[ISTD Award Winner 2020] Dante Alighieri's Paradiso

This project is a response to the ISTD 2020 Student Assessment Scheme

Brief: Typographically interpret Paradiso, to introduce The Divine Comedy to a newer, younger audience, as well as in a way that is more easily understood and familiar.

Canto 33 is the last chapter in the Divine comedy, the end of Dante's journey as he meets God. Dante has risen through the outer rings of heaven to what is described as far outer space. Dantes description of his experience is one of shock and awe as he struggles to make sense of what he is experiencing. Dante's journey through the Divine comedy has all ultimately been preparing him for this.

The inspiration came from the Danteum where the story was adapted into a physical experience without the use of any vocabulary. The idea of simulating this experience is the intention of my project. At the time when the Divine Comedy was written, most religious texts were published in latin. The Divine Comedy was intended to expose the corruption in the Catholic Church at the time, to allow for this Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian so the lay people could understand it. I chose to build a website as I felt this was a modern extension of this idea, as a website is where information is now most accessible.

Vision is a big theme throughout the Divine comedy. Dante described a "cloud" of obscuring haze preventing the truth from fully being seen. Little by little, the events of the Divine Comedy remove the cloud from Dante's Vision, preparing him for a direct glimpse at God. God is described as an inter-dimensional being of perfect geometry that is an ever-changing form. Dante's mind is unable to comprehend what he is seeing, and instead rationalises the holy trinity as there luminous circles.

The intention with my design is to adapt and direct this scene like an animation while telling the story. The white letters expose the light in the dark outer universe starting off slow but building up until their form grows, becomes chaotic then blinding and exposes the final window within it, where the typography is an ever changing form. The decision for this to not be just a video but rather an interactive experience where the user has to scroll to reveal, was inspired by the fact free will is such a strong theme throughout the story. In the case of this project the user has the choice to patiently read this chapter or they could continuously scroll animating the type and telling the story through a visual interactive experience.