SynaesScape -text in the book

Click on the images below to enlarge them and read the text written for my book. The text in the introduction itself gives details on the narrative style I used in the book, and why.

SynaeScope – REV project 3

My intention with these photographic explorations is to suggest the notion of heightened sensory feedback – the world as perceived by the synaesthete is richer and more intense. All the original images feature reflection, illumination, connectivity – this is their underlying theme. My intention is to convey something of the idea that the familiar scenes we perceive that play out in an ordinary way, have actually the potential for another way of seeing and perceiving – an altered perspective. In synaesthesia there is a crossing over from one sensation to another and also a literal crossing over that occurs from one brain area to another. MRI is one way to show the sensory and higher, or associative,  brain areas that cross over and underlie in synaesthesia. The element of the MRI comes into play subtly in the how the images are created and finished.  This is primarily done through the colours and abstraction of the shapes which also serve to communicate something of the heightened more intense sensory awareness of the synaesthete. The idea is to allude to the visualising that these brain mapping technologies provide. The intent is to express how what is before us is not always reflected back in the same and expected way to every individual – again looking at altered perceptions in the synaesthestes reality.  

SynaeSence - REV project 1

The idea for the visual approach to this work stems from the abstract nature of synaesthesia. In it I am not trying to create an image of synaesthesia in this piece, but attempting to express it in more abstract terms. The piece is a map of the mind of sorts - the senses each have an area in the white matter and are populated with colours allocated for each sense. I have assigned red to sight, blue to hearing, green to touch, yellow to smell and orange to taste.  The main colour for the sense dominates each pin stack but the other sense colours have also mingled in and crossed over. I have also included 2 areas that are not senses themselves - memory and emotion - but which nonetheless are tied in with our perceptions of the sensory world - in the way a smell can immediaely trigger memory and also the way in which synaesthetes have another ‘hook’ to hang memory from. Both memory and emotion are expressed with a dominance of silver, reflective of that which surrounds them. The final communication layer on this piece is the threading together of the pinstacks across the sensory zones to show the sensory and functional cross wiring of the synaesthetes brain.

See the blog posting on August 24 2011 for more on SynaeSence.

Done... but not Quiet dusted

I'm feeling great relief tonight - the book is printed and looking good.  There was a bit of a technical hiccup with one section yesterday, which needed to be re printed today, so this project continues to work me to my limit, but I am pleased with how its come together and amazed too at how bulky it seems. I feel justified in my late nights of writing and designing when I hold it in my hands.  It's been an absolutely insane couple of months getting it off the ground. I feel utterly shattered but seeing it printed and having done the die cutting and collating tonight I'm feeling pretty pleased with what I have achieved. As is always the case for me there are elements that I am less sure about visually and that I know I could have developed further but that is always part of my experience in design and in this instance I am far more accepting of those elements having surrendered this project to personal voice.  It's miles from where I started with the visual development at the beginning of REV and I suppose thats a good thing although I do have some regrets at the amount of time lost in the early stages having spent so much time grappling with After Effects.  In any case I am now the proud owner of a 100 page book. Although it won't officially be a book until I get it bound tomorrow... and that will be the moment I can really breath a sigh of relief... hopefully!

I'm photographing it in the college on Monday so that I'll have a better chance of some decent shots of the acetate layers, die cuts and envelope pages and the reflection page too  - which I really like.  Looking forward to getting it up here on the blog! Finally! And looking forward too to getting some time back with my family.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

I've just finished the design and layout of my book. I've now got to artwork it to get it ready to output to print - more complicated than it sounds as there are lots of bits to it across different papers and sizes. I definitely need a good nights sleep before tackling that. I'm aiming to get it output on Tuesday and then I've Wednesday night to collate, do the die cutting and folding and then get it into the binder on Thursday morning so as to be ready to photograph on Monday. I'm struggling to remember when I have been so wrecked...  the lack of sleep has reached new levels in the birthing of this book. I'm feeling envy for those who have found REV so enjoyable.. for me it has been an exhausting battle against time - and I'm right down to the wire with it. Don't know why I'm posting this... just so relieved that the designing is done and that soon I will have time to have another waking thought.

Judging a Book by its' Cover

Hooray! The paper for my book cover arrived today all the way from California. Its thermochromic so it reacts to the heat of your hands as you hold and handle the book. When its not reacting to heat its a lovely dense gloss black. I've set it carefully aside and am hoping that it survives the book finishing process intact! I'm starting to get a bit anxious about the binding now because there are so many elements to the book that I will not be able to see working until its bound  -  I hope I won't have any disappointments!

I've been into the binders yesterday to run it all by him. Unfortunatley given the cost of this paper and that its not readily replaceable he's not happy to bind it as a full wrap cover as I'd intended - the pressure on the cover as its bound may damage  the liquid crystals, so I'll be just applying it to the cover board afterwards but I think this will still work OK... hope so!  I'm enjoying its pristine loveliness for now!

REV E-JOURNAL 3 Voicethread September 2011