Is it a game, or is it real?

Laidler, Paul

Abstract

This artists book work is a reinterpretation of David Bischoff's War Games. In this instance a 'remake' of the Penguin book that uses the film adaptation of Bischoff's novel as the cover image. Here the novels text is proceeded by its cinematic cover image. A reinterpretation that for many becomes the original, diluting any beginning or end - a reality made out of fiction.

The reinterpretation uses a digitized theme for intervention. Firstly the work presents the digital pixel aesthetic of the 1980's although in this instance the aesthetic is simulated, constructed out of its own image. Further more the books physical creases and folds become digitized, layered within the surface of the book cover. The physical remanence of the book gradually compresses into the image of the novel - consumed to become part of the fiction.

Secondly like the film/novel the artist book has distopian undercurrents concerning digital technology and our trust in its utopian design. The POD facility Blurb highlights the relative ease with which one can copy, reproduce, store and send digitized imagery/objects without any concern for origins or authenticity. Further more the rapidity with which this technology moves raises archiving issues concerning the compatibility and 'readibility' of digital information between old and new software. Data is either lost or interpolated - are we preserving the past or distorting it?

Exhibited in New Wave: artists’ publishing in the 21st Century, curated by Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden.

Limited edition artefact held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Medium: Digital Offset,
Substrate: off-white text paper 90gsm, Dimensions: Width 13.5cm x Length 21cm x Depth 2cm, PP: 220 Perfect bound.

• Physical Artefact Type: Artefact
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 8, 2019
• Keywords: appearance, appropriation, artifice, artist, computational, fabrication, intertextuality, metafiction, reproduction
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1003769
• Publisher URL: http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/newwave09.htm
• Related Public URLs: http://justpressprint.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-it-game-or-is-it-real.html