The element is an essential ingredient in this discourse. Elements exist behind the scenes and in the scenes. Elements are essential for but can also essentially disrupt a conception of reality. The nature of elements invites a convergent conversation between matters of topology, technology, and theory.

The book is written for the reader who wants to make and theorize at the same time. In that spirit, the author and guest contributors (Viola Ago, Julie Kress and Hans Tursack) aim to provoke and demystify at the same time. Each chapter sets a new stage for discourse with a series of elements that have a slippery way of existing in new or varied forms of reality. Because these elements are intertwined with (and sometimes created wholly through) the representational media that convey them, the act of unpacking, explaining, and sharing these elements is itself a project. Methods are exposed including (and especially) those that are strange, weird, messy, extravagant and obscene. The authors posit that representation is speculative, and that speculation is more than a matter of what to build, but how we see and affect the world.

Learn more about the book via its companion site, impossible-real.how