Bookmarks Book
2018
Inspired by anthropologist, Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s, belief that, ‘There is far too much information around’, alongside poet, Kenneth Goldsmith’s, theories of ‘Uncreative Writing’ (which build upon Roland Barthes, ‘Death of the Author’ in dismissing notions of ‘original creative genius’) Paul was led to reflect upon his own archive of digital data resulting in the creation a physical book (an enormous tome of over 1000 pages) made up of the appropriated text from the webpages he had bookmarked over a 10 year period.
Operating within Goldsmith’s theoretical declaration that ‘context is the new content’, the work examines issues of data density, information value, originality, functionlessness and materiality. As Paul continued his research questions around the audience became critical and he was fascinated by the idea that labelling the book an ‘art book’ and promoting it to a specific demographic (via an advertisement in a glossy magazine), meant it could operate as a barometer for an individual’s self-perceived cultural and social positioning.
