RAP / Fall 2018

New New York

Rediscover New York City by collecting materials related to the city, and organize them through typology (LATCH Theory) process. Present your discovery in engaging visual form. 

Step 1: Gather Material

Gather the materials for your collection. This will comprise a minimum of fifteen pieces related to New York City, which can take any form.
 

Step 2: Describe and Explore

Describe why you chose your particular subject area, as well as your initial observations and thoughts about the collection. You should then begin exploring the ordering of your body of material. Begin by implementing LATC theory to your collection: how might the concept of Location or Time, for example, be applied to the material under review?
 

Part 3: Presentation

Explore how best to present the organized material in visual form. Goal is to let your audience enjoy the same discovery you have experienced, and raise the awareness and appreciation about New York City!

Process

The aim of this project is to develop your methods and visual thinking as tools of analysis. The outcome of this assignment is not necessarily an answer; instead, it demonstrates that a good research question enables a better understanding of what is being investigated and can lead to further questions and more focused routes of inquiry.
 

Specifications:

A typology is simply the study of types: a classification of similar things that have common characteristics or traits. The American architect and designer Richard Saul Wurman characterized the ways in which objects can be organized through what he calls LATCH theory: Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. LATCH can be a useful system of guidelines for arranging, grouping, and displaying visual material, and it can help the designer/researcher to discover or reveal trends, patterns, and idiosyncrasies.

In the context of communication design and research, a typology can be understood as the creation of a system that allows a process of comparison co reveal patterns and connections that may not have been obvious to viewers when they first encountered the body of material being analyzed or organized. This project requires you to explore the use of the typological classification of objects in constructing meaning. It is designed to highlight the role of collecting, archiving, and taxonomy as fundamental features of research and analysis. The project provides the opportunity to gather data in a specific subject area chosen by you. It allows you to develop useful skills in documentation, comparative analysis, and inventive categorization and classification. 

Designing a typology introduces you to a useful method for research that can be applied to other projects, either as a working method in itself or as a process through which to discover a critical position and research question in relation to the material under investigation.

Part 1: Gather Materials

You need to gather the materials for your collection. This will comprise a minimum of fifteen pieces, which can take any form. It may involve collecting physical objects or it could be a documentation of a particular set of information using, for example, photography. Think laterally and creatively about what sort of content can be collected and arranged in specific sequences.

You need to choose a theme or subject for your initial collection of things; it could be a set of small designed objects, packaging, book jackets, playing cards, record covers, logotypes, signs, or symbols, but there should be a rationale for your choice and some common connection among the different objects.
 

Part 2: Describe and Explore

You need to describe why you chose your particular subject area, as well as your initial observations and thoughts about the collection. You should then begin exploring the ordering of your body of material. Working at tabloid size, using a photocopier or laser printer only, you must produce at least five variations, demonstrating at each stage a different approach to organizing your collection. Take into account values such as scale, material, place of origin, function, and so on. Begin by implementing LATC theory to your collection: how might the concept of Location or Time, for example, be applied to the material under review? Location might relate to place of manufacture or the specific site where the object was found or observed, whereas Time could describe a characteristic intrinsic to the object itself (e.g., dare of manufacture) or perhaps a more personal relationship to when it was collected or the duration it has spent in your possession.

Part 3: Presentation

Begin to explore how best to present the organized material in visual form. This may not necessarily take the form of a series of photographic images but might be more abstract in its presentation: replacing numbers or values with colors or shapes, for example. Consider displaying the material in two or three dimensions-along a static timeline or sequentially within a simple frame-by-frame animation, layered on top of each other to reveal common formal elements, or deconstructed by form, composition, or color as a series of connected layers.
 

Materials:

You may document your chosen items in any way you wish - photography, drawing and video are all acceptable. Initially you will be required to use a copier to make collected prints of your collection but the final presentation can take any form you wish. Remember that you must submit all your sketches and notes for review.

Schedule

Week 1

Assignment delivered and discussed in detail. Begin thinking about your approach to the brief and undertake visual research.

Week 2

Presentation of initial collected items for review. Class discussion about how to proceed.

Week 3

Review of categorization of items and ideas for final presentation.

Week 4

Final work presented in a process book and submitted to me for review.

Readings

Visual Research: An Introduction to Research Methodologies in Design by Ian Noble and Russell Bestley
Chapter 4 / Page 89 to 107

Recommended:

Ex-Formation by Kenya Hara
Page 8 to 21

TOOLS