Research & Inspiration

To first gain inspiration for this project, I began with a simple google search and created a word cloud to 

conceptualize my ideas. 

 

 

 

In my pursuit of research for this project, I was recommended the artist book Double Game by French 

artist Sophie Calle with the participation of Paul Auster. Some elements I found interesting: 

• The cover of the book does not include the title but instead it is inside after the initial publication 

  details. It is part book, novel, and diary.

• An interesting part of the construction is that not all of the pages have the same dimensions. After

  the title page, the pages are smaller and have taken an excerpt from the novel Leviathan by 

  Paul Auster. Within the pages, Calle changes the authors writings by adding annotations in red; 

  crossing out some words and rewriting or adding mental notes about some of the phrases written.

• Originally, the character Maria from Austers book Leviathan was based on Calle. She claims that 

  Auster had thanked her frow allowing him to “mingle fact with fiction”. Calles reinterpretation 

  turns Paul Austers novel into a game allowing for her to “make [her] own particular mixture of 

  reality and fiction” (Calle 2007). Her annotations provide her insights in how the character of 

  Austers book would be more accurate to herself.

 

 

• This concept that is introduced in this book helped me conceptualize my own for this project. 

  I originally wanted to alter this sketchbook that was given to me by an old friend whom I now 

  hate. I found it often appearing when I’d least expect it, and when staring at the cover, it would 

  often bring back memories of that time in my life. All of the good memories of that time have 

  now been sullied by a broken friendship that still remains unresolved today. I wanted to give this 

  sketchbook a new look while also allowing it to still be functional as a sketchbook going forward. 

  My drawings in it are not great, and I wanted to cover up or revise them in some way. I still 

  wanted this book to be a functional sketchbook by the end so I can fill it with new ideas from my 

  current life. 

• Toying with the idea of memory, and wanting to find some way to move on from the bad 

  memories, I began thinking of the good things in my life now. This inspired me to cut out and 

  replace a section from each of the pages with good images from my life.