Category Archives: Week 8: Book as Interface- Meggs and Mak

Is novelty physical or psychological?

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After this week’s readings and viewing the artist books during our lab on Tuesday, I began to realize that nothing I was seeing or reading about was exceptionally unique. No, I am not trying to discredit the artists of these wonderful pieces. I am, however, challenging their concepts and originality. Surely, the artists were inspired by something, encouraging them to implement varying devices into their art. However, I would have to argue that diversity, more than anything, is what creates “novel” ideas.

As we have read, most of the artists “inventing” art forms such as cubism, proun, and dada didn’t come up with these movements out of nowhere. There was a context in which they were constructed, whether it be from the industrial revolution or wars or other art. For instance, when futurist painters described their purpose, they said it was to “totally invalidate all kinds of imitation.… Elevate all attempts at originality,” yet in the very same quote, they explain they will only “support and glory in our day-to-day world, a world which is going to be continually and splendidly transformed by victorious Science” (“The Influence of Modern Art”). In essence, these artists are looking toward something, supporting it and glorifying it as some sort of model. Rather than invalidating imitation entirely, it seems to me they are, in one way or another, imitating the art and beauty of science.

Art is a revolution. While we use art in our day-to-day lives to inspire more creativity, it is also a medium of political and social expression. Art is more than the visual component, and becomes more of a concept. What I am trying to say is that we have not invented art but only put a name to it. It becomes significant to us in the contexts in which it arises and succeeds. Art is all around us, in everything we do, see, and experience; it is only when we find its relevance that we truly recognize it for a “novel” idea, even though it’s always been there. Perhaps, rather than saying the art is novel, it is more accurate to say the way we think about the art is novel. That is how we begin transforming our mindsets to appreciate a version of something that has been here all along.

How The Page Matters

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Typically I would not give much thought to the page, it presents ideas, depicts stories and art, and is sometimes a blank canvas for expression. A blank page can be marked on any number ways, drawn on, written on, painted on. However, anything that is put to the page is hence affected by the page, borders are imposed, not decided, making anything put on the form influenced by it’s shape. The form and singularity of an unbounded page suggest to any reader that “there is noting more to read than what is on the page” even if the author of the work had not intended for it to be the end. (How the page Matters, p.14) The page, when not presented or bound by the person who place their work on it, defines the meaning and end point of what is on it on it’s own.

When a work is displayed on a page the sheet enhances the ideas presented and in part informs the reader or viewer about the work, if a story is written on one lined piece of paper, one might assume it was a draft written by a student from a notebook, however if that same story is typed and spaced with 1” margins on a sheet of paper, a reader might believe it is a final copy. Because of the pages materiality and specific form, viewers and readers will regard a work differently. As explained by Mak, the page, “significantly influences meaning by its distinctive embodiment of those ideas.” (How the Page Matters p.5). The page which has an expected form, allows for the transmission of ideas from one person to another, it works both within physical and digital spaces, presenting information to various audiences. But before any information is read or viewed, the form that it takes on the page already speaks for it. Even when a page is simply differently formatted by APA or MLA standards, the reader may already change their expectations or opinions on what they are going to read and take away from a text.

The page matters because it is one of the principal conveyors of information in our world, it presents ideas and the work of anyone. It’s shape and form that follow a variety of standards affect how readers and viewers of that page will understand the information featured on it.