My visual journey throughout this module has been an investigation into the life and works of Italian author Italo Calvino, in particular his acclaimed novel "Invisible Cities".
Many readers consider this vintage classic an essential addition to any personal library and in reading for myself and drawing visually from the text, I couldn't agree more. My visual response in both the printed aspect and the moving pictures aspect of this module, all stem from the embedded layers of motifs such as memory palace psychological techniques, imagination and home (in particular Venice, being the home of the novels main character Marco polo) which run throughout the novel. Mathematics, structure and organisation also feature heavily within the storyline and I attempted to include all of these aspects in my final compositions whilst creating imagery using a technique I haven't used before. Being quite new to the analogue print process, I wanted to attempt to achieve something representative of the visually rich text using linocut. The journey of learning a new technique and the hurdles along the way, parallels the journey the reader takes along with the characters throughout this Calvino novel, learning of new cities and their meaning along the way.
The final resolutions for both my print and animated sting have a clean, structured and precise aesthetic whilst including many details - in keeping with the Invisible City novel and the way that Italo Calvino was known to work and wrote the text. I wanted to try and achieve a visual response that did the visually rich content of this book justice and feel that illustrating the cities as described in the story amongst a portrait of Calvino himself, help show the authors investment in his work, his character, and how freeing the mind and imagination can help create the most successful creative works, as if cities made of memories protruding from the mind.
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