Reflective Summary 1 - Research & Theory

When thinking about what I wanted to look into for COP3, I thought back on modules I’ve enjoyed during my time at Uni so far. In First Year we did a task where we had to take an object, draw it in a very representative form and then begin to reduce it down to the simplest we could get it.  Something clicked that day and I realised how much I love reductive, shape-based imagery. I started this module by taking out a few books from the library on symbols and semiotics. Semiotics is a topic I feel as though I should have already looked at throughout my practice at some point as I often work in shape now. I’d never actually got around to it until COP3.  I feel as though this is definitely the right thing for me to be exploring.

Initially, I was thinking about the process of simplification and whether the meaning that an image conveys is affected when the visual perception of it has been simplified. Furthermore, I wanted to explore where the limit was. At what point does this sign no longer represent what it initially did? When has the process been pushed too far? I thought for the practical element I could do something similar to the aforementioned task, repeatedly draw something to find the answers to these questions. After having a group tutorial, I realised this idea probably wasn’t very original.

I looked at artist Warja Lavater’s books- which tell stories in simple shapes- and talked about how it’s interesting that you perceive certain things about the character (dot) due to the placement of it amongst the other elements within the scene. This sparked more ideas on what I could look at and I eventually came to the idea of creating a book of symbols that represent something complex in a simple form. I then carried out lots of research into visualisation, simplicity, complexity etc. but the most useful book I came across was John Maeda’s ‘Laws of Simplicity.’ (2006). In this book he talks about the many laws of simplicity and how to achieve it within design and it daily life.

I felt a lot better about writing the essay this year. Admittedly in the past I haven’t taken out many books or read through them properly, but this year due to it being a topic I was interested in, I read a lot and I read through thoroughly to better understand the text and be able to use quotes more effectively within my essay.