The video presents the completed pop-up book “Memories of a Murder,” created by Mamdooh Afdile in collaboration with pop-up designer Lena Ignestam. Page by page, the camera reveals the book’s intricate three-dimensional structures, each spread interpreting key narrative moments from Maria Hedman Hvitfeldt’s true crime story. The moving images highlight the interplay between sculptural form, visual storytelling, and the underlying textual analysis that informed the adaptation. The presentation is accompanied by an original music composition by Kent Olofsson and narrated by Maria Hedman Hvitfeldt, adding both an evocative sonic atmosphere and the authentic voice of the story’s author.

This report presents an artistic research project exploring Word Frequency Analysis (WFA) as a methodological tool for adapting written narratives into visual artworks. Through the collaborative creation of the pop-up book “Memories of a Murder,” based on a true crime story by Maria Hedman Hvitfeldt, the project investigates the tension between authorial authenticity and the interpretive freedom of the visual artist. WFA is employed to identify textual elements of high narrative significance, offering a bridge between literary structure and visual composition. While WFA cannot replace close reading, it is shown to enhance interpretive confidence, providing a complementary framework for visual adaptation. The project situates itself within interdisciplinary artistic research, combining data-driven analysis with material, collaborative, and narrative art practices. This work contributes to the discussion on how computational tools can be integrated into artistic processes without diminishing the interpretive and aesthetic agency of the artist.