Materialities

As I prepared to write my first assignment in crayon, I didn't quite understand the purpose of utilizing a crayon and construction paper verse a pen and lined paper or even typing up the assignment. Because the assignment was to be written I had a harder time trying to figure out how to go about completing the assignment. As I wrote the assignment I found myself dropping out ideas because the act of writing them down was tedious and a nuisance.


Many of the pages had the same visual experience, they all were set up in the same standard format of an essay, containing an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Only a few of the pages had anything on their page besides the response to the assignment. And none of the responses on the pages were written from any other angle except portrait style. Over all the pages around the room didn't stray to far from the conventional style, visual wise, of writing. Everyone had an idea of what writing is acceptable and what format is accepted as the standard format and it was followed.


If a culture had only crayons as writing implements, presentation of writing would turn towards a more visual aspect as people utilized all the different colors in their writing. The writing itself might become more relaxed as a more creative form of writing took hold because the act of writing conventionally would become too tedious. The culture would take the most pride in the visual appearance of their work. Writing would become more of a visual art experience as well as an intellectual experience. Those who could create the most beautiful as well as intellectually stimulating would rise above the others.


After writing my first assignment in crayon I would be interested in venturing how other cultures, present or past, looked at writing with the given tools they had to complete them.