The Interactive Book

From the project site: "The history of the book is a story about the interactions between humans and a material object. Today’s digital books appear to bring new levels of interactivity to the process of reading, with their touch screens, hyperlinks, and text annotation features. But book formats throughout history have always entailed specialized interaction, from scrolls and wax tablets to pocket diaries and three-ring binders, making the reader do, accomplish and experience particular things in the process of engaging with their physical designs.

This exhibition unfolds the history of the book as a material object through its interactive features. Here you will find a pocket book of herbal remedies with a hand-written index made by its owner, paper wheels (volvelles) that project and calculate the movements of the moon or calendrical time if you gently push them, and an oversized family bible inscribed and passed down by several generations. The exhibition is organized around the key maneuvers that bind and identify books structurally and conceptually as books across different time periods. These maneuvers are central to some of the most common forms of interaction that take place whenever a book is opened and engaged with: fill, gather, turn and use."

Dublin Core

Title

The Interactive Book

Creator

Date

2021-03-25

Contributor

Language

Abstract

From the project site: "The history of the book is a story about the interactions between humans and a material object. Today’s digital books appear to bring new levels of interactivity to the process of reading, with their touch screens, hyperlinks, and text annotation features. But book formats throughout history have always entailed specialized interaction, from scrolls and wax tablets to pocket diaries and three-ring binders, making the reader do, accomplish and experience particular things in the process of engaging with their physical designs.

This exhibition unfolds the history of the book as a material object through its interactive features. Here you will find a pocket book of herbal remedies with a hand-written index made by its owner, paper wheels (volvelles) that project and calculate the movements of the moon or calendrical time if you gently push them, and an oversized family bible inscribed and passed down by several generations. The exhibition is organized around the key maneuvers that bind and identify books structurally and conceptually as books across different time periods. These maneuvers are central to some of the most common forms of interaction that take place whenever a book is opened and engaged with: fill, gather, turn and use."

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