09.09.11 | Charlotte Williams - The BooksellerIn the book, which Appleyard said shared a theme with his 1992 work Understanding the Present, he examines how technology will shape the future, argues that the complexities of life should be embraced, and explains why some scientists are turning away from simple solutions. A narrative book which uses reportage, memoir and cultural analysis, it draws on interviews with Hockney himself, as well as Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Ricky Gervais and Helen Mirren. It will be published on 11th November as a £20 hardback.
W&N publisher Alan Samson said: "It's aimed at a certain kind of reader—not somebody who wants to read about the latest celebrity or comedian's life, but about modern life."
Hockney created the image, of a cactus growing in a pot on a table, on his iPad (which he now uses instead of a sketchbook) after being interviewed by Appleyard for the book in January. After that meeting, Appleyard was added onto a mailing list of people who Hockney sends a digital sketch to almost every morning. Appleyard said: "It suddenly struck me that it made a good link to the book, the fact he was using a machine to do them was very important." It took a few months before Hockney sent Appleyard a final image and said: "This is it."
Appleyard said: "This book is about culture too, the last line of defence. The reason Hockney is so great is that he is a great artist, he is the opposite of a machine . . . Poetry is in this book as much as neuroscience."
Samson added: "There is something about a still-life being created on a machine—it's a really nice metaphor for the book; a lot of the book is about taking stock of the technological change that is facing us daily."
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