Further thoughts on the Sci-Fi BOOK project

Over the summer you were sent various pieces of information about the Book project - Tansy provided a template for ways of thinking about the content of your chosen Sci-Fi book, here is it:

I hope this project will also appeal to others for whom the genre is also slightly alien/unfamiliar and not just the more nerdy escapists amongst you.. Although it is billed as a book project, on reflection I thought the headings of the exhibition might provide an equally stimulating basis for a well researched series of images and they are:

Future Worlds (including predictions made by writers of the past)

Virtual Worlds (of dreams, the imagination and cyberspace)

End of the World (apocalyptic tales)

Parallel Worlds (eg via time machines)

Alien Worlds ('moon men' were described as far back as 1638..)

Perfect World?(Utopias)

We will be posting over the coming weeks about this - with references to material that may be of interest and have some relevance -  

Adam Dant

Adam Dant has produced many drawings depicting and interacting with large public space and utopian models. This includes Canary Warf and St Paul's.

Bill Fontana>

A project from earlier in the year which used the sounds of the river Thames to lead you around the unused spaces in the bowels of Somerset House where you come across 17th century grave stones among other things.

The London Nobody Knows

Great documentary about london with James Mason wandering. You can find the whole film here.

Map Repository

Great list of London maps from the last 600 years, including links to The Crace Collection and the Guildhall Library if you scroll down the page.

Mapback

Produced by dell books in the 40's mapbacks had a back cover illustrating the places the action within the book takes place. An interesting way of blending narrative and related imagery.

Four Corners Books - 'Familiars' series

Many of you are interested in books - so I thought I'd draw attention to the publisher 'Four Corners' and their 'Familiars' series - where classic texts are re-interpreted by contemporary artists and illustrators. For example in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (Oscar Wilde) - a story about male vanity - the text is published in its original magazine format - alongside ads featuring über-cool looking 70ies men smoking Gitanes. In 'Dracula' the artist James Pyman returns to the original text to find lots of quiet moments in between the clichéed blood and gore.

A refreshing reminder that as illustrators you don't have to illustrate plot or characters - the text is already busy dealing with this - you could reinvent, reimagine - look sideways at what is happening just outside of the scene, think about prequel or sequel, focus on secondary characters, displace or rearrange......

http://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/

Tim Hunkin tells us about the car, nice combinations of live footage and animation to explain processes, ways of making and thinking and the technological 'leaps' that make the car what it is today. There is something reassuring about an engineer in a corduroy jacket, no?

part 2:



part 3:

JIGGLING ATOMS

The fantastic Richard Feynman describes energy transfer and jiggling atoms.