#ebcal1

My concept is to repurpose and recontextualise content from an existing online publishing source — an archive — to question the systems of categorisation and order that archives usually hold.

My topic originated from where I sourced the reissue of Lockjaw — the NGV Book Fair, where there was also a book launch for the publication. This lead to research surrounding public announcements and advertising. The resulting content for the project is a series of announcement posters — which seemed like an appropriate medium — sourced from the online database of the State Library of Victoria. The Resource Type tag is pictures, and the Subject tag is advertising. This also lead to the #megaphone.

My intent is to change the nature of archiving, which is associated with tagging, systems of organisation and categorization, to change how archives are usually viewed and used through removing all elements of order. The layered imagery and dragging promotes interactivity — something inherent to online mediums — and relies on the interpretations of the user to alter content. This links to the idea of a reissue, through producing a different response each time the site is used, becoming a newer and altered version of the original content. The layout of the site references the artwork in the book through being a ‘combination of text and image’ which overlay and overlap.

That was how it was meant to be, a seamless blend of words and images. That’s the key to Lockjaw, not privileging the word over the image — abstract from an interview with Matt Holden.

This also references the idea of a conversation between elements, which is seen in the nature of an email trail — this was also a large part of my publication’s content.

There are three pages which accompany the main site—Rationale, Resources and Research. The Rationale is set at an intentionally large size, to create a scrolling page that mimics a Tumblr feed (a version of an online archive). This also becomes intentionally difficult to read, like Lockjaw (reissue) itself. 

The Resources page contains every image sourced for the main page—once again in a scrolling—that is easier to view as the images are larger. The zip file icon, centred on the page, enables the user to download all the images as an ‘archive’ for their personal use. This idea of downloadable content is inherent to a digital age.

Surpllus  Telephone Publishing  Books at Manic