Introduction
Unflattening is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points. In its graphic innovations and restless shape-shifting, Unflattening is meant to counteract the type of narrow, rigid thinking that Sousanis calls "flatness." Just as the two-dimensional inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott's novella Flatland could not fathom the concept of "upwards," Sousanis says, we are often unable to see past the boundaries of our current frame of mind. Fusing words and images to produce new forms of knowledge, Unflattening teaches us how to access modes of understanding beyond what we normally apprehend.
Like to read it for yourself ? Unflattening
Scan from the book
Here is my scan from Unflattening. I chose this picture because of its simplicity and the message that it tries to convey in the art. Plus I thought it would look great as my lasercut project.
About Flatland
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English author Edwin A. Abbott, first published in 1884. The story describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures, whereof women are simple line-segments, while men are polygons with various numbers of sides. The narrator is a square, a member of the caste of gentlemen and professionals, who guides the readers through some of the implications of life in two dimensions.
Learn more here Flatland
About Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan uses the term "message" to signify content and character. The content of the medium is a message that can be easily grasped and the character of the medium is another message which can be easily overlooked. This means that the nature of a medium (the channel through which a message is transmitted) is more important than the meaning or content of the message. He understood "medium" in a broad sense. He identified the light bulb as a clear demonstration of the concept of "the medium is the message." A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness.
Learn more about Marshall McLuhan here
The final piece
Here is the final product from the lasercut, although I'm happy with how it turned out there are some things I would like to change next time. I think that the contrast needs to be tweaked so that the man is easier to see on the background as he is falling. And I think that the holes placed on the board that are to be used for fastening to the wall need to be worked on as well. But with all that being said for a first attempt at laser cutting I am happy with the result.