The Kardashev Scale

One day, my brother told me about the Kardashev Scale, and how our
future might extend beyond this galaxy if we progress on it. I found it
exciting and wrote down the title to research it later, but completely
forgot about it. Seven years later, I came across this note and finally
decided to look into it.

Named after Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev,
who proposed the scale in 1964, it classifies
civilisations according to the amount of energy they
are capable of harnessing.

I became fascinated by the possibilities behind each
stage and spent a lot of time imagining what life might
look like as humanity progresses along the scale.

I wanted to use cyanotype for the visuals of this book.
Since it is a photographic technique that uses sunlight
to develop images, I thought it would work well with the
cosmic theme.

I turned my bathroom into a darkroom
and started to mix the chemicals.

I combined the cyanotypes with pencil drawings, because I liked
the contrast between these two techniques: one relying only on
sunlight and the other involving a much more direct human touch.

The book explores seven levels of civilisation, from planetary to
omniversal. As the concepts become harder to grasp, the layout and
illustrations become progressively more distorted and glitchy.

For the cover, I used one of the original cyanotype negatives.
I liked the idea of using something from the process itself
rather than creating a separate cover illustration. The
negative also offers a slightly different perspective on the
imagery found inside the book.

This project taught me to think about every little detail that
goes into making a book. There is so much more to it than
meets the eye, and I think there is bliss in the mystery of it.
There are things I don't want to explain. I want the reader to
notice them instead.