THE PROCESS

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Converting Audio to Visual

I recorded my own interpretation of how to recite "In a Station of the Metro" and used an online converter to convert my audio file to a visual representation of sound waves.

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Creating the Base

I created the background in Procreate using colors inspired by an illustration by Ryan Inzana from an article about the poem called "A Poem Distills Life and Death Into Two Lines." I then took the background into Adobe Photoshop, where I typed out the text, dividing it across six different pages to reflect the mid-line spaces of the poem when it was originally published. I chose to create an accordion book for the sound waves to remain continuous. The book is of a handheld size, with each page measuring 5.5" tall and 3.5" wide, so that it can be easily held for recitation.

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Adding a Digital Component

I wanted to incorporate a digital element to the book to explore how books can exist in a digital space supported by multimedia elements, so I added a QR code to the front cover that links to the website that you are viewing now.

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Aligning the Sound Waves

I took the image of the sound waves from the online converter and lined it up along the top edge of the Photoshop canvas.

Machine-made

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Tracing the Sound Waves

I then traced around the sound waves. This process took quite a while since I wanted to achieve a high level of detail and precision. At the same time, since this was my first time using a laser cutting machine, I was not sure how closely I could trace the sound waves without the book ending up too delicate to the touch.

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Creating the Laser Cutting File

I took the outline of the sound waves and used it to create the Adobe Illustrator file for the laser cutting machine. After printing the accordion book out using a large format printer, I used a laser cutting machine to precisely cut the sound waves along the top edge of the sheet of paper.

Handmade

Handmade

I paper marbled the background using the technique of suminagashi, and I specifically used black to reflect the black bough that is described at the end of the poem. The paper used is Japanese printmaking paper that takes well to suminagashi due to its thinness and the fact that it is composed of longer fibers. I chose to create a suminagashi background because the marbling of the suminagashi reminded me of sound waves. I wrote out the text, modeling the font after the font that was used when the poem was originally published in Poetry magazine to reflect the fact that this version of the book was made with more traditional bookmaking techniques. I then cut out the sound waves along the top edge of the book by hand.