The Creation of the Journal
Analog Journal
In our project we wanted to explore the river as a “ reflection ” of the dynamics of the city : what is the connection between these two complex “ organisms ”, do they correlate , and if they do , in which ways is this connection manifested ? We found that the best way to explore this relation is through bridges : a sort of a human-made “ statement ” on the river itself , and the overflow of the city space into the river space . Which parts of the city , groups of people and places does the bridge connect , and which does it separate ?
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Although we began to construct a kind of large , hand-made map of our journey and experience , it did not contain the intimacy and personality that a journal or a book would possess . As we were creating a very personal recreation of our experiences , we wanted our analogue piece , as well as our Instagram photographs , to reflect this .
Our idea of creating a concertina book came from this idea of interactivity ; creating an experience for the viewer through image , colour and texture to build a sense of familiarity and knowledge of the essence of each bridge ; what / who it connects and how this can be felt or perceived . We used our own images , magazine cut-outs and watercolour to realise our ideas , and by also including found objects which we collected from each bridge , there is also a direct physical connection to the space which the viewer can pick up on .
The ‘ found objects ’ were the first indicator as to what purpose each bridge possessed . Whether it be tourism , traffic , social or leisure , it was obvious which bridge was used for which specific purpose . Of course there were crossovers , and what we believed to be a relatively locally-used bridge would be contradicted by the vast touristic landmarks present on either river bank . This was better explained by our online research into the provenance and history of each bridge , explaining its location , the reason for its construction and for whom it was built .
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