Ark Codex by Codex, Ark (2012) Paperback

by Ark Codex

ARK CODEX ±0 is an authorless book object of art & text inked on pre-existing book pages & reformulated to induce an abstracted retelling of Noah’s fabled tale.Ark Codex ±0 speaks for itself—a self-organizing & self-contained archeological archive of language for the sake of language, an artifact collaged of image & text mined from unspecified or unknown origins; deconstructed, replicated, reappropriated, cut up, traced, erased, distressed, deterritorialized, rubbed, stained, repurposed, then reconsituted & expressed in a feedback loop driven by the same chance operations that guide natural selection. To define the meaning or intent of the assemblage that is Ark Codex ±0 would extinguish the very nature it sets out to describe or inscribe (which, in any event, is only an architected articulation of the very ark (vessel, book object, apocalyptic seed bank) that it is).Not only is the Ark Codex project an affront to the everyday abuses of language for telling stories or writing 'poetry,' but it challenges accepted notions of authorship—the vain compulsion to attach a name to an object to ease coping with one's own mortality. We are all in the same boat & ever in need of a bigger one. It is the readers role to attribute meaning—Ark Codex is merely a rorschach sounding board to project the viewer’s potential, a reader who (like Ark Codex itself) is but a mere embedded fragment of our collective unconsciousness, but in a holographic sense mirrors the whole & takes on a life of its own, becoming a Deleuzian «Body without Organs», a passenger on the ark. If there is an intended audience, Ark Codex is for any conscious being that comes after the fact—after the deluge, the mounting accumulation, the suicidal flood of information that will extinguish us, we living beings that spawned this language to dig its own mass grave in the first place, leaving only the original intent to communicate, to effervesce in the aftermath.

Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ark Codex ±0 is a work of art conducted on a multitude of levels, which, to be full appreciated, must be held in the hands; however, it is not something everyone will appreciate equally. While most would agree the book is an impressive undertaking at the very least, the largest issue for many (the one I’ve seen discussed at almost every recommendation of the book so far) will be whether it is something one is willing to pay the price tag for. Calamari Press has largely taken care of helping potential admirers make that decision by providing a free PDF with a pay-what-you-want model. Say what you will about the ebooks versus print books debate, but it took me all of about four pages to know I needed to purchase a hard copy of this one. I’m glad I did.

[Patrick Nichols · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mud-stained mountain of semantic detritus.

[Christopher]

http://www.calamaripress.com/Ark_Code...

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Self-organization comes with the territory."

[J.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"On the heels of several phenomenal releases, including Chiara Barzini’s Sister Stop Breathing and Gary Lutz’s Divorcer, Calamari Press has capped their recent release stint with ARK CODEX ±0, a stunning book of art and text that drives toward the beginning and the end, the biblical and the minute, a ship of textual / artistic coding afloat in these thick communal waters."

Read the interview with publisher Derek White at Monkeybicycle:

http://monkeybicycle.net/blog/708/