Paul Bailey's presentation on books and the "restructure of things", to Book Hackday (www.bookhackday.com). Presentation copyright Paul Bailey.

1. Hello

2. – Objects –

6. – Responding to Forms –
Physicality & the Book

9. – Posture –

14. – Storage –

20. – Protection –

25. – Form to Content –

37. – Lucy Gunning
– Doris Salcedo

38. “There is something almost insulting (that is, to our
sophisticated, techno-fetishistic sensibilities) in the fact
that, as simple a tool of modest making, it continues to
operate as the prime vessel of communication of ideas,
whether they be purely visual or linguistic in nature, in an
era that prides itself on its powers of dematerialization,
dissolution, and virtualization. The true mystery of
the book’s enduring success lies in its menial modus
operandi, its crude manuality.”
Dieter Roelstraete, Dot Dot Dot Magazine, Issue No. 12

39. – Situation –

40. – Situation –
No object is an island.
Neil Cummings, Reading Things, p.15

51. – Location –

52. – Location –
To touch something is to situate yourself in relation to it.
(Close your eyes, move around the room and notice how
the faculty of touch is like a static form of sight.)

53. – Location –
We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at
the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is
continually active, continually moving, continually hold-
ing things in a circle around itself, constituting what is
present to us as we are.
John Berger, ‘Ways of Seeing’, p 8-9.

59. – Use –

60. – Use –
We wanted to have a party in the basement. We’d heard that
books are a good sound proofer. A friend of ours worked in
the Peckham library and it just so happened they were getting
rid of a load of old trashy novels and audio tapes. We went
down with a Morrisons trolley and filled it up in exchange
for a fiver. We then bought some long thin bits of wood and
nailed them to the rafters to slip the books into.

61. – Use –
Luckily the books fit the spaces perfectly. Unfortunately I
don’t think they made much difference to the volume of the
party,
Joe.

67. –!–
www.misterpaulbailey.com