ECAL, ISBN-13: 978-2970135647, English, 46 pages, 2020, Switzerland

There have been some experiments with books incorporating a wi-fi server in the past (such as the Weise7 in/compatible Laboratorium Archive), but most of them aim to expand the physical book(s) present in the space with the myriad content that would have been potentially served. This book has an embedded server, too, comprising half of its thickness, but for a completely different purpose; it allows up to eight users to connect through smartphones and then play a sound, switching it on or off at will. It’s a proof of concept, creating the potential for an ephemeral community, while the text reflects the larger project, where artist Mario de Vega, who conceived the publication together with Stéphane Kropf, involved the BA Fine Arts at ECAL students. In fact, the book is also the framework for the student’s exhibition work, and it includes 44 definitions adapted from “Sonic experience : a guide to everyday sounds” by Jean-François Augoyard and Henry Torgue. These sounds were the basis for student’s works, and they are now a catalogue of sound concepts (like chain, deburau, hyperlocalisation, mask, phonomnesis, remanence, etc.), which in turn generated further ideas and projects. This publication can be considered a hybrid, whose content affects the readers in multiple ways, connecting them in space once they activate its technical potential.