The story of Ulysses is simple.
The story hardly even exists. Everything takes place during one day, on the 16th of June 1904 through the comings and goings of two characters : Leopold Bloom et Stephen Dedalus. What happens during this day? Nothing special. But Joyce's thick book is so free of literary rules that it is opaque to most readers.
Since Ulysses was written, Dublin has changed, its people and customs too. However, on Bloom’s Day, the 16th of June, the new occupants still try to understand the book, to follow the path of the characters in a common celebration, dressed in the 19th century fashion.
Using cartography, I wanted to understand this rich testimony of my father’s town exploiting graphically the constant link between fiction and itinerary through mapping, photography and a processing animation.
I invite Dubliners to take over the reading of Ulysses thanks to an interactive map, spread on the floor of the Martello Tower - the initiatory place of the story - a carpet-screen that would help visualizing the book localizing those gone on the steps of the characters, connected to the animation through an app. The map is no longer held in your hands, it is spread on the floor, gains a tangible sensitivity and human dimensions.