Yier Cao | Miniature Booktopia: Voyage between Actual World and Textual Universe

 
Miniature Booktopia is an interactive immersive installation that investigates the complexities of reading in mixed realities: a multisensory physical experience and an imaginative textual universe. With the advent of new technologies and media, the mediums for accessing books have been diversified, from traditional printed books to television adaptations, theatrical performances, portable e-books, VR, and more. While some readers believe that digital tools facilitate reading, others oppose digital reading, arguing that the tangible interaction and collectible value of printed books are eliminated. Therefore, this project takes an innovative approach to reading that addresses these modern challenges of convenience and immersion brought about by the digital age, while preserving the essential traits of printed books.
The project consists of a 3D-printed interactive miniature book along with several tiny book cards that emulate the uniqueness and collectible value of printed books and upholds the tangible experience that is essential to reading. Alongside, there is an immersive projection that displays the imaginative universe based on the texts and extends it to external spaces and perceptible dimensions. The tiny book cards are the blueprints for future books which could be portable and lightweight, tangible and unique. The interactive book retains the physical interaction such as flipping the pages, and detects when the book cards are being inserted and pages are being flipped, thereby responding with projections whose visual elements and soundscapes are generated according to the text. The texts come from a chapter in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, where the protagonist first encounters the magnificent, mysterious and somehow terrifying Gothic architecture of Northanger Abbey. Installed in a dark space, the audience can be fully immersed in an adventure of a stormy night at Northanger Abbey.
By integrating these two interdependent realms through Jane Austen’s literature, I want to envision a new model of reading that enables a unique collectible presence, a new human-book interaction, and a full-body immersion. Moreover, I also want to challenge the male-dominated literary industry in the late 18th and early 19th century, in that women’s literature was historically considered domestic and not appropriate to public spaces such as art shows and galleries, and was considered a “low genre”. In this context, reading women writers’ books in public spaces appeals to equal attention, evaluation and respect from the literary community. Ideally, this project could be installed at the Jane Austen’s House or Jane Austen Festival as an alternative digital way to experience Jane Austen’s classic works.