Dissertation / Practical Synthesis

The synthesis between my dissertation and practical is very complex and in depth. My dissertation talks about how postmodernism blurred the boundaries between art and design which I accomplished with my work, creating an art piece which is of book pages. The art piece has a grid like a book page, but instead it is a physical grid. This is also true with the 'frame'. One frame is gold representing the ornamental and decorative themes found within postmodernism, whilst the other is black representing the simplicity of modernism. The string work also reflects these themes, with the postmodernism grid being colourful and decorative, whilst the modernist strings are black, representing the uniformity principles of modernism. The structure of the content in the practical reflects themes of both postmodernism and modernism, and traits which are found in contemporary editorial design. The modernist structure is very simple, with left align typography in Helvetica in 2 columns. The postmodernist piece however uses 4 different typefaces, all with postmodern connotations- keedy sans, sabon, minion and memphis. I also had one piece in zapf dingbats as a reference to Carson's typographic decisions in Raygun. The layout hosts content in a variety of different ways, having type reading horizontally and vertically, in different alignments which sometimes overlap image. The images are also grid breaking, both vertical, horizontal and diagonal forcing a more in depth interaction with the audience. I used repurposed wood for a pastiche element, using old repurposed wood, with new paint and new strings, with content printed using modern technology. The frames are small enough to be handled like a book but large enough that the reader would have to physically move to read the content, the physical point of view influencing the understanding of the content.