I, the Reader

I, THE READER is an innovative exhibition about the reading experience, spanning the world of literature and the pleasures of reading. An experiential journey, using interactive technology, through some 500 authors to explore the diversity and essence of the literary arts.

The history of literature.

This area offers an overarching historical view. A challenge to get out of your comfort zone and reflect on how works of fiction are able to speak to a reader's own life experiences by talking about the experiences of others. 

I, THE READER offers you a short, transformative journey through the wonderful world of reading, using a combination of media ranging from plot creation and narrative building to touch-sensitive screens, projections, and video mapping.

We are guided through our own experience of reading. As if we were taking down a book from the shelf, opening it and starting to read.

It is what leads the reader to see themself as the main character in the act of reading and as the co-creator of both the stories around them and their own route through the exhibition.

The act of writing.

Short texts about the act of writing and reading are presented as fragments and combined with interactive activities. These inspire the visitor to experience the different ways that the text can be projected using their own body movements. 

This experience is analogous to the writer's work of creating and discovering the text that appears on the paper/screen.

The act of reading.

In this section, the visitor walks along a corridor where an unexpected sentence covers the walls.

The visitor has the sensation that they are reading a book and, as they get closer to the page, the very words and letters become scrambled in front of their eyes.

A kind of altar, made of pieces of glass and light, comes into view, its intensity changing in keeping with the short excerpt of a Samuel Beckett text being read by a murmuring voice.

The reading response.

Space dedicated to the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With a large table in place, the visitor is immersed into the book's setting. 
The pictures on the wall are illustrations by John Tenniel, who illustrated the novel for the Editora Zahar publishing house. 

This room is where writers can meet the public and share the novel that shaped their lives as part of the series The Book of My Life (O Livro Da Minha Vida).

An invitation to sit down with an author and listen closely to the story, as if listening to storytellers of yore.

Interacting with reading.

A space where you can listen to stories, such as excerpts from the classics of Brazilian and world literature.

Well-known authors and authors who, like distant galaxies, are still to be explored. In a drawing of individual constellations, all routes are possible and the visitor is invited and challenged to find their own pathways. 

From having the chance to touch the display and put together your own constellation of important authors to enjoying the purest reading experience, namely sitting down in a library and leafing through a book.

The library environment

A small bookshelf in a comfortable reading corner—more like a terrace than a study—where you can sit quietly and read your favorite book. Each reader can allow their pile of books to build up until they have the time to enjoy them.

The entire route through this exhibition was designed with this final encounter with books in mind. 

Having journeyed through different views of literature in this exhibition, our hope is that when the reader reaches this re-encounter with books, they will feel curious, interested, and determined to find their book and try out new reading material.

A tribute to a literary classic.

Imagine a future where all books are banned and all views silenced. That is the premise for Ray Bradbury's science-fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Considered one of the greatest science-fiction books of all time, the I, the Reader exhibition pays tribute to Bradbury's novel.