Candace Hicks Read Me

Read Me is a series of optical illusion sculptures and wall texts that constitute a room-sized puzzle book. Viewers solve the clues to find the solution to the puzzle while being immersed in the story. A tiny line of text connects all the pieces and carries the narrative forward. Clues are embedded in the optical illusions and woven into the text. Modeled after popular “escape games,” the final clue unlocks a metaphorical door housed within a door-shaped sculpture. Overall, Read Me requires audience participation and interactivity, but it is not a video game. It most resembles that good, old-fashioned narrative transfer device: the book. Read Me‘s optical devices utilize a range of technologies. Some are powered with simple 4-speed record players, while others run with microprocessors, and still others use hacked toys. Read Me includes zoetropes, flipbooks, holograms and other unnamable inventions.