Glyphs Project - Stage 1

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Glyphs Definition

A glyph may be a pictogram, which conveys a particular object or action with a picture. It can also be an ideogram, where the symbol is intended to invoke an idea.

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Brief

You are asked to imagine that writing does not yet exist in your culture or that is has been forgotten. Your task to invent it.

The brief requires you to fulfill six set stages which emulate the emergence of writing towards its mechanised form. You must work sequentially, stage by stage.

Each week I am going to work on a stage in creating a new language.

Stage 1

Visiting the Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum

In this stage we are required to gather primary research (photos) of possible starting points for the glyphs. There should be an emphasis on form and structure.

I took many photos through out the visit to natural history museum I found it difficult to take photos in the Pitt Rivers museum due to it being so dark. However, I tried to get the best images possible.

Contact Sheet 1 - Busts

These were the images I took in the Natural history museum. My first idea was to take a picture of the many different busts in the museum. However I worried that there would not be enough variation in the images and for my final glyphs they would look very much the same.

Contact Sheet 2 - Wood

When taking photos in the Natural History Museum I found I went too broad with my initial concept and Idea. My first concept was colonialism because the museum is making a conscious effort to make its collection more in aligned with todays thoughts on correctly representing cultures. However this meant that the whole museum was relevant to that topic. But I did not totally clock that till the very end at the time in the museum and I just had a broad range of objects. So when looking back on my photos I tried to pick at trends from them. So this one is the material used to the create this magnificent objects is wood. It is displaying the craftsman ship our ancestors had when creating objects.

Contact Sheet 3 - Heads

'Heads' was another trend I found through out my many photos I had taken. This time compared to the busts I had previously taken had more variation in the size and look.

Contact Sheet 4 - Pattern

Once I had realised I had gone too broad when taking my photos, I went around the museum once more and tried to find something more niche where I could get interesting forms and shapes. I decided on pattern or motifs because many of these objects had an elaborate use of shape and form carved, sewn, sculpted, painted into the object. I wanted to acknowledge that in my work so I decided on this collection of objects to take on further into other stages.

Pattern Development

I then had to whittle down my photos from 37 to 12. To do this I printed out my contact to sheet I looked at them closely and I chose the images that were unique in form and method. But are also a good quality picture which I can use to easily draw from.

These are my 12 final images. There are some images which could have been better but they were not listed in the website and due to the current lockdown I am unable to go in a get a new photo. Most them are a decent enough photo that I can get a sense of form from them.