Research in practice
Re:structure is part of Athenaeum: The Library Re-imagined, a collaborative publication created by the MRes Communication Design Pathway at the Royal College of Art.
’Re-structure’ is a speculative research project looking at how to reimagine the book as a performative object. Throughout the research, the notion of ‘object-boundary’ (1) is used to explore the anatomy of the book: its content (2) and mode of navigating/reading it (3). This project aims to involve the audience in a discussion about the future of books and emerging technologies.
(1) The object boundary includes whatever is considered to be the artifact, the original source (in this context, the book as physical object) plus whatever other resources are brought into the performance of the original source (in this context, 3D elements and 3D environment) (Connor, 2020). This digital extension is an exploration of what happens when book contents are taken from their fixed position of traditional printed surface, and extended/translated into 3D space (fluid navigation). In my experimentations, I am exploring the performance of the 3D contents of the book.
(2) The book content consists of hypotext (the original source, the author’s writing) + paratext (additional resources that shape the experience of hypotext: images, captions, table of contents, author’s name, footnotes, typography, cover). The paratext forms a framework for the main text and can change the way the text is received or interpreted by the reader. In my experiments, I am specifically addressing the translation of the paratext from 2D to 3D and its effects on the reading experience (Gérard, 1997).
(3) Navigation in 3D space: how would the reading experience be impacted if the paratext of a book was three dimensional? The paratext is a framing device used to offer an extended context to the original source and enhance the reading experience. Would reading a book in 3D space benefit for a better understanding of information, a new layer of meaning?
(1) The object boundary includes whatever is considered to be the artifact, the original source (in this context, the book as physical object) plus whatever other resources are brought into the performance of the original source (in this context, 3D elements and 3D environment) (Connor, 2020). This digital extension is an exploration of what happens when book contents are taken from their fixed position of traditional printed surface, and extended/translated into 3D space (fluid navigation). In my experimentations, I am exploring the performance of the 3D contents of the book.
(2) The book content consists of hypotext (the original source, the author’s writing) + paratext (additional resources that shape the experience of hypotext: images, captions, table of contents, author’s name, footnotes, typography, cover). The paratext forms a framework for the main text and can change the way the text is received or interpreted by the reader. In my experiments, I am specifically addressing the translation of the paratext from 2D to 3D and its effects on the reading experience (Gérard, 1997).
(3) Navigation in 3D space: how would the reading experience be impacted if the paratext of a book was three dimensional? The paratext is a framing device used to offer an extended context to the original source and enhance the reading experience. Would reading a book in 3D space benefit for a better understanding of information, a new layer of meaning?
Practice exploration
Using the ‘Graphic design manual’ by Armin Hoffman, the aim was to explore the book's boundaries by creating a digital extension to the original artifact (apply the object boundary theory in practice). The outcome of the research experiment is a prototype of this digital extension created using Adobe Dimension, Adobe XD and HTML Interactive Canvas. |
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