Inspiring Ingenuity

Combining an infectious sense of fun with an insatiable curiosity and a neversay-die attitude, Kelli Anderson is a truly passionate and creative innovator

- Kelli Anderson

Kelli is an artist, designer and tinkerer who is always experimenting with new means of making images and experiences. She draws, photographs, cuts, prints and codes from her eclectic studio; creates everything from interactive paper to layered, experimental websites and also finds the time to teach art history at Pratt Institute each summer. www.kellianderson.com

When Kelli Anderson presented her publisher with the prototype for This Book is a Camera – a popup publication that turns into a pinhole camera – it was rejected on the grounds that it would be impossible to produce.

Determined to prove them wrong, the Brooklyn-based designer self-published the book, learning the ropes of book distribution and promotion to produce 2,000 copies in just eight weeks from prototype to print. It sold out. Now, to Anderson’s delight, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is going to reprint the book, cementing its position as a papercraft design classic.

This determination and joyful curiosity is typical of Anderson. She’s happiest when exploring new ways of creating experiences, whether she’s drawing, printing or coding. She’s also passionate about the role of designers in creating change.

Anderson caught up with the good folks at OFFSET Dublin before her talk at this year’s conference to discuss politics, publishing and problem-solving. Here’s what she had to say…

OFFSET: How does your project This Book is a Camera work?

It’s a pop-up book that transforms into a fully functional large-format pinhole camera when opened. The book’s pages show how this simple device can isolate a light beam to create a photo, and also provides complete instructions for developing the images with household chemicals. It makes the case for the physical world being host to all kinds of invisible magic because, physically, there’s very little to it.