WITTEN RESPONSE POSITION THROUGH ITERATING

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Written Response

In this brief I take typography as the main subject of experimentation. From a Mandarin/English user’s perspective, I come to realize the two’s inherent distinction in conscious processes while reading them. When reading, information is communicated through deciphering commonly symbols. And letters as component symbols, is read for both its content and form. Through iterating forms and researching, I come to notice that the form of letters also provides information, but in a way parallel to reading, much close to how we perceive an image. In my following exploration, I work to discuss the extent to the information I can connect to letterform. In an attempt to recreate the sensual and instinctive experience while reading Mandarin(as pictographic), I start making transcriptions of naturally appeared marks and engage it with typographic forms. The iterations exist as a set to discuss possible definitions of written language instead of forming one technical letterform.

Annotated Bibliography 

In the Reading list

  1. Ingold, T., 2016. Drawing, writing and calligraphy . In Lines: A brief history. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 127–131. 

I chose this chapter exert as my snippet to begin with because I’m intrigued by the English language’s evolution from primal ideographic to Latin alphabet today. The process itself is a countless iterating trough time. The process of abstraction is in pace with industrial capitalism and division of artists and artisan. Type designer(or engravers at that time) was excluded from the art field since they are “composer of texts rather than maker of lines” (Munari, B, 2008, p. 128). From a designers perspective I’m also interested in the art of writing as it was in manuscript  and Chinese calligraphy. In the course of this brief I would like to push the definition of writing and reflect on if the (latin)alphabets’ form alienates user from intuitive perception of nonverbal languages.

  1. Sontag, S., 2009. On Style. In Against interpretation and other essays. Penguin, pp. 15–36.

Sontag refuses the comparison of style with decorative curtains: “to speak about style is one way of speaking for the totality of a work of art.”(Sontag, S., 2009, p.17) The argument give a critical context for manipulating the style of types. She discusses the information embedded in style, such as its relation to time and place and how our awareness of it could change how we perceive the work as a whole. Often times the creation of style is accessory and passive, in this brief I would want to explore the forms potential in alphabet(since individual letter doesn’t point to one meaning) Since the perception to a work is always tied back to our share experience to the real world, I want to try bring alphabetic forms from the conceptual knowledge/content they convey in words and sentences and into the knowledge given by experiences(ibid. p.21).

Outside the Reading List:

  1. Shlain, L., 1998. Image/World. In The alphabet versus the goddess: The conflict between word and image. New York: Viking, pp. 4–7.

In this material by American surgeon and author Leonard Shlain, he raises a plausible hypothesis about the acquisition of alphabetic literacy suppresses concrete and intuitive conscious development. He explains that on conscious level, written words and images has entirely different perceptual strategy. We see images as gestalt, but read in linear sequence before the meaning emerges. The comprehension of literacy depends on the sentences syntax yet we see images simultaneously due to its close connection to the world appearances. (Shlain, L., 1998, p.4) Based on this theory I works to extract letter forms from natural world and experiments on the conscious reaction of different type of marks. In obscuring of the letter forms and rearranging their “sequential” orders, I want to engage the viewer intuitively in their reading/viewing.

  1. Munari, B. & Creagh, P., 2008. research design. In Design as art. London: Penguin Books, pp. 156–188.

While woking on this brief, I refer to Munari from time to time as a source of information in understanding design and its expression. In the chapter Research Design of Munari’s book, he introduces observing nature to help understanding the world. Different from copying what we custom to see, it is more important to realize the evolution in forms in the observation.(Munari, B., 2008,  p.79-80) Following instructions expressed in this part of the writing of various ways in engaging natural material, I turned my direction to make iterations of transcription of “marks” I can find in daily life, working by trial and error.

Design Practices:

  1. Katie Holten, 2019, Stone Alphabet, Available at: https://emergencemagazine.org/gallery/stone-alphabet/

The work interprets alphabet from a unique perspective. Connecting back to the In The alphabet versus the goddess reference, documentation of natural cracks and marks on stone can be considered as a different information carrying media. When we chose to “read” it, the marks are transformed into a new language of a sort. Holten describes the project as a guide to reading and writing New York City is one of the most interesting aspect for me. I compare it to Shlains’ point in Image/world, and find it more similar to the simultaneous and concrete character of the images instead of alphabetic literacy. For Mandarin users such as myself, this kind of reading experience is not unlike how we would see a word and read it at the same time. I would like to carry on work on how this transcription triggers awareness to the real world and balance writing and drawing.

  1. That Smell, 2020, Lowland Display, Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/93379307/Lowlands-Display

This display font by That Smell took inspiration from the unique formation of low countries. Countries below sea level reveal a letter-like structure when water is concentrated. His practice of extrapolate organic forms from field outside of art and design gives this alphabet a look unlike any other. This work shows me a possibility of pushing the letterforms legibility and using the typography’s form has a story telling tool. Clear rational is also evident in this set of alphabet also through their marking of each letter’s relating geographic coordinate.It shows how some of the letters by themselves would be ambiguous but when they are put in context to each other they become holistic.