James Marquet

non-COFA related tumblr - threefullstops.tumblr.com

[jmarquet]

Final Work - Subjective and Objective view of the internet.  

My original concept was exploring how I could physically represent the digital world.  However as I continued to experiment with this idea I ended up wanting to explore the difference between my perception of the internet as opposed to the actual, accurate story behind websites and their histories.  

Thus, I did a bunch of research into the popularity and history of websites and also compiled a group of websites off the top of my head that I felt were significant to my understanding of the internet.  Thus, I could create a work that represented an objective and subjective view of the core websites on the internet.  

I chose to use the family tree because it was an extension of the house metaphor that I had come up with to describe the internet previously - the family system is one that is complex, hierarchical and an essential part of our lives, and at this point in our history, the internet is the same (for most westerners).  Therefore I wanted to explore how the internet would work as a family tree.

[jmarquet]

Documentation 10/10 - final, draft realisation of family tree

Preliminary draft of the actual family tree.  Super rough, but helpful to actually see the entire thing visualised.  

[jmarquet]

Research 9/10 - Further realisation of research

Updated research.  I've organised the research that I compiled into a proper hierarchical grid.  Splitting them up into generational 'chunks' should help me to more easily create the family tree as it is a more logical layout scheme.

[jmarquet]

Documentation 8/10 - Realisation of conceptual research

After some quick research I have started to create a generational timeline of key websites and their starting points.

[jmarquet]

Maentis - 99 Steps of Progress - Creativitea

Documentation 7/10 - Research/Inspiration

Really clever, minimal way of expressing some subjective thoughts on real world issues.  This definitely has inspired me to think about how I would utilise my form - the family tree - to subjectively represent the internet.  

[jmarquet]

Coming Soon - Infographic XXXXL - Creativitea

Documentation 6/10 - Inspiration/Research

Really interesting 3D version of charts and graphics.  Whilst I don't think that my work will be in 3D form, I am interested in exploring how I could possible change up form or material in order to give further meaning to my work.

[jmarquet]

Dedicated to distilling the world's data, information and knowledge into beautiful, interesting and, above all, useful visualizations, infographics and diagrams.

Documentation 4/10 - Inspiration

This website - linked to a book that was published a few years ago - is incredible influential for me as I think about my assignment.  More than any other piece of media that focuses on data visualisation, I feel that 'Information is Beautiful' values beauty as a method of educating and enlightening the viewer.  

The diagrams on this website (and in the book) reflect a notion that I think is often undervalued when it comes to education and learning.  That is, something visually appealing can actually help you to understand data more effectively than something that is aesthetically uninteresting.

Thus, I want to create a work that is different, original and beautiful enough that people will remember it and learn from it more effectively than they would a simple, boring set of data.

[jmarquet]

Religion in Hungary 2013

Documentation 5/10 - Inspiration

A really interesting use of data visualisation that incorporates pop-up book elements to aid the visual understanding of the data that the designer is attempting to present.

[jmarquet]

100 Diagrams That Changed the World Review

Documentation 3/10 - Research into data visualisation

Really interesting book that contains a whole bunch of information about diagrams and visual representations of data, ideas and philosophies.  

This definitely helped me to think about how different people have represented their ideas visually - especially when it comes to helping others understand complicated ideas by simplifying them visually but not necessarily theoretically.

[jmarquet]

Documentation 2/10 - Research + Inspiration

After thinking about the history of the internet and what it means to me as well as what it means from an objective viewpoint, it was recommended that I explore the artworks of Mark Lombardi, a neo-conceptual artist whose body of work comprises large, beautifully drawn diagrams of political, social and economic events (see images).  

His artwork very much aligns to my project both visually and theoretically - he simplifies incredibly complex and significant data in an accurate and beautiful way, and that is my aim for this project.  

However, my work will probably differ from his simply because I plan on creating a piece that reduces the internet to a top-down ancestral image rather than a cyclical, circular one, as Lombardi does in most of his works. 

Image Sources: 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.modcult.org/mc/images/originals_1976-marklombardi.jpg?1261348764

http://adamdavidmorton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mark-Lombardi-1999-Oliver-North-Lake-Resources-of-Panama-and-the-Iran-Contra-Operation-ca.1984-86.jpg

[jmarquet]

Documentation 1/10 - Research

Super helpful starting point for my research into the history of the internet and websites in general.  I can now start drawing up plans for my physically mapped family tree of the internet.

[jmarquet]

Un-creativity - Randomly Generated Book Poem.

Using a book on economics and a set of exchange rate numbers split into 4 and five digits, I created a series of words that I then converted into a poem.  Other than the punctuation in the final poem, the content of the poem was completely out of my control.

[jmarquet]

Assessment 1 - A subjective floor plan of the internet.  

(please click on the images to enlarge them and view the finer details)

After a copious amount of research and development my conceptual map has taken the form of a floor plan.  

My research into maps and mapping the Internet were informative - they showed me the significant array of boring, solely objective attempts at depicting that digital space.  Thus, I began thinking about how I could do a more effective job - how I could create a tangible version of digital space that was funny, witty and interesting.  

I began to consider analogies for the Internet and digital life, and condensed those ideas into one - 'the Internet is like a house'.  It seemed to be the best and most logical way to represent my idea in physical form.

However, I wanted to create something that was subjective and not completely factual, because digital space is inherently and constantly changing, and thus stating something as fact would be pointless, as it would likely change in the near future.  

So, I thought about how we map out houses and that led me to consider creating a floor plan for the internet.  I envision a house much bigger than the three plans I have here, however these conceptual maps will help me to actually construct this house for the second assessment.

[jmarquet]

JESS3™ / The State of The Internet

JESS3™ designed and animated this for the JESS3™ lecture at AIGA Baltimore in Feb 2010.

An interesting video I used as reference material.

[jmarquet]

I used this sight (funnily enough) as a reference for some of the floor plan. I also went on my own knowledge/thinking, because I wanted some of the project to remain subjective and, in my opinion, more personal and interesting.

[jmarquet]

(source http://totheweb.com/eichler/images/subpage_photos/floor-plan-1224.gif)

Additionally, I brainstormed some ideas in relation to how we convey the notion of space without using the exact area, and I came up with the idea of creating, as a conceptual map, a floor plan for the house that represents digital space. As a method of conceptually mapping this project, creating a floor plan is ideal.

[jmarquet]

(source: http://checkout.plan-store.com/house-plans/media/import/WebArt/common/plans/images/HPC5/HPC672/HPC672-FR-RE-CO-LG.JPG)

After a considerable amount of brainstorming, I began to think about how I could best represent Digital Space in physical, tangible form.  I'm a sucker for a good analogy, I began to consider how I could best represent the digital world, symbolically or metaphorically, using a physical object.  Basically, I wanted to work out how I could describe the digital world using a physical object.  And the object that I thought symbolised my topic most was a house.  

A house, at its most functional level is a building that can store things that people own and value - the digital space does the same, but not tangibly.  Each room in a house has a different purpose - in fact each room is often used by different people with different tastes, values and attitudes towards life, just as digital space is.   Furthermore, the objects and aspects of a house can vary between rooms, but can also be similar - just as different parts of digital space (esp. the Internet) can vary in type or, alternatively, remain the same.  Moreover, every house contains memories that are different for each member of that household.  However what is truly significant about this, is that without each of those people, the house would not contain meaning or significance.  Similarly, digital space holds the memories and ideas put forth by many different people with completely different ideals and values.  Thus, like a house, a digital space with no contributors is meaningless and dead.