Faux-linen is out. Modern industrial is in. Imaginary bookshelves are out, too. The big news at Apple this past week was the ouster of Scott Forstall, one of the chief designers for their mobile technologies. The even bigger news (for readers) is what this will mean for interface design. Forstall’s …
I was taking notes in my notebook this weekend when I realized it had a pocket in the back. It reminded me of the centuries-old tradition of books as containers. Unlike e-books that keep things out, books are things that hold things (notes, eye-glasses, dried plants, records, even flies for …
A wonderful exhibit currently running at the Foley Gallery in New York called “Beautiful Evidence,” one that brings together a profound sense of the scientific and the whimsical. Books don’t seem to tell us the truth here, but make us wonder. These are curiosities in the Renaissance sense of the term.
Introducing the “book pillow.” At first glance it looks like a large dictionary and can even be slid between other volumes on your shelf just like a regular tome. But when you’re feeling sleepy, just get out your reading material from your desk drawer, filing cabinet or shelf. The “book” …
I like to catalogue past exhibits on artists’ books to see how the idea of the “artist book” has evolved as our ideas about the book (and its future) have evolved. See this exhibit from 2000 at MASS MoCA which had three main themes — science, travel, and the theater — and …
Ahh, dusty books. A charming piece in the Times Higher Education on the days when students used to go to libraries to do research. Now we just sit at our computers. Where’s the fun in that? It’s on old quip of course. And not at all accurate. Yes, some professors …