Birch Plywood, Acrylic, Paper-cut, LED light strips

"A book is a surprising memory" (2018) is a student piece created by Kaysie Pillai as part of the project "One and three books" which is led by Associate Professor Danne Ojeda from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This piece consists of three components, the written definition of what a book means to the creator, a dummy book and the final book. This piece was exhibited as part of the "One and three books" exhibition in the 11th edition of Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne. 

This piece considers the proposition that a book is a surprise in which the process of reading a book provides the reader with feelings of wonderment and unexpectedness as the book is read. This piece also considers the aftermath of reading a book where the surprises of images and stories once seen and read create powerful and impactful memories for its readers. As such, the story chosen for this piece is "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling, a story that has created impactful surprising memories for the creator of this work. 

The concept of a surprising memory is made tangible and physical through this piece. Created to be similar to a book, this piece is crafted in the shape of a book which opens and closes like one. With a laser engraved cover design, the interior of the book holds a diorama of paper-cut illustrations. The illustrations were created based on one of the scenes from "The Jungle Book". Unlike what one would normally expect from a book, pages and words, this book creates a sense of surprise through the introduction of something unexpected, a lighted up diorama, visible when the book is opened up.