Visual research exploring chess as a semiotic system, aiming to engage a new audience within the framework of a future chess club project.
The goal of this research is to understand chess not only as a sport but also as a language. By viewing chess from this perspective, one can comprehend the game as a means of communication and information transfer.
This conceptualization opens up new possibilities for interacting with a diverse audience, thereby promoting cultural development.
The front cover features the logo of the future chess club, executed through blind embossing on the binding fabric.
Viewing chess through the lens of semiotics, I am able to conceptualize it as a sign system and subsequently delineate seven ways in which information is conveyed.
The structure of the book mirrors the future work of the club. In the first chapter, you will learn that chess can be not only a sport but also a means of communication. The second chapter introduces the communicative game, the flow
Works by artist Dmitry Makhno, created specifically for the book to illustrate each aspect of the iconic system.
The page numbering system, which resembles a chessboard, is used to illustrate the structure of the second chapter, where each image represents a specific move or thought in the game.
For every aspect of the iconic system, there is an icon that is used in the infographics and image structuring in the second chapter.
So, the book itself is the result of research and confirms that using the medium of chess, one can articulate one’s thoughts.
A layout book inspired by a real game between bobjobmarley (White) and mithrilka (Black). The book was played on October 22, 2023.
Idea—process—image—caption
Various authors and individuals not only use chess as a medium for transmitting meaning—in fact, distinct aspects can be discerned within the manifestations of this symbolic system to varying degrees.
In the final infographic, I attempted to determine the clarity of the chess language, which aspects of the symbolic system are used most frequently, and how understandable the author’s message is.
Nevertheless, although the devised methods of information transfer proved somewhat functional, the chess «language» is too obvious.
To attract a new audience in a future project, the usage of the discovered symbolic system needs to be reevaluated. The end result should be a chess-like «language"—one that is not associated with chess but is capable of drawing new people into the culture.
The horse in the background is the «sign» of this new chess language. The visual study has become the club’s manifesto.
