What does an altered book artists book look…
What does an altered book (artists book) look like when books have become websites?
I’ve been thinking about the idea of Cornell Boxes in cyberspace. Say in a 2D space like a website. Yes the “messy desk” blog themes are kind of contrived, remediation, and skeuomorphic… yet critiqueable as they are, they’re also an attempt, no doubt at least sometimes successful, to give an embodied being a tactile experience in a 2D place. Do you think a compelling Cornell-like experience in cyberspace would look Cornell-like? Or entirely different? Is Pinterest not a Cornell Box because it has hard edges and is on a grid? Or does it depend on the depth of the investigation of the pinner?
Christa Forster, and 
Aero Bigboots
AlexandreLois1
Ananda Crystal
Andrea Foenander
astrid
Aunt Renie
Aurelia Scheppers
Christa Forster
Ciara Finnegan
Bird on a Cyber Twig
Diptheria
Donnie Archer
Edie
Elle
Emma
Elizabeth Taylor Swift
Fanny
FeelsEmpty
Glad Kidd
Izzy
Jade Ravenheart
Kate Nova
Ken Doll
Mary Anning
Meg O'Ryan
Michael Masucci
Mireille
Molly Ross
Monerda Skute
Myra
Neeva
Newton
Michel Nostradamus
Oona
Oscar
Owen
Patrick J. Sweetman
Paypabak Writer
Pearl Grey
Rebecca Narum
rmarie
Ryan
Scarlett Luv
Sello Tape
Serra Qendra
Teresa of Avila
The Knight
Tiffany Mosienko
TrilbyM
Tullia Aragona
Vanessa
veyot
wendz tempest
Xue
Yellow Fever
Ysidora Pico
Yves
Zsophia
Molly Ross 10:49 on 24/01/2014 Permalink |
Isabella! Fabulous questions and ideas to ponder. I’m always struck by cyberspace’s ability to act as a portal–transporting me from my space to yours (or where ever you take me). You seem to be time traveling at the moment–see a portal from your time to our time! The thing about Cornell’s boxes is that they too are portals into miniature worlds–that represent collections, thoughts, emotions, spaces, times. Pinterest is an obvious parallel but because the pinner (artist/maker/collector) has little control over the display (the site dictates the grid pattern, the colors of the page) you are right– it does not manifest in a way that is very “Cornell.” I wonder how can you play with scale in the magical way the boxes do on a screen and in cyberspace–is that possible?
Isabella Medici 11:17 on 24/01/2014 Permalink |
Yes Molly, Pinterest, like Facebook, demands that you pour your content into their template. vs. WordPress, Tumblr, etc, that allow you more flex in how your ideas are displayed. Do we care too much about surface? Do FB’s 1B users care about aesthetics at all?
A Cornell Box does seem to be the nexus of form & content. The same ideas in a book by a French culture theorist certainly wouldn’t have the quality of a Cornell Box. These “portals” (great word!) are remarkably tactile and fetishistic in their presence. Still, an awful lot of the general public might look at one and say “Old crap, so? Can we eat lunch now?” So I think the portalfulness is as dependent on the depth of investigation of the experiencer as the creator.
The rabbi Lawrence Kushner tells the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. He asks, “Why a burning bush?” He notes that a burning bush is a pretty cheap trick. That you’re god, after all! Why not materialize the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, standing on the wing of a 747 Jumbo Jet, hovering over the mountain, as they sing the Hallelujah Chorus? Wouldn’t that be a better way to get Moses attention?
Kushner notes that it takes 5-7 minutes for a piece of wood to combust. So if you see a burning bush, you can’t know if it’s “just a burning bush” or a divine presence, unless you stand there and watch it burn for more than 7 minutes. Kushner concludes that god was not trying to GET Moses attention, rather that she was trying to see if Moses was PAYING attention.
Is it not the skeuomorphic details like “sloppy desk” or “layers of detritus” but the depth of attention paid by the viewer that creates this immersive Portal/Cornell experience? And if so, is it impossible to have such an experience in our ADD age? In our vastly-more-websites-than-you-could-ever-see-in-a-human-lifetime-even-if-all-you-did-was-click-“next” age?
Or, as McCluhan said, when things become really important and ubiquitous, they become invisible. Almost everything we do is based on electricity, yet we rarely think of it. Is the entire Internet an infinite set of Nesting Dolls of Cornell Boxes that we don’t even have to try to make because it is already the journey that all the web surfers take every day for however long they are “awake” in this place? Do we live our online lives in Virtual Cornell Boxes?
Christa Forster 11:00 on 24/01/2014 Permalink |
Cornell’s boxes had layers, where things were seen on top of other things. At the Menil collection in Houston — where there was a great Cornell show in the mid 90s — there is a cabinet of curiosities, which seems to me what Cornell’s boxes do — create the cabinet of curiosity writ small.
I think Molly’s right in that it’s a playing with scale and maybe layers issue. Holographs! Hey!