Vol. 1 No. 1 (2012)
Academic/Scholarly Articles

Animated Pages: The Virtual (R)Evolution of the Book

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Fig 1 Harry Potter collage 72dpi.jpg Fig 2 Karen Hanmer Mirage 72dpi Fig 3 Benjamin and Ottersbach Angelus Novus 72dpi Fig 4 Frans Masereel Die Sonne 72dpi Fig 5 Edward Muybridge The Horse In Motion 72dpi Fig 6 Marcel Duchamp The Green Box 72dpi Fig 7 Scott McCarney In Case of Emergency: 72dpi Fig 8 Karen Hanmer Star Poem 72dpi Fig 9 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Convergencia 72dpi Fig 10 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Hoverings 72dpi Fig 11 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Aguasmalas projection 72dpi Fig 12 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Aguasmalas 72dpi Fig 13 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Convergencia detail 72dpi Fig 14 Rimer Cardillo The Barred Owl 72dpi Fig 15 Christiane Baumgartner Tryptichon 72dpi Fig 16 Christiane Baumgartner Fahrt II 72dpi Fig 17 Christiane Baumgartner Eine Secunde detail 72dpi Fig 18 Christiane Baumgartner Eine Secunde 72dpi Fig 19 Ellen Lanyon Transformations II (Endangered) 72dpi Fig 20 William Kentridge Cyclopedia of Drawing 72dpi Fig 21 William Kentridge Still from Stereoscope 72dpi Fig 22 William Kentridge Drawing in studio 72dpi Fig 23 William Kentridge Stil from Automatic Writing 72dpi Fig 24 Julia Featheringill Flip Books 72dpi Fig 25 Tromarama Serigala Militia still 72 pi Fig 26 Tromarama Serigala Militia at Mori art Museum 72 pi Fig 27 Tromarama Serigala Militia woodblocks 72 pi Fig 28 Olafur Eliasson Your House 72dpi Fig 29 Edward Bernstein Memoria 72 pi Fig 30 Edward Bernstein Chiaroscuro wire sculpture and still 72 pi Fig 31 Edward Bernstein Chiaroscuro stills 72 pi Fig 32 Robert Rauschenburg Shades 72 dpi Fig 33 Deborah Cornell Tracer motion capture 72 dpi Fig 34 Deborah Cornell Surge audience in environment 72 dpi Fig 35 Deborah Cornell Tracer motion captures 72 dpi Fig 36 Deborah Cornell Tracer textures and map 72 dpi
  • Deborah Cornell
Deborah Cornell
Boston University College of Fine Arts
Bio
Openings: Studies in Book Art

Published 2012-12-13

Keywords

  • Book Arts,
  • Printmaking,
  • Digital Art

Abstract

Movement through space, time, and materiality are the prime underpinnings of the artists book form. Elements of structure, sequencing and position, whether hidden or overt, shape an experience – an imagined, created space that can be at once “read” and felt.

The fictional animated pages seen in every Harry Potter movie become a metaphor for  the myth of created space-time.  They epitomize the absorbing effects of created experience. They combine our embedded “knowledge” of the printed page with progressive temporal and spatial development and technological adventure.

These combinations invoke diverse contemporary forms as the book leaves its material skin, combining immateriality and memory with invented experience. The videos of the 2004 Indonesia-based collective Tromarama use the page-like sequentiality of stop-motion animation, combining techniques such as woodcut, photocopy, collage, embroidery, etching, and drawing to the sound of trash metal bands. The prints of Edward Bernstein become the visual framework in an imaginary video dance. The paper figures of William Kentridge assume living characters. The videos of Patricia Villalobos Echeverria embed themselves into her artists books. The flow of images into time is also reversed, in the conversation between moving media and woodcut in the work of Christiane Baumgartner, as journeys through time become halted by the woodcut print.  

My interest in such transformations is through my practice in prints, books, and eventually through the immersive medium of virtual reality. In these VR works, book-like components of structure, sequencing and position, whether seen or unseen combine active real-time participation with the discovery of ancient images from archeology, historical texts, and proto-verbal markings. Visitors connect with each other in its environment, by creating their own gestural tracery within its sphere.

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Fig 1 Harry Potter collage 72dpi.jpg Fig 2 Karen Hanmer Mirage 72dpi Fig 3 Benjamin and Ottersbach Angelus Novus 72dpi Fig 4 Frans Masereel Die Sonne 72dpi Fig 5 Edward Muybridge The Horse In Motion 72dpi Fig 6 Marcel Duchamp The Green Box 72dpi Fig 7 Scott McCarney In Case of Emergency: 72dpi Fig 8 Karen Hanmer Star Poem 72dpi Fig 9 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Convergencia 72dpi Fig 10 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Hoverings 72dpi Fig 11 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Aguasmalas projection 72dpi Fig 12 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Aguasmalas 72dpi Fig 13 Patricia Villalobos Echeverria Convergencia detail 72dpi Fig 14 Rimer Cardillo The Barred Owl 72dpi Fig 15 Christiane Baumgartner Tryptichon 72dpi Fig 16 Christiane Baumgartner Fahrt II 72dpi Fig 17 Christiane Baumgartner Eine Secunde detail 72dpi Fig 18 Christiane Baumgartner Eine Secunde 72dpi Fig 19 Ellen Lanyon Transformations II (Endangered) 72dpi Fig 20 William Kentridge Cyclopedia of Drawing 72dpi Fig 21 William Kentridge Still from Stereoscope 72dpi Fig 22 William Kentridge Drawing in studio 72dpi Fig 23 William Kentridge Stil from Automatic Writing 72dpi Fig 24 Julia Featheringill Flip Books 72dpi Fig 25 Tromarama Serigala Militia still 72 pi Fig 26 Tromarama Serigala Militia at Mori art Museum 72 pi Fig 27 Tromarama Serigala Militia woodblocks 72 pi Fig 28 Olafur Eliasson Your House 72dpi Fig 29 Edward Bernstein Memoria 72 pi Fig 30 Edward Bernstein Chiaroscuro wire sculpture and still 72 pi Fig 31 Edward Bernstein Chiaroscuro stills 72 pi Fig 32 Robert Rauschenburg Shades 72 dpi Fig 33 Deborah Cornell Tracer motion capture 72 dpi Fig 34 Deborah Cornell Surge audience in environment 72 dpi Fig 35 Deborah Cornell Tracer motion captures 72 dpi Fig 36 Deborah Cornell Tracer textures and map 72 dpi