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ABOUT / HOW TO
This is a "web-book" created by James Avon that re-imagines the book titled '2001: A Space Odyssey' by Arthur C. Clarke (1968).
- Click the looping animations to reveal the text beneath them.
- Click them again to hide the text.
Each animation stands as a "moving cover art" that visually sign-posts each section of the book in chronological order. Scroll from the top of the web-book, to the bottom of the web-book. Choose whether you want to experience a visual journey, or indulge in the universe of 2001: A Space Odyssey by reading the text attached to each of the animations.
The intention was to create a visual book that is aimed at helping those with dyslexia by having a shorter and more visual experience. Those with dyslexia can have slower comprehension speeds, and thus, take longer to read a book: shortening the content was important. Dyslexia can also impact memory, therefore the visuals have been made to stimulate and forge memories; having animations/ moving images creates more of a dynamic (rather than static) experience and therefor it is more attention grabbing and memorable. People will be able to visually be guided through the different sections of the book, easily remembering what happened earlier, so to stay on track with the content they read.
Blurb, written by James Avon:
2001: A Space Odyssey, a mind-bending, eye opening journey from the evolution of man’s learning to make use of bones as tools, to flying out into the unknown of the vast universe. Monoliths appear and mark points of significant evolution - but do they guide and spark this change? Man creates technology that goes beyond their own understanding and, through their own arrogance, they proceed to use their inventions to help them prevail. Bowman discovers a new, much larger monolith floating in the abyss of space - but this one appears to be hollow...
THE DESERT
Long ago, the man-apes of Africa were living in perpetual starvation, victims of drought and a lack of food.
Moon-Watcher was one of the largest of the group and the only one able to walk upright. They all foraged for berries and other edible plants with compatriots from other caves, but the tribe often went without food. As they gathered berries, they were unaware of the potential source of nourishment in the antelope-like creatures that ate beside them.
THE NEW ROCK
Moon-Watcher awoke late that night, to the sound of a large beast dragging a carcass. Then, he heard an unidentifiable sound, that had never before existed in the world—metal clanging against stone. As Moon-Watcher's tribe headed to the river, he first encountered the New Rock. After glaring at it, Moon- Watcher licked it, discovered it was of no nutritional value, and continued on. As the tribe approached the Rock on its way back from an unsuccessful day of foraging, a foreign sound, a repetitive vibration, began. As the sound increased in volume, the man-apes were drawn closer to the Rock; they stood in front of it, totally hypnotized. Unknown to the man-apes, their minds were being studied, their bodies probed, and their actions controlled.
One entranced man-ape picked up a piece of grass, tried and failed to tie a knot. Then another man-ape tried and another, until a young man-ape tied the first knot ever on Earth. When Moon-Watcher was possessed, he picked up stones, trying to throw them at a bulls-eye on the monolith. An intense pleasure overcame him when, after many attempts, he finally succeeded.
As the days went on, the monolith ignored most of the man-apes, but continued to interact with some of them, including Moon-Watcher. His mind was being developed, even though his instincts made him want to break free of the monolith. One day as a group of pigs came across his tribe, Moon-Watcher experienced an entirely new set of impulses. He looked around for a rock, picked it up and ran toward a pig, and killed it. The man-apes learned to feast on the dead pig—their hunger problem was solved.
The man-apes were taught to use many other tools and soon enough the tools became a part of their everyday lives. With near-starvation no longer a pressing concern, the man-apes first experience leisure and the evolutionary predecessor of thought. One day, Moon-Watcher's tribe came across a dead animal. As dusk was nearing, it was not safe for the man-apes to be out with the carcass. It dawned on Moon-Watch that he could drag the animal back to his cave. He began to do so, sometimes aided, sometimes hindered by the other members of his tribe, who could barely understand what he was doing.Still, a giant and fearful leopard haunted the tribe.
One evening, in came into Moon-Watcher's cave. He began to attack it with some of the tools they had developed for hunting. His fellow tribesman joined in and the leopard ran from the cave, disappearing over a precipice, and plunging to its death. The tribe found the dead leopard the following day. They cut off the head and carried it about with them. They displayed this to a rival tribe, which cowered in fear. Moon-Watcher began to understand that he need no longer feared the leopard, "now he was master of his world.
EVOLUTION
The 100,000 years since the monolith visited earth saw no new inventions among the man-apes, but they were refining their tools and learning to use them better. Their teeth became smaller as they further relied on tools; consequently, their jaw became more refined-the first step toward speech. Ice ages came and went and the descendents of the man-apes further developed their physical and mental abilities. At the end of this long process was man. The first men had no more advanced tools than the man apes, but they had speech and were able to share knowledge and pass it to the next generations. They began to develop more powerful tools and materials. He invented writing, philosophy, and religion. His weapons increased in scope-spears gave way to guns, which gave ways to guided missiles and nuclear warheads. These weapons had helped man conquer the world, but "as long as they existed, he was living on borrowed time.
SPACE TRAVEL
Though Dr. Heywood Floyd had been to Mars once and the Moon three times, he had never gotten over the excitement of space travel. As Dr. Floyd headed to his Florida launch location after a meeting with the president, he was bombarded with questions from reporters. He gave a quick "no comment," not willing to confirm nor deny a reporter's suspicion that an epidemic had broken out on the moon. Floyd boards his private flight to Space Station One and enjoyed the unnaturally high acceleration of takeoff.
Floyd watched the space station adjust to receive his incoming vessel and was greeted by Nick Miller of station security soon after the shuttle had fully docked. Floyd was brought to a lounge area to wait a half-hour before his flight to the moon. The Space Station was jointly operated by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., so it was no surprise when, after calling home to leave a message for his secretary, Floyd was approached by his friend Dr. Dimitri Moisevitch of the U.S.S.R. academy of Science. Moisevitch asked Floyd about the Quarantine in the U.S. sector of the moon. He wanted to know about the epidemic. Floyd insisted that he couldn't say anything. Finally, Moisevitch asked if he knew anything about TMA-1. Floyd feigned ignorance and was soon boarding his flight to the Moon.
THE MOON
On the trip over, Floyd caught up on world news, using his Newspad, before being entertained by the Balinese stewardess and, finally, heading to sleep. When Floyd awoke, they were nearing the moon. He noticed that the Earth, "a giant moon to the moon," was filling the moon with light. A crater filled his field of vision as the spaceship descended. After a routine flight, Dr. Floyd arrived on the moon.
Clavius, one of the moon's largest craters, was home to a base on the moon that could independently support human life. Many of the technologies developed during the cold war had been harnessed to create this technologically advanced environment. When Floyd reaches the Base, he is greeted by Ralph Halvorson, the man who oversees this area of the moon. They defer heading immediately to the briefing room in order to chat in his office. Halvorson explains that the moon dwellers are troubled by the secrecy surrounding TMA-1. They then head off to the briefing, Floyd eager to find out more about TMA-1.
Floyd conveys the president's thanks to the staff for their hard work and emphasizes the importance of secrecy until the facts are ascertained. Dr. Michaels begins his demonstration, showing a picture of Tycho, another moon crater. He then explains that in conducting a magnetic survey of the area, they discovered a disturbance there, Tycho Magnetic Anomoly One (TMA-1). A team of excavators was sent to the area and eventually unearthed a large, smoothly cut, black slab. At first, Michaels explains, it was thought that this might be related to the Chinese. But, he continues, they have now learned that this slab predates humans. It is three million years old and the first known sign of intelligent life.
TMA-1 ANOMALY
Floyd joins a team driving across the moon in a mobile lab to TMA-1. Along the ride, he, Michaels and Halvorson speculate about the origin and nature of the big black slab. The slab had been a complete enigma and no one had been able to get inside of it. Surely, Floyd thought, those who left the slab could not have come from the earth or moon—other signs of this intelligent life would have been left behind. They arrived at the site and Dr. Floyd donned a space suit in order to get a closer look at the slab. After pausing for a photograph, Floyd watches the sun rise across the horizon as the slab is exposed to light for the first time in three million years. He and the rest of the crew are suddenly overcome by a loud and piercing noise.
Deep Space Monitor seventy-nine, 100 million miles from Earth, detected and sent to earth a panoply of information about the solar system. It had now recorded an unnatural disturbance that would be communicated back to Earth. When the Radiation Forecaster back on Earth saw this disturbance, he examined it more closely and discovered an energy pattern, racing away from the moon, headed out toward the far reaches of the Universe.
THE DISCOVERY
The Discovery's journey had begun five years ago as a plan to send a man to Jupiter. With artificially induced human hibernation now shown to be safe, however, the extent of the journey grew—the astronauts were to be sent to Saturn. Though the expedition had begun only thirty days ago, David Bowman felt far, far away from earth and from his home. His own pre-flight experimentation with hibernation seemed but a distant memory. His only sentient traveling companion Frank Poole shared these sentiments, as the two were alone in an incredibly intelligent ship that also contained three hibernating astronauts.
Additionally, the ship contained a sixth crewmember. Hal was a product of the most advanced research in artificial intelligence. His brain had been grown through self-replicating neural networks, in a process extremely close to that with which the human brain developed. He was responsible for maintaining the trip throughout the journey. He could communicate with the crew by speaking with them. Further, only he knew the real purpose of the journey and could execute it alone were anything to happen to the humans on board.
Bowman and Poole's day-to-day activities had been immaculately planned. They were never both asleep at the same time. Food had been carefully prepared for their journey. Further, they received daily news updates and were able to spend time each day learning and relearning scientific material relevant to their journey. Many hours each day were spent checking and rechecking all of the controls and gauges on board to ensure that nothing had malfunctioned in the interim. On board, a rotating carrousel recreated the effect of gravity in one part of the ship. Here, the crew could shave or consume hot drinks without worry of stray hairs getting caught in the machinery or being burned by floating globules of hot coffee. Their days progressed rhythmically and methodically.
The ship passed through the asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter with relative ease. At one point they were to cross within 900 miles of an asteroid—the astronauts sent out a probe to collect data on the astronaut and proceeded, uneventfully, toward Jupiter.
Discovery began to approach Jupiter. First, it had to pass by many of Jupiter's planets, gathering information, particularly, as it passed by. During this phase of the journey, Bowman would often listen to a low frequency sound emitted by Jupiter that scientists had discovered nearly a half-century earlier; it amazed him to think that this sound, coming across the radio, had nothing to do with humans or Earth. As they got closer to Jupiter, it seemed that they were going to plunge into it; but the well-charted course they were on actually had them passing several hundred thousand miles away. The astronauts readied to release two probes to gather information from Jupiter. As Discovery passed to the other side of Jupiter, there was no direct line to earth and, as planned, radio contact was temporarily lost. The ship emitted its probed and positioned itself to use Jupiter's gravitational field to gain speed and head toward Saturn.
The first probe burned up almost immediately upon entering Jupiter's atmosphere. The second one made it a bit further along. Back on board, a television displayed the pictures from Jupiter as the probe descended into the atmosphere. It was able to provide only a brief picture though, as the probe eventually collapsed under the immense pressure of the Jovian atmosphere.
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AE-35 COMPONENT FAILURE
Poole watches a video transmission of his family and friends gathered to sing him Happy Birthday. He finds it strange, knowing that the events he is watching took place over an hour before, as it now takes longer than an hour for light beams from Earth to reach Discovery. Hal interrupts to let Poole know that the AE-35 component of the ship may malfunction within seventy- two hours and to recommend making a trip outside the ship to replace it with a spare. Poole radios to Earth to inform them of his plans. The control center confirms and asks him to prepare a brief statement to be released to the media. Poole and Bowman make a brief videotape explaining that the AE-35 keeps the ship's antenna fixed on earth to allow for radio transmissions and that replacing it should be a routine operation.
Poole carefully dons a pressure suit and boards one of the extravehicular capsules in order to step outside the ship and replace the defective part. After careful manipulation and much patience, he successfully replaces the part and returns to Discovery.
Unfortunately, not all was well. Bowman ran diagnostic tests on the AE-35 unit that Poole had replaced and reports to Poole that it is actually fully functional. Before they resolve how to handle the situation, a transmission from Earth arrives. Mission Control confirms that the AE-35 they replaced is fully functional and suggests that the problem may lie in Hal. They are to monitor Hal closely for further odd behavior. At worst, they will have to shut down Hal and hand over monitoring control of the ship to the computers at Mission Control.
Soon after, Hal reports that the newly installed AE-35 is set to fail within twenty-four hours. Bowman, who is in control of the ship at this time, asks Hal how this is possible. Hal responds that he is unsure why the unit is faulty, but certain that he is correct about the impending malfunction. Hours later, they receive a video transmission from the chief programmer at mission control. He says that Hal is incorrect about the AE-35 unit; Hal is malfunctioning and ship control must be handed over to the computers on Earth. The programmer begins outlining the steps whereby Poole and Bowman are to shut down Hal when his voice ceases to be transmitted. An alert signal sounds and Hal reports that the AE-35 unit has failed. Bowman apologizes to Hal for suspecting that he had been wrong and Hal asks if Bowman once again has complete confidence in him. Bowman assures him that he does and then sets about trying to manually fix the antenna on Earth. This fails and the two men are left wondering how to re-establish contact with Earth.
POOLE
Poole heads out of Discovery to bring the defective AE-35 unit back aboard and examine it. He once again takes Betty outside, leaves her about twenty feet from the ship and maneuvers toward the location of the problem. Poole, needing more light, asks Hal to maneuver the lighting from the Pod. Hal performs this request but Bowman is unsettled. He notices that Hal did not, according to his normal protocol, acknowledge the request. Then, Poole notices Betty moving slowly toward him. He screams for Hal to apply full braking to Betty, but it is too late. Inside, Bowman hears Poole's final scream and frantically calls for him over the radio. He notices that Poole's spacesuit has come undone; after a few minutes, the cold reality of Poole's death begins to set in.
Other than Poole's absence, the ship seemed the same. Bowman walks around, trying to figure out how to respond. Hal expresses his regrets at Poole's death. Bowman responds, but is wondering—did Hal kill Poole? He has a hard time fathoming how this could have happened. In the event that a crewmember died, another member was to be taken out of hibernation to replace him. Bowman asks Hal to give him manual control over each hibernaculum, each unit in which one of the astronauts is hibernating. Hal tries to convince Bowman to let him take care of the de-hibernation process. Bowman finally wins the argument by threatening to disconnect Hal. Bowman goes to the hibernacula and begins the process of awakening his long sleeping shipmates. As they are beginning to awaken, Bowman hears the airlock doors of the ship opening.
HAL'S CONSCIOUSNESS
The real purpose of the mission was known only to the three hibernating astronauts, and to Hal. The planners of the trip had decided it would be best for Poole and Bowman to be kept in the dark. This had begun to cause an internal tension for Hal and he was forced to conceal the truth from Poole and Bowman. This tension began to reveal itself in minor errors. All would have been all right had Hal not been threatened with being disconnected. To Hal, having the inputs that created his consciousness disconnected was a fate tantamount to death. He would battle to keep this from happening and, if necessary, complete the mission without human accompaniment.
Air was flowing out of the ship. With the doors opened, the inside of the ship was quickly becoming a vacuum. Bowman, knowing that he had only a few seconds to survive, found his way to a sealed room labeled "Emergency Shelter" and breathed in from an emergency supply of oxygen. Bowman makes his way down to the innards of the ship, passing by the three formerly frozen, but now dead astronauts. He finds Hal's control panels and begins to disconnect the various inputs that make Hal conscious. Hal pleads with Bowman to stop, but he finishes to job and Hal has been fully disconnected.
The ship begins to return to normal; Bowman closes the airlock doors and, without Hal interfering, the satellite points toward Earth again. Bowman sends a message to inform the crew back home about what has happened. When he receives his response, Bowman could not be more surprised. Mission control reveals to him the true purpose of the mission. He learns about TMA-1 and that scientists are certain that intelligent life planted the dark slab on the moon over three million years ago. When the slab, exposed to sunlight for the first time, emitted waves, the waves moved toward Saturn. One of Saturn's moons, Japetus is six times brighter on one side of its orbit than another. No adequate scientific explanation of this phenomenon has been given. Bowman is to go to Japetus and to try to learn about this other intelligence. No one knows whether they still exist and, if they do, whether they are friendly or hostile. This mission is, then, potentially vital to the continued survival of humanity.
Bowman had to restore the ship back to working condition. He cleaned the ship and, on his own, had to make sure all the systems were properly functioning. As things returned to normal, Bowman had time to think in detail about the reports that had been sent to him outlining the discovery of extra- terrestrial, intelligent life and the purpose of the mission. He slowly began to accept the theory that Hal had collapsed under the pressure of mounting unconscious feelings of guilt, prompted by internal conflict. As the days past and Saturn approached, though, Bowman began to look ahead.
Speculation abounded as to the nature of these extraterrestrial beings (E.T.s) and their origin. Some argued that they could not have come from outside the solar system because it would take too long to get there from any of the surrounding stars, while others argued that they might be able to travel through "wormholes" and circumvent the laws of physics, as the are currently known to man. It was wondered how long man would have before this civilization returned. If the waves sent out by the slab on the moon had been a signal, when would the E.T.s get that signal and when would they come to earth.
In the months that passed, Bowman would do all he could to maintain a normal schedule. He wanted to keep himself as sane as possible, knowing the potential significance of his job as the ambassador for the human species.
THE MONOLITH STAR-GATE
Bowman was now nearing Saturn and began passing by her moons. Discovery was to slow down and become a moon of Saturn, passing through the orbit of, and ultimately rendezvousing with Japetus. The meeting with Japetus was fourteen days hence and Bowman knew that, were he to fail to make it to Japetus at this time, he would be long dead by the time the orbit of Discoverycrossed again near Japetus. As the day neared, Bowman completed the final necessary maneuvers and Discovery began to orbit around Japetus. Bowman had noticed a big black spot on Japetus. Passing near it, he saw that it was a large black slab at least a mile high—it was "TMA-1's big brother."
For three million years, this "Star Gate" had been on Japetus, waiting to be discovered. It was left behind as part of an experiment conducted by this extra- terrestrial civilization. The originators of the experiment had traveled the universe, trying to encourage the development of life wherever they found it. As they had an entire Universe to explore and cultivate, they could not stay around Earth and watch to see what developed. Earth was only one of many worlds on which they had attempted to push along the evolutionary process. These beings had, themselves, long evolved. First, they had outgrown their bodies of flesh and, having learned to store their brains in machines of metal and plastic. Ultimately, they learned to store their thoughts in light and freed themselves from all matter and time.
Bowman decided to attempt to take one of the extravehicular pods and land on the Star Gate in order to explore it further. He sent out signals to the Star Gate, but it made no response. As Discovery began to descend to it, though, the Star Gate began to follow orders that it had long ago received.
Bowman anxiously waited as Discovery moved closer to the Star Gate. It had still not changed at all—Bowman saw no way in. As he passed over it, it began to appear as if receding. The last sentence he communicated to mission control was "The thing's hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God!—it's full of stars!" The Star Gate opened and closed and disappeared from Japetus.
STARCHILD
Stars were rushing past Bowman's field of vision as if he were moving incredibly quickly, but the end of the Star Gate never seemed closer. The digital clock onboard had slowed down and eventually come to a halt. Bowman could not tell how quickly he was moving or what would happen, but he felt an extreme calmness as this adventure approached him. Then, Bowman perceived a growing aperture at the end of this intergalactic tunnel; he passed through it into a vast world, filled with an intricate network of buildings on the ground. The sky above him appeared white, with little black specks. It seemed as though this were an inverted world with a white sky and black stars. Bowman looked around, but soon his pod was being heralded back through one of the black specks, "he was passing through a Grand central Station of the Galaxy."
When Bowman was again released, he saw stars all around. He looked back and saw the opening from which he had come, being slowly replaced by stars, "as if a rent in the fabric of space had been repaired." Amazed, he gazed at the many wonders that filled the sky before him; then his pod began to descend toward a giant, red, sun. As he moved toward the star, Bowman noticed that he was not affected by what must have been an immense heat. The speeds at which he had been traveling should have torn him apart, as well. He felt, and was, guarded and protected. Through the rising flames, Bowman saw what looked like thousands of beads. Though he did not understand it, Bowman was going through a new type of creation of which no man had ever conceived. The pod came to rest on a floor of what appeared to be a nice hotel suite. As Bowman looked around, all of the normal accoutrements of home surrounded him, from a bed and chairs to familiar artwork; only his pod was out of place. He explored the suite to find a refrigerator and familiar looking boxes of food. Inside the boxes, though, was only blue goo that resembled a pudding. Bowman tasted it and it was reasonably good. The books in the suite had recognizable titles, but were empty inside. Bowman lay on the bed and began to watch TV—the programs were old, about two years out of date. Bowman realized that the suite had been constructed on the basis of television programs, used to gain information about what would make a normal human feel more at ease. Tired, Bowman extinguished the light and went to sleep for the last time.
Bowman felt himself drifting off. He began to enter a realm where no man had gone before. His memory of the hotel suite flickered before him, then the Star Gate, and Discovery. His memory was being drained from his brain, but stored elsewhere. David Bowman was being reborn, but this time, immortal. Arrays of light and shape appeared before him and he saw that he would no longer need the Star Gate to travel through space. Incredible, new knowledge was coming before him. He felt like he was being watched over and protected, and knew that he would never be alone.
Before him, Bowman saw Earth, "a glittering toy no Star-Child could resist." Down there, alarms would be ringing and, the history man had known, would be coming to an end. A payload of destruction had been released and was slowly making its way across the sky. This was no match for Bowman's strength and he detonated the megatons while still in the air. He reflected on his powers as master of the world, and that he would have to decide what to do next.
EDITOR / COLLATOR / COLLAGES: by James Avon (student 2021)
TEXT CREDITS: Summaries by SparkNotes, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/2001/
STORY / NARRATIVE CREDITS: (book) 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke
ORIGINAL IMAGE CREDITS: (film) screenshots from '2001: A Space Odyssey', directed by Stanley Kubrick