This week the process has taken unexpected turns which will be very meaningful in the development of this project. My current line of enquiry starts as: Typologies of place: Exploring memory, place, and materiality through graphic communication design. I’m interested in exploring the role of GCD in establishing connections between physical places and people.
As the subject can be very broad, I decided to take a hands on approach and start my research by testing a couple of research methods borrowed from two distinct disciplines: Typomorphic studies and Psycogeography, in my local area of Wantage, Oxfordshire.
On one hand, I deal with the idea of creating a visual typology of place by collecting visual material and categorising it as a vehicle for creating “visual building blocks”. I look to articulate concealed narratives of place, by “reading” the town centre through graphic communication design, intertwining memories and mental images with the physical landscape. Some examples of my initial exploration below.
On the other hand, I approach this exercise through the practice of “drifting”, borrowed from Psycogeography, as an initial tool to “read” the town centre from an emotional and subjective point of view. I write my “impressions” or memories of the town before and after doing the drift and compare the difference that the process has made in my approach to the location.
I also started to consider the potential of expanding beyond my subjective view of the place and using archival methods and interviews to collect “impressions” and perspectives. Below is an example of a poem by Sir John Betjeman about the Wantage Parish church for his daughter’s wedding. I pair the text with an illustration made using only the building blocks collected during the “drift”, considering the potential of developing a visual language which can be applied to representing multiple memories in connection to the particular location.
Some feedback from these initial iterations:
- The line of inquiry is still too broad.
- This is connected to our first project in unit 1 in relation to interpreting a place. In that project, I struggle with the amount of information at the Oxford Market and ended up focusing my investigation on one particular shop. Keep it small. Focus on one place. Think what I want to say. Who is it for? Is it a system for reading cities/places?
- What sort of project am I proposing? Is it investigative? Conceptual? A proto-social project focused on activating communities?
- What do you want to achieve with the project in terms of a practical outcome?
- Find restrictions. Give directive to the project by setting outlines and timescales. Make yourself a map. I’m I producing myself the content, or I’m I finding the content?
- Some relevant references:
Steven Willlats – Control Magazine
Louise Vormittag
Studio Moniker
128 Things about the city – Edwin Heathcote
Flaneur Magazine