Make a miniature book

Follow the tiny book template to make your own book of wonder. If you would like to make your own miniature book please download and print these instructions and template for free.

all about awe

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…..

I have been exploring ideas of an Alice like wonder at the beauty of unlikely objects in my Tales Series of drawings. These works are inspired by notions of scale inherent in the works of Beatrix Potter, Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland and Norton’s The Borrowers. This sense of wonder is a curiosity and this residency in a place filled with volumes of wonder provides an opportunity to explore this element of my art practice in a new and exciting way.

In his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, psychologist Dacher Keltner writes that awe is critical to our well-being. Keltner discovered in his research that experiencing awe slows our heart rate, relieves digestion‌ and deepens breathing. It also has psychological benefits. Many of us have a critical voice in our head. Awe seems to quiet this negative self-talk by deactivating the default mode network, the part of the cortex involved in how we perceive ourselves.

So how to bring a sense of awe that is so good for our health and wellbeing into our everyday lives? In her article The Case for Miniatures Gisela Salim-Peyer asserts that,“monuments and miniatures both inspire awe, but the awe each inspires is of a different kind”. The miniature creates a “fantasy that they are part of a world that will never fully reveal itself to the viewer”. It is this fantasy that animates stories in which toys come to life and the viewing of which would make the viewer feel like a giant as in Gulliver’s Travels.

Another way of experiencing awe in the everyday is to learn new things. As Katherine Rundell says in her essay The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder “You can’t, of course, remain in awe of that which is familiar, so the only way to maintain wonder is to learn”.

Taking these ideas of awe, wonder, the miniature and the everyday, along with my interest in social engagement and sharing my practice and research with others, this residency focused on creating miniature books inspired by books of wonder in Romsey Library.

Are you able to help with my research into the science of awe as explored through the lens of art? Please email me with your responses to the below questions:

Questions about Awe

What does awe and wonder mean to you?

Are there any books that provide you with a sense of awe and wonder?

What is your most memorable moment of experiencing awe and/or wonder?