Final Entry

I have decided to post my final journal entry on the day that our assessment task is due. I wanted to do this to signify that it really is the final entry that I can do for this class. It makes me quite sad it a way, but I feel like I have really taken a lot away from this class over the semester. A lot of my previous conventions have been challenged in this class and I feel like I can walk away saying that I learnt a lot.

I still find the topic of “What is a Book” and “What is art” quite confusing because of how broad the definition is but I feel like I can adequately answer these two questions now and debate them thoroughly should the question arise in a conversation. A book can be a book, if it has the form and/or function of a book. Art can be defined by the qualities of what art actually is. Does it also have the form and function of Art? Does it inspire, inform, evoke emotion? Is there a story behind it??

I feel like I want to learn more about what a book is and what art is as well. I think these two aspects in particular at the two that I want to address most outside of this class. Also I want to look more into the debate on whether or not the Comic can be considered as art or is it just the horribly good hybrid of the book and sequential art??

I think the thing that I am going to miss the most in the class is the bookmaking interludes. I felt like these help me learn quite a bit about the processes that were undertaken in order to produce each book type. It has made me want to explore the ideas of bookmaking in even more depth and I found that bookmaking actually had an impact on one of my Graphic Design assessments. I actually made a book/catalogue and used my own self made type of binding to put it all together. But I feel like the bookmaking interludes gave me a far greater grasp on the practical side of the book.

So, this is the end. All the best!

Ciao.

Week 12 Books in the Digital Era

This week I started on the last topic, Books in the Digital Era. I feel going into this topic that I am a little sad that this semester is coming to a close. But I also feel like this last topic is going to be quite easy and fun considering that everyone in the class has an adept knowledge of computers and the internet, and has had experience with the Digital book.

Before I get too in depth with this topic I will first define what ‘Hypertext’ is:

Hypertext refers to a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially.

Some of the issues that were addressed in this topic were quite fascinating. I look at the questions about the digital Artsits’ books and they really intrigue me. One in particular “should such works be regarded as art?” (in regards to digital artists’ books). I believe that if it has the form and/or the function of a book it should be considered a book. So, in fact the digital artists’ books can, and more often than not, are considered to be books even though they only exist as binary code in their simplest form.

There was an interesting question that we were asked to address for this topic in regards to the existence of the digital book. The question was “Will the physical book continue to exist into the future?” The answer that I gave for this question is as follows:

Even though the digital book is a growing epidemic, and that technology is far exceeding tradition there will still be people that will choose to both create and still read the traditional book. So yes they will still exist. However, they may become obsolete. To put it into an analogy. The physical book will become like the very first computer. It still exists however there are only few that still use it. We can not safely assume that the physical book would become extinct due to the vast history and impact that it has had. I think that the physical book has had too much of an impact on our lives in general to be taken over by the digital world.

This topic, although short was fun. Although I didn’t really gain much from it because I already know quite a bit of information about the digital era and digital books.