Wot is a book?
Harriet Wallis, Pattern of Procrastination, 2018
Paper, metal-rings, ink
This work is a physical representation of my uptake of
information and experience with social media outlets. The
work was made to explore society's (therefore by default my
own) daily technological habits around social media. Aspects of
which we may or may not be aware of, the work delves into the
reasoning or compulsion behind our constant checking.
The specific experience behind the work is the act of
continuously scrolling through our social media feeds.
Checking either Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and then
once done with one of these outlets switching immediately to
another feed even though it will have only been a few minutes
since you last looked at it. This publication also attempts to
give an idea as to the process of uptake of this information, so
much is being taken in that at the end of the day, in my mind
anyway, it is just a mush or blur of data in our minds.
From my own research I discovered an explanation behind
our impulse to constantly use these apps, we are compelled to
check social media by intermittent reward. Every so often posts
that we see will genuinely interest us, little gold nuggets in the
stream of trash. The publication displays this through use of
foil.
In terms of my wider practice, the areas of system and
communication design and craft are those in which I would
like to explore and contribute too. This project relates to those
areas in ways of a curative approach, collecting information
and then developing a system to display how it is absorbed.
The craft side of the project is shown in the different printing
processes, and the materials used. My design practice in general
has influenced my approach to the project in a sense that it was
very prototype and method based; using small physical and
digital prototypes to build and finish a printed product.
In relation to other artists and designers that have influenced
this project the major ones have been Robbie Barret and a
book called Double Deuce. Barret is a self-taught artificial
intelligence artist of sorts and his production of images
that are vaguely reminiscent of the originals but not quite
distinguishable were highly instrumental in my own
development of content. My own images however were not
built using self-coded AI but with digital programs such as
Photoshop and Illustrator. The Book Double Deuce, was
insightful in to how a publication can be made with little
explanation, relying more on the viewers own interpretation
of the content (it has no title page, contents etc.). My
own publication relies on much the same concept, it is an
accumulation of images and an idea of a publication rather
than an informative one.
The tools used to make this work are both digital: screenshots,
Photoshop, Illustrator, my own phone and computer and
physical: different stocks and colours of paper, foil, a
laminator, metal rings, a circle cutter, a hole punch, a Stanley
knife. Each attached to different steps in the process of making
it. The digital side being involved with the collection of images
and manipulation and curation of them, and to an extent the
production in terms of printing. Both ink jet printing and
laser printing was used as well as a laminator for the foil. The
physical tools being used in the steps of production in positions
of cutting and building the final piece.