The Realisation of Visual obscurity (notation)

24/01/2014

Blog entry 9:

This blog entry will look at areas of the short story, The library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, and consider how said aspects could possibly be interpreted visually, with a view to illustration. This blog entry will mainly contain notation and quotation along with rough visuals, to help me establish how I may choose to illustrate the story.

All notes in this blog entry are based on The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges (to read follow the link below):
 http://www.thecriticalpoint.net/index_files/libraryofbabel.pdf
(Borges, 1944)

Notation on aspects of the text that could possibly be illustrated:

• could each image have just a taste of the hexagonal shape? A coaster or an object? Hexagonal objects in each scenario - every day objects

• how to portray something as infinite - spiralling or getting smaller

• It may be worth depicting a room in the library - hexagonal room with see through ceiling and floor - potentially glass - like Blackpool tower - 
• "each gallery is a ventilation shaft, bounded by a low railing" (Borges, 1944)
• five book shelves along 4 of the 6 walls in each hexagon (Borges, 1944)
• all hexagons are identical
• the ceiling is low - only just enough room to stand for a "normal librarian" (Borges, 1944) what is the height of a normal librarian - man or woman? Presumably man as they are often taller - 6 foot average height for a man.
• one of the sides without book shelves against is a small pathway to the next hexagon - they could be hexagonal tunnels
• in the tunnel is a "tiny" (Borges, 1944) room each side - "One for sleeping upright; the other for satisfying ones physical needs" (Borges, 1944) (more notes written on this from a less visual point of view in blog entry 1) two small cupboards?
• In the tunnel or pathway there is a spiral staircase - spiral are they infinite a spiralling pattern?
• Identical repeat pattern?
•  "there is a mirror" - mirrored tunnel?
• Is the mirror a trick to make the library seem larger or infinite? mirror images or symmetrical pattern
• Burnished surfaces
• spherical fruits - bulbs, how to depict light?

Now that I have a few notes about the visual factors of the Library, I feel at a better standpoint to produce imagery.