BanQ visit

So I went to go see the Concordia exhibition at the National library. Two of the artists featured there were Jason Lewis and David ‘Jhave’ Johnston. The first piece that I looked at was Jason Lewis’ What They Speak to Me When They Speak To Me. I really enjoyed the interactivity of this piece. The way in which the letters are animated as they are being dragged felt really easy and natural. The web effect created by the dragging line was also a great effect. It reminded me of a processing code I found in which the web effect was more exaggerated and the user could connect one line with another.


I find along with the web affect of Jason’s piece, I would have maybe gone with a different more neutral font. I’m sure the font on its own would have seen pretty neutral but coupled with the animation of the letters, the web affect, and the vast amount of letters on the screen, the round, friendly-looking characteristics of the typeface are magnified. Also, during the time I spent experimenting with the piece, I noticed at times that it would form gibberish, other times actual words or a phrase. I felt that the interaction very much overpowered the content of the text. I found the main grasp of the piece to be the movement and action that happened on screen from my own movements rather than the meaning of the text. In fact, having went to that one first and, afterwards going to the following artists’ work, I was, in a way, disappointed in the lack of interactivity of the other works. I guess considering the way it was presented in the library atrium, having all the computer screens set up in the exact same way lead me to believe that the interaction would be on the same caliber throughout the different pieces. Considering how different each of the pieces were, perhaps it would have been more effective to present them each slightly differently in the space provided to demonstrate the range of styles of the works.


I found David Johnston’s typographical work extremely compelling. There were certain humanistic details that I just loved in the letters. The shadows that he created for the text was perfectly in sync with the movements of the words. There was one entitled death where the text would build up and break down, and then build up again from the top of a building in the distance. The tension in its movement reminded me of when an object would stick to, and break a spider web. I really admire the attention to detail and subtlety when it comes to the animated typography. I have to say that although I really like the natural movement of the type, the presentation of the type, at times, could possibly be improved upon. For example, the 3-D effect with the artificial metallic shine is something that I think the work could do without, especially on a serif typeface. The movement of the type is so organic and human so to add this unnatural, computerized quality of an effect seems unnecessary.Also, having this computerized quality of text against a real life video really brings out the artificial aspect of the type. However, I do find that in some places the 3-D of the type works well with the video. For the work titled,feel, there is a lot of attention paid to the surface of the 3-D letters. I find that the 3-D aspect of the lettering works best when the material shown to make up the letter looks authentic.