Exactitude: Graphics

When I made an outline for each of the posts I was going to do from the Graphic Design book, I was sure I would use of the computer code entries to demonstrate my knowledge of Exactitude. I scanned the image in… uploaded it.. and then realized I needed to scrap it. The more I looked at the computer code, the more I realized that the image was too far to the side of “crystal” on the fire/crystal scale of vagueness and infinitely detailed. I’ve worked with computer code before so I know that even a single misplaced letter can ruin your entire program. It’s essential to be exact.

I had a really difficult time understanding Calvino’s quality of Exactitude. I think my biggest problem is that my immediate definition of exactitude is being precise or accurate; it was difficult for me to understand that there is such a thing as too much accuracy and not enough accuracy. In order to demonstrate this, I chose the Drawing with Code binary Tree entry:

Drawing with Code The drawings shown here were created with Processing, and open-source software application. The designs are built from a binary tree, a basic data structure in which each node spawns at most two offspring. Binary trees are used to organize information hierarchies, and they often take a graphical down. The density of the final drawing depends on the angle between the “children” and the number of generations. The larger design is created by repeating, rotating, inverting, connectinv, and overlapping the tree forms. In code-based drawing, the designer varies the results by changing the inputs to the algorithm.

I chose this specific image instead of other code based drawing because I think it shows the progression from too vague to too intricate. I arranged them so that they would be shown as a progression (sorry for the pixel noise). This excerpt shows that the drawing becomes more and more dense with each additional generation and that if the drawing continues, it can become very dense and overwhelming; just as Kahn was overwhelmed with the intricacies withing the small square of wood on his chess board.

Exactitude: Emblem

I really, really, really, REALLY wanted to use the libra scales for my emblem of exactitude. But that would have been far too easy and of course I needed to make my life more difficult. I also played around with the idea of a zoom lens because I wanted it to be something that could be used to see something very small or very big; but I wasn’t really able to think of something that would be a good “emblem” for that per se. So of course I turned away from my “learning screen” and started wasting time on my “browsing screen” aka Facebook. I saw an advertisement on the right hand side of the screen for FTD Flowers and I was reminded of my high school job.

I used to work in a flower shop; and yes it was just as kitschy as you might think. I did sales at the front counter and came home smelling like flowers. Anyways, I often would check the arrangements before they would go into the delivery truck or when I would replace them in the display case. It was at this point in my life when I found out what it means to have a “perfect rose.” The roses were too tight when they looked like this:

Someone who doesn’t know anything about flowers might think it looks great, but it’s not quite ready for display. It’s a bit too closed up. The designer might keep one that looks like this in the fridge overnight for it to open up just a bit more. On the other side of the spectrum, here’s an example of a rose that is too “blown-out:”

Sure, it looks pretty. But just looking at this picture I can imaging squeezing the base of this rose between the tips of my fingers and feeling it crush limply. The petals are just about ready to fall off. In order for the arrangement to be perfect when it arrives to the customer it has to be relatively tight. That way, when the roses are in the back of the hot delivery truck, the heat will open the roses up just a bit – just enough so that they will look like this when they’re delivered:

I think that this last image is my emblem for exactitude because it’s perfectly in the middle of being too tight and too blown out; it is the perfect rose. And I also think that the first and second roses could be comparable to the image of the crystal and of the fire, respectively. The first two roses are beautiful, but they aren’t perfect.. they aren’t exact.

Exactitude: E-Lit Example

The landscape of Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw is presented in a visual and almost entirely non-textual way, although the piece has a textual basis and its narrative and defamiliarizing aspects can easily be seen. The piece’s effect arises from how it cuts off possibilities, putting the reader at the mercy of her exploration history. An interface offers tiny “active” portals, which may or may not carry the story forward; a world changes scale, and unnerving events take some effort to figure out.

When I first saw this E-Lit example I was officially creeped out. It reminded me a lot of the animation from Salad Fingers, that creepy YouTube video from 2007. I think that this is a good example of Exactitude because there is a wide scope within the animation. You can see the “city” from a distance or you can click on elements within the screen and bring yourself into the “active portals.” Also, it takes a lot of precision in order to discover and click on the active portals. If you see in the video below, it took me a lot of time to discover which elements to click on. At the end the animation glitched out and I was unable to click on anything else.

Exactitude: Calvino’s Quality

For Exactitude Calvino started out by being unusually explicit. He gave a definition in the form of three bullet points:

• a well defined and well-calculated plan for the work in question;
• an evocation of clear, incisive, memorable visual images; in Ialian we have an adjective that doesn’t exist in English (iscastico)
• a language as precise as possible both in choice of words and in expression of the subtleties of thought and imagination

When Calvino began the memo, he explains that his intention was to explain his fondness for numerical series and exactness in symmetries and measure; then he realized that this evokes the idea of the infinite and he got sidetracked writing about the cosmos. He also talks about the issues he encounters in writing. He often tries to be exact and to limit the field of what he is talking about, but then gets drawn into the infinitesimal details and is lost in the vastness.

The best example for this that is given in the reading is the anecdote from his own book, Invisible Cities. In this story, a man named Kublai Khan is playing chess with Marco Polo. Khan is a man who personifies the intellectual tendency toward rationalization, geometry, and algebra. he also considers himself to be a master of chess. He beats Marco Polo and feels confidence in himself because he has mastered this sphere. But with further contemplation Khan feels silly because after all the thought that went into the chess match, he has only won the small square of wood that named him the victor.

However, Marco Polo instructs Khan to look more closely and see the more specific elements of the very small square of wood: the type of wood (ebony or maple), the markings and gouges in the wood, where the wood came from, etc. Khan quickly becomes overwhelmed and is drawn into the infinitesimal.

In order to represent these two concepts (the abstract and the infinite) he uses the symbols of fire and a crystal:

Fire represents the abstract; order out of noise. On the other side of Exactitude, he presents the crystal.

The crystal is representative of a self-organizing system. It is infinitely complex and varied. Calvino believes that both of these forms are representations of perfect beauty. The objective is to find a balance between the two. In order to strive for this balance we need to avoid language that is random, approximate, and careless. We need to use words to their best effect and understand that being concise does not mean that you are being precise.

In retrospect I think that the libra scales would be a good example of Exactitude because it’s a balancing act between two opposing sides.

Exactitude: Analogy

If I had to make one requirement for all of my friends it would be that they need to do some research on Calvino’s quality of Exactitude. Striving for exactitude means that you’re working towards preciseness over conciseness. My biggest pet peeve is bad text language. I’m pretty laissez-faire about the “lol’s,” “omg’s,” and the “brb’s,” but sometimes I get really fed up with the carelessness some people have when they are typing something in a text message. Yes, text messages are an informal way of communicating, but there’s no reason for me to have to read between the lines to figure out what someone is saying. I included this funny video to explain what I mean. Only the first minute and a half-ish of the video is relevant:

So this guy is pretty overzealous but it’s so true! When texting, it’s really difficult to understand what someone is trying to say and to interpret their overall tone. After watching this video I would say that a text that says “K.” would be the really ambiguous end of the spectrum for language. But at the same time, I really hate it when someone doesn’t understand how to consolidate their thoughts and they write 5 text messages that spam your phone. So the perfect text would be somewhere between “K.” and an overly-lengthy response. How about a few sentences that express why you’re upset?! How about some Exactitude, please!