Gabriel Drozdov | Invisible Cities: Aglaura

Invisible Cities
Aglaura

“Invisible Cities” was the final project for Graduate Form I, which I completed as part of RISD’s 3-year MFA in Graphic Design. Tom Wedell taught the course during the Fall 2021 semester.

From the final project description:

“Create images and text that represent the selected passage you were given from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities—either literally or metaphorically. They can be generated by drawing, graphic, and/or photographic means. Arrange the text and images according to the structures implied by your grid system and format structure. You may eliminate the outlines of the grid structure and use them as guides only for placement. In addition, consider possible variations for the treatment of your images and text: e.g. scale, weight, color, textured, or translations, etc.”

Sculpture

From Calvino’s Invisible Cities:

“So if I wished to describe Aglaura to you, sticking to what I personally saw and experienced, I should have to tell you that it is a colorless city, without character, planted there at random. But this would not be true, either: at certain hours, in certain places along the street, you see opening before you the hint of something unmistakable, rare, perhaps magnificent; you would like to say what it is, but everything previously said of Aglaura imprisons your words and obliges you to repeat rather than say.”

Model

From the project description:

“Using a 3D graphics design software program such as Rhinoceros or Fusion 360 create a three dimensional symbol that best represents your city [i.e. Aglaura]. This symbol may or may not follow the structural configuration you’ve chosen for the main city model. You may choose to represent the city as a single architectural structure, a landscape feature, how a single resident, or group, might appear, or a more poetic interpretation of the city’s story.”