tangents

As undoubtedly anyone in one of our critiques has noticed, sometimes we get slightly off track. After about five or six minutes, we finally realize what has happened and try again to refocus on the subject at hand. It was always interesting to me why this happened. What triggered the thought in our heads that related an element of someone's project to say, a football helmet with Photoship written on it (couresy May 9, 1995 Design Stories). Sometimes, nobody can even retrace the steps we took from one topic to another, leaving us a million miles from nowhere, and suddenly the tangent ends, and we are left blinking our eyes in the realization that we are not where we should be.
What I am interested in here is associative thinking, like a Rorschach ink blot. What activates in our head? What does that thought activate in someone else's head? Is there some pattern, or way one can map and organize this train of thought? Or is it inconceivably random? Can one of these tangents be mapped out like the New York subway system (literally a "train" of thought) with each stop being a thought, branching off at certain spots? Could another tangent crisscross into the first? Maybe it would end up looking more like a scribble on a wall, with circled words (or pictures) with a spider web of lines connecting them (a la Ed Fella).

I have several ideas that may provide intriguing work and/or challenges for design. I plan to record (via audio or pen and paper) several conversations between my friends of family and I (or perhaps even at a critique). I most like the idea of taping a conversation from a design critique, therefore also rooting the initial basis in the field in question.
Another direction is to start with a word, such as design, and work that angle alone. I would like to see in which direction my mind takes me. I could revisit ideas stated earlier, branch off, and create a much larger web of interrelated items.
As for the medium or final presentation of this project, I would like to either compose a book, or an installation mural (perhaps both, should time allow). A book format may allow for larger blocks of type, which piques my interest in typesetting. I picture the book starting out with one topic, and slowly trailing into another subject or idea. Images on the pages would relate to certain paragraphs. It would also be amusing to play at the idea of humor with two completely different images put on the same page. However, I rarely get to work large scale, and a mural may also help me become more visually expressive and less technical. I picture a mural as a large map, with some elements hand made, or created by analogue means, while others are of digital output. I want to use some drawing, some screen printing and other methods that I feel as though I've fallen away from.

The purpose of this project will be an exercise in the organization of information, while at the same time abstracting an idea and showing it expressively. Relating to the idea of a tangent, it should open up the directions I can go, as well as providing virtually limitless content.

Andrew Chipman, 10 may 05