My Trip to Notan

• Main Author: Chapman, James M
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Archive @ GSU 2012
• Subjects: Notan design; Symbol; Gestalt image; figure/ground; Positive and negative space; blank; White space; Otherness
• Online Access: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/art_design_theses/101; http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=art_design_theses

My Trip to Notan charts my own journey from the rawness and acceptance of multiple life losses into understanding, and finally, renewal. The key result of this project is a prototype book, a 48-page digital Print-On-Demand (POD) publication, which also includes a DVD that inserts into book’s back and features live demonstrations, interviews and other segments related to the book. Additionally, the body of work from which the book was gleaned was presented at the thesis exhibition. Ultimately, My Trip to Notan is a sketch of my understanding of the framework that threads through design, physics and philosophy, inspired by the simplicity of the ancient art of Notan, and upon my own fragmentary observations gathered from the journey. My hope was to reveal some sense of the pulse that drives the inquiry, rather than the suggestion of any sort of destination.