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EVOKING MEANING:
FROM TANGIBLE OBJECTS TO DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
by
Lenny C. Salas Moreno
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Master of Fine Arts
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL
May 2013
ii
Copyright by Lenny C. Salas Moreno 2013
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my husband, Anthony Moreno, for his creative
input, encouragement, and love. I would also like to thank Tere Moreno. Without their support,
I would not have been able to pursue my master’s degree. I would like to thank my thesis
committee for their guidance. I would also like to thank my family for instilling in me the
importance of an education.
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ABSTRACT
Author: Lenny C. Salas Moreno
Title: Evoking Meaning: From Tangible Objects to Digital Experience
Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Thesis Advisor: Professor Linda Johnson
Degree: Master of Fine Arts
Year: 2013
The intent of this thesis is to focus on evocative objects to explore what is lost in the
transition from tangible to digital and how personal meaning is altered by digitalization. “We are
witnessing the sudden dematerialization of our arts and entertainment, their transfer from unique
artifacts to universal on-demand screen availability.”1 As we replace objects like photographs,
books and music CDs with intangible digital versions, social and physical experiences get
reconfigured. With more time being spent on-line, there is a growing emphasis on exchanging
digital content and the network of self-projections shared virtually. As we continue towards an
increasing digital environment, understanding emerging socio-cultural practices can provide
insight into new directions for graphic design.
1 Sven Birkerts, “The Room & the Elephant,” Los Angeles Review of Books, accessed June 7, 2011. http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/post/6279168625/the-room-and-the-elephant
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EVOKING MEANING: FROM TANGIBLE OBJECTS TO DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vii
Exploration...................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Evocative Objects ................................................................................................................... 2 Evoking Personal Meaning Through Printed Photographs ..................................................... 3 Evoking Personal Meaning Through Books............................................................................ 4 Evoking Personal Meaning Through Recorded Music............................................................ 5 From Tangible to Digital: How Personal Meaning Is Altered by Digitalization ........................ 7 The Complexities of Archiving Evocative Digital Content ..................................................... 10 New Patterns of Networked Sociability Emerge ................................................................... 10 The Blurring of Public and Private Spheres .......................................................................... 12 Graphic Design’s Evolving Practice and How Designers Respond to Digitalization............. 13 Immersive Experience .......................................................................................................... 15 Novel Types of Social Interaction ......................................................................................... 17 Moving Beyond Two-Dimensional Graphic Design............................................................... 17
Application Process ...................................................................................................................... 19 Solo Exhibition ...................................................................................................................... 19 Flipping Through the Stacks ................................................................................................. 23 Tangible Portraits .................................................................................................................. 25 Hyped Identity ....................................................................................................................... 27 Stories on Paper ................................................................................................................... 28
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 32
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 34
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FIGURES
Figure 1. Chris Milk and Arcade Fire, Summer Into Dust, immersive experience .......................16
Figure 2. Arabeschi di Latte, It Takes Two to Tango, interactive performance ...........................17
Figure 3. Sarah Illenberger, Parade, Hermes/Kadewe, retail window display.............................18
Figure 4. Evoking Meaning, thesis exhibition title wall graphics and entry wall graphics .......... 21
Figure 5. Evoking Meaning, close-up pictures of title wall graphics and entry wall graphics ..... 21
Figure 6. Flipping Through the Stacks, video, surrounding objects and wall graphic .................23
Figure 7. Flipping Through the Stacks, video, participatory sticker table and listening station....24
Figure 8. Flipping Through the Stacks, listening station and participatory stickers .....................24
Figure 9. Tangible Portraits, installation ......................................................................................26
Figure 10. Tangible Portraits, viewer interaction ..........................................................................26
Figure 11. Hyped Identity, animation ............................................................................................27
Figure 12. Hyped Identity, animation still frames..........................................................................28
Figure 13. Stories on Paper, viewer interaction............................................................................30
Figure 14. Stories on Paper, e-Book, surrounding objects and wall graphic ................................31
Figure 15. Stories on Paper, e-Book close-ups of three pages ....................................................31
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EXPLORATION
Introduction
The relationship between humans and objects has been researched by many disciplines,
including anthropology, philosophy, psychology, product design, and the social sciences.
Influential writers Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, and Ernest Dichter theorized about the
subject. Early research on the human-object relation was through an anthropological approach in
which artifacts were used to learn about past civilizations. After the Industrial Revolution, interest
in studying how people relate to objects grew from a desire to understand the consumer society
we had become. Over the decades, theories have continued to evolve. There are psychoanalytic,
Marxist, and semiotic approaches, among others, that theorize about people’s attachment to
things. Past research shows that people become attached to a large range of objects, from
heirlooms passed down from one generation to another, to objects of sentimental value such as
gifts and souvenirs, to objects people use to evoke memories or support lifestyles.
As a growing number of tangible evocative possessions disappear into the digital realm,
the opportunity arises for new explorations into how society is affected by this digital
transformation. In particular, the scope of this research will focus on three evocative media
objects currently in transition from tangible to digital: books, photographs, and recorded music.
These objects were selected for their mnemonic qualities and for their relation to graphic design. I
will explore how each of these objects is used to evoke personal meaning and how that meaning
is altered by digitalization. This research includes insight from various disciplines, including
different branches of design, the social sciences, and the humanities.
Encouraged by the recent changes in communication technologies, and a consequent renewed interest by the humanities in the material conditions in which visible language
exists, designers have opened a discourse with such disciplines as psychology,
2
sociology, art, literature, cultural studies, history, materials science and engineering.2
This research stems from a desire to understand what is lost in the transition from tangible to
digital, to discover what value is added, and most importantly, to determine what new social
patterns emerge and how graphic design can create more tactile and emotional experiences in
a pervasive digital environment.
Evocative Objects
Objects surpass their functional objective and become evocative because meaning is
attached to and received through them. In Csikszenthmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton’s research on
person-object transactions for their book The Meaning of Things, they conclude that: “the
significance of things is realized in a process of actively cultivating a world of meanings, which
both reflect and help create the ultimate goals of one’s existence.”3 The tangible objects people
choose to keep as evocative objects are usually linked to the formation of identity because they
are used to express, construct, and maintain a self-concept. From infancy, we learn of the world
around us through the people and use of objects in our environment. For example, in Western
culture, it is a common practice for parents to hang a mobile over an infant’s crib. “Setting a
mobile in motion and seeing it dance at the touch of the fingers might well be the infant’s earliest
experience of selfhood.”4
Objects are also evocative because they are involved in every aspect of life and,
therefore, become part of our daily rituals. Pierre Bourdieu’s observations in Outline of a Theory
of Practice indicate how:
individuals grow up to become with varying degrees typically members of a society. This happens in most cases, not through formal education, but because they are inculcated into the general habits and dispositions of that society through the way they interact in their everyday practices with the order that is already prefigured in the objects they find around them.5
2 Steven McCarthy and Cristina Melibeu de Almeida, “Self-Authored Graphic Design: A Strategy for Integrative Studies,” Journal of Aesthetic Education 36 (Fall), 2002,110. 3 Mihaly, Csikszentmihalyi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 11. 4 Ibid., 90. 5 Daniel Miller, Stuff, (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2010), 134.
3
A philosopher and sociologist, Jean Baudrillard also wrote extensively on objects and the social
practices that evolve from their use. In1968, Baudrillard wrote in The System of Objects that
objects fall under different categories of commodities for a consumer society. He referred to
objects whose intended function is abstracted by symbolic meaning as being “marginal objects.”
However, in his later work, Revenge of the Crystal, Baudrillard contradicts his earlier philosophy
and relates the modern object to our understanding of such abstract concepts as time:
[o]bjects not only help us to master the world, by their insertion into instrumental series; they also help us, by their insertion into mental series, to master time, making it discontinuous and organizing it in the same way as habits, submitting it to the very constraints of association which govern the arrangement of space.6
Evoking Personal Meaning Through Printed Photographs
Photography, although initially conceived to aid illustrators in creating more realistic
etched drawings, subsequently revealed itself as a powerful way to evoke human experience and
emotion. Historically, photographs have been of great importance to help preserve images of the
past for future generations. Personal printed photographs have been kept as cherished objects
and, in most households, are considered irreplaceable. In addition, personal photography can be
used as an autobiographical tool because photos freeze frame moments in our lives and help us
take notice of the changes brought on by the passage of time. The difference between the printed
photographs and other tangible evocative objects is that their intended function is not abstracted
by the symbolic meaning they are imbued with. “Photographs belong to that class of objects used
specifically to remember, rather than being objects around which remembrance accrues through
contextual association (although they become this as well).”7
Photographs are considered affective for their mnemonic qualities. Often, the memories
that seem most vivid in our mind are linked to a specific photograph. The printed photograph
gives materiality to memories by making them visible and tangible. The way people choose to
keep and display printed photos is also significant to the way they are used to evoke memory.
6 Jean Baudrillard, Revenge of the Crystal: Selected Writings on the Modern Object and Its Destiny, 1968-1983. (London, UK: Pluto Press, 1990), 49. 7 Elizabeth Edwards, “Photographs as Objects of Memory” in The Object Reader edited by Fiona Candlin and Raiford Guins, 331-342. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2009) 332.
4
“Memory making is not something that occurs strictly in isolation, nor is it confined to the inner
workings of the mind. Memories are also given form and managed socially.”8 In the family, there
is usually one person who predominantly takes on the role of home curator, selecting the pictures
that are printed, framed, exhibited, and kept in albums. The pictures that are chosen are usually
the ones that best reflect that person’s ideals of the family and evoke important connections to
others. “The attachment of meaning changes with various stages of taking pictures, identifying
them, ordering them, turning them into a narrative, and remembering them at a larger stage.”9
Another reason printed photographs are an evocative possession is because they transmit the
essence of deceased loved ones. For centuries, printed photographs have been kept in
commemoration of past relatives, creating a link between generations and a larger sense
of family.
Evoking Personal Meaning Through Books
The role of books in society is predominantly for disseminating and preserving
knowledge: “The book, a graphic record of human speech, so manufactured as to be easily
portable and primarily intended to be a vehicle of public communication.”10 The codex was the
first bound multi-page format. Invented in the third century, by the fifth century, the codex had
replaced the previously used papyrus scroll. The codex provided easier readability and better
reproduction. Book formats continued to evolve through time and with technology, from large
format to pocket paperback to today’s audio and e-books. Readers of books have also changed.
Early on, reading was a public event. Very few people were literate; therefore, books were read
aloud by one person in front of a gathered group. Monks were the first to experiment with private
silent reading. By the nineteenth century, the invention of moveable type and the printing press
enabled the mass production of books. As a result, books became more affordable, more people
became literate, and the practice of reading transitioned into private silent reading.
8 Abigail Sellen and Alex Taylor, “Issue 2–Memory” in Things We’ve Learnt About series, (Redmond, WA: Microsoft Research, Socio-Digital Systems, 2012), 51. 9 Jose van Dijck, Mediated Memories in the Digital Age. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2007),155. 10 Howard W.Winger, “Historical Perspectives on the Role of the Book in Society,” The Library Quarterly 25, no.4, 1955, 293.
5
Initially, book collecting was for bibliophile societies and scholars who sought the
acquisition of rare books of historical significance. With the popularity of the paperback and more
authors writing about diverse topics, books became personal companions to a larger audience. In
addition to fostering knowledge, serving as source of religious inspiration, and provoking new
ideas, books were increasingly read for leisure. The book as evocative personal object evolved
and many domestic interiors began including areas in the home for displaying and storing of
books. Books accrue meaning and are kept through time as special objects because they
materialize ideals, professional aspirations, or a shaped public persona. As the domestic interior
continued to become a place for self-expression, more people collected books that informed their
identities and lifestyles. Collections that showcase personal interests, values, and academic
accomplishments rest on home bookshelves. “Contemporary book collecting takes place at all
economic levels and can focus on physical form (illuminated manuscripts, miniature books, pop-
up books, atlases, fine bindings, comic books, art books), or subject matter (chess, gardening,
architecture), or genre (fiction, biography, children’s books).”11
Evoking Personal Meaning Through Recorded Music
Throughout history, music has played an important role in society to entertain, unify, and
teach. In recent decades, technological advances have allowed recorded music to have an even
more pervasive presence in everyday life. Recorded music always seems to be present when we
are shopping, eating at restaurants, making our commute, and watching television or films. When
connecting music to the concept of evocative objects, the obvious link is a musician’s attachment
to the instrument he or she plays or the music he or she performs. However, recent research
shows that many people who are not musicians also develop crucial relationships with music. For
some people, recorded music enables memory and serves as a means of relating to others to
form friendships, to regulate mood, and to perform social activities. According to MacDonald,
Hargreaves and Miell, in Musical Identities:
11 Eric Holzenberg, “Book Collecting,” Universalium Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, accessed 2010, http://www. Universalium.academic.ru/260133/book_collecting
6
The assertion that we are all musical: that every human being has a biological and social guarantee of musicality is not a vague utopian ideal, but rather a conclusion by increasing number of academic researchers interested in developing our knowledge of the psychological foundations of music listening and performance.12
Some people develop an attachment to a recorded music collection. Music collections
have taken varied forms through the decades, and the way recorded music is consumed is
directly linked to the technology available at the time. People’s bond to the music in their
everyday lives is attached to their active involvement with the equipment used to access it. Such
artifacts as radios, record players, boom boxes, Walkmans, vinyl records, eight-tracks, cassette
tapes, CDs, and—more recently—iPods have all been described as evocative objects of special
value. Music enthusiasts usually begin their music collection during their youth, when identity is
actively being formed. Young people enjoy listening to and collecting music as not only a source
of entertainment but, more importantly, as a way of constructing and expressing their social
identity separate from their parents. According to Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, in The
Meaning of Things:
The process of using objects in identity formation involves two exchanges: from action to contemplation and from self to others. The meaning of a cherished object tends to shift by adulthood from what one can do with it currently to what one has done with it in the past and instead of providing information primarily about the personal self, it now speaks about other people.13
By adulthood, other factors such as education, career, family, and various social roles,
inform social identity. In adulthood, a music collection, in addition to proudly displaying musical
tastes, more importantly attaches itself to memory. Throughout life, a more authentic experience
and relationship with music continues to develop as it is used to form friendships, evoke memory,
and set a mood. Studies have shown that musical tastes are connected to aspects of personality,
the way individuals think, perceive, and remember information. Individuals also use music as a
tool for memory retrieval. In the same manner that photographs, journals, and souvenirs may
trigger past events, a piece of music can help one reminisce about meaningful moments and
people from one’s life.
12 Raymond R. MacDonald, David J. Hargreaves, and Dorothy Miell, Musical Identities, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 15. 13 Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, The Meaning of Things, 100.
7
A music collection is also evocative by inducing a wide range of moods. Sometimes
music is used to vent such emotions as anger, happiness, and sorrow. Other times music is used
to establish private personal space in public settings, to block out other sounds, for example, on
subways. People also choose music according to the way they feel or hope to feel at a specific
moment or depending on the activity that needs to be performed. Softer music might be chosen
to relax and more upbeat music to exercise. The importance of using music to evoke mood lies in
understanding music as a more powerful force than mere stimulus. Music has powerful effects on
our bodies and our minds, effects that usually go unnoticed. Currently, those reactions are
gaining recognition, and more research is being conducted into the sociological effects of music.
From Tangible to Digital: How Personal Meaning Is Altered by Digitalization
Currently, we are experiencing a shift from objects as conduits of personal meaning to
new ways of negotiating meaning in digital environments. “Digitization, rather than replacing
analog with digital instruments, encompasses everything from redesigning our scientific
paradigms, probing the mind, to readjusting our habitual use of media technologies, and from
redefining our notion of memory all the way to substantially revising our concepts of self and
society.”14 Digital evocative content is experienced and kept differently from evocative tangible
artifacts. Instead of displaying the objects of affection in the privacy of homes, further meaning
is given to personal digital content by the act of publicly sharing it on social networks and
media sites.
Objects accrue value through the meaning attached to them, and digital content gains
value through online interactions with others—for example, through comments, tags, links, and
tweets. A participant in a study for understanding the possession of digital things in the cloud:
[d]escribed the distinction between digital photos on her hard drive and the ‘same’ copies uploaded online: they get comments from my friends and family, and those acknowledgments and stories become part of them. . . I think about the photos on my computer and the ones on my Facebook as different. My (local) photos are me saving
14 van Dijck, Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, 42.
8
them for my family, for the future. . . On Facebook, the photos are me and my family and the connections we have with other people through the comments.15
Personal digital content in social networks is a paradoxical phenomenon. On the one
hand, social networks assist in giving significance to digital things. On the other hand, the concept
of possession in the digital realm is elusive. Uploaded content ceases being exclusive because
the purpose of sharing it affords it collective ownership. It is easy to control where tangible objects
reside and to recognize ownership. However, online content can be downloaded, copied, and
appropriated by others and, therefore, exists simultaneously in a plethora of online spaces. The
impossibility of organizing, browsing, or keeping track of one’s massive digital collections further
blurs the sense of digital ownership.
Until recently, photographs only existed in material form. Gazing at a photograph involved
tactile engagement: negatives and prints could be held, wept over, kept in wallets or photo
albums, framed, pinned on walls, and even torn or burned. Although digital pictures have not yet
made printed photos obsolete, they have changed the social practice of keeping and sharing
photos. Anthropologist Barbara Harrison’s field study acknowledges:
a significant shift from personal photography as a tool bound up with memory and commemoration toward pictures as a form of identity formation; cameras are less for the remembrance of family life and more for the affirmation of personhood and personal bonds.16
Books are also undergoing the most radical transformation in their history. With the
emergence of digitalization came the development of e-books and electronic reading devices,
such as the iPad, Kindle, and Nook. An e-reader can hold thousands of e-books. Additionally, 1.5
million digitized books can be read for free on Google Books. No one can deny the advantages
that e-books provide, among them greater portability, less expense, ease of searching for specific
content, and hyper-text that links to additional related content. However, people who cherish the
book as an evocative object are usually also attracted to the materiality of books, the look and
feel of the printed page.
15 William Odom et al., Lost in Translation: Understanding the Possession of Digital Things in the Cloud, paper presented at the Conference on Computer-Human Interaction Austin, TX, accessed May 5–10, 2012, http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/158029/odom2012.pdf, 4. 16 van Dijck, Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, 113.
9
The materiality of the printed book offers readers much more than the stories contained
in them. The action of reading is greatly affected by digitalization. An individual is physically
engaged when holding a printed book, whereas the screen on an e-reader separates the reader
from the text. The tactile experience felt when flipping through the printed pages is diminished by
the click and scroll actions of reading a digital e-book. E-books are here to stay, and although
physical bookstores and home libraries are decreasing, the printed book will coexist for
some time.
The physical experience of browsing at a music store and having a tactile encounter also
has a substitute digital activity. Prior to online music streaming services, accessing recorded
music involved a more ritualistic experience. As we traded our collections of cassette tapes, vinyl
records, and compact discs for MP3 downloads, the tangible experiences associated with these
objects disappeared. Most record stores have gone out of business, leaving only a few
independently owned stores in operation. The ritual of walking through a record store and
browsing through the stacks has been replaced by instant downloads, shared playlists, and
infinite scrolling of titles on music streaming services.
The more life is experienced digitally, the more appealing analog becomes for some
people. In the last couple of years, there has been a resurgence of analog music consumption, in
particular, the revival of vinyl. There has also been a renewal of interest in exploring the tactile
qualities of instant film photography. Following the termination of Polaroid film production in 2008,
The Impossible Project formed to keep instant film photography alive. The company began to
produce and sell its own instant film in 2010.
The current fetishization of analog technology has less to do with nostalgia than it does with an urge to slow down the transfer of data from the internal to the external, from the individual to the collective, and to make it all less instant, less ephemeral, less interchangeable, and more tangible, more linear and more contextual.17
17 Carina Chocano, “The Dilema of Being a Cyborg,” The New York Times, accessed January 27, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/what-happens-when-data-disappears.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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The Complexities of Archiving Evocative Digital Content
As people transfer tangible objects of affection to digital versions, the preservation of
these objects becomes complex. Alleviating the need for more storage capacity, cloud computing
has enabled people to transfer their growing personal digital collections from local storage to
online providers. Cloud computing also solved the dilemma of content coexisting on multiple
devices. One’s content is automatically accessed on all devices on the cloud. However, the
problem of keeping digital collections only online is the dependence on constant online
connectivity and streaming. The elusiveness of online entities and services also causes some
people apprehension about storing their personal content online. Equally doubted are current
local storage options, which are as vulnerable to innovation velocity as their analog antecedents.
The need to develop solutions for preserving, archiving, and managing personal digital
content in the domestic sphere has caught the attention of a growing number of commercial and
private entities. Microsoft’s Socio-Digital Systems Group developed a prototype called Family
Archive, a multi-touch device for the home that allows storage of digital content and scanning
small physical objects of value. In addition to storing, Family Archive offers the option to engage
creatively with the content via digital scrapbooks. The Living Memory Box, another domestic
archiving project by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, also supports media-rich
scrapbooks but allows for storage of tangible objects via an acrylic built-in drawer. The downside
to The Living Memory Box is the small size and shape of the built-in drawer. A better solution is
needed for those people who are still interested in collecting both digital and tangible items.
New Patterns of Networked Sociability Emerge
Digitalization’s power to redefine human interaction alters our self-concept, what we
consider important, and how we relate to the physical world. As the material objects people
previously kept as evocative possessions transform into immaterial digital formats, more time is
spent online. Currently, there is a growing emphasis on public identity and the network of self-
projections shared virtually.
11
Digital photography is part of a larger transformation in which the self becomes the center of a virtual universe made up of informational and spatial flows; individuals articulate their identity as social beings not only by taking and storing photographs to document their lives but also by participating in communal photographic exchanges that mark their identity as interactive producers and consumers of culture.18
An emerging social practice among young people is a preference for producing online
digital content rather than keeping collections of things. For example, youths prefer to share
pictures online or through mobile devices and then delete rather than keep them. “The act of
storing a photo for later retrieval is part of a social custom to reminiscence; the photo album or
shoebox is the conventional cultural norm in which we preserve memories. The new connective
custom is to electronically distribute pictures to friends–a social practice grounded in the
networked condition of connectivity.”19
The same is true of teens’ and young adults’ use of recorded music. The iPod
revolutionized the way people kept their recorded music collections. These devices allowed a
portable massive music collection to be accessed wherever and whenever the user wanted. The
persistent need to socialize online has caused recorded music consumption to evolve into
listening and sharing music through on-demand music streaming services. These emerging social
practices shift the attachment from tangible object to the online space. Increasingly, people are
forming attachments to their social media accounts.
In addition to allowing users to maintain relationships with close family and friends, social
media sites afford insight into the lifestyles of other people. First impressions used to be made
when physically meeting people for the first time. First impressions today are more commonly
made through online profiles. According to Papacharissi in A Networked Self: Identity,
Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites:
Social network sites provide props that facilitate self-presentation, including text, photographs, and other multimedia capabilities, but the performance is centered around public displays of social connections or friends, which are used to authenticate identity and introduce the self through the reflexive process of fluid associations with social circles. Thus, individual and collective identities are simultaneously presented and promoted.20
18 van Dijck, Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, 115. 19 Ibid., 176. 20 Zizi Papacharissi, A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, (New York, NY: Routledge, 2011), 304.
12
The virtual environment allows for more forms of self-presentation than ever before,
through social networking, blogging, and special interest sites. Open source software allows
users to manage their identities through the content they choose to share and post. Whether
through profile descriptions on social media sites, Facebook’s status updates, tweets on Twitter,
pins on Pinterest, avatars on gaming sites, or countless other digital actions, people are publicly
projecting more and more aspects of their identities. Philosopher Jean Baudrillard compares the
exchange between people and objects to the exchange between people and technology.
Baudrillard uses the analogy of how a mirror reflects the subject. He compares this notion to the
computer screen replacing the mirror. Instead of the computer screen reflecting the subject, it
absorbs it. Objects reflect whatever meaning people attach to them, whereas the computer
screen absorbs the subject by allowing multiple copies of the self to circulate as other signs
and images.
The Blurring of Public and Private Spheres
In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the transition from collective
agricultural rural living to compartmentalized urban living led to the rise of separate spheres—the
public sphere of work and the private sphere of the home. This new way of life resulted in the
emergence of a domestic interior that was private and served as refuge from the public sphere of
work. More choices from more commodities also allowed the private sphere of the home to be
filled with objects that expressed individuality. The twenty-first century is moving towards public
identity and collectivism on a global scale. Because personal content is being shared more than
ever, we are experiencing a blurring of private and public spheres.
Prior to social networks, people kept separate social circles with distinct social roles. In
the past, people shared details of their lives with only a select few. Today, social networks enable
multiple social circles to interact and exchange personal information. As a result, private and
public spheres intertwine. Other factors contributing to the blurring of the public and private
spheres is the choice that more people are making to live alone and the dual purpose of the
13
home as a place to live and work. “One of the most compelling phenomena in the evolution of
society is what has happened to the balance between the individual and the collective. “The
concept of privacy has mutated to signify not seclusion but a selective way to make contact with
other human beings, with the rest of the world, and with ourselves.”21
Graphic Design’s Evolving Practice and How Designers Respond to Digitalization
The history of graphic design is intertwined with the technological innovations of writing,
books, typography, photography, and advertising. However, not until the nineteenth century did
the rise of mass production and the poster as a medium for visual communication give way to the
new commercial art profession. Commercial art was the first name used to describe the discipline
of creating layouts contingent on a client’s message. In 1922, William Addison Dwiggins, a
talented book, advertising, and typeface designer, conceived graphic designer as a new term for
the profession. Since then, graphic designer is the preferred title for those who give form to ideas
by combining imagery and type.
The value of graphic design is that it informs society. “Designers mediate, translate, and
amplify the visualized environment, giving tangible form to the objects and experiences that
inform, persuade, and entertain us.”22 Graphic design is present in almost everything in our
everyday environment. Sometimes design is bold and direct while, at other times, it is subtle and
taken for granted. Graphic design is used in most forms of visual communication, from corporate
identity to advertising, publishing, wayfinding, and packaging. The dilemma for graphic design is
that, although there are some iconic designs that transcend time, a great portion of the ephemera
created by its practitioners is for short-term consumption, intended to provide and organize
information for a viewer at a specific moment and to be discarded after use.
The title graphic designer is still used today, although its use is debated with some
designers indicating the name is outdated because the word graphic refers to print and today’s
graphic designer works with a large range of media. “Graphic design’s domain has expanded
21 Paola Antonelli, “Beyond Design,” in 60: Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future, edited by Lucas Dietrich 372-400. (London, UK: Thames & Hudson, 2009), 396. 22 McCarthy and de Almeida, “Self-Authored Graphic Design,” 103.
14
through digital media to encompass adjacent practices such as filmmaking, game design, sound
design, interactive design, writing and publishing, the production of events, coding and
programming, strategy and some aspects of fashion and product design.”23 As digitalization
transforms many of the tangible artifacts once created by graphic designers, new modes of the
profession develop.
For decades, package design for recorded music served as a fertile platform for
experimental and innovative graphic design. Graphic designers have created memorable visuals
for the recorded music industry that not only complemented but also enhanced the music
experience. Some examples are the hundreds of album covers designed by Reid Miles for the
jazz label Blue Note Recordings. Miles captured the essence of jazz with his playful integration of
type and photography. During the late seventies and early eighties, Malcolm Garrett designed
record sleeves for the bands Buzzcocks, Simple Minds, and Duran Duran, creating an aesthetic
that reflected the times. Peter Saville created the iconic cover art for post punk bands Joy
Division and New Order. Paula Scher began her long career in graphic design by using illustrative
lettering to visualize music on album covers. Vaughan Oliver created the distinct look for the indie
music label 4AD and designed music graphics for bands like the Cocteau Twins, Pixies, and The
Breeders. Stefan Sagmeister has designed album covers for numerous bands and musicians,
including work for Lou Reed, David Byrne, Ok Go, and the Rolling Stones. Many more designers
have and continue to explore music graphics, but in the new era of digital downloadable music,
cover art is constrained to a thumbnail scale and viewed on a screen. “The computer screen acts
as a distancing mechanism between the design and the user. The communication that occurs
between viewer and designer exists in a visually mediated form, without the possibility of any
tactile or tangible connection.”24
A couple of developments have surfaced as designers are rising to the challenges of
digitized music. The first is the resurgence of a graphic design staple: the poster. Jason Munn
is one of many graphic designers creating limited-edition silk-screen posters for rock bands.
23 Alice Twemlow, “Graphic Design,” in 60: Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future, 120-150. (London, UK: Thames & Hudson, 2009), 146. 24 Lauren Parker, Interplay: Interactive Design, (London, UK: V&A, 2004), 16.
15
In addition to creating captivating imagery, the success of Munn’s art is probably also due to the
void his posters fill for music fans to have tangible evidence of their favorite musicians. Another
development is the return of the vinyl record, which allows graphic designers to indulge again in
designing for a large format. “Vinyl sales are slowly but steadily rising and records have become
increasingly popular as new and past collectors long to reconnect with that ineffable quality that
extends beyond, but is intrinsic to, a record’s use—something more tangible, intimate, and
expressive, an essential property linked to a search for identity and authenticity.”25
Immersive Experience
Immersive entertainment is a new direction in which real and digital worlds can intersect.
Content creators seeking to provide people with a tangible experience for their digital creation use
immersive entertainment as a form for physical interaction. The band Nine Inch Nails used an
immersive campaign to promote their new release. The Year Zero campaign was an extension of
the album that included an elaborate website, an alternative reality game, tangible works of art in
public spaces, and the use of social media to connect fans to secret locations of concerts.
Another example of the power of immersive entertainment is a collaboration between music band
Arcade Fire and music video director Chris Milk, The Wilderness Downtown. The Wilderness
Downtown is a non-conventional music video for the song We Use To Wait. It uses HTML5 code
and teams up with Google Chrome and Google Maps to provide fans a personalized nostalgic
journey. The story is accessed through an interactive website and is revealed by the answers the
viewer inputs. The viewer becomes part of the music video as Google Map technology is used to
allow the viewer to interact with images of his or her childhood neighborhood.
Summer Into Dust is another collaboration between Arcade Fire and Chris Milk. Summer
Into Dust is an immersive experience created for Arcades Fire’s performance at the Coachella
2011 music festival. It involved thousands of large white soft balls dropped from the sky into the
crowd during the last song of the concert. The white balls were embedded with LED lights, IR
25 Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. Nasher, and Raymond D. Nasher, The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl Exhibition catalog, (Durham, NC: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2012), 1.
16
transmitters, receivers, and microphones that responded to the pitch of sound by flickering with
different colors. The crowd experienced a tactile collective experience as they interacted with the
balls by catching, holding, and re-tossing the balls (Figure 1). In addition to creating memorable
entertainment, Summer Into Dust resonated with the crowd emotionally because fans were able
to keep the balls and take them home. The balls were made to last and continued flickering
colored lights in response to the band’s music. There was also a website created for the project
where Arcade Fire fans could link with others who had been at the concert and share individual
experiences of how the balls continued to live at home. Even though graphic designers did not
orchestrate the examples discussed above, immersive entertainment is a viable new direction of
exploration for media-savvy graphic designers.
Figure 1. Chris Milk and Arcade Fire, Summer Into Dust, immersive experience. Photo credit: Christian Lamb
17
Novel Types of Social Interaction
Another important development in graphic design is the initiation of self-directed work.
The Internet and open-source technology has enabled distribution, encouraging more people to
become content producers. As a result, graphic designers are broadening the issues and
methods they explore, enjoying the freedom of an authorial voice. Åbäke, Arabeschi di Latte, and
Alex Bettler are designers interested in event and performance as mediums for constructing new
design experiences. “There are traditional graphic design elements in such activities—invitations,
menus, place cards and the subsequent documentation in print and online but the focus is on the
event the artifacts represent and frame, and on establishing the parameters of novel types of
social interaction.”26 For example, Trattoria is a design concept consisting of a dining event for an
invited audience. The four members of the graphic design collective Åbäke not only organize and
design the event but also prepare the multiple-course meal served. Similarly, graphic designer
Alex Bettler creates a social event by offering participatory bread-making workshops. The design
collective Arabeschi di Latte also works with food to design participatory situations. It Takes Two
to Tango is an interactive performance by Arabeschi di Latte in which the audience is invited to
feed each other with giant spoons.
Figure 2. Arabeschi di Latte, It Takes Two to Tango, Interactive Performance. Photo credit: http://www.arabeschidilatte.org 26 Twemlow, 60: Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future, 148.
18
Moving Beyond Two-Dimensional Graphic Design
In addition to using graphic design to create memorable and meaningful social
experiences, graphic designers are steadily moving beyond two-dimensional designs to creating
three-dimensional works, using tactile materials to provoke thought. Whereas, in the past, most
graphic designers collaborated with photographers and illustrators to create imagery to be used in
their two-dimensional designs, today, more graphic designers are experimenting with materials
and processes for making their own images. Many designers are also responding to the screen-
saturated environment by specifically avoiding digitally constructed designs, instead using digital
production to supplement their analog processes. Sarah Illenberger is a Berlin-based freelance
designer whose work has appeared on numerous publications and advertising campaigns.
“Meticulously created at the intersection of photography, art, and graphic design with analog
handicraft and using simple materials and household items, Sarah Illenberger’s, richly detailed
work opens up new perspectives on the seemingly familiar.”27 Her creations are commissioned as
site-specific installations, retail window displays, or photographs. Sarah Illenberger creates
conceptual compositions using everyday objects in unexpected ways in three-dimensional space.
Figure 3. Sarah Illenberger, Parade, Hermes/Kadewe, retail window display. Photo credit: http://www.itsnicethat.com.
27 Sarah Illenberger, Sarah Ilenberger. (Berlin, Germany: Gestalten, 2011), back cover.
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APPLICATION PROCESS
Solo Exhibition
Graphic designers are known to cherish printed ephemera and to collect objects.
Curiosity for discovering whether my collections are a result of my profession or because the
objects I preserve function as a tangible record of past experiences led me to expand on the
concept of evocative objects. As we move forward into an increasingly digital and more
networked world, social and physical experiences are reconfigured. Prior to digitalization, a
common social practice was to imbue tangible objects with symbolic meaning linked to memory
or social identity. Today’s connectivity enables personal meaning and social identity to come from
producing and promoting on-line profiles and digital content. The works on display explore
materiality, possession, memory, and self-identity in order to discover what is lost in the transition
from tangible to digital and how personal meaning is altered by digitalization. The form of the
exhibition is mixed media: a video, a listening station, participatory stickers, a type animation, an
installation and an e-Book. Books, cassette tapes, CDs, vinyl records, and other evocative
objects are brought back from obsolescence and used throughout the gallery to create a tactile
and engaging experience.
Research on evocative objects has shown that people become attached to media objects
even when they are no longer in use. Ink drawings of media objects from the past and present
are created to use as wall graphics and in the invitation. The ink drawings are of a record player,
boom box, Discman, Walkman, CD cover, Pentax Camera, Polaroid Camera, book, iPod, iPhone,
iPad and computer. As visitors of the exhibition enter the gallery the title wall and entry wall,
display the vinyl cut graphics of the ink drawings (Figure 4). Orange vector graphics of social
media icons are also used to symbolize the digital activities that are changing the way meaning
20
is evoked. In order to add dimensionality to the two-dimensional wall graphics, three-dimensional
objects were applied to the vinyl cut graphics (Figure 5).
The projects created for the exhibition are inspired by the research on evocative
objects and also conceptualized as my personal response to the rapid pace that technology is
transforming many of the tangible artifacts once created by graphic designers. Having worked
professionally for over fifteen years as a traditional print graphic designer I wanted to challenge
myself to explore new mediums and to harness technology. Working with new mediums like
video, installation, and participatory art pushed me to learn new equipment and software but also
provided me with new perspectives to apply when I design.
The work in the exhibition is not a critique on digitalization. Nor is it about valuing tangible
experiences over digital experiences. The exhibition is about reflecting on concepts of materiality,
memory, possession and social identity as more people accumulate larger collections of digital
content. The exhibition encourages viewer participation by asking the viewer to interact with the
projects. Feedback from viewers of the exhibition leads me to conclude that the tactile interaction
and content of the work on display was successful and resonated with people. The aim was to
create an engaging experience that provoked the visitor of the exhibition to think about his or her
own collection of evocative objects, their personal experiences and to reflect on how digitalization
is altering the way personal meaning is evoked.
21
Figure 4. Exhibition title wall graphics and entry wall graphics.
Figure 5. Close-up pictures of the exhibition title wall graphics and entry wall graphics.
22
Flipping Through the Stacks
Flipping Through the Stacks is a video whose theme is memory triggered by the tangible
artifacts pertaining to recorded music. Prior to on-line music streaming services and MP3
downloads, accessing recorded music involved a more ritualistic and tangible experience. Music
collections have taken varied forms through the decades; radios, record players, boom boxes,
Walkmans, vinyl records, eight-tracks, cassette tapes and CDs have all been described as
evocative objects etched with symbolic meaning. These objects become highly personal by
expressing social identity, supporting lifestyles and enabling memory.
The video Flipping Through the Stacks takes the viewer through the physical experience
of being at a record store and browsing through the stacks of records and CDs. The story unfolds
as people inside the record store have a tactile encounter with artifacts that trigger personal
memories. The ritual of flipping through the stacks at a record store can be about the thrill of new
discovery and also reminiscing about past experiences. The memories portrayed in the video
belong to seven people ranging in ages from 18 to 51 and are memories of childhood,
adolescence, past lovers, family, friendships, and places. The viewer is left to reminisce about his
or her own memories sparked by the tangible objects associated with recorded music.
Flipping Through the Stacks was filmed at two independently owned record stores. The
close-up shots were filmed at Yesterday & Today’s Records and the crowd shots were filmed at
Sweat Records during the annual Record Store Day on April 21, 2012. To show a range in
personal memories, thirty people—aged 18 to 60—were asked to participate in this project by
responding to a questionnaire. The questions addressed recorded music and memory: In what
ways do you listen to music? Do you buy music and from where? Have you kept through the
years any object or artifact associated with recorded music? What special memories triggered by
a particular artwork on an album cover do you have? Seven memories were selected and
recreated for the Flipping Through the Stacks video. The memories in the video are shared with
the viewer in the form of kinetic type. The type was animated using the software After Effects.
23
Figure 6. Flipping Through the Stacks, video, surrounding objects, wall graphic, participatory sticker table and listening station.
24
Figure 7. Flipping Through the Stacks, Participatory Stickers.
Figure 8. Flipping Through the Stacks, Listening Station.
Flipping Through the Stacks Listening Station and Participatory Stickers
The viewer is invited to participate by flipping through the stacks of vinyl records, CDs
and cassette tapes. The listening station encourages the viewer to listen to tangible music on a
record player, portable CD player or cassette tape player. The objective is to reminisce about
personal memories sparked by tangible music and share them by writing them on a sticker.
The music on display is from my personal CD and vinyl record collection and also on loan from
participants who shared their evocative tangible music for the exhibition.
25
Tangible Portraits
Tangible Portraits is a site-specific installation that explores some of the objects people
hold on to during their life. Digital personal content is experienced, preserved and possessed
differently from tangible objects. Prior to the proliferation of digital content, people kept symbolic
objects in the privacy of their home, usually put away in a box, drawer, attic or closet. People
become attached to a large range of objects, from heirlooms passed down from one generation to
another, to gifts and souvenirs of sentimental value, to the media objects people use to support
lifestyles. The personal objects on display have accrued value through time and give materiality
to memories and aspects of a person’s identity. The objects become tangible portraits of the
people they belong to.
A selected group of faculty and students of FAU, and other visitors to the exhibition were
asked to participate by providing personal objects they had kept for a long time. For more
engagement between viewer and artwork, eleven participants whose names would be easily
recognized by visitors to the exhibition were chosen to share some of their evocative objects for
the installation. Because the box is a conventional norm for preserving memories, a variety of
found boxes and drawers were used to display the objects. The varied boxes were arranged and
stacked in different configurations and labeled with the participants’ names.
The personal evocative objects submitted by the participants included photographs,
sketches, clothing, letters, books, photo albums, toys, scrap books, souvenirs, gifts, cameras, a
trophy, a diary, a guitar, a baseball glove, an old passport, an elementary grade card, a Zip Drive,
Discmans, CDs, cassette tapes, 7- inches, concert flyers, airline tickets, concert ticket stubs,
concert t-shirts, and a variety of printed ephemera. The objects carry personal meaning for their
owners, however the viewer can only gaze at the objects without knowing the stories and
memories attached to them. The viewer can reflect on his or her own collections of things and
contemplate how the objects they hold onto reflect aspects of who they are.
26
Figure 9. Tangible Portraits, Installation
Figure 10. Tangible Portraits, viewer is interacting with the participants’ evocative objects.
27
Figure 11. Hyped Identity type animation is seen behind viewers of the exhibition interacting with the Tangible Portraits Installation.
Hyped Identity
Hyped Identity is a kinetic type animation that explores social identity in relation to virtual
presence. Prior to digitalization, a common social practice was to attach symbolic meaning to
objects that were linked to memory or self-identity. As a growing number of tangible possessions
transform into immaterial digital formats an emerging social practice is a preference for producing
and promoting digital content on-line. Social media provides infinite platforms to construct and
broadcast our social identities. Our social identities are in constant flux as we harness technology
and become producers and promoters of our on-line profiles and digital content.
The Internet has revolutionized and democratized many areas of life making it easier for
more people to become creators. Not only has technology afforded more opportunities to create
but also to collaborate and to distribute personal creations and content on-line. As more people
become artists, musicians, directors, filmmakers, chefs, writers, songwriters etc…more time is
28
spent on-line promoting and constructing a constant stream of hype. Hyped Identity was
projected on a wall next to the installation Tangible Portraits. Both projects examine identity but in
opposite forms: one in tangible and one in digital. The two projects are also juxtaposed as they
offer a side by side comparison of two ways people evoke meaning through tangible objects and
through the experience of creating and promoting digital content on-line.
The animated type in Hyped Identity came from some of the words people use to
describe themselves on-line. The words were copied from blogs, Behance, Instagram, Vimeo,
Tumblr, and Twitter. Social media icons were also recreated and animated in After Effects to
appear and disappear gradually on the wall. The words become symbols for the multitude of
social identities that are constantly promoted on-line.
Figure 12. Hyped Identity, animation still frames.
29
Stories on Paper
Stories on Paper is an e-Book that explores the materiality of printed books. Many people
who continue to cherish the printed book are attached to its tangible form. The viewer is invited to
walk up to the iPad and read some of the reasons stories on paper will continue to exist. The
iPad was used to reinforce the concept that the reading experience through a screen greatly
differs from the reading of a text on paper. The materiality of the printed book offers readers much
more than the stories contained in them. Books accrue meaning and are kept through time as
evocative objects because they materialize ideals and showcase personal interests.
Stories on Paper was inspired by research that showed that there are certain tangible
qualities of printed books that some people are especially attached to. Those qualities are the feel
of the page, the yellowing of the pages, the writing in the margins, and the smell of the book.
Stories on Paper is not about promoting printed books as a better reading experience, it is about
reflecting on the contrasts between reading an e-book and a printed book and understanding why
some people continue to cherish printed books as evocative objects. Each page in Stories on
Paper is dedicated to one of the tangible qualities that makes printed books special for some
people and expands on that quality.
The feel of the page brings attention to the fact that the feel of paper as a reader turns a
page in a printed book greatly differs from the click, scroll and swipe actions of reading a digital
e-Book. The yellowing of the pages informs how some people hold on to their book collections for
a lifetime. The yellowing of the pages in printed books are visible signs of time passing. Printed
books can be kept through generations. E-books like most digital content is vulnerable to
innovation velocity. The writing in the margins of personally owned printed books give materiality
to the thoughts the reader has as he or she engages with the text. These markings often times
reveal insights about the reader at a particular moment in time and are another reason some
people cherish printed books. In contrast with the personal notes in the margins of printed books
the digital notes on e-books are meant for sharing on-line with other readers. Although there is
great value in the ease of forming discussion groups through digital notes what is lost is the
definitive space for inner dialogue. The smell of the book is an irreplaceable quality of its
30
tangibility, whether it is the fresh ink on the pages of a recently printed book or the musty scent of
an aging book. The scent of a printed book is a reminder of the physical components and the
craftsmanship that comes together to give it form. The craftsmanship of the book is lost as the
screen of an e-reader separates the reader from the text.
To enhance the layout and design of Stories on Paper, I took photographs that would
capture the qualities being described in the text. An ink drawing of an empty bookshelf was
converted into a vinyl wall graphic to reinforce the concept that many printed books are coming
off bookshelves and transitioning into the digital realm of e-Books. Stories on Paper was
presented on an iPad that was mounted on the wall and positioned inside of the cut vinyl wall
graphic of the empty bookshelf. Stacks of printed books are on the floor surrounding it. A chair,
side table, table lamp and more printed books create a reading area where a viewer can browse
through the stacks of books and contemplate his or her own collection of printed books and how
that collection has changed since the innovation of e-Books.
Figure 13. Viewers of the exhibition interacting with the e-Book, Stories on Paper.
31
Figure 14. Stories on Paper, e-Book, surrounding objects and wall graphic.
Figure 15. Stories on Paper, e-book close-up pictures of three pages.
32
Conclusion
As we move forward into an increasingly intangible and ever more connected world,
Graphic designers have new opportunities to shift from specialized designers to multi-disciplinary
designers. “Interactive technologies create a need for a new kind of design—a fusion of graphic,
architectural and product design with an awareness of time-based narrative and navigational
structures.”28 As emerging social patterns demonstrate, society is shifting its focus from objects
as sources for individuality to connectivity enabling collectivity. More people use to keep a
collection of evocative objects that were used to inform social identity and to trigger memories;
today, the younger generation is more interested in producing and exchanging digital content in
on-line platforms than in keeping and imbuing objects with symbolic meaning. For hybrid media
users who continue to keep tangible objects while accumulating huge collections of digital
content, the complexities of preserving and possessing in the digital realm presents challenges.
What gets lost in the transition of evocative object to digital conversion is the tactile
experience. As a result, graphic designers have been steadily moving beyond two-dimensional
designs to creating three- and four-dimensional works and experiences that evoke memorable,
sensory, and emotional responses. “In the disembodied space beyond the screen, designers are
searching for ways to recognize the role of personal experience and engagement in the design
process; a way to weave traces between the digital realm of creative possibilities and the tactile,
tangible elements of the real world.”29
Research from sociology, psychology, philosophy and interactive design provided me
with a multi-disciplinary approach to graphic design and an understanding of some of the social
implications of new technologies. The research and the work created for the thesis exhibition has
also provided me with new insights into current and future directions for graphic design. The work
for my thesis exhibition revealed that personal digital content is experienced and possessed
differently than evocative tangible objects. Inspired by these findings I am excited and motivated
28 Parker, Interplay: Interactive Design, 1. 29 Ibid., 41.
33
to continue to explore the way that memory, possession and self-identity are affected as the
tangible triggers of past experiences disappear into the digital realm.
34
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