[ISEA2016] Artists Talk: Betty Sargeant & Floyd Mueller — Reimagining Picturebook: A Fictorical Fable

Artists Statement

This is a fictorical account of the life of a multifaceted protagonist we know as Picturebook. Our hero is both antiquated and innovative. Over time, Picturebook has drawn on a myriad of media in order to communicate and build an active relationship with both adults and children. From the early days, when Picturebook was a handcrafted infant, to the adolescence of the Gutenberg era, this biography traces a life
that has a sense of an ending. Like many young adults, contemporary Picturebook refuses to adhere to notions of endings. It ignores prophesies of doom, stubbornly aligning with its savvy cousins Game and Animation as it forges a silicon future. As a consequence, Picturebook now speaks to a reader who is alone – in solitude. Yet will there come a time when adults and children once again sit side by side and share
in the company of Picturebook? Let us take you by the hand as we meander through past tales and future musings. History, after all, is but a story waiting to be told.

  • Betty Sargeant & Florian “Floyd” Mueller, Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia