On Monday, the Guardian published an article in which the novelist Jonathan Franzen condemned ebooks, warning that they have a negative effect on literature, and may actually be damaging to society. Whilst I’m inclined to agree with his statements about the nature of physical books, that they are permanent and reassuring tangible objects – monuments [...]
Jonathan Franzen vs The ebook
February 1st, 2012 No Comments
Tags: creative process · eBooks · ideas · technology · writing
ARCHIZINES World Tour
January 30th, 2012 No Comments
City as Material recently became part of ARCHIZINES, an archive of independent architecture zines, journals and magazines from around the world, curated by Elias Redstone. I was lucky enough to be able to talk about City as Material and self-publishing at Archizines Live, part of November’s Friday Late at the V&A. Now the collection is touring [...]
Tags: architecture · archizines · bookleteer · city as material · events
Poetry & short story pamphlets with bookleteer
January 26th, 2012 No Comments
I’ve been thinking a fair bit about bookleteer’s role in creating poetry pamphlets and short story collections, and the lack of much of either from budding bookleteers. It’s boggling – they suit the format perfectly as portable, pocket sized A6 books, or the grander A5 size, and can be made very quickly without any design [...]
Tags: bookleteer · bookreader · diffusion · eBooks · writing
In the Margins
January 19th, 2012 No Comments
This recent article from the Guardian Books blog, ponders whether or not it’s acceptable to make notes in the margins of books. Reading it, I was reminded of how annotating draft bookleteer eBooks during the editing and proofing stages of Material Conditions was an invaluable part of the process. We were able to quickly transform the [...]
Tags: bookleteer · creative process · eBooks · eNotebooks · material conditions
Book Sculpture Panoramas
January 17th, 2012 No Comments
Guy Laramee has produced these spectacular sculptures carved from old tomes, excavating covers and pages to build intricate panoramas of natural landscapes and ancient structures. A wonderful paradox of taking away to create, they look as if they have been unearthed, rather than meticulously composed. Mountain valleys and steppes, an idealised japanese garden complete with [...]
Tags: art · book · inspiration · paper sculpture
Read to Write
January 10th, 2012 No Comments
I wrote a few months back about the level of Narrative Immersion amongst different mediums – books, television, film, video games – championing the depth and unique experience that the written word affords. I was concentrating on the effects of these forms when using them purely for leisure, but the specific focus I’ve placed on [...]
Tags: creative process · creativity · technology · writing
‘The Beast’ – An animated interactive poem
January 4th, 2012 No Comments
Hello again, welcome back. A little treat to spur on 2012 now, with an animated interactive poem by agency Studio Juice, written by singer Laura Marling and illustrated by artist collective Shynola, entitled The Beast. Taken from the song of the same name, from her latest album A Creature I Don’t Know, it describes the [...]
Tags: augmented · inspiration · poetry
Material Conditions, Series 1 – Epilogue
December 16th, 2011 No Comments
Yesterday, Proboscis launched the first series of Material Conditions, a set of eight eBooks created with bookleteer, asking professional creative practitioners to reflect on what the material conditions for their own practice are, especially now in relation to the climate of change and uncertainty brought about by the recession and public sector cuts – part [...]
Tags: bookleteer · creative process · diffusion · eBooks · material conditions
Material Conditions – Launching 15/12/11
December 9th, 2011 No Comments
On December 15th we are launching a new series of eBook commissions called Material Conditions. This series asks professional creative practitioners to reflect on what the material conditions for their own practice are, especially now in relation to the climate of change and uncertainty brought about by the recession and public sector cuts. The contributors [...]
Tags: bookleteer · diffusion · eBooks · events · inspiration · material conditions · news · ppod · Short Run Printing
City As Material / Archizines Live @ Friday Late, V&A – 25/11/11
November 24th, 2011 No Comments
Thanks to Archizines curator Elias Redstone, tomorrow night, as part of Friday Late at the Victorian & Albert Museum, and to coincide with the transfer of the collection to the National Art Library hosted there, I’ll be talking about City As Material as part of a conversation about the role independent publishing can play in [...]
Tags: city as material · events · museums · publishing · talks · zines
The QR Code Enigma
November 22nd, 2011 No Comments
At a digital agency’s briefing last week, focusing on ‘New Tools’ for publishing, part of the talk was centered around the current use of QR Codes and their implications. Whilst studies seem to show they are largely unknown and underused (and often when they are, employed for gimmicky or lazy motives) there’s certainly some interesting [...]
Tags: ideas · inspiring uses · qr code · storycube cairn · StoryCubes
Project 18
November 18th, 2011 No Comments
Project 18, a collaboration between Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service and MAP, looked at what it’s like to be 18 now, and what it was like to be 18 in the past. This eBook, uploaded earlier this week to Diffusion, is a collection of stories gathered by young people from some of the older participants [...]
Tags: eBooks · inspiration · inspiring uses · museums · sharing
Agencies of Engagement – A creative thinking and doing tool
November 16th, 2011 No Comments
In April 2011, Proboscis began a collaboration with the Centre for Applied Research in Education Technologies (CARET) and Crucible at the University of Cambridge, on a research project exploring the nature of groups and group behaviours within the context of the university’s communities and the design of software platforms for collaboration. Our output of this [...]
Tags: eBooks · engagement · inspiration · inspiring uses
Publish & Print On Demand – October’s eBooks
November 9th, 2011 1 Comment
October saw a combo of eBooks created with bookleteer and printed using our Short Run Printing Service – ‘Picnic: Order, Ambiguity and Community’ and ‘Sites and Strategies’. ‘Picnic: Order, Ambiguity and Community’ by Kevin Harris, an author and community development commentator, and Gemma Orton, an artist, is an illustrated essay focusing on the relationship between [...]
Tags: bookleteer · eBooks · events · inspiring uses · portfolios · ppod · Short Run Printing
Mind, Pen, Page
November 7th, 2011 No Comments
My last few posts have concentrated on the different effects of various mediums on readers, their output if you like, but, triggered by this eloquent article championing pen on paper featured recently in The New York Review of Books, I’ve been thinking about the effects of various methods of input on writers and their work. [...]
Tags: creative process · creativity · handmade · ideas · notebook · technology · writing
