The book is alive!
Waeckerlé, Emmanuelle (2013) The book is alive! Research Group for Artists Publications (RGAP) / bookRoom. ISBN 9780956902450
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The Book is Alive! developed from Book Live!, an international conference inviting interdisciplinary dialogue on the book within digital culture. I was the instigator, curator and co-chair of this 2-day symposium which, with an accompanying series of live events, explored the book in relation to the emergence of new modes of writing, photographing, reading, archiving and disseminating 'on the page' work.
The Book is Alive! provides a survey of current thinking and innovative practice in contemporary publishing by key practitioners and thinkers in the field. Its purpose, along with the conference, was to examine the transformation and 'expansion' of the page within digital culture. I was the editor, and my introductory essay aims to contextualize, historically, socially and conceptually, the fast-changing evolution of conventional publishing, self-publishing and academic publishing as well as to set out the central issues addressed in the publication. These include: how has digital technology allowed the book to expand its boundaries, both in space and time; what is the book’s future, socially, culturally, politically; how is conventional publishing adapting to the digital economy? My essay investigates the transition from paper to pixel and its effect on reading – comparing and making analogies between self-publishing, artist books and academic publishing in terms of quality, rigour and purpose.
Besides editing and writing the introduction to the publication, I researched and contributed to an interview in it with Joan Fontcuberta, a keynote speaker at the symposium.
The publication was designed by UCA's bookRoom (of which I am director), published by RGAP (Research Group for Artists Publications) and distributed by Cornerhouse. The publication and the symposium were collaborations between bookRoom and the Centre for Media and Cultural Research at London South Bank University.
The Whitechapel Gallery held a panel discussion for the book's launch during the London Art Book Fair, 2013.
Authors: Richard Sawdon Smith, Andrej Blatnik, Sarah Bodman, Marco Bohr, Chris Burnett, Daniela Cascella, Amanda Couch, Arnaud Desjardin, Joan Fontcuberta, Matt Hulse & Barnaby Dicker, Annabel Frearson, Sharon Helgason Gallagher, Peter Jaeger, Paul Jeff & Laura Jenkins, Susan Johanknecht & Katharine Meynell, Marcus Kaiser, Sharon Kivland & Nick Thurston, Didier Mathieu, Romi Mikulinsky, Christoph Nicolas, Paula Roush & Maria Lusitano, Mark Sanderson, Sylvia Alexandra Schimag, Andreas Schmidt, David W. Speck, Seekers of Lice, Paul Soulellis, Stefan Szczelkun, Rahel Zoller
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