This augmented reality book published by Siglio Press brings together the world of print and digital media with a freshness reminiscent of the passion of two famous star crossed lovers, especially coming at a time of perceived conflict between the worlds of print and electronic publishing.
The poems that appear, a series of letters written by two lovers struggling to map the boundaries of their relationship, do not exist on either page or screen, but in the augmented space between them opened up by the reader.
A human being cannot read the book without the aid of a networked computer equipped with a Flash-enabled browser and webcam, as documented in this short video. All they can see is the artfully minimalistic graphic squares which are simplified versions of the more widespread QR codes.
This causes a blurring of the boundaries between media and in the concept of the reader. As people trying to read this book with an iOS tablet may discover, the implied reader is no longer just a human being but also a machine, both integrated in their configuration and behavior to perform the work: a cyborg. For a more detailed explanation of this concept and process, read the section titled “The Cyborg Reader” in pgs. 67-71 of my dissertation (pg. 76 in the freely downloadable PDF file).
Allow yourself to be charmed by the sonorous, semantic, and visual wit of this work as you read its poetic narrative and it reads you.
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