It is forty four years since Tom Phillips began work on A Humument, setting himself the task of finding a second hand book in a junk shop for threepence and using collage, painting and cut-up techniques, to alter every page and create an entirely new version. The first edition was published in 1973 since when there have been three revised editions. A Humument has become a seminal classic of postmodern art.
Tom Phillips has now developed A Humument as an app for the iPad, with special features to enhance your enjoyment. The original pages have been rescanned enabling the user to zoom in and view details at higher resolution. The find wheel spins through the book with thumbnail images so you can navigate quickly to your favourites. There are thirty nine new and previously unpublished pages to discover and an entirely novel interactive feature, the oracle. Using a date and a randomly generated number the oracle will cast two pages to be read in tandem. You can email your personal choices or oracle reading to friends, or post them to your Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter profile direct from the app.
The Humument app is available now here. Price £4.99 or $7.99