Leif Codices
http://www.leifcodices.info

"Leif Codices" is a new work for the Internet by Jorn Ebner, featuring
computer-based artist-eBooks and decorative animation for online viewing.
Its hybrid form, comprising off-line and internet-based components,
emphasizes a sculptural quality permeating its overall visual structure; it
is a self-contained composition, that provides connection to the broader
webscape; yet it reflects back to the user who is required to discover the
mechanism underlying the work's components.

"Leif Codices" consists of two sections 'Landscape' and 'Library':
'Landscape' takes the viewer through a sequence of online-animations which
employ fragmented browser display and user activation as their main formal
feature. 'Library', by contrast, is a mere container for a series of artist
eBooks: "Pollen Connection Point", "Border Patrol", "Party Turnstile",
"Conflict Mountain", "O[c|k]tober", "Road Works" and "Equilibrium Panel".
With the exception of "O[c|k]tober" - an online diary of images collected
from daily updated websites and linked to news-sites across the world -
these books are available for download and off-line viewing. Their often
complex structures merge abstract form and literal images in a idiosyncratic
investigation into possible meanings of landscape, from the personally
obscure to the politically obvious.

The eBooks are both linear and non-linear structures: the user can simply
use the arrow-buttons on the keyboard to browse through the books, or
discover hidden links within the pages to move through them. "Pollen
Connection Point", "Border Patrol", "Party Turnstile" and "Road Works" also
contain sub-books and parallel-books for the user to discover, whereas
"Conflict Mountain" and "Equilibrium Panel" only have one image sequence.
Each work employs pdf technology with javascript to create a new form of
electronic book (or book in general), that can also be printed out as a
picture series. Each, with the exception of "O[c|k]tober", is a self
contained, computer-based work of art. "O[c|k]tober" displays images in
small individual browser-windows that provide links to the contemporary
world of news information: the main source of literal imagery throughout
"Leif Codices".

The work was made possible through an AHRB Research Fellowship at Newcastle
University.

Technical requirements:
The online structure is best viewed on Internet Explorer 5+ and Netscape 6
(but not 7) and requires a Flash5 Plug-in. It works best with a fast
connection. The eBooks require Acrobat Reader 5+. Some are, for the time
being, Macintosh only.

Jorn Ebner is a London-based artist. He is currently an Arts and Humanities
Research Board funded Research Fellow at Newcastle University. His previous
online projects include "Lee Marvin Toolbox" (awarded the Kunstpreis 2001 of
Medienforum Munchen) and "Life Measure Contructions" (2000/01), a New Med=
ia
Scotland Commission. Group shows include "Discourski" at Galeria Arsenal in
Bialystok, Poland (2002), and "Predator" at kx.kampnagel, Hamburg,
Germany(2001).

http://www.leifcodices.info
http://www.leemarvintoolbox.net
http://www.lifemeasure.org