Challenging the Conventions of Reading
For my self initiated project I created a series of books that challenged the way the viewer reads poems/ monologues.
At first I started using materials that were described in the poems and creating marks with them on the paper however I decided to use typographical alterations to get my message across.
These techniques directly reflect the meaning I took for the pieces.
For example when a monologue was about a club carpet which got over looked and ignored I made the text very light to make the type get overlooked and ignored.
This gives the text a close relationship with the reader, which I found absent in other poem books. When someone has to read something in a different way to the norm, the reader is far more engaged with the piece. It also enforces the feelings and emotions the writer is trying to provoke.
Creating the authors name out of the binding meant that each book could not stand-alone. They all had to stay together to complete the series. Also having the binding name approaches the idea of authorial presence, which many say, is lost once books are published. To begin with I used the authors picture to address this then I create a cut-through technique (please find in my sketchbook) but realised a subtler method more in keeping.
If I were to develop my books I would uses a slightly lighter weighted paper stock, which would allow easily opening and closing of the pages. Also I would carry my advertisement campaign further, creating full sized thread posters for window installations.
