Compression ---the twitter book

Compression

---the twitter book, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Jan, 2010

Sculpture

Photo paper 3mm x 483mm

Plexiglace 483mm x 160mm

Wood board 526mm x 100mm x 16mm

The information explosion age is also the age of compression. Facing too much information, we try to sum up, shorten, simplify everything ; in order to save time, to know more. But we always stop at the level of « knowing » (not as far as « understanding »). It seems like the illusion (misunderstanding, misapprehension) that we know so we understand.

 













Nowadays, the most typical example is twitter. One of its specificities is that every message has to be 140 characters long maximum, which enables the information to circulate faster and faster.

In October 2009, 2 American boys began to post classic books on twitter. Every famous booksum up into one sentence long which is of course 140 characters long maximum. 

So I rewrite a book of Walter Benjamin ; « The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction », so that it can fit on twitter. Every page is just one sentence long which includes maximum 140 characters.

 








I compress the letters in every vertical row. so they turn into unreadable little black points