wepod

wePOD (we Publish On Demand!)syllabus
>from artists books to blogs and p.o.d
>>The 4th space of distributed publishing
WEEK 01: Tuesday 26 september 2006
Overview
Introduction to the unit and project.
Preparation of online working tools: everyone signs up for a blog at http://blogger.com sets up a delicious bookmarks account at http://del.icio.us/

To browse and discuss:
What is a weblog?
What is a Photoblog?
What is a vlog?
Photoblog vs Moblog
Photoblog vs Gallery vs Picture a Week/Day Sites
SonC’s Picture-A-Week Page
CMS vs html galleries/ Starting Your Own Photoblog
Photoblog Software
London photobloggers

DUE on class 2 | POST ON your blog
Brief 1> what constitute photo publishing practices now
start work in class as part of your production time [small groups 3-5 ] // continue as homework
what constitute photo publishing practices now
statement 1 (500w) and photographic screen presentation (a collection of photos static or as video, animated gif, participatory photo project, tagged,etc) via online blog posting

WEEK 02: Tuesday 3 October 2006Artists’ books and conceptual art: 1960s- onwords
browsing for class and to view on your own:
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Painting, Photography, Film, 1925

Ed Ruscha Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962)
http://www.goshen.edu/~gwenjm/bookarts/brief12.htm
Ed Ruscha, Various Small Fires, 1964
Dieter Roth, The Daily Mirror
Dieter Roth, Literature sausage [Martin Walser: Halftime].
1961, Chopped book pressed into sausage shape

Christian Boltanski, Le Club Mickey
http://www.imschoot.com/plugins/fotoReeks.php?artikel=90&foto=0
Annette Messager album-collections 1971-1974
Detail of Children with Their Eyes Scratched Out (Les Enfants aux yeux rayés), Album-collection No. 3. 1971-72; Voluntary Tortures (Les Tortures volontaires). 1972.

John Baldessari, Brutus Killed Caesar (detail), 1976.
assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class:
Gwendolyn J. Miller. Discovering Artists Books- The art, the artist and the issues
http://www.goshen.edu/~gwenjm/bookarts/index.htm
Read 20th century section (on chapter 2 ‘A brief history of artists books: Finding a context’) and be prepared to discuss the influence of (1922) Moholy-Nagy printed experiments with photograms on the generation of 1960’s artists// in what way the works of Dieter Roth (1930-98) and Ed Ruscha (1937 – ) stand as a model of artists book // analyse how the book The Daily Mirror represents its process and the role of photography in Ed Ruscha’s Twenty Six Gasoline Stations (1962)Barbara Bader. Books as Collections: Dieter Roth’s Artists’ Books as Case in Point.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jouhs/michaelmas2005/Bader03.htm
Be prepared to discuss: the idea of books as collections // the structural analogies between books and collections// the two major types of artists books // the role collecting and seriality played in Roth’s books, listing some of his collections// discuss startegies such as incompletion, association, deconstruction in roth’s books// sausage literature//
“Artists’ books and collections (…) take on the status of ‘other spaces’ or heteropoi on various levels. First they function as a separate place in which objcts are integrated into a unity, protected against the exterior, and framed in a new context. Second, by adding a different type of value to the objects contained, they constitute an oppositional realm to that of the market place. Finally, due to their innate aptitude as exhibition spaces, artists’ books can potentially function as alternative spaces and as means of criticizing and circumventing traditional galleries and museums”
Janis Ekdahl .Artists’ Books and Beyond: The Library of The Museum Of Modern Art As A Curatorial And Research Resource
http://www.ifla.org/VII/d2/inspel/99-4ekja.pdf.
Be prepared to discuss how the idea of using the book as a medium coincided with the development of Conceptual art in the late 1960s// the economics of artists’ books // the way John Baldesarri takes advantage of the photographic sequencing in his book Brutus killed Caesar (1976)/ how other artists like annette messager and Christian Boltanski use the book as an album in which to assemble or inventory images or ideas.

DUE on class 3 | POST ON blog
Brief 2- The role of text in photo publications
statement 2 (500w): post it to your blog, with images and text- captions, tagging, commentary, technical, etc)

WEEK 03: Tuesday 10 october 2006
Photo magazines, collection books and visual culture 1960s- onwards
browsing for class and to view on your own:
Aspen- web version of Aspen, a multimedia magazine of the arts published by Phyllis Johnson from 1965 to 1971.
PhotoStatic- a magazine, a periodical series of printed works that focused on xerography as the source of a particular visual language that was widely used by graphic artists in the various art and music underground scenes of the 80s and 90s. (1983-1998)
Ohio: Hans-Peter Feldmann, Uschi Huber, Jorg Paul Janka and Stefan Schneider magazine.
Peter Piller’s photos
http://www.peterpiller.de/framesets/index-Photos.htm?Photos.htm~mainFrame [archive]
Useful Photography #002
http://pages.ebay.nl/promo/artimo.html
Useful photography War Special

3rdeffect
wordandimage 3
Found magazine
https://store.quackmedia.com/found/index.php?crn=210
This is (not) a Magazine
Sophie Calle: L’Hôtel, Paris, 1984
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2692&page=1
http://hosting.zkm.de/ctrlspace/d/texts/10
Centre for Artist Books>Serial Context (2002)

assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class:
New media and Visual Culture, chapt 2 In New Media: A Critical Introduction (Lister et al), 97-107 [READER]
Be prepared to discuss the following: Describe at least 2 ways in which 1) New technologies contribute to changes taking pace in visual culture; 2) new ways of seeing’ are emerging // List 3 specific aspects that the term visual culture implies for visual images and visual experience // Describe in what way is the study of visual culture similar to the history of art? and in what way it differs?// What does the term ‘visuality’ stand for and what are its implications for the study of visual culture?// Comment Rogoff’s quote in reference to the networked flow of websites // What are the two key points to take into consideration when thinking about the effects of new technologies on visual culture?

The following is a selection of short essays/reviews of artists pubications that use collections. Be prepared to discuss the difference between editorial and curatorial practices in these projects.
third space> conference towards a photographic visual literature conference mapping the cultural periodics of photography
Out of Print Ohio- a Magazine art Project [fore-words] by David Brittain + Bob Jardine

Manisha Jothady, «Peter Piller, A Tennis Ball Discovered While Cutting the Hedge is Like a Bird of Prey’s Pellet in: Camera Austria, 89/2005

In Almost Every Picture. Edited by Erik Kessels.

Jonathan Bell: What goes around, comes around - Martin Parr Boring Postcards, Boring Postcards USA, Langweilige Postkarten

Val Williams . Loving Your Pictures by Erik Kessels Eye Magazine, vol.14, spring 2005

DUE on class 4 | POST ON blog
Brief 3 – online photo-sharing communities
statement 3 (500w): select 1 online photo-sharing community and analyse the way they practice photography as a group. Document /discuss it in your blog

WEEK 04: Tuesday 17 october 2006
Photo-participatory communities as gaming/ performative practice
browsing for class and to view on your own:
Lomographie, participatory photo-project in which photographs made with a lomo were presented as book projects, in event-like group shows, and posted since 1998 on their website
Arctic Circle,Tropic of Cancer and A description of the Equator and Some Other Lands [1995 – 1997] Felix Stephan Huber und Philip Pocock, in cooperation with other artists
parole - a project of gruppo A12(I), Udo Noll(D) and Peter Scupelli(USA/I).
Photo Friday Each week Photo Friday posts a photo assignment. Your mission is the creative interpretation of the week’s theme. When you’re done, post the picture you took to your website and submit your link to Photo Friday.
photoblog
CyborgLog/glog
The Glogger Community
blipfoto -website that lets you publish a daily photo journal
flickr user-generated tags (metadata), allowing users to mark the chosen images with catchwords/tags thus generating a collective cataloging (folksonomy).
Field of Vision: Beijing. Curators: Gao Brothers, China; Marcel Hager, Germany; Stephan Hausmeister, UK. Wall-based installation constructed from a assemblage of uncensored ‘visual blogs’ collected worldwide over the Internet following a call for submissions.
http://www.field-of-vision.net/NewYork/

assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class:
Instant Images: The Recording, Distribution and Consumption of Reality Predestined by Digital Photography [1]
Kathrin Peters
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/instant_images/print/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/instant_images/
Describe a photo community or other photo-participatory projects (such as lomo or flicker) or a community that uses photography for its purposes// Discuss the term trash and the concept of performativity and repitition applied to photography snapshot // Choose an artistic work devoted to the sorting aspects of photographic ‹trash› and discuss the strategy used and how this shifts authorship to the assemblage of found photography // Compare offline image archives with the sort of archiving happenning online in photo sites like flicker and discuss t«[T]he twenty-first century will be the century beyond the archives.» // Refer to the role of tagging and folksonomy// Discuss the notion that lifestyle and performativity more than famililiaty govern photo communiies like flickr that use snapshot aesthetics
Web 2.0

DUE on class 5 | POST ON blog
Brief 4 – strategy
research: think in terms of the images you have selected and choose a strategy to sort it. Discuss it in terms of authorship, editing, curating and what it means for you to work with found material. Continue to document /discuss this process your blog.

WEEK 05: Tuesday 24 october 2006
Self-Publishing, intro to POD/ Networked Distribution Services
browsing for class and to view on your own:
lulu.com/
Lulu photography books
Sal randolph free press open-access publishing house, a “Free Press,” accept all kinds of writing from the public
MetaMute
http://www.metamute.org/en/node/5681>> download pdf
Media Mutandis: a NODE.London Reader. Printed on Demand by www.lightningsource.com
http://publication.nodel.org/
DIY Survival, book which photographs individual and collective realities involved in redesigning the tactics of DIY art around the globe. Printed on Demand by www.lightningsource.com
http://c6.org/soldout/diy_survival.html.download pdf

assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class:
Read wikipedia” Print On Demand; be prepared to discuss POD as a a publishing methodology
A Story of Alternate Publishing Universes
http://www.fonerbooks.com/2005/10/story-of-alternate-publishing.html
A Lightning Source Book Example- a print-on-demand case study with costs and profits
discuss, based on both texts, where the print-on-demand and traditional publishing models diverge.
Color Print on Demand (POD) Economics
Be prepared to discuss the economics of b&w vs color pod printing

DUE on class 6 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design
It is now time to think as editor and designer and organise your material for the publication. Select the the best images and accompanying text. Design a template for a 15 to 50 pages publication taking into account the sizes and binding options available at lulu.com. For details and download pre-formatted templates
> http://www.lulu.com/products/books/paperback.php
You should should continue to use your blog to document your work as this will be used for the class presentation. In addition, you should print a hardcopy as a mock up of your future publication to help you visualise the final product.
Be prepared to license your work with one og the creative commons licenses and explain your choice.

WEEK 06: Tuesday 31 october 2006
Licensing/ distribution schemes: product codes and projects with photo tags and identifiers
browsing for class and to view on your own:
ISBN
ISSN
Thinglink.org is an open database where makers can register their work for free and create labels for their products.
PhotoTag is a small photography project and an ad hoc community formed through through the chance wanderings of transient disposable cameras.
BookCrossing: tagging and sharing
Where’sGeorge: tracks U.S. currency by serial number
Internet archive
Wayback machine

assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class:
creative commons
http://creativecommons.org/
Be prepared to discuss available licensing schemes, their uses with photographic work and online photo material; choose a licensing scheme for your project and explain what sort of rights you are protecting for yourself and others
Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture. (chapts 2: mere copyists and 9: collectors) download pdf
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent
ch 2: “Mere Copyists” be prepared to discuss the implications for copyright regulations of the way kodak and internet allowed people to use images , exploring similarities and differences between kodak’s mass photography and internet’s “right to tinker”;
Adam Curr vs Weekend tabloid (Flickr//Creative Commons licence)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/22/creative_commons_dutch_court_ruling/
http://curry.podshow.com/?p=49

CLASS PRESENTATION: present your research to the class and defend your argument as to why this particular collection of images should be published as your final project. Present your template

DUE on class 7 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design (cont.)
Open a lulu account; Spend some time browsing through lulu.com to look at different licensing shemes, formats and options for printing and downloading. Choose 1 project to review for the class
final project proposals- With the feedback from your class presentation review your project, make the necessary changes and post it to your blog

WEEK 07: Tuesday 7 November 2006
Production time
Media lab work time: Preparation of final draft of publication pages using DTP software

DUE on class 8 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design (cont.)
Template of publication page- Printout of working design, text, images, etc.

WEEK 08: Tuesday 14 November 2006
Intermediality: text/image coupling and GUIs

browsing for class and to view on your own:
All the news that’s fit to print. The New York Times as point of departure.
Study this work of net art in terms of the roles assigned to text and image; make the url map and examine the technologies involved
photomaton
urban intimacy

assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class
Susanne Holschbach- Continuities and differences between photographic and post-photographic
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/photographic_post-photographic/

[w/ photo examples]
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/photographic_post-photographic/print
“ In the debates surrounding the technological shift in photography from analog to digital, emphasis is chiefly placed on the radical difference between the chemical and the electronic process, and those artistic practices are discussed which expose this break to an exceptional degree. By making reference to the two fundamental parameters of the photographic dispositive-automatic recording and technical reproduction-this contribution deals with the question of to what extent digitalization can also be viewed as a continuation of photographic mediality.
Locate 1 conceptual photo art work and net-art (via URL ) that displays this continuity of strategies . Be prepared to show and discuss this artwork (via URL) in class.

DUE on class 9 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design (cont.)
Progress on publication design

WEEK 09: Tuesday 21 November 2006
digital anarchive, database and transmission

browsing for class and to view on your own:
Sherrie Levine> After Walker Evans

Michael Mandiberg > After Sherrie Levine
assignments to be read PRIOR to class meeting and be prepared to discuss them in class
Jens Schröter. Archive—Post/photographic.
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/archive_post_photographic/1/
Be prepared to discuss the issue of transmission as inherent to the archive and the vision of internet archives as transmission of data between computers// changes with digitisation: calculability of the image/ data compression/ intermediality / searchability/durability/from criminal records to permanent video surveillance/publicaton of the private

DUE on class 10 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design (cont.)
Progress on publication design

WEEK 10: Tuesday 28 november 2006
self-publishing movement

browsing for class and to view on your own:
wikipedia: self-publishing
Publish and Be Damned london self-publishing fair. Links to other independent publishers. You can try to book a table and participate next year with your publications
Roma Publications- an independent publishing project, founded by artist Mark Manders and graphic designer Roger Willems. It is used as a platform to produce autonomous publications in close collaboration with a growing number of artists, institutions, writers and designers.
Revolver: Publisher of artists books
ZineWiki is an open-source encyclopedia devoted to zines and independent media. It covers the history, production, distribution and culture of the small press.
MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE The projet project explores the long held tradition of bookmobiles as traveling libraries that promote the distribution of information.
BookMooch-project by John Buckman for exchanging used books: it lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.
Sal Randolph FREE WORDS is a book which belongs to whoever finds it.
Distributed Library project. Use this system to lend, borrow, catalogue and review books, leaflets, music and videos you own that have little or no other distribution and metadata infrastructure.

DUE on class 11 | POST ON blog
Brief 5 – publication: editing/design (cont.)
Finalising publication

WEEK 11: Tuesday 5 December 2006
FINAL PROJECT MEDIA LAB TIME

No reading assignment.

WEEK 12: Tuesday 12 December 2006
FINAL PROJECT ORAL PRESENTATIONS