I've Got the Horn
My research has produced a surprising result from the 19th century. Learning aids and primers have been used in classrooms for centuries but one of the most enduring has been the hornbook.
These were small wooden paddles that had the letters of the alphabet inscribed on them. Later versions had the letters written onto parchment which was held in place using a thin layer of horn. (Hence their name) An alphabet, in upper and lower case, would be typically be accompanied by a list of vowels and a syllabary. The Lord’s Prayer would also be present to provide textual context and the wooden boards would often be pierced so it could be hung from the child’s belt or girdle. They were used to support the rote learning system utilised in educational of the time.
However, the arrival of the printing press and reduced paper expenses allowed an alternative to be mass produced. Battledore’s took their name from an early form of badminton, likely because of the ‘racket’ shape that the hornbooks took. Indeed, some were produced using the familiar shape but most were rectangular and folded to form a pamphlet. A battledore’s contents were similar to the hornbook containing letters, vowels and sometimes holy verses but their greater appeal was that they contained illustrations and images to compliment the letters. They were quite simply much more entertaining.
It was this folding interactivity that sent my research askew and I encountered Harlequinades. These were small pamphlets that would retell the tales of popular theatrical pantomimes featuring The Harlequin in the lead role. However, folds and cuts in the paper created movable flaps that could progress the narrative forward or jumble up the story to create amusing nonsense. The illustrations were also crafted to line up with each other and create a comic effect.
This was extremely similar to my idea for a flip-book but, being produced from only a single sheet of paper, drastically reduced costs and simplified the construction. However, the design of the pamphlet only allowed for eight illustrations to be used. After some collaboration and feedback from my colleagues, we discovered that by using both sides of the paper that number of illustrations could be doubled. This meant that I had sixteen images that could flip, change and generate four mix-ups per image. The prototype had potential but didn’t create the chaotic animal mash up I was trying to achieve. I folded it up to take home and consider further ….. I folded it up!
I found that if it was folded into a strip, concertina style, the flaps worked in a new way and generated many more animal mix-ups. What’s more is that if unfolded and concertinaed in a different order another set of images became available. This process could be repeated in several different ways creating hundreds of varied combinations. It had begun to exceed my expectations leaving me very excited about developing the idea.
(Do you think the title for this blog entry is subliminal?)
