User:Marie Wocher/Description Vincent/

Vincent (Graduation Project 2010) How do we read on the internet and is it possible to design a printed publication that offers the same kind of non-hierachial experience as browsing through an internet website? I have asked myself these questions for my graduation project Vincent. I researched our reading behavior at the Web, by analyzing peoples web-browser histories. The source I chose for showing my research is the novel Vincent by Joey Goebel. Using the text of this book, I designed two A4 printed publications of the same book, entitled Vincent I and Vincent II. I restructured the Text of the novel and added a marginal column that consists of references that help the reader to navigate through the structure of the book. The design and typographic choices of the books is beguilingly simple. All Characters in the book are identified as a »Link«, that the reader can look up by turning to the indicated page. What is the »click« on a web page is in my version of Vincent, a system of footnotes, cross-links and different paper choices that navigates the reader through The book. The difference between the two Versions is my choice of structure and accompanying referential internet source. Vincent I is based on Google and Wikipedia. It is an archive. I restructured all of the text of the book based on the main characters of the book, gathering all the passages from each character grouping them together. From there you are invited to «click» on different links to go deeper into the experience of the book, finally ending up in Google and Wikipedia pages that results from searching selected keywords of tags within the text. Vincent II on the other hand uses Twitter as inspiration. Twitter being a metaphor for chronological structure, I restructured the text of the book in chronological order, offering the reader links to related Twitter posts via related hash-tag keywords. I was interested if I can offer the same kind of dynamic experience to a generation of readers used to Google and Wikipedia, but in reading printed books. Like on the internet I don't offer my reader anything more than choices, in my specific case visual choices. The reader of the book has the possibility to become his or her own editor, make the decision of how he or she wants to read the book, by him or herself. The reader can still read the novel as it was Joey Goebel's intention, but he or she can also read broader, start reading a chapter, browsing to a highlighted name and go on reading all information of the character and than reading further external links in Wikipedia or Twitter. There is even a link backwards that functions as a virtual »back button« should you get lost and want to find your way back. Previous Vincent (Graduation Project 2010) How do we read on the internet and is it possible to design a printed publication that offers the same kind of non-hierachial experience as browsing through an internet website? I have asked myself these questions for my graduation project Vincent. I researched our Reading behavior at the Web, by analyzing peoples web-browser histories. The source I chose for showing my research is the novel Vincent by Joey Goebel. Using the text of this book, I designed two separate versions of the same book, entitled Vincent I and Vincent II. The difference between the two is my choice of structure and accompanying referential internet source. Like on the internet I don't offer my reader anything more than choices, in my specific case visual choices. The reader of the book has the possibility to become his or her own editor, make the decision of how he or she wants to read the book, by him / herself. The design and typographic choices of the books is beguilingly simple, I introduced a system of footnotes cross-links and paper choices to help the reader to discover his or her own way to the complex structure of this publication.