Simultaneous

Over the course of one night I recorded the verbal conversations in my kitchen on an old cassette recorder. During my physical interactions I noticed myself checking and replying to text messages. I wrote down each message along with the snippet of  real-life conversation that I was having at the same time. Most of the spoken content is silly and unimportant, but what I find the most interesting is the clear lack of focus. As I try to text more, my letters get jumbled and I leave pauses and confusion in my physical conversation.

I wanted the photos to reflect the sort of confusion and glitches that occur while doing two things at once. I took images of myself texting as well as the kitchen and what was going on around me at the time. As the book progresses, more pixel-like bars start to appear in the space reserved for conversation.

The book is about the size and shape and look of my phone. The text messages and photos were printed digitally, but each physical conversation was very carefully letterpressed for emphasis on the tactile.

 

I've been working on my latest project a lot. I think I want to title it 'Simultaneous' since it deals with multiple lines of conversation going on at once through different mediums. I letterpressed all of the pages this weekend and I'm working on binding and trimming it. I've rounded all of the corners to fit with the shape of the phone. I'd like to bind it accordion style with maybe an accent color for the spine.

I've also been making the edits that we talked about last class in regards to my process book.

I've been working on laying out my process book.  I'm playing with the layout to make things a bit more interesting as I turn the pages. I've been working with the images and source materials a lot. A few of my spreads below:

text vs. life conversation book

 This is a single signature book that I started working on. I want it to be about the size and shape of my phone - with rounded corners.

show photos / new ideas

I recorded a full conversation in my kitchen and I pulled out the parts during which I was texting. I transcribed the whole thing and typed up the texts (typos and all) alongside the parts of real conversation that surrounded them. It's all really silly. I don't know whether I want to use images or just text. I also have no idea how I really want to handle the texting part of it vs. the conversation going on simultaneously.

Below is a rough idea of how I would lay out each snippet of conversation - as a spread in a book.

lettering / poster edits

I changed the header / title to make it smaller, I centered and tightened up the numbering system with the words. I also edited the text with several people and made it less text and larger.
I tried the diagonals, but nothing worked as well. I would really like to print my conversation map and the photo collages before this weekend.




These are the labels that I'm asking Andy Bablo to make for my 3D projections chart. I'm not sure if he can cut vinyl this thin / small. I made two sets of the same words because I've never worked with vinyl before and I'd like a backup copy.

editing, compiling

I worked on organizing all of the information into a tight grid and changing some of the color meaning issues. I also fixed a lot of type related things.







These two photo collages are from the original photos I took to make the final conversation graph.

edits

This is the latest version of the comparison poster I made:

I don't know if I love it as much, but it makes more sense logically which matters.


I also laid out a possible gallery layout to scale (1' =1"). I realize that I might need a corner or part of one of the movable walls. I also really need postcards to start coming back to me. I have one so far.

Postcard ideas

I worked on another idea for a postcard for our group. Randi, I mostly worked off of what you made. Thoughts? Suggestions?

comparison

Today I sketched out how I would like my pieces in the gallery and I came up with some titles, which I can share tomorrow.

I made a poster of the words that I collected from January and February online. This would go along with the pyramid piece because part of it derives from the same set of data.
I'm not set on the colors. Thoughts?
I came up with a quick blurb which is a couple of paragraphs at the bottom of the poster. I will post it below because I think it could use some editing:

Hello, Montserrat. For two weeks I followed your actions online. I noted your every word. I plotted each letter and sentence. I dated and organized your thoughts and comments. Finally, I created these charts with the information that I gathered. How we project ourselves on the internet can say a lot about our identity. The choice of words can also alter the ways in which we talk with our “friends,” whether in the real or digital world.

This poster compares two sets of data: the first derives from the second week of January and the second takes its cues from the second week of February. I gathered all of the words from a facebook newsfeed of the Montserrat network, limited to my “friends.” This list of people contains only those who either went to Montserrat, or presently study here. I threw out words such as “if” and “you.” I only included those words that were commonly used in both January and February. I systematically deleted any word with less than three overall mentions and I placed greatest importance on the most popular words. The height of each structure represents the number of times the word was used in a day, whereas the depth corresponds to the number of people who used the word. Sometimes one person would repeat a word many times throughout a day. Once in a while, many of us said the same thing all at once.
I numbered each word (1-6) in order of most occurances to least.

Everything that we post on social media becomes public property. Although our words might project our thoughts and feelings, they no longer belong to us. Perhaps digital communication is changing the ways in which we interact. Whether our language online is a shout into the digital abyss or form of public communication to a community of “friends,” what do our words really mean and what can they tell us about ourselves?

Mailings and Mappings

I started to piece together another conversation that I mapped out. I took the photos this week and I'm hoping to make it similar to the last one that I made. I printed a mock-up of the first one.

I mailed out all of the postcards that I letterpressed:


Choosing the same group of people whose words I studied in January, I categorized and grouped the frequency of their words in the same week in February. They are below. The numbers are the dates on which the words were said. I hope to create a comparison between the words of both months.

Feb 2
shit – 2 times, 1 person

19

home – 2 times, 1 person

God – 3 times, 1 person

year – 2 times one person

day – 5 times, 5 people

miss – 2 people, 2 times

eighty-eight keys – 2 times, 1 person

forever – 2 times, 2 people

work – 4 times, 3 people

new – 2 times, 2 people

great – 2 times, 1 person

18

night – 4 times, 3 people

hour – 5 time, 1 person

people – 3 times by 2 people

ms-13 documentary – 2 times, 2 people

email – 2 times, 1 person

love – 2 times, 2 people

truck – 2 times, 2 people

teenage dream – 2 times, 2 people

eye – 2 people, 2 times

nothing – 2 times, 1 person

home – 3 times, 2 people

mom – 2 people, 2 times

art – 3 people, 3 times

birthday – 2 people, 2 times

hot – 2 times, 2 people

food- 2 people 2 times

great- 2 people 2 times

sleep – 2 times, 2 people

17

what a man – 3 times, 1 person ( man, again by one person)

day – 3 times, 3 people

vote – 2 people 2 times

blog – 2 people, 2 times

birthday – 3 people, 3 times

love – 4 times, 4 people

home – 2 times, 1 person

girl – 2 people, 2 times

work – 4 times, 3 people

new- 4 times, 2 people

guy – 2 times, 2 people

painting – 2 times, 2 people

often – 3 times, 1 person

16

science – 2 times, 2 people

sleep – 2 times, 2 people

class – 2 times, 2 people

tummy – 2 times, 1 person

shit – 2 times, 1 person

day – 4 times, 4 people

show – 2 times, 2 people

work – 2 times, 2 people

beverly, 2 people, 2 times

new – 2 times, 2 people

great – 3 people, 3 times

15

week – 2 times, 2 people

numbers – 3 times, 2 people

birthday – 2 times, 2 people

love – 2 times, 2 people

day – 2 times, 2 people

work – 2 people, 2 times

beverly, 2 people, 2 times

song – 2 people, 2 times

14

pizza- 4 times, 1 person

valentines - 13 times, 11 people

please – 5 times, 2 people

yes – 2 times, 1 person

day – 16 times, 13 people

show - 2 people, 2 times

movie – 2 times, 2 people

work – 2 people, 2 times

new - 4 people, 4 times

song – 1 person, 2 times

birthday – 6 people, 6 times

sleep – 2 times, 2 people

13

girl – 2 people, 2 times

wine – 2 people, 2 times

New York – 3 times, 1 person

show – 2 times, 1 person

love – 2 times, 2 people

tiger style – 2 times, 1 person

new – 3 times, 3 people

shit – 2 times, 2 people

progress: conversations, postcards, words

This image is the conversation map that I've been working on, edited with the words and phrases in small type along the bottom strip. Other methods of incorporating text did not work out as planned. I'd like to print this out this week, since I will have a chance to drymount this weekend.

I have started mailing out my postcards along with instructions / a thank you note.
I'm looking for 6 more people from around the country to participate.

I started looking back at how I researched my facebook words project. Since my last project's research looked at the 3rd week of January, I decided to pull and catalog and count all of the words from the 3rd week of February from the same people. I'm about halfway through doing this. I'd like to get a set of magnetic strips and a sheet of metal this weekend to place the forms more easily to the wall.

charting

I created a gridded chart system on vellum that will allow me to easily transfer my graph forms to any wall without losing their positions. I mounted every piece to the wall and now I am thinking about possible ways to do the lettering, title, and description - string, cut-out letters, vinyl?

"conversation piece"

I'm trying to put together some sort of 2D poster or supplemental graph to go alongside my sculptural graph that maps out a conversation.
I started mapping things out and working with images in photoshop and illustrator. This is a rough concept of how I might want it to look:

i39.tinypic.com/ziowfn.jpg

slow communication postcards // forms for 3D graph

I still have some work to do on my postcards, but I am very pleased with the way that they are turning out so far. I screenprinted one side and finished letterpressing the other side today.
I like that it still looks like an email, but I changed my color palette to create a much more "handmade" feeling and let the woodgrain show through.

The following photos show my progress on the words infographic -







I will continue to create these forms. I have about 20 more to make for the data I have collected, but almost all of them are the smallest of the pyramids.
I am thinking that I will attach them to chipboard at the bases so that they will mount on the wall more easily. I'm also still thinking about colors, but I sort of like the contrast between the subject matter (digital communication) and the natural grain of the physical paper fibers.