PROJECT 04.00.00
Considering Neo-Posterness
What is posterness in a world of info-mediacy?
This query should provide a rich exploration into the convergence and transformation posters must under go to survive in our informationally loaded lives.
To investigate posterness we must consider poster authenticity, present queries on the relationship of poster to and in environmental graphic design, consider place-making, comment on our socio-techno-information* needs and conceptually explore, through future-casting, the anomalous / ambiguous role of new technology** in relation to traditional poster conventions and the information they do not currently, but can and should present.
Questions / Wonders:
What does poster(ness) connote?
What relationships, acceptances, understandings and ideas are exhibited through traditional poster conventions?
In our socio-techno-information culture, what new conventions have been and are being developed? What is their cause, reason or purpose? What role does behavior have in conventional posterness?
What are unconventional poster formats? How can they enable a convergence of traditional conventions with the developing conventions or our info-mediate needs?
What are unconventional additive and subtractive formats and how will / can they enable / aid the convergence of traditional poster conventions with our info-mediate needs?
How can a poster communicate, through a transformative process, more information?
What types of production methods can provide effective, near instantaneous informational updates?
Context must be considered when addressing analog, real-time production of information, because conditions are critical to the expansion of information.
* It is interesting how we spend copious amounts of time sitting in front of our computers to obtain myriad types and quantities of information, while the conventions of a traditional poster promote little to no resistance; which means, we spend less time with an artifact that has a deeper historical consciousness. What is it about the interaction with a computer that affords us this time? Is it resistance and / or acceptance of a machines interface? Is it the comfort of sitting? Is it the dimension of time, motion? Is static information too boring for our socio-techno culture? Have the conventions derived from personal computing made it easier and / or accepted to sustain greater periods of our time? What are the conventions of personal computing? How might these conventions, relationships and interactions with digital information interfaces converge with conventional posterness; helping move toward a new poster authenticity?
** Augmented Reality’s cryptic, black i-cons on fields of white, utilizing cell phone camera technology will alter our physical environment. Imagine a world devoid of analog advertisements, propaganda, and signage, replaced by enigmatic one-color marks that move us through the physical world, with your cell phone as guide. Everywhere you look augmented reality presents you with geographic, gender-specific, personalized information. The brilliance of our vibrant 2-dimensional, environmental theater hushed by posters, window displays, signage, information kiosks, dress and way-finding systems delivered to us through the minimal black and white i-cons that cover our landscape.
THOUGHTS ON APPROACH
Pull out a single / smaller aspect to explore. This focus should pertain to the
greatest interest of my research, the convention which is most associated
with conventional posterness.
How can I establish which convention is most associated with posterness?
A historical survey of poster conventions may illuminate aspects which have transcended designer / artist considerations overtime. Such as but not limited to notions of format, context and production. This assumption begs the question, what is the characteristic evident in the design process that limits creative decision making to various rectilinear formats?
If this is true, the format and scale will determine location / placement in terms of pedestrian viewing. Meaning, a standard (24” × 36”) poster format requires optimal positioning to be clearly read.
How will illuminating the obvious reveal the convention most historically associated with posterness?
How will a critical exploration of a convention enable a convergence with our socio-techno-information savvy culture?
How will a convergence of traditional poster convention and a desire for more information affect poster viewing behaviors? Are current conventions too deeply rooted to inspire a change in behavioral viewing?
How may a change in poster viewing behavior benefit the viewer, designer and conventions of posterness at large?
Explorations in terms of information:
Format - scale, shape, weight, dimension, color
Composition - hierarchy, layout, balance, information type and amount
Interaction - additive / subtractive information (Place-making, EGD)
Production - must address degrees of permanence
Context - critical when discussing info-mediacy (Place-making, EGD)
Sequence / Rhythm - movement through space (Place-making, EGD)
Position - location in place / space
These explorations will and should overlap, as none of them are mutually exclusive conventions of posterness.
What will a formal exploration of poster conventions, in terms of a necessity for more information, challenge and / or reveal about behavioral aspects of poster viewing and interaction?
When implementing unconventional methods, when is posterness lost?