Research

Since the 1960’s the book has been reclaimed by artists, photographers, writers and thinkers as a space for both experimentation and dissemination of their ideas; a familiar space with its own structure, boundaries, history and economy which are all there to be questioned, reexamined, explored and transgressed.

In the 1970’s Ulysses Carrión, a respected writer who became interested in making books when he turned to concrete and visual poetry, defined it as a time-based medium; a book is not just an assemblage of pages but ‘a space time continuum’ for the unravelling of verbal, visual, or sonic narratives. In his eyes poets were the first ones to engage and experiment with artists books, thus opening the way for others.
Furthermore the national and international interest in artist’s book, as a creative practice and field of study, has grown significantly in recent years, partly reflecting a return to, and recognition of, the aesthetic of materiality in an increasingly digital culture.

bookRoom is interested in any projects exploring:

- The notion of the book as a time based media
- The interplay between the book and other time based medium; photography, writing, moving images, music.
- The interesting dialogue between electronic and print culture currently taking place.
- The combining of digital and traditional technologies in the making of images and other on the page works ( photographic, graphic and text based).
- Historical, political and social development of artist’s books; the book as an art form, and not just a container of art.
- The making of books where content and forms are equally considered.

Possible RESEARCH themes
- The ability of the book to keep up with the emergence of new modes of writing, of photographing, of reading, or archiving and of disseminating ‘on the page’ work.
- The notion of ‘performing’ and ‘expanding’ the book in relation to Ulysses Carrion’s 1960’s definition of an artist book as ‘a space time continuum’. In the way that many contemporary book works have become the beginning or the end or the reworking of something else.
- The way digital technology can be combined with traditional processes of making images ( photographic, graphics or text based) and books. Do contact us to discuss your ideas or develop a research project or a PHD proposal.