Steam and the Speed of Light (1750- 1850)

Summary:

In this week’s class, we learned about the Industrial Revolution, the discovery of Japanese ukiyo-e, and photography. During this time, the Romantic period of art was mainly romantic and nostalgic. In 1789, the French Revolution took place and after years of unrest, Napoleon was crowned France’s emperor in 1804. The Industrial Revolution brought upon many technological advancements. These include the invention of the steam engine by James Watt, which also allowed the production of iron and steel, enabling huge changes in transportation. Factories could also make products in mass quantities, allowing the occurrence of mass consumption.

Many technologies were also created and developed for printing. In 1796, Alois Senefelder invented the lithographic printing, which also led to the invention of chromolithography by Godefroy Engelmann- essentially lithographic printing but with the addition of colour. The cast-iron press was invented in 1800 and was followed by the invention of the steam press in 1814. Both these inventions enabled easier, faster, and cheaper printing.

With the invention of Firmin Didot’s typeface (the 1780s- 90s), the first modern typeface was invented. Many more types were invented in the next years. In 1800, display types (fat faces) were invented by Robert Thorne; Vincent Figgins invented Slab-serif display faces in 1810; William Caslon IV then invented sans serifs in 1816.

Other notable events are the invention of Braille, the invention of photography- the heliogravure, daguerreotype, and calotype/talbotype-, and the discovery of ukiyo-e prints by the Japanese- which impacted Europe artists and society immensely.

Continue reading “Survey 4: Hello? Is This Morse Code?”

Block Books and Baroque (1450-1750)

Summary:

In this week’s class, we learned about the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and the golden age of type, as well as the arrival of newspapers, novels, and dictionaries. During the Renaissance, humanism, art, and science was flourishing as they started to break away from biblical subjects and the Church. It was also in the fifteenth century that it was the golden age of type. After Fust’s 42 line Bible in 1455, printing progressed very quickly. Germany became the centre of printing, but due to political unrest, many German printers moved to other European nations to develop and continue printing. Those who moved to Rome had a lot of business as the Pope was in Rome, rich, and interested in printing Bibles to encourage the spread of the Church. Many “Roman-style” typefaces (typefaces that came out post-Gothic period) -also called Antique, Venetian or Old Style- were created during this period.

During the Baroque period (the 1600s), where art had a serious heavy style that was inspired by what was happening in the Church, it was a relatively quiet time for graphic design innovation. In the 1700s, the first transitional typeface was created, the Romain du Roi, by King Louis XIV. Transitional typefaces represented the departure of Old Style typefaces and had a contrast between thick and thin strokes.

The Rococo period emerged from Louis XIV and had soft pastel colours, with a lot of whites, and fancy motifs. During this time, transitional typefaces continued to be created. Along with the development of transitional typefaces, the Caslon type specimen was invented by William Caslon. It had all the different sizes, letters, etc. of a type that would be gathered together with other typefaces to present as examples. Continue reading “Survey 3: That’s Some Serious Art”

God and Gutenberg (0-1450)

Summary:

Since 0 BC, the written word has progressed from manuscript bibles to the invention of printing and typography. In the second century, parchment, prepared animal skin, was invented in Pergamon, Turkey. Parchment was less translucent than papyrus, meaning it could be written on both sides, unlike papyrus which could only be written on one side, but it was more expensive than papyrus so even after parchment was invented, the Romans still used papyrus. However, even though papyrus was cheaper, papyrus scripts were being replaced by codices in the second century. Codices (“codex” for singular) were any manuscripts or books that were created before printing was invented- everything in the book was written by hand. Many codices were related to religion as Christianity was taking over the Pagan religion and this conversion led to many decorative books. These include the St. Cuthbert Gospel, Book of Hours, and Celtic Psalter. In the twelveth century, Fabriano, Turkey, was the centre of paper-making in Europe. They learned how to make paper from learning from Chinese paper-makers who were kidnapped along the Silk Road and brought to Turkey.

Soon, printing came into play. Wooden blocks were used to print- just as the Chinese did with their wooden relief printing blocks- block books, broadside keepsakes, and playing cards. In the 1440s, Johan Gutenberg came up with the idea of using moveable type. The moveable type consisted of letters that could be put together in any order for print. Again, the Chinese had already accomplished this- a man named Bi Sheng invented types that could be glued together to print and by using a “lazy Susan-ish” idea, he could find the right types.

Continue reading “Survey 2: So What Were Those Christian Books About?”

Handprints and Handwriting (35 000 BCE- 0 CE)

Summary:

In this week’s class, we covered the evolution of communication from 35 000 BCE to 0 CE. At the centre of this early communication was rock art in the form of pictographs and petroglyphs: pictures drawn or carved into rocks. From pictographs, cuneiform was invented as the first written language or proto-writing. Then from cuneiform, other written languages were also invented. These include Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet evolved into other languages, such as Aramaic and Greek. Aramaic produced Arabic, Russian, and modern Hindu while Greek evolved into Roman Latin, which then produces our modern English language. Many objects, technological and literary advances were also created in relation to the invention of written language. Papyrus was used in Egypt to write hieroglyphics and the Book of the Dead is an example of an early text.

In another part of the world, written language was also advancing. In China, chiaku-wen was created as early as 1800 BCE and consisted of logograms carved on shells and bones as a form of proto-writing. In 200 BCE, chen-shu was invented as a single writing system for united China. Chen-shu then became used in Japan and Korea as a basis for their written language or as a language they used at first. In terms of objects and technological advances, the Chinese invented paper from bamboo to write on instead of the bamboo slats, stone, ceramics, and cloth they were previously using.

Continue reading “Survey 1: Delving into Early Asian Languages”