Book App / Wormhole

“Wormholes, or ‘bridges’ as [Einstein] called them [are] the idea of a hypothetical topological feature of space-time that is essentially a short-cut through space and time, potentially linking widely separated parts of the universe (or even different universes)…” Physics of the Universe

It has been said that the web has its own physics. Perhaps, then, the metaphor of a wormhole through the ever-spinning webs of human knowledge has little merit, but if we can envision what one might look like should one exist, I believe it might be the future of the book app. I anticipate that book apps will find their niche in a digital world by making a semi-contained space for a curated collection of original creations and/or synthesized information which retains permeable ties to other bodies of information. These links will be to digital as well as real-world references, a quality most successful apps (aside from some games and works of fiction) demonstrate.

Just as a tree-produced book on a shelf binds together and secures the continued existence of a set of ideas, digital books will be used to keep ideas alive and within reach by storing them together on the screens of our devices. Though the ebook shares this purpose of “containing” with its paper predecessors, it has the potential to change the way we think about and interact with the ideas and information the book holds.

This might explain why ebooks that are designed as a self-contained creation have not caught on; when we’re working on a digital platform, we expect the information and creations housed in ebooks to connect to our world, and all of its virtual interfaces, in real-time. If an ebook does not allow us to interact with others and with the collected knowledge that is the web, it feels as though we have tucked ourselves into a brick-walled alcove just beyond the great matrix of the virtual network. However, book apps are able to create a space which both houses unique offerings and links the reader into the incredibly dynamic and of-the-moment body of wisdom constantly being imparted through the web. In this way, the book app will be able to simultaneously provide a graspable sense of reprise from the overwhelming whir of information and ideas online, while keeping the reader in that moment connected to it.

By connecting the book app to other relevant apps, websites, and people, a book app both brings in readers and sends them out. For example, a book app might also produce images for use on other sites, which can then lead one back to the app. 

The “story” then, no longer follows the long assumed “storyline” paradigm. No longer a linear cover to cover experience, the book app will function according to a “storyplace”. I believe we will soon see that a well-developed book app reads in ways more akin to how we read physical places in our experiences than to how we hear a story. The story to be heard, when we listen, will come across through multiple sensibilities and senses, and can be understood many ways. Regardless, elements of aesthetics and voice will impart a unique meaning, as designed by the author/artist.

I believe the kind of story that lives in a plot line will be an eternal art - the curve of events and tension we are taught in first grade, will continue to exist as they have for centuries. The book app has the potential to also give birth to a new kind of articulation. Like places, the future of the book app is to meaningful interpretation of multi-dimensional and dynamic space. It is this new kind of “story” - born out of the sensibilities and literacy engendered by digital medias - that the book app will “write”.

Post for 9/18