Sole Ripper (2012)

The Sole Ripper is a PDF format digital book containing a 1:132 scale architectural view of a fictional pedestrian roller coster modeled for an empty lot in Manhattan discovered by Lucas on Google Maps. The architectural plan arrives fragmented and out of order, given its shape through a process of software conventions and workarounds. It is a visual corollary to the download process in which files are broken down into packets and transmitted over internet pathways from one computer to another, and reconfigured at their final destination. Only, Lucas leaves the task of file reconfigurability open to the viewer, and opts for an alternative view that features a 352-page vertical drop and bears likeness to a filmstrip. Recalling Luis Borges's hyperreal map that was as large as the empire itself from "On Exactitude in Science," The Sole Ripper is too large to see in its entirety even when reassembled.

This video document is a screen recording of interaction with the book. This user scrolls through the pages using a computer mouse. Half way through the book the viewer encounters a continuous stream of blank pages that can be experienced as passages of free fall akin to the experience of riding a roller coaster. The soundtrack is subtle, so viewers of this video may benefit from use of external speakers or headphones.

The work itself integrates digital, cinematic, sculptural, and architectural languages, and can be viewed digitally, by clicking or scrolling through the pages on a screen, or by printing and reassembling the pages into a hybrid poster-map.

The Sole Ripper was launched in September of 2012 for Rhizome's monthly series The Download.
rhizome.org/editorial/2012/sep/4/download-kristin-lucas/

An image of the installation version