Building my second idea of a satirical newspaper. I went to chatgpt to draft a few mock headlines that reflect how the world would look like if the printer was made in India. The main headline would be satire on New York Herald Tribune’s headline- Teaching a sixth of the world how to read.
Teaching 3/4th of the World the Art of Grammar and Phonetics: Devanagari takes centre stage!
This was my version of the main headline. For the others chatgpt came up with:
“Industrial Revolution Embraces Devanagari: A Historic Shift!”
“Devanagari Defies Latin Supremacy!”
“The Symphony of Sounds: Phonetics in Devanagari”
“Global Tides: Foreign Influences on Devanagari”
Making them a bit more towards humour and sattire
“Charlie Chaplin’s Latest Film Features Devanagari Subtitles, Shocks Hollywood!”
“Walt Disney’s New Animated Feature Premieres in Devanagari, Kids Love It!”
“Albert Einstein Publishes Scientific Papers in Devanagari, Shakes Academia!”
“H.G. Wells Predicts Future Dominance of Devanagari in ‘The Time Machine’ Sequel!”
These headlines took some famous personalities from the 1930s and put them in context of Devanagari. Also, an important point to note is that the newspaper I am making is dated 19th October, 1930, this is the day New York Herald Tribune released their Mergenthaler newspaper. I wanted to add some more details on it such as the newspaper title typography in traditional Devanagari script. Again, the newspaper traditionally would be made in Hindi but for my course and assessment I would be submitting an english version.
Thinking along these lines, I came back to my idea of transparency and thought how can I use transparency in a newspaper. Reflecting on the social status of the script and language - What is should have been and how it currently is - The main newspaper in Hindi in newsprint sheet and English version in the tracing paper, overlaid on each other to reflect the gap industrialisation has created.
On the side is a tentative layout of how it would look. I faced another dilemma of size. Whether it should be A4 or A3. The digital print hub in my university does not print larger than A3 sizes in newsprint sheets. For my project, the paper type was extremely important. Everything has to be printed on newsprint sheet because of its old, and raw texture.
I walked Bryan and Lizzie through my work and what I achieved during the fieldwork. I had individual discussions with them about my projects and they gave me different perspectives on the whole thing.
Bryan - More inclined towards the newspaper idea and how transparency and layering is adding on to my narrative of how industrialisation and mechanical printers have impacted the script. He also suggested me to make use of the milled letters along with my print artefact. Although the visual language of my work is entirely based on the impressions I took using the milled blocks, maybe there is much larger use of them in the context of my investigation. He further suggested how manifesto and newspaper can become one.
Lizzie - More inclined towards the hand-drawn explorations and impressions. The approach of using ink and its strong visual language. She asked how can ink be more apparent in my work. She liked the copy of the manifesto and the layering approach. Further, she suggested I should look into how the newspaper is more than just a piece of sattire. If the newspaper unravels into a much larger piece of work that interacts with the audience and walks them through my research and investigation into what has happened with the script.
Both of them more or less suggested the same things, and so my next step was to look into how the two products can be combined into a much larger investigation. Lizzie’s idea of making ink more apparent in work was interesting because I also realised that it’s somehow getting overshadowed by other things.
Additionally, Bryan recommended Newspaper Club, a service that exclusively focuses on printing newspapers. This could be a practical avenue for executing the print component of my project, especially considering the tactile, traditional aesthetic I aim to achieve.
Moving forward, my focus will be on reconciling these different aspects, ensuring that each element—whether it be ink, layering, or the narrative structure—comes together in a coherent and visually compelling way that aligns with the broader goals of my research.
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