It’s rare that I usually just get to play around with materials these days, as I am most often creating for a specific client, or at least, a specific purpose. School was a great place to explore crazy ideas and materials, and I have plans to bring some of that experimental spirit back to my current work. Because life is just too short to WORK all the time…sometimes your soul needs to PLAY.
When I took Experimental Bookmaking, one of my assignments was to design a Fan Book that described me. Loosely defined, a Fan Book has multiple pages that all originate from one axis point.
In concepting my project, I knew I wanted to use found materials from my apartment, things that were lying around that could be used to define me and what I stood for, things that intersected my life at that specific point in time. Besides the ‘symbolic side’ of found objects, I also liked the idea of recycling and being frugal and inventive with stuff that I already had on hand (very “me”).
I used a simple nut and bolt I had in my toolbox as my axis point:
I mounted photocopies of baby pictures, receipts, bills, cereal boxes, awards, certificates, packaging, church bulletins, calendar pages, and magazine clippings. Then, I used large stencils to cut out the letters of my first and last names.
On each individual letter, I used labeling tape to create the lyrics from the Edie Brickell’s song “What I Am“, which has always been a song that strikes a chord in me.
An interesting observation was made by one of my classmates. Knowing the song, she caught herself singing along inside her head as she looked through the pages of my book. She told me that she enjoyed my project because it inspired more sensory stimulation than a book usually does…it was more engaging because it involved the world of the mind by including a song. To this day, it remains one of my favorite projects in terms of the multiple interpretations it inspired.
