This is my final bookwork, titled We Are The Book. 

Samantha Ng

We Are The Book Video 1:35 minutes

This is a response to Facebook’s terms of service and how privacy is definitely dead. Often times, we agree to terms and conditions without reading the whole thing or anything at all. Because of this, we do not know what we are actually agreeing to.

The purpose of a user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end, rather than inform users of their rights. Facebook claims to have created a human-readable user agreement that honours Zuckerberg’s new commitment to “Transparency” but is that really true?

Statements from the user agreement, focusing primarily on the data policy are extracted and represented in a flashing motion. Condensed type is used to mimic the texture-like text in terms and conditions. The recorder audio playing in the background represents us, the users of Facebook trying to comprehend and come to terms with what we have already agreed on. With the regular pace of flashing text, the audio creates the overall mood throughout the video. The overall mood created is an eerie and suspenseful one. The reason why a recorder is used is to juxtapose a simple instrument with such a complex and incomprehensible passage of text. The recorder playing out of tune and getting more and more messy also emulates the confusing terms. At some point, the tone seems to lead up to the climax, but then dies down and starts over again. This represents how we think we are all aware of where our data is going but in actual fact, there is a lot of things we do not know right now and what is to come.

The video ends abruptly to signify the acceptance that this is what we have to sacrifice for this interconnected world we live in.

WOT? THIS IS THE END?

Wot is a Book made this semester so fun for me. I enjoyed this course so much that I would look forward to 930am class every Wednesday no matter how tired I was. It was also so refreshing to not only learn from Andy, but from my peers as well. 

So...Wot is a Book? 

This is one of the conclusions I have come to: We, the people ARE the book, as read by the the rest of the world and most of the time, the Government.

I am so sad this studio is over, but all good things come to an end (LOL). I still have so much post-digital ideas I want to explore and I will continue working on them for sure. 

FINAL BOOKWORK PRESENTATION DAY

We presented our individual projects today. To be very honest, I was very nervous about my book. Seeing as I had changed my concept so late in the stages of development, I was concerned that my project would not live up to my own expectations of what I had hoped it could be/achieve.

As my final bookwork was quite abstract in my opinion, I was also afraid no one would get my project. All these thoughts in my mind made me rather stressed and jittery on presentation day.

We spent the first half of the day getting our projects ready for our small walk around exhibition. My work was video played on loop through my computer. The audio was to be listened through headphones I provided for added effect, part of my design intent. 

After setting up our work, we went around to see one another’s work. It was nice to see everyone’s work in a gallery like setting, where we could interact with the work and discuss with one another. The class as a collective was able to produce such a diverse range of work that explored many levels of the post digital. I totally expected to see a lot of codex form books but I was so surprised as to how creative the works were. I believe this studio really pushed all of us to step out of our comfort zones. 

Pictured below is me performing part of the piece I had used in my final bookwork. 

Recording my recorder playing samples for the video. 

RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH

^click on the link above.

This is the primary source of content for my final bookwork. 

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

In the milestone review today, Andy planned for us to present the work in progress of our individual projects to the class. It was refreshing to know that everyone had completely different takes on their post-digital book.

I had done some research on the deep state in US and started scraping for tweets related to this topic. I plan to compose a score based on curated tweets on the deep state and perform it live/record on video. 

At this point, most of our projects are still in research development phase. We still have 2 more weeks until the deadline. I am so nervous but excited at the same time. 

The inspiration for the performance piece i will be doing for my final bookwork. 

MID SEM BREAK

Exploring more with visuals, I tried to reverse my direction. What if we could read images? I translated images into text through an online app. I then superimposed the translated code and overlaid it on the corresponding image. The images above show one of the images represented by the text.

I am enjoying prototyping and exploring different ideas. However, I do need to really start to solidify my game plan for the final bookwork. Fingers crossed everything goes well. Still finding it hard to be satisfied with my ideas and finalising on one singular concept!!!

INPUT. OUTPUT. CONTENT. OUTCOME

It isn’t unusual to think that you have understood “the power of the new” when you haven’t. We thought that the beauty of the MP3 format was its storage capability, when in hindsight it was about streaming every piece of music ever made. We thought that the wonder of the mobile phone was making phone calls anywhere, when in fact it was a personal gateway to the internet.

Tom Goodwin of Medium

WOT ARE CREATIVE PROTOTYPES?

This week’s activity involved creating a prototype based on a one sentence prompt: “A book that __________”

With such a concise brief, there was more freedom for us to craft our interpretations of the prototype. The main struggle I had was creating something under a short period of time, but I saw this as a good challenge for me. Typically, I would spend a lot of time conceptualising before actually getting down to work to materialise anything. This time constraint forced me to rationalise my thoughts and be more reductive. 

For the first run of this activity, Andy had prepared some prompts for us to pick randomly from a box. I picked “A book for your worst enemy”. 

What I came up with was 2 double sided prints that represent an anonymous message to someone who has wronged you. I scrambled to find threatening objects around the classroom and the printing area outside. I then scanned these objects over and over again, each time shifting them around to fill the page. The reason why I used objects instead of text for the “note” was because I felt that disturbing visuals without any explanation was scarier than actually explaining what you wanted to do to the person. It would make the recipient of the note more confused and nervous in that sense. I loved playing around with scanning and overprinting, seeing the ink darken and shift. I prefer hands-on and print work compared to digital. 

The second part of the activity was where Andy got each of us to come up with our own prompts to share with the class in a google doc. I got a little too carried away and came up with way more than one. The bolded prompts in the list are the ones I typed out. The same process of picking out the prompts randomly from a box went on and we then had to make our second prototype for the day. 

Because I had written so many prompts, I had an added advantage over the rest in the sense where I was able to see what the others who got my prompts came up with. I did feel quite bad that others did not get their prompts picked because 5 of mine were picked. Overall though, it was a good learning experience for all. When we went through our prototypes, we realised that whatever you had imagined the prototype to look like in your head when you wrote the prompt, was usually worlds apart from whatever the maker had created; totally in a different direction. This just made me think about how perspectives in the world matter so much and everyone’s mind works in such wonderful ways. 

I received the prompt “A book about cyborgs (have the human species become gods)”. This was written by Nella.

I used the scraping approach to find images on google through searching “cyborgs”. I then produced a zine with these images. 

Andy did tell Nella one thing. What if it was not a book about cyborgs, but FOR cyborgs. I thought that would be a super dope project to embark on. 

This activity allowed us to practice and get more comfortable with prototyping. Often times, we start prototyping by envisioning the ideal form we would like to achieve and work towards that. I feel that this should not be the case. Prototyping under a controlled timeframe forces us to focus more on the conceptual basis of the prompt rather than the aesthetics.

It was interesting to compare what the writer of the prompt had imagined the prompt to be, with what the person who received the prompt eventually created. This just goes to show how diverse our thoughts and insights are. Through the exercise it was fascinating how even working within restrictions, each student created a completely unique prototype to their prompt.

LIST OF PROMPTS

Make a book using memories A book that allows digital and analogue to work in unison A book that creates a story through its usage A book that has no end A book that falls into the wrong hands A book about cyborgs (have the human species become gods) (what I was assigned)  A book about the simulation theory A book that A book that speaks a thousand texts A book that monetises vulnerability A book that invades privacy A book visualising the evolution between technology and printed matter A book of all, but nothing A book on all that we have lost A book that has (is) a reflection A book that will bring you to nature & give you some sensations A book that can help you visualise, be taken away into another reality and not have any distractions A book that is an organ? A book that provides different ways to use a physical book A book which can respond to the ”answers“ for the next reader to imagine. How can the book showcase our lack of understanding (to any form of “other”) in the post-digital? How can the book be used as a tool to connect with “others” (uncivilised societies/non-humans) in a post digital society? A book that can withstand time A living book A book that hides nothing A book as a window to connect to the outside world A book about ur ex A book about ur love story A book about how to understand yourself A book tastes delicious A book of imagination A book that uses the readers experiences A book about what we don’t know A book that questions utopia (what I wrote) A book reinvented as a tool box (what I wrote) A book of prejudice (what I wrote) A book of child’s play (what I wrote) A book of emotions (what I wrote) A book that dies (what I wrote) A book of mistakes (what I wrote) A book as human body (what I wrote) A book that needs help

It's occasionally worth switching off our own quality control to let some oddballs through.

Failed It by Erik Kessels

WOT? THERE’S NO CLASS??

This week, class is cancelled because Andy is in Japan for the Tokyo Type Director’s Club exhibition. 

It’s always nice to have a break.

I spent my time working from home, brainstorming on ideas for my final bookwork. I started by jotting down some themes I was interested in exploring. 

THEMES TO EXPLORE Censorship Children’s books  Apocalypse  Internet surveillance Body as a book  Secret messages and stories Books camouflaged as objects  Information as currency exchange  Dying in different realms Questioning the idea of utopia Permanence Future of ultrasound Book of mistakes

I had so many ideas and was so excited about all of them that I found it hard to settle on just one idea. One thing at that point I knew for sure, was that I wanted to have a digital publication work hand in hand with a physical publication. I also wanted to pay homage to tangible codex form of the traditional book and introduce a sense of informality and play with books. What if a book was reinvented as a toolbox? 

Something that I personally do is take a bunch of pictures on my phone and leave myself voice notes/notes on the notes app in instances that I really want to remember or remind myself. This act of data logging, I felt was a narration of my daily life. I started to think that if I compiled all of these information and made it into a book, would this be considered post-digital? 

GROUP PRESENTATION

This was the first deliverable for the studio. My group mates and I have been consistently prepping for this day in the past 2 weeks. After many discussions and debates we had on the topic of the future book, we were finally able to churn out a set of concepts we could all agree on (or agree to disagree for some). Our presentation took the form of a “choose your own ending” quiz. When we dropped the idea of this format to Andy last week, he sounded intrigued. We saw that as a good sign! 

Here is a general run down of our take on the future of the book:  Title of quiz: Wot is a Post-Digital Book To You? 

After answering a series of questions, the result will always be “The Gum”. The reason behind this is because the idea our group was trying to bring across is that since everyone has different notions of what the future of the book can be, how about we create a singular medium that can emulate any particular desired book form or experience.

The gum itself is not the book, the gum is what gives you the experience of the book. It brings you into a simulation where you get to experience anything you want based on what “flavour” you choose. For example, there could be one that brings you to a library, or one that brings you to a particular historical moment, etc. It would be an immersive experience for the user.

Once the gum “runs out of flavour” and the book is complete, you will be sent back to reality. But if you wish to have a time out, there will be a pause/stop button on your arm (like a bookmark). Don’t worry about the time consumption. Just 1 minute of reality is equal to 30 minutes in the simulation.

The whole idea of this gum is so that it will be relatively easy and accessible to get your hands on them without having to wait for the new edition to come out. You would be able to purchase The Gum from convenience stores, restaurants, vending machines, etc.  With the scarcity of resources in the world, it may even be possible that paper books will cease to exist and this gum may be the only way we can tangibly experience touching paper through virtual reality.

The entire process in preparation for this presentation has been enjoyable despite the hours spent racking our, brains questioning everything and digging deeper. 

GROUP MEETING

In preparation for the presentation next week, my group mates and I have been meeting up to discuss our views on the future of the book. 

Though we do sidetrack quite a bit, I can tell that all of us are super excited and curious about the endless possibilities of the post-digital. 

SCRAPING, HUNTING, PERFORMING AND ZINE-MAKING

This week we spoke about different approaches to explore the post-digital: scraping, hunting and performing. Andy also introduced us to some case studies using these approaches to reference. We were then tasked to choose one approach and make a zine based off it. 

I chose to use the scraping approach. The zine I made was based on a term that I use ever so often in my daily life. The word is “sian”, which is a Hokkien adjective which conveys boredom, weariness, frustration and emptiness. The English equivalent would be “ennui”. 

I took screenshots of every message I sent on Telegram that contained that term since the start of 2019 until today, 20th March 2019.