Study Task 7 : Peer reveiw

This peer review made me realise that I need start doing more work, as I did not have much to present especially in the likes of my visual journal. I need to expand my breadth of research and start making a more in depth plan for my practical investigation.

Study Task 6 : Development

David Lemm

I looked into the work of David Lemm's, because I felt that the abstract and symbolic nature of his illustrations would correlate well with the semiotic theories I have been researching in relation to visual communication. 

"Recently I’ve been exploring ideas relating to knowledge communication, specifically maps/diagrams, and our assumptions of truth based on abstract, symbolic representations of reality."

"I was interested in exploring the idea that maps fundamentally describe how we navigate the world through graphic abstraction and also how markings in the land can influence graphic notation or vice versa."

The use of symbolism in these illustrations, is very abstracted and simplified, and therefore according to Pierce and Saussure would be 'unmotivated' (Crow, 2016). The communication of Lemm's illustration would therefore ‘rely exclusively on the reader’s having learned the connection between the sign and its meaning’ (Crow, 2016). This is true of what Lemm comments of his own work, stating that he aims to explore 'knowledge communication' (Mathias, 2015.) and 'symbolic representations of reality' (Mathias, 2015). 

Mathias. (2015). Navigating the World through graphic abstraction : David Lemm. Available: https://intoshallowdepths.com/2015/08/05/navigating-the-world-through-graphic-abstraction-david-lemm/. Last accessed 19/04/17.

'Abstraction', Ep1 : Christopher Niemann

I found a series on Netflix looking at abstraction in relation to different art practices. The first episode looking at the work of illustrator Christopher Niemann gave a really interesting insight into how abstraction is used in illustration to aid the communication of ideas. 

KEY QUOTES & IDEAS

“Abstraction for me is this idea of getting rid of everything that is not essential to making a point”

“It’s the restriction with lego, the restriction of very low resolution, it’s almost like a three dimensional pixel drawing”

 An icon of an icon : ‘making the butterfly just a blue square makes absolutely no sense, unless you know the original” 

“For me this style is based on culture, on shared experiences. This is more interesting than coming up with a visionary new way of speaking that people then have to decipher”

His work really links to the semiotic theory (Pierce and Saussure) of signs only being understood through learnt conventions, which gain according to our background, cultural understanding etc. 

‘In the best moments, what happens is that design celebrates the world. When I look at a piece of art that references my fears, my anxieties, my hopes and say there was this one drawing that made realise that I’m alive or that I love other people or that I’m afraid’ - love this quote!