still/open

For my part in the ANAT Still/Open workshops we’ll explore a little bit about the history of independent publishing (from the zines till the electronic networks), and how it evolved through different technologies and methods of distribution. Furthermore the many strategical and aesthetic differences and similarities between the ‘blog’ phenomenon and the printed magazines will be analyzed and discussed, reflecting on why the death of paper never happened, and how paper and pixels are more and more integrating their peculiarities. It’ll be useful then to see a few practical cases of how to integrate an open source approach with print-on-demand and pdf-based technologies. Finally we’ll discuss how establishing networks (like Mag.net or the experiment of the Documenta Magazine project) is actually strategical for surviving the publishing market niches retaining the freedom of expression that every independent publishing effort needs.

Links useful to check:
http://www.magnet-ecp.org
http://www.neural.it
http://www.documenta12.de/magazine.html?&L=1