Lingyi Kong
Adjunct Professor
Parsons School of Design, The New School
In the context of interdisciplinary integration, artist books are undergoing a fundamental shift—moving beyond the static interplay of text and image toward dynamic, spatial experiences. This project explores how environmental data and creative technology can expand the narrative and material dimensions of book art. It builds on installational and conceptual traditions in artist books while rebuilding reading as an immersive, embodied act.
This work aims to create a new framework for storytelling in book art by incorporating sound-based data and real-time generative systems. Drawing from the visual and temporal qualities of oceanic rhythms, the project materializes narrative through movement, projection, and sensory modulation. Reading becomes not merely visual, but multi-sensory and spatial—offering a hybrid mode where story is felt as much as it is read.
Developed during a two-year coastal residency in Rhode Island, Resonant Pages uses Python to analyze ocean wave recordings via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), extracting dynamic frequency and amplitude information. This data is streamed into TouchDesigner using OSC (Open Sound Control), where it drives a generative particle system. The system produces constantly evolving linework and motion fields that echo the energy of tides and coastal wind, projected in real time onto physical artist books.
These books, printed with hot foil transfer and tactile materials, paper serve as both narrative medium and expression surface. The linear structure of the printed text interacts with the ambient, non-linear rhythms of projected visuals—creating a layered narrative system where content, code, and environment co-author the reading experience.
This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 11.3: Virtual Summer on Friday, June 20, 2025.