Book32

Beautiful Lightside/Beautiful Darkside
June 2006 - March 2007
16.3 x 24.3 cm; handbound, player piano roll, silk, cardboard

Cover of sketchbook 32, light side: two panels of tan player-piano roll paper, the perforated note slots scattered like morse code, a red band between

Sketchbook 32: pencil studies of heads — a downcast woman at left, and a large anguished bearded face, eyes closed, drawn dark and dense

Sketchbook 32, page 11: three painted severed heads — a red-bearded head lifted by the hair from a white basin (#032), a grey figure, and a red-lined sleeping face (#006)

Sketchbook 32 spread: a bushy tree in dried-blood red wash, and opposite, a chestnut tree in sanguine beside an Art Nouveau gate — 'with Laura in the park (citadel), 2006'

Sketchbook 32 spread: a copy of Rodin's Le Sommeil in red wash and pencil, the sleeping head dissolving into loose coiling lines — 'Le Sommeil, Monsieur Rodin'

Sketchbook 32 spread: a dark inked barn and farmhouse among trees with a small blue butterfly collaged at center — 'Hamilton, NY, USA, CC retreat, 2006'

Sketchbook 32: Carpeaux's Ugolino and His Sons sketched from the back in sanguine wash, the huddled figures knotted together

Sketchbook 32 spread from the Met's Asian galleries: pink brush sketches of Krishna battling the horse demon Keshi, notes on Durga and Shiva, and a seated Maitreya Bodhisattva face in ink

Sketchbook 32 spread: Washington Square Park fountain in white and brown gouache, black silhouettes circling through hot pink swirls — 'a beautiful day after meeting with Wayne + Ashley, 2006'

Sketchbook 32 spread in black ink: Central Park trees at night seen from the Natural History Museum steps, canopies blotted heavy against a pale sky

Sketchbook 32 spread from the Met: a falcon-headed crocodile god in yellow, four red Anubis-like animal heads, and pencil sketches of a resting arm — 'a river runs through him'

Sketchbook 32 spread: Eagle Creek park, Indianapolis, 2006 — dark red ink water swirling over swimmers, a duck sketched at the edge

Sketchbook 32, page 53: pencil figure studies — a man standing hands behind back, and a woman with sunglasses on her head playing a flute

Sketchbook 32 spread, Athena 4 Oct 06: the Erechtheion caryatid porch in red ink, a purple caryatid 'cement copy', pencil snakes twisting below — 'growing hair, moving arms, shifting weight'

Cover of sketchbook 32, dark side: black cloth crossed by red elastic cords hooked through the corners of a QRS player-piano-roll label

Sketchbook 32 dark side spread: black ink thickets with yellow and tan smears at left; a clump of pines behind a Speed Limit 35 sign at right

Sketchbook 32 dark side spread, dated 08/06: a black ink flood spilling across a winter landscape of pencil hatching and gold-brown brush marks

Sketchbook 32 dark side spread: pencil sketches of family on couches — a woman reclining with cats curled below, a young woman seated, studies of faces

Sketchbook 32 dark side spread: Acropolis columns dripping in dark red ink, a Greek alphabet chart taped above a pencil island — 'first meeting with the Mediterranean sea, 2006'

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra Athens, session 1 'Gaming Society': ballpoint portraits of seven speakers as busts on plinths — Julian Dibbell, Daniel Pargman in a Magic Circle trophy, and others

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra session 3 'Game Politics': six conference speakers drawn as ballpoint busts with name labels, tangled cords looping between them

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra session 2 'Identity & Psychology of the Player': Espen Aarseth mirrored top-to-bottom with Celia Pearce, speakers threaded through a yellow coiling snake

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra day 2 'Gaming Environments': pages crowded with ballpoint portraits — Michael Mateas, Chris Crawford haloed mid-speech, notes on Deikto and immersion

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra day 3 'Game Art': speaker portraits including Martin Pichlmair in a yellow shirt and star collar labeled 'PWNED', notes on appropriation art

Sketchbook 32, Mediaterra 'Utopia & Virtual Space': ballpoint portraits of panelists — Margarete Jahrmann, Laura Baigorri Ballarín, Gonzalo Frasca — with notes on ludic society

for reasons, it is important to show how the Lightside cover looked after the book was finished.

Sketchbook 32 cover detail: creased player-piano roll paper, its white perforations drifting diagonally across the tan surface