tommy o
I chose “Book from the Ground: from point to point,” by Bing Xu because it uses only indices and icons, which was very off-putting at first. I kind of hated it. When I have such a strong reaction to something I tend to want to explore it more because it has communicated something and I want to understand my response to it. It took a little work to get into the story.
When I took the time to focus on the story it was very clear and needed no words (symbols) to interpret it, and no sound. I respect the work that it takes to make a clear narrative this way as I am already fascinated by visual stories using a series of still images juxtaposed with one another to tell a tale. How do the signs help the narration? In this case the signs are the narration. How do they help the presentation of the story? For me, it was intriguing, like breaking a secret code in order to understand what on the surface is first a bit annoying but then at the same time ordered and mysterious. The presentation of indices and icons sucked me into the idea of a secret. I enjoyed this work.
How might I use different types of signs in my own project? As I see it, my inclination toward the visual is directly related to signs especially in the use of icons in the form of realistic imagery. I’m already doing it and am enjoying continuing the work.