Gloss

Paris, november 2016.

At the time of internet and collaborative platforms, the sharing of information is multiplied. A large number of persons, distributed all over the world, may circulate an idea, deliver an opinion, or pass a judgment in a few words, even with a mere click representing a gesture (like, heart…) or an icon enacting a particular emotion. Such a distribution of information is also asynchronous. Needless to be simultaneously present during the public expression of an information to react to it, positively or not, to comment it briefly or extensively by articulating it to other information, or to fuel its circulation into distinct digital arenas. Contrary to the purified model of face to face interaction, the writing of exchanged information considerably extends the temporality of potential contributions. The offset of such exchanges proliferation is, often told to result in the rise of a hashed reading, favoring short texts. If so, how to make customers with a taste for diverse, brief and stealth information wanting to read books with hundreds of pages? The back cover entails to take the book in hands and to turn it up side down; a gesture that takes a certain amount of time to get a picture of the content of several books. This bookseller finds a clever trick to articulate these reading practices. A cover cardboard, attached to the cover by a paper clip, displaying a precise and catchy comment. Whether written by the bookshop employees or some of its regular customers, theses comments foster a fluid circulation between the book shelves, punctuated by easily accessible information. And if the desire to buy a book goes with the accumulation of various opinions, such a paper technology easily connects to supplementary information on digital platforms.