ART228: Deconstruction

March 11, 2005

My book.

As I drove to the used bookstore, I was conscious of how I was feeling.  It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining and I was in a good mood.  As I walked into the bookstore, the rows of books overwhelmed me and I didn’t know where to start.  I went straight to the nearest aisle and placed a finger on a book.  As I ran my fingers across the spines of the books, the ones that were loose and shifted positions were the ones that I was interested in.  I picked out all sorts of books that were very different from each other.  As I set them down one by one I began to notice the colors of each book, and then the size.  One of the books was a book on nature, another on painting.  The book that I finally decided to purchase was called Believe it or not.  It was a book I discovered in the Business section of the used bookstore.  I purchased the book because I was interested in the cover.  The title and author’s name was written by a calligraphic hand, and I thought it was too elegant for a book whose content was business quotes.

Problem statement.

• Deconstruction:

1. A conceptual re-creation of the content of the book.


2. Searching for the “construct” upon which the book is based.

My understanding of the problem is to deconstruct a book into its form, typography, concept and idea, how it is read, why it is read, and why it exists.  The book will also be analyzed for its audience group, intended message, and perspective.  After the book is deconstructed, I will reconstruct the book as a presentation that communicates the concept of the original book by reformulating the content into a visual concept in which the audience will possibly participate or interact.  The presentation may reveal my personal interpretation of the content or my personal opinion of the subject.  I will read the book, extract information, and make it my own by creating a presentation.

The idea of this project made me nervous because I have never completed anything like it before.  It was something new to me, but I was willing to experience new things and a different type of communication.  I hope to improve on my communication skills and also to become more comfortable speaking and presenting in front of an audience.

Walkabout charette.

The students were separated into six groups, and each group was assigned a sense: found objects, sound, scent, textural, descriptive, or visual recording.  I was assigned to scent, along with two other students.  We then went outside and started smelling objects.  It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun collecting items that smelled and/or aroused our senses.  We walked all around campus and found a variety of items including: lip gloss, a bottle of beer, superglue, sticky notes, a lighter, and dog poo.  After spending 45 minutes searching for items that smelled, we gathered back in the classroom and shared our objects with one another.  Then we were paired with another group of a different sense: descriptive.  The descriptive group explained to us what they found and the different people they observed, and we explained the items we found and the sense that came with them.

We then received our project: create a presentation that uses the two senses.

We talked about many different ways to present the different objects and observations that we saw and collected, but we ran into conflicts with how much each sense was getting used.  One sense was always dominating the presentation.

After about half an hour of contemplating, we came up with our presentation.

Since the descriptive group had observations of people in the MU Quad, we decided to describe the people and also combine the objects that the scent group collected.  The objects would represent the type of person the descriptive group was describing.  Not all the descriptions matched with the objects, so we had to come up a personality that fit the objects.  I chose to create my personality out of pink flowers and pink lip-gloss.  I started writing what a person with my personality would say:

“Pink is my favorite color! I love everything pink! I went shopping the other day, and I saw the cutest outfit!  It was a pair of low cut pink patterned pair of capris. And it came with a matching tank top with double straps!  I totally had to buy it!  I need to get my nails done. I think I want to get a French manicure.  I hope I don’t get a tan line! I hate tan lines! Oh my god! There was this bikini that I wanted and of course it was pink!”

Does my butt look big?”

We watched the different groups perform and all the groups’ presentations were performed in very different ways.  The group that had the senses textures and visual recording preformed a court case where the audience was the jury.  The group with sound and found objects performed a skit that took place on a bench with different people doing different things.  After I watched the other groups’ presentations and finished my own presentation, called “The MU Quad,” I realized that a message can be communicated in many different, interesting, and interactive ways.  The charette was very successful.

Deconstruction.

Physicality of the book. The book is about 5”by7” and 39 pages long.  The cover is worn. The stationary is a dull color of grey that has a recycled look.  The book is held together by two rusty staples. Believe it or not is the title of the book.  It is written in a calligraphy hand and then outlined in a teal color.  The author signs his name on the cover, Coleman Cox.  The book was copyrighted in 1926, so the book is about 80 years old.  The inside pages are a yellowish color which is probably just the aging of the paper.  The book is in very good condition even with its age.  The corner of the back cover is creased and worn.  There I also the image of an arrow at the center of a target.  This image is black and teal, like the cover.  The inside pages are filled with quotes.  The title of the book is centered at the top of each page.  There are orange leaflets that separate each quote and the beginning of each quote on each page has a drop cap.  The pages are numbered by roman numerals, centered at the bottom of each page in brackets ([ ]). The first word of each quote is also capitalized.

Respond to the content.

While reading the book, I tried to put myself back in the time the book was published.  Most of the quotes seemed to be irrelevant to today, but there were also ones that made sense for any time period.  I found the book to be boring in the beginning, but as I tried to further understand the reason for the book, it became humorous at times. It didn’t really change my thinking, but it made me try and understand where the author was coming from.  The thoughts were also enlightening, because I learned a few things about his perspective on business and life in general.  The author’s quotes can apply to both the business world at the time and also to everyday life.  They were more advice quotes than anything else.  The ending surprised me because it stated exactly what the author was trying to communicate.

“The two hundred and more experiences, observations and passing thoughts contained in this little book, were written with a smile, and I hope you have worn one while reading them.  The smiling away of our own little worries, and helping others smile away theirs, makes life so much more enjoyable.  If I have made you happier, then I am happier.”

Mode of communication.

The mode of communication’s hierarchy is poetic.  The quotes may seen to be just pragmatic, but the reader places a bit of her into the book to understand what perspective the author is coming from and what stance the author is taking.  The reader also tries to relate to the quotes and apply it to everyday life.  The rhythm and flow of the quotes also makes them more poetic.

The pragmatic and persuasive modes of communication are at about the same hierarchy level because the quotes inform, but also persuade the reader to become a better person or to view life differently – to be enlightened.

Of the three modes of communication, I personally think that poetic is the most difficult to deconstruct.  The reader relies heavily on his/her feelings and interpretation.  This type of communication forces the reader to look at the information, not only from their own perspective, but also different perspectives.

Since I come from a different background, I may look at the book and think something extraordinarily different from you.  It doesn’t matter where we go, we will always take with us our values and beliefs.  When communicating different concepts, we need to take into account the different types of audiences that the message will communicate to - the ideal audience.

Audience and sub-audience.

The audience is probably business men.  The author addresses the readers as “men.”  I think that the sub-audience would be people interested in becoming successful in the business world or in their job, work, or career.  The book exists because it gives advice to those that want it and seek it.  Although the quotes contain metaphors, satire, “tongue in cheek,” and other uses of language, they have strong opinions and point of views.  I think that they are well thought-out and anyone could relate to the quotes because they can apply to every day life.

The book is written to place a point of view and perspective.  His other books are also books that state his point of view.  Some titles include “Take it from me,” “It seems to me,” “Listen to this,” “Just as I thought,” and “As I see it.”  He uses first person in his titles to address his point of view.

I think that today, this book can be used as a reference as to how people of the time thought, reacted, and related to business and life.  Today’s audience group for this book may be historians, or students who want to expand their knowledge by reading “wisdom quotes.”

Construction.

Think outside the box.  I thought the way we began the construction of the concept was very interesting and helpful.  I wrote down titles and filled in vocabulary words that I thought would describe that aspect of the book.  The following titles were used: mood, content reaction/transmission, color, form, elements, images/textures, active/passive, and organization of time (10 minutes).

Note: not all deconstructions have to have the same titles and categories.  Choose the categories that fit the type of communication.

This was the beginning of constructing my concept.  I then took words from each category and built three concepts. The following words are what I based my final concept off of: educated, facts, repetitive, text, professional, organized, and statements.

Although the vocabulary words were not very similar to one another, the concepts that I arrived at after looking at the words together, were quite similar.

How did I feel while reading the book?

I need to keep in mind that I have to make the audience feel the way I did when I read the book.  I was having difficulty with this because I read the book a few times and I had different feelings each time.

How do I present the information in the book?

1. I am a business consultant and business men come in and ask for advice.  The business men would make stories that fit a quote, and I would read the quote that they created a problem for.


2. Business success/solutions 101.  I would write on the chalkboard for the presentation, choosing quotes that I think make the most sense and are the most helpful.

I didn’t like these concepts very much.  I began asking myself questions again.

What are the main ideas of the book?
What are the important aspects?

I went back to the book and read the last quote again.  Experiences, observations, and passing thoughts.

“Smile away worries.”

It hit me.  I was going to ask the audience to participate.  I would ask the audience to describe an experience or observation that they had while they were on the job, what they learned, and what advice they would give others.

This information would be helpful to students, and it would also make them smile. I smiled at the idea.

Preparation.

I have to make sure that the stories are organized and that I know what the volunteers will talk about.  I also have to estimate how many volunteers I will need and how long each person will present.  I need to get organized and know what I’m doing and be prepared.

There will be twelve volunteers and they will speak about very different job types and experiences/observations.

The reason I asked for the same “type” of observation was because I knew that each student could not have the same experience as another.  I wanted their presentations to be open ended.  They were able to speak about anything, as long as it related to a job.

Presentation.

My own experience.  It made sense.  I would start the presentation with something I learned:

No pain, no gain. Every summer I work for my parents.  They own two motels in Newport, right off the coast.  It was the middle of August, and my mom, brother, and sister went to Hawaii for vacation. It was just my dad and I taking care of the business.  In the middle of the week, we received a phone call from my grandma in San Diego.  My grandpa had passed away.  Of course my dad flew to SD right away.  I was left alone - alone to take care of the business.  I was the cashier/receptionist and on call 24 hours a day.  I had to take care of everything, from phone calls to house keepers to laundry.  I was exhausted.  I never felt so much stress before.  Before my dad left, he told me not to mention anything about Grandpa to my mom.  He didn’t want it to ruin her vacation.  I thought that she had a right to know, but I didn’t argue.  When my mom arrived in Portland, my dad called and told her the news.  She left to San Diego; I didn’t even get to see her.  I was still alone.  I was alone for another three days before I saw my family again.  I was so tired, I cried.  Either because I was exhausted, or I miss my family. I do not know.  But I learned that in order to survive, you need to work hard.  No pain, no gain.

Then the twelve volunteers will share their experiences and what they learned, and/or give advice.

We may face tough situations, but all these situations that we come across only help us for the future because we learn from them, which makes for a better life.

I thought that the outcome of the presentation was very successful.  The timing was good and also the experiences that the volunteers described were very relevant to my book, which brought back the existence of the quotes, but in present tense so that the audience could relate more to them.  I thought that the advice was helpful and enlightening, and I’m glad that the audience enjoyed the presentation.  I had a lot of fun constructing this presentation and learning the many different ways that a concept can be communicated.