My original idea for this project was to branch off of my St. Mary’s Project using the basic ideas of collection and a personal connection to an object I took from nature. I wanted the work to be about the touch and the desire to hold something. I wanted to connect to personal experience and because of that, I decided to use objects I have collected in the past, instead of seeking new objects which I did for my St. Mary’s project (resulting in the oyster shell). I knew that I was also more interested in the creation of another object that could be touched, rather than something experienced purely on the computer and on the web.
The work needed to be about the idea of interaction, the basis for the project three assignment. I decided that I would create a flipbook, because this is an object that requires the interaction of a viewer to activate it. It asks for manipulation of the hands and to be held. It was a second level to my own interaction with an object because it allowed a viewer to take part in that interaction themselves. Having decided to create a book, I knew that I needed to consider craftsmanship in relation to book arts, a class I had taken a previous year at St. Mary’s. A part of this project for me was going to be about the pleasure of creating an object.
I researched Pat Kelley, a former St. Mary’s professor with whom I had taken Introduction to Digital Studio. Kelley used flipbooks and presented them on his website, showing videos of the images, and sometimes video of the books being manually flipped through. Right away, I recognized that this would be a part of my project, the use of an online webpage that featured a video of me flipping through the work. In this way, I planned to highlight the book as an object.
My process began with me choosing objects that were a part of my collection and then filming my interaction with them. I made the choice to focus on my hand rotating the objects in my fingers. Hands are something I have used in previous work from years earlier, I believe they can hold a strong connection to our identity and are the main vehicle for touch and interaction with our world. Considering that, I cropped my frame to only feature my hand and the object. I made sure to keep the action on the right side of the frame because the left would be covered by the binding. I made videos of 6 different objects, all about 10 to 20 seconds long.
I found a tutorial online that explained how to create a photo flipbook using a video in facebook and converting the frames to layers (http://content.photojojo.com/diy/photoshop-photo-flipbook/). It was important for me to decide what portions of the videos I wanted to keep since the camera filmed 30 frames per second and my flipbook would only be 100 frames total. It was important to find a moment where a lot of change occurred so that the flipbook would be interesting. I also needed a moment where the object was evident. I narrowed three videos to 100 frames/layers and began working with my first one of a lobster claw point that I had found in Deer Isle, Maine this past summer.
Once I had created 100 layers to work with I began to edit each one individually. I wanted to have a plain white background so that there was no context to my hand with the object. In this way, the work would be only about that interaction and would also seem objective, which in a way, my collecting is. Each layer had to have the background removed and the levels set to lighten the image (as my video was a little dark). I also needed to increase the dpi for better printing and resize the layers to a smaller size that would scale my fingers and the object to life-size. This process was both tedious and time consuming.
My next step was to create a layout of all 100 layers, in numerical order, on a printable size so that I could easily print them off of my inkjet printer. I chose to print with my own printer because I knew it would be easier to keep track of the image order on a smaller scale and it also offered me more control. Once all 17 pages of my 100 images were printed, I began to cut them out. I made sure to pencil the number in each top left corner so that I could assure they were in the correct order and that the animation would make sense.
Once I had my stack of all 100 pages, I used a piece of paper and a binder clip to hold them together. This kept them in order but also allowed me to test the flip book. Assured that the book was in the correct order and created the video of my hand rotating and then encompassing the object, I moved towards binding.
I used a second binder clip to hold together the opposite side of the book, the part that would be exposed for flipping, and then removed the first clip. Starting in the center of the book, I glued the left end of the pages together and smoothed them with a bone tool, making sure they laid flat. I worked to the back of the book and then re-clipped them together to make sure when the glue dried, the pages were together. After the glue was dried, I worked from the midpoint towards the front of the book, gluing each one and flattening it down successively. After I re-clipped the glued side together and allowed it to dry, I then placed glue along the outer sides of the glue section to hold them together more surely.
Once this stage of my biding was dry, I measured my dimensions of my book. I then carefully measured out a top and bottom page, using nice Stonehenge paper that was thick and durable enough for a cover, but still easily flipped. I then measured out the piece for binding the spine of the book and decided how much overlap should occur on the front and back. I put an ink wash on this piece to match the orange color of the claw tip. I then glued the front and back pages to the book. I used my bone folder to crease the folds in the spine binding and also glued it to the book. This completed the creation of the book and I could now move on to filming my video.
I filmed my flipping through the flip book using the same idea used for the original flip video by focusing on the interaction of the book with my hands. There is not a lot of other context. Originally I had intended to use another white background for this but decided to film over a wood table that complimented the warm hues of the book and object itself. It also allowed for the book to be more visible instead of matching a white background.
I worked in Photoshop to manipulate a photograph I had taken of the lobster shell and then used that as a basis for a webpage. Initially, the page was going to include a rollover of a Google map shot of the island where the shell was found. I cut my layout into slices and moved it into Dreamweaver. I created a remote rollover for the section that read “Dear Isle, ME” that featured this map image. I compressed and resized the video I had filmed and realized that it was too large to fit into the page I had created. In the end, I knew that the video was more important than the inclusion of a rollover and I dropped that portion to the webpage. The sizing was still and issue so I changed the format of my slices into the new layout that is online now. I also decided to create a pdf of my pages that I used to make my flip book. I thought this would be an interesting way for someone viewing the page to interact with the work themselves and create their own relationship to the object. I then created a link on the page that opened this pdf.
This was a time consuming project that I greatly underestimated. My original goal was to create three flipbooks, webpages, and videos. I worked on this project steadily and advanced in it every day. It was something that needed to be worked on in small chunks, rather than a marathon (especially when working layer by layer). The time I took to finally finish both the creation of the flipbook itself and then translating it to the web took the entire time I had until finals and therefore made it impossible for me to create more in time. Unfortunate though that was, I was able to really focus on the production of one quality work instead of rushing to finish more. I enjoyed making the flipbook and I think this is something I can continue doing. In a way, not making the other books allows me to continue with this project in the future and at a more leisurely pace. For the future I will consider how ambitious my ideas are and create a more realistic timeline for creating it.
I think the finished product of the book came out really well. I was unsure about it as I worked layer by layer because I am not the greatest Photoshop editor and some of them looked a little rough around the edges (literally). Luckily, this book isn’t viewed page by page but as a whole by flipping through it. Ultimately, the idea of the flipbook worked out in my favor and I feel that I executed the physical creation and binding of the book well. There is not a lot going on with my webpage, and I most likely could have made it more impressive or interactive, but I am drawn to its simplicity. I could have reconfigured my webpage to still fit the video and feature rollovers. This could be either good or bad, I am unsure if I would like this change or not.
I think the use of the enlarged image of the object is helpful for the webpage where the object in the video of the flip book is less evident. I did not consider the interaction of the actual flip book to the page until critique this morning. I agree that there are many layers of interaction being dealt with throughout the whole of the project. I was interested in the idea of the work being very tactile and several people commented that the enlarged photograph added to that sense because it is very textural. Overall, I was pleased with this project and excited by the response. I think it could be interesting to create a whole series on different objects, but keeping a similar, uniform structure to the pages and binding.
I think that the scale of the book was also successful. It fits comfortably in ones hand and feels substantial. The finished product was thicker and larger than the flipbooks made by Pat Kelley, but I think this was a good change for the sake of the project.
I worked hard on this project but I did not complete everything I had set out to do. I am pleased with my outcome, but I am annoyed that I was unable to make more than one book for this project despite my best efforts. I would give myself a B/B+ for this project because I think it came together well, but it wasn’t technically finished because it was only on one object.