Marc Edwards

DP: ‘Being digital’ could imply that what you are making for the show is not a book at all. In what way does your work, promote the idea of ‘bookness’?

ME: In this work I have used a technique of the self as a means of making, where cyberspace is considered as a site for practice. As a site of a politics of identity, where we have difficulty in truly identifying the authentic, I begin with the production of an online diary, not unlike a blog, not as confessional, but as self writing. I produce identifying documentation in an attempt at an authentic finding of my place in the world through a practice of care. Although this practice is rooted in writing and as a result refers to the idea of book, the outcome is a daily digital self portrait. These portraits are taken with my Sony Erricson P910i phone and processed in Photoshop.

DP: The exhibition aims to open up questions and debates around what “the digital interface” might bring to the conventions of the codex which might enhance and expand our notions of and/or experience of ‘bookness’. What do you believe your work might contribute to the debate?

ME: The convergence of media brings dynamism to the digital interface; the book finds it difficult to keep up.

Authentic – not authentic, self practice from 11/04/05 to 12/05/06 | 2006 | wall-mounted double screen DVD

20050513 (detail) Authentic – not authentic, self practice from 11/04/05 to 12/05/06 | digital print | print size 590 x 590 mm

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