The Visual Archive

Critical Thinking and Making — Fall  2024

WEEK 3 | Archive ⇄ Order Experiment 1: Bilderatlas

The records (images) of your archive will tell a story. How does the order/arrangement of visuals impact the narrative you are intending to convey?
   This week, we will explore ways to arrange visual material and playfully implement elements & principles of visual language.


→ Asynchronous
Read, Watch, Write

Briefing:
Experiment 1: Bilderatlas.
Find it on vimeo—link and passw on Canvas.

Videos:
Lorna Simpson, Studio Visit @TATE
Batia Suter, Parallel Encyclopedia

Article:
Its Nice That, Design, Revolt, Rainbow: the pioneering work of graphic designer Willy Fleckhaus

Readings:
1. This helps with your homework for next week:
Koren, Leonard: Arranging Things, pp. 41-47

2. This helps to think about your research inquiry:
Colomina & Wigley: Are We Human, chapter 1


Prepare
Experiment 1 — Bilderatlas
Create 3 plates of a speculative atlas about your research topic:

  1. Use all 16 images—your 12 images (you can change these if you need to) + 4 images “stolen” from peers—on each panel.
  2. Take time to study the images and arrange them inspired by aspects of your research inquiry. You can also revisit the instructions everyone submitted this week. Only rule: you have to come up with three completely different ways of laying them out.
  3. Go back to your research inquiry (or area of interest) and give a title to each plate.
  4. Write one sentence about your process for each plate.
  5. Both title and process should not be part of the plate.
  6. You can use any software or analog process for this assignment.
  7. Submission/ bring to class:
    3 plates, each on a tabloid size paper (11 x 17 inches)
Examples of plate layout. Your plates should look entirely different!
Aby Warburg, Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, Re-created for the exhibition at HKW, Berlin, 2020
Willy Fleckhaus, twen, 1962
Batia Suter talks about her process to compile “Parallel Encyclopedia #2” — the effect of combining images in unexpected ways.

Willy Fleckhaus
Article on It’s Nice That
Spreads on Pinterest

Aby Warburg
About the Mnemosyne Atlas (The Warburg Institute)

Lorna Simpson
Lorna Simpson Studio
Studio Visit @TATE

Additional Introduction to the grid:
→ Ellen Lupton explains the history and usage of the grid
→ An Introduction to Grids and How-to by Andrew Maher

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