cell cities
DESCRIPTION
Thesis I Final DocumentTRANSCRIPT
SENIOR THESIS 1
PAUL CARLOS
FALL 2011
PUCD 4205 F
CRN: 5339
CELL CITIES
LILY CAMPBELL
CELL CITIES
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
RESEARCHadditional topics
example analogy
additional analogies
cell diagram
illustration inspiration
cover inspiration
cut out inspiration
dimensional inspiration
book size inspiration
interactive inspiration
additional inspiration
MY BOOKselected inspiration
initial explorations
CONTACT
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CELL CITIES
or cell mutation, by translating
organelles and proteins into
memorable characters, so when
students are introduced to these
concepts/processes at a higher level
of education, they may remember
the book they once read, perhaps
even unconsciously, and already be
familiar, comfortable, and interested
in the material.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Children read books about people
everyday, but these are generally
about the human as a whole, not
the most basic parts of a human:
their cells. I plan on creating a
series of books which will introduce
elementary students to cellular
biology & genetics concepts before
many educators would consider
them ready. The books will use
analogies for complex concepts
like DNA replication, cell division,
The first book will introduce the
analogy of a cell as a city (see page
3.) By using something familiar like a
city, kids will more easily understand
how the cell functions. The books
that follow will center around a
crisis, special event, or specific part
of the city in order to go more indepth
or descirbe a specific process of the
cell. For example, cell division would
be explained in a book in which a city
decides to break off into two cities,
and therefore needs to double all of
it’s buildings, departments, etc.
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ADDITIONAL TOPICS:
MOLECULE TRANSPORT
Cells must transport nutrients and other
molecules in and out of their cytoplasm
in order to survive and thrive.
DNA REPLICATION
The most important goal of a cell is to
survive & make more of themselves. To
do so they must replicate their DNA.
CELLULAR REPRODUCTION
Cell replication can either occur via
mitosis or meiosis. This splitting of one
cell into two is quite an amazing process.
PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
Proteins have diverse functions inside
the cells including being the building
blocks for all organelles, so protein
creation is crutial.
CELLULAR METABOLISM
Animals consume food to get energy,
plants process sunlight for energy, but
these energy sources must be converted
into more useful forms of energy for use
in the cell.
CELLULAR SIGNALING
Cells need to communicate with each
other to synchronize their functions.
CELLULAR INVASION
When a foreign body enters the cell and
the cell usually has to kill or be killed.
If you think about the postal
service, or a service like UPS,
they practically copy this process.
They recieve some sort of material
(protein) which needs to be
transported from it’s current
location to another either inside
the city (cell) or outside the city
(to another cell.) The post office
will then place the material in a
box, usually with bubble wrap or
peanuts for protection (fluid filled
vesicle,) and place a label with the
destination address and return
address (membrane proteins.)
This way the recipient can tell
if the package was intended for
them, and if they should open it
(much like the membrane, should
it recieve a vesicle.)
EXAMPLE ANALOGY:
One common analogy used in
high school to help students
better understand the functions
of cellular organelles is a city. If
you think of the entire cell as a
town or city, each organelle can
take on the function of buildings/
departments in the community,
while proteins act as the materials
used in the poduction of the city &
everything in it.
Let’s look at a single organelle
to better illustrate this cell as
city concept. The Golgi Apparatus
(sometimes refered to as the Golgi
Bodies or the Golgi Complex)
modiifies, sorts, and packages
macromolecules for cell secretion.
These macromolecules (usually
proteins) are delivered via the
Endoplasmic Reticulum. The Golgi
then packages the proteins inside
a transport vesicle and marks the
vesicle with membrane proteins
for recognition by the recipient
of the vesicles contents. These
processes ensure the proteins will
be delivered safely, to the correct
organelle, and opened only when
intended.
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CELL CITIES CITY ANALOGIES
City
City Limits
City Wall
Steel Girders or Physical City Structure
Lawns and Parks
Highways or Road System
Farms/Factories
Post Office or UPS
Solar Energy Plants
Police Department
Energy Plants
City Hall (or the mayor)
Original Blueprints of the city
Copies of Blueprints
Farm & Factory Construction
Waste Disposal/ Recyclers
Packages, Warehouses,
Water Towers, or Garbage Dumps
Air or atmosphere
Rolled up blueprints
Raw Material
CELL ORGANELLES
CELL
CELL MEMBRANE
CELL WALL
CYTOSKELETON
CYTOPLASM
ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM
RIBOSOMES
GOLGI APPARATUS/BODIES
CHLOROPLASTS
NUCLEAR MEMBRANE
MITOCHONDRIA
NUCLEUS
DNA
RNA
NUCLEOLUS
LYSOSOMES
VACUOLES AND VESICLES
PROTOPLASM
CHROMOSOMES
PROTEINS
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CITY ANALOGIES
City
City Limits
City Wall
Steel Girders or Physical City Structure
Lawns and Parks
Highways or Road System
Farms/Factories
Post Office or UPS
Solar Energy Plants
Police Department
Energy Plants
City Hall (or the mayor)
Original Blueprints of the city
Copies of Blueprints
Farm & Factory Construction
Waste Disposal/ Recyclers
Packages, Warehouses,
Water Towers, or Garbage Dumps
Air or atmosphere
Rolled up blueprints
Raw Material
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CELL CITIES
ILLUSTATIONS:
I began looking at children’s books to
understand what kind of illustrations
kids relate to and appreciate.
Included here are pieces with a
graphic style that I personally relate
to and could potentially translate into
a book about cellular cities for kids.
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CELL CITIES
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COVERS:
Included on the right are covers I
found interesting beause of either
illustration or hand done type. If
possible, I will combine some simple
illustations with hand done type to
illustrate the action.
CUT OUTS:
This page includes some interesting
examples of how cut outs or die
cuts can provide interacting within
a book. Many of these examples
like the cut outs which flip to reveal
more information, and the spinning
dial with the rivit may be useful
when hiding/displaying information
about the related organelle.
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CELL CITIES
DIMENSIONAL BOOKS:
Many of the books I found
incorporated some sort of 3d
element whether it be an attached
element which can be played with or
a textured area to illustrate material.
This sort of addition may work in
my books in order to differentiate
between organelles and the cell or
to create areas where children can
physically move parts of the book.
For example the golgi apparatus
page could include proteins that
the children could remove from
the endoplasmic reticulum, move
through the golgi, and into a vesicle
on the other side. perhaps they could
even add the membrane proteins.
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BOOK SIZE:
When it comes to book sizes for
children, the bigger the better,
in my opinion. When children
make their own books, they want
to use the biggest paper, write a
big as possible, and stretch their
illustrations across the entire page.
When reading in a group of children
it seems inconvinent for one of the
children to hold the book while the
others look on, instead they tend
to lay the book on the ground and
lay infront of it, so everyone can be
as close as possible, help turn the
pages, follow along with their finger
when they read aloud, and interact
with the illustrations (especially if
these are interective illustrations.)
Many times children’s books are
read aloud by either a teacher or
parent, in which case, it’s incredibly
useful to have an oversized book.
The adult (or student even) is able to
read while sharing the illustrations
with the entire group.
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CELL CITIES
FOLDED INSPIRATION:
The books I found, on the previous
pages, caused me to look back for
more inspiration. I love the red book
below and think the spacial quality of
it is really interesting. There may be
a way to incorporate this kind of pop-
up quality into my book.
On the opposite page, a few circular
forms I found interesting appear. The
book in the center have a circular
die-cut through the center with
materials added across and through
the circle. The folded book below has
interesting color forms which may
influence the final illustrations.
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FOLDING & CORK:
Folding the entire book out may be
an interesting way to add interactivity
for kids back in.
Robert Hooke saw the first (and
coined the term) cell around 1665
relating their appearance to that of
a monk’s cell. Below is one of his
original observational drawings of
a cork cell through a microscope.
Because the first cell was seen in
a cork cell, I feel it would be make
sense that some part of the book
involve cork. Some uses of cork
appear opposite.
CELL CITIES
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CELL CITIES
INTERACTIVITY:
Because I am currently hoping to
include so many interactive fea-
tures, it may make more sense for
this project to manifest itself in the
form of an ipad app or website. I am
reluctant to propose such a project
because of my own limitations. But if
time allows,
I would really like to translate cell
cities into a more accessable media
like the ipad or the internet.
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ADITIONAL INFLUENCES:
The book to the right (an above) was
a book I had when I was ten. The first
few pages included a cartoon of the
security guard at an art museum
waking up and realizing that the
museum had been broken into, and
10 painting replaced with frauds. You
continue through the book doing a
sort of spot the differences technique
refereneing the paintings currently
in the museum with those in a
catalogue on the bottom half of the
book. The book kept me entertained
for hours trying to solve the mystery
of who stole which painting. The book
may actually be the reason I became
fascinated with art and decided to
come to parsons.
My brother had the rug on the bottom
right when we younger, and we
used to play on top of it with trucks,
barbies, polly pockets, and animal
figurines. This sort of a large scale
map could work for my interactive
book. A cell or city map where kids
can place in organelles and interact
with the system as a whole.
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CELL CITIES
THE BOOK:
After looking at all the previous
influences I found a few objects
which will provide me with a more
precise direction. I would really like
to use some form of cut and reveal. I
love the bright graphic illustrations
in the book (above center.)
The PR3 book (bottom right) caused
me to reconsider my target group.
This book could potentially be
condensed into a book where every
chapter covers an event in the cell, it
could be bound beautifully like this
one, and I could see a bunch of nerdy
young teenagers carrying the book
around (excuse my use of the word
nerd but I would have considered
myself one at that age.)
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To the right, I began to play with the
buildings as more simplifies icons,
inspired by the PR3 book. But then I
began to think, why can’t the buildings
be actual characters, like characters
in many traditional childrens books.
This will make the organelles more
memorable and relatable
chloroplasts act like factories in plants taking in energy from the sun and converting it into energy for the cell to use.
CELL CITY
EXPERIMENTATION:
On the bottom of the opposite page
I began to play with how parts
of the city could be introduced.
This illustation, however, has not
undergone any revisions and I
don’t believe they are very useful in
conveying the information nessesary.
On the bottom of this page I have
begun to play around with how
a cut and reveal may work to my
advantage, by cutting out the shape
of the organelle from the building it
will imply a connection between the
building and the organelle.
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CELL CITIES
CITY PLANNING:
I began looking at books concerning
city planning, hoping to find a city
that already imitates the structure
of a cell. I found a few real cities
like Paris in the 1500s and ancient
Athens, as well as a few imaginary
cities which may serve as a bridge
between city and cell.
In my research I happened upon
a list of city ‘types’ including the
commercial city, the industrial
city, the transportation city, the
recreational city, educational cities,
mining communities, retirement
communities, governmental
centers, and combination cities. This
classification could be an alternitive
way to organize these cell city stories
into seperate books, although not all
of these city ‘types’ will work for a
cell (i.e. retirement city)
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CELL CITIES
CITY PLANNING:
Many of the books regarding city
planning that I happened upon
included these city overviews which
I think are visually really interesting,
even by themselves. I also came
across a book (on the right) that have
different sized pages for pages with
text and pages. This could also be
an interesting addition to the book
which will add visual and interactive
interest. The book could have many
different sized pages and somehow
fold out to become a large cellular
city map.
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PARIS, FRANCE:
As mentioned earlier, the physical
structure of Paris resembles that of
a cell. The one major difference is
the river flowing through paris. A cell
doesn’t not have water flowing freely
in it, but rather cytoplasm contained
within it’s plasma membrane. To il-
lustate this point it may be helpful to
place a dome on top of the city.
CELL CITIES
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THE COLLECTION:
When I have created multiple books,
I would like to package them in a
box set much like the ones on this
page. I feal that what is missing
with these book box-sets is a clear
and engaging relationship to the
material. If someone is going to
but the special edition or box set
of a series, it’s usually because the
packaging itself is so special.
I do, however, really appreciate
the gesture on the spines of the
animator’s survival kit. It adds a bit
of playfulness in that they could
be reordered and possibly appear
like they have different legs or feet
than those intended for them. I also
appreciate the simplicity of the bold
circle on the Lord of the Rings set
with the addition of the gloss coated
black on black details.
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PROTOTYPING PHASE 1:
I began playing with illustration once
I had written a rough draft for a piece
of the cell division book. My illustator
sketches were turning out too child-
ish like the one below, so I decided
to try making spreads a bit darker.
Below right, are two variations of one
of these spreads. Above is a pos-
sible overview of the city, the white
is proposed ‘road ways’ through the
city. The nucleus or town hall will be
placed in the center with other build-
ings placed in empty quadrants of the
circle. These may end up in the shape
of a C as seen on the opposite page.
Many of these quadrants will be left
empty for use in the stories.
CELL CITIES
& THE CITY WENT TO WORK, SLOWLY PUSHING THEIR CITY IN TWO
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SAMPLE STORY:
... The people of the city worked
hard, and the city thrived.
They produced more food than
they would ever be able to eat,
more power than they would
ever be capible of consuming,
more materials than they
would ever be able to use,
and more waste than they
had room for in their {dome}.
In fear of lysis, the town assembled
at the town nucleus where the
mayor demanded all government
buildings begin doubling their staff
and construction of new facilities.
Knowing how energy intensive
avoiding a break in the dome was
going to be, he asked energy plants
to quickly take over the entire
southern quarter of the city.
Building materials were quickly
delivered to construction sites, and
the city doubled within a few days.
In the meantime, the town hall was
carfully drawing copies of the entire
town’s specifications. {including the
book of laws, blueprints to all the
buildings in the city and city plans.}
As soon as the {centromere}
completed it’s replication, the people
of {} city gathered to transport the
new building across town.
With the {centromere} on the
opposite side of the city, citizens
unwrapped and ran to the center of
town.
Upon their arrival, they were greeted
by the rest of the town who had
gathered to witness the ceremonies.
The blueprints had been layed
across the hall’s lawn in pairs. The
town quickly wrapped one of every
pair in the ribbons.
A parade of people rushed in
following the ribbon bearers from
the opposite side of the city. They
tied the remaining blueprints in the
ribbons.
The crowd grew silent.
{TRANSLATION OF CELL SIGNAL:
phone call to mayor?}
And the city went to work, slowly
pushing their city into two cities,
stretching and reconfiguring the
supports for the dome along the
stretch.
..TOWN HALL SPLITS RECONFIGUREDS ON OPPOSITE SIDES AND RUNS ITS OWN TOWN THROUGH THE REMANDER OF THE DIVIDE
& THE CITY WENT TO WORK, SLOWLY PUSHING THEIR CITY IN TWO
CELL CITIES
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GOOGLE SKETCH UP:
Because I have to illustrate a a cel-
lular city, I decided it would benifi-
cial to begin drawing the physical
city structure in google sketch up.
Perhaps these models could eventu-
ally be turned into illustrations by
bringing them into photoshop. Even
if these only end up being reference
for perspective drawing or as a map
of the city to ensure consistancy
throughout the book.
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TO DO LIST:
PROTOTYPING: WINTER 2011-2012
» Draft of text for all books
» Storyboard for all books
» Finish SketchUp model
» Size exploration
» Binding exploration
» Type/format exploration
» Integration of cork/cutouts/folding
PRODUCTION: SPRING 2012
» Finalized text
» Illustrations for spreads
» Branding
» Cover design
» Packaging/extras?
» Box set
TESTING: SUMMER 2012
» Summer camp testing
» Game/Interactive integration
REVISIONS: FALL 2012
» Thesis II
» Feedback from summer 2012 testing
CELL CITIES
email:
[email protected]@newschool.edu
phone:
802.236.5724
mailing address:
Lily Campbell439 W 51st Apt 1ENew York, NY 10019
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{APPLAUSE}