Yesterday, I attended the following sessions, in addition to the morning keynote, at the #DLFforum in Milwaukee and gave my lightning talk about OFFSET.
Here are photos of my handwritten notes from the sessions.
sound
Research: The Shape of Poetry: A Typographic Exploration of Poetry and Synesthesia (2015) by Boliang Chen
Research“the transmission history of poetry depends upon visual forms”
— Boliang Chen
Title: The Shape of Poetry: A Typographic Exploration of Poetry and Synesthesia
Author(s): Boliang Chen
Journal/Publisher: a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Design
Year: 2015
Pages: N/A
Source: ProQuest
Notes: Design MFA candidate Boliang Chen explores the relationship between the typographic presentation of poetry and synesthesia in order to see how graphic designers might produce emotional reactions to poetry. Through research and practical application, Chen hypothesizes that a synesthetic typographical design could make poetry, like Shakespeare’s Sonnets, more accessible to contemporary readers. This thesis might provide a good foundation for making a case that poetry broadsides, through their design and tactility, offer readers a different experience of a poem than a book, literary magazine, or online publication. I might ask myself whether or not the poetry broadside, particularly those with a high appeal to the physical experience (paper texture, letterpress embossing, etc.), appeals more to a synesthetic experience of the poem than other reading formats. I very much enjoyed reading through this thesis, and I find that the ideas here are really fascinating, even if I feel that some of its leanings toward visual poetry might detract from the experience of the craft of the language. Questions I still have as I walk away from this reading are:
- How might some of these design elements be distracting for some readers? Could some of this typographic design be heavy handed?
- Does the use of highly stylized typographic design draw the text more toward graphic art rather than poetic art? Is there a difference? Should we make this disntinction?
- Can synesthesia be triggered outside of the typographic elements? (My thought is yes, it can be and is.) How does typographically triggered synesthesia really enhance the poem? Does it provide a soundtrack equivalent to what the poet intended to be orchestrated, or is it like playing new music over an old film? Should the poet’s intention be the graphic designer’s goal?
These are all productive conversations to have with myself, and I appreciate Chen’s help in engineering this line of inquiry for my project. I’ve included some screenshots from the thesis, but otherwise this thesis is available through ProQuest databases.
pg. 5
pg. 7
pg. 16
“One study indicates that synesthesia is seven times as common in creative people as in the general population.”
“‘And your very flesh shall be a great poem.’— Walt Whitman”
pg. 17
pg. 19
“The origins of poetry may well reside in sound and song. But the transmission history of poetry depends upon visual forms.”
pg. 21
“Orientation is…[a] graphic code that does not derive from or lend itself to vocal rendering. But vocal analogy maps onto the visualization does not simply impose an arbitrary relation of sound to sight.”
pg. 22
Three reading models: word shape, the serial letter recognition model, and the parallel letter recognition model
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Chen then goes on to demonstrate his research into synesthetic experiences and typographic practices through several examples. He sets Shakespeare’s Sonnets in various ways. One example appears below.
pg. 33–34
Offset 