Nothing Unfolded: Pictures of my Book

We got to the end of the project and my book is ready! I am so pleased with the final result and so excited to show it to you. I took some pictures this afternoon. They are not great but give you an idea of what the book is like.

I would like to draw your attention to a few facts. Firstly, as you see, the book actually has a cover and it is a white hardback with an off-white cover wrap.

The book title page, the chapter openers and the author's commentary are printed on tracing paper in colour. The remaining pages are printed on layout paper which also allows for some see through effect (look at the close up pictures). Moreover, these pages are folded in a very unique way, which I developed with hours and hours of test folding.

Using a palette of 12 different colours for chapter openers resulted in a very interesting effect on the edgeof the book. 

The book has over a hundred pages and if someone actually makes an effort to read it, it's very insightful. It triggers a deeper reflection about the nature of Nothing in people's lives. I do recommend. 

The Grid Based on Nothing

Last week some of you had a chance to see the grid system I developed for my book. It was a long process during which I examined closely the 'folded pages' book idea I had. After creating a multiple dummies I came to a conclusion that the most impressive folded books are the art in itself. Like sculpture they are concerned with form rather than the content.

After receiving feedback from Amanda, I decided to stick to french fold style, which would be interactive if necessary. And I stick to the meaningful minimum rule. Little or none illustrations, playful typography,some textures, very little colours.

The images below show how my grid system was developed.

The gris is literally based on 'nothing'. The word has been placed on page with a 30 degree angle. The distances between individual elements of the grid are proportional and based on the Fibonacci sequence rule. Alignement points were used to distinguish main layout areas withing the system.

What is the Colour of Nothing?

So, I am officially writing a book about Nothing and the deeper I go into the subject the more interesting it becomes to me. From time to time I will ask you guys for a little help. Right now, I am thinking about the colour of Nothing. In my survey I asked people what they think about when they say they think about Nothing. A few of the respondents gave me a colour: black, grey, yellow, blue, dark blue, green, white. It's quite a range, would you agree?

It got me thinking... Nothing has different colours for different people. I decided to find out more and came up with a little experiment. I want to know what colour is Nothing according to you! Look at the colour palette below and find the colour that represent Nothingness to you. Write down the reference numbers of that colour in the comments box. Remember to give HORIZONTAL number FIRST (from 19.0.5 to 19.0.1) and the VERTICAL number SECOND (from 010 to 10). Please note that shadows of grey have only ONE horizontal reference number.

For example, light blue is 25:02 while barbie pink is 13:1.

Along withe the reference number please give you age and sex. I am going to find out if there is a relationship between age, sex and the colour of Nothing. I will also try to calculate an average from all the responses to indicate the average colour of nothing! It will be used in the design of my book.

Good luck and I hope you will enjoy yourself. I am looking forward to see your responses.

Click on the image to see it better.

The Art of Book Folding

Discovering the enormous range of Nothing in people's lives gave me some ideas for my book design. My journey to reveal the real Nothing, all those Somethings hidden in Nothing should be reflected in book binding and design. I realized that I could utilize a great potential of folded books. A simplest fold such as folded corner can be so intriguing. A reader feel tempted to unfold it to see what it hides. The book becomes almost interactive.

The principle of book folding can be then taken to a whole new level to create something truly amazing. I found some examples of artistic book folding which aims to create a sculpture or of unwanted books. It's so worth sharing.

Gathering the Book Content

The Nothingology survey I created was o far completed by 30 people and the results are stunning! I asked people a few tricky question to uncover the variety of forms Nothing takes in our everyday life. As I expected, the range of responses is simply fascinating.

I decided to use the data in my book. However, I needed to consider how to translate apparently random words and phrases into a flowing book content. I tried to make sense of the responses by mapping them. It helped me to identify patterns and connections in peoples understanding of Nothing. It is hard to process the data without getting totally confused but I will try to break it down into smaller pieces and then post a summary on the blog. Watch this space!

Gripping on Nothing: Research Into the Concept of Nothingness

Researching nothingness is certainly more difficult than one might think. During my desktop research I came across a few interesting publications. Firstly, there is The Book of Nothing by John D. Barrow, which captures the mysteries of non-existence, the origins of zero in Egyptian, Babylonian, Mayan and Indian cultures. It touches on Medieval and Shakespearean conceptions of nothingness to move into the contemporary, science based, understanding of the Vacuum. It surely is an fascinating read but for me Barrow's work was a little too abstract and detached from the ordinary people experiences. I am not that interested in looking for Nothing in the cosmic space while there is so much Nothing around us everyday. It seems like that human side of nothing is not only easier to capture but for me, personally, it's also more interesting to explore.

There are so many thinkg people do when they say they do nothing at all. One could even find advice on what to do if you have nothing to do! The list I found includes trying to swallow your own tongue (amusement potential: 1-2 minutes), pretending to be a car (amusement potential: 5-10 minutes) and trying not to think about penguins (amusement potential: 1-5 minutes). The last one is especially hard, because by trying too much, you remember what you were trying to avoid thinking of. If you try too little, you end up thinking about penguins anyway. It's amazing what you can come up with.

I have created an online survey asking people some tricky question about nothingness in their lives but in order to fully understand its findings I looked into the concept of Nothing in philosophy. I found a great video about Nothing by British philosopher Alan Watts, who claims that "Nothing is what brings something into contrast" and that "you can't have Something without Nothing". His idea and explanation isn't as confusing as you might think and you can watch the video without risking a headache.



Watts was famous for popularizing Eastern philosophical ideas in the West. Taoism was among his interests and in this video he used a term 'Tao' to describe the unity of Something and Nothing, the Form and the Void.

Joan Konner - the author of You Don’t Have to be Buddhist to Know Nothing: An Illustrious Collection of Thoughts on Naught - is another influential expert on nothingness. She claims that "the concept of Nothing, in Western thought, is a paradox. We simply cannot accept, no less conceive of, the paradoxical concept that 'Nothing exists'. (...) In the material world, which we inhabit, the very words 'Nothing exists' are a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron."

Konner agrees with Watts that Nothing can and does co-exist with Everything, because everything, even in physical terms, has its equal and opposite. She says: "If a vacuum occurs, nature rushes in to fill it. But where and what would Nature rush in to fill if there wasn’t a vacuum? Without Emptiness there would be no opportunity for something new, or something else, to occur. Where would Something happen? Stars disappearing. Novas appearing. Leaves falling. New leaves growing. One generation dying, another being born. Nothing is the still center of the wheel of life. Nothing is the core of creation. In the dark evanescence between equal and opposite, the Universe ignites."



Maybe, that's the key to understanding nothingness? We can only capture Nothing by capturing the contrast to Something?

Nothing is invisible and, as John Lloyd argues, all the best things are invisible. Watch this very entertaining video to uncover what exactly he means by that.



And finally, I just wanted to share this last piece of research.
In June 2007 Discover Magazine published a list of 20 things that you didn't know about Nothing. And guess what! There is vastly more Nothing than Something. Roughly 74 per cent of the universe is “Nothing,” or what physicists call dark energy; 22 per cent is dark matter, particles we cannot see. Only 4 per cent is baryonic matter, the stuff we call Something!

Introduction to Nothingology: Design Project B Outline and Workplan

Project Brief

Nothing doesn’t exist. Nothing is impossible. The concept of nothing is so fraught with paradox and contradictions that it defeats definition. We are surrounded by loads of nothing although we cannot come to terms with the concept. We do nothing, know nothing, hear nothing, have nothing, mean nothing, think nothing. And yet, we can’t define it or describe it. Nothingness is all around us even though we don’t seem to notice or understand it.

Writing a book about nothing contradicts itself. How can one focus on nothing, research, describe and illustrate something that doesn’t exist. Wouldn't a blank page express the idea better than any written word? Wouldn't the book's nonexistence communicate the idea most effectively?

Every attempt to discover nothing reveals yet another ‘thing’ – something smaller than the smallest, microscopic, unnoticeable because of its size or (non)importance. Probably, there is no nothing! Probably, nothing is always something!

This book aims to explore the idea of nothingness and to reveal the nonexistence, triviality, nonentity and nonbeing of surrounding us objects and pointless actions we take everyday. Its purpose is to uncover the real thing in nothing and to transform nothing into something.

This book takes a human-centered approach to nothingology. It will examine the complex interaction between people and nothing. What people do when they do nothing? What they think about when they think about nothing? What they say and hear when they say and hear nothing? And finally, what does nothing do to people?

In my design authorship project I aim to take the concept of nothingness on the journey through people’s lives. I don’t intend to simply reproduce the words of philosophers, scientists, poets and other experts on nothingness. I wish to express the idea with the words of ordinary people and support it with their real life stories. My aim is to communicate the concept of nothingness through typography, illustration and conceptual publishing solutions. And since there is no beginning and the end to nothingness, my book will have no beginning and no end, no page numbers and no cover.

You can contribute to my research by completing an online questionnaire – the survey of nothing.

Project Workplan

For the purpose of this project, I adopted and customized a BrandCulture's chart illustrating the key stages of the design project.

Click on the image to see a large version.