Image&Word

As a medium, the book in paper has long been the most significant information vehicle. In present society, which to a large extent is dominated by other, digital media, the book has lost a great deal of its status.
On one hand, this is due to the ever increasing digitalization of information, but on the other hand also to the way we – readers – handle information differently. The new(er) media and electronic texts that dominate large portions of our daily life, have led us to handle information in a non-lineair manner. By ourselves, we copy-paste, “sample” en determine when to consult which specific information. The role of the user himself becomes increasingly important, he/she wants to interact with, and to a certain extent aid in the creation of, the information he/she is reading or processing. He/she is therefore not merely a producer or a consumer, but a prosumer, identity in which terms such as modularity and interactivity are essential.
Since its creation, the book has undergone few fundamental changes in form. The recent history of the ‘artist book’ reveals structurally interesting results. However, these are usually limited to one-off versions in which production has not or only partially been taken into account. Although the book today still has unique characteristics which are untranslatable to the modern digital media, for several reasons the book in paper no longer fulfills a modern user’s needs. Because of the continuously increasing data flow, the present dynamic and multi-layered digital graphic language, that finds its origins in the 1980′s, is forced to assume a more structured and functional form.
This research focuses on the manner in which the language and the processing of information in the new media can be translated to the existing physical structure of the book, being a tangible object as well as an information vehicle.
Every adaptation in form the book has undergone, from papyrus role to the current codex form, presented a specific solution to a problem which presented itself at the time.
The current book form is again questioned and we investigate how the book in paper would be able to survive as a medium in our digital society today.
In our form research the book in paper is deconstructed down to its basic elements and subsequently rebuilt adapting it to the modern user and manufacturing processes.
Paper, page proportions, weave and cover are molded taking modularity and interactivity into account. Ancient techniques such as folding patterns or watermarks are detailed underneath a modern graphic spotlight allowing shape to be given to new navigational structures.
We investigate how the “spread” of the book – and its underlying layers – can provide the necessary framework for this purpose. We do not only question the material aspect, but also the graphic approach and usage, and therefore the time dimension as well.
Through tangible and visual restructuring we try to design a more dynamic and interactive book shape in order to increase functionality and appeal. A new form is required, allowing the book to obtain a descriptive as well as a performative function.