Research
To begin my research for this project, I looked at chapters one and two of the book Slow Looking by Shari Tishman. Chapter one started with stories of slow looking in action. These stories helped me understand the idea behind slow looking and why it is so important. Chapter two, however, is where I really started to understand slow looking. Chapter two gave me four observation strategies to help me understand the act of slow looking: categories, open inventory, scale and scope, and juxtaposition. “The use of categories tells the eye where to look. Making an open inventory provides a structure for capturing a jumble of perceptions. Altering the scale and scope of perception helps the eye see things from fresh perspectives. Juxtaposing objects makes subtle features discernible by bringing forward similarities and differences” (Tishman, 26). I got to put these observation strategies to use in class. My group was assigned the second floor of Hayes Hall where we engaged in these activities to write haikus.
Slow looking activity from class.
The next part of my research involved picking out a possible location and exploring different paths to get to that location. My first location was going to be the Buckeye Grove (where they plant trees for OSU All-American Football Players); however; I ended up changing my location to The Garden of Constants. I made this change for one big reason: I walked this path twice a day, every day. Once around 7 am and once between 12 pm-2 pm. There is a vast contrast between the number of people I have to see and hear during my morning walk compared to my afternoon walk. Although this is something that I did not necessarily end up adding to my map, it was a good aspect that helped me understand slow-looking the path.
My final location and path.
To view other locations and paths view PDF.
My class had the chance to work with Professor Deb Scott for a day leading up to the production of our maps. Professor Scott had us quickly (about an hour or so) create a rough map layout through the medium of collage. This activity helped me in one big way: starting to understand the spatial layout of my map. It was also really nice to see what her class was working on and be able to bounce ideas off of them as well. This was the first time we had been able to talk to students that early in the design stage. It was nice to have a collaboration.
My collage from class.
(Book Citation: “Chapter Two: Strategies for Slow Looking.” Slow Looking, by Shari Tishman, Taylor & Francis LTD, 2017, pp. 26-26.)
Exercises
Exercise 1: Written Descriptions
For exercise one, I was tasked with writing about the path to my destination two times: the specific directions and a creative description of the path. For the specific directions, I focused on word choice and clarity on how to get to my destination (The Garden of Constants) from Hayes Hall following my selected path. For the creative description, I focused on what the experience on my path is like. I used sensory details, mood, and tone to communicate this experience.
Specific Directions:
Start on the steps of Hayes Hall, facing the Oval, and walk down the steps until you reach the sidewalk. Once you are on the sidewalk in front of Hayes Hall, facing the Oval, turn to your right and walk along the sidewalk until Hayes Hall ends. Turn to your right to walk in between Hopkins and Hayes Hall until you reach the end of Hayes Hall. Go to the ramp that leads to Hopkins Hall, walk up this ramp until you reach the brick wall with white handprints. You’ve reached location one. Now walk back in between Hayes and Hopkins Hall until you reach the Oval. Once there, turn to your right and walk straight until you reach the end of Hopkins Hall. Turn right again and walk straight until you reach the back of Hopkins Hall, stopping before you reach the road. Turn to your right and walk along the sidewalk till you’re even with the back door of Hopkins Hall, look up. You should see color glass panels, you’ve reached location two. Turn to face the street and walk across the crosswalk until you reach the first building: Denny Hall. Walk until you’re even with the doors, and turn to your right. Walk into the circle created by benches. You’ve reached location three. Now walk back towards Denny Hall and turn right, you should walk until you reach a fork in the sidewalk, and take the middle path (verging towards the left). Walk along this path until you reach a big open area dividing the road from left to right. Walk straight until you reach the brick, short wall and turn left and walk till you reach the middle. Look down, there is a herringbone-patterned created with the bricks, you’ve reached location four. Continue to walk straight, down the road, you should walk straight along W. 18th Ave until you reach the Journalism Building and Neil Ave. Take a right at the Journalism Building and quickly cross the crosswalk across Neil Ave, towards Baker Systems Engineering Building. Turn towards your right and walk along Baker until you reach the end of the building, turn left. Walk under the bridge that connects Baker and Dreese Laboratories. Walk down the sidewalk and look towards your right. You have reached your final destination: The Garden of Constants.
Creative Description:
I eagerly push the massive doors of Hayes Hall to freedom. Fresh air surrounds my face, a nice contrast to the suffocating air of my third-floor classroom in Hayes. Energized, I skip down the steps of Hayes Hall towards the Oval, careful not to get run over by zooming bikes and scooters. I stroll to the seclusion on the backside of Hayes Hall, not a person is insight. I trudge up the ramp leading to Hopkins Hall, halting in the center. A lone, brick wall sits to my right. It seems out-of-place, lonely in this back corner, wedged between the ramp and towering Hopkins Hall. But on the wall, a swarm of white handprints keeps the wall company in its exile. I turn and head back down the ramp and walk towards the Oval. I squeeze my way into the traffic of students but quickly exit out of the flow just past Hopkins Hall. I make my way to the backside of Hopkins. The gravel crunches below my feet, serenading me on my journey. A refreshing sight of colors catches my eyes. The color is a welcome break from the greens, reds, and browns of my natural surroundings. I walk to the color. It makes me happy. Towering over me are glass panels of color, so delicate, yet sturdy in their home on the back of Hopkins. Smiling, I head across the road towards Denny Hall. I am forced to focus only on the road, so I can make my way safely across. The cars have momentarily taken me away from the beauty of my surroundings. In front of me sits a single tree in the middle of a circle made from benches adjacent to Denny Hall. I am struck by the serenity juxtaposed with such a public spot. As I leave the privacy created by the circle, I walk past Denny, veering to the left, and once again, I am met by a swarm of people. I make my way through the crowd, dodging skateboards and students absorbed by their phone screens. I stop in the center, intrigued by the change under my feet. I look down and notice the herringbone pattern in the brick. I wonder how many hurried students have never bothered to look down at this small detail that adds so much to a walk. Abruptly, I am reminded that I am not alone as I dodge a runaway skateboard. I continue walking. I walk among the sea of students down W 18th Ave, making my exit at the Journalism Building. I strategically cross Neil Ave, careful to not get run over, this time by a thousand-pound metal machine. Safely across, I walk along with Baker with other students. I walk under the bridge connecting Baker and Dreese, entering a courtyard where giant numbers sit strangely in the grass to my right. I am somehow comforted by the pockets of students gathered everywhere I look. I have entered the Garden of Constants.
Exercise 2: Photos
For exercise two, I was tasked with documenting the steps on my path with photographed images and applying composition techniques I learned in class. Some of these techniques I took into consideration when photographing my locations included proximity, angles, rule of thirds, symmetry, leading lines, and frame within a frame.
Final Location
Iterations
I wanted to do my iterations digitally for one main reason: it allows me to easily test different ideas quickly.
When designing I played with the line weight of my roads: Some locations have a heavier line weight under the trees to signify that the path/sidewalk is still there. Other times a line is not seen.
The red represents places that still show the path and yellow represents places that cover the path.
Another aspect of my map that I played with was the texture of the buildings: using the drawing technique of hatching/cross-hatching, leaving the buildings black, or labeling them.
Production
My completed physical map.
Intentions behind a few of my design choices:
- Traditional map organization
- My final destination is The Garden of Constants, so I wanted to do a more traditional map that resembles a road map. To me, and the few people I asked, road maps are what we think of first when picturing a map. The road map is a type of map that has been around for a while and will most likely stay for the foreseeable future (with evolutions like going from physical maps to digital ones). Due to my final location being The Garden of Constants, I wanted to design my map in an organization that was constant, something that is not going to change (at least not in a short amount of time).
- Stippling used as grass
- I wanted to use stippling as grass because stippling is the drawing technique (at least for me and the classmates I discussed it with) that resembles grass the most. However, there is another reason I choose to use stippling as my grass. Something I noticed on my path several times is that the grass patches were places for students to gather, and I wanted to represent that. The dots represent students gathering together in this common area. I also like that no two dots are the same, which also plays along with the diversity of OSU. When one looks closely, he may notice some stops that have more, darker, or bigger dots than others. This is to represent that students do not gather on the grass evenly. When I was adding my final stippling, I intended to only do the larger grass areas; however, it looked incomplete. I decided to stipple all of the grassy areas on my map.
- Labeling buildings
- I chose to label my buildings instead of applying a drawing technique simply because of the degree of detail with the stippling that surrounds the buildings. When iterating I tested different techniques and decided that applying hatching or cross-hatching to my building, in combination with the stippling of the grass, would have been too much detail. I chose to label my buildings instead of leaving them blank because I wanted to add another characteristic to my map that added to the traditional aspect of it.
- Paths with heavier line weight under trees vs. paths with no line weight
- I choose to do this because when looking at a satellite image of the oval and its surrounding area, there are some places where the trees are so thick one cannot see the sidewalk underneath the brush. In other places, you can. To represent this distinction I used line weight.
- Path to follow as a dashed line
- I originally wanted to distinguish my path to follow from the other paths by using a herringbone pattern, and I wanted to cut this pattern out of another piece of bristol paper to glue on the path, so when one runs a finger along the path, one can feel the texture change. I wanted to mimic what one would feel with their feet when walking. Unfortunately, because of the scale of my map, the roads and sidewalks were very skinny. I initially thought I would still draw the herringbone pattern but when considering the details of the grass and trees, I decided that things would just end up getting muddied down. There is a quote from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King about the art of writing that very much applies to design: “Kill your darlings.” Although this idea was an idea I loved, a darling of mine, it just did not work. In the end, I had to eliminate it; I killed my darling. I went back to my “concept” of traditional/constant things and a dashed line is a common way for someone to visually represent a path that should be followed.
- Locations along my path to follow
- Choosing the locations along my path was simple for me: I wanted to choose locations that were constant, that are not going to change overnight without anyone knowing about it.
- The degree of detail with grass and trees
- A major focus of mine for this map was on the overall journey of the path and not the individual locations. So, I chose to give fewer details to my locations and give the majority of the detail to the trees, grass, and underlying structure (roads/sidewalks and buildings). There is not a single place along my path that does not have at least ten trees and grass patches insight. It was very important to me to capture the details of the overall journey of my path.
Overall, I am very proud of what I was able to accomplish with this assignment. Deciding to stipple a good part of my map really pushed me to my limits. There were several times that I wanted to give up or just cut back on the amount that I was doing. But I pushed through that because I knew that my design and map would benefit greatly in the end. I spent about 40 hours on this map in total, and if you were to ask me I would probably say not to do it and that it’s not worth it, but that is a lie. Although I never want to stipple for 35 hours again in the never future, I would hand down choose to take on this degree of detail again. I feel as if the detail I included just pushed my design to another level. I will say I struggled with drawing my locations so small. I feel as if because my first three locations were so close together I was “locked-in” with the size I chose because a size any bigger would just result in my locations overcrowding each other. It was my intention to have my locations be on the smaller side, but if I had to do this project over again, I would choose a different location (I would probably change my second location) so I could make my locations just a little bit bigger. I will also say that when looking at my map as a whole I can see a few spots where the small trees get a little lost. I tried adding a darker outline to some and white underlines to some, but nothing really ended up working. I’m not sure how I would fix this problem if I had to do the assignment over again, I suppose by making the trees a little bigger and maybe trying to get a gradient of the stippling near the trees so it is not as dark. I am very happy with my improvement of lines and craft in this assignment from my first assignment. In my first assignment, you could see varying line weight that was not intentional but lines were a major focus of mine during this project, so much so, that I actually restarted my project when I had just begun my stippling because I was unhappy with some of my lines. I am also proud that I really thought through my intentions for this project and thought about what would be the best way to represent something and the reasoning behind my choices. I am mainly just really proud of what I was able to accomplish, as well as the growth I am seeing in myself. I am understanding the elements and principles of design better, along with drawing techniques, which is really allowing me to think about the intentions and purposes of my design. There are already things that I would change to try to do better another time, but I am learning and I am very happy about where I am in my learning process right now.