future of reading
“RIT faculty and students are conducting research on the experience of reading in print versus the screen,” says Patricia Sorce, professor and administrative chair of RIT’s School of Print Media. “The conference and the renowned speakers will provide a forum for interaction among participants to discuss whether the newer platforms deliver an enhanced reading experience or whether they detract from the enjoyment of reading and interfere with the comprehension of content.” 2010 Conference
How does the future of the book relate to the future of reading? How does the automobile relate to the highway system? Do you remember where you parked? Do you recall driving across Texas? While driving do you think about the car? Is there any strange noise? Is there any need for a sudden change of lanes? How well are you adapting to GPS display and the apparent neighborhood? With print the rubber hits the road and with screen a voice and arrow talk about a next turn. Who’s car is this? What is an automobile? Should we walk?
FotB will be there at RIT as an industrial spy. Probably walk over to Cayuga Street to visit Keith. Once we spent the night in the rain under the Rock Island railroad viaduct between Peru and Utica, Illinois. Be there and be square.
oxford companion
The Oxford Companion to the Book, a heavy two volume encyclopedia of 1327 pages, is just published perhaps representing a paper Wiki on the topic. There is a series of essays on nationalistic book history followed by an alphabetic listing of terms and biographic description. There are thousands of entries and thousands missing. Two that I looked up; “keyboard” and “book conservation” were not there. I did learn that Google scans books in 430 languages. There is a feeling of an early assumption that the only topic in the entire universe that should never be electronically delivered is the study of the book.
aura
If aura signifies a general quality of older books what is the anatomy of this? We certainly experience the energetic projection of meaning by lifeless objects. There is the overt content, just as you can open a box to see objects inside and also discover that other objects are not there. The authentic array of found objects surprises the investigator. There is also the container and how it opens and closes and any decoration inside or out. These features are not determined but discovered by the observer.
What is going on? Apparently deep self-authentication is radiating from the object or book. The depth of the radiation of meaning is surprising since it responds to any question with confirmation or denial from within its own qualities and without bias toward the observer. The confidence of the engagement is all on one side. Where did the confidence come from? The confidence comes from a past world, as a fossil, to which it is no longer connected, no longer responsive but evocative. It is immune to the present as if it is in a waiting room. We can read the exasperations of the object. Look at aura at Lorcan Demsey’s Weblog.