"Altered Book (What is)"
Gypsum
2009
3"H x 2.25"W x .75"D
{click for enlargement}
In collaboration with Andrew Vomhof {www.andrewvomhof.com}
“BOOK (What Is)” is an examination into the ambiguity of the structure and function of a book. Can a representation of a book still be a book? Does a book have to open? Be bound? Have pages? Have content? Does a label determine physicality? Does the process of making a book determine its classification?
Originally rendered in a CAD program on the computer, “BOOK” was brought to a physical form by printing on a Rapid Prototyper. By doing so, we altered it from its original digital form into a physical state. By then adding pages to the book, its physical state was altered yet again. By taking a book that existed only in a digital form and bringing it to a physical form, we transcended from the digital to the physical in an altered way, creating an altered book. Furthermore, taking "BOOK" and adding pages, and taking unbound pages and adding "BOOK" as a cover, we essentially altered two books.
The questions that shaped our process were the same questions that arise when creating a book, but by finding different resolutions to the norm, we were able to classify “BOOK” in a representative way. By creating a book that renders its structure and function, we inevitably bring up the question “What is a book?”
