I have chosen the game of chess as a metaphor that can be applied to the conceptual and visual nodes of our essay sketch assignment. The game of chess can be examined at many different levels, from the pieces themselves to the layout of the board to the way that the games are structured to the way that the games are examined.

Conceptual

Vanevar Bush - The Memex

In an article entitled "As We May Think", published in 1945, Vanevar Bush described a machine of the future that he named "The Memex." The Memex was described as a desk with levers and a screens that would allow the user to create "trails" of information that could be retrieved and annotated. These trails could be traversed forward or backwards and would form a mesh of information and ideas. The game of chess forms a mesh of positions where the user can traverse either forwards or backwards as the game is played or replayed. Chess games are often annotated by masters of the game and many times, many pages of analysis can be associated with each particular position. In the game of chess, these positions can be thought of as linked together by the moves that transform one position into another position. In addition, the body of knowledge of chess moves and positions can be thought of as an encyclopedia that is always being added to so that future generations can benefit from the thoughts of the previous masters.

Jorge Borges - The Garden of Forking Paths

The book "The Garden of Forking Paths" Borges describes an infinite labyrinth that holds all possible combinations of time and events in a form of paths that could be traversed. Every decision could lead to another decision and so on. The labyrinth could be traversed in an infinite number of ways. The game of chess can be thought of an infinite number of positions that can be traversed using the moves as a transformation from one position to another. The traversal of the positions can be thought of a traversing a path with infinite forks. Although the game can have a start and an end, it does not have to. Often chess players will set up a position that will be analyzed and played that does not include all of the chess pieces. These positions can be replayed many times with many different outcomes.

Duchamp - The Found Object

Duchamp used a toilet as an expression of the idea that an ordinary object can be presented out of context to give it a new meaning. He created a new piece of art in the form of a fountain that used the toilet as the centerpiece. He took an object that had a previous meaning in peoples minds and created a new significance to the viewer. The game of chess uses many found objects that represent new meanings in the context of the chess game. The chess pieces themselves are each objects that have a different meaning outside of the game. The rook is represented many times as a tower from a castle. The knight is often represented as a horse. The pawn is often represented as a foot soldier.

Nelson - Hypertext

Hypertext evokes the idea of being able to traverse information using conceptual links between nodes of the information. The user can jump from one idea to another using the linking system. The game of chess has many points of interest that can be jumped to in a non-linear fashion. The end game is where many of the pieces have been removed from the board and in some cases, only two pieces remain. A player may decide to play an end game with just knights and kings, or with just kings and pawns or just two kings and a rook. It is common for two players to quickly go from one position of analysis to another which have no relationship of position other than the pieces used, or to keep the same positioning on the board, but exchange the pieces.

Library Sciences - Surrogate

A surrogate is an object that stands for another object and lets us know how to obtain it. In chess, basic positions are often used to represent underlying ideas of the game for example, the move P-K4 (pawn to king four) represents the body of openings referred to as the "King Side" openings. The move P-Q4 (pawn to queen four) represents the body of openings referred to as "Queen Side" openings and the move P-N3 (pawn to knight three) represents the openings referred to as the "Indians."

Baudrillard - Hyperreal

Hyperreal is defined as a "generation by models of a real without origin or reality." This conveys the idea that a representation of a world can be a reflection of the real world but not necessarily hold true to all aspects of that reality. In the game of chess, the pieces themselves are reflections of our world, but do not obey all the qualities of the entities that they represent. For example, the king and queen in our world are monarchs that often times hold no real power. In the game of chess, the game is ended when the king dies, but not when the queen dies. Another example is when a pawn reaches rank eight, it can transform itself into any other chess piece.

Visual

Tufte - Layering

Layering of information allows complicated information to be understood by the viewer. In maps, roads, cities, bodies of water, mountains and other information is often represented as different colors rather than all black and white. In chess, the board itself is always two different colors. The pieces are always separated into two different colors. The bishops are often thought of in terms of what color squares they are allowed to move on. When looking at a position in chess, if we didn't have the squares of the board in different colors and the pieces in different colors, it would be extremely difficult to see what was going on.

Meggs - The Grid

A grid structure is often used as a guide for layout that helps the viewer understand the information. Meggs described how the grid can be used in this manner. In the game of chess, the board itself is broken up into a grid which has subgrids. For example, the board can be cut in half down the middle horizontally where one side is considered the territory of one player and the other side is the territory of the other. The board is also often times cut down the middle vertically where one side is considered the king side and one side is considered the queen side. The board is also described as rows of squares that are referred to as either ranks or files depending on if they are horizontal rows or vertical rows.

Itten - The Art of Color

Itten identified a variety of color contrasts that helped draw people's attention. Contrasts allow for conveying a variety of emotions and ideas. One of the fundamental ideas he presented was the idea of hue contrast which allows for clearer perception of ideas.

In chess, the board and the pieces are often designed with colors that have a high contrast of hue. Sometimes the board may have a hue contrast while the pieces have a value contrast or saturation contrast.

Nodes with relation to the game of chess.

Bush - The Memex - Trail of positions connected by moves
Borges - Labyrinth - Infinite positions and infinite paths between positions
Duchamp - Found Object - Pieces represented with known objects
Nelson - Hypertext - Jump to a position or opening
Library Science - Surrogate - Positions represents body of knowledge
Baudrillard - Hyperreal - Pieces represented from reality without total conceptual representation
Itten - Color - Color contrast of board and pieces
Tufte - Layering - Layering of color of board and pieces to allow easy understanding
Meggs - Grid - The chess board is broken up into many grids, rows and columns