BOOKAH & RELATED TEXTS
"Inhaling knowledge through art"
These book projects create a dialog between the habitual and the cutting edge. The printed page was itself once a revolutionary invention; it was the height of technology, giving the vital ability to capture the written word and reproduce it endlessly. In a very basic sense, the book is a tool, and the passing of knowledge its use. But if we know anything, it's that tools change: technology changes. Are books really tools? We may soon find out as they face their digital proving grounds over the next few years.
At this moment however books are not yet relegated to historic object status, the appeal and aesthetics of physical literature are still cherished by many. But as the printed word is pushed aside for the advent of the digital one, will books become an outdated invention held onto desperately by bibliophiles as the stereoscope and typewriter were once by their own aficionados?
Will coming generations grow up without the comfort of a local bookstore to sink into? As people gripe about the decline of the book, they often cite its aesthetics as being more pleasurable than any digital counterpart. People identify with physical objects on many levels, forming intimate bonds capable of affecting our interpretation with the information at hand. Are these visceral interactions really contributing anything to the reading experience, or is it just nice to feel the pages between your fingers? Think about how many books are printed every year.
If there is a tangible gain from the physicality of a book, then Bookah surely benefits the reader to an unprecedented extent. By concentrating the scent of 31 old books into a confined space, the much-praised aspect of the physical book is exaggerated to embody consumer technology's tendency to fetishize simple pleasures. The fact that you can't already buy the Bookah is really quite surprising. Here knowledge is contained within the sterile white walls of a modern product and powerfully ingested by the user, albeit in a hopelessly ineffective way.
Click for PDF of texts contained within Bookah
Copy, Paste also refers to this inability to communicate. In a plainly linear fashion it shows a primary source with a row of copies extending from its vaguely mechanical orifice. The copies are of the open page of the novel, and grow increasingly ghostly with each new copy. The loss does not occur through mistranslation or other human error, but rather through an increased separation from the source (the human presence). Electronic media (as suggested by the work's dangling plug) exists as data, not as an object. The text you are reading is no more or less real than the the same words on your neighbor's screen; neither of you can claim ownership or privilege. If an Ebook is less personal than a printed text, then would it stand to reason that a handwritten manuscript is all the more meaningful?
While I wish to point out the dangers of adapting the written word into new forms, there are of course advantages to new technology. The Bookah adopts the form of the classic Indian smoking device to give a sense of collectivity to the wholesome family pastime of inhaling paper fumes. One of the first successful emergences of effective communal literature is of course Wikipedia; its instantaneous catalog of knowledge grows more precise the more people collaborate. Giving content to the cloud will only help you. As books contain knowledge, we can only learn more by sharing, and there is no better way to share than the Internet. Knowledge is an incomprehensible term; it is the total result of your life, and mine, centuries of actions recorded and passed on to the centuries of the future. How can we best contain it?
Enlightenment was the first book I altered, and pressing the switch on the side is still a successful reminder of the magic that is contained within these objects. Found objects decorate the interior surface of the object, creating a landscape of wonder equal to memories of a favorite book. Light is a suitable analogy here: ephemeral, attractive directed... When people get defensive over the potential decline of printed books, it is because of this light - the transfer of words - which is more than bytes and pixels can contain. But surely emerging technologies can offer something even more meaningful than ink on paper.
Bookah artwork exhibited at Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca NY.
The Bookah from Benjamin Andrew on Vimeo.
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