How it’s made

Antique books of butterflies and moths, brought to life. These pages show how, one mechanism at a time, on the real plates and the real code.

1. Part I

   How a book is cut

   From a library scan to a butterfly that lifts its wings: paper becomes transparency, blobs become specimens, a specimen becomes a body and two hinged wings, and a name is found for it.

2. Part II

   The shelf and the opening

   Boards, cloth and gilt drawn on canvas; the books floating in their column; the hover, the lift, the swing and the cover opening before the paper curtain falls. Rendered live with the site's own code.