Marion Guérineau

How to reconcile the experience of reading with people's modern lives, including specific notions of gaining and regaining values?

The idea of this project is inspired by an existing penal law in Brazil which states, prisoners will be entitled to four days reduction in their prison sentence if they read a classic work of literature, philosophy or science, followed by a written essay in which they present their own point of view of the subject.

Marion was very interested in how reading could change a behaviour, a life, improve a way of thinking. By using the brazilian law as a metaphor, her work has been realized to show the importance of reading and how it can get to a higher level, the redemption.

The concept of reading psychogeography is central to this project; that is to say the exploration of reading as a mental journey which then has direct effect on the physical experience, i.e. the engagement with ‘writing’ (literally and metaphorically).

Marion chose the Albert Camus' "The Outsider" which is a very rich, interesting book literarily speaking and in a synopsis perspective (echoing the prison aspect mentioned above, but also life choices, feelings…).
She deconstructed the book, by mapping it and offering several topics to analyze. Each topic has two different tracks, each track offering a variety of pages with a different graphic language.
The reader/viewer can select which path to take by picking the relevant pages thus constructing his own book (according to his choices, which will make his creation/object unique and personal).

The project

is newly graduated from an MA in Graphic Design and Communications at Chelsea College of Art and Design, in which she was investigating, how could people transcend the book and bring printed pages to life.

Her methodologies involve creating and prompting different meanings a book, according to who’s reading and one’s experience while doing so, and secondly the interplay between reading and writing, images and text.

Her researches are based on the traditional role of a book as a form of educational material and a fictional escape, which could have beneficial impact on people’s lives.

Based on the Godard’s movie Fahrenheit 451 where citizens secretly memorize books after they were forbidden by the state, she is exploring the idea of books as a medium to help people to improve and/or transcend from their daily lives.
At this stage of her practice, she has explored these concepts in relation to the above: What is the relationship between the design of a book and the experience of accessibility? Can a book be imbued with another status so that it involves the reader by setting roles and spaces for their experiences?