Object Speaking / 原物节语 (Out of Print)

“Object Speaking” is an artist’s book on objects. The book contains 24 short poems by poet Mu Yongquan about objects found in Chapter & Verse art hotel, most of which are disposable, generic hotel items, and don’t usually embody any personal attachment. These poems are, however, rich with metaphors, references, personification, etc., and invites wild imagination beyond these objects per se. We highlighted keywords in these poems to search on used goods trading sites, like Xianyu, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc., and got tons of random results either related or not related at all to the original objects described in the poems. This book curates and documents this series of non-monetary transactions using words to exchange for goods (images+text descriptions), which resembles the experience of solving a poetic puzzle with help of big data, algorithms and all kinds of second-hand objects encountered online.

《原物节语》是一本关于物品的书，由诗人穆永泉和有关设计部门共同创作完成。书里包含了二十四句描述节语间酒店里物品的短句，这些物品在句子中用隐喻、典故、拟人等方式被诠释，通过文字和更多的物品和想象产生关联，而不再单纯指向自身。我们从这二十四句短句中提取了关键词，在国内外各类二手交易平台上进行检索，进行了一种“以词易物”的交易行为。搜索的结果与原始描述的物件不再直接相关，却成了一种新的“词丛”，辅以物品主人的图像和文字描述。一件物品关联着一串词，这串词又关联着无数相关或不相关的物件。整个过程像一连串随机的橱窗购物行为，也像一种解谜的体验，在算法推送的相关结果中谜面被无限折叠，谜底就是解谜的过程本身。书的四个侧面，从书脊到书口用了二十四句短句的相关搜索结果，罗列了一连串相关物品的图像。二十四款书签上有它们的谜底，随机附上。这本书，也成为这个网状叙事下的第二十五件物品。

Page Bureau (书局) is the self-publishing practice of the independent graphic design studio, RELATED DEPARTMENT (有关设计部门) from Shanghai. They publish printed matter and digital files designed with/for their artist/designer/illustrator/architect friends.