1 THE HUMAN LIBRARY: DAY ONE

In my randomly formed group, we were given the thematic starting point of 

When visiting the Forum library, we came across two common areas of (contrasting) interest, The London Underground and Space Exploration and Travel.

We each took out a book on each of these two subjects to look at further and find inspiration and interest.

My choices were 'London Underground's Strangest Tales: Extraordinary but True Stories' & 'Soviet Space Dogs'.

Both these choices, I noticed were similar in that they are based on curious and obscure areas of the subjects - quirky stories of fact.

Both books had contrasting covers even though they are both only published one year apart - the contemporary cover of 'Soviet Space Dogs' is vibrant and attractive. The 'London Underground's Strangest Stories' book is more traditional, following a more formal design.

When reading and taking notes on our books, we all felt a much stronger excitement for the 'Space' theme, especially in terms of thinking about our final resulting 'event'. We had better visualisation creatively for something of that nature.

2 SOVIET SPACE DOGS

I found much of the imagery in the book significantly interesting in terms of is graphic aesthetic. Distinctively russian 60s style PROPAGANDA imagery featured strongly.

The block colouring is reminiscent of stenciled RISOGRAPH, a method of image print we will have access to through Notewell Press.

We felt intrigued by the consumerism and celebrity status the space dogs gained. They became 'pioneers for human kind', 'martyrs and saints of communism' and symbols of Russia's superiority in the space race.

We considered responding to the video imagery of the 'canine cosmonauts' and had ideas to perform a new feature film or animation using a member of the group's dog. 'Theo the Space Dog' as a present day/future cosmonaut! We felt the quirk of an animal feature made the potentially complex and mind-boggling subject of space transportation a little more digestible and interesting to us and our potential public audience at the final event.

As a group, we all felt a real connection to the Propaganda style visuals and bold aesthetic of the imagery within the book. It had a graphic urgency about it and the emblematic look was something we felt attracted to try and re-create ourselves!

All page scans taken from: Turkina, O., Murray, D. and Cannon, I. (2014) Soviet Space Dogs. United Kingdom: FUEL Publishing.

3 SPACE ELEVATOR

Another member of the group made us aware of the existence of the 'space elevator' concept. This intrigued us right from the start! Current scientific research is ongoing into its conception and it seems like it could be a significantly modern theory...

Recent research has been exploring the use of nanotechnology' and carbon atoms to build a super strong cord stretching from the Earth's surface to a counter-weight outside the 'geo-stationary orbit'. 

Article from extremetech.com: '60,000 miles up: Space elevator could be built by 2035, says new study'

Rather than rocket propulsion into orbit, the idea of a cord to lift us into space has been an idea long in the making however. The concept of a space elevator was first conceived in 1895 by a Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

Turkina, O., Murray, D. and Cannon, I. (2014) Soviet space dogs. United Kingdom: FUEL Publishing.

Tsiolkovsky has influenced much of astronomical discovery and is noted as a major pioneer of astronautics and rocketry. Un-surprisingly, his image and name is often credited in the subsequent discoveries. We found references to him on many pages and images within the 'Soviet Space Dogs' book...

Our curiosity towards this little-known modern theory drove our excitement and we could see great potential in an engaging final outcome.

3b TABLE INITIAL RESEARCH DISPLAY TASK

Through research into current space transportation development and scientific endeavors, we had been interested in the space elevator concept. We were curious about its founding conception by the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsly and found it interesting that such a futuristic and crazy sounding theory had its foundations back in the late 1800s!

By collecting our individual books on Space we were able to collate our initial ideas and areas to look into further. We loved the iconic imagery within the books, the photographic imagery being exciting to reference and the propaganda style imagery from the Soviet Space dogs book brought forth a contrasting graphic iconography. Futuristic and retro imagery were mixing on the table and we saw a major development idea in applying one to the other.

Within our refined table display (below), we picked up on our specific areas of interest: the future visualisation of the space elevator concept, the 'space race' between major countries, retro space memorabilia and the propaganda style postcard and poster imagery/typography.

Playing around with cut outs and layering with our research imagery

Could we make our own badge designs using these shapes?

Peer Feedback

4 VISUAL RESEARCH COLLECTION: INDIVIDUAL SELECTION & SHARED PINTERST BOARD

PINTEREST BOARD < Click here

Using image research of the projected designs for the space elevator, we hoped to implement a graphic 'propaganda style' aesthetic. We would reference the future developments and display them in a 'traditional' and retro way.

4B MEMORABILIA FOR THE FUTURE - INITIAL IDEA TO FOLLOW

Collecting together our thoughts, we had begun to create the idea of mixing both past 'propaganda style' imagery with this future scientific development. We noticed the recurrence of memorabilia and imagery appealing to consumerism in the 'Soviet Space Dogs' book. We had the idea of creating our own memorabilia in a fictional (but projected) future at the initiation of the space elevator...

We began to think ahead to what memorabilia we could try creating, what materials we could use and areas to research into. We felt a desire to recreate the sense of excitement active in the 50s and 60s when the possibility of entering the cosmos became possible.

5 2035: A SPACE ODYSSEY - CINEMATIC SCI-FI INSPIRATION

We considered the visual influence and inspiration we could take from retro sci-ci movies, especially those released in the 50s and 60s at a similar time to the space dog launches and moon landing. Their predicted interpretations of space travel and exploration are obscure and humorous to us now, an aspect we can see similarities to in our project. When we tell people of the space elevator concept, lots of people are disbelieving and think its a joke. How could it possibly work? Do scientists really have the technology? Or is it just another idea of science-fiction?

The screenplay for Kosmicheskiy reys was co-written by Tsiolkovsky!

Our idea to create a short film or animation using 'Theo the Space Dog' was something we put aside due to our attention being distracted towards dressing up a dog. We decided to focus our ideas more coherently towards the creation of memorabilia. The quirky obscurity and visuals from the sci-fi films were interesting to consider further however. We were especially interested in looking at the previous visions of the future as well as the designs of the film posters and typography.

Nebo Zovyot (1959) is a Soviet science-fiction feature film

Still taken from Kosmicheskiy reys (A Space Voyage)

5b INDEPENDENT STUDIES

I began hand-rendering potential draft drawings and designs for our memorabilia

7 COLLECTION OF MATERIALS FOR MODELS & MATERIALS TASK

Following on from our initial research, discussion and feedback from our research display, our focus became finding, exploring and using appropriate visual languages to make our 3D visualisation of our subject. 

The work had to occupy a table top and so we made the considered decision to build our own space station/control panel. Implementing our research into the space elevator and referencing the example control panels seen in the sort of retro sci-fi films we had been looking at, we considered what visual languages of the subject already existed.

Still from 'Battle Beyond The Sun', 1962

Still from 'Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet', 1965

Still from 'Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet', 1965

In places such as TIGER, Wilko, Poundland, and the Market the group kept an eye out for materials to use to re-imagine the interior of a space craft. Silver, metallic, tubing, buttons and textures became specific areas of interest. 

Tubing on the Market

In response to the '3D visualisation' of our subject area, one member of our group had access to a 3D printer and used the opportunity to create a relevant object. At the small scale of a few inches long, it was initially seen as just an ornament, a small element to include in some way for our task...

3D Printed Spaceship!

A significant moment for the materials collection occured when I came across a toy woodpecker on a stick in TIGER. The stick and the raising and lowering movement along it was reminiscent of the space elevator. I had the idea to adapt and reconstruct the model using the 3D printed spaceship as a replacement of the woodpecker. This perfectly illustrated the concept in a physical and intereactive form.

Other materials gathered as a group

8 MODELS & MATERIALS - 3D VISUALISATION TABLEAU TASK

Construction of 'Control Panel'

Including our research into the retro propaganda imagery became an element to consider in our 3D visualisation. In the construction, we decided to separate a table to use as a research display and use the other and neighbouring wall space as our interactive 'control panel'.

The research table was displayed in a way to reflect a display in an exhibition, such as what you may find in the Science Museum in London. We refined the elements on the table and created a clear mix of influences. We suggested our appreciation of block colours and colour schemes within the subject, our objects and elements also reflecting these.

Research Table

The interactive space and research space seemed contrasting at first but we saw the vision of the shared a common theme. In drawing minimal lines and shapes around the elements on our research table, we created a mutual 'control panel' look. We wanted to visualise our appreciation of the history of space travel and make a suggestion of our intentions in our research table and create an engaging and interactive experience in our 'control panel'. The space theme seemed too good an opportunity to miss out on encouraging the playful spaceman role play!