Ping Pong

Very touching and interesting documentary about ageing well.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms?

The next 5 posts show a group of experiments that seek to represent graphically some of the symptoms felt by people with dementia.

Two of my grandparents are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore this project is based in my direct experience and observation of the progressive weakening of their cognitive functions.

My aim is to communicate dementia in a different way, trying to give the audience some insight on those symptoms in order to raise awareness about the disease.

This project was shown at the Work in Progress exhibition, 7-10 February at Central Saint Martins.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 1

DISORIENTATION MAP

This map is a metaphor to convey the constant feeling of disorientation that people with dementia usually experience.

My grandparents are not able to identify most of the places that used to be part of their daily life. If they remember some of those familiar places they cannot recall the way to get there, even if they used to do it everyday.

The place they are able to recognize most is their home. Everything revolves around it. Therefore I used the house as the centre of rotation for the different layers. Each colour represents a forgotten regular route or a special place that they cannot remember anymore. The places that are most present in their memories have the smallest degree of rotation/disorientation.


Experiment done with the Central London bus map from TfL.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 2

THE BOOK OF GENESIS ACCORDING TO MY GRANDFATHER

Vasco Branco is my grandfather, living with Alzheimer’s disease for more than 10 years. I used the Book of Genesis, a reference to him and to many, to represent the progressive state of confusion that he lives in everyday.

I identified 4 types of confusion: about objects, people, places and time. These are expressed by 4 types of typographic changes in the text of the Book of Genesis.

Besides my grandfather, my grandmother suffers from the same disease. I used examples and episodes I experienced with them in order to create this book.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms?

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 1

This set of three books form a project in which I explore how memory loss could affect book narrative.

With Playback I explored the symptom of repetition, associated with the fact that people affected with Alzheimer’s disease often lose their short-term memory.
Although diagnosed for many years my grandfather still reads a lot. However whenever he stops reading he has trouble remembering his place. So he always starts from the beginning, and never reaches the end of the book.


Experiment developed with 2nd hand book Playback by Raymond Chandler, 1965, Penguin Books.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 4

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 2

The book Digging up the Past reflects on how memory is affected by Alzheimer’s disease. In the early stages it starts to have an effect on short-term memory, leaving past memories intact. However, with the progression of the disease, semantic memory (the meaning of things), procedural memory (how to do things) and past memories can also be affected.

In advanced stages, it seems as though the disease keeps “digging” at their memories, their identity, until they are almost empty.


Experiment developed with 2nd hand book Digging up the Past by Sir Leonard Woolley, 1954, Penguin Books.

What if graphic design was affected by dementia symptoms? 5

BOOK NARRATIVE AFFECTED BY MEMORY LOSS 3
A Delicate Balance is a play about a family and their friends. I chose one of the characters to have Alzheimer’s disease: Tobias, the father of the family. He progressively forgets the other characters, starting with his friends, his sister-in-law, then his daughter. By the end of the book he is only able to recognize himself, and, from time to time, his wife.

Each of the three acts in the play represents one of the three stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

In the early stage / act 1, Tobias can always recognize Agnes. Sometimes he forgets Julia (daughter) and Claire (sister-in-law) and, more often, his friends, Harry and Edna.

In the moderate stage / act 2, Tobias still knows Agnes most of the time; he recognizes Claire and Julia just a few times and Edna and Harry only once or twice. When a character speaks for a long time he also tunes out.

In severe stage / act 3, Tobias cannot follow more than 3 or 4 lines of speech. He is also unable to keep a conversation going. He is starting to have some difficulty recognizing Agnes. The other characters are not there anymore.
Experiment developed with 2nd hand book A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, 1969, Penguin Books.