Designblog

When I was in the library I noticed a pile of newly books stacked on a table. They looked completely fresh and untouched. I could look around the newly acquired books and quite quickly I came upon 2 books about music and art. 1: Records by artists & 2: Broken music. The first book on the left first pulled my attention cause I was interested in the topic. Which great artists also made music and how would it sound? But then i was drawn to the second cover by the misshapen LP and when I looked inside the second book I was immediately drawn in by the nice design. The design was quite straightforward in rows with alot of black and white but I liked that.

The cover of the book has no title on the cover which is something I still don’t really like. I don’t know if this is because I am used to books with the title on the front cover or that I just don’t like it and think that the book is laying with the wrong side on the table… Apart from the title, the cover has a nice image which is intriguing and brings questions. There is a little LP on the inside’s first pages which has some broken string music composed by Milan Knizak and played by the Arditti string quartet for the book (quite nice). The content of broken music has to do with music and artists. It’s a combination of records created by artists or covers designed by artists, books and publications containing music by artists and sound made by artists. In the design of the book the text is mostly normally arranged.

The way of using negative space and placing of larger objects is sometimes nicely done throughout the book.

This edition of Broken Music (2018) is a renewed edition of 1989. When I went through the book to find out what the designer Rick Myers changed I actually almost couldn’t find anything. On the second page the new edition 2018 said:

Sadly enough I couldn’t find out anything about Luzzi, who she was or how she was acquainted to anyone in the bookmaking process. This Luzzi was probably known to the designer Rick Myers but nothing can be sure and he also doesn’t respond to my emails.

When looking at the colour of the pictures there was a very small difference in the thickness and colour of the inside of the cover. The older edition had a sturdier cover and is 2 to 3 times thicker and had a yellow tint on the inside. The LP was missing but that was not because it wasn’t included in the original edition of 1989.

For the rest there was sometimes this slight difference in the colour of pictures inside.

The black white pictures were just a bit darker in the newer edition but the coloured pictures sometimes had a difference in colour which was quite noticeable.

When I digged in a bit deeper, I found out that he actually made a facsimile of the book ”Broken Music”. This completely explains why there almost are no differences to be found. He tried to make an exact copy of the older book. This was probably due to the great amount of request for the book still and it wasn’t being made anymore. He spent a pretty obscene number of hours on this project with absurd activities such as assessing the tonal values of Bernard Heidsieck’s trousers, checking the density of the shadow cast by Rose Sélavy’s hat or looking for clues in measurements concealed for 30 years prior, delving further into guillotine mis-cuts made in 1989 for the facsimile to sit quietly alongside the original.

So in this case Rick Myers role was to design this new book to be completely the same as the original. In the actual content and design of the layout he didn’t contribute anything (except for Luzzi maybe).

The designer Rick Myers is an designer as artist born in Manchester and working on text, video, installation, drawing and books and editions. He is the founder of Muta which is a publisher of artist books and poetry. Only when you go to their site it’s not that interesting. It seems that Muta is not really that active anymore. On their website you can see the work of 3 artists and that’s all. When you go to their Instagram you see their last post was in 2017.
Also, you can really see that the design of the website of Muta is corresponding to the design of Rick Myers own website. Very straight and everything in the middle but still it’s not really easy to navigate on his website.
In Amsterdam in the shop Boekie Woekie you can also find some books of him that he completely made himself. So apart from remaking the book broken music, he also makes alot of works himself and produces books with recollections of his own works.

One of his works ”Before and after Death” Has an interesting idea in which he collected light bulbs made before 1908 that were over 100 years old and thereby contained a vacuum of a century.

He then made a print of these light bulbs by stamping them and made it into a book as seen in the picture. I’m curious to see if the whole book only has 1 image because on his website you see 3 times the same print next to each other. Everything here is black and white, he does that a lot but not always.

Another work from Rick Myers is An Excavation / A Reading (Before the Statue of Endymion). He used a technique in which a text is first readable and slowly over time is not readable anymore while an audio fragment is playing and reciting the text. There is a short video fragment of the work on his website.  Check it out, it’s definitely worth it!

Ursula Block & Michael Glasmeer: Broken Music, artists' recordworks. designed by Rick Meyers, Rietveld library number: 708.4 rec 1

By reading an interview about Åbäke, a design collective of four, I found out that they decided to work together using one name, one emailadress, one bank account and one invoicing system. The group started in 2000 and at that time they always worked together on their projects. Nowadays they’re working more individually as “It seemed that only working within the four of us was leading to implosion”. I find this promise that they made very beautiful and intriguing, since I personally think it’s very unusual and brave to commit to each other like this. Because it’s so unusual, it also raised a lot of questions.
After reading this interview I wrote the following text about my thoughts around the decisions they made. I asked Åbäke to read it and to cross out certain statements that they don’t agree with and questions that would have a negative answer, those are marked red. Logically, the green stands for positive answers and agreement. I would advise you to read the interview before continuing reading.

The construct Åbäke made (sharing name, money) is really similar to the essence of marriage. People mostly marry out of love and therefore they feel the need to share (name and property) and promise each other (financial) support unconditionally. Even though the idea of marriage got romanticized, the foundation is really practical and pragmatical. But, the main goal of it is to become happy together forever. When it comes to work though, I’ve learnt that the main goal is to become successful. I wonder, did Åbäke become a group just because they liked to be together? Or to become successful? Most probably a combination.
If the reason would be success, would this need to be a group also state the presence of insecurities of one’s own abilities? If so, is that necessarily a bad thing? Or is forming a group actually proof of self-knowledge and honesty?

In this specific interview it’s really clear to me that being successful for Åbäke doesn’t necessarily means earning a lot of money, having a lot of free time next to work or becoming famous, it’s mostly being able to develop great work.
For myself and with me many others, I believe that I have the same goal, but I’ve learnt that the way to measure the “greatness” of a work is simply by the reward. In a way money or acknowledgement do translate back to me how much effort or work is worth. That’s also a reason why I find this promise so fascinating. Do you gain or lose acknowledgement when you share a name? Does it feels as nice to be acknowledged for a work someone else made under the same name as it does when you’ve made something on your own? Would it be more rewarding to receive money straight away to your bank account? So you can measure for each project separately what kind of work you delivered. Or does it work the other way around? That by getting the same amount paid every month, no performance seems worth less or more than the other.
Now that I write this I also realize a part in the interview about how interesting projects pay less than boring ones. Maybe that’s the reason to not even choose money as a way to measure achievements, since it’s apparently not that reliable.

But then there’s still the shared name. Although I think I’m understanding it more and more while writing this, I still don’t think I would be able to share my artist name with my boyfriend for example. Even though I would marry him if he’d ask, share everything together, both using the same name feels like I’m giving up a part of myself. I think it could have a lot to do with pride as well, and that’s mainly because of the creative part.
For example, if I would work as a waitress in a restaurant, I would also make a commitment to my boss, under specific terms and conditions. But, in this situation there’s a hierarchy; I’m working in the name of my boss, following his rules, not out of my own ideas. Everyone visiting the restaurant is also aware of that the way I work isn’t out of me as a person, but me fulfilling my boss’s expectations.

When working creatively though, the whole point is ideas being executed by this one exact person. The maker is crucial when it comes to creativity since that’s the person that creates the outcome. You could say that the work is carrying the makers identity. And aren’t we all proud of our identity? So what happens with your identity when you share it with multiple people? Does it gets lost? Or does it become even bigger/better? Is it even possible to identify an identity in a name at all? And if so, what happens then with this pride when you share a name? Is this identity actually as important as I just stated? Or is it just a way for artists to cover up their ego’s? Is it my ego that makes me hesitant to even thinking of sharing my name?
And when you’d look less into the emotional side of it, but more to the actual working process, does it releases work pressure to share a name? Or does the responsibility of others makes you work even harder?

I would also like to get back to this implosion they mentioned before in the interview. Something implodes when the pressure from outside is higher than the pressure inside.* Would the outside in this case then mean work related expectations from outside the group? Or, would both the outside and the inside represent the group itself? And again, what is the motive to stick together after a near-implosion, is it love, loyalty, or the pursuit of success?

In any case, I personally think it’s a very admirable way of being a collective. Also I’m happy that it invited me to rethink motives, certain constructs, and being an individual. It actually made me feel disconnected from myself and the reasons why I like to be busy with art. After I had a talk with Åbäke, a lot of questions still remained. What do I want? What do I need to get there? But, I also ended up with one really good advice. – Although it can be helpful to think about these things, it can also be helpful to let go of this assume that there has to be one higher goal. A better question to ask would be, why do I like what I’m doing now? In that way a person could spent hours on finding the right curve for the letter Å. The key isn’t necessarily to strive and long for “the great” but to find joy in small things and make them as great and important as you feel like.
“Success is mostly about being able to develop great work.”

*Åbäke did point out to me that after an implosion, an explosion occurs.

AT TWILIGHT // SIMON STARLING

When our teacher was explaining us in the Rietveld library to choose a book that the library obtained last year to eventually write about the design of it, I couldn’t really focus as there was this book sticking out on the shelf of which i thought i liked the texture. I went to have a look at it. As the teacher’s voice faded, the book cover became clearer. Turned out that it didn’t look like how i thought it did, but after going through the rest of the library, I still preferred this one. 

What made the book catch my eye was first of all that it was wrapped in plastic, as if it’s something really precious. And secondly it was a, I thought, white book that had brown bakery paper around it, as if it was handmade. This wasn’t the book though, and neither did it have brown bakery paper around it; I think it’s an extension of the actual book. The reason I do is because this “extension” has the form of a newspaper which makes it seem less important than the book that was also inside the plastic. Also in this newspaper there’s mostly big pictures shown, that probably aren’t the subject of the book but are there to support the context of the book.

The book itself has a very minimalist appearance, brown matte hardcover with black letters and three lines. But, when you open it, the first page is a very bright purple paper. After that, for the first half of the book it has brown paper and an often used font. Turns out it’s a play: probably the reason to choose an easy readable font and well structured text over the pages. The second half of the book has white pages and a more playful appearance. The font comes across less mature to me and also there’s a lot of pictures, even scanned in papers with written notes on it in this half of the book. I find it quite interesting how these simple choices changed the book into something special.

Simon Starling : at twilight, a play for two actors, three musicians, one dancer, eight masks (and a donkey costume). designer: Åbäke,  publisher: Dent-De-Leone, Rietveld Library Cat. no: star 2

Searching for broken links on the world wide web.
The question is how to do that, when a broken link is not usually something you look for, but something you find when you need it the least.

We were looking for the parts of the internet, old and forgotten, where no IT-guy would ever come back to clean up old links. We used random keywords as “blogger” and “star” or “dogs” searching for old blogs from the late 90’s not a lot later than the new millennium.
With this method we came across a lot of content long lost in the www. We collected screenshots from these sites that had dead links, also allowing them to once again have a new life in another part of the internet.
Also we saved the search history to show the paths we walked towards the broken links.
At last, from all this digging for dead links, a song came to life.
In the lyrics of the song (which are included in this blogpost) we reflect on the broken links, how we found them and most importantly the content we never got to see.

Soon the actual song will be released..
..so stay awake and keep an eye out for your soundcloud feed.

…………………….

Hello old blogs
We are revisiting you
We are looking for you (Where AARE you)
The search is hard and difficult
The Road is long and bumpy (Uuhuhuhuhuh)

To find one piece of gold in the Wild Wild web
(I’m an internet cowboy in the Wild Wild web)
(Searching for broken links)
(Lost in the cybernet)

My long lost error 404

You caught me by surprise
And then i wanted to click on this link
But i can’t
It’s a broken link

I’m an internet cowboy lost in the wild wild web…. ….

Oooh broken link you caught me by surprise
The connection is lost what should I do?
Everything is lost

Lara, I found you by typing “blogger” and “psychic” in google
I chose the golden years of 1997 and 1998 for the search resultsss

Lara
What are thinking about
What are you’re thoughts
Why are you so sad
I’m a cowboy looking for you, My long lost link

One small star, I rise up softly for a new hunt
The poem 224 you did not work
You were lost in the void In the title of one small star
“Pardon me deserts that I don’t rush to you spearing a spoon full of”

I found you by typing blogger and star
I wrote/keyword “blogger” and “hotline” found this weird blog
Another broken link
Another lost story
The men wearing suits and pink letters of a tele company

Who are you
Where are you from
Where are you now

I need you!!!!

Under a one small star the cowboy hunts for a broken link
The day is done and the world of the wild wild web is lost

In the studying of links a peculiar feeling comes to mind

links are not that old yet, the internet isn’t that old yet. These portals have only existed for short periods of time. Still portals decay. Rot, rotting. Try and make a difference, it won’t happen.

The internet is not our own but rather a new dimension. As Decartes pleaded that the mind and body are on different planes of existence, the internet exist on a third plane functioning on its own. Or perhaps, the internet exists in the mind plane
settled within our own consciousness

instead of being connected by the Amygdala, it connects through the eyes. Receptors receive, Sensor sense, the mind connects it all and files it away.

As humans we demand connection.

We see faces in images and foggy streets even if there is no person,
this nature prevents us from tolerating link decay

We click, we ask, we want.

In the moment we stumble across a broken link the mind gets stuck,
it wants to jump the portal but falls in a black hole.
Through the chasing of perfection and wholeness in daily life the brain cuts off when it cannot complete the link. The chain ends. This is an unsatisfactory experience.

To change the stigma of broken links and erase their oppression by capitalist society we will introduce a comfortable link,

 a nice place, a home, time to take a break…

A comfy break.

A google search trying to find a guy from a different class, that I had never met before, whom I was suppose to work together with. It is hard to use the internet to figure out what people look like and who they are through multiple false links, that doesn’t concern the specific person. It might just be another person with the same name, or people who are linked online. Coming to a dead end online in the forum where you usually can find answers to everything.

Who is Anton Shebetko?

This post is about the about the genocide of Native Americans, because, according to the story, the post was placed on a Native American burial server; and there is imagery throughout the post associated with the American West. For instance, cans of Calumet Baking Powder are linked in this post. Because a calumet is a ceremonial pipe, and the cans featured the image of a Native American, one analyst believed that American imperialism was the subtext of this post.

Another theorist believed that the author had directed the footage disseminated by NASA to publicize the Apollo 11 moon landing. He believed that there are telltale signs of the use of linkrot in NASA’s footage and that the author of this post was contracted to produce hoaxed footage of a fake moon landing. He points to the knitted Apollo 11 sweater that’s in the link wears and claims that “404” refers to the mean distance of the Earth to the moon. He also refers to the fact that a image resembles the Apollo launching pad as evidence that the post is an elaborate apology of sorts for the author’s involvement. In particular, the analyst feels that the tirade of the author to this website about how they do not understand the importance of motivation and offering interesting assignments to students, portrays the author’s own sense of isolation from making this post.

One analyst connects the Designblog maze-connection graphic with the mythic story of the Minotaur, believing that a link in this post is actually about a minotaur. She bolsters her theory by pointing out that there is no graphic showing the website’s maze in the post and that an earlier author’s post was made for Minotaur Productions.

The authors do not attempt to promote any of the particular claims made by their interview subjects.

Hello, this http://www.bombsite.com/issues/0/articles/3117h https://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=762376 https://rietveldacademie.nl/designblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/texttextile_kimono.jpg http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/h/B/corkscrew4.gif broken links. 

Link death, link breaking, reference http://www.nest-rotterdam.nl/17-1.html, links https://annevet.home.xs4all.nl/onderzoek/right_to_copy/part-1_2.html nowhere. 

These are https://www.youtube.com/v/i-HVW-0eoe0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1%5C%22%20type=%5C%22application/x-shockwave-flash%5C%22%20allowfullscreen=%5C%22true%5C%22%20width=%5C%22425%5C%22%20height=%5C%22344%5C%22%3E%3C/embed%3E%3C/object%3E different names http://www.dantedifranco.com/DragKingFunRoyalBrands.htm definitions for when hyperlinks https://postuyhironnblqck.com individual websites are moved, taken down http://z.about.com/d/inventors/1/0/h/B/corkscrew4.gif reorganized, resulting http://static.hugi.is/misc/movies/1984macintro.mov making links permanently http://www.designws.com/vormgeverpagina/wimrietveld.htm temporarily unavailable.  

http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/2006/09/on-The-new-japa.html process http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://charliebakker.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/s7002318.jpg&imgrefurl=http://charliebakker.com/%3Fp%3D270&usg=__OX-IiT3S1ny-VojnR1BVZVj-xuQ=&h=567&w=756&sz=76&hl=nl&start=8&um=1&tbnid=5UnmYQK7eYd5FM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharlie%2Bbakker%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:oficial%26sa%3DN rot http://www.designws.com/vormgeverpagina/wimrietveld.htm nature occurs after https://annevet.home.xs4all.nl/onderzoek/right_to_copy/part-1_2.htm living organisms die. http://www.nest-Rotterdam.nl/17-1.html http://www.picasaweb.google.com/veriyanta/MyWeddingandHoneymoon#5072923308189265890 decomposition http://static.hugi.is/misc/movies/1984macintro.mov https://rietveldacademie.nl/designblog/?m=200806 https://annevet.home.xs4all.nl/onderzoek/right_to_copy/part-1_2.htm http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://charliebakker.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/s7002318.jpg&imgrefurl=http://charliebakker.com/%3Fp%3D270&usg=__OX-IiT3S1ny-VojnR1BVZVj-xuQ=&h=567&w=756&sz=76&hl=nl&start=8&um=1&tbnid=5UnmYQK7eYd5FM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharlie%2Bbakker%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26sa%3DN http://www.theyellowdog.net/iam_bkp/ nitrogen http://www.terhitolvanen.com/html/woodland12.html carbon cycle https://slowlab.net/index.html nature.

Links break https://rietveldacademie.nl/designblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/blogspot_forweb.jpg different reasons. Http://www.designws.com/vormgeverpagina/wimrietveld.htm some ways its inevitable https://rietveldacademie.nl/designblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/andreasa_strangeattractors.pdf natural, just like http://www.topstad.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/rietveld_trekt_in nature. Old things die http://www.picasaweb.google.com/veriyanta/MyWeddingandHoneymoon#5072923308189265890 http://http//www.arcspace.com/gehry_new/ things occur.

–

‘404 Error’ pages are basically pages that either doesn’t exist or they are broken. Sometimes being in control of thousands of pages on a site is troublesome and errors can be inevitable. However you can create an excellent 404 page that could in fact help your user.

Even though it can act as an advantage people still tend to avoid altering their 404 pages. But what could be useful to include in a 404 error page?

Tips:

1. Have a search engine so that people can search what they are looking for
2. Have a link to the main page so that people can redirect
3. Create contact forms so that people can inform you about the broken link/fill in their inquiries

https://github.com/404

https://www.orangecoat.com/lost

4. It’s always disappointing when you reach an 404 Error page. Therefore it is a good idea to prevent further frustration.

https://studiofables.com/404?fbclid=IwAR213GVHwe_Z8uTB841NB0b1inAtyidMJ0FkA1bMmvDjBUNuejlz49nCUc0 

5. Or you can have a really playful design such as

http://www.romainbrasier.fr/404.html

6. You can also have a funny design.

https://www.newyorker.com/404page?fbclid=IwAR2TPHPft9kTmYHZ8iJYRXNsCPvkSXEMs7G1tOA_bBn8facq0bnUWb3dx2k 

In conclusion, 404 error pages can be useful for your users if you care about making it into a helpful page.

404 error page not found. A standard HTTP error message code, meaning that the website you were trying to reach could not be found on the server. Perhaps the website was removed or perhaps its URL was not changed accordingly. The error pages almost always have a similar design. Plain and boring. Nothing more interesting to look at than a blank page with disappointing content.

Let’s change that. Hereby we present five exciting design suggestions.

Video by Quirine Kennedy

Image by Lucía Vives

Image by Ravi Blits

Image by Leonie

Image by Amanda Bellman

I don´t know why I pick the book in the first place. Sometimes I just take a book without reading the title or the writher. It was standing somewhere in the middle, normal thickness and normal height. Nothing special on the spine, it was just black.

But when I took this book I saw that it was a good choose. There were two lady´s on the cover. I´m actually not sure if it are lady´s or man who are dress like lady´s. The make-up is so heavy that its looks they are covering something up. So they caught my attention. And the longer I looked the more questions came in my head. They are sitting in a car and it looks like a car from someone else. The weather is shitty and their makeup is not so perfect anymore. I think they are in a different country. They are looking a bit lost. But they don’t care so much. The cover of the book is also not so pretty as it used to be. in the corner it’s a bit ripped. At first, I thought that it was the print on the cover itself. In the inside you can see that someone repaired it with adhesive tape. It fits perfectly by the style of the book. Today I don’t feel perfect either. I can imagine that I have the same impression of the `girls´. I had a massage from my friend Nina who is also having a winter depression. But it always starts before the winter even begins. The picture is not filling the whole page. The rest is just black. Only the two people have colour. Outside of the car it is grey except for some yellow. The yellow reminds me of a taxi. It gives the impression of a big crowded city.

*15086*

It drawn me to it. The cobalt blue colour emphasised the youthfulness of the imagery. The face was almost life sized, as if it wanted me to adore it and venerate the look in the eyes that told an enigmatic, coming to age story. A portrait of a working class, white, young man was gazing at me with his presumably blue eyes, covering almost the entire cover of the magazine. The image was beautifully screen printed with a raster. In a very strong looking font ‘’WERKER’’ was written above the flat cap of the lad. Immediately my mind started working – adolescent, masculine, boyish, Adonis. It was a very obvious attraction for me, as if the cover invited the spectator to get this aroused feeling of the sexualisation of a worker class lad.
As I’m browsing through the pages, the the layout comes across very nineties. It has a playful way of displaying titles, articles, text and images. But above all, it is a very smart moves that lies immediately the focus of the context of the magazine: young man. The structural slogans that are prominently coming back in the magazine, combined with the grainy images of young men and their body parts it gives the layout a feel of protest, anarchy but also youthfulness that keeps coming back as a theme. This combination is of the archiving layout and the strong images that are yet quite sexually intended are making everything stronger. It captures the underlying beauty of vital lads back in the day. It also reminds the spectator, by pulling the archiving trick, that now we can see them as more than just the middle class. It let my mind fantasize about these adolescent boys in a non embarrassing way. The mystery and subtle beauty, packed in something strong and masculine, let my eyes legitimize the scanning and the browsing at the photos. I wish I had a worker class boy by my side.

Keeping my keywords in mind I drifted around during two afternoons, allowed myself to get a bit more ’lost’ in the library.

This book was squeezed in tight between other books on the shelf, but that only made it stand out more. I noticed its crooked pages seen from the top, making an interesting pattern.

I recognize the look of those pages. I feel like I know them well.
It is clear that this book at some point have been soaked completely wet in the top. And after the drying the pages now take on this beautiful soft curve, reminding me instantly of rivers. Somehow once material have been soaked it always leave a trace of water.

Clear nostalgia, I have tried it myself. Being caught in the rain with school books, drying them in frantic desperation on radiators and in front of the fireplace.
By instinct I smelled the book. Not took bad for being drenched! I only got a fragile musky scent from its pages.

I almost laughed out loud when I finally saw the books cover in all its glory: A tilted shoot; blue skies over a crystal blue ocean, a wave spilling over perfect white sand. In the sand a heart is drawn, and the flamboyant bold letters “LIQUID LOVE” is plastered in the middle.
Incredibly kitsch and yet irresistibly charming. –I both love and hate it.
I mean – who came up with that idea? For what reason? Amazing, I was stunned in full five minutes taking in the glory of the scenery.
It is clearly a book with personality.

Scenes like this are quite ionic. The island ‘paradise’. Blue skies, ocean, alone on a welcoming beach. The heart is really what makes this over the top – a sign of silly, clumsy first love. Desperate to prove itself and has to take form as initials carved into trees and hearts traces in the sand. And then you can watch as the ocean swallows it.

Then title in itself is quite spectacular “LIQUID LOVE”. The ultimate seduction, dripping from the title with desire. A love that is liquid, able to sneak in anywhere, binding, making you captured in its grasp.

By making this third choice I reveal my own fascinations. When choosing a books; wear, fragility and imperfections intrigues my curiosity and help me create a personality in which I can indulge.

This book can be found at: 305.9 bau 1.

  When I saw Eliasson’s book in the library, I was really surprised by how emotional I still get just by looking at the name of him. The feeling of vomiting when I saw his exhibition last time in Beijing came back to me quietly yet so familiarly.
  And on the way back carrying this book to upstairs, I met a few friends smoking at the gate, they asked:“Oh, do you like his work?” I laughed and said “I kind of vomit last time at his exhibition, but yet I chose him to write an essay, I really can’t answer this question so frivolously now.  ”

  Maybe that’s exactly why I chose his book, I want to discuss this complicated emotion in the form of language. Yes, language, by creating another kind of “reality” on the base of concept to connect with the “reality” he tries to present in his work.

  What can I remember about his last work? I remember the crowded crowd in the orange light which made them look like pale zombie , and everyone was either taking picture or standing there for minutes without moving — taking selfies. Kids were jumping and shouting, having so much wild fun. And the air conditioner is working so good, maybe too good, maybe that’s part of reason I wanted to vomit, my stomach always react really strongly to cold air. 

  Why? I could’t stop asking myself at the exhibition, why I (and so many people) spent at least an hour on cars —it was a quite remote museum, to come here, to experience this kind of, what he called “Reality”. When we can see the real rain, the real sunset, is this kind of imitation “reality” of the nature, somehow touches us more than the real “reality”?

  It is very beautiful, I was thinking, it’s almost like the beauty like when I see the real rainbow, then I thought about isn’t the vulnerable and unpredictable character makes rainbow so strikingly impressive? Then what is this ? You drive an hour and paid something like 20 euros, to go into this huge artificial box, which is so cold that makes you wanna vomit in the hot summer, and in this totally dark space when outside is so sun shining , you saw the beauty of nature, and you praised, “Ah, what a sublime scene of this blue planet that we call home.”

Book Info ?Olafur Eliasson Reality Machine

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At first, I wanted to find something by using the catalogue, but It wasn’t very long until I realized that it wasn’t relevant knowing that the tags were only subjective,

How could it work without generating something too literal?

At least, this process of research wasn’t the right one with the tags that I chose.

For this book, it took me less than one hour to pick it, as each time I wasn’t able to select a piece without already having a specific idea of what I wanted in my mind.

But still, I felt frustrated

Frustrated by the impossibility, or more precisely the struggle of being opened,

Being able to see, to take the time to observe the books that were surrounding me.

There were so many information and possibilities around that I wasn’t able to decide or to think about what I wanted or at least to consider those things.

I think that, in a way, that book happened to me because of this frustration.

I see this choice as the translation of my state of mind at this precise moment.

Fortunately, this book might have been what I was searching for, I just saw this thin white line between all those imposing and colorful editions.

I needed something simple, purified, that’s precisely, in my view, what I found.

All those blank spaces, accentuated by those vibrant black lines

Those micro architectures, in the form of sketches.

I was struck by a drawing when I opened this book, it is a drawing of the sun.

That reminds me of le Corbusier’s sketches concerning the housing units of Marseille and the principle of the sunshade.

I like this simplicity and this clarity

I also see those lines which I like a lot, thin, imperfect, instinctive.

The boring becoming bold, the extravagant turning average. The library’s context has the power to change the appearance of each individual book. 

My last tag word ‘seduction’ resulted in the “The Pleasure of the Text”. A rather thin book, with the linking tag word as its main subject. And to admit, this is the most seducing copies I have seen during my Quest so far. Its beige cover contains the names of the author, title and translator. Each name centrally positioned and written in classical typeface. I remember talking about this daring design approach in Art Theory class; the rigorous use of classicism in an age of uncentered cacophony.

The title and author’s name are written on the spine, covering the top two thirds of its space. It looks like the book’s designer respectfully left enough space for a library-sticker to be added on its lower third part. The letters give a sense of monumentalism, probably because they’re all written in capital letters. This book is small, has only 67 pages, but seems to express importance and something all-compassing. Is if it contains words of the Bible, or the Tao Te Ching.

To me, the feeling of seduction grows out of its minimal means: the simple action of printing ink on paper, black on white. Simple rules created by human beings offering millions of possibilities and meanings. 

While in search for this book, I initially looked up its cover online before picking it up at the library. Just so I would maybe recognize it faster inside the library. It looked different online. The original title “Le Plaisir du Texte” was written in a smaller typeface. Also, the name of the translator was missing (because obsolete). This created a sense of generosity by the amount of extra empty space surrounding each word. They were given more focus and therefore value.

The letters of the current book I have in front of me are more frivolous, and seem to almost touch each other. The ‘h’s’, ’T’s and ‘l’s’ seem to tickle the lines above and below. The text pleasures itself.

Because of aging and exposure to light, the cover’s background color turned from white to beige. I imagine this book is left in the sun often by its temporary owners – I imagine them taking a break from the pleasure the words give them during their holidays on the beach. Absorbing the sun like they absorbed the text.

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The third week of searching… This week I was unable to attend class as I had to take my Tyler Durden of a cat to the vet to remove stitches from his head. I have become out of touch with the assignment (it was confusing to start with so I’m completely in limbo). This week I chose from my own library. The book had to be out of the parameters of “design”, it had to be something else. As someone who is predominantly invested in design this left me with little choice. I chose the book “tricks” by Bart Julius Peters. This book has given me many hours of entertainment as well as many inspirational moments. This book is comprised mainly of pictures with small texts, some I english, dutch and some in Italian. This book spoke to me as it has a non-binding, the pages are loose and can be taken out. I find this fascinating as from an early age I have been obsessed with organisation, I find it fascinating that is one desired they could simply let the pages fall out and thus be jumbled up and if the reader has not paid attention the original order could be lost forever. The book features pictures of details in wildlife but also classical sculpture. As a happy accident this book does match my original tree tags which where “spine, monochrome, pictures”.

“Essi offrivano lo spettacolo più che patetico ballano ai ogni insieme, aiuo, ciechi quen

di due giovanissimi innamorati ammonimenti del destino, illusi che ai difetti reciproci, sordi agli liscio come il pavimento del salone, tutto il cammino della vita sarà la parte di Giulietta e quella attori ignari cui un regista fa recitare di già previsti nel

di Romeo nascondendo la cripta e il veleno, calcoli, copione. Né l’uno né l’altra erano buoni, ciascuno cari e pieno commoventi di

gonfio di mire segrete; ma entrambi erano

mentre le loro non limpide ma ingenue ambizioni erano obliterate dalle parole di giocosa tenerezza che lui le mormorava all’orecchio, loro dal profumo dei capelli di lei, dalla reciproca stretta di quei

corpi destinati a morire.”

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo,

Feltrinelli Editore, Milano 1958