The Living Document

      The making of art is a process, as is the crafting of an essay or thesis.  Even with a specific end product in mind, the organic development involved in production can often shift initial goals towards some new and unforeseen destination.  Through a dialogue between self, environment, and medium, a unique experience progressively forms and informs our work. 

      I see this journey as the most significant piece of the creative equation; informing not only the process but the meaning of the result.

      I am interested in having the experience of my written thesis reflect the journey of the art, both for the author and the participating audience.  This has inspired me to challenge the limitations of the traditional printed black and white document for a number of reasons, and move the central space of my thesis online.

Accessibility             

      For anyone interested in my thesis, the web simply offers more options and opportunities.  Rather than limiting my audience to those who have the time and interest to travel to the RIT Archives to read the document in-person, my work is now open to anyone and anywhere with access to the internet.  In this way, my thesis can be easily sent through an email, as well as linked within social networks like Facebook for added traffic.         

      For interested participants with specific accessibility requirements, the internet provides a level of user-adaptability and elasticity not available in any printed form.  My thesis can be translated into another language, resized, highlighted, copied, pasted, and even automatically read aloud all through free Google applications.

Multimedia             

      Another notable asset within an online environment is the option to directly utilize multimedia.  The documentation within my thesis took many forms, and involved pairing many streams together.  Notes were paired with audio, and some of these amalgamations were further combined with video in different forms.  These elements were crucial for my thesis show presentation, and it seemed counter-intuitive to purge them from the written thesis.

Interaction            

      The accessibility and multimedia features described above come hand-in-hand with a unique kind of user interaction.  Fundamental to the internet is the concept of active linking; connecting various online spaces together through content-based portals.  This encourages users to not only read but navigate through the space in a much more personalized and non-linear way.  As the artist must find their own path by connecting the dots, so too must the reader choose their own unique personal journey through the content.

The Living Document

      You are currently reading a living document.  This Thesis involves translating events into documents.  As these 3 events were unfolding experiences I navigated in real-time, so too is this document experienced and navigated by you right now.  Unlike a traditional paper thesis, which once approved serves as a static unchanging record, this thesis has the potential to continue growing beyond any due date.


Some artists, like illustrator and designer Kevin Cornell, are finding digital ways of approaching traditional media and integrating their visual processing online (7).  Other artists are trailblazing new careers by utilizing the universal potential of visual language as support and translation in conferences around the world.  Stephanie Crowley’s ‘Chrysalis Studio’ (8) and companies like ‘Cognitive Media’ (9) offer graphic recording and facilitation services to a hungry market of international corporations; bridging communication barriers for global business.


The act of notetaking is, in a sense, the translation of primary to secondary language; converting event into document


How can art become a document?


Definition of a living document.
Tied to an event.


Contemporary artists involved with living documents
blogs and online art.
graphic recording