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REFLECTION

To my surprise I actually struggled quite a lot with this studio. Perhaps my thoughts and ideas overwhelmed me, as I felt that my brain was full of this new knowledge and awareness. Because there was so much explore, I always felt that if I went with one direction I potentially was missing out on something else. I think this studio really solidified that this is a regular issue for me that I should actively work on. There is always time and an opportunity to create more and explore more. I’m simply afraid of waiting and losing that feeling when I first have an idea, as the emotion and drive is the strongest at the time of idea fruition.

A part of me felt a little disappointed as I had originally wanted to create something digital as my final product, however I was able to create some little videos which I had fun with. Towards the end, instead of worrying about the form of my end product I just CREATED and didn’t stop. I had much more fun this way and ended up much more satisfied, because the process was meaningful.

The most valuable thing I’ve gained from this studio is AWARENESS. Every week I’ve been observing and learning new things about the world. At the beginning of the studio I felt that Andy was correct in comparing explaining the Post-Digital as trying to describe water to a fish, as this was exactly how I felt.

I’ve gained something so priceless in this studio that will forever be with me, not just in my design work but in life (as dramatic as that may sound). Every interaction with the people around me has fuelled my thinking and creating.

So much I have gained in this class, but the central question has not been answered:

WHAT IS A BOOK???

I have but more questions. But i’m okay with that. Questioning inspires me to explore more, dig more and create more.

Thank you everyone I’ve had a conversation with, no matter how large or small. I’m grateful and appreciate everyone :)

THOUGHTS

‘Through the Looking Glass’ is a book inspired by e-pubs and google books, and the glitch and error users have run into when reading or interacting with them. In codex (‘physical’) form, I use the texts ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll to explore what glitch is, glitch in different spaces and finding the beauty and fun in what is considered a ‘malfunction’ or ‘imperfection’.

A glitch is defined as a sudden malfunction or fault, or as an unexpected setback— and through research (forums, help pages etc.), it seems as though common issues included ghosting of images and text, unexpected blurring, fragments of images appearing, screen going black, messy paragraph breaks & character coding, missing chapters and many, many more. Using these complaints, I embedded visual glitches in the texts purposely (such as removing the queen’s head in the image where she says ‘off with your head!’ or elongating and enlarging the page where Alice grows taller after eating a cake). Although to a viewer this interrupts the flow of reading (and therefore is defined as a setback), is this still considered a malfunction when it (perhaps subjectively) enriches the text by adding another layer of meaning?

In paperback library books, sometimes I find pages or chunks of a book missing, perhaps ripped corners or dog eared pages— a sign of a heavily loved and read book. Maybe this could be compared to when users reading an e-pub are missing pages or chapters? Although it has been physically removed by hand by a human, perhaps this is also another sort of glitch.

With some of the errors in my book, perhaps it’s hard to tell whether it was digitally glitched or not. Were the pages messed up pre-printing or after printing, by hand?

How do you read my book? I imagine the viewer to be constantly rotating the book in all different directions. Sadly after all that effort it seems that 5 chapters are missing towards the end.

//The cover of my book is etched clear perspex with smooth black card behind it, reminiscent of the screen of a phone or laptop. We can see our reflection in it as with a phone and the cover smudges easily and leaves fingerprint trails. Generally, we tend to treat our final projects with utmost care, however when the people I showed touched my project and left many hard to remove fingerprints on it, I didn’t worry at all. Not only did I produce a physical final project, but I also produced something of which I had a sort of newfound attitude about. The book is the size of an iPad screen but it is not very explicit— just familiar and comfortable. I included an iPhone screen sized window that crops any page to a smaller screen size.

My book is called 'Through the Looking Glass'

Refering to when we are reading through a screen, a sheet of glass and a sort of mirror.

Just some images from my book before the final submission/final posts. The glitching and error in my book draws inspiration from both epubs and the scanned google books. I've used the text 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' as well as 'Through the Looking Glass' as my content (both from Project Gutenberg). I originally wanted to simply explore glitch and error in a 'physical' (codex) form however I wanted to play around and have fun with this so some of the glitching doesn't disrupt the reading of the book, but adds another dimension to it (for example: the chapter about insects has a scanned insect on the page, the image where the queen says "off with your head" her head has been glitched out of the image, the whole chapter about the mad tea party is all jumbled, messy and... mad). I chose this content partially because it is personally one of my favourite books and I wanted to explore how i would feel 'ruining' it and my reading experience. I feel that I have perhaps done the opposite.

Research of E-Reader customer glitch issues

The obsession with digital errors in Google Books arises from the sense that these mistakes are permanent, on the record.

This was a project mentioned by Andy in an earlier class and I thought it was super related to my exploration of ‘digital error’- this image handily (haha hands... handily.. hehe) has the spreads printed out, as I will be doing.

Interesting (and long) read edited by Mark Nunes on error, glitch, noise etc.

I played with the idea of creating a html book (inspired by webyarns) revolving around the text of a meditation transcript (and perhaps a recording/audiobook playing over the top). The feeling of peace, comfort and focus the meditation creates is like that of when we are in the zone doing work or browsing the web. As you go through the meditation and start to become quite relaxed, you are greeted with an error message and glitching out of the audio. Any attempts at pressing the retry button are futile (unless you click it 10+ times) and clicking cancel brings you back to the beginning. The challenge is to complete the meditation but still maintain inner peace and focus.

On reflection, I felt that I was straying too far from being ‘bookish’ and was just creating this to frustrate people for fun (not for my concept). With 1ish week left, I really need to pull everything together and consolidate my observations and experiments. I am thinking of exploring the expected peaceful ‘error-free’ experience of reading a codex being disrupted by error and glitch found in google scans, e-books etc.

Just wanted to share this glorious book

Last week's attempt at coding the beginning of an interactive/glitchy book but gave up when a couple of hours of adding and deleting only resulted in this :(

Somewhat but not completely related to my exploration, but I think it's interesting how a completely productive, smooth, effortless and almost meditative work session (looking for images of the juice label 'impressed') can be completely broken by the unexpected places you find yourself on the web simply because of one missing word. Really appreciate Obama's expression.

Week 10 we did an activity where we took another student's quick prototype and attempted to explain it as our own, justify design choices and answer spontaneous questions. I interpreted Paige's book as an 'instagram gallery' in codex form, where the front page represented a blank canvas and the white frames around each image is framing the carefully curated images as artworks. I later asked Paige what her book was actually on and found out it was on ASMR- so far from what I had described it as. It was a fascinating experience.

BUILDING 55 COMPUTER

The upgraded ‘Blue Screen Of Death’

I shut it down and used it after, it was fine :)

I just wanted to shut down my laptop...

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