From the class Integrative Studio 1 · Fall 2019
The book that I made for this project was laser cut out of acrylic. I made a book with surface-level information about both Dae and myself. Dae made a book about the two of us but on a deeper level.
Two Books:
Shadow Book
Hexaflexagon Book
Dae and I each have taken responsibility for one book respectively. I will be working on the Shadow Book
The Shadow book will be made of laser-cut acrylic and a secondary material yet to be determined.
The acrylic will have words and images cut out of it so that when light passes through the pages they act as a stencil, projecting a shadow of the page. In between each acrylic page will be a blank filler page so that the next page cannot be seen through the holes of the previous one.
The book will have 8 pages.
4 pages about myself.
4 pages about Dae.
The pages will be organized like this
1- A side profile of the face.
2- Past.
3- Present.
4- Future.
To gather information about Dae I’ve been interviewing him face to face, asking him questions and recording everything in a document.
For this project, Dae and I chose to make 2 books.
My end of the project consisted of one laser-cut acrylic book.
The final product, however, has manifested differently than the original concept.
Instead of describing our pasts presents and futures we decided to make mine a strictly non-personal description of ourselves while Dae’s was the strictly personal one. Mine was something akin to an official permanent record or description. The material of acrylic also highlights that permanence because once something is cut into it you cant fill it back up without obvious tampering with the object. My book also had 2 physical distinctions from what was originally planned. I chose not to put a filler page between every page because the hole- punch see-through design created a great effect of depth. The alternation of colored acrylics, black and then white, adds to this. The black pages all describe Dae while the white pages describe me. The second change is that I chose to top bind instead of side bind the book.
During the process of making the book, a few issues were run into. The first pass on the laser cutter did not cut all the way through the acrylic so I had to run the machine again. The second pass on the machine cut most of the subject matter out but not all of it. At this point, I had run out of time in my session and had nothing that I was proud of finished. I immediately booked the next session for 45 minutes later until the end of the day. Since the first cut did not work I had to buy a new piece of acrylic. The shop was out of black material so instead, I bought white. In my opinion, white and black alternating looks way better visually. During my second session, I cut both pieces at half the speed with twice the power. This cut through the material fully but slightly fused the lettering to the piece, requiring me to poke each piece out by hand. The higher heat also caused pieces with more text to warp slightly and the backs of the acrylic to discolor. Next time I think I will be better off going with the lower power and more passes with the laser.
On page 68 in the bottom left paragraph, Wendy Doniger says “Some stories begin and end with the relatively simple assumption that the mask is false in the face underneath it real.”
I disagree with this quote because I do not believe human personas are this simple. I believe they are layered and complex and can not be easily defined as fabricated nor real.
Soon after the above quote Wendy Doniger counters herself by saying “Others turn this assumption on its head and argue that the mask is what is true the faces underneath it is false.”
I agree more so with this quote. I believe it is one possible more complex reality of a persona and secret identity clashing and phasing into each other making it hard to tell which is the true persona.
Masks can be freeing and reveal truer parts of yourself by relieving your secret identity of any responsibility for your actions whilst wearing a mask. This, however, complicates whether your true self is the masked persona, the unmasked secret identity or somewhere in between. These concepts are hard to grasp and even harder to define as an individual.
My favorite example of this is Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Is he the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, Bruce Wayne?
Or is he the caped crusader, Batman?
This is a concept that not only readers have struggled with and debated upon but as has the character himself. Personally, I believe his true identity lies between the two. During the day he dumbs down and acts extravagantly to dissuade from people as seeing him as The Bat. During the night he embodies a symbol of justice and never breaks his strict code. Between these two activities, Bruce/Bats spends his time without a cowl but in costume within the confines of the Bat Cave. This is where I believe his true self reveals itself, among his closest family and friends. No need to be lavish, no need to be intimidating.
This mask is so serious in function and is made out of metal but to me looks so comical, displaying what looks like a duck and I simply adore this contrast.
Similarly, this mask also evokes a comedic vibe. It is a knights helm but displays what looks like a chicken’s face. If I were a knight I would not want to be called chicken whilst riding into battle. However, it is exactly this irony that brings me to love this helm. It’s so ridiculous!
Lastly, this mask looks so sleek, aerodynamic, and high speed! I feel like if I were to don this helmet I could run at the speed of sound (and look good whilst doing it too!).
Dae and I do not want to make a traditional book and have done many thought experiments with different materials that we could use or apply to make something creative.
Some ideas that we have included but are not limited to:
The first three pictures here were taken in front of the projector at an angle where the additive white light scatters into all of its respective wavelengths into the camera causing the rainbow effect. The fourth picture was taken with me behind a piece of paper and a light shining at the paper behind me.
These pictures of Dae and Taylor were taken the same way the pictures of myself were taken in front of the projector.
Copied from my Learning Portfolio: PROJECT 2: Peer to Peer (October 2, 2019).