Social Network Reconstructed

I envisioned this task along with its complement task, Document a Deconstruction.



I decided to take the relationships that were identified (both visually and categorically) in the deconstruction task and reconstruct them in another visual form. This allowed me to rethink the earlier diagram through formal visual elements such as contrast, color, composition, perspective, time, etc. as well as how visual elements can evoke more subjective visual responses (was/is that relationship angry? sad? conflicted? isolated? integrated? who else was involved?). I also wanted to interpolate the data - could I locate/remember each relationship once abstracted? What blanks would I fill in? Are there missing pieces?

I started with the idea and structure of a tree to represent the networked relationships. I know that a tree may seem a pretty pedestrian choice - any number of symbols would have worked well - but I happen to have an affinity for trees and I particularly liked the mythology and semiology that it presented over other choices. The structure of a tree is such that there is a constant tension between inside/outside and background/foreground relationships. The constellation of branches to leaves to negative space changes depending on your visual orientation in relationship to an actual tree (under the leaves, 20 feet away, on one side or another, climbing up within it, when the wind blows against it or through it), but the shape(s) remains organic and whole.

In retrospect, this task could have been even more interesting if I had thought to do it with other players. For example, we each could have done the Deconstruction Task, and exchanged the results to provide a sort of 'map' that must be reconstructed by the other player into a new 'territory' or other expression. (And hey, would that be a fun task for me to try and add to Glasnost?)

Another idea would have been to do this in more than 2-dimensions, which would have been fun but probably insanely time consuming.