ricky-is-a-book

[ricky-is-a-book]

Cassette Book

Don’t trust what you see, don’t judge by the cover.

Want to be the spotlight on the street? Try this wearable cassette book! The book itself comes with an audio cassette and player hidden in its middle. Attached with a bag handle, depending on your preference, you have the choice to convert it into a fashion item. The cover made with holographic transparent waterproof leather fabric. Vibrant colour makes it futuristic, fun and eye-catching, especially for those cool kids who love fashion.

The idea of my post-digital book was inspired by a product designer – Radhika Seth, who made an item with two different uses. This inspired me to make something crazy and think outside the book!

As technology advances, there are a lot of product is gradually being eliminated in the market, therefore my purpose is taking an item from the past and display them in a very modern way for our post-digital era and trigger people to re-interest in such products.

[ricky-is-a-book]

29/5 – Presentation & showcase

Today is showcasing our 3 months of hard work to the class and others. It is so exciting to see other concepts and everything is working really well. I would say some concepts is thinking outside the box and draw your attention pretty well. There are publication, video, broadcast, etc. Each project has its own feature and strong concept behind of what post-digital should be.

I have a good understanding of what post-digital is from this whole project, I have also learnt from some case studies of how to produce different methods to show/ express post-digital. 

Big thanks to our lecturer Andy! :)

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26/5 – Final result!

Here is the final result and ready for the presentation on Wednesday! :)

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26/5 – Process (Part 4)

Putting a piece of wood to set the book into the right shape/form and glued the book with the dust jacket.

In the end, use pressure to push down the book to the right place for a day.

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26/5 – Process (Part 3)

After putting my PVC dustjacket, I made the belt with the same material to make it consistent as one product.  After that, I made the bag clip out of thin metal and put it aside from the book for the bag handle.

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25/5 – Process (Part 2)

To cut out the form from the book, I drilled one small hole on each corner, it could help me to cut out the form perfectly. After that, I drilled a hole on the side for the headphone.

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25/5 – Process (Part 1)

To start the concept, I took what I’ve learnt from week one to dissect the book. Glue the side of each page and measuring the size of both items for later on cut out the form from the book.

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24/5 – In the process

This week have been an exhausting week, organising the materials from other country and planning how to make the design work properly. Luckily the dustjacket for the book cover has finally arrived after nearly 10 days. I have started to cut out the space for the cassette player from the book and as you could see the end result work perfectly. However, due to some technical issue, I asked for guidance and feedback from some of my friends that how I could tighten all the components in the book, also how to drill a hole without breaking other pages from the book.  For the safety issue, I decided to have a lock as an enclosing for the book. (see photo above) 

Overall, everything is working fine and stay with me for my final result! :)

[ricky-is-a-book]

Week Eleven 22/5 – Organize presentation

The major project towards the final submission date, we are organising our own spot to showcase in the class. Andy also has shown us the video of the project from last year, just so we can get an idea of what or how we going to produce.

Due to my design is a wearable item and therefore I have asked my colleague to be my model for a little runway on the presentation day. 

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Week Ten 15/5 – Generate concept and studies This week we have been looking at data and shared more of our works in process. Also lecturer have showed some of the examples of some case studies of some publishing experiments and Paul Chan’s Badlands Unlimited, by purchasing one of the digital file to see how could it be a book. We also watched an ape using instagram which I found an ape could really related to us human.

In the afternoon class, lecturer have gave us a handout which could guide us to develop the statement to describe our work, research and translation of the major project and also develop the rationale for the end as well. After we have invited few volunteers to tried the edible sugar paper from my colleague- Nella. Also by looking at others work and discussed their working process. From this stage, I have already started my major project and developing my concept. More photos to come! stay with me :)

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Week Nine 8/5 – Prototype and planning on the major work Prompt: A book that takes objects from the past and displays them in a contemporary way. From last week, I started to plan what I need in this project and refining the concept. Creating a prototype for some testing (see photos above) and ordering the materials I need from oversea earlier because it going to take a lot of time to prepare before I can actually starting it. After I have discussed with my lecturer about the dust–jacket for the book, his feedback was making something that become my own style. Bring vibrant colour into the design that suit for this modern era. This was the great feedback which gave me an idea of what to do. Therefore I have ordered a “Holographic Transparent PVC Fabric” from online store and hopefully it will be arrived next week.

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Week Eight 1/5 – Continue to develop the major project 

In the early morning class today, we spent half an hour brainstorming about a quick creative prototype a prototype that can explain your concept and your thoughts and getting feedback from others. I found some of the prototypes from others that are pretty interesting and eye-catching. But due to a technical issue, I can only draw out my concept with the items I bought during the Easter holiday. My idea is installing the cassette player into a book. Meanwhile, it could also be wearable as a fashion accessory. I aim to look for the audiobook cassette because my concept is about taking old items from the past and display them in a very contemporary way, more towards futurism.

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24/4 – Easter Week  During Easter, I bought an old book and some amazing old cassettes from an old vintage shop for my new concept. It was very lucky that I found an old “Doctor Who” audiobook cassette, I love everything of an old design, it could express well with the colour, typography and graphic which also fit my concept of renewing the old object to futurism. 

For my new concept, I am planning to make an audiobook that is wearable as a fashion item. I am sure it will be fun, excited and hopefully giving people surprises.

[ricky-is-a-book]

Week Seven 17/4 – Towards to the major project In the morning, we presented our concept to the class and getting feedback from the colleague and lecturer. Looking at others and discussed with the lecturer in detail of my concept, I have decided to do something crazy and silly and just have fun with it. In the afternoon activity, to get us out of the box, we have created a mind mapping regarding Input, Tool, Process and Output. This process could help us find the people who have a similar answer and pair up to help each other. So for mine will be: Input – Sound of nature Tool – Paper, blade, recording Process – Die-cutting, recording Output – Publication

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Week Six 10/4 – What is a creative prototype?

This week we have looked more deeply at developing our major project by making some creative prototypes. Each of us has to respond to a prompt made by our lecturer and by following the prompt to make a prototype of the book. The first prompt was “A book you will carry with you every day”. What I have thought of was Google from my laptop, I can search for everything I want to know also pretty handy and very post-digital and true is I do carry it every day to school. After the lunch break, we have done one more prompt created by other colleagues. My one was “Make a book using memories”, the word –“memories” made me think of a photo album or diary, therefore I have made a diary by creating a break-up story a girl that broke up with her boyfriend (See photos above). Unfortunately, there is no one picking my own prompt– “ A book that will bring you to nature and give you some sensations“, so I have discussed with my lecturer and get some advice and the best thing to do at this stage is create a mock-up/ prototype to test it.

This activity of today has taught me to think outside the box, I found it very useful and it has open my mind by looking at what other people think from their prototypes today.

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Week Five 3/4– No Class! Prompt: A book that will bring you to nature and give you some sensations

Lecturer went on a business trip and I have thought about the concept and idea for my main assessment.  I remember Andy taught us about the sound wave system for each alphabet before text or typography exist. It inspired me to bring the old day and showcase it in a very contemporary way. At this stage, I have thought of a 26 pages book with one single sound wave pattern of one alphabet on every page. Die cutting the pattern and showcasing the content page underneath. (see photo on above) It is a very conceptual idea for my future book, the second stage probably make a lot of prototypes and test it.

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Week Four 27/3 - Presentation!

Presentation day – presenting in a small group to the class of what is the future of the book and what our own thought of it. We also have to take notes during each group’s presentation and give feedback to each group.

A lot of interesting thought and ideas I have heard in the class today, it helps us to know more about the post-digital world.

Our concept for the future of the book is “The Gum”. Here is some information about the gum you might want to know.

This book is the future and with it comes such a surreal experience, Imagine chewing on your favourite gum whilst data from the book is being uploaded into your brain... that’s right, chew and grow your knowledge or be captivated by your favourite author. Our final concept is the all impressive VR chewing gum, it is extremely tasty but also offering you the whole new level of a learning experience. We have a wide range of book series on offer with an array of different flavours, once u start chewing on this wonder gum you are transported mentally to a different world, a world full of mystery, knowledge, romance and so much more... Once the wonder gum runs out of flavour and the book is complete u will be sent back to reality, or simply pull the wonder gum out of your mouth at any stage. You are always in control and still, have a conscious mind. Don’t worry about the time consumption as we have this covered!! Just 1 minute of reality is equal to 30 minutes in the VR world. To make the presentation more fun, we decided to give each person a piece of gum before we started. The idea behind is that they could experience the post-digital concept we presented.

During the presentation, I pointed out the question of  “What exactly is a book” In my opinion, books can appear in different forms and structure by following the technical requirement of a book, such as certain among of content, spin and also allow you to flip through the pages, as long as they are still functional and able to provide you with the information and knowledge. My point of view of the literature sausage by Dieter Roth, is it a book to me? The answer is a no, it can’t provide me with any content that what a book supposed to be, but it surely an art performance to me.