Author Archives: Janesa Brosnan

Final Project- Remediation and User Interaction between Apple Digital Tech and Tablets

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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” (Apple Marketing Brochure 1977) Technology is in a constant feedback loop, changing and melding into new and old forms in a non-linear timeline. With the introduction of new portable digital, instead of continuing in new futuristic physical forms, designers went back to the literal board, the historical tablet. New digital technology references their form heavily to the wax tablet. Humans have used writing tablets such as wax and clay for centuries, encoding in people an intrinsic knowledge use. This intrinsic knowledge was used by new tech companies, and heavily by Apple, to make an easier transition from old media to new media. By making the form and interface already familiar to new users, the company creates an easier learning curve to new tech. Through this, the feedback loop is alive, referencing both new and old historical human habits within new digital media.  

The foundation of technology development is in constant relationship with each other. In Jessica Pressmans, Old Media/New Media, “Media do not replace one another in a clear, linear succession but instead evolve in a more complex ecology of interrelated feedback loops. “What is new about new media,” Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin write, “comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media” (1999: 15) (See REMEDIATION). “Remediation” is evidence of how new media impact old media.” (Pressman 1) The new digital interface of the ipad or the tablet is seeing a physical example of remediation. The historical rectangular form with content displayed inside the outer blocked borders is the same with the interior replaced with a screen. While the manufactured medium of circuit boards now encapsulates the ipad inside, the old and new tablet have a working system of nerves that allow knowledge to be displayed on an interface, whether electrical currents or wood fibers. The use of the writing tablet for centuries set up the inevitable evolution of the object through historical human reliance. The digitization of the tablet was the next step of the transition of the tablet, having previous transitions like stone to wood or clay to wax. 

Steve Job’s company focus was making his products accessible and familiar. His products weren’t new inventions, but recrafted objects. He stated in a recalled past interview with Walter Isaacson, “The main thing in our design is that we have to make things intuitively obvious.” (Isaacson 10) Job’s emphasis on intuitive knowledge goes back to the feedback loop and intrinsic knowledge use. Making an intuitive interface creates a simpler experience interacting with new tech. By basing his company on this, it forms a trend of basing the new on the old and a successful tactic that makes a popular company. By keeping the Apple products as raw as possible, interference between the process of intrinsic knowledge and action from it is minimized. This is shown in all Apple products, from iPads, macbooks, and iPhones. Clay tablets were very portable, having a rounded base and edges that suggests it fit in the scribes palm. (Borsuk 13) This resembles the sleek rounded edges of a basic iphone model. The First Generation iPhone is significantly bigger than the rest, having a thicker shape which can be both attributed to the early development of a full screen interface with an encoded keyboard and the attempt to replicate the portable clay tablet and its importance on being held in the palm. Macbooks can be tied to the wax version of the tablet. In Chapter 1 of How the Page Matters, Bonnie Mak writes“ that a physical structure was devised to match and help circumscribe the intellectual unit of the pagina materially…multiple frames were often hinged together with a strip of leather or ring to increase the writing surface.”(Mak 12-13) The macbook was created as a way to maximize the availability of knowledge and writing through making a portable computer. Again, the designers of Apple drew on the historical form of the tablet by attaching two tablet models, but with one digital tablet and one keyboard and a physical locked connector instead of a removable, deteriorable, binding. 

Old media and new media constantly circle each other in their development. By creating anew, it cannot be created without contributing to the old. In the era of the 20th Century, the sleek digital technology and its allure had taken foothold, but its grasp on the collective cannot be attributed to the aesthetic of futurism, but the nostalgia of the past. The creation of the most popular portable technology company was based on the emphasis of building from what already was. The usage of intrinsic knowledge systems and relatable technology made Apple flourish because of their understanding of simplicity and familiarity. By remediating a historical object, Apple created a simple transition between physical to digital because of creating the basic form with modern elements. The form and the usage never changed, just the evolution of its parts from wooden fiber nerves to circuit nerves. 

Close Reading

My creative project is a homemade wax tablet. It is first made with two rectangular wooden tablets with rounded edges. The interior is filled with layers of melted beeswax which has been dyed with yellow pigment to show a brighter canvas instead of a natural beeswax’s white or translucent color. I connected the two tablets with drilled holes and wire as they were too small to put weaved thread into. I have attached a carved wooden stylus that I made from a wooden dowel which I shaved the end into a point with a knife. This technique of a carved wooden interior and rounded edges go back centuries. It was used as an early writing tool as it was accessible and relatively simple to make, though it took time to chisel and dye the wax. This taught me about the physical form of the interface and its development. We can see almost exact forms through different time periods, through the clay and wax tablets, to blackboard/chalkboard tablets, to digital tablets like iPads. I have attached a photo of a chalkboard set I found at Old Town Historic Park as a comparison to my wax tablets. This shows that while the parts to make the tablets are different, the mechanics, outer shell, and interface, still relatively take the same form outline. Through centuries, our use of this important tool is constant, but also how we make its mechanics. Through this object, we connect to humans, past, present, and future, because of our past down knowledge of a reliable object. This object, though may seem insignificant, is a marker of our connection to and evolution as a species.

Works Cited

Borsuk, Amaranth. The Book. MIT Press. May 2018.

Isaacson, Walter. “How Steve Jobs’ Love of Simplicity Fueled a Design Revolution.” Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-steve-jobs-love-of-simplicity-fueled-a-design-revolution-23868877/.

Mak, Bonnie. How the Page Matters. University of Toronto Press. 2011. 

Pressman, Jessica. Old Media/New Media. Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media and Textuality. 2022. www.jessicapressman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/13.01.22-Pressman_essay.pdf.

Tetzeli, Rick. “Why Jony Ive Is Apple’s Design Genius.” Smithsonian Magazine, December 2017. www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/jony-ive-apple-design-genius-180967232/. 

Takeaway – Changing What a Book is

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What I took away from this class is that I didn’t understand how much the physicality of the book mattered until this class. I thought that the only thing that mattered to a book was its story and maybe the cover so I could judge whether I wanted to read it or not or whether I thought it was an accurate representation of the theme of the text. I didn’t know how much what materials that were used to make the book, or how the book influenced trends and the commodification of it, truly meant anything.

I’m glad I took this class because it really pushed me to think beyond what a book is and how it connects to the world and history around us. I thought the only connections I could make between past and present were the types of stories and characters presented. Now I know that there’s a plethora of connections through the type of ink, paper, layout of the book, and how a book can be used as an object for more than just reading. Books represent us through art, through dress, through legal systems. They all tell us different narratives about people all around the world now and before us. I learned that all books are narratives of who, how, and what made them. They all tell stories; I just needed to understand that stories can be told in different forms than just text. In this class, I was taught to crucially examine what was in front of me like I hadn’t done before. It taught me to be analytical and theoretical, I am able to now not look at books, but everything in a new perspective. I now ask, how and why, instead of what.

Final Project Proposal: The Wax Tablet and How It Influences Modern Aesthetics

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My final project is going to be about the evolution of learning tools and how it doesn’t go in a straight line, but loops and calls back to each other in reference. Our modern learning objects always call back to its roots whether it be the form or the material. In our modern technological formats, aesthetic and build still revolves around early models of technology. While things digitally and physically evolve, we still have significant traces to early knowledge media because of how we choose to format it like our digital bookshelf or flip phones. Our aesthetics of modern media relies on previous models to make its reputation congruent with knowledge. 

The earliest wax tablet currently found is from 7th BCE according to The British Library and at the time was used for documentation and learning. In the images I’ve seen, tablets are typically either one lone tablet or if two, are attached to one another like a book. I found that computers, notebooks, and regular books fold the same way; containing two sides with the information in the middle of the pages and a spine that connects the two. The wood that makes up the sides of the tablet also can be seen like a google doc, with the margins of a page and the type in the middle. 

In my essay, I will discuss how the aesthetics and build of different learning technologies like books, computers, and online applications reference the historical tablet.  

For my creative project, I will be making a wax tablet which has a back and front container made out of wood which holds wax and is attached by thread or another material. I want to be able to transport it as I will be building it this week when I’m home so I want it to be able to fully close as well.

Lifecycle Archives and Identity

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In the first chapter of “Shadow Archives: The Lifecycles of African American Literature”, I saw that the lifecycle of archives and how they are used throughout time can be a representation of giving new life to history and black representation. On page 9, Cloutier writes, “the forensic imagination that informs much of the contemporary African American scholarship (re)establishes the authority of a collective provenance, conjuring a kinship that, at its best, allows contemporary black life to imaginatively reclaim irretrievable losses.” By looking through different archives over time, it can tell us about the political climate and how people were seen at the time depending on how and who curated it. Through past curations, we’re able to examine beliefs that people held over what is deemed important and how much representation Black people had in archiving Black history.

On pages 9 and 10, a different perspective of archivists is shown. Cloutier states that “collecting practices of individual authors offers a unique counterpoint to the dominant forms of institutional thinking under whose shadow black writers lived. The archives become a site where an author’s hidden identities, affiliations, and political ambivalences and fantasies can be hammered out, notably when these things became too difficult, messy, shameful, or inchoate for public presentation.” When we examine individual writers and are able to piece together their whole story, it fills in gaps and helps the history of important writers to move forward and not be forgotten. Looking at writers’ personal histories and documents and not already curated archives can give insight about the political history of Black writers of a specific decade and its relationship to public perception at the time. For example, American writers such as Richard Wright have had likings towards communist ideas but may have not been open about it because of public perception and possible ostracization. Uncovering this and putting into future archives tells the next generation of the relationship between identity, politics, and what led to having certain ideologies.

I liked on page 11, where the lifecycle of an archive is brought up in relation to time. The text says, “It is only at the end of this period of closure that the archived document is as if woken from sleep and returned to life”…“the use of an archive “results in the resuscitation of life, in bringing the dead back to life by reintegrating them in the cycle of time.” Keeping the usage of an archive going over time, even if it diverts from its original purpose, keeps important history, content, and context alive. By remembering documents or archived mementos of a person with new perspectives, it helps represent the relationship that historical identity has when interacting with life.

Week 12: Fetishization of the Book and Self-Image

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Dr. Pressman starts off the first chapter with the statement, “we no longer need books” (pg. 1) in the original sense. A lot don’t use them solely for their original purpose anymore; to explore or have time with one’s thoughts thinking about the book in context. And if we intended that use, I guarantee that we would have still bought books off the shelves because of the cover, thinking that it looked pretty. The clothbound or highly illustrated ones at the Barnes and Noble personally draw me in because I like the sophisticated or elegant look of the book. That is me prioritizing aesthetic and materialistic value over the purpose of the pages I’m buying. 

The fetishization of books has become an increasingly widespread phenomenon. Everywhere I look, books are being used as content for material objects, titles being printed on everything like a constant ad. They target this need for a reputation of being knowledgeable rather than offering knowledge itself.  On page 8. Dr. Pressman brings up how books are being reshaped and questioned through art, “In bookwork, the book is presented as a physical thing of beauty, complexity, and fascination, not just as a storage container for text. We can’t read the words contained in Pamela Paulsrud’s Touchstones or in Brian Dettmer’s New Funk Standards because pieces of the pages have been cut away, shellacked, and otherwise altered Garrett Stewart identifies bookwork as a distinct genre of contemporary art in which the codex is “demedi-ated,” its medial function stripped away to become sculptural and aesthetic.” Touchstones made me think about how in the modern age, we strip away the knowledge and common form of the book and turn it into a form of paperweight, using the book as a knickknack to showcase what knowledge we want to be seen as having. It reminds me of those fake storage containers that pose as books that people decorate their houses with; I’ll insert a photo. We fetishize books to the point where we don’t care to even physically have the pages of knowledge to go with it anymore if it has an appearance like it. We now view books and anything with their likeness as an accessory to a collection about us, centralizing this focus about ourselves and self-image.

Midterm- Gustave Doré and His Impact on Commodification and Book Production

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New York: Cassel, Peter, Galpin, and Co. First Edition, 1866. Printed at J.J. Little and Co.

First edition of this book by this company, continued to print other editions later with different detailing. The binding is thread, and paper is a rag-cotton that shows age with mold. The covering back and front is leather, embossed with gold lettering for the title, and black for the author and illustrator. The front shows a gold outline of an angel holding a sword and spear in front of clouds. Behind the angel’s center is a black shining sun with gold stars marking the page. The black also has gold embossed stars. The interior includes green floral decorative end paper. The edges of all pages are gilded. The first pages are blank, followed by a title page, content page, and introduction. Besides the covers, all lettering is in Roman black font. This book includes 50 printed wood carved illustrations by Gustave Doré and various woodcarvers, with their signatures at the bottom of the artwork. Illustrations are in black ink and cover a whole page. One drawing is protected by film on page 260. Footnotes for chapters and illustrations are included in the book which are printed and not hand done. Footnotes are shown at the bottom italicized, gives context for information, and cites the reference. 

Gustave Doré has been known for his captivating and dramatic works, often in religious contexts or themes like Dante’s Inferno and The New Bible. One of the most famous though is John Milton’s Paradise Lost which Doré was commissioned for in an 1866 First Edition by Petter, Galpin, and Co. It includes 50 full plates of illustrations that include scenes of angels, devils, and Adam and Eve. His work was transferred onto full pages that allowed the viewer to see his technique and themes in full view. His variety of intensity of his black lines and edges has made his work captivating for centuries. His ability to display emotion with ink and special detail has allowed the viewer to delve into important themes and understand them fully. With the inclusion of Doré in this mass produced First Edition, it can be seen as an example of how art plays in the system of book production, supply and demand, and what companies deem as important when choosing to have an illustrator. 

In this Petter, Galpin, and Co. version of Paradise Lost, the main goal was making the book widespread in popularity and accessibility to lead to more sales. In order to include the illustrations of Doré to boost demand for the book while confining to the fast production speed for mass prints, they used carved woodblock. Various carvers whose names are at the bottom of the illustrations carved Doré’s work into the block so it could be stamped onto the paper. This technique maintained efficiency and a standard quality where each consumer would get the same as the other. It was made to be used over and over, minimizing production time by not having to hand illustrate or make the picture from scratch each time. It creates a certain quality control but also forms the lack of personality in individual books. Every product is to be made as an exact copy. This first edition of Paradise Lost shows the markers of commercialization and emphasis on production and sales, not artistic individualism. 

The commission of Gustave Doré and his illustrations are also an example of an artistic choice for the purpose of marketability. Doré was an acclaimed artist of the time that would draw in readers. To have their own piece of Doré, like how people have their own mass printed Monet hanging in their house, gives people access to view prized art. Viewers at the time were drawn to Doré’s work for its impressiveness, emotional depth, and high technique. Knowing that his work drew viewers in, Petter, Galpin, and Co. made the smart decision to choose Doré as their illustrator and figure to drive up sales. The illustrations and techniques used for their print in the book displays the impact of commercialization and commodification on physical book elements. These deliberate choices have changed book production forever as now the most important part isn’t the story, but cheapest and best ways to sell. 

Gustave Doré’s illustrations changed how art was incorporated and seen in relation to the text. His full pages of intense scenes crafted by differing shades of black lines immersed the reader into Milton’s story. Through his work, readers were able to picture the different players and scenes which made them more understandable and intriguing. Identifiable contrasts done in the pieces help the reader identify and see physical examples of Milton’s words. In the depiction of the good vs. fallen angels like the seventh and twelfth illustrations, Doré makes sharp contrasts with the amount of shading and characteristics. God-fearing angels are filled with less shading and wings that are soft like waves. The fallen angels and followers of Satan are filled with darker shading and sharper characteristics, like hardened gargoyles. These clear oppositions demonstrate themes of the story of Paradise Lost like light vs dark, good vs. evil, faithful vs. arrogant. These physical markings also create an emotional response to the story whether that’s fear, captivation, or devotion. With these skills and one piece taking up a whole page, Doré made his work equal with Milton’s, stopping the viewer to look in the details and delve into the page. The full page and the heavy artistic descriptions of the story made the book more accessible to readers as it helped comprehension of the story. Including drawings within a story also gives a captivating element to the rest of the story as the fascinating picture urges them to continue reading. Doré’s artistic skills were one of the big selling points that allowed this book to be such a success. With these prints, it spread the range of availability through helping the reader continue the story and comprehend integral themes. 

By being commissioned by Petter, Galpin, and Co, Doré helped the industrial and commodification process of books. Through his works being transferred by woodblock and not hand drawn on each paper, it sped up the industrial and commodification process of books. Through his works being transferred by woodblock and not hand drawn on each paper, the creation of this edition can be seen emphasizing easier production which speeds up time between the making and selling of this product. His illustrations themselves were used to draw readers in and sell copies as his work made stories more comprehendible and gave visual aid. The company used Gustave Doré for not just for his artistic ability, but also his image. Knowing his recognition, they purposely chose him as their illustrator, capitalizing on it and using it to boost sales. Doré is a fact that art, its process of creation and inclusion in books has a profound impact on the industry. He was a part in solidifying easy manufacturing, standardization, and accessibility, in the name of money through the addition of his works in widespread media. His artwork will always last through time, but potentially not the book it’s in.

Week 9: Development of the Interface

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Online documents and e-books are designed to give readers or viewers a sense of similarity and feeling of understanding. Through designed features made to look like the physical medium, it gives viewers a feeling of ease moving from the physical medium to the other. In Chapter 4, Borsuk writes, “e-readers have dimensions that appropriate a thin paperback. Most enable highlighting and annotation, stimulate both page-turning and virtual bookmarking, and hold one’s place. This is entirely on purpose, making an allusion by designers so people are more apt to buy a digital product because of its familiarity. When docs or search engines came out, it needed to look familiar, taking knowledge of where things go on the paper and try it on the digital page. Google docs shows a literal paper page on the screen so we then know where to start writing and how to transfer physical text to digital.

For the past decades, most things have been made to look like the physical and ignore the code underneath, hiding that what we do on the computer isn’t exactly what we do on paper, it’s a completely different system. But now it seems as though that’s starting to change. Consumers and designers are accepting more unfamiliar versions of technology like VR or self-driving cars, putting more trust in advancing tech.

Our advancement of what we’re comfortable with and the fascination for technology and something digital and unhuman is displayed in coming designs. Borsuk writes, “the design of such readers has gradually streamlined to minimize buttons and dials, heightening the sense that they are simply interfaces for engaging with text and perpetuating the myth of digital disembodiment. They let readers change type size and interface, illuminate the screen in low light, and, on some devices, use built-in text-to-speech functions to play their books aloud. These accessibility features mark an important distinction from the fixed interface of print and would not be possible without digitalization.” Our tolerance for a more tech-based world are based on how the digitalization of the interface has helped people. It has made it easier, faster, and more accessible to learn. Our concern with the strangeness of digital interfaces has worn off over the years of it easing our lives. In that emphasis though, is the lack of care whether an interface stays familiar, ignoring the importance of the physical and being physically active in our learning, reading, and writing? In our encouragement of tech advancement and moving design further into technological and sterile aesthetics, is that ignoring the creative history of the interface and appreciation of physical work like making pages, ink, and illustrations?

Week 8: Propaganda, Attitude, and Artistic Choices

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Everything is political and has a purpose, especially in what people view. Every letter font, size, style of language, is chosen for a specific purpose. Art, paper, and ink, have history in political events, pressure, and perspective.

For example, we talked about in class how Blackletter changed to Roman type during the Nazi regime because of the founding and implications of using that specific font. Type, font, and ink, can be used for different types of propaganda and tried distinctions between people and who they see as unequal to them to status. Historically, wealthier people have tried to bar out or distinct themselves from those with less through refined language, slang, or writing in latin or calligraphy. They’ll have personalized stationery with multiple envelopes with gold leaf or wax.

Often with printed or written propaganda, there will be a set standard that it is based upon. There will be a certain process used to achieve different varieties of products but will achieve the same outcome of drawing viewers in and getting them to associate an emotion with an action or person. I’ve found it very interesting in different eras and places, the same tactics are used repeatedly. Big font with strong primary colors with simple, but strong text. The language and assortment of text is curt to get the point across like Hope, Change, We can do it!, even callbacks when Trump uses Reagan’s campaign slogan in simple font with a relatively plain red background. This usage of bright spread ink shows strong emotion and connects the viewer to past memory and likeness to another. It reminds me of a bull seeing red and continuing to tie the color with the action of charging towards it.

To be effective, something doesn’t need to be detailed, it needs to be eye-catching and sharp. Rigid lines or symbols or even attitudes of characters on the page reflect this ferocity of the message. The more detail it has, it causes us look too long, examining the intricateness of the propaganda and draw out it’s motives or ignore it as it isn’t easily digestible.

The printing press and publishing will always be one of the most powerful assets to propaganda and the spread of influence, like Gutenberg’s first purpose, spreading the bible. Every piece that goes into making posters or art or text is done with intention, changing the way for generations we have viewed and acted in the world.

Week 7: Physical Elements and The History of The Book

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“A book…is not an inert thing that exists in advance of interaction, rather it is produced new by the activity of each reading”

– Johanna Drucker, “The Virtual Codex: From Page Space to E-Space”

In the advance of type and illustration, bookmaker and illustrator merge into one whole that is the book. Each time we reread a book, we notice something new, the type of font, size, and how they interact with each other and the page to demonstrate a new understanding of the book. Some book publications are standardized, or the style is chosen by the author for a specific purpose. In Johanna Drucker’s quote, every time a person reads a book, it is changed into a new one because our understanding of it has changed. By our new notes and changes in what we analyze, that changes the whole purpose and meaning of the book.

While reading, even in elementary school, we are taught to reread and go over the text multiple times. The emphasis is on learning words and sentence structure, but also to deepen our interpretation of the text and the purpose of it. While reading over, we meet bookmaker and author together again as we notice the ink and format of the page working for the story.

In “The Book”, Borsuk states in Chapter 3 that “A book is a space-time sequence.” In a book, time collides together as it contains elements from different time periods which create a time-merge. The text could be written by a modern-day author but contain words originating from decades or centuries ago. The font could be Black letter referencing the standardization of text and the printing press. The style or illustrations came from the medieval period, and the paper and binding came from the new age of industrialization made to not last and be cheap. All of the elements that are in the book contain history and cultural practices from the very beginning of text and codex to the 21st century of commercialization and commodification of books.

Our understanding of the book changes with each reading and new emphasis on physical details. With new observations of how the text and page are made, we are interacting with the whole history of bookmaking, authorship, and globalization. The elements that make up our ability to read and have the book introduces us to the history of how we got to this point today and what we can look at now traces back to centuries old tradition.

Rare Books LA Union Station, October 4th-5th

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Hi guys!

I wanted to share a fun book and possible extra credit event to write about.

Hosted by Netflix, in collaboration with Rare Books LA and The Library Foundation of Los Angeles, is hosting a Rare Book event celebrating Guillermo Del Toro’s new movie, “Frankenstein”, and Mary Shelley. It is a weekend event at Union Station in Los Angeles from Saturday, October 4th, to Sunday, October 5th. Ticket proceeds go towards The Library Foundation, including their Palisades Branch which was burned down. Tickets range from $15-$40 depending on day and special passes.

The event has many exhibitors showing rare books, maps, and special items. There are multiple talks about Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and Californian Literature. Dr. Peter Weller has a talk as well about his upcoming new book, “Leon Battista Alberti in Exile” on Rennaissance Art. There is a talk on Friday, October 3rd, in Hollywood about “Frankenstein” with Del Toro and Ken Sanders though general admission tickets are $250. Union Station is also a historic building, completed in 1939, and still has some of its original Art Deco furnishings like the old ticket concourse and Fred Harvey restaurant so I think the building’s even cool because it’s symbolic of preserving history like the preservation of old books.

Union Station is located at 800 North Alameda Street. If you take the Amtrak Surfliner, that goes directly into Union Station.

Here’s a link to the online flyer, tickets, and information: Rare Books LA, Union Station October 4-5, 2025 | Rare Books LA