Enclosed Conversations: Levels of Exchange Between FriendsPublication Design
2024
- SIZE: 5.25 × 7.5”
- BINDING: Coptic stitch
- Embossed Covers
A conversation is an informal talk—an exchange of ideas—between two or more people. A good conversation requires balance, both between participants and with regards to substance. Participants must navigate between simplicity and specificity and stay on topic while being open to switching to new issues, all while asking and answering questions.
Enclosed Conversations is a catalog of a conversation I had with my friend, Lauren Greenblatt, over a period of 2 days. As we sent text messages back and forth, I found that our conversation had different levels of visibility and comfortability to it. Because we knew the conversation was being recorded for a class assignment, the texts we sent were stripped back a layer from our true personalities. We made sure the things we said were what we wanted to be read by others. When we were talking about the conversation itself, planning what we wanted to say and how long we wanted to talk, we sent our messages enclosed in parenthesis. I found that this would make an interesting theme for the book. All of our text is presented in the publication, with the parenthetic text we intended only for each other being displayed in a different typeface allowing the reader to decode how our messages were intended.