Abbie’s practice is centred around the experience of interaction, through publication and editorial design, to explore how design can influence the physical, material, and tangible relationships that we have with inanimate objects. Her approach, which is often through an intimate lens, aims to observe, examine and question how and why we interact with things. It is this point of interaction that compels Abbie to challenge and push the limitations and hybrid possibilities of design. These concepts and ideas are intrinsically linked to Abbie’s engagement with research and theory; using her role as a designer to inform and critique.
My publication of my dissertation, titled, ‘Things That Fans Keep: Exploring Memory, Nostalgia and Narratives of the Self Through Memorabilia’ explores the evocative and empowering nature of the objects that make up my personal collection of One Direction memorabilia. Analysing the physicality, visuality and graphic nature of these objects, the publication indexes the collection from macro and micro perspectives, zooming both in and out, to mirror the structure of my dissertation. It is the readers physical relationship with the book that emphasises the tangibility of the subject matter.
The book as a series of spaces in ‘relational space … the thing that’s alive with something from somewhere else’ investigates the relations within, between, and around art and poetry. The selected material, which is self-sourced from books, essays and online collections, visually and contextually stems from the words of Maud Cotter and Susan Howe. Using an artistic and poetic lens, these fragments of existing material are curated and pieced together to create moments and chains of connection; it exists as a network of relations.
The two projects showcased are underpinned by their exploration of the book; the book as a space, and the book as an object.