We're thrilled to announce that Voidopolis by Kat Mustatea, part of the Leonardo Book Series, is shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize in the 3D/Interactive category.

 

𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 is a first-of-its-kind augmented reality book about loss and memory. Designed to disappear and meant to culminate in loss, its garbled pages can only be deciphered with an AR app.

 

"Shortlisted for the 2023 Lumen Prize, a hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book, which retells Dante's Inferno as if it were set in pandemic-ravaged New York City." —THE MIT PRESS

 

Image: The book cover of Voidopolis by Kat Mustatea

 

Every page decays at the same rate over a period of one year. At the end of this decay cycle, only the printed book, with its unintelligible pages, remains. On 1 July every year, the book resets again, beginning anew the cycle of its own vanishing. 

𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 is a unique and deeply affecting artwork that speaks as much to our existential moment as it does to the fragility of experience, reality, and our connection to one another.

 

𝗕𝗨𝗬 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗬 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗠𝗜𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦

 

 

Image: Kat Mustatea, the author of Voidopolis. Headshot by Kevin Abosch.