Jakob Schäfer

CURRENT EXCAVATIONS

CATEGORY
MASTERS PROJECT | ILLUSTRATION
MEDIUM
PRINT
AWARDS
ADC BRONZE  
YEAR
2025
CONTEXT
NONSENSE
SUPERVISION
PROF. ANDRÉ RÖSLER & PROF. BÉATRICE BARROIS

“Nonsense is the art of deliberately standing on your head.”
– Robert Benayoun 

Current Excavations is a book that brings together 91 illustrations created during my exploration of nonsense and humor. The title of the book refers to the idea of digging into the unknown, like an inner excavation where forgotten fragments, unconscious layers and random shards are uncovered and rearranged into new meanings.

The drawings emerged from an intuitive and playful process: fragments of language, everyday thoughts and absurd associations became starting points for visual experiments. By breaking words out of their usual context, new narratives took shape, sometimes humorous, sometimes nonsensical, always questioning what is considered logical.

The book has no chapters and no fixed sequence. Each illustration stands on its own, like an artifact found in the excavation, inviting viewers to create their own connections. Together, they form a collection that blurs the line between sense and nonsense, showing how humor and absurdity can open unexpected perspectives.

Current excavations, in my head, through nonsense.

NONSENS NARRATIVES

This project is part of my Master’s thesis, which explores the theme of nonsense narratives. Alongside it, the thesis includes several other creative experiments, each investigating how humor, nonsense and playful language can create new narratives. The projects include Current Excavations, a book of exploratory illustrations; One Point Five, a short film born from random words and images; Rhetorik am Stuhl, a pocket book that visualizes rhetorical devices through chairs and Tomatosoup, a comic about rivalry. Together, these works form a comprehensive exploration of visual and linguistic nonsense, combining illustration, animation, comics, design, and playful experimentation.