Invisible Cities

Project Brief

Invisible Cities is a seminal novel by the Italian writer, Italo Calvino (1923-1985), that sets out to explore the meaning and symbols of cities that, as the title indicates, exist on another level of perception. The book is an exploration of imagination and the imaginable, as the main narrator, Marco Polo, explores the vast Mongol Empire under the commission of Kublai Khan the emperor of the Tartars. 

This design project aims to get you to explore and apply the process of visual interpretation. You will be provided with a passage from Invisible Cities to work from. Develop 2D and 3D visual design interpretations through interacting with Marco Polo’s description of reality based on the passage given to you.  How do you respond to, and interact with this visually? Explore the development of ideas and responses from your imagination and creativity. Interpret and translate these ideas into visual constructs. Then communicate them visually using 2D and 3D techniques. 

Come up with self-directed 2D (text + image) and 3D (sculptural, product or spatial) design briefs which respond to the Invisible Cities passage you are given. This brief will be negotiated with your lecturer.

The themes, media, outputs, style, and ‘direction’ of your work is completely up to you.

For example, you could:

• Create a street art or political campaign to raise awareness about a particular issue relevant to the themes of your selected passage, or hypothetical issues facing the city itself.
• A basic wayfinding system or city brand for one of Calvino’s imagined cities.
• A product or tool that would be useful or necessary in the context of your imagined city.
• An architectural spatial model/sculptural interpretation of the city given to you. 
• Create a typeface inspired by your city.

As long as you take inspiration from the book passage, you can push your concepts and outputs in any 2D or 3D design direction. The only requirements are that:

1. You must produce two final designed outputs/compositions (one 2D the other 3D).
2. Your direction design briefs must be informed by research.
3. You will create and deliver a presentation to professionally demonstrate your final outputs and ideas.

The project is about exploring and applying the process of visual interpretation from a written text. Students make choices in order to interpret and communicate their perception into a sort of symbols of cities that are translated into their expressive system. What they see or perceive with their senses and wish to communicate must be translated into imagery that describes the idea, physical environment, emotion, or feeling of the imager or of the interpreter.

Learning Objectives

This project will support students in establishing an informed studio/ workshop practice, allowing to further expand their professional skills, as well as investigation, application, and evaluation of the creative process and technologies. It will help you to develop your visual interpretation, imagination, and conceptualisation skills, as well as your 2D and 3D design fundamentals (including typography, form, layout, proportion/scale and more).

Deliverables

1. You must produce two final designed outputs/compositions (one 2D the other 3D).
2. Your direction design briefs must be informed by research.
3. You will create and deliver a presentation to professionally demonstrate your final outputs and ideas.

Readings/Resources

Calvino, I. (2002). Invisible Cities. English translation by Harcourt, Inc. Penguin Books, Vintage Classics.

Dunne, A., & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative everything: design, fiction, and

social dreaming. MIT press.

Rynning, M. (2017). Speculative Graphic Design: Visual Identity Branding as a

Catalyst for Change.

Reynolds, R. R. & Niedt, G. (2021). Essentials of Visual interpretation. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Publishers.

Rose, G. (2007). Visual methodologies: An introduction to the interpretation of visual materials. Sage Publications

Temple, E. (2017 Oct 13). Art inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Literary Hub, https://lithub.com/art-inspired-by-italo-calvinos-invisible-cities/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Invisible-Cities-novel-by-Calvino

Reflections

This is an eight-week project. The students worked four days a week at a rate of five hours a day. The project was shared between the fields of 2D graphic design and 3D object design; two days each.

Every student was provided with a specific city passage from the book of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The book is an exploration of imagination and the imaginable as the main narrator, Marco Polo, explores the vast Mongol Empire under the commission of Kublai Khan the emperor of the Tartars. The students were asked to develop their visual interpretation through interacting with Marco Polo’s description of reality based on the passage given. The passage describes a series of fantasy progressions by way of verbal communication between the Khan and Polo.

What went right? 

1. Invisible Cities is a popular book, the students found plenty of written and visual information available and easily accessible. We think it is the right source for such a project.
2. The students found it stimulating to work between the worlds of fantasy and reality and have the freedom to create their interpretations from imagination.
3. The project was shared between the two fields of 2D graphic design and 3D object design. The students were excited to apply the same design concept to 2D compositions and 3D constructs. They valued making the connections between the two fields.

What could be done differently?

Giving students further freedom of what they could produce in terms of 3D outcomes (beyond architectural/sculptural interpretations of the text using workshop materials) could get them to think more broadly about opportunities for their work in three dimensions, and get them to connect the 3D aspect of the brief to their own interests, passions and questions further. Introducing them to more principles of product design and newer technologies such as 3D printing could also improve engagement in the 3D aspects.