The Registry of the Forgotten (F26 Project II)
INTRODUCTION — 10.20
When I first looked over the project brief and prompt, I kept thinking of the material aspect of this intangible thing called memory, and how it subtly pervades the physical world around us. I want to focus on these qualities of people’s possessions act as carriers for pieces of their identities and fluid time capsules of past experiences. This story has the potential to be told through physicallity in the flesh as well, and I have a lot of curiousity about existing accounts of degenerative brain diseases and how those who suffer experienced change in both their identity and the relationships with their belongings.
One definite avenue I’m exploring and have already found content for is the stories of refugees, incarcerated people, and survivors of natural disasters (specifically Hurricane Katarina).
PROJECT BRIEF/TYPE SYSTEM EXPLORE — 10.27
Subject Matter: The subject of this book is a wide-scope exploratin of the relationship between people and their objects, how these material belongings build, form, and affect their memories and/or identities. It covers the stories of survivors of Hurricane Katrina, refugees from around the world, and academic studies on the forcible dispossession within prison systems. I’ll be interviewing and compiling stories about the cherished objects of those around me, and how their relationships with those items, people around them, and themselves have changed since they got that item. The core question at the center of every interview is how the material world interacts with our memories and senses of self.
Structure: The topics of this book will be non-linear, transitioning from subtopic to subtopic rather than through time. It begins with a broader scope, more impersonal view of the relationships between memories, objects, and people — then the ones connected to external events, and finally concluding with a repository of stories from those directly around me. This is meant to zoom in from a large-scale view of the topic and connect the subject of items and memory to self in a way that prompts readers to introspect on their own relationships with their objects.
Audience: In the context of a world where capitalism, materialism, and frequently mindless consumption is deeply embedded, the purpose of the registry is to encourage people to take a second look at the things they own and how these items affect their lives. In essence, it’s to provide a more personal relationship with the material world for contemporary society.
Tone & Voice: Introspective, slow-paced, thoughtful. Never accusatory, but to look at more dramatic instances of object attachments and translate that into how it might apply to the lives of ordinary readers.
Content Structure: Same as the overall structure. Shifts between looking at the mind aspect, the body/corporeal aspect, and the items around us connected to memory and identity. Mind > Body > Material
Visual approach: Vellum to layer text and images. Abundant white space. Straightforward typography without high stroke weight variation. A lean into the analog aspects to connect the 2D designs to the physical, tangible world. Interview drawings of the cherished items of the people around me, by their owners.
CLASS CRIT/PEER FEEDBACK + DUMMY BOOKS — 10.29
After class critique & conversations, I gained insights on what was being done well with the material aspects of my dummy book. I think the impressions created by my A5 dummy (unassuming, plain/everyday) from just cover impressions works well with my goal of producing a publication that makes people look back and reflect deeper on the ordinary objects in their daily lives.
Some comments on the tone of my project brief that were not apparent from a first-person point of view was the neutrality and empathetic warmth that emerged. I spent much of the type studies thoroughly wringing out the sans-serif category of typefaces, and still need to fully flesh out serif explorations. Regardless of technical type systems, the topic I wanted to compile a registry about has also shifted and narrowed — I’m editing the brief to reflect that.
BEGINNING GRID EXPLORATION — 10.31
I feel very drawn to the idea of uneven margin sizing at the top/bottom and left/right of a page, and really want to get experimental with text blocks and pull quotes for this project. (see examples below).
I feel that these unconventional uses of an editorial grid speak to the morphing nature of memory as a whole, specifically for how the meaning of an object might change over time along with its owner.
I realized that I need a larger number of narrow columns in my grid to provide the flexibility needed for these complex, staggered text columns that I want so badly. I plan to have each block span 2–3 columns, but have them starting at different points. I prefer the character expressed in the first grid spread, but want to incorporate the cleanliness of the columns in the second. More fine-tuning and migrating to InDesign is needed.
These are a sample of my favorite type study explorations into serif displays:
11. 04
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I settled on a display typeface, BIZ UDMincho. It was difficult finding a low stroke contrast serif that wasn’t a slab, but I honestly have gotten very attached to this font. I love the way it’s condensed and carries over some of the vibes from the condensed grotesque sans, while erring away from that sterile, technical connotation of heavy sans serif use. Still fine-tuning the subhead and body text, but I plan on keeping some consistency by using the same font for body/caption and display/page numbers. I’m leaning towards Acme Gothic Light or Azkidenz-Grotesk Next for body copy.
I added some rudimentary pull-quotes in the system, but these will look different for display pull-quotes that take up the entire screen. Another thing I experimented with was having the page number typed out alongside the numeral, and I feel like it’s a risk that could play out in a very interesting way with the layered typography I’m envisioning.
Above: I felt conflicted for a while of how to make the layouts for my longer, in-person interviews with the people around me with the more limited descriptions of say, belongings of refugees or Hurricane Katrina survivors. I want to illustrate a clear parallel in the way they sit on a spread, while accomodating the respective ratios of image/text.
I also want to break my margins with image as well as text, connecting conceptually to how memories and relations with people or objects is never static, never cleanly contained in a box.
I concocted some new grids that incorporate some of the playfulness of the asymmetrical margins with the column order of both of the earlier grids. I think these will accommodate holding my content in a creative way, but of course, I have to put it down to see how the actual practice works.
As for content, I have a much clearer idea of what my overall storyline is trying to tell — I’ve decided to focus on the relationship that people, their identities, and belongings share, rather than jumping all over the place with medical research and neuroscience. I feel that a short dip into the philosophical origins and history of the idea of Descartesian dualism and the ways it’s been integrated into Western culture would serve as a really good introduction, as well as establishing the definition and different categories of memory types. But these shouldn’t be a main focus of the registry. I’ve found more external sources than I expected on dispossession, whether it’s from refugees, migrants, Hurricane Katrina survivors, or incarceration. I’ve also amassed a small number of rather lengthy interviews from my peers, and will be collecting more throughout the length of this project. Overall the project theme has shifted from being reminescent of a PhD thesis defence to a collection of all the stories of people and their items.
11.06
Following Austin’s advice from studio on Nov. 5th, I backtracked from my earlier grids and created a new one that provided a better stable foundation for my book spreads. The prior ones were faulty for jumping to creative interpretations before establishing strong baselines. I think that the grid below will bring me a lot more success and avoid being constraining. My final size for the book will be A5 standard size, so 148 × 210 mm. My top and outside margins are 16mm, and bottom and inner are 8mm. The grids I overlaid are 6 columns and 4 rows (all with 2mm gutters) with 6 columns and 6 rows (all 2mm gutters). I like the compromise this gives with regards to structure and flexible interpretation. The variation in unit sizing adds liveliness, and the overall small unit sizing means I have more choice for text block and image placement, while still keeping an orderly appearance.
The emotional weight of this project has been building up, since a lot of my sources of external object stories are the tragedies of migrants, refugees, or disaster survivors. I also had a lot of somber conversations, even in the in-person interviews conducted with my friends. Atop it all is the sorrowful atmospheres captured in the novels “The Things They Carried” and “The Memory Police”. Luckily I found a more lighthearted work to take excerpts from: “What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning”, by Bill Shapiro.
VERY relieved about that.
Made a rough idea of what my table of contents will look like. This helped me narrow down and finalize the sources I’m using, but also helped me flesh out more creative iterations of the type system in the folio and running headline/footers.
