Spin-Off n. 1:

About Bartlebooth

As already mentioned, Perec’s story-making machine only provides guidelines for the writing of a novel. Still, the author has to produce a compelling storyline that makes sense and joins between constraints. This is also why such a complex and layered piece of literature can potentially lead to additional exploitations. Let’s shift our focus now on the content of his work and see an example.

The Subject

If you take a quick look again at the main plot of the book and carefully follow the chain of events, you will eventually notice something fascinating: recursive elements.

Making use of a Top-Down Approach and, again, of the eXtreme Design methodology we noticed it was possible to create an ontology based on Barthelbooth’s story. Also, in the process some Ontology Design Patterns resulted to be quite handy.

The transformation is firstly guided by generic questions, like:

• Who is the story about?
• What kind of things is the story about?
• What events is the story describing?
• Who did what?
• When did an event happen?

About WHO:

1. Who is the author and main actor of the 50-years-thrown-to-the-wind plan? Bartlebooth.
2. Who is the servant with whom Bartlebooth travels with? Smautf.
3. Who teaches Bartlebooth how to paint watercolours? Valène.
4. Who transforms watercolours to puzzles? Gaspard Winckler.
5. Who invented the solution to re-bind the paper of the puzzles? Georges Morellet.
6. Who attempts to stop Bartlebooth from destroying his art? An art fanatic (Charles-Albert Beyssandre)

About WHAT:

1. What’s the purpose of Bartlebooth? Occupy the remainder of his life and spend all his money with something that will not last.
2. What painting technique does Bartlebooth learn during the first 10 years of his project? Watercolour.

Competency Questions

Elements

Individuals:

• Barlebooth, Valene, Smautf, Gaspard Winckler, Special solution, Georges Morellet, Puzzle x, An art fanatic, ...

Classes:

• Persons: Wealthy Englishmen, Artists, Residents of 11 rue Simon-Crubellier, Servants, Craftsmen, Art fanatics.
• Paintings: Watercolours.
• Jigsaw puzzles: Puzzle holes, Puzzle pieces.
• Chemical solutions;
• Wooden supports;
• Ports;
• Detergent solutions;
• Paper;
• Furnaces.

Events:

• Bartlebooth purchases an apartment at 11 rue Simon-Crubellier;
• Bartlebooth spends 10 years learning to paint watercolours with Valène;
• Bartlebooth embarks on a 20-year trip around the world with his loyal servant Smautf;
• Bartlebooth paints a watercolour of a different port roughly every two weeks;
• Bartlebooth then sends each painting back to France;
• The paper of each watercolour is glued to a support board;
• A carefully selected craftsman named Gaspard Winckler (also a resident of 11 rue Simon-Crubellier) cuts it into a jigsaw puzzle;
• Upon his return, Bartlebooth spends his time solving each puzzle, re-creating the scene;
• Each finished puzzle is treated to re-bind the paper with a special solution invented by Georges Morellet;
• After the solution is applied, the wooden support is removed;
• The painting is sent to the port where it was painted;
• The painting is placed in a detergent solution until the colors dissolve;
• The white paper is returned to Bartlebooth;
• An art fanatic also intervenes in an attempt to stop Bartlebooth from destroying his art;
• Bartlebooth is forced to have the watercolours burned in a furnace locally;
• Bartlebooth dies while he is about to finish his 439th puzzle.

For the Abstracted Scenarios we use a Top Down Approach, starting off from the most generic classes and events at Level 1, then specifying more and more at Level 2 and 3 as we traced back to the actual storyline at Level 4.

At Level 2 we detected from ontologydesignpatterns.org potentially usefull Ontology Design Patterns, such as ContentOPs: Material Transformation, AgentRole, Objectrole.

Generic Use Cases

Level 1

In a certain time period, a man learns a craftwork from a teacher.

The same man embarks on a trip with his servant.

The same man does a craftwork.

This craft is sent somewhere else.

Another man does a craftwork starting from the one of the first man.

(this block repeats for 500 times)

The first man does a craftwork starting from the one of the second man.

third man does a craftwork starting from the second one of the first man,

this craftwork is sent somewhere else,

someone does a craftwork starting from the received one,

this craftwork is sent somewhere else

(This block repeats for 438 times)

The first craftsman becomes blind.

Someone attempts to stop his project.

The first craftsman destroys his work.

The first craftsman dies.

“Someone does a craftwork of a specific art”

Level 2

Level 3

“Someone receives the craftwork and does a work of a specific art on it”

Now we can apply the identified patterns to the specific cases described in the story.

Level 4

2022, Diego Chillo & Laura Travaglini