Altered books Part 4: Assignment 4 Altered Book

Using a found book, significantly alter the appearance of the pages to create a new volume that is personal to you. This can be any kind of book that is of interest to you. For example, a fiction book, a non-fiction book, a picture book or a photo book.

 This assignment I was looking forward to as it’s something similar to what I’ve done in the past. Creating an experience for the audience that they could touch, feel, even smell. I look back at one of my GCSE pieces which involved altering a sketchbook for the theme movies and tv but with unconventional mediums. Each page had a different film or series an colours, flip ups, stuck on pieces, 3d parts fold outs…. All accompanied with anything that could be painted, splashed, added to the page. Eg. Jam, coffee, salt, plasters, tissue paper, chocolate, tea all sorts. This assignment was right up my alley!

 So Initally I decided I wanted a large book to alter and I went and had a search in the charity shop and the biggest on the shelf was Margaret Atwoods ' The Testamant'. 

 Ideas/planning

 https://www.alisabanks.com/

 http://kerrymcaleer-keeler.com/new-page

 https://juliahasting.com/

Firstly using my sketchbook I mind mapped some idea about ways in which I could alter a book. I knew from the start I would be making it interactive and an experience. Next was the right theme something that felt a little personal but that I could involve a lot of parts too. Thinking about interests of mine, cartoons I create, animals, art or music I also thought family. Family struck out to me cause I started thinking about individuals in my family a their stories and my grandad Phil came to mind. He always loved telling stories and I’d always enjoy hearing about all the places he travelled and things he had done; the RAF was a big part of his younger life and I thought that would be a great theme for the book. I immediately thought of all the memorabilia and things I could include in the pages. His job was to pack the parachutes, or his collection of vintage RAF giant mugs, the odd plane models in the cabinet, books and pictures and a little of capsule an report type card. The pages I wanted to make as a little time capsule, or similar to those packs you can buy for certain intrests. 

The second page I bounced back and forth from researching designers and artists so I could pluck some inspiration into parts I could keep adding to the book. Also having a little look on pintrest.

Research and influence 

Now the influence for the type of book altering was inspired by a few designers I’ve researched in unit.  

Alisa C Banks

Banks is my favourite I’ve come across, the series of books she does is really special.there’s a feel of nostalgia an personal meaning to the books she’s altered. They all seem to be a reflection or memory of a person or thing or event. It’s always full of things to pull, fold, feel… she uses fabrics, collage, old letters, wood, interactive parts such as these books from her series ‘Nan’ ‘Storm. I personally took inspiration from one of her book collctions on her website called 'Good Hair'.

Storm ^
 

Good Hair ^

 

Nan ^

 

 Kerry McAleer-Keeler

Keeler also works inconveniently using similar approach to Alisa, her work also has depth and all kinds of moving pieces. This medical box for example is like a little classroom or medical study packed into a little box. I love small intricate things especially that can be moved an picked up.Theyre all like a dollhouse with or a memory box with layers of items and movable parts which would peak any audience’s curiosity.

Gifts from our Elders ^

Skeletons in the closets ^

Welcome to America: Thoughts on Immigration Ellis Island, 1892 ^

 

Julia Hastings 

Julia’s book designs portray a theme as an object rather than just a book, the unshakable patters, papers, materials, compositions and packaging of books sways from the conventional which makes me personally want to read them more. Although my book doesnt seem to have much influence I still looked through her books to interpret the form an function to see if I could replicate anything sismilar such as text or textures, use fo colours...

More research involved me reading about the RAF and looking at some videos specifically on parachute packing as that what my grandad did. In addtion I also looked up things like planes, uniforms, badges, buttons anything RAF related that I could incorporate. Examples...

 

 

My book I felt I could make quite similar to a subscription type pack as well as a memory box. The pictures, little items and replicas of things.

These are few snippets of the type of things I used, this label above I did on a bottle top (poorly) as I didnt have a paintbrush small enough. Another bottle cap as a uniform button and I also had a go at quickly stictching an RAF patch to add to the page.

Visiting my Nan I also looked through my grandads RAF things. The chest he acquired after leaving with his name a squadron on, the ID talismen for when or if he got lost, report cards, pictures, collected items, stories from my nan. I would have loved to ask him more about it and what he thought of me doing this assignment about his RAF service.

Here’s a picture of the squadron my grandad is the one holding the sign.

The RAF Bible

 

 

 Tankards, plane models and plates 

My Grandad also did boxing whilst in the RAF, these were his trophies as you can see he was in bomber command. 

Materials

Before any of the pieces were added I outlined the compartment on one of the pages and cut the rectangle out, then placed the picture of my Grandad in the middle so I could begin to work around.

 

I used Bottle caps which I have collected. I painted them as the button for the uniform, the parachute logo and RAF badge. Navy and light fabrics were other material, specfically from an old pair of navy shorts. These shorts provided me with pieces to attactch to hte page to repesent the colour of the uniform and the netting part of the shorts was used for a mini parachute to be hooked onto the book.

 

 

Canvas chips and a nail I glued together and painted to create a spinnable propeller stuck into the page.

 Content

The content of the page I planned an also drew out on a book as a mock up to see how things would be laid out. 

 

Other materials and items to be the content.

A mini letter as if it’s had been written an sent home

 

RAF badges and buttons (pictures above

A photo of my grandad 

 

A parachute made with the inside netting of shorts.

Wire

Toy planes to attach to the wire above the book to resemble flight patterns.

 

Pictures of planes and other things

My grandads ring on a chain draped across the pages.

Finally a mini dedication the the box in my nans garden I found a piece of wood to use as a little plaque with the same miltary writing. I didnt use much writing at all for this book, i wanted the images to take over and have all the visuals and interactive parts rather than writing that would take up a lot more of the pages. You can see the original pages in the back but most has been covered, stained or burn't

Reworking 

The compartment I decided to stick my grandads picture in as the base and build up on that with the other things instead of filling it with items. I chose to keep the mini letter on the other page so it didn't cover the picture. The left page I scattered the photos in a random way and offset them so they filled the page in an immersive way as well has making two little sticking out photos just to make the book look bigger and not overcrowd with the photos. The pull out pieces were done using a duplicated parachute pack label so it wasnt just plain white paper.

Before I decided to keep the book open but beforehand I painted the RAF logo on the block of the pages for that extra context. 

Now I was undecided about the background on the pages whether I should paint them like a sky or keep the original to emphasise the vintage theme. But using some coffee and a lighter I got to work and burnt, smuged stained the pages to give make the bakcgound less boring. This ages the book I feel which is exactly the effect I wanted.

Finally I stuck all the photos, bottle caps and all the parts thats stuck out so I could at last tape the wire and planes as well as the parachute.

The wire I twisted in random shapes to resemble flight patterns and postioned the mover the page and around the edges to make it more 3D.

This is the finished altered book A mixture between a dedication to My Grandad and the Royal Air Force.

References:

 Royal Air Force. (n.d.). Royal Air Force. [online] Available at: https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/.

www.historicflyingclothing.com. (n.d.). The Historic Flying Clothing Company. [online] Available at: https://www.historicflyingclothing.com/ [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

‌

www.historicflyingclothing.com. (n.d.). The Historic Flying Clothing Company. [online] Available at: https://www.historicflyingclothing.com/ [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

 www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Parachute Packing (1952). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/Ec1bDSmTnHs [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

‌www.youtube.com. (n.d.). PARA-PACKERS PUT 'EM TO THE TEST. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/HkAsyNHZFss [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

‌Artists:

 Alisa Banks. (n.d.). Alisa Banks. [online] Available at: https://www.alisabanks.com/ [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

 Kerry McAleer-Keeler. (n.d.). Book Objects. [online] Available at: http://kerrymcaleer-keeler.com/new-page [Accessed 30 Jun. 2023].

juliahasting.com. (n.d.). About - Julia Hasting. [online] Available at: https://juliahasting.com/About.

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Royal Air Force. (n.d.). Royal Air Force. [online] Available at: https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/.