Gene Valentine and
"The Paper Project"
by Pamela Wood
When you think about it, just about everything in our lives is viewed
on the surface. Rarely do we ever get below this level. With the miracle
of science and Gene Valentine's curiosity, however, we get to go inside
paper, yes, inside paper. This is a real treat, for paper perhaps more
than anything is always dealt with on the surface.
Gene Valentine is Professor Emeritus of English at Arizona State
University. And he has been proprietor since 1979 of Almond Tree Press
and Paper Mill in Tempe, Arizona. Gene has been part of many fine press
and paper pieces. For example, I recently viewed his broadside series on
ASU Centennial Lecturers being exhibited at a local bookstore. His work
is exceptional. I asked Gene how he started 'The Paper Project." He
told me that when he and Charles Kazilek, a colleague from the Biology
Department, met for coffee one day, Gene asked him if he could see what
his handmade silk paper looked like under the Leica scanning laser
confocal microscope at ASU's W.M. Keck Bioimaging Laboratory. With the
images that were produced, the project was born. The best part of
"The Paper Project" is that it can be viewed 24-7 on the
Internet. So grab something refreshing to drink, open the web site
(http://lifesciences.asu.edu/paperproject/) and enjoy the colors and
text. There is a prerequisite for viewing some of the images in the
gallery where all the great photos of paper innards are posted. You will
need 3-D viewing glasses. For this there is a special link to Technology
at the site. Click the title "Make your Own 3-D Glasses." When
you have completed this phase, you are be ready to view the entire
gallery the way it was intended, as well as looking so very cool in
two-color shades. If you don't have a set of glasses, or you can't make
them, send Gene your request for a pair at gene.valentine@asu.edu.
When I first saw 'The Paper Project," I was reminded of
"The Fantastic Voyage," a movie I saw a while back, where the
people entered the human body and experienced it from the inside. The
photos of all the various papers are colorful and by themselves make
wonderful stand-alone works of abstract art. The web site for the
Project has several extras to help people explore the confocal
microscope and the history of paper, as well as cookbooks for home
papermaking and classroom and teaching ideas. "The Paper
Project" was featured in a dance program underwritten by the ASU
Institute for Studies in the Arts in 2002. The images of paper interiors
were projected on stage, and the dancers moved through the virtual
environment of fiber images as the audience viewed the dance and images
through the 3-D glasses. This winter, a variation of the dance project
was developed by Gene, Charles Kazelik, Jennifer Tsukayama, and
Kristofer T. Hill for the Museum for Youth in Mesa, Arizona. There the
kids, as well as most of the adults, put on 3-D glasses and had a blast
walking among the projected images and dancing to music as if they were
inside the paper.
During the time I met with Gene it was easy to see why the project is
never-ending. On the Internet, Gene and Charles have created a digital
book that all can open and explore. Check it out for yourself. And I
know you will be glad you opened it, because it will open to you the
amazing world inside paper.
printed with permission from
Artists'
Books Reviews,
Page 6, #19-SPRING/2005
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