Background

Invisible Faces – Seeing and Knowing Numbers – The book and poster series explores ten unique visual stories of numerals 1 to 10. Designed and authored by Shalotte who won the Joan Shewmon Memorial Award and Wayne E. Smith Memorial Scholarship at RISD.

Approach

We are introduced to numbers through the study of Mathematics and are taught to make only quantitative associations with them. This work communicates in a purely visual, qualitative and non-mathematical sense, a specific idea of quantity and quality that a numerical sign can represent. The posters charge numbers with poetry and unravel a unique, inner beauty that challenges their intrinsic mathematical nature.

Two

Taking advantage of symmetrical letter-forms, T, W and O which mirror-reflect perfectly into their complete whole, the poster illustrates the binary, dual nature of the number 2.

Eight

An octave in music has eight steps. These eight notes can, therefore, create a sound loop with the first and the last key being the same. The poster visually illustrates the sound loop of an octave (in music). Created by continuous mark-making and beeping by a programmed lego-robot’s looping the journey of 8 on paper.

Five

By virtue of its position in the number series (1 to 10), five has a centeredness. If five occurs in the middle, this position must reflect in some way on its form. The poster explores the idea of the whole in the part.

Ten

One & Zero – Ten is the turning point in the whole; the last number in the series of the first ten and the first in the series that leads to infinity (10, 11, 12…) – The poster brings to life qualities of completeness and a beginning.