storage and display
It is sometime remarked that the paper book provides both storage and delivery display in a single format while screen books require different formats for storage and display. With this duality in mind other possibilities emerge including paper storage and screen display for any given book.
But what are the actual attributes of each of these states, storage and display? In all variations the display function correlates with the volitions and incitements to reading; we only use display when we read. Likewise we only use storage when we do not.
Reading device advocates may contend that the most efficient book would be one that displays during reading but requires no inert storage. Reading is the purpose of books, is it not?
But perhaps there are other functions lurking in the storage phase. In the legacy of paper books it was the storage phase that gave rise to libraries and to classification of knowledge by librarians. Automated indexing of electronic text appears to dispense with this…… But another hidden function of storage is authentication. The stored master certifies the text of the screen surrogate. This appears to be a somewhat more significant role in context of responsible delivery.
Another surprising attribute of paper storage in direct interdependence with screen delivery is that the paper master can confirm that a given screen delivery is not there! The public or a researcher can discover what is deleted or only selectively displayed. Such a role, exposing censorship or corporate agenda, begins to add luster to the storage function.
way back
The Memento solution is based on existing HTTP capabilities applied in a novel way to add the temporal dimension. The result is a framework in which archived resources can seamlessly be reached via the URI of their original: protocol-based time travel for the Web. [Memento]
historical printing seminar 2009
Lee’s M & H replay was anything but; this internship experience brought out the real passion between ATF and Monotype and the high drama of high technology. Beth’s description of inequities of the printing apprentice system portrayed societal inequities that confined both sexes in the not-too distant past. Elizabeth’s Wapsipinicon tableau illustrated what can be done with letterpress publication, even inside a distractive churn of contemporary media, if a workshop has dedicated people. Katie’s insight into architectural lettering was very exciting. The legacy of incised calligraphic lettering is contrasted with raised lettering, spacing, and punctuation evocative of metal type. And our own Iowa City has such fine and horrid examples! Trillian’s carefully constructed talk about the Swifts did a wonderful thing by making the bygone compositors compete again. We all enjoyed the giddy flare that she gave these printers. Islam wowed us with his spectacular show on Arabic printing. What an immense challenge it was to print languages among readers who depend on graceful calligraphy. And Tim and President Hoover had a story at the heart of our letterpress era! While various Presidents have academic skills, it was Jefferson and Hoover who mastered high bibliophilia in a letterpress world.
analog computing
“Some of the most successful recent developments — Google, Facebook, Twitter, not to mention the Web as a whole — are effectively operating as large analog computers, although there remains a digital substrate underneath. They are solving difficult, ambiguous, real-world problems — Are you really my friend? What’s important? What does your question mean — through analog computation, and getting better and better at it, adaptation (and tolerance for noise and ambiguity) being one of analog computing’s strong suits.” George Dyson, from Edge
The print book is an analog computer. The pace and transaction is programed bionic mediation, not binary.
future of the book seminar
This seminar will investigate the nature, preservation and future of the print
book in a context of its digital delivery. Wide redefinition is in progress in
fields as diverse as neurology of reading, digital preservation, e-book
marketing, and technology of print on demand. Discussion extends from standards
and certification of print originals to blog rants on the death of the book or
favorite screen formats. Over arching this dynamic is the canonic role of the
physical book and its imprint on the future of cultural transmission.
Students will survey issues and experience distinctive attributes of the paper
and screen book. The sessions will include visiting specialist lectures as well
as student presentations. This seminar will be of interest to those in book
studies, communication studies and library and information studies.