Rings of Saturn: Artist Book Collective
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OBJECTIVE
For this assignment, scan through the chapters and sections of our readings on deep mapping and the novel by W.G. Sebald Rings of Saturn, and choose a scene, a single detail, a relationship, comparison, or a written fragment as a starting point for a more personal piece in the form of a book. Don’t feel as though you need to illustrate or recreate in any literal way—rather, use the imagery or ideas as a springboard to explore themes that interest you. We’ll be making an edition with enough copies for each student to exchange in the class, plus two more (one for me and one that will be collected in Rare Books & Collections at the Hayden Library). After each of you have completed your books, we will come up with a name, and design and produce an enclosure together. PROJECT GUIDELINES Final book size: 8” height x 5” width (8”x10” spreads) Minimum pages: 4 double-sided pages for 7 spreads and covers Image and/or text: No restrictions Color: Your choice Paper: Your choice Printing/reproduction: Your choice Binding: Your choice Edition size: 7 (we’ll see what class size is in a few weeks)
GRADING 20 Points Total 5 Conceptual development 5 Composition & design 5 Cohesiveness of narrative 5 Craftsmanship & completion |
A FEW QUOTES
From The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W.G. Sebald "... But then as you walk along, you find things. I think that's the advantage of walking. It's just one of the reasons why I do that a lot. You find things by the wayside or you buy a brochure written by a local historian, which is in a tiny little museum somewhere, which you would never find in London. And in that you find odd details which lead you somewhere else, and so it's a form of unsystematic searching, which of course for an academic is far from orthodoxy, because we're meant to do things systematically." .................................................................................................................... "Yes, well, these kinds of natural phenomena like fog, like mist, which render the environment and ones ability to see it almost impossible, have always interested me greatly. ...This ability to make of one natural phenomenon a thread that runs through a whole text and then kind of upholds this extended metaphor is something I find very attractive in a writer." .................................................................................................................... "...The walker's approach to viewing nature is a phenomenological one and the scientists' approach is a much more incisive one, but they all belong together. And in my view, even today it is true that scientists very frequently write better than novelists." |