A wonderful day in London with the ma book art course students – first stop the british library to see their latest show – Evolving English – http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/ - a truly superb show that explores the roots of the english language and its development. I chose to focus on 3 ideas - The physicality of the letter forms - the use of different type fonts and how the characteristics of the letters communicate the content of the words. How a language is centrally controlled - how to translate a sound into a word which in turn is to be used as a set of rules. How the past can inform the present - there are many examples within the show when the printed matter from the past enables us to reflect on the present. After lunch we visited St John Soane's museum http://www.soane.org/ and the Hunterian museum http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums - the purpose of the afternoon was to visit two very different exhibition spaces - to compare and contrast. the students were asked to consider – the idea of the collection – to ask what are the narratives that are presented? the role and look of the labels – what do they communicate? the display of the objects – how are they presented and what systems are used?
