I am fascinated by the experience I can get from an unexplored book, and how its form and respective content can create a relation between the reader and the book. I could get the same information from online resources, so what is it about the book that makes it special? For me, it has a lot to do with its physical appearance. A book is information, which is organized and structured by a designer, where decisions about the cover, size, paper, structure and so on influence the way we perceive the content of a book. How can the form of a book affect how we read it? Do we perceive a large book as more important than a small book, or is it the other way around?
In a work by Marcel Broodthaers, Un coup de dés, based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, the text is replaced by black blocks, leaving only the form. The work deals with the narrative of the space between the black blocks, and becomes content in itself. Thus, form is also content.
When you have the content from your client as well as the form-generated content, design produces a double layer. How does a designer take responsibility for the extra layer of content that the form produces? Does the designer become an author?
International Space Station Assembly
A Collective Construction Site
