This one-of-a-kind calligraphic artist’s book reflects on a line from a speech given by Kevin Slavin at 2011 TEDGlobal talk on “how algorithms shape our world.” In this talk, Slavin said, “we are writing these things that we can no longer read . . . we’ve rendered something illegible . . . and we’ve lost the sense of what’s actually happening in this world we’ve made.” In this artistic interpretation of Slavin’s thought provoking quote, I’ve experimented with the idea of writing overlaying other writing to explore the ideas of communication evolving and fragmenting and how the magic of story can be altered or even lost.
The work incorporates accordion book structure with a flat-hinged, non-adhesive binding with mark making in the spirit of manuscript palimpsests in which language is evolved, overlayed, and lost. Materials include sumi and walnut inks, gum Arabic, gesso, watercolor paper and amate bark paper. Tools included brushes, folded pens and ruling pens.