Testing Ground: Space for Experimentation
This section represents a testing ground to find and hone the fundamental principles of my current methodology. This testing phase occurred, primarily, in private spaces through collaboration with visiting designers, a pianist, institutions for the sight impaired, and the Providence Public Library. This space allowed new ways to understand the relationships between the formal and conceptional in my practice. This experimental approach takes on both playful abstraction, common to graphic design, and the rigorous, systematic, iterative context of experimental design.1 I support John Sueda’s2 explanation of “experimental” or “speculative” design in the context of graphic design, in which he states that this type of work is ‘theoretical, rather than practical’, or involving ‘contemplation, conjecture, or abstract reasoning’.3
Sueda’s understanding paired with the rigor of experimental design—define my approach in this section. I want to affirmatively answer John Sueda’s question, “can work of this nature become realized and become beneficial for practical applications?”4
In Deciphering a Braille Map: Germany 1901 puzzle–like playing cards activate a narrative journey through the translation of a Braille map. Duchampian Chess translates the visual and auditory replay of Marcel Duchamp’s 1922 chess game versus Martin Schroeder. The Human Processing Unit offers thousands of graphic combinations based on user input. At times these generative collaborations are more direct but in every instance, they provide an output based on the combination of specific individual thoughts, skills, and perspectives. The principle of modularity encourages diverse interpretation—a humanist approach.
This work creates opens access to new knowledge through heavy research presenting complex information in a more comprehensible form. Deciphering a Braille Map: Germany 1901, I worked with the Perkins School of the Blind, the Lighthouse for the Blind, and the National Braille Press to decode a map uncovered in the special collections of the Providence Public Library. Similarly, Duchampian Chess asked me to research collaboratively. I worked with David Preli, a pianist and materials scientist to reconfigure the complexities of a historic chess match into new forms. In H/8–and with the help of the Josef Hartwig–I formed a new tool for understanding the basic movements of the game to the most advanced scenarios in chess. Lastly, the torus became a new object of research. Sorting through academic articles centered on Conway’s Game of Life5 I realized how this shape represents infinity. Typographic Torus became another collaborative gesture merging math, science, and typography.
Sueda’s understanding paired with the rigor of experimental design—define my approach in this section. I want to affirmatively answer John Sueda’s question, “can work of this nature become realized and become beneficial for practical applications?”4
In Deciphering a Braille Map: Germany 1901 puzzle–like playing cards activate a narrative journey through the translation of a Braille map. Duchampian Chess translates the visual and auditory replay of Marcel Duchamp’s 1922 chess game versus Martin Schroeder. The Human Processing Unit offers thousands of graphic combinations based on user input. At times these generative collaborations are more direct but in every instance, they provide an output based on the combination of specific individual thoughts, skills, and perspectives. The principle of modularity encourages diverse interpretation—a humanist approach.
This work creates opens access to new knowledge through heavy research presenting complex information in a more comprehensible form. Deciphering a Braille Map: Germany 1901, I worked with the Perkins School of the Blind, the Lighthouse for the Blind, and the National Braille Press to decode a map uncovered in the special collections of the Providence Public Library. Similarly, Duchampian Chess asked me to research collaboratively. I worked with David Preli, a pianist and materials scientist to reconfigure the complexities of a historic chess match into new forms. In H/8–and with the help of the Josef Hartwig–I formed a new tool for understanding the basic movements of the game to the most advanced scenarios in chess. Lastly, the torus became a new object of research. Sorting through academic articles centered on Conway’s Game of Life5 I realized how this shape represents infinity. Typographic Torus became another collaborative gesture merging math, science, and typography.
