How to reconcile the experience of reading with people's modern lives, including specific notions of gaining and regaining values?
The idea of this project is inspired by an existing penal law in Brazil which states, prisoners will be entitled to four days reduction in their prison sentence if they read a classic work of literature, philosophy or science, followed by a written essay in which they present their own point of view of the subject.
I was very interested in how reading could change a behaviour, a life, improve a way of thinking. By using the brazilian law as a metaphor, my work has been realized to show the importance of reading and how it can get to a higher level, the redemption.
The concept of reading psychogeography is central to this project; that is to say the exploration of reading as a mental journey which then has direct effect on the physical experience, i.e. the engagement with ‘writing’ (literally and metaphorically).
I chose the Albert Camus' "The Outsider" which is a very rich, interesting book literarily speaking and in a synopsis perspective (echoing the prison aspect mentioned above, but also life choices, feelings…).
I deconstructed the book, by mapping it and offering several topics to analyze. Each topic has two different tracks, each track offering a variety of pages with a different graphic language.
The reader/viewer can select which path to take by picking the relevant pages thus constructing his own book (according to his choices, which will make his creation/object unique and personal).