HEARING HELVETICA

Progress and Achievement

From the foundation course, I’ve gained a better understanding of how important critical feedback is to develop. I think the course has helped me feel more confident in sharing my ideas and also in giving feedback to others. I think this is vital when producing a successful FMP.

Context

A visit to the Virtual Reality exhibition, Bjork Digital in December and the recent news of Mat Collishaw’s upcoming VR exhibition, Threshold, made me begin to think about the future and how artists and designers are now able to create a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. I began thinking about our senses and how we interpret sensory information in order to understand our surroundings.

Nicolas Jaar, a music producer, recently published a book of ‘visual essays’ documenting the content from a number of radio stations. This reminded me of an exercise during part 1 of drawing and conceptual practice, in which we were asked to draw the sounds we heard around the room with our eyes shut. The notion of visually communicating a sense I think is very interesting and made me think about the context of a sensory experience i.e. a radio in a book, a heard experience is translated into one that you can now see/read.

Project Proposal Aims, Methods and Realization

The purpose of my project is to explore the equivalences of a typeface. I am aiming to create a ‘personal palette’ of my perceptions and responses to specific typefaces. More specifically, I think it would be interesting to take the idea of immersing multiple senses and to communicate what I perceive to be the sound and the tone of a typeface. This links with my initial interest in how we interpret sensory information in order to understand our surroundings.

This project will require heavy research into each typeface I choose to ‘react’ to. I need to think about the visual form, where is it used/ who uses it as well as my memories and observations attached to the chosen typefaces.

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and experimenting with the ‘Shape of Words’ brief during part 2. Nicholas Jaar, Maziyar Pahlevan and Anibal Bley’s experimental use of type inspired me to want to explore the subject more.

I plan to approach this brief in an experimental way in terms of the materials and concepts. I would like to explore more printing methods, specifically risography, however I also do not want to limit myself to a specific material.

Evaluation

During part 2 I found it helpful to write down thoughts in my notebook as the project moves along and then reviewing and collating these thoughts with reflection in a blog. I plan to carry on this method of evaluation and aim to reflect on my blog at least once a week. I also plan to make full use of the organised seminar groups, as I believe that a second voice is vital to the development of my work.