Wot is a book?


Chiara Croserio, Honne, 2018
Book, Cotton, thread, pillow stuffing

HONNE is an exploration of the way our post-digital age has shifted the way one shares art, literature, poetry, and advice. This book is a curated dialogue sourced from a personal group chat I have with two friends; a comforting ecosystem of support communicated through the soft form of the book. I chose to explore this concept as online communication has been one of the major shifts in societal behaviour, as well as the increasing use of graphics, such as emojis, in casual conversation. These graphics provide a universal means of displaying emotion in a much more expansive way. The use of embroidery and sewing communicates the mindfulness behind the dialogues and the use of emojis in the conversation. The soft structure of the book also symbolises the notion of the ‘cloud’, the abyss where our online data is stored. The common thread situating this work among my other works is the exploration of concepts that I feel a personal connection to. Hunting is the act of taking a particular aspect of what one seeks from the internet in a very specific manner, as if using that information to serve as evidence to support one’s point (Soulellis, 2013). The process behind HONNE emulates the notion of ‘hunting’ in the sense that I analysed the group chat I have with two friends, and extracted specific dialogues that would support my concept. However, I did not solely use the raw information found in the group chat. The final dialogue in HONNE is a curated discussion constructed to exemplify the overall concept. In producing the physical aspect of the book, I used cotton fabric, a sewing machine, pillow stuffing, thread and needles. Several prototypes of the pillow book were made before producing the final piece.