Oct. 3, 2021, 10:27 a.m.

The Medium Picture Object Thing: A Photo Essay

Roy Christopher

Released in 1979, Douglas Hofstadter's first book, the Pulitzer-Prize winning Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, is an expansive volume that explores how living things come to be from nonliving things. It's about self-reference and emergence and creation and lots of other things. It's well worth checking out.

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For the cover of his heady tome, Hofstadter carved two wood-block objects such that their shadows would cast the book's initials when lit against a flat backdrop. He went the extra step of working in the initials for the subtitle as well.

Earlier this year, I was inspired to emulate Hofstadter's sculpture. I found a way to put the initials for my media-theory book-in-progress, The Medium Picture--TMP--into a similar configuration. This is one of my early sketches.

Photo Jun 07, 12 57 04 PM.jpg

The sketches I did at least made the thing appear possible, so I started exploring physical options. After trying different materials and digging around craft stores, I finally found some letters that were about the right shape and would save me a lot of time toward the final object.

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I was fortunate to find letters with similar proportions to the ones I'd been drawing. The first thing was to cut the M to make the P the top of the T. Like so:

Photo Apr 04, 11 19 02 AM.jpg

Photo Apr 04, 1 13 59 PM.jpg

After some papier-mâché tweaking, calk to round the leg of the M, and a coat of white paint, the object was ready to test.

Photo Jun 12, 9 35 01 AM.jpg

Photo Jun 12, 10 11 17 AM.jpg

Now that it physically existed, I knew the real test would be hanging it, lighting it, and capturing its shadows correctly. I built a contraption for just that out of things found around my parents' house.

Photo Jun 18, 3 01 13 PM (1).jpg

It was as sketchy as it looks. The object was suspended with two pieces of fishing line, and I had to turn off the air conditioning to get the thing to hang still for the picture. I found some pieces of foamcore in my sister's old closet for the backdrop and gathered up tiny flashlights from all over the house.

Photo Jun 18, 3 21 17 PM (1).jpg

With the LED flashlights propped and taped in place, this is the final set-up.

TMP-web.png

And this is the final shot. It's not quite as intricate or as elegant as Hofstadter's, but I'm pretty stoked on it. I think it will make a striking cover image and a fitting tribute to his work.

I belabored this process here because about half the people who see the final image ask me what software I used to make it. I know this could've been done digitally in any 3-D imaging suite, but I wanted to make it for real, just as Douglas Hofstadter had done.

Going through this process brings to mind a previous piece from late last year: In Praise of Pulling Back, which is about how creative constraints can actually be helpful. Check it out, if you haven't already.

Also, in case you missed them, I have three (3!) new books out:

  • Follow for Now, Vol. 2: More Interviews with Friends and Heroes (from punctum books)

  • Fender the Fall (a sci-fi novelette from Alien Buddha Press)

  • Abandoned Accounts (poetry collection from First Cut)

Hope you're well,

-royc.

http://roychristopher.com

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