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MIT's Michael Hawley Creates World's Largest Published Book
Proceeds from Sale of 130 Pound Tome to Benefit Educational Charities
Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom weighs in at over 130 pounds and is 7 feet tall -- nearly as big as a ping pong table. The book features more than a hundred pages of spectacular images of a country often referred to as "the last Shangri-la," and showcases a variety of new digital, photographic, and printing techniques.Hawley, a technology pioneer at the Media Lab and the founder of path-breaking research programs like "Toys of Tomorrow" and "Things that Think," fell in love with the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan while leading several MIT field expeditions there. Nestled between Nepal, Tibet and India, Bhutan is home to one of the most astonishingly diverse and unspoiled natural and cultural ecologies on earth.
The idea for the book grew out of a desire to use scientific field expeditions to drive better photography. "Every field team, from MIT geologists to the local boy scout troop, feels an obligation to collect and share the best possible record of their work," commented Hawley. "But photography can be a real annoyance on expeditions."
Although digital photography has advanced tremendously in recent years, systems are still disorganized and most field teams cannot capture a very complete visual record. Much of what comes back from a field expedition languishes on a shelf somewhere, collecting dust.
With seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and from the MIT/Microsoft iCampus initiative (a five-year alliance between MIT and Microsoft Research) Hawley led four expeditions to Bhutan over the course of four years. Teams of MIT and Bhutanese students, officials and staff flew by helicopter, rode mountain ponies, trekked with packhorses and yaks, and journeyed by caravan on far flung roads and foot trails across the Bhutanese Himalaya. They had extraordinary assistance from the Royal Government of Bhutan and from Chhundu Travel and Tours.
Hawley's teams were equipped with the latest digital and film photo gear to capture a collective portrait of this remote paradise. Imagery shot by the ensembles of photographers was GPS coded, captioned and stored on pocket disk drives on the spot.
BIG PICTURE THINKING
Back in Cambridge, as the team explored their immense archive of images, Hawley hit upon the idea of showcasing the work in a giant book, letting readers experience the magic of the country firsthand: "We thought we could allow readers to literally 'step into' this beautiful corner of the world - one which so few people will be blessed to visit," commented Hawley. More importantly, he saw the book as a unique way for young Bhutanese to share what it feels like to grow up there, and the values that make community
life so special.
Creating the Bhutan book was challenging for a number of reasons. Hawley's team did more than just design a book -- they designed a whole new production process. They even had to design the bookshelf. Each page image is nearly two gigabytes in size, stretching the limits of what computers and printers can normally swallow. Each copy of the book uses a roll of paper that is considerably longer than a football field, and requires more than a gallon of ink and 24 hours printing time, all accomplished with state-of-the-art HP technologies: HP Designjet printers, ultraviolet inks, and fine art media. Technical teams from Adobe, Amazon.com, Apple, Dell, FedEx, HP, Kodak and Microsoft also helped push this demanding production. To bind the books, Hawley turned to the world's oldest book bindery, Acme Bookbinding of Charlestown, MA. "Every page in this book is a masterpiece," notes Paul Parisi, president of Acme. "We built the permanent binding it deserves." Acme invented a hand-built binding that combines the strengths of both Western-style stitched books with Asian-style fanfolding.
DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD
The completed book was unveiled at the Explorers Club in New York, and is to be shown at invitation-only events at National Geographic in Washington, Seattle's Asian Art Museum, the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, and the exclusive Harry Winston Salon in Ginza, Tokyo.
"Bhutan" is a visual and technological tour de force. The stunning imagery loosely follows Hawley's expeditions, conveying the staggering sweep of the country's mountainous terrain and its ancient architecture. Photos of riotously colorful tantric dance festivals and spectacular treks high into the Himalaya are interspersed with scenes of Bhutanese daily life. Many of them feature Choki Lhamo and Gyelsey Loday, two Bhutanese teenagers who helped as photographers and informal guides on these trips. The book also includes an illustrated atlas of the country masterfully drawn by artist and author David Macaulay, author of "The Way Things Work", "Cathedral", "Pyramid", "City" and numerous other award-winning books.
Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Himalayan Kingdom:
* Conceived and designed by Michael Hawley
* Endpage atlas hand-drawn by David Macaulay
* 114 pages; over 100 images (selected from an archive of 40,000)
* Open image area: 60 x 80" (closed 60 x 45"); 133 pounds.
* Library binding (Skivertex Ultra leatherette): US $10,000. Museum binding
(leather, signed): $25,000 (for stand, add $1500.)
* ISBN: 0-9742469-0-5
* Publication date: December 15, 2003