The Final Stretch

It may seem that I have dropped off the face of the world in the last month or so. This is not so. I have, however, had little time to be working on this blog. I have always struggled, in my academic work, with the problem of the extra work that it takes to adequately record the process of creation, and I've fallen off the wagon a bit here. Basically, I have been too busy actually finishing Vectis to write about finishing Vectis. Now, however, I am nearing the endgame, and I can make a progress update.

I have made a great deal of progress, and in the process made many changes. The fourth section (Winter) has undergone a complete overhaul in its layout and contents. The original idea I had (a succession of photographs of the coast) never quite gelled together; the seasonal structure gave me a limited number of pages in which to realise the concept, which could very easily occupy a whole, larger book. There was no way to present all the coast in such a way. Furthermore, the actual process of walking and exploring the coast proved to be too great a task given my time. It didn't seem like I would be able to do the process any justice; I was also not entirely sure whether it would fit in with the rest of the book. Instead, I decided to resort to a completely different idea, making instead two virtual journeys; not the endeavour of a flâneur but of a robinsonneur, one who travels without moving. One of these journeys is visual (a procession of heavily treated aerial or satellite images), one textual (a procession of the names of settlements around the coast), though both are composed aesthetically on the page.

As well as making much other progress with the content, I have also (I believe) sorted out the problem with the bleeds, which was down to Indesign incorrectly exporting the bleed settings. I have sent off for another black and white test printing, which should arrive some time in the next few days. If my fix has been successful, I should be ready to have the book finally printed, in colour, some time next week.

So, without further ado, I present a selection of spreads showing the current state of Vectis.

 Once the book has finally been sent off, I will go back over this blog, improving some entries and publishing another of other backdated entries, as well as adding some extra pages and other features (such as a bibliography).