On the cover, above the title ‘The Nexus’, there is a two-line slogan that reads: ‘Augmented thinking for a complex world.’ Below, there is a sub-title of similar length, positioning the book as an invitation into the arena of “the new convergence of art, technology, and science”. ‘The Nexus’ looks and feels more like a manifesto than a straightforward analysis of the locus where everything in the modern world meets.
That’s part of the point, for ‘The Nexus’ is more than a book: it’s a literary artefact that brings together art and design, photography and typesetting, philosophy and history. To be fair, its author Julio Ottino and his visual collaborator Bruce Mau have warned us: “Today’s complex problems demand a radically new way of thinking.”
There is no single elevator pitch for ‘The Nexus’, says Ottino. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has spent even a few minutes with it. While there are superficial resemblances to a conventional publication...