I recorded a short video of the session, and different people zoned in on different materials as many types were available.



My first model was of the three pool in my book,and it was suggested afterwards that i colour them in. Around the model is a piece of black tape, but only on three sides. This is meant to imply that the model continues in one direction, and that this is only a small part of it.







The second model i chose to make was of the lamp-post that Jadis rips off in the Book.




I originally intended on making the whole model out of wire, but as we only had 3minutes and because the wire was extremely thick and tough, i decided to illustrate this section rather than modelling it.

The final model i made was of a tree (this was meant to be the 'prop' style of model'). This is what gave me the idea of using sections of wording at strategic points to convey meaning.

Ideation: Deconstructed Examples & Colleagues Presentations

I found three very different examples of deconstructed books which i found quite inspiring. I categorised them into three different types; Artistic, Destructive and Reconstructive.

Artistic

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4uk6pa5n5p19916k1cnhm7qku0&topic=268026.0

I made this using an old star trek book! I used a wooden pumpkin for a template and cut the pages with a blade. I'm going to make another one and I'll post a tute.



destructive

http://www.flickr.com/photos/celiaka/267732068/


Deconstructed books

I'm going to the special hell for book desecrators. This work was created by finding old hard backed books that have the pages stiched in and sitting there and cutting them out with a knife so that when the pages are pulled out all that remains is the threads in vertical lines show.




reconstructive

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadepegler/2923928103/

From 'The Demonstrables' at Wollongong City Gallery, at the completion of a one year residency.

I've been busy....meaning i've got hundreds of unread flickr mails. I will get through them all eventually, i promise!

I have also redesigned my website, which is here www.jadepegler.net/ - it's not quite finished yet, though.



What i liked were the different ways of using the materials, and the different messages attached to them because of this. I drew them out in my sketchbook, but the original links are provided with photographs.

The Artistic method was very literal; using the pages to create the shape of an apple. What i didn't like was the lack of symmetry between the topics in the book and the shape it was made into, although it looked quite good.

This is something that i picked up on when my classmate was presenting his work. Mik's first book was a fantasy novel: 'The Magicians Apprentice' and his second was a computing textbook. I took audio recordings of the entire presentation which will be available in the final hand- in.



After describing his research and ideation, he presented an interactive wipeboard which uses words from a book to 'paint' words onto a canvas. The shape made by the words was not relevant to the design. What i liked about the idea was the potential to possibly create a book in 'layers' (which i suggested) using a technique similar to 'layers' in photoshop, or perhaps overlaying an image with relevant test which can be hidden or viewed.

However, the design did not seem to relate to the book itself. I decided that i wanted my book to relate directly to the design that i made.



However, the model was fantastic considering that it was made out of paper, and it clearly expressed what he was trying to do.

His second model was a laptop made out of a computing textbook. I think that the idea was to make something with parts that you can repair yourself, without having to send it in at great expense to a computer company. Although the book was about computers, and it was a computer made out of a book, i found this too literal.



I wanted to create something abstract that didn't look very much like a book, but it had elements of a book within it and could be 'read' in a comparable way. Perhaps something more like my third 'reconstructive' example f something new made out of paper taken from books, but in a way that is more legible.

Ideation: Selecting Narrative Elements & Testing

I decided to try to model different themes that i liked within 'The Magicians Nephew', and to think about different ways of representing them. I looked at themes such as 'Adventure' and 'Good triumphing over evil'. I did this as i realised as i wasn't sure what to model, and that i had no practise in doing it.



I quickly modelled the maze, but i did a circular version instead of a square one. I used tape and printer paper.

This really helped me think about what i wanted to do in terms of which themes to focus on, and emphasised the importance of planning and good material selection as it didn't turn out very well.

I wanted to further my deconstructive and analytical techniques, so i decided to test them on my second choice book: Alice in Wonderland.



This helped me to understand how i read books, and therefore how to subvert it. I discovered different ways of representing themes visually and also how to change this so that information is gained in a different order or in a different level of detail.

I did a wireframe/flowchart sketch of the characters, and even used tape as a medium to represent character interaction.

I found this very useful in that it forced me to think about books in different ways. I wanted to look at different examples of deconstructed books next.

Ideation: Book Choice & Deconstruction

Before you deconstruct then reconstruct something, you have to fully understand what it is.

I decided to look into diferent ways of categorising and understanding the written word, starting with investigating plot types. I had heard that there are only a limited number of storylines, so i investigated this. I found that there are many different ways of categorising books; the 3-plot, 7-plot, 20-plot and 36-plot being only a few of the more well-known. I took the information from 'http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html'. I then tried to describe my chosen book (the magicians nephew) with each of these classifications. It was interesting how, in different ways of categorising books, the description of it changed, but it still ran true. The magician nephew is a 'happy ending book' , a 'Man vs. Supernatural', a 'adventure' and a 'The Enigma/Pursuit'.




I then outlined a rough description of the storyline as well as giving justification for my choice of text. I felt that it was very visual and light-hearted in one aspect, whilst having darker undertones and adult connotations which i found very interesting. It is quite unusual to have such depth in a childrens book.



I then started to think about different ways to represent different elements in the book.



Ideas such as an 'illuminated board' with the characters as chess pieces in some kind of game. As time goes forward, the pieces move forward and interact with eachother and the user gains information. They could skip parts, and certain parts of the board could trigger sounds. Giving the reader the power to pick and choose what parts they want to see or not see, or to be able to to into detail or not is quite interesting to me.



I also thought about the ideas of 'concealment' and has earlier thought of hiding things in the board that are diccult to see, only partially viewable or perhaps hard to remove. I later added a few more ideas such as the boxes with keys. These were general thematic ideas though and i didn't have much focus on exactly what parts i wanted to show.





I was also taking into consideration which materials to use for the model. Different materials lend themselves to different styles of modelling, and the level of preparation you need varies hugely. For example clay and dough are easy to control and mould, and are immediate as you can change things as you go without ruining anything. Paper models are less so as you have to work out how to glue and fold and cut ahead of time. This still takes generally far less time than working with metals or precious metals. I also considered casting with pewter and making quick cuttlefish moulds.

3. Brainstorming

Brainstorming various deconstructive methods.

Looking at different ways to divide up a book, and put it into different sections.

This will be very useful when turning the book into a model, as eachpart of the model will need to show different things so i will have to know what i want it to show.

I am coming up with various different ways of representing the ideas/feelings conveyed in a book at all times, and i've drawn them wherever possible. Visually representing the themes and characters in charts and colourscheming them.

A closer look: Sherlock Holmes

At the British Library, a 40 minute task to read, summarise and model narrative techniques in a single book was given to everyone.

I selected an old favourite: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and in particular a chapter titled 'The mystery of the red-headed league'.

I made notes digitally at the time instead of in my sketchbook as it was faster, and this is what i wrote:

'decided to choose 'the adventures of sherlock holmes', in particular my favourite story 'the mystery of the read headed league'.

Dr watson is used as a framing device for the stories, and it usually opens with him setting the timeframe. The story usually opening in baker street, bringing in the character with the problem, sherlock holmes doing some cold reading on the visitor kind of like a parlour trick, and then explaining how he did it.

A large part of what draws you in is being behind what sherlock holmes knows, and feeling as if you're playing catch up.

The story describes a complex ruse that is used to get someone out of the wayto commit a crime. A monetary bribe is used. The victim is a shopkeeper, who is confused (and doesnt know that he is being used), because he had a lucrative job writing out the english dictionary daily at the red headed league. His only qualification for getting the job was being a redhead.

What he didnt understand was that the league didnt exist, and whilst he was out, his shop was being used (by his assistant) to tunnel into a bank to steal millions in gold bars.

I suppose you could do a literal representation of playing catchup, like having something in the model that moves that you cant catch, or an idea (written or pictured) that you can only see half of, or something that is half buried that takes a long time to get out.'

On page 1&2 of my sketchbook, i added to this model ideation by adding that there is something in the model that you cant find, or that you are given clues to by interacting with other parts of the model. I also thought to add that the model could show something that you have to pull out to expose.

Whilst i was reflecting on my identification of Dr. Watson as a framing device, i made some new observations.

1. That the narrative moves from reflecting in the past to present time periodically in order to ceate suspense, and a sense of us being in the dark.
2. That sherlock holmes is also a step ahead of Dr. Watson himself, which in a way normalises our ignorance, and doesn't make us feel stupid.

How to invoke each of these parts?
TYPE A. literal representations
TYPE B. metaphors



I created a flow-chart of the narrative, and made some examples of modelling techniques based on the two types that i identified previously.

This lead me on to thinking of different ways of splitting up a book, and categorising it, as you have to split something before you can put it back together. There are so many dofferent ways of doing it, and brainstorming this would not only help me look at different ways to organise the text, but possibly also inspire me to find different ways of modelling them.

I also am going to research different narrative techniques and story types.

Day 1: The British Library

We received the brief, and took a look around a couple of exhibitions at the British library.

What caught my attention was the display of old music books, and i took a few photos and made some notes.

The first manuscript that i looked at was titled 'The old hall manuscript', and it is one of the most important and substantial collections of early English polyphonic music. It was mainly compiled by one scribe between 1415 and 1421, with additions in several other hands from the early 1420's. I noted down the reference number: Add. MS 57950, ff 12v-13r

Why i chose this book:

Reading music is different to reading books. It is always linear/chronological, and the picture it conveys is different to that when words are read.

It is huge and hand-notated. Ive written music before and it takes forever, and can be messy without the aid of music software, but these are done with a special pencil, perhaps one that is thick and square to make inputting the notes more efficient. The notes are very neat and uniform.

I had a look online for such pencils, but i couldn't find any under the search 'music manuscript pencil' or similar searches. Perhaps it is no longer needed with the development of music software.

I also noticed more ornate books, with fancy binding. The words on the pages look so neat that they could be printed and although it is dated before the invention of the printing press, it could have been done with a stencil or other hand tool. There are beautiful illustrations on the pages which look hand-coloured. There are also some notations that i don't recognise.





There is a book next to it which is slightly cruder, called Purcell's autograph score-book. Contains welcome songs and informal vocal pieces. There is a song inside called 'sound the trumpet, beat the drum' which was written in 1687 for James II.

I noticed that in the exhibition, there were a stack of identical folding chairs in a corner. They were the same ones that that i wrote about in the previous project in the British Museum. Again, they were in a dark corner right at the back of the exhibition. I now understand perhaps that it was because they didn't want to detract from the exhibits, or have something ugly in an obvious place, but perhaps they could have put a notice next to the 'no mobiles etc.' sign saying that chairs are available in the corner..



Also at the exhibition were various interactive books.

A huge illustrated book of birds was open in an exhibition, and next to it was this interactive book which not only gave additional information, but also allowed me to see the content of a book that is so old that in order to preserve it, people aren't usually allowed to touch it.



Each page is hand painted, and the birds are life-sized.

I also took some video footage of different exhibits that i found interesting.