A personal statement about my interests in the human relationship with computing I decided to make a human processing unit or HPU for short. This word play further supports my idea of putting the human brain in the place of the CPU of the computer. The human processing unit was a system of inputs (user behavior and characteristics), processing (human operated graphical generation based on a set of pre-built criteria), and a single output (a graphical composition based off the users behavior and characteristics). I would engage the user in a space with four posters and a video projection mapped onto the space to create live feedback based on the users inputs. The user would enter the live space and place one indicator per poster. As the user entered the live area the digital projection would begin to overlay a unique mark based on the users inputs. The purpose of this project was to question the human in context of the computer. What inputs, as humans, can we process that computers can’t? Adding specific physical characteristics of the user as inputs allowed for me as the processor to make human observations outside of the parameters in which the computer could.
Testing the Typographic Torus is an ongoing experimental typography project based on testing the legibility limitations of the Swiss typeface Helvetica when applied to a torus with altered x, y, or z axes.
This volume, the first of three, documents the alterations of the x-axis at 10 degree intervals from -90 degrees to +90 degrees.
2017
Project Sense was a year long collaborative conditional design project among five designers. We sought to explore the five senses through interpretive mark making representing each sense. These marks were collected in a series of five books, one for each sense. Each book contained every designer’s mark as a representation of their chosen condition. The books were then mailed to one another to switch senses allowing for all five designers interpretations to be collected.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock, Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
2017
A poster made for P.5. ! L0vE U, a community artist gathering sponsored by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).
2017
In-house project for Krewe Eyewear's launch of a custom acetate named Stella.
Video Direction: Stirling Barrett + Joel Kern
Cinematography: Joel Kern
Editing: Nisa East
Below is a scroll through of the online shopping experience for the online retail launch in Summer of 2017
Concept: Joel Kern + Chloe Dewberry
Web Design: Joel Kern
Product Photography: Joel Kern
On-model Photography: German Roque
This public installation shows the underlined portion of the above quote set in American Modified Braille. This quote is from 1821 by Louis Braille, he was determined to invent a system of reading and writing that could bridge the gap in communication between the sighted and the blind.
The use of American Modified Braille in conjunction with Louis Brailles’ quote lends itself to the contractual nature of the American Modified Braille language, allowing for the same message to be displayed but in a shorter amount of characters.
The installation is made up of seventeen 36” x 24” panels each representing a character or contraction to spell the words “we do not need pity”. Each panel has the braille dot structures cut out exposing the underlying texture. This change of texture is meant to emulate the raised texture of braille commonly found embossed in paper at the standard 14pt text weight.
The audio element of this piece acts as a translation from visual to auditorial for those that cannot see the work. The audio translates the meaning and significance of the piece to an additional alternate form.
2017
The design process always incorporates a search, research, archive, system, network, and narrative. This project specifically highlighted the searching and researching phases of this process.
After searching and selecting an unknown braille map from the special collections section of the Providence Public Library I set out to research, analyze and decipher this object. The end result being a two-sided 10 plate puzzle that shows the original map and its origins of being on one side and the translation and my process of research and understandings on the other.
A special thank you to the Perkins School of the Blind, the Lighthouse for the Blind, and the National Braille Press for help in translating this map.
2017
This collection of five essays is formally structured to support the arguments addressing the reoccurring question in graphic design: what differentiates a work from being graphic design vs contemporary art?
2017
An inspection into the 8 x 8 grid of the game of chess, including various small piece checkmate scenarios. An ode to Josef Hartwig and the Bauhaus School.
2017
Project Sense was a year long collaborative conditional design project among five designers. We sought to explore the five senses through interpretive mark making representing each sense. These marks were collected in a series of five books, one for each sense. Each book contained every designer’s mark as a representation of their chosen condition. The books were then mailed to one another to switch senses allowing for all five designers interpretations to be collected.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock, Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
2016
A late night xerox study based on the new friendships of grad school.
2017
This book acts as documentation of the four experiments conducted to find the best way to connect braille, a tactile language, to a specific visual presentation. I chose to use specific primary colors and strategic tile placements to emulate the tactile characteristics of braille. These experiments explored both the additive (light) and subtractive (pigment) color theories, braille, and human interaction to provide awareness for the sighted community of the beauties of braille while simultaneously including color to help achieve its understanding.
2016
An exhibit highlighting the conclusion of the year long project_sense. The show exhibited the original five books that traveled between the five designers over the course of the year. The additional work displayed on the walls were a final in-person collaboration representing all senses. This final work was a reaction to the final collected content of all books.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock (Not Present), Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
Opening:
July 22nd, 2017
Annunciation Hall
New Orleans, LA
2017
On The Boundaries is a experimental exhibition based on conditional design and spatial restriction. The participating collaborators designed a set of five rules per person to be performed inside C-U-B-E gallery during 30 minute sessions. Each participant chose a mark to delineate their movements through space. These are the documented results of the workshop. At the conclusion of the experiment, we developed products from abstracting the three-dimensional installation into a two-dimensional pattern.
March 29th-31st, 2016
C-U-B-E, Experimental Design Lab
Lamar Dodd School of Art
University of Georgia
Collaborators: Moon Jung Jang, Joel F. Kern, Christopher Knowles, Erin Moore, and Julie Rodriguez
2016
Beer can design for Creature Comforts Brewery in Athens, GA featured on dieline.com
2015
A symbolic language based on the already existing english language which can be deciphered by fluent speakers and learned by foreign speakers through visualizations rather than phonetics.
2015
Visual representations of a series of tasks performed through exploring, responding, and collecting ideas and information acquainted with my new city (Providence), colleagues, and self.
2015
Two people sit side by side. Person 1 starts with a sheet of paper and a drawing utensil chosen by person 2. Person 1 has one minute to create any type of mark on the page. After one minute, person 1 hands the paper and the newly chosen drawing utensil to person 2. This exchange happens seven times resulting in a seven minute collaborative composition. This book series is a result of six seven minute compositions.
Forty-two minutes.
Project Concept: Joel Kern
Book Design: Joel Kern
Participants: Joel Kern and Max Beeching
Designed and printed in Athens, GA
2015
Project Sense was a year long collaborative conditional design project among five designers. We sought to explore the five senses through interpretive mark making representing each sense. These marks were collected in a series of five books, one for each sense. Each book contained every designer’s mark as a representation of their chosen condition. The books were then mailed to one another to switch senses allowing for all five designers interpretations to be collected.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock, Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
2017
A form study exploring abstract perspective using a particular graphical style.
Project Sense was a year long collaborative conditional design project among five designers. We sought to explore the five senses through interpretive mark making representing each sense. These marks were collected in a series of five books, one for each sense. Each book contained every designer’s mark as a representation of their chosen condition. The books were then mailed to one another to switch senses allowing for all five designers interpretations to be collected.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock, Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
2017
Project Sense was a year long collaborative conditional design project among five designers. We sought to explore the five senses through interpretive mark making representing each sense. These marks were collected in a series of five books, one for each sense. Each book contained every designer’s mark as a representation of their chosen condition. The books were then mailed to one another to switch senses allowing for all five designers interpretations to be collected.
Director: Joel Kern
Participating Designers: Tony Brock, Moon Jung Jang, Joel Kern, Christopher Knowles, Tyler Leslie
2017
An inquiry into the difference in geographical terminology used to represent the same thing.
2017
