For his diploma project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Polish designer Waldek Wegrzyn has created "Elektrobiblioteka," a bibliomorphic (yes I just made that up) interface for a digital publication. The sheer physicality of the printed volume is antithetical to the pixelated simulacra of the tablet or e-ink reader, and labor-intensive execution of the 'reverse-engineered' pagination, documented in the video below, seems to be well worth the effort.
Wegrzyn cites El Lissitzky as his main inspiration; specifically, he refers to a text called The topography of typography, first published in Merz No. 4 (Hannover: July 1923) and excerpted here:
1. The words on the printed surface are taken in by seeing, not by hearing.
2. One communicates meanings through the convention of words; meaning attains form through letters.
3. Economy of expression: optics not phonetics.
4. The design of the book-space, set according to the constraints of printing mechanics, must correspond to the tensions and pressures of content.
5. The design of the book-space using process blocks which issue from the new optics. The supernatural reality of the perfected eye.
6. The continuous sequence of pages: the bioscopic book.
7. The new book demands the new writer. Inkpot and quill-pen are dead.
8. The printed surface transcends space and time. The printed surface, the infinity of books, must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY.
The project website is currently only available in Polish, and while the consummate visual design transcends the language barrier, I'm curious about the content itself...
via Cozy Lampshade
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