The Inferno

Concept

Explore Dante’s Inferno through Javascript, Processing, HTML5, CSS3, Flash, After Effects, hand lettering, and typography.

Deliverables

An interactive web or mobile experience that allows users to navigate the Inferno.

Precedents

Pop Culture

Design

Illustration and Art

Interests

Type and Lettering

Generative Design and Art

Three-Dimensional Form

Work in Progress

Mapping

Navigation

2.5-Dimensional

Concept

I would like to use hand lettering as the cornerstone for this thesis idea. Improving my skills and knowledge of this artform is one aspect of the project, but experimenting with analog and digital outputs, embracing the random(?), and thinking in terms of user participation are experiments that can lead to exciting results. (Is this flat? What happens in 3D space? Does this move? Does this read minds?)

My initial thought on content was words with rhythm such as poetry or music, but if I created a device that reads minds then the content would be user generated. Even if I didn’t create a mind-reading device, establishing a set of conditions or a framework for users to generate the results is a possibility. I would need to put more thought into the conditions.

This idea could take the form of a “jam session” as well. I establish the framework for myself and others, then develop a hand lettered piece as the starting point to get interpreted or used during a set amount of time.

I have worked with hand lettering while at MICA but my interest extends back to my time working in the signage industry and even further back to hand lettering names of classmates to earn quarters for ice cream. This was a summer project idea that I have come to believe could be a thesis direction as well.

Deliverables

If this becomes an interactive framework, the user would need an interface and tools to create. This could lead to series of on-demand printed posters or a online database of creations. If this becomes a personal exploration, I would explore print outputs, digital outputs, and 3D outputs.

Audience

Users who love the intersection between analog and digital.

At the end of my first semester of graduate school, I provided three first drafts for my thesis proposal. my Inferno proposal was the favorite of my advisor and classmates from the start. For each draft, students had to write about the concept and provide relevant precedents.

Concept

Inferno fascinated me as an undergraduate which feed into a series of paintings I produced as a senior. Over the past ten years I have continued to explore the entire Divine Comedy through reading and listening to lectures. Over that time I have considered different ways to interpret this work of literature through graphic design, including icons to represent the levels, an interactive book or game, posters, and installation. One of the interesting aspects of the Divine Comedy is the structure that Dante put in place across all three works. This could lend itself to a graphic translation as well.

Audience

Fans of Dante’s Divine Comedy, designer who enjoy translations of literature into visual forms

Deliverables

Interactive website, interactive game, interactive book, posters, installation, icons

Precedents