The Tale of Bodies, Souls and Machines by Marcin Gokieli
- A Book For Two # 1
(2010)
Exhibition / Research at library / gallery "Prozori", Zagreb
From 8th to 29th of April 2010
"A Book For Two" is a project launched by a designer Rafaela Drazic as a response to the question made by the curators of the project "What Is Yet To Be Designed?" set in the "Warsaw Under Construction" - project organised by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. New product designed by Drazic is the book which should be read in pairs with each reader following the thread of his narrative. Presentation at the library/gallery "Prozori" is part of her research and it should test the possibilities and functioning of the redesigned item. "The Tale Of Bodies, Souls And Machines" by Marcin Gokieli is the first in a series of exhibits. Two more publications of different content for different target groups will follow.
Illustrated book for two by Rafaela Drazic is not just a designer reel or a witty response to an invitational question made by the project's organisers. On the contrary, it is the product of the creative process in which the author reflects on the nature of the media, examines the text's boundaries and discusses the reading process and the role of reader. Starting with the classic book on the one hand, and contemporary hypertext on the other, Drazic creates a hybrid kind based on the experiences of traditional lonely reading and the interactive reading of the new media.
Reading is an intimate act; it excludes other people, real time and space. Through reading each individual participates in the creation of meanings, depending on his or her competencies. Reader's walk through the text, whether it is wandering with the skipping and returns, giving ups and withdrawals or it is a firmly stepping towards the end, also builds the text. In these individual journeys, the meanings and personal interpretations that are not subjected to the control of the author's authority or privileged readers are being established.
However, collective reading or reading in the public disclaims discretion. There is nothing more indiscreet, says Barthes, than to see someone reading with their lips moving seamlessly.
These two modalities were combined in a book for two, creating a particular tension. Lonely readers would have to respect the mutual rhythms, turn the page together, and establish equal reading rhytm. Are they going to be able not to look at their partner, not to peek at his page, not to cheat? Are they going to establish an open interaction, exchange experiences, turn individual reading into a shared adventure?
"The Tale Of Bodies, Souls And Machines" is an unusual story about the duality of body and soul, whose narrative structure is divided in two parallel series, which merge and split again with different endings. Readers' decision is crucial in designing the text. Such a changeable situation, known since Cortasar wrote "Hopscotch" and Pavic “Dictionary of the Khazars", encouraged post-modern reluctance of linearity, and radicalized fragmentation and complexity of hypertext. Rafaela Drazic supplemented the fantastic content of the story with illustration, thus creating an artistic object - a book that is richly and entirely illustrated with minimal individual solutions. Everything is divided and layered.
- Irena Bekic, curator
* Marcin Gokieli, author of the tale
Graduated in philosophy at the Warsaw University (MA dissertation on Alasdair MacIntyre's virtue theory) in 1999. Expects to obtain his PhD at the same institution this year (dissertation on semantics and metaphysics in the Language of Thought theory), having been to Indiana University, Bloomington, and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in the meantime.
He is working and publishing philosophical papers on meaning theory, cognitive psychology, naturalistic approach to the mind, modality, and the ethical theory.
