A New Era of Theory

Today we went into the main studio for a briefing on the theory unit called 'Investigative Study'. With the option of going for (in simplified terms) a little essay and a big final project or a big essay and little final project, I originally set off believing that the smaller essay would have been better for me. After the talk however and remembering that on the essay for last year I discovered some key texts within the last few days, I've since swayed to doing a larger essay.

The major relation to the future is the decision for doing a further MA or going into employment. I quite like exploring the academia behind the things we're learning and the relevance of it all. I'd love to immerse into the nitty-gritty of it all, learn the theorists and movements within culture and society that pinpoint to where we are now and then possibly where we may be going or what will be needed for where we're going.

I put forward my plan of researching the relativity of handwriting in today's technological culture (a title that's still very shaky) and it went down well with Kirsten. As well as being able to get into cognitive linguistics and a bit of graphology this would set me up well with solid research for when the FMP comes around. There's also a joint exercise with Dublin Arts Uni due to happen at which the editor of eye magazine (quick googlewhack: John L. Walters?) so that'd be incredible to present something and looking at topmost outcomes, get it published.

I've got stuck into my copy of 'While You're Reading' by Gerard Unger. It's s brilliant starting book as it's simple (so far) and written from the same perspective (Unger is a designer with an interest in typography) so it's easily digestable. I also tried to read a bit of 'The Stroke: Theory of Writing' by Gerrit Noordzij and instantly fell over because of not being able to understand his terminology. Specifically, "translation" and "expansion" and their relation to "running" and "interrupted". But well, still needs more time put it to it I guess. I read a bit more of 'Lead Between the Lines' also. It documents the initial stages of research projects revolving around typography. Namely Tao Lin's stood out — 'Can text messaging be considered as a form of communication revealing social patterns within speech?' because of it's relation to my first essay. Also read Despina Kannaourou's 'Can the shapes of the Roman alphabet illustrate what they allowed to happen in the first place?' and it's a nice thought to think of a more accessible phonetics representation using the characters we have to better instruct upon dialect variances with the english tongue. It's a similar thing to what my FMP could be but more about speech than the written elements I've been thinking of.

Plan-wise I'm compiling a list of possible routes and books for this so I can get some reading done before we have to decide on which route we're taking and close off some options that are already dead or worked to death. I'm sure I'll update with my list soon.

Lovelove.