Concept Sketches for a Lighthouse

Flickering Beacon

In Progress...

Start with better dreams

Cover of Hieroglyph

Welcome to project hieroglyph, founded by Neal Stevenson and produced by Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination. Our purpose here is to rekindle grand technological ambitions through the power of storytelling. Audacious projects like the Great Pyramids, the Hoover Dam, or a moon landing didn't just happen by accident. Someone had to imagine them and create a narrative that brought that vision to life for others. They are dreams that became real not because they were easy, but because there were hard. The editors firmly believe that if we want to create a better future, we need to start with better dreams. Big dreams--infectious, inclusive, optimistic dreams--are the vital first step to catalyzing real change in the world. As it turns out, sometimes that dreamer is a writer of fiction, often science fiction. 

This is the opening paragraph to the introduction of Hieroglyph, a new project and collection of short science fiction stories aimed at techno-optimism. The project was spurred by author Neil Stevenson and edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer. I found their  Introduction: A Blueprint For Better Dreams a welcome burst of furious color and an optimistic start to a day of dreaming with students at Pratt's Degree Project reviews. 

TechnoCrafting - The Digital Hand

This blog started with a series of drawings. Simple black line renderings in a regularly shaped notebook I had sitting around, lacking any definite purpose. I still enjoy the time when I can step out of phase and let ink bleed into the fibers of the paper. Watching my hand deploy a few quick marks that spawn simple pseudo-algorithms of design. I find it a very relaxing process, one that is consuming and renders me into another world. A small, tightly knit world of that page, that pen, that moment, those marks, and of course, that me.

As a fun experiment I made an impulse purchase and grabbed the new Evernote Jot Script 2 Stylus to pair with my iPad. I wanted to see what it felt like to draw in a more digital, screen based medium, but with a similar intent. the images here are a collection of some of my initial experiments, quick morning exercises or studio examples for my students. I find the process somewhat disconnected as the ink flows through glass into something I have much lest connection to. I also find it very fluid, oozing shapes from my motions rather than engraving rivers of ink. I am leaning towards the digital pen as much more of a rapid sketching / concept tool, while still preferring the real stuff (pen and paper) for my more creative and meditative drawings.

One major caveat I always encounter with students is the reliance on erasers, especially in the early moments of a design. If you are unclear what should be on the page, how do you know what to delete? I like to draw through 'mistakes' and use them as opportunities, maybe even registrations of a more complex relationship between the paper/screen, pen, eyes, hands, and imagination. So the implementation of an undo feature to my sketching feels very strange, and a little dirty. DO, not unDo, or better still, make things!