Publishing & Rapid Prototyping Workshop
Delphine Bedel will give a lecture & lead an e-Publishing Rapid
Prototyping Workshop. The aim of this 2-day workshop is to develop concepts, methodologies and
prototypes to publish each MA thesis, engaging with hybrid publishing formats, from print to digital.
Various international thesis regulations and models, (from Harvard to art academies) will be
presented, open source tools and experimental (e-)publishing formats. Working both as a team and
individually, we will make use of various methodology, including Agile Rapid Prototyping.
Introduction
Going from paper/print culture to a corporate ‘software culture’ of publishing, the book—no longer
a page but lines of code and metadata—is sold as a “license to read”. Unlike traditional books, all
major e-publishing models allow for a license of use but no ownership. What if we could access the
hardware tools of e-reader devices and make a book using the phone’s camera for instance? The
graphics of e-books still mimic the ‘technology’ of the book, such as page turning. The online
publishing industry is now an oligopoly in the hands of 4 corporations (Google Amazon, Apple and
barnes&Nobles), who owns the proprietary models of hardware and software they develop for
publishing as well as the distribution platforms. Pressured by the drastic economic and technological
changes occurring in the publishing industry, how does this affect artistic practice and art
institutions?
Delphine Bedel is an artist, publisher, curator and PhD researcher at University of Creative Arts/
Farnham Campus (UK). She is founder & director of Meta/Books and Amsterdam Art/Book Fair.
She is based in Berlin and Amsterdam.
Meta/Books operates as an experimental research and publishing platform, working closely with
artists and designers, media critics and writers, printers and programers to develop cutting-edge
projects. Promoting expanded publishing practices from print to digital, this long term-project aims
to document current publishing practices by artists that are at the confluence of these questions, and
the possible historiography and archiving of these practices as they emerge.