Doug Aitken
I Am A Bullet is about the perception of speed and acceleration in contemporary culture. It is an essay in photos and text. The thesis of this essay is that acceleration itself now drives the historical process, and that people have begun to integrate obsolescence and fast change into every aspect of global culture.
We have chosen 10 primary subjects that demonstrate speed as it occurs in global culture right now. These subjects are fairly undocumented or little known, and range from physical speed (the only man to fall through the speed of sound) to the evolution of language (auctioneers) to the power of media as it affects lifestyle (Japan, Gangs on South Dakotas Pine Ridge Reservation) to acceleration as a quality of populism and populist entertainment (Bollywood). Our purpose is to bring a comprehensive understanding of speed to a mass pop culture audience. The objective is to surprise, entertain, and then inform.
This book is unique in that every subject is researched live, on location in the field. We have brought a journalistic approach to a book that is part artwork, part pop culture media, and part scholarly cultural critique. The combination of reportorial narrative, fast-moving and pop-edged photography, and the compelling integrated graphic design treatment by design stars Associates In Science will make this an essay unlike any other on the shelf. This is a whole new approach, with very few precedents.