Illuminated Manuscripts and Comic Books

During the medieval ages only those that were closely connected to the Christian church could read and write. This held a great advantage to those who were literate because they had power over a majority of the illiterate citizens. Monks would write and illustrate the books by hand making each manuscript one of a kind. These books are known as illuminated manuscripts. They consisted of the stories of The Bible and other religious tales. The pages of these books were filled with colorful, hand painted pictures that depicted the stories being told in words on the pages. This allowed those that could not read what was written the ability to still comprehend the story being told by following the pictures. Each image is placed in order according to the story being told, and they are placed into their own separate boxes to help the viewer move along. Also, these boxes would sometimes have phrases underneath them telling of what was being shown. Because of these characteristics, illuminated manuscripts are truly the original comic books that we all know of today. What also connects comic books to illuminated manuscripts are the references used within the images. In today’s comics, images and personalities of popular people and figures are used within stories to help readers relate to the message the artist is trying to tell. In the illuminated manuscripts, this same approach was used with figures of the time to help the viewers comprehend the moral of the story. It is incredibly interesting how similar the two are even though they are centuries apart from each other. 

2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a monumental film that incorporates design in every level. 2001 was made in the year 1968 yet it was set to take place thirty three years in the future. Because the film is set in not just the future but space as well, entire sets, clothing, props, and technology were all designed from scratch. It took a great bit of imagination to come up with such a ground breaking style for a science fiction film. There has never been a sci-fi move like 2001: A Space Odyssey before it and almost every movie after has tried to duplicate it or has at least paid homage to it in some way or another. 2001 has so much going for it that makes it such a pivotal film. It matches the vast, emptiness of space with a powerful soundtrack of classical music when all other sci-fi films generally use electronic sounds. What I find interesting about 2001: A Space Odyssey is how major name brands used product placement within the film. The use of known brands throughout seems to help make this made up film somewhat more real and believable. It helps the audience relate with the characters on screen because they are using the same products that the viewers use as well. This relates to design because brand logos are all designed whether they are just the companies name in a custom font or a symbol representing the company, an artist was hired to create a memorable logo.

Horror Vacui

After hearing of the term horror vacui, I was instantly curious of what the meaning of this phrase could possibly be. After some research, it turns out that horror vacui has nothing to do with anything commonly thought of as being something that is scary. That is the first thought that came to my mind at least. However, it translates to having a fear of empty space. An artist of horror vacui chooses to fill the entire space given because they cannot stand any emptiness. Horror vacui seems to be part mental and part art form.  In my personal opinion, and artist that uses the art form of horror vacui must be very brave and confident of their work. It seems like an average viewer would accuse their work as having too much clutter. I appreciate the clutter or horror vacui because there is noticeable thought put into the filled space and not just random scribbling. The earliest forms of horror vacui trace back to the illuminated manuscripts of the medieval ages. The monks that would custom make each illuminated manuscript would fill as much of the page as possible with images around the written words. I was surprised to discover that the widely popular Where’s Waldo book series are actually horror vacui. It is ironic that an art form that sounds so serious is used to make silly, scavenger hunt books for children. It is extremely interesting that this art form has been around since the thirteenth century and has been used in such a variety of popular examples yet the the term horror vacui is not commonly known.