Monday, July 30, 2012

Flattening education - preview image


The other day, i had the opportunity to connect with Prof. Morna McDermott and the two of us went to visit with Maxine Greene (see my comic on her here). The ensuing conversation sprawled all that's going on with education and possibilities for change. Morna wrote up her reflections incorporating some images of my work on flatness from the dissertation. It's important work and i'm glad to be connected to it. Check it out here: http://educationalchemy.com/2012/07/30/escape-from-flatness/

Related, I've started chapter two, or perhaps an interlude between chapters one and two, and within i'm doing a direct reference to Edwin A. Abbott's classic work Flatland. I happen to show the layout to my wife last night and she said something about my never repeating a composition. I don't know that that's true - but i think about content as shaping form, and the form in turn shaping the content - which means that the shape of the page itself as much as the elements on it, voice the ideas. Or something like that... Anyhow, here's a peak at the picture-less version of one of the pages that takes up Flatland. I'm planning to post the entire sequence shortly. - Nick

Friday, July 13, 2012

Tops - Chapter One Complete!

Chapter One is completed!! This first chapter has been a long process to say the least - but excited with how it's all come together. This pair of pages is essentially the close of the chapter, there's a brief coda that follows, which i may post here. I've actually not posted very many of the pages yet, and I'm still figuring out how much to put out here, knowing that certainly some changes will happen before the final drafts. (I welcome feedback on that - and the work, as always.) 

Anyhow, this sequence owes some inspiration from my earlier comic on Maxine Greene in which i depicted her as a spinning whirlwind of a top. I've been using the top imagery in the talks i've been giving - and continue that here. This first chapter has been dark - "expansive and claustrophobic" have been my guiding terms. Looking forward to getting to the next chapters and with a little more space to breathe. - Nick