For my project I decided to rewrite a World War II love letter/poem in a hieroglyphics system. I took my cue from Egyptian hieroglyphs, where most of the symbols do not refer to words, but rather ideas. In other words, one symbol holds the idea of war, battle, fight, etc.
The basic idea behind this is that when one reads they can infer the message based off the context, knowledge of the writer, and an understanding of the symbols used.
I looked at the letter and found the words (or rather ideas) that I would need to make. One thing that I did was have one symbol for any pronoun referring to oneself such as I, my, mine, etc. The same thing was used for second person pronouns (you, your, etc.). I also have specific symbols for things like Negative which refers literally to negating the word it is paired with. Another specific symbol is one for Clause which is for exactly what it sounds like. Sentences end with a vertical line and there are pause with horizontal lines.
With that in mind, I rewrote the love letter so that it was simplified, but still held the basic idea of the letter. An example is "I keep wishing I could be home with you" which becomes "I continue desire I home with you". For the most part it is symbol per word, except for the word "continue". This word is a combination of three symbols: Time+Negative+End, meaning "time that does not end". Therefore to make the word "continue" one must use the those three symbols together.
After coming up with the symbols and rewriting the letter, it was time to figure out how to write it. I experimented with multiple styles until coming up with one I liked. It is written in the common left to write, up to down, the only difference is that symbols grouped together are writtent vertically.
Finally for the image I decided to do most of the work non-digitally, writing by hand with a fountain pen. Then I wrinkled paper and scanned it in. Using Photoshop I aged, bloddied, and "burned" it to give it an old/wartime feel, since it is supposed to represent WWII. I also think that it adds another message as the destruction and staining gives the idea that it was the last letter written before the soldier died, which almost gives it it's own history.
The letter used says:
My dearest
I've missed you very very much since that last night we were together.
And will hold that night especially in my memories for years to come.
I've been turning it over and over in my mind lately.
I've read you're letter through at least 4 times.
And will probably read it more times before I'm through.
I've been sitting here looking at you're picture and getting more home sick every minute.
I've wanted that picture more than anything else I know of except of course you, you're self.
I keep thinking of you darling.
I keep wishing I could be home with you.
I want to leave in the worst possible way so I could come home to see you but, things don't look to good on that subject.
This war has spoiled a lot of things for everyone I guess.
I've never been so lonesome in my life as I am right now.
I'm completely lost without you darling.
I never realized I could miss anyone person so much.
I just hope it won't be too much longer till I'm able to be with you again and live a sane and normal life.
3 comments:
I think your project is very creative. You put a lot of time in effort into your project. I like the feel of the WWII letter and how you managed to create it. It is very original.
You mentioned in your preface that you used photoshop to manufacture your image. But, the image looks so realistic that it doesn't resemble any touch ups or "falseness" I guess.
Also, you make use of symbols and notations very well in your project. I believe that the hieroglyphs system was a very good idea. The only thing is if someone isn't familiar with the system they woud be confused of the meaning.
Wow. A lot of thought went into this. It's very visually appealing, and the work that went into the aesthetic aspect of the project is terrific.
Knowing the context of the work, the burns and blood marks on the paper work well.
If I had one special request for this, it would be to have a translation of the original work to refer to-- great job.
I think your imagery is very well done and makes the piece more solid. If the hieroglphs were on any other background I think they would have lost something. If the symbols were a bit bolder I think it would make it easier for the viewer to follow along and break down the text.
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