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This is really a continuation from last week but I'm placing it here as a starting point for thinking about how we might approach print within our plans for a publication.
The following text is by David Reinfurt . 'This stands as a sketch for the future: Muriel Cooper and the Visible Language Workshop appeared in Dot Dot Dot Fifteen .
' On completing the book, Muriel Cooper made a sixteen millimeter film flipping through its pages to create a stop frame animation. The book's contents shift around the page, defining the grid that structures its design. The Bauhaus book film then became the after image of her design process. It projected out from the hard physical form of the book to suggest a near-future when publishing would be as fluid as film, feedback immediate and users / makers would be all but indistinguishable. '
Talking about how print publishing may be as fluid as film in 1968, Reinfurt talks about immediacy. Immediacy now dominates the way we consume and contribute content, its also a contributing factor in a declining print publishing industry.
Monday's MediaGuardian highlighted the challenges faced by the newspaper publishers as more readers consumed content online. The writer attributed this partly to 'disintermediation by the web' refering to investment from the advertising industry.
Disintermediation
1. In finance, withdrawal of funds from intermediary financial institutions, such as banks and savings and loan associations, in order to invest them directly.
2. Generally, removing the middleman or intermediary.
In relation to print, the web presents a form of disintermediation which has been discussed in previous conversations on this site. Why do we need to collect and information as print when it can be accessed as more direct forms online? What is the role of the designer?
Any publication we make should address this. The example of Muriel Cooper shows how the technology of the near future in 1968 offered to liberate print, the recent report on struggling publishers shows how technology is questioning how we consume content traditionally published as print.
As a group thinking of creating a publication we should think about the process we use to collect and generate dialogue on this site. We have used this forum over the past weeks as a primary source for discussion, before that we have used it as a tool for creating naratives between our individual interests.
This is a source for creating content in a collaborative way.
To take on board the influence of web 2.0 and consider a role for print we should create a publication which consists only of material generated or collected on this or relating sites. The resulting document would examine the use of both web and print based process.
The death of print versus liberating of print is an interesting idea. I'd be inclined to argue that more stuff i being "read" than ever before. Whether what is being put out there is worth reading is another issue, maybe it's just noise.
From a technology point of view I think some form of traditional print will survive simply because there isn't an equivalant of an iPod for books. There's an ease of use of simply having a book to read on the train, I don't know. Ten, even five years ago you would have probably have argued the same about CD's. Music's an intersting example of technology adapting to how users consume information. Or not adapting in the case of a lot of record lables.
Of course I'm of the opinion that this new tech and approach should generally be seen as a postive. Others on here might disagree.
Music is a good of example of the creator being liberated also. The channels of distribution and publication of music are alot more open, it's easy to post unreleased mixes, ideas ect . . Equally musicians have a wider range of sources for influence. The result is greater eclecticism in music.
The example of the newspaper publishing industry shares some similarities with the doom predictors within the music industry, the concern is with comercial downturn, not creative or positive opportunity.
I think looking at the way technology has allowed us to work as a group over the last four weeks is something which should be incorporated into our questions surrounding print and digital media. Rather than looking at where one replaces the other we should look at how one informs the other.
"the concern is with comercial downturn, not creative or positive opportunity"
This is spot on. It's not the death of the newspaper it's the sales of printed newspaper and revenue based around that. The same content is availible online, so it's not the death of content, it's the death of sales. If the publishers could find a way of generating revenue, either through subscription or adverstisng, then there wouldn't really be this debate as newpapers would be pushing you to read newspapers online.
Hello people. I was just reading the stuff mentioned on the previous posts.
I think we should consider Marshall McLuhan's idea that "the medium is the message".
There is a different perception-connection-projection-audience of something on screen and on paper.
If we are more concerned about the "conflict" of analogue vs digital,
it would be interesting to take a simple idea and mediate it through various mediums, exploring
what occurs to it through the various channels. (What happened to the e-mail dialogue thing ? - any visuals?)
Do you think books as we know them could die? Have you seen the iLiad?
"Do you think books as we know them could die? Have you seen the iLiad?"
Yeah, Amazon have something simialr the (Kernal?) but as I said in my previous post I just don't think e-readers will work as a replacement for novels.
Newspapers are different, they are disspoable for a start. You don't invest as much time and money as a novel.
They are read in a different way which can be replicated and adpated to screen. I also think online newspaers add to the original. A print newspaper doesn't allow for feedback, links, searches and quick updates in the same way as the online version does.
Charlotte have a look at the Muriel Cooper links I posted, she's got some very intresting ideas about turning online material back into print.
I think the idea of Flash based sites being harder to make is interesting. Is it back to the idea of the designer retaining control?
The flipside of this is Flickr, Amazon, YouTube etc allowing anyone access to their API code encouraging everyone to have a go at making websites or applications
I was talking to someone who's doing some programming on the NOISE site about Adobe Flex, which is meant to for non-programmers to create Rich Interenet Applictions. He was saying that the opening up of code to everyone takes away the skill and mystic involved in programming these sites.
What about media futurists?
I was taliking to a friend of mine about this his conclusion was that I designed flying cars.
There's couple of points, there's the Gerd Lenhard link I posted he call himself a media futurist. His ideas are based mainly around copyright and ownership, with particular reference to music, and how this will alter the consumption of music.
For me it's not neccesarly about predicting the future in the same way as the seminar Ian Truelove gave, it's more about prediticions based on what is already out there or what is already hapening. Predicting trends I'd guess you call it, if that wasn't a hiddeous marketing term.
I was just making reference to your video post . I think calling yourself a media futurist sounds cool.
A : ' I think we should consider Marshall McLuhan's idea that "the medium is the message". '
I think what McLuhan said about 'participation in the process' is important both for a publication and also the exhibition. The idea that we want to see and make sense of the patterns around us is interesting. I think in terms of predicting future trends in media technology is the sensation of participation especially as designers. We look to see how we can be a part of the systems and patterns around us.
Incorporating the language of collaborative technology into a group publication , considering interaction and using words like 'viewer' is a natural step towards creating someting which is part of the new patterns around us and our areas of interest.
