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Category: Methods of
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Unit 1 Viva
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Written Responses
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Methods of Iterating
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Written Response
Surprises
Don’t doubt this assumption! The act of design is the clarification of material! And how undeniably that it’s a remodeling of content from one form to another! Guess what the ultimate goal is? To express the given content rendered in a form that reaches a new audience!
Retrograde
An 1850s translation of The Odyssey can’t be the same as a 1950s translation. Times change, and so do the translators. Translation is unlike science, which follows strict rules and produces consistent results over time; it cannot be separated from the influence of time and culture. Translation is always a reinterpretation. The original piece is no longer a fixed work; instead, it can be sent to the ‘factory’ as raw material and to be reshaped. Ezra Pound’s translation of Chinese poetry not only transforms the meaning of the characters into the conventional Western poetic form but also the visual component of the poem as well. I cite this example based on the fact that Pound’s translations of Chinese character poetry appealed to me.
Double Entry
In certain works and in some pieces, the designer remolds and reshapes the raw material of given content and the original content provided, rendering it legible to a new audience and representing it to a different crowd and make sure they receive the right message. Like the poetic translator and interpreter, the designer and author transforms and converts not only the literal meaning of the elements and the direct interpretation of the components but the spirit and soul, too.
Metaphorically
Given a simple salad, basically a bowl of tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumber, the designer reset it: they wash the vegetables again, cut them up, stir-fry them with spring onion, garlic and sauces before serving the dish to Chinese customer. Like the poetic translator, the designer changes not only the presentation of the dish but the taste, too.
Bruce Mau seeks to transform fresh ingredients into a delicacy. Mau is certainly not the farmer who sows and reaps, nor the shepherd who grazes, nor the butcher, nor even the hen that lays the egg —he is the cook of the cuisine. The designer is the chef.
Litotes
Bruce Mau’s design of a book version of Chris Marker’s 1962 film, “La Jetée,” never without an effort to translate the original material from one form to another. Mau is intermediary of the work and not the replicator of form and spirit. The designer is not the originator or audience.
Reference
Rocjk, M. (1996) Designer as Author. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/1996/designer-as-author/ (Accessed: 9 Nov 2024).
Queneau, R. (1998) Exercises in Style. Richmond: John Calder. Extract pp.19-26.
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Written Response
By selecting sections from Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style (1998), specifically from the chapters titled ‘Notation’ to ‘Surprises’, I extracted the parts that set the scene for the story, describing the place, time, and characters before the narrative unfolds.
Firstly, when the author states in the ‘Notation’ chapter that the story took place on the S bus, but in the following chapter refers to it as the S-line, I found this subtle shift in word choice intriguing as an English learner. This is exactly the kind of variation we aim for in our efforts to enrich our use of language. Also, I don’t often see people in the UK using ‘line’ for a bus; in my culture we tend to say ‘S route’ for a bus and ‘a number + line’ for the tube.
I made a list to compare and analyse the various experimental and stylistic interventions the author used to describe the same scene. For example, in terms of time and place, the rush hour could be conveyed as ‘in the rush hour’, or ‘was full that particular midday’. Or, it may be unnecessary to mention the time; simply conveying the feeling is sufficient – such as with ‘how tightly packed in we were’, or to use a metaphor and describe the crowded bus as ‘the shoal of traveling sardines’. As far as I know, sardines are commonly used in English to describe a situation where people are crowded together with no room to move. However, since this is exercises in style, would the readers expect to see a different metaphor instead of this cliché?
At the same time, each writing style stands out. ‘Metaphorically’ conveys the author’s attitude vividly and effectively. For instance, by describing the main character as ‘a chicken with a long, featherless neck’, the author’s attitude comes across without using words like ‘scraggy’ or ‘ridiculous’ in other sections. Chickens are often associated with negative qualities due to their natural characteristics of being highly alert and easily frightened, as well as their low status due to domestication and lack of freedom. This has led to negative expressions, such as ‘be a chicken.’ Over time, this linguistic tendency has become embedded in cultural habits. The use of retrograde arouses curiosity and draws readers deeper into the story. In ‘Surprises’, the tone is distinctly different from the other styles—elevated and engaging, designed to captivate the reader’s interest.
As mentioned in the preface, ‘I came to realise that modern written French must free itself from the conventions which still hem it in, (conventions of style, spelling and vocabulary) and then it will soar like a butterfly away from the silk cocoon spun by the grammarians of the 161:h century and the poets of the 17th century’ (Queneau, 1998), I believe that whether cataloguing, writing, or designing, none of these should be constrained by convention. We can experiment with different approaches to accomplish the same task, and each attempt brings unique discoveries.
Reference
Queneau, R. (1998) Exercises in Style. Richmond: John Calder. Extract pp.9-16, 19-26.
Feedback from week 1:
The slot machine approach is the most interesting and effective way to convey your concept, but there’s room for improvement. First, consider adding more details, such as including the names of the dishes generated by the combinations, changing the background images, and incorporating ambient sounds.
Second, for people unfamiliar with Chinese cuisine, it might come across as simply something fun to play with. You need to consider pushing its ironic aspect to the extreme, such as emphasising that it’s “authentic” while in reality it’s not. When each dish appears, think about how to make Western users realise that these dishes don’t actually exist in Chinese cuisine. You also need to consider who your audience is.
Re-drawing
Representing
Click to play https://lizhaoyijoy.itch.io/ordering-authentic-chinese-takeaway