12. Research paper explained

…

It’s true that in the context of playing with the perception of the text, layout is just one aspect to address. Another is organising, structuring the information, or narration. And while quotes might not need a fixed location within my writing and I can treat them separately and more loosely, the text itself might be read in different ways too.

From the beginning, I intended to write a few loose essays touching on a bit different topics that could be connected, or at least my hunch was that they had something in common. They don’t need to be read in any particular order, and they don’t lead to any conclusion either. To somehow tie the topics together, I open the paper with a set of questions to the reader, but I don’t attempt to answer them. I leave them to be processed in the back of the mind during and after reading. Not to mention that I simply don’t know the answers, and the intention of the paper is just to open the eyes to connections between different aspects of our everyday reality.

Each essay is connected to others in several points let’s say. Some paragraphs from one essay link somehow to a few paragraphs in other essays – they might show the same tendency in a different context, continue the thought, provide an example etc. I was wondering what structure could show that fluidity and interconnectedness within the text, as well as invite the reader to explore other associations between thoughts in the paper than those settled by the order of paragraphs.

My idea for structuring my paper was probably inspired, or at least influenced by those:

…

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, which starts with instructions:

Someone even mapped the order of chapters of the second reading here:

…

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, which used to be my Bible in the days of studying architecture.

The book shows how to approach different aspects in the design of built environment, from the scale of a city to a room, with regard to psychological and social needs.

Interestingly, any relevant themes are mentioned at the beginning and at the end of each chapter, so that instead of reading the book from cover to cover, one jumps through the line of associations and ideas relevant for his or her project.

…

Talking about Bible, it has a very accurate referencing system, where each paragraph has its own number, so that you can guide someone to the exact sentence you want. In this way, it would be possible to jump not between the chapters but even between paragraphs.

…

In the end, in face of the paper submission deadline, in all honesty I just wanted to make it possible to read, and tried to keep it simple.

So we have two independent lines of thought: my text on the left, collection of quotes on the right. They don’t necessarily go hand in hand, which is clear from the first page, so the order of reading needs to be decided by the reader from the start.

Because the sets of quotes have numbers related to the chapters, there is no clear visual indication of which quote refers to which fragment of an essay. They come in sets and can be read separately from the text.

Within my own text, each paragraph has its number on the left, and numbers of relevant paragraphs on the right (if there are any), which opens another thread of thinking.

I also tried not to make a big distinction between chapters, as no way of reading should be dominant. They go as one continuous text, and you’re welcome to make jumps at any moment suitable.

The choice of different font types and sizes was meant to distinguish two independent but somehow parallel and connected parts.