Faux Chinese sighting

Felix Grant and I have discussed from time to time the often ingenious calligraphic device of imitating letterforms from other scripts (see Double delight / Faux Cyrillic sighting / This mesto in Salisbury).

MetaFilter just had a post - Square Word Calligraphy: English that Looks Like Chinese - that drew attention to a very nice example: the Chinese artist Xu Bing's 1994 installation Square Calligraphy Classroom. This showcased an attractive style of writing, invented by the artist, that goes beyond merely imitating letters, but also arranges them into words in a manner closely imitating the internal organisation of Chinese characters.

detail

Essentially, New English Calligraphy is a fusion of written English and written Chinese. The letters of an English word are slightly altered and arranged in a square word format so that the word takes on the ostensible form of a Chinese character, yet remains legible to the English reader. As people attempt to recognize and write these words, some of the thinking patterns that have been ingrained in them since they learned to read are challenged. It is the artists' belief that people must have their routine thinking attacked in this way. While undergoing this process of estrangement and re-familiarization with one's written language, the audience is reminded that the sensation of distance between other systems of language and one's own is largely self-induced.

See Square Calligraphy Classroom; and also the Omniglot page Square Word Calligraphy, concerning Dr David B. Kelley's development of it modified for a more consistent Chinese-like appearance to the words.

Addendum: a little experimentation with this system finds that although it's simple in concept, it requires considerable calligraphic flair (more than I have) to use characters flexibly to make the most aesthetic packing within the square. Here's my effort on my name, using GIMP, which clearly fails to achieve the uniformity of stroke thickness.

- Ray

Stacking diacritics: "awesome but rubbish"

You may have seen some peculiar breaking-the-box typographics in novelty signatures on web forums, like this:

Ray Girvaก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็

Purely out of interest, I checked out what's going on for this particular subset of the things.

It comes down to Thai "stacking diacritics". The Thai character "ก" ("ko kai"), which happens to resemble an English " n", can have several different diacritic marks: "ิ" ("sara i"), "็" ("maitaikhu"), and "้" ("mai tho"). If you append one of these diacritics to "ko kai", you get a combination character: "ก" + "็" = "ก้".

However, someone has discovered that, via a quirk of web page display coding, you can repeat the process and append multiple copies of the diacritic marks, each superscripted to the previous superscript. Hence these:


ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้้ ก็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็็ กิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิิ ก้้้้้้้้

I haven't worked out the full implementation (mainly because it isn't of the slightest practical or aesthetic use to me), or indeed how they manage to break out of the current text line, but that's the basic explanation. As a commenter at this stackoverflow discussion said, "That is truly awesome! But also a bit rubbish."

Edit: the rendering of these things differs with browser. On Firefox on my PC, these diacritics stack in a slanted column cutting across several screen text lines; but on Safari on the Mac at the bookshop where I work, they just overlay into a little superscripted blob.

- Ray

Faux Cyrillic sighting

I just noticed on a bus-stop, on the way home this afternoon, this poster for The Darkest Hour, the 2011 Russian-American 3D SF/horror movie concerning a group of American college kids visiting Moscow and having to fight an invasion of invisible electricity-sucking aliens.

Even though I didn't know the setting until Googling it - the lower picture featuring the Kremlin wasn't discernible from the upper deck of the bus - the general location was evident from the typography, which uses Faux Cyrillic letters.

There's the classic use of Я ("Ya") for one occurrence of "R" (as seen last year at this mesto in Salisbury), along with Д ("De") for "A" (as used on the poster for Borat!), and Ц ("Tse") for "U".

- Яду

Addendum. See Felix Grant's The Growlery - Double delight - for further nice examples.

Kern you do better?

I just saw this plaque - obviously not in this orientation - in the Passage House Inn, Topsham. Trad though it is, it slightly offended my aesthetics by the poor kerning at the end of "Torrington", particularly the gap between the G and T.

It reminded me of a site I saw on MetaFilter recently: check out Kern Type, a rather interesting online game that tests your ability at kerning (i.e. the ability to place letters in a word in a typographically aesthetic manner).

It has a very much more difficult companion game, Shape Type, involving manipulating Bezier curves to create the best curve in a typeface.

- Ray

Beating the competition

Pardon the nepotism, but here's a link to an article at Clare's new weblog: How to run a writing competition and keep the competitors happy, which is a guide on how not to present competitions.

As our household computer consultant, I can assure you it's all true, particularly the bit about design of competition entry forms.  Over the years I've had to photoshop or otherwise correct a long stream of supposedly printable entry forms that were not fit for purpose:

• insufficient room to complete your details;
• bad formatting so that the form wouldn't print to fit on an A4 page;
• forms where the page designer had somehow managed to break both the File/Print option and the ability to save the text for offline printing;
• downloaded forms that had to be hacked out of obscure file formats (e.g. the notoriously unreadable Microsoft Publisher .PUB files);
• forms inextricably embedded in graphics-heavy pages that waste gallons of printer ink;
• and so on.

If we found them heavy weather, I'm absolutely sure others did.

- Ray

Voyage into the Deep

Also from Salisbury, a very nice find in a charity shop: a 75p hardback copy of Voyage into the Deep, a graphic novel written by François Rivière and illustrated by Serge Micheli (originally published in French in 2003 as Voyage sous les eaux).

The name derives from Jules Verne's working title for his 1870 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and the book is an SF/fantasy exploration of the creation of the novel. It begins in 1866 in the seaport of Le Crotoy, where a mysterious boy - Verne calls him 'Bert' - gives the author a cryptic letter and bottle of green-glowing water "with electric properties". Inspired, Verne begins to write, and the book tells interwoven narratives of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Verne's own adventures; these include acquaintance with an Indian self-styled Princess, Mikah, who is searching for her father; an artist called Daniel Wragg, whose architectural design for his London 'Sarcophagus Club' becomes reflected in Verne's concept for the interior of Captain Nemo's Nautilus; and a Nosferatu-like Margate medium called Robert Lee, whose seance makes direct contact between Verne and Nemo.

Rivière explains in the afterward that the story sprang from his personal fascination with Verne and the character of Captain Nemo, and the book is rich in internal allusions to Victoriana, Verne's life, and his works. Mikah strongly recalls Princess Aouda in Around the World in Eighty Days, and there's reference to Verne's repeated legal issues over plagiarism (both accused of doing it, and being plagiarised from - see Jules Verne: journeys in writing, Timothy A. Unwin, 2005 and Twenty thousand leagues under the seas, Jules Verne, trans. William Butcher, 1998). "Daniel Wragg" is fictitious, but his Sarcophagus Club appears to allude to the architecturally eclectic club of that name in Thackeray's Book of Snobs. (I did spot one anachronism here - Verne likens it to Luna Park, an amusement park near Porte Maillot, Paris, but this didn't exist until two years after Verne's death).

Any graphic novel exploring the mythos of Captain Nemo is bound to fall under the shadow of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; and Rivière's story, while interesting and evocative, is not as tightly plotted, leaving far more loose ends. Who is 'Bert', and why does he closely resemble Verne's wife? Is Mikah Nemo's daughter? What is the vicious aquatic homunculus that makes several unexplained appearances? Is the whole adventure Verne's fabulation in a fever? Some of these questions are probably answered in the second volume, Voyage sous les eaux: L’île mystérieuse, but Voyage into the Deep is nevertheless more than adequately accessible as a standalone work. It's beautifully-drawn, and thought-provoking: a good 75p's worth.

The Wikipedia article on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is worth reading for its account of the personal and bibliographic issues. These include Verne's problematic relationship with his publisher, Hetzel, that necessitated repeated changes in Nemo's back-story to steer clear of political hot potatoes; and the mangling of the book by the 1873 translator, Lewis Mercier. The Mercier translation is online at Project Gutenberg (E-Text No. 164) as are restored versions: the public domain Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by FP Walter, and (as far as I tell can tell, authorised) a PDF version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas translated by William Butcher. The last is especially worth reading for its extensive critical introduction.

- Ray

This mesto in Salisbury

On a flying visit to Salisbury for my brother-in-law's birthday party, I spotted this interesting typography for a vodka bar name (clearly alluding to the Korova bar in A Clockwork Orange) on the way into the city. I like the way the first character of the first word throws you into thinking it's a sigma, even if the second one, "БАЯ", slightly loses subtlety points by falling into the cliche of using a "Я" ("Ya") to represent "R" in pseudo-Cyrillic.

- Ray