Constraint and Visual Coding

The word constraint seems to be hovering around more so than usual, and I think the recent release of ‘50 Shades of Grey’ is to blame. Although it usually conjures up the idea of restriction, within the world of art and literature constraint is a tool which allows the artist to make unconventional and more often than not more interesting decisions when it comes to their work. It is commonly used within poetry and comics, and the idea is neatly summed up by Matt Madden who says ‘Newspaper strips are the haikus of comics’.[1]  By applying certain rules to a practice, for example writing a poem which must rhyme or only using 2 colours in an illustration, one is forced to make choices where the result is both unexpected and original.

The artwork below was created using methods similar to that of the OuBaPo or Max Ernst, utilising collage and only using material taken from pre-existing comic strips, in this case Mort Walker's 'Beetle Bailey'. 

First attempt at a collage piece inspired by French artists OuBaPo 

Speech and thought bubbles are one of the most obvious and well known of the visual codes that we have all grown to learn. By placing something other than words within the bubbles, the audience can still assume that something is trying to be communicated. Instead of using obvious images, such as faces and objects, I decided to cut out areas of the comics that were relatively vague, so much so that they could easily just be patterns or different mark making. The only other items used in the speech bubbles are punctuation taken from comics.

This creates a comic where the characters speech is somewhat ambiguous, which means the audience has to look to the characters themselves in order to make sense of it. By having just the main character ‘speaking in pattern’ and everyone else reacting with punctuation, it creates an atmosphere of confusion which I think fits in with the body language and actions of the characters.

By adding colour I developed the work further. 

I then decided to emphasise the difference between the main character and the others by adding colour to the pattern.  In my mind the main character may be something of a revolutionary, speaking in colourful psychedelic whilst the people around him can only respond in alarmed, black and white punctuation. This contrast between the characters speech offers more in terms of narrative then if they were all saying the same thing, (ie if they all had pieces of pattern inside their speech bubbles) as the punctuation serves as a reaction to the main character’s mad ramblings, or at least that is what we perceive them to be.

References:

1    1. MADDEN, 2013

Bibliography:

Madden, M. (2015). Oubapo: Comics and Constraints from France - Words Without Borders. [online] [Accessed 20 Mar. 2015]. Available at: http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/oubapo-article1