Since many subscribers were keen for the project to continue I will be considering options – the most likely being a once yearly round-up. If you’re interested in subscribing to this, please leave a comment on this post to let me know.

My work with anthropologist James Leach and the villagers of Reite in Papua New Guinea has defined much of my recent work with bookleteer and is shaping the trajectory of development in which it is heading. You can read about our fieldwork in PNG, about the TKRN project and the TKRN Toolkit or explore the lovely handmade books created by the community on the dedicated website I created for them. We are returning to Reite in April and May this year to do further work, and to expand the project into some neighbouring villages. We have also been invited to develop a parallel project with indigenous fieldworkers in the neighbouring island nation of Vanuatu. Later in 2016 we hope to facilitate some of the villagers from Reite to transfer their skills and knowledge of using the TKRN Toolkit to local people in Vanuatu.

This past year I have also been helping (in a small way) Grace Tillyard to develop her amazing Breast Cancer awareness and engagement programme for women in Haiti. The project is hosted by Project Medishare‘s Womens Health Centre in Port-au-Prince and recently received $60,000 in funding. Grace is currently co-developing with local people a new kind of Patient Notebook using bookleteer to help communicate more about the condition and the medical treatments available, as well as to allow people to record their own medical information in a dedicated book of their own. We hope to have a prototype ready this Spring for testing by the community.

LibraryPress Legacy
I have also been collaborating with Peter Baxter of Camden’s Library Service to extend and continue the work of introducing self-publishing using bookleteer into London’s libraries that was initiated in 2014 and 2015 through the LibraryPress project. Last week we held a professional development workshop for Librarians from Camden, Hackney, Brent, Hounslow and Harrow. Over the next few months the aim is for these librarians to use bookleteer to create publications with library users as part of the many events to promote reading and literacy that take place. We shall be selecting some of these to be printed and distributed as part of a special issue of the Periodical.

Lastly, I wish to share a stunning new book, Northern Musings, created by the Canadian artist and printmaker, Joyce Majiski:

What the series shows is a lineage stretching back to Saxon times of the struggle to assert and protect the inherent rights and dignities of ordinary people against the attempts by the wealthy and powerful to control and corral resources, assets and power for themselves, at the expense of everyone else.

Originally distributed to subscribers of the Periodical there are 35 sets remaining, each of which has been bound together with red satin ribbon in a special edition.
Each set costs £15 plus postage and packing: buy your’s here.

View the whole collection here – free to read online or download, print out and make up yourself.

July’s issue, Sprouting Bonds : how growing our food connects us to places, land, families and culture is a handbook of results from the Grown Edible and Meaningful project, based in Leeds in 2013. A collaboration between universities and local community organisations, it explored the meaning of growing food and how it connects people to their environment, communities and to the wider world. The books combines social observations with recipes, personal stories, poetry, growing tips and reflections.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

June’s issue, Pride of the Moor, is a contemporary folksong created by musician Jim Causley and artist Simon Pope as part of Simon’s project “A Song, A Dance & A New Stannary Parliament”. The project was commissioned by Spacex gallery in Exeter and explored the history and local significance of tin mining on Dartmoor as a way of developing new understandings of the landscape itself.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

May’s issue, Recollections by Harold Lun, is the first fruit of our collaboration with The Museum of Soho – drawing on material from their archives. This book is a facsimile of letters and photographs in the archive sent by Harold Lun and describing his childhood growing up in Soho during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. It is a moving story made more so by reading it in the hand of the writer himself, not just as printed text on a page.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

April’s issue (a bit delayed due to Easter and school holidays), Metalanliguistica, is a departure from recent selections – a book of experimental literature by Nick Norton. In his own words, “Metalanliguistica is the investigation as an invention, the dream made as documentary; a work of nights and days hung on the Fibonacci Scale, it is teetering on the edge of paradise while wading through bo diddley hell, and it is therefore humorous in parts.”

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

On November 23rd 1644, 369 years ago, John Milton published his Areopagitica, a speech to the English Parliament calling for unlicensed printing and freedom of expression. Reading it now, in the light of the unfolding Snowden revelations, it is all the more poignant in the face of massive state surveillance of private communications. How far will this act to drive freedom of expression underground? How much will people begin to constrain their thoughts and feelings against an unknowable and invisible censor? Re-reading the Areopagitica now is a reminder that freedom is not a given, but something that each generation must continue to strive for.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

The three books will be distributed via the Periodical starting in May 2014 – subscribe now to get your copies as well as other treats through your letterbox each month. We will have copies too at a special event at the House of St Barnabas in May organised by MoSoho.

From Hazem’s introduction, “Three dots. Three issues. The one you’re reading has been a long, a long time coming. It took a while to find these voices; to find the right words. Pardon the ellipsis”

Whisker is a pocket-sized literary magazine that showcases new poetry and short fiction, often from previously unpublished contributors. It has a tactile sense of merit: instinctive, curious, unconcerned with fixed styles, rigorous entry criteria, or authors’ backstories. Just fresh, fine writing that invokes feeling; that strikes a nerve.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription for someone special.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

A few months ago I met accessibility and sensory design consultant, Alastair Somerville, who was in town to demonstrate using simple and cheap visualisation tools such as the 3Doodler pen. Over coffee we chatted about 3D printing, data manifestation and some of the tools and techniques we’ve each developed. Alastair showed me a material he has been using in wayfinding for people with visual impairments: Zy.chem swell paper, a specially treated material where the black ink ‘swells’ up to create a textured surface. Alastair had been using it to make simple tactile maps and for braille. We both then became excited about the possibilities of using the Zy.chem paper with bookleteer to create simple and low-cost braille and textured publications.

Very soon afterwards Alastair experimented with a wayfunding guide for a project he was working on for the University of Sussex’s new library, The Keep. He sent me a copy printed on the Zy.chem paper which confirmed for me that this was a material with hugely exciting creative potential. I then asked Alastair if he would consider making something special for the Periodical so we could demonstrate this to others. The result is this beautiful guide to Dal Riata, an ancient Scottish kingdom in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll which has some of the most extensive neolithic earthworks and structures in the UK.

Alastair’s book uses the zy.chem paper to impart the texture of some of the neolithic stone features of Dal Riata as well as some maps of significant sites. In addition to the tactile paper, one sheet is also printed on tracing paper, overlaying the bigger map of Scotland and Northern Ireland onto a tactile map of the kingdom of Dal Riata itself, and then providing a ‘mist’ overlaying a section about the disappearance of the kingdom during the Viking raids of the early Middle Ages. At once informative and poetic, it holds its own sense of magic and mystery within its very textures.

Alastair has posted a Vine video:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Like what you see here? Then treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Or buy a gift subscription.
Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too – each month I select something delightful and inspiring from the publications which are made and shared on bookleteer.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too.

We’re still trying hard to reach 100 subscriptions – the break even point to cover the costs of printing and posting (the latter having risen dramatically this last year), so if you like the idea of receiving beautifully designed and printed books coming through your letterbox each month, the subscribe here.

Meanwhile here’s a little film we made to celebrate the Periodical’s first anniversary.

The Periodical: 1st Year’s Crop from Proboscis on Vimeo.

October’s is the Periodical‘s first anniversary issue and we have two delights,

Projects not Programs by the Institute of Cultural Inquiry is a manifesto by the Los Angeles creative group, the Institute of Cultural Inquiry that caught my eye both for its playful aesthetic and its message of open-ended creative exploration.

The New Wizard of the West by Chauncy Montgomery M’Govern – a special anniversary treat – is an 1899 interview (sourced from fogottenfutures.com) with legendary inventor Nikola Tesla, who died 70 years ago, having transformed the world with his inventions and bequeathed us a magnificent legacy.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too.

After our holiday break in August the Periodical bounces back with issues 11 and 12. I am really proud to present two books made as part of a pilot project I took part in last year in Papua New Guinea:

An Experiment in the Recording, Presentation and Circulation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge by Giles Lane and James Leach

Reite and Sarangama: Bodies and Healing by Boston Porer, Pinbin Sisau, Kambuing Pulumaming, Gayap Makon & Maria Teteti

I was invited by anthropologist James Leach to work with villagers from Reite and Sarangama on PNG’s Rai Coast to test our Diffusion eBook format (using waterproof paper) to devise a simple method for recording and sharing local knowledge in the rainforest. One book is a collection of scanned notebooks made by the villagers, with additional English translations; the other is an overview of the experiment in both Tok Pisin (PNG’s pidgeon lingua franca) and English. Two other books of scanned notebooks by villagers are also available online and to download in the TEK Notebooks Collection

As the overview book explains, our project is to devise a cheap and easy to use toolkit that village people can use to record and share (where desired) not just their Traditional Ecological Knowledge, but their Cultural Knowledge too. A toolkit designed to accommodate the exigencies of the jungle and the rainforest and that, as far as possible, is technology agnostic. These books demonstrate how sheets of widely available waterproof paper can be made into simple booklets that can be written or drawn on as well as having pictures or photos stuck on and can then be scanned and shared online via a platform like bookleteer. Where the hand of a local person is often lost in the recording and transcribing of traditional knowledge, these books show an alternative strategy that can be used to assist people document and share knowledge in their own style and way – not requiring complex technologies on the ground that can fail or get broken because of environment conditions.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We need 28 more subscribers to surpass the ‘break even goal’ of 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks created by Proboscis for every new annual subscriber from our back catalogue of projects.

Browse Gair’s other bookleteer books here

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PERIODICAL HERE
Treat yourself to something lovely – an enigmatic, eclectic package arriving through your letterbox each month. Get inspired to create and share your own publications on bookleteer to take part too. We need 28 more subscribers to surpass the ‘break even goal’ of 100 subscriptions – with free copies of artists bookworks created by Proboscis for every new annual subscriber from our back catalogue of projects.

Each month we select something special from our back catalogue of projects and publications to giveaway as a special extra for new (annual) subscribers to the Periodical. This month we have unearthed an audio CD made by Bob and Roberta Smith for our 2004 project, Navigating History – “Before the TV There Was the Piano” – 20 songs written and performed by Bob. From the back cover,

“Bob Smith sings songs upon the piano in the manner of an absurdist Victorian seaside entertainer then attends the funeral of ‘Lord Charlie Banks’. Can you do ‘The Shepway Shag’?”

We have just 24 copies to give away – on a first come, first served basis. Subscribe now and get your hands on this fabulous and rare collection of ditties.

Open Studio Days at Proboscis
On Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd between 12noon-8pm we are hosting an open studio for people to visit us at Proboscis. There will be works for sale (such as drawing and artworks from various projects) as well as special offers on many of our publications, freebies (for braving our infamous stairs to the 4th floor garret) and extra special gifts for people subscribing to the Periodical on the day (complete sets of the RCA CRD Research Studio publications or complete sets of COIL journal of the moving image). Everyone is welcome (N.B. the studio is not wheelchair accessible) – please drop us a line if you would like to come and visit.

Our new goal for May is to reach at least 80 subscribers and we have a very exciting special extra to give to new annual subscribers. As you may know, Proboscis is leaving its studio space in a couple of months and we are undertaking a major review of our archive and back catalogue of projects built up over 19 years. We frequently make things as part of our creative process that don’t come to light for a while, or are never made public. In opening one of the archive boxes I came across some special things which had been planned to form part of a larger special edition artists publication which didn’t in the end come to pass. However, they make a fabulous set on their own and we are pleased to offer them as this month’s special extra inducement to take out an annual subscription to the Periodical.

Between 2008-2011 I commissioned a series of eBooks and StoryCubes by a diverse range of writers, artists, performers, thinkers and makers to respond to two questions from different perspectives, “Why are we who we are?” and, “What do we want to become?” – Diffusion Transformations. I had hoped from the beginning to publish a limited edition containing all the books and cubes, but funds weren’t available to do so, however I did manage to print several of the contributor’s pieces.

We have a small number (around 20 or so) which will be sent out on a ‘first come-first served’ basis to any new annual subscribers. Subscribe now for your chance to have this rare set.

Pharmaceutical Cubes by Kenneth Goldsmith
Legendary concrete poet and founder of UbuWeb, Kenneth Goldsmith created these 6 StoryCubes as a form of writing as texture.

3 Cubic Conundrums by Raqs Media Collective
Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula & Shuddhabrata Sengupta), co-founders of Sarai, created these 3 StoryCubes for the series : “The Curse of Invariable Good Fortune”, “Door to Door to Door” and “The Fugitive Never Escapes Himself”.

The Octuplet: Story of Our Lives by Babette Wagenvoort
Babbette Wagenvoort’s beautifully illuutrated cubes tell “tells the strange story of eight human-beings living inside their mother, while they prepare for their future. One of the octuplets seems better equipped for life than the others…”

A Sort of Autobiography by Warren Craghead
Described by comics reviewer, Matthew Brady, as “three-dimensional comic strips”, veteran comic artist, Warren Craghead created a set of 10 StoryCubes as a “possible autobiography”.

Here is a picture of all the different publications that have been distributed amongst subscribers of the Periodical between October 2012 and April 2013. Each month at least one publication is chosen to be printed and sent out to subscribers, and we have also been adding other goodies sourced from our own archive of previous projects. Everything has been made and shared on bookleteer and can be found in its main public library, with the monthly issues featured in the Periodical library.

Our hope is to inspire subscribers and others to create and share even more fabulous publications on bookleteer, fuelling and driving the Periodical forwards into ever more eclectic domains. Subscribe here to become part of the story.