NOTES
NOTES
First published 1967.
Understood the power of the media before other
Passion for knowledge, originality, provocation, and insight
Quentin Fiore - one of America’s most distinguished graphic designers
Jerome Agel - has written more than fifty major books
“all media work us over completely”
- Marshall McLuhan
“The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur”
- A. N. Whitehead
Media is forcing us to reconsider and reevaluate every action
“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.”
Words and the meaning of words predispose the child to act automatically in certain ways.
-”Age of Anxiety”
“Our Age of Anxiety is in great part, the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools with yesterday’s concepts”
Dilemma between privacy and
-What makes a book a book?
-Codex 4th century Greece and in Mesoamerica around 1000AD
-Johannes Gütenberg, printing press. But it was already existing in China 1045-1058 ---> movable type
-Printing houses started to pop up in Europe
Skeleton of a book is:
---> Paper
---> Type
---> Cover
China invented paper as a writing surface 179-41 BC
-Egypt 4000 BC, Papyrus
-Wrote on wood and stretched animal skin
-Printing press technique required oil-based ink
Oil-based ink is made of:
---> lamp soot
---> turpentine
---> walnut oil
-Standardization was not possible due to handcrafted things. Every typeface differed depending on from who you got it from
-Nicholas Jenson, Roman fonts, example Times New Roman
-Until late 15th century the covers still consisted of either wood or sheets of paper that were pasted together. It was later replaced with rope fiber millboard
-The book spine was not considered aesthetically important
-The early book did not have a rounded spine, it was flat. The flat spine made it easier to read because the book could lay flat on the table. They later realized that it was easily damaged in normal use and therefore it is not so often used anymore
-Today we have electronic books with electronic ink, and what does that do with the whole experience? Is an e-book really a book? Why/why not? Is it the words that define a book only, and should then the words represent the book no matter how they are presented, in every medium?
-Does the smell of the paper or the feeling of holding a book add something to the experience?
SOURCES
internet
https://www.wdka.nl/research/hybrid-publishing
https://www.vinnova.se/m/med-nova-i-hand/
http://presspress.info/
https://www.vinnova.se/m/med-nova-i-hand/
books
https://networkcultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Here-and-Now-Explorations-in-Urgent-Publishing-__-online.pdf (PDF)
(Here and Now Explorations in Urgent Publishing)
http://presspress.info/content/3-document/7-all-allegiance/all-allegiance-final-newsprint.pdf (PDF)
(Allegiance Newsprint)
https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan_quentinfiore.pdf (PDF)
(themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan)
video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YqYtdPUis4&t=1s
(The evolution of the book - Julie Dreyfuss)
BACK
4 stages of writing
Preparering (gather info)
Structuring (what order)
Drafting (create first words)
Editing (refine, resharpen, finalize)
Final check - when to do what?
Consistency → structuring
Proof reading → editing
Appropriate style and tone of voice → draft/editing
Defining the purpose of your piece → preparing
Searching for synonyms → draft/editing
Paragraphs → drafting
Finding a subject → preparing
THE PROCESS OF WRITING
Thinking in one part of the brain, creativity in the other half of the brain
Write down your thoughts, ideas, opinions - getting them out of the overloaded head
Then you can refine them
Final check
What happens to your thoughts during these stages?
Structuring - defining and organizing
Drafting - transforming into text
Editing - Clarifying, shaping and sharpening
The more you write the better you think
Non-linear process
CLEAR WRITING = CLEAR THINKING
"The Medium is the Massage - an inventory of effects"
Marshall McLuhan
"The Evolution of the Book"
Julie Dreyfuss
Structuring - The interview method
What do you need?
-a friend that can interview you and summarize, pen, paper, mobile to
SPECIFY CENTRAL QUESTION!
Social interaction - accelerates, flow in communication
Talking - helps to clear the mind
Summarizing by interviewer - adds new vocabulary
Spoken language - smaller step to written language
Documenting - captures the essential parts for later use
Natural flow - easier start
Different questions for different texts
WHY INTERVIEWING MAKES WRITING EASIER
one word
tell me more
why should we care
or thesis
method
What is the topic?
What is the content?
Why is it relevant?
What is your central question?
How are you going to do this?