EXPERIMENTAL PUBLICATION


John M. Johansen was a world-renowned architect, active during the 1950-70’s and a prominent member of the Harvard Five. Johansen had a number of architectural ideas that were of ahead of his time. He prototyped gorgeous dioramas of these space-aged buildings and nano-technologies, describing them in detail. These served as the basis of the experimental publication, titled Forward Thinking.

Six of Johansen’s works were selected and interpreted as symbols. The symbols were cut from sheets of paper and used as physical clipping masks on a typewriter to contain the descriptions of Johansen’s work. The resulting six works of art were designed to replicate Johansen’s technological limitations of the era, symbolizing the incapsulation of an idea restrained by technology.

The symbols were then re-interpreted as 2D animations using a moiré effect and placed within a 32 page publication. The animations were accompanied by the original six works of art and descriptions of the works by Johansen himself, along with images he’d taken of the dioramas. The choice to create interactive components within the publication helped defy expectations of the medium, something Johansen sought to do with architecture.

︎︎︎ 2019 @ KCAD