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Never have
I thought about altering a book in any type of way however, after completing my
first altered book I have begun to appreciate this form of art. I personally
own many books that just take up space and collect dust on my bookshelf because
I either couldn’t get into them or because I didn’t like them. I can’t think of
a better way to put these books to use then altering them to create art. While
altering my book I learned that by completing simple art tactics like cutting,
burning, drawing and bending you can change the complete meaning and design of
the book. It is very simple to take a book that you hate and transpose it into
something that you begin to love. Allowing your creative ability to flourish
through altering books is the key to success. I started altering my book by
reading the pages and altering the book by the way in which you interpret the
meaning of the words. Specifically, in my book Learning the Alphabet by Curious George I altered the book by not
only cutting, bending, and burning but also by silhouetting. I took the Man
with the Yellow Hat who is known as Curious Georges caretaker and cut him out
to create a silhouette. I then placed cardboard behind the cutout to portray
the character to be popping out. This also created a 3D type look of the
character coming of the page. I cut out the door that was printed on the page
and gluing the man behind the door really creates an image of the main
character walking out the door. Seeing as my children’s book was about the
alphabet I decided to think outside of the box and draw a star on every vowel.
I thought this was important because every single word has a vowel and I have
fond memories of my early elementary school teachers trying to pounding these
into my heads. I drew these stars with bright red sharpie to portray the
importance of them. This is just two minor change that I applied to the book. From
altering this book I have learned that you can take another person’s art and change
it in ways that your imagine and creative ability see fit. The fact of the
matter is everyone sees everything differently and by altering a book using
your imagine you will always have a different final product then everyone else.
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After all
of my years of working with paper I have never begun to think about the ways in
which it was created and developed. Through the readings that we were presented
it was quite interesting to learn the ways in which paper has evolved into what
it is today. The first thing that I learned from this reading was the
importance of water for the creation of paper to occur. Pure water is the key
to the element of paper and is absolutely essential. I was personally struck to
hear the amount of water that is necessary for the paper to form. The article
states, “According to Briquet one kilo of paper would need some 2,000 liters of
water. Janot, another expert, says that even today to make 300 kilos of paper
an hour 200,000 liters of water are required, or 700 liters an hour per kilo
(The Introduction of Paper into Europe 30). Here you see the importance of
water and the large amount that is needed for the production of paper. When
thinking about water and the different types of water that is used for the
production of paper it has been clearly stated that you need to use a specific
type. The author of the “Preliminaries:
The Introduction of Paper into Europe” article talks about when papermaking
was first done and how people involved settled in limestone regions. Back then
this water was acceptable and was part of the ingredients necessary. However,
today limestone is frowned upon in the creation and it’s necessary to have pure
water. It is amazing how not only the ingredients changed over time but the
process of creating changes drastically. In the early 17th century
the major development of mallets by cylinders changed the way papermakers
created paper. The entire process would all start with specialized dealers
would collected old rags and transported them to mills to go through the paper
making process. Fatty substances would then be removed from the rags before
entering the mill. The best type of rags for paper production were flimsy
however, not all rags were flimsy. The rags would arrive from dealers in all
different thickness which required them to be sorted. I was also surprised to
learn from the reading that some of the best bark to be used in the creation of
paper making came from Hawaiian Islands back in 1843. Unfortunately, the
production of this bark ended more than one hundred years ago. The tools that were
used by the Otomi Indians prove to show the intelligence and desire that they
in the creation of the papermaking process. Tool consisted of marble and gabbro
which are two types of stones. These tools would have sharp ends that would
allow for cutting of sharp objects. It amazes me to see how the development of
paper has changed over the past centuries and how early setters invented tools
to lead to the creation of a product that many take for granted.
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To respond to Brian’s blog, I have also found a new appreciation for altering books. I have a bookshelf in my room with many books that I am too old to read, but simply do not know what to do with. They mean too much to me to give away, and after completing this project, I now know of a new way to appreciate them. Book altering is a great process and I will definitely continue to use it. I think that it was a great idea that Brian transformed his book into a learning tool for young children. Learning the Alphabet by Curious George already teaches children the alphabet, but Brian’s modification made it more entertaining and useful. Highlighting vowels by using stars so that children learn the importance will be very useful for developing children. Adding a three dimensional aspect of the book also makes the story more realistic and entertaining. I also found it interesting how he stresses that the readings mention the importance of water. Water is necessary for all life to exist and is often taken for granted. Paper is necessary for a means of communication and is also taken for granted. Knowing that water is necessary for the creation of paper only affirms its importance in our everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian completely when he said he owns many books that just take up space simply because he couldn’t get into them or just didn’t like them. By altering books, you are putting unwanted, or unused items to use! Maybe some books on your bookshelf you found boring, because there weren’t any pictures, or the pages were too long. Some book alterations destroy the words on the page, but isn’t the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” a true one in this instance. I found myself when altering my second book, Where the Wild Things are, there were so pages without any words. I took some of the quotes in the book that had a lot of meaning to them, and wrote the words across the pages with just pictures. Brian did exactly what I did. He took a children’s book and made it more “kid-friendly”. I turned my simple, picture book into a textured book. Brian took his alphabet, Curious George book and made it into a learning too. He highlighted the vowels with a star. I thought this was a fantastic idea because in elementary school, leaning the alphabet was one thing, but knowing the five, sometimes six vowels was difficult. This made Brian’s book interactive for children when reading it. I loved all of the alterations Brian did to his book, because we had a very similar mindset. To make the book more user, if not “kid-friendly”. I to made some of my characters 3D and had them coming off the page!
ReplyDeleteLike Brian and Jennifer, I have come to appreciate this form of art more than I did before this assignment. It’s great to see that Brian now sees that he can alter the books that are just sitting on his bookshelf and transform then to create art and make new use out of them. I like that Brian decided to enhance the use of the alphabet book by drawing a star on every vowel. By doing this, it further portrays the importance that vowels have in our language and try to better teach this to young kids. I can relate to Brian because before looking at the readings I had never really took the time to think about where paper came from and how it was made. It’s amazing to think about how much pure water is needed to create paper and how essential that pure water is in the quality of paper. Brian also mentions how the process of making paper started with the collection of old rags to be used as papers raw materials. A quote I previously used mentions how “a sufficient quantity of rags and an abundant supply of pure water were merely the first requirements” (page 74) in making paper. Not only was it a requirement to have rags and pure water to start the process of making paper, but there was so much more to the process than just this.
ReplyDeleteBrian’s idea to make some of the pages of his book to be 3D was an idea that I had not thought of at all, but that I really liked! The way he cut out the specific characters and then glued them back on in his own arrangement was a cool way to make the book his own, and it comes out looking like it was meant to be that way all along. I also liked how Brian related this childhood book back to his days in elementary school, and was able to use his own experiences to come up new ideas. I remember being in school and having to recite the vowels to the teacher (“A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y!”) Brian’s comments on changing other people’s art into your own really stood out to me from his blog post. It is so true that even if you were to have two similar people, if you give them the same task of altering a book the end results can come out completely differently. Even as I go through all of our classes blog posts, I find it fascinating to see all the different approaches used by our classmates and how even if people have the same idea on what to do, everyone’s final product is uniquely their own.
ReplyDeleteBrian is very thoughtful in his explanation of his altered book process. Like him, I had never thought about altering a book prior to this class, but have found a way to make it meaningful. He states that by incorporating simple art actions like cutting, burning, or drawing, you can completely change the meaning in a book. I liked that he took the caretaker in the book, cut him out, glued him to cardboard, and turned him into a 3d character. I feel like this action was something very unique and makes his project interesting. He brings up a good point at the end about how everyone sees art differently, and when you use your imagination to alter a book, your final product will always be different than someone else. Towards the end of his reflection he begins to discuss the articles we read for class. Like most other reflections I have read, he also did not consider papermaking to be such an intricate art form. He brings up a great point at the end about how amazing the development of paper has been over centuries. When the Chinese invented paper, they probably never assumed that one day people would take their invention for granted.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Brian’s blog post, I completely agree with his notion that altering a book is a great way to revamp an old book that has simply been sitting on a bookshelf. This is a great way to reconstruct meaningful books that forces you to think and be creative in order to turn the book into something else. I liked how Brian used silhouetting to further alter his Curious George book. It was also neat how Brian thought back to his time in elementary school remembering a technique his teachers used to help memorize vowels. This shows how Brain clearly took the time to think about how he wanted to alter this book in order for it to remain meaningful. This seemed like a great experience for Brian as he was able to impose his own sense of creativity and imagination to expand upon this book. Like other students have mentioned, our society has a tendency to take for granted the simple things in life. We often fail to recognize the origins of basic materials we use on a daily basis. Brian focuses on the need for water in the paper making process. It was also interesting how Brian wrote about how the process of making paper, along with how the materials used have changed so much over time and throughout various societies.
ReplyDeleteI really like Brian’s thought process about altering books. His thoughts on altering a book that you hate was kind of a different perspective than I had. I thought of it was destroying the book because you hated it and the therapeutic value of the process. He mentioned the idea of turning something you hate into something you begin to love and I thought that that was a very powerful idea. My favorite part of Brian’s altered book was 3D aspects of it. I hadn’t thought of doing this to my book and it something that I would like to try next time.
ReplyDeleteBrian very thoroughly examined how key of an element water is to making paper. Not just the amount of water that is needed but the quality as well. Compared to how paper is made today, it is interesting to think about how paper mills were placed in certain areas in order to have access to the water that was needed. Today, paper factories are located more for strategic business reason rather than water use.