VISUAL COMMUNICATION

Designers in Residence Hefin Jones

I’ve lived in East London for 86 1/2 Years Hoxton Mini Press

Happy Maps Daniele Quercia

Aedes Roger Frei

Geo/Graphic Mapping Alison Barnes

Kettering then + now

Dear Data Giorgia Lupi + Stefanie Posavec

Double Agenda Roosje Klap and Joost Janmaat

A two sided book which explores the concept of Agenda and routine in our day to day lives. One side is more accesible and has the aesthetics of normal diary, the layout is broken down into days but they include questions to make the user think about what they are doing and why. The other side is less accesible and pushes for soul searching, reflected in the use of empty, unstructured pages. It interesting how the two sides work together and form an overall message.

Das Schulwandbild von gestern: Eine Nicht ganz Vollstandige Sammlung Esther Reiser

I am Dora Claire Huss

A publication as part of the promotion for an "online visual story and a series of film screenings that explore how women’s perceptions of themselves are affected by female characters in film.” The piece is based on Freuds first case history with a girl called Dora. The format of the publication reflects the fragmented nature of films and her life. This creates a nonlinear narrative and requires an intuitive nature to process the information. I like how it is bound very simply and this works really well with the different page sizes, it creates a layered effect which show the different content used. 

Simon Critchley Gaurdian article

“As I said some 6 weeks ago, in my first blog on Heidegger, the basic idea in Being and Time is very simple: being is time and time is finite. For human beings, time comes to an end with our death. Therefore, if we want to understand what it means to be an authentic human being, then it is essential that we constantly project our lives onto the horizon of our death. This is what Heidegger famously calls "being-towards-death". If our being is finite, then an authentic human life can only be found by confronting finitude and trying to make a meaning out of the fact of our death. Heidegger subscribes to the ancient maxim that "to philosophise is to learn how to die". Mortality is that in relation to which we shape and fashion our selfhood.”

“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love… Life always says Yes and No simultaneously. Death (I implore you to believe) is the true Yea-sayer. It stands before eternity and says only: Yes.” 

Understanding the philosophies on death can be quite confusing, this website helps to explain theories in a contemporary way, using examples of everyday life we are more familiar with. It offers a summary of Heideggers Being and Time, using Bro and Party instead of what heidegger calls De-sein and Life. The summary is quite humorous but it hits all the main points. Bellow is part of the summary.

“When a Bro rages, he rages in a way that sets him apart form everyone else at the party - he rages with an immediacy such that he knows not only what is going on but also what could be going on. He must always plan one step ahead of himself so as to rage in the best possible way, to make the most of the Party. Sometimes that worries a Bro - even Bros get anxiety from time to time, though we don’t like to admit it - and that angst might cause the Bro to slow down. “Woah,” he might think, “this Party could end. I see the potential, and that worries me a little - can I truly execute?” When a Bro slows down like that,  he hides his Broness, and slows down the party - when the Dasein lets his anxiety take over, he hides his Being. Eventually, the Bro must overcome his anxiety and rage in a truly authentic way that embraces the possibilities inherent to the Party - this shows the fullness of the Party. When a Bro realizes that the Party demands something, he must step up and do the fucking keg stand that no one else can do, because they’re not Bros and they don’t know what raging truly takes. A Bro who steps up his game, pours the shots and takes control of the music in an authentically Bro way fucking makes the Party. We’ve all been places where there are drinks and snacks but everyone is standing around doing nothing - that’s not a fucking party. That’s a potential party being wasted by all who are there; in the same way, if the Dasein is not authentic, he is wasting his Being.”

I have started to gather my content for the final outcome, this is an extract from Being and Time by Martin Heidegger where he explores the concept of death and our (Da-sein) relationship to it. His originally theory within this publication is quite wordy and maybe because it is a translation of german at times it is difficult to understand. If am not sure of the importance of using Heideggers own words in my final outcome, I could look at using someone elses explanation of his theory or summarise it myself. Using his original wording could show how confusing the theories can first appear, but opening with a poem that gives a sense of the theory, as well as typographic hints, could be enough explanation. I need to explore different ways of reflecting the main points of the theory and find a poem which gives a sense of it.   

Analysis of Death Martin Heidegger

In Heideggers theory of death he discusses ‘Being toward death’ or ‘running ahead’ (vorlaufen). His approach to the subject can be seen to rephrase the quote from Descartes “I am, therefore I will die” to “I will die, therefore I am”. He believes that facing death will form a “more authentic” relationship to it. This perspective allows us to view death as what makes our being possible, rather than seeing death as nothingness we should see it as possibility. I interpret his theory as encouraging us to live our lives more, turning convention on its head because if there was no death, there would be no life. 

By simplifying these in depth philosophical theories I can begin to pull out the significant concepts and start to think about reflecting these ideas through the typography and layout. For example with this theory I interpreted it as turning convention on its head, I could reflect this by having the page upside down, or turning the letter backwards, although this could affect legibility too much it could also help to imply how the theories are difficult to understand.

Allan Kellehear

Sociologist Allan Kellehear wrote the book ‘A Social History of Dying’ which explores how our social and cultural concepts of death have changed over time. He divides the history into 4 stages. The first was the “Stone Age”, where there was little preparation for death and a stronger focus on the “otherworldly journey”. The second stage was “The Pastoral Age” which saw the development of the “Good Death”, because we could see it coming, preparation for death became a focus for families and communities. The third stage was the “Managed Death” and Kellehear attributes this stage to the “rise of cities”. Professionals such as doctors, lawyers and clergy now controlled the process of death and dying was “tamed”. We are now in the fourth stage, “The Cosmopolitan Age” and Kellehear highlights how the concept of dying has developed a stigma, we don’t talk about it anymore. This has in turn de-socialised death, loosing a clear sense of the social process. 

THE DENIAL OF DEATH Ernest Becker

A theory put forward by the philosopher Ernest Becker in regards to our fear of death. Becker explains how civilisation is a “defence mechanism” against our mortality. He discusses a duality in our lives, between the physical and symbolic world. Although our physical self will die our symbolic self can transcend morality, through the practice of what Becker calls “immortality projects”. These projects give us the opportunity to become part of something or create something which is bigger than ourselves, something that will never die, allowing us to leave an imprint on the world and live in though our symbolic selves after our physical selves die.