Writing Is Thinking Bo-Chen Chen

MICA

We’re GDMA still writing because Writing is we’re Thinking Bo-Chen still Chen thinking

writing is thinking

46 Interviews 46 / Films Storyboards 50 Video A Fragmental 64 / Outcomes Exhibition Installation 74 Conclusions Bibliography 18 Survey / Interview 18 Survey Design Process Collections 24 28 Object Experiments 36 Projection Experiments THINK to 42 PAUSE Problem Definition Problem Research Collection 08 Primary of10 A System Movements 12 Precedent 14 Antecedents Introduction Abstract 78 76 22 02 04 06 01 WRITING IS THINKING Direction ofwritinginJapanese Direction ofwritinginChinese Introduction 01

Technology has given us a more Also, when I write in Chinese, I prefer convenient life through the many using thinner pens with 0.38mm or mobile devices that allow us to type 0.28mm tips because the structure on the keyboard with letters appearing of Chinese characters is intricate and instantly. People type a great deal of made up of many strokes and dots, texts a day to communicate with each especially traditional Chinese. Using other in a clean and more organized a thinner pen, I can arrange multiple visual language. However, as a strokes in a perfect square since designer, I still prefer to write down writers can see more white spaces my initial thoughts by instinct because between strokes. On the other hand, I have more flexible ways to connect English and Korean are more like my ideas in mind. Handwriting also symbols so I can use thicker pens with can help me to improve memory and 0.5mm, 0.7mm or even 1.0mm tips to to remember important things at the make a streamlined written form. For same time. me, handwriting has characteristics that show a personality and allows As a multilingual learner, thinking readers to imagine something about and writing are switches for me every the writer. Whenever I receive a second in a day. Writing directions postcard from a friend, I try to capture from any language are slightly different. the motion of this person’s movement Based on what I have learned, Chinese, and the habitual action he/she Japanese and Korean can be written in transfers through their handwriting. both vertical and horizontal directions. Those experiences make me want to In Chinese, writers can either write learn more about handwriting itself, from left to right or from right to and explore the main reason why left. More interesting, I am a right- people have different letterform styles handed person. When I write Chinese even though they use the same tools. characters in vertical direction, the text lines move from right to left so it easily messes up the ink by hand if the paper does not absorb the ink thoroughly. The writing experiences are very different from writing in English which is usually from left to right. 02

Abstract WRITING IS THINKING 03

Writing is Thinking explores how people use handwriting to form their own thinking. People often write in two ways: short-form and long-form. Short-form tends to be quick and means the writer is thinking fast to achieve a People often write in two ways: particular purpose such as making a note or a list. On short-form and long-form. the contrary, long-form writing, such as a birthday card or a letter takes longer, and prompts the writer to think deeply. Writing is not fixed, invariable, or limited. The flow of writing represents the process of thinking.

This project explores these ideas as videos in multiple overlapping frames to show specific writing/thinking moments as deconstructed details which highlight aspects of each person’s experiences and identity. Each person featured in this collection has his/her individual habit of using handwriting to do an “action” of thinking. What he/she thinks is embodied in what he/she writes. 04

Problem Definition

Today, we are still writing on paper even though we have digital devices that we can write. But we seldom notice when we use handwriting to think in our everyday lives. If we don’t write down what we think, can we still remember that moment exactly? What kinds of things do people write down depending on their personal habits?

Looking at how people use handwriting in a particular situation influences what we think about their personalities. They might use handwriting for organizing or communicating with themselves or improving their memory. The goal of this thesis is to discover and collect moments that people use handwriting in daily life. WRITING IS THINKING 05

This thesis is not: • A critique of finest scripts • A history of handwriting in a culture • A way to persuade people to use handwriting in certain media • An attempt to compare individual handwriting styles • A lesson to teach handwriting in different languages • An analysis of why people use handwriting less or more • A comparison of how fast people can write Research If we don’t write down what we think, can we still remember that moment exactly? 08

Primary Collection WRITING IS THINKING 09

I began this project by collecting people’s handwriting. Different people must have different handwriting styles. Even the same person will have two different types of handwriting depending on what situation he/she is in. I asked my friends, families, and classmates for many types of handwriting for different purposes including note- taking and the other daily routines.

From what I observed in these collections, people who understand and can write two or more languages have similar ways of writing when they cross different languages. This made me more interested in handwriting itself. Handwriting seems not only a form of communicating, it also has more intangible facts which will affect a person’s thinking. RESEARCH 10

A System of Movements

In his book, The Story of Handwriting, Alfred Fairbank mentions that Alfred Faribank Western handwriting has two writing The Story of Handwriting : Origins and Development / 1970 forms: formal and cursive writing. One is made up of a lift-pen more than twice from paper without connected strokes. The other one is written by quick handwriting without lifting a pen. Therefore, the forms of letters are influenced by the speed of connecting strokes (p78). It means the structure of alphabet handwriting is affected by how long of time the writer wants to write. WRITING IS THINKING 11

“Handwriting is a system of movements, involving touch. Touch is a very personal sense. (Of course, handwriting also requires action by the mind and the eyes) ” (p80). He indicates that handwriting is a really personal experience that shows how people form their writing through thinking and observing. During some experiments of collecting people’s static handwriting pieces, I realized that the value of handwriting is not only the result of people’s writing but also their process of writing what they think. “How” and “what” are more treasured than “which” way they document their thinking.

Fairbank stated that, “Pattern is not confined to what is regarded as good writing, though it will certainly be found there. Even in illegible writing there may be a personal quality of rhythmical and fluent line that can be perceived to be pattern” (p82). This implies personal patterns are also hidden in handwriting so that people are able to recognize the difference in writing from others. RESEARCH 12

Precedent

The British Library’s exhibition Writing : Making Your Mark / Apr. 26–Aug. 27, 2019 WRITING IS THINKING 13

In order to narrow my topic, I did basic research about past exhibitions on handwriting. From the article, “From Clay Tablets to Smartphones: 5,000 Years of Writing, the curator of Writing: Mark Your Own Mark, Adrian Edwards said Writing has never been static, the marks we make on the page have always changed and developed in ways in tune with our needs.” This was a turning point that gave me another direction to explore — handwriting in a moveable and floating I switched my focus fromway. I switched my focus from handwriting handwriting as letterforms toas a letterforms to a more invisible factor — more invisible factor — people’s action. Does People’s Action. the mood influence a person’s writing? Is there any specific situation? Will the weather or the environment impact their action as well? Why do they want to write rather than type on a digital device? A great number of questions came to mind and influenced my thinking and writing. RESEARCH 14

Antecedents

David Hockney David Hockney Rober Littma Floating in my pool / Nicholas Wilder Studying Picasso. Oct, 1982 Los Angeles / March 24th, 1982 WRITING IS THINKING 15

An action illustrated as an image was not completed to reveal the hidden reason of people’s thinking and manifest the moment of their handwriting. So, most of my research on visual approaches about the moment are photographic references. David Hockney, a painter and photographer, used photographs to spotlight the moving subjects, especially people’s movement, by taking split photos in each second and putting them together as a whole period of time. Hockney’s collections of photographs not only recorded a moment, but also stretched time.

David Hockney Prehistoric Museum Near Palm / Spring, 1982 RESEARCH 16

YouTube uploaded by Xavier Dietlin The living book : A poetic mapping animation for the Hublot boutique in Lucerne

The mapping projection on the book for Hublot boutique in Lucerne inspired me to think about how a timeline-based object could be a conjunction of motion pieces and narrative. The living images on the blank book were also associated with the concept of the intangibility of time on tangible watches. This conceptual form influenced me to illustrate the moment of thinking as a video based on a timeline. WRITING IS THINKING 17

Rui Vieira Rasgos / November 28, 2009

From Rui Vieira’s work, Rasgos, I studied how the texts and photos are displayed together. This work is also an evidence of combining fragmented photos into a complete face. Connection, combination and overlap were key words that I found applied to these notions through videos sections. RESEARCH 18

Survey / Interview

Based on what I observed from collections of handwriting, I started to interview people about how they write, what they write and what kind of situation makes them want to write something down on paper by hand. Most people replied with situations such as note-taking, Post-it memos and when they feel lost in their lives.

The Instagram question function was really helpful to collect general ideas of what people thought. They could reply to me individually and then I could share anonymous answers with my friends on the temporary story. When people saw what I shared, more people would reply to me. WRITING IS THINKING 19 RESEARCH 20 WRITING IS THINKING 21 RESEARCH WRITING IS THINKING Design Process “You have to fail untill you succeed.” 24

Collections

Pre-Video To investigate the topic of handwriting, I collected different writing tools such as a highlighter, a pencil, a mechanical pencil, a colored pencil etc to represent each individual’s characteristics through appearances, colors and functions. I assembled collective tools into three factor in handwriting: Emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger; Language including English, Korean, and Chinese (Zhuyin) ; and Direction of writing including verticality and horizontality.

I made a 10 second video to experiment about how pens have a connection with emotion and language itself. At the same time, I also recorded a short clip about the movement of writing and linked it with the sound of a pen writing on paper. The outcome indicated that movement and the sound effect gave me a more interesting perspective on the handwriting topic since the shape of letterform and sound depended on writing speed and pen use. WRITING IS THINKING 25 DESIGN PROCESS 26

Handwriting + The theory from The story of Favorite Pen Handwriting mentioned that people’s handwriting is influenced by the paper, pen and the time. So, I also collected people’s favorite pens and their handwriting on paper to identify what, when, where, and how they would write by hand. The result was really interesting because most people tend to write a very quick memo to remind them what they were thinking at that moment. When I asked them what particular time of day or what specific date they wrote anything down, the answers were generally vague and they did not even remember the details of that moment (thinking). WRITING IS THINKING 27 DESIGN PROCESS 28

Object Experiments

Paper Roll Direction of text in handwriting is also a factor that influences people’s writing. Based on different languages of writing, I chose horizontal and vertical Chinese writing to apply to an object. Paper rolls are common from ancient wisdom in both Eastern and Western history. We use paper to communicate with each other and also transmit our thinking to the next generation. I planned to have a paper roll in my thesis exhibition that users could write on in three different angles. WRITING IS THINKING 29

Photo by Pallavi Daga DESIGN PROCESS 30 WRITING IS THINKING 31 DESIGN PROCESS 32

Wire Working Title Since my topic is about handwriting, I planned to make an unique typemark for my thesis exhibition to connect the main concept of “thinking”. I used a light wire to bend “writing is thinking” based on my own script. In order to use one non-chopped wire, I tried several ways to connect smooth- running strokes together in each letterform. Also, I needed to redesign each typical letter script to make it legible in a title. WRITING IS THINKING 33 DESIGN PROCESS 34 WRITING IS THINKING 35 DESIGN PROCESS 36

Projection Experiments

First Trial After collecting some handwriting , I tried to explore how to merge two different elements of handwriting, I made a trial video and projected it on the wall to see possible ways to interact with the handwriting. I experimented two ways: One was a projection on the body. The other was a projection on paper. Both ways showed the details of each writer’s strokes. The projection had a dark background, allowing for a person to focus on the handwriting itself and provided an immersive space for people to look at their handwriting. WRITING IS THINKING 37 DESIGN PROCESS 38

Second Trial I asked people to take photos of any kinds of handwriting that showed their unique ways of writing. From this experiment, I made another video using collective handwriting photos to overlap photos of interviewee’s favorite pens in order to show personal preference and their personalities. Afterwards, I observed more details of their environment, for example when they were writing notes or scheduled plans with a laptop or a cup of tea. WRITING IS THINKING 39 DESIGN PROCESS 40

An Experimental Our daily lives are composed of many Grid Video micro moments so I chose to use a grid system to represent activities and specific moments in our lives as micro perspectives. Each moment indicated the time we thought and wrote — such as writing a recipe, grocery list or a post-it memo. This 40-second video was planned to project and be looped on the wall in the exhibition. Viewers would watch 9 videos at the same time first. When they put on headphones, they would be led to focus on a single frame based on a specific background sound. However, the grid structure of the video did not show “ The thinking moment” clearly. Also, this concept did not give viewers the fluency of writing. WRITING IS THINKING 41 DESIGN PROCESS 42

PAUSE

Because I was planning an exhibition at MICA, I went through the article, From Clay Tablets to Smartphones: 5,000 Years of Writing, about a handwriting exhibition curated by British Library, Writing: Making Your Mark, which ran from April 26 to August 27, 2019. I was really impressed by the long history of handwriting even though people tend to type “ Writing has never on mobile phones and computers been static ” nowadays. Again, “Writing has never been static,” said Adrian Edwards who was a curator at the British Library. This statement made me consider how handwriting has evolved from 5,000 years ago until now. Technology is changing our lives gradually to write on a screen instead of a sheet of touchable paper so human beings are changing their ways to adjust to the changed environment. WRITING IS THINKING 43

to Think

The questions I posed :

Why are we writing? Why are we still writing? Why are we still writing by hand? Why are we still writing by hand on paper?

Because we need to see the words. Because we still need to see the words. Because we still need to see the words when we are using our hand to write. Because we still need to see the words by our handwriting and recall the moment while we’re writing. Because we’re always thinking. DESIGN PROCESS 44

“ Writing is a system of movement ” WRITING IS THINKING 45

From the review of the exhibition, the writer mentioned writing is an action of message transmission from a brain to a hand. The book, The story of handwriting, the author pointed out that “Writing is a “ Writing is a system of movement ” system of movement.” Based on these ideas, I switched my focus on stationary handwriting pieces to dynamic time frames. I became curious about the moment that people would think and write their thinking down on paper. DESIGN PROCESS 46

Interviews

At the same time, I also interviewed more people and talked to each person I selected from the previous survey about their special experience of using handwriting. Some people live far away from where I live, so I thought that the best way to collaborate with them was through texts and drawings. This method improved my documentation skills to set up I think I’ll start writing when I ... each interviewee a folder and included their handwriting piece, storyboards, and video clips. WRITING IS THINKING 47

I think I’ll start writing when I ... DESIGN PROCESS 48

Me : The most important thing for this video is the handwriting part. This is also my thesis goal. Stone : The timing making me wanna get a pen to write is really strange. Stone : For example, when I have done an operation Stone : Or when I leave a hospital. Stone : Hahahahahaha lol Stone : I probably need to open my wound Me : Is there any specific time or date? Stone : Yes. Me : Do you mean you need to open your wound and write things down? Lol Stone : That timing is usually when I feel very suffering and painful. WRITING IS THINKING 49 DESIGN PROCESS 50

Storyboards / Films

I planned to interview 9 or 18 people at the beginning to fit my grid structure. According to the interviews with them, I captured some imaginary scenes in my mind to sketch the first rough draft to share with my interviewee. WRITING IS THINKING 51 DESIGN PROCESS 52

Yubin Hwang in California

WRITING IS THINKING Alice Yang in California 53

Xiran in Maryland DESIGN PROCESS

Amy Yang in California 54

Ellen Minsavage in Maryland

WRITING IS THINKING Tran Nguyen in California 55

Bella Hu in Maryland DESIGN PROCESS

Stone Shin in Taiwan 56

Remote Art Directing This remote methodology was highly successful since the variety of people had their own space where they could show “themselves” and the film shooting preferences. Most importantly, they had their particular moments to use handwriting. I asked that “they only needed to be natural as usual.” They did not need to do set design or speak any scripts. All I needed for the video clips was static camera shots instead of panning or tracking cameras. Even though I provided my storyboards to them, they did not need to stick to it completely because their environment could connect to their individual habits and personalities. I still wanted these elements to be kept through their video clips. WRITING IS THINKING 57

When I received each person’s fragmental videos, I found they had different styles of shooting a video. Some people could recognize the light and saturation and tried to stay consistent in all the clips. Others even shot more video clips out of my storyboard to give me more options to construct their personalities in my final videos. Therefore, the outcomes were more like a combination of two different people’s (I and my interviewee) thoughts and creativity. This part of the process vastly impressed me in terms of visual explorations and experiments. DESIGN PROCESS 58 WRITING IS THINKING 59 DESIGN PROCESS 60

In-Person Shooting Different from the remote method, this way of shooting a video is more typical and it is easier to control the elements in the video including environment, light, angles and narrative from the storyboard. This exploration focused on the communication and observation at that moment when I shot each scene. I could follow my storyboards completely to achieve my original ways of visual narrative. When I visited the interviewee’s space (most spaces were their home), location scouting Is here your usual spot? was the first thing I did for testing my camera and the shooting angles. Also, I asked them if the place we shot was their “usual spot” to use handwriting. During the setup, I found this collaborative experience was interesting because I could always find a new and unexpected way to shoot the scenes. WRITING IS THINKING 61

Is here your usual spot? DESIGN PROCESS 62 WRITING IS THINKING 63 DESIGN PROCESS 64

A Fragmental Video

After shooting and finishing visiting some interviewees, the way of taking video could capture the general meaning of that moment in one scene. For example, viewers usually see a focal point in the video but they do not notice the environment or the set of one cut. However, there were still so many things happening at that moment. How can I still express the micro and macro perspective at the same time/moment/second?

Hockney’s philosophy behind his photography gave me a hint of arranging each fragment together to stretch time in thost videos. Each frame has an unique detail of the personality which was represented by a habit, a movement, a sound, a still life, or an angle of a view. More importantly, these fragments belong to each person’s life and become their personal action or the way of “thinking”. WRITING IS THINKING 65 DESIGN PROCESS Video Size | 1920x1080 px Total Length | 7”20’ 66 WRITING IS THINKING 67 DESIGN PROCESS

70 71

Writing is not only just writing, it is more about thinking. Two significant perspectives can even improve this topic with more specific details. When people think faster, they will have quick notes and words. But, thinking deeper usually takes more time to write. Therefore, two parts were needed to categorize two different timelines of thinking. 72 73 74

Exhibition Installation / Outcomes

Typically, MICA would have a grad show around March to April to show grad students’ thesis works in MICA campus. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the school canceled all the exhibitions and events in the campus. But, I still had an original elevation plan for the arrangement of my exhibition section. Three videos — top, middle, and the bottom — are about handwriting movement, the moment of thinking/ writing, and collections in any kind of handwriting on paper. Three different sizes of videos show we remember things at different times to think and to write. When viewers watch these three videos, the situation mimics people’s thinking based on the timeline. WRITING IS THINKING 75 DESIGN PROCESS 76

Conclusions WRITING IS THINKING 77

During interviews with people, We are still writing because we I found out that some people retrieved are still thinking. As long as we are specific situations they would write alive, we always think every second, things down on the paper. They had minute, hour, day, week, month, never noticed it because they did not year, decade, century. I would like to think that they would actually write keep documenting people’s thinking down a sudden thought. Thinking moments to prove that humans are sometimes is too fast to remember still writing based on thinking no for people. On the other hand, thinking matter how the world will be changed. can last long enough to make people In addition, I would like to test more handwrite an important message on mapping projection with these the paper to keep reminding them moments into everyday life objects as what they are thinking in the future. an exhibition to show how people’s thinking connects to their lives. In front of the camera, being natural in writing and any kind of acting is one of the main goals to reveal their particular action of thinking. When I communicated with them about scene settings and acting direction in their usual spaces where they think and write, they kept “rethinking” how they might act in that moment. Then, I asked them to do what they usually do in everyday routine so I could document their real situations as much as possible. Thinking naturally influenced their fluent writing at the same time. 78

Bibliography

Alfred Fairbank, The Story of Handwriting : Origins and Developments, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1970

David Hockney, Prehistoric Museum Near Palm Spring, 1982 | http://www.hockney.com/works/photos/ photographic-collages

David Hockney, Rober Littma Floating in my pool, Oct, 1982 | http://www.hockney.com/works/photos/ photographic-collages

David Hockney, Nicholas Wilder Studying Picasso. Los Angeles, 24th March, 1982 | http://www.hockney.com/ works/photos/composite-polaroids

From Clay Tablets to Smartphones: 5,000 Years of Writing | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/arts/design/ writing-exhibition-british-library.html

Rui Vieira, Rasgos, November 28, 2009 | https:// ruivieiradesign.wordpress.com/

Structure of Chinese | https://www.omniglot.com/chinese/ structure.htm

Uploaded by Xavier Dietlin, The Living Book : A Poetic Mapping Animation for the Hublot Boutique in Lucerne | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs9qnZZVkog

What Direction is Japanese Written? | https://www. japanesewithanime.com/2017/04/japanese-writing-horizontal- or-vertical.html WRITING IS THINKING “what are you thinking right now?”

SPECIAL THANKS Family & Friends

Alice Yang Amy Yang Bella Hu Ellen Minsavage Tran Nguyen Stone Shin Xiran Luo Yubin Hwang

Sandra Maxa Mark Sanders Maria Habib Maureen Weiss Amanda Buck Hayelin Choi Tony Venne Kiel Mutschelknaus GDMA Class of 2020

Printed by Blurb.com Type set in : Open Sans Family by Steve Matteson Texas Hero by Three Islands Press Vollkorn Regular by Friedrich Althausen

I’m thinking...