Approach
Since the next few weeks are consumed with attending conferences and Spring Break, I am working to achieve final drafts of my Phase 1 Projects: the Digital Book and my physical Exhibition Materials. For the Digital Book, this included iterations of layout ideas in InDesign and compiling submitted work. For the Exhibition Materials, I decided on what materials I would be using and worked towards representing them in their original form in the frames.
I also got started a bit on my Phase 2 Project – the Video. I had a crash course in video and audio set up and began playing around with these tools.
Choices Made
Digital Book
As I was working on the layout of the digital books, I found that organizing by submission author was getting unwieldy, especially considering the fact that I was asking for materials from 18 people. I decided then to organize by category/typology of writing and include a good mix of representative students. This, however, called for a reconsideration of my determined categories. While I had categorized/coded these types of ways writing was being used for my exhibition proposal, I had already been considering new and different terminology while working on a conference presentation the past few weeks.
My original categories for the exhibition proposal were:
- writing as reflection
- writing as presentation
- writing as diagramming
- writing as documentation
- writing as collage
- writing as organization
- writing as notation
And my revised categories for my presentation were:
- writing as cognition
- writing as interpretation
- writing as captioning
- writing as organization
- writing as presentation
- writing as reflection
I felt that the first pass was more focused on what the writing looked like rather than what it’s intent was (which I considered to be more important). In the second case (categories for the conference) I felt this was remedied a bit but that the categories didn’t apply so much to grad students who worked less in designing graphics, products, and spaces, and more with theories and systems. With this, I set out on another recategorizing mission and came up with the below typologies.
Grad categories:
- writing to understand
- writing to plan
- writing as caption
- writing as organize
- writing as reflect
- writing to present
With this I gathered a range of examples from the submissions received, chose a diverse range representing multiple authors, and organized them in InDesign. I ended up showing four examples of each typology, introducing them with a short paragraph at the start of each “chapter,” prefaced with acknowledgements, an introduction, and table of contents.
After the structure of the book was in place, I worked on the overall aesthetics. I went through several iterations but ultimately settled on something rather bold and minimalist to emphasize the text on display.
After several tweaks and refinements I created the final draft for review:
Exhibition Materials
From working on the Digital Book, I was able to organize and choose what materials to showcase in the physical form of the Exhibition Materials.
This required some additional restructuring of what frames to use, however, since the categories changed just a bit as well (hurriedly worked out on the back of my to do list)
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With this I planned out the specifics of each frame to determine paper size/type needs, print or transfer specifications, exact measurements, and frame orientation:
At the time of this post I have also worked towards transferring the handwritten elements to torn notebook sheets if applicable. I’ll be finishing this up in addition to the digital elements housed in the iPad through Sunday and Monday.
Video
Over this past week I have also become acquainted with the video equipment and tactics for filming. I met with Jess to get a crash course in using the Canon camera, tripod, receiver/transmitter and lavaliere mic, then Kenny allowed me to test recording and considerations for what I would do in the real interviews. Some things I learned to remember from conversations with Maria and Kenny’s include:
- don’t have subjects sit in a moving chair!
- consider positioning – middle, or off to one side
- consider where the subject will be looking – at you or at camera
- consider background – what should be behind them?
- lighting – from back, side, or behind
- prep subjects to answer questions by reporting the question first
- ease into main questions with subjects – keep it casual
Current Questions/Needs Raised
With the elements all mostly prepped I’m wondering how I want to present them. The Digital Book is neatly linked on the website issuu but I’m still figuring out how I want to mock up the exhibition materials without drilling holes into walls quite yet.
Thinking ahead, I’ll also need to think about where I want the video to live and where all three of these materials should fit in with my written thesis.
These concerns are maybe a bit farther down the line and for the next week or so I’m thinking specifically about the following:
Likely Next Steps
Book:
- Per feedback on Tuesday: tweaks to layout, subject choices, etc.
Exhibition:
- Per feedback on Tuesday: tweaks to exhibition materials: frame layout, subject choices, etc.
Video:
- Practicing camera techniques and set up over next week and break
- Develop interview questions and protocol
- Film subjects! (schedule interviews before spring break, take place week or two after)