Comments on COFA1002

Media (PR and Advertising) and Design student at UNSW

[adelaidedaycollett]

Summing up

I think it is important to bring our work, entitled ‘The Children’s Book of Everything’,  back to one of the main inspirations for creating the work, as drawn out of the 2015 Venice Biennale. A common and perhaps indirect theme we came across when initially researching the exhibition was the way several exhibited artists had used everyday objects in an interesting and innovative way in order to make a comment about ‘All the world’s futures’. I think it is often easy to fall into the misconception that to constructively demonstrate and creatively imagine the future something completely new needs to be created. 

One work, exhibited at the Venice Biennale, which aligns with our work and this concept is Monica Bonvicini’s ‘Latent Combustion’. The work features old machinery and labour equipment which have been coasted in black paint and hung in bundles like chandlers from the ceiling. She simultaneously makes a comment about the absence of manual labour, with the advancement of machines/robots whilst also turning something masculine into a more feminine and quaint object. 

Instead of using physical objects like Bonvicini, we explore the evolution of language throughout history. We aim to demonstrate the infinite possibilities surrounding the future of language; proposing that crude, harsh and often derogatory swear words, which are ultimately just ‘words’, could be taught learned by children as complimentary adjectives. 

Source: http://labiennale.org/en/mediacenter/video/56-46.html

[adelaidedaycollett]

The final work: ‘The Children’s Book of Compliments’ by Adelaide Day-Collett, Chelsea Lin and Ellen O’Donnell. 

[ellenodonnellcofablog-blog]

FINAL WORK

We have created a book for children to explain to them the meaning and usage of certain words. In our eyes these words may appear to be rude, derogatory swear words but in the future, we propose, that they will all be compliments. In creating out pdf our target audience was always going to be children, hence the poem at the end and the pictures. The line that runs through the work makes allusions to handwriting lines for the children to practice writing their newly acquired words. If you view the pdf by scrolling down vertically then you will notice that the line is continuous and always matches up with line of the previous page. We have also included sound recordings of the pronunciation (they won’t work on Preview though!! Try Adobe!!!!) to make it clearer and easier for the kids to pick up these new words! Words change all the time and we have linked the change to the current day meanings by contrasting the words future meaning in gender or harsh/softness.

[adelaidedaycollett]

The first couple of pictures are from our secondhand book hunting session at Ampersand. We found this beautiful book with watercolour sketches of strange creatures. We decided not to use it because we thought the style was too specified. 

The book we used prominently in our work, which we found at Ampersand, was called ‘Alphabet Wings’ by Ilana M. Kresner. We cut several things from the book and experimented with collaging parts of them together. 

[adelaidedaycollett]

Development of the second image: to accompany the word ‘shit’. Our new definition of the ‘shit’ is: to be brave or courageous. I collaged the image from the ‘Alphabet Wings’ picture book and the Financial Review magazine, where the spiky part is actually the side of a shoe! 

The first version of the image is on the left and the right image is the final one. I decided to make the spiky part more 2D like and block coloured because it didn’t look cohesive. I also ditched the work ‘shit’, originally collaged from letters of the book, because I thought it was unnecessary and too obvious. The last two images are from the final PDF. 

[adelaidedaycollett]

Development of the ‘Bastard’ image: 

In our ‘future world’ bastard has changed meaning to mean: “to refer to someone who possesses loyal qualities.” 

I chose to incorporate a hand-drawn element into the work because I thought it would make the look more cohesive through linking it to the first page with the hand-drawn clown. Initially I used a cut-out of the vintage style picture of Ellen and I but found it did not compliment the eye and looked awkward. 

The text is an important element because it references the old meanings and origins of the word ‘bastard’ whilst also encapsulating the new. Through history bastard has had religious connotations surrounding marriage and a breach of abstinence. So I decided to include one of the 10 commandments which promotes the message to tell the truth -  thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 

The last two images are the final pages and are included in the PDF. 

[adelaidedaycollett]

Image inspiration: 

Each member of our group is creating a visual image to go with the words, so mine are ‘shit’ and ‘bastard’. We decided that we want to have a variety in medium and style within the set of images. And we are planning on tying them all together aesthetically using the same font, background and colours. I am excited to use some collage in my work and this was one inspiration I have come across. 

I love the simplicity of Charlie Sutton’s work, as in our work we want the images to all be quite simple and minimalistic. 

Source: http://cargocollective.com/charliesutton/Collage-Animals

[ellenodonnellcofablog-blog]

Final page ideas

We want to put a quote on the final page. Maybe one said by a famous writer like Shakespeare and change the words a little bit. Or something that comments on how words and just words. 

some ideas:

“If music by the food of love, play on.” - Shakespeare

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.” - Shakespeare

“All the world’s a stage, and a ll the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances:and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages” - Shakespeare

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” - Shakespeare

[ellenodonnellcofablog-blog]

CHANGED WORDS

Fuck -> Funny

Bitch -> Handsome

Bastard -> Loyal

Shit -> Cool

Cunt -> Polite 

 e.g. sound experiments using terminal (won’t upload to tumblr)

An article that is really again children swearing http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/swearing_school_age.html -> It’s sort of funny how these words will become so desensitised in out alternative future that things like this will not ever be written.

[adelaidedaycollett]

Further collage inspiration: Anthony Zinonos 

Zinonos uses secondhand books and magazines, often found at garage and car-boot sales. He carefully selects which images to use and I appreciate the purposeful positioning of the images. It is subtle and minimalistic which is still visually engaging and tells a story. 

[adelaidedaycollett]

Collage inspiration: Adam Hale 

Adam Hale constructs these minimalistic, clean-cut but often disturbing and slightly confronting images from free magazines he finds in London. I like the delicacy and precision he uses to create cohesive and slick images. Our group would like to create images similar to this for our illustrations in our publication in order to support the text. 

[visual-poetry]

»left« by jörg piringer (+)

[on tumblr]

[adelaidedaycollett]

One page’s illustrations will be similar to this - the page for ‘fuck’. Ellen is drawing a clown, to demonstrate the word’s new meaning (funny) in a sentence, using only the word ‘fuck’. 

[casual-observations]

The evolution of language

So for our final group project, we wanted our pdf to explore the evolution of language as a form of communication. We were inspired by how language has changed over the years and how this has influenced society. For example words such as gay used to refer to one feeling a sense of happiness however it now refers to homosexuals and also has negative connotations.

Hence, we decided to compile a short book of compliments for children that would redefine the meaning of “swear words”. It is through this that we contemplate how language have the potential to change along with society and over time. This idea was also inspired by artworks that we research in the Venice Biennale that explored how the purpose of objects could be altered in the future rather than being completely abolished(these works can be seen on my Tumblr and my group which I will link below). Furthermore, the learning of language begins at an early age which is why we decided to create a children’s book. 

Below are the words that will be included in our book and other info:

FUCK

Current definition: 

1. have sexual intercourse with (someone)

2. damage or ruin (something).

Possible definition:

1. to refer to a person, place or thing that makes you laugh 

2. funny

History:

-Came in to english during 15th century

-Initially meant “to strike” or “to hit”

-Might not have been recorded before 15th century because it was too rude to record

BITCH

Current definition:

1. a female dog, wolf, fox, or otter.

2. a spiteful or unpleasant woman.

Possible definition:

1. used in reference to males to compliment their appearance 

2. handsome, good-looking

History:

- Early uses refer to a promiscuous woman

- Which is why “son of a bitch” is so offensive because it connotes that the woman has slept around

- In 1915, most of the books refer to “bitch” was a female dog however by 1930 most referred to “bitch” was an insult against woman

- This linked to the roaring twenties when women were feeling more daring and were fighting for the vote hence the new definition of the word

-Feminists have fought to redefine the word “bitch” to be positive such as Meredith Brooks song, "I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother, I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I do not feel ashamed.“

BASTARD

Current definition:

1. a person born of parents not married to each other.

2. an unpleasant or despicable person.

Possible definition:

1. Someone who is loyal.

2. the act of being loyal, faithful, trustworthy

History:

- It originated from Old French from medieval Latin bastardus, probably from bastum “packsaddle” which can refer to “packsaddle son” (i.e. the son of a mule driver who uses a packsaddle for a pillow and is gone by morning).

- The meaning of the word hasn’t changed much since it’s use which dates back to early centuries.

SHIT

Current definition:

1. faeces.

2. a contemptible or worthless person.

Possible definition:

1. excellent, marvellous, cool

History:

- Used since at least the 14th century, and is derived from the Old English noun scite (meaning dung)

- scholars believe it was used by preliterate Germanic tribes in the time of the Roman empire, meaning that the word "shit” is, quite literally, barbaric.

CUNT

Current definition:

1. a woman’s genitals.

2. an unpleasant or stupid person.

Possible definition:

1.  cultivated, cultured

2. having good manners, courteous

History:

-  One variation is “Cuneiform”, the most ancient form of writing, derived from “kunta” meaning “female genitalia” in Sumerian of ancient Iraq. 

- In several parts of Africa the word “Kunta” refers to a woman

- Originally meant queen of inventing writing and numerals

- Another variation is “quern,” which referred to a hand-mill used by ancient women to grind grain into flour

RESOURCES:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/02/how-gay-came-to-mean-homosexual/

https://solongasitswords.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/on-the-origin-of-fuck/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoe-triska/post_4332_b_2526243.html?ir=Australia

http://mentalfloss.com/article/26955/intriguing-origins-indelicate-words-shit

http://www.vdaysouthbay.org/originsofcunt.htm

ELLEN’S TUMBLR: http://ellenodonnellcofablog.tumblr.com/

ADELAIDE’S TUMBLR: http://adelaidedaycollett.tumblr.com/

[casual-observations]

Looking at children’s books

Part of our research involved looking at old children’s books for inspiration on our design layout and the relationship between text and images. We decided to visit a second hand bookstore that had lots of old children’s books with different styles of illustrations.

[adelaidedaycollett]

Research process - searching for books to cut up and collage from Ampersand! 

[wetheurban]

Infusions, Cliff Briggie 

Cliff Briggie’s technique focuses on photographing the movement in liquids.

Keep reading

[adelaidedaycollett]

Incorporate watercolour style into our accompanying illustrations?

[1002bj]

Here are some historical examples of experimental approaches to publications. 

1. April Greiman ‘does it make sense?’, design quarterly #133, 1986 

Greiman’s piece challenged existing notions of what a magazine should be. Rather than the standard thirty-two-page sequence, she reformatted the piece as a poster that folded out to almost three by six feet. On the front is an image of Greiman’s digitized, naked body amid layers of interacting images and text. On the back, colorful atmospheric spatial video images are interspersed with thoughtful comments and painstaking notations on the digital process—a virtual landscape of text and image. 

2, 3. Edward Ruscha, Every building on the Sunset Strip, 1966

In the 1960s, Ed Ruscha more or less reinvented the artist’s book. By turning away from the craftsmanship and luxury status that typified the livre d’artiste in favor of the artistic idea or concept, expressed simply through photographs and text, Ruscha opened the genre to the possibilities of mass-production and distribution. The 25-foot length of the accordion-folded Every Building on the Sunset Strip affords the viewer two continuous photographic views of the mile and a half section of this landmark stretch of Sunset, one for each side of one of the city’s landmark thoroughfare.- From 

4, 5. La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France /Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France – by Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay-Terk

Comprised of brightly colored arabesques, concentric circles, triangles, and rectangles, Delaunay-Terk’s pochoir illustrations for Blaise Cendrars’s poem and its radical format have made this a landmark in the history of the modern book. The poet and the artist conceived of this project as the first “simultaneous book.” When closed, the accordion-folded volume can be slipped into a wrapper. Opened out vertically, the format facilitates the contrast of the darker themes of the poem with the vibrant dynamism of the illuminations that accompany it.Written as a stream of consciousness, Cendrars’s poem alternates between his memories of a train trip across Siberia in 1904 and thoughts of his girlfriend, Jehanne. Complementing the rhythms of the poem, Delaunay-Terk interspersed patches of color with the poet’s staggered text, printed in twelve different fonts. The poem and the illustration both end with references to the Eiffel Tower and the ferris wheel, two architectural marvels of Paris at that time, further symbolizing modernity and the experiences of simultaneity that urban life provided. From 

Translation of the text 

[casual-observations]

Filter Experiments

In these experiments, I was testing different filters and editing effects to determine what the impact the final result would have. Since our final idea consists of a dictionary style book suitable for children we considered including colourful images with a cartoon-ish style to them. However based on these experiments, we may have to find alternate ways to edit our images as they did not give the final result we would have liked.