Two Ideas for Possible Thesis Projects

• The Public Printer: A means of "writing" in public spaces using a dot-matrix chalk application. Inspired by skywriting. One would roll a device across a wall or sidewalk, marking a phrase in chalk. Apparently this has been done before (see "Bikes Against Bush" below).

• A "Liberated" Book: Print my thesis description (manifesto) in a book in which each page/paragraph/sentence/word is perforated so that it can be removed. Each page is backed with adhesive so that removed elements can be pasted/shared elsewhere.
  • More info on perforations: here, here and here.
  • More info on adhesive papers (dry gum): here and here.
  • Possible printers: here, here, and here.

Some Notes

• While describing my ideas to the class, I suggested that the area I'm exploring is the intersection of publishing and broadcasting. My fellow students seemed to like this formulation, but I'm not really satisfied with it.

• Clay suggested that in some respect I am approaching the problem of how to make words special (in a way that "physicalizes" them). This resonates with me, especially given my interest in serendipity. After all, it is much more pleasing to find something unique than something common.

• Ong points out the difference between manuscripts and books. The former, written by hand, were unique, individual things. The latter, ultimately replicable, is a commodity; witness ISBNs. The concept of customizable ebooks is that (like manuscripts) their uniqueness "adds value". But while their content might be unique their form most certainly is not.

• I expressed my frustration with printers as a means of "text liberation": that is to say, that they merely print what is on the screen. As a result the printed page is defined not by the possibilities of the printer but the limitation of the screen. We seem to accept uncritically the sense that the printed page must be equivalent to the "displayed" page and vice versa. I'd posit that in doing so we deny ourselves some interesting ways in which the printed digital word might manifest itself.

Interesting Quotes

From "Orality and Literacy" by Walter Ong:

• "Oral communication unites people in groups. Writing and reading are solitary activities that throw the psyche back on itself. A teacher speaking to a class which he feels and which feels itself as a close-knit group, finds that if the class is asked to pick up its textbooks and read a given passage, the unity of the group vanishes as each person enters into his or her private lifeworld." (p. 68)

• "...the spoken word forms human beings into close-knit groups. When a speaker is addressing an audience, the members of the audience normally become a unity, with themselves and with the speaker. If the speaker asks the audience to read a handout provided for them, as each reader enteres into his or her own private reading world, the unity of the audience is shattered, to be re-established only when oral speech begins again. Writing and print isolate. There is no collective noun or concept for readers corresponding to 'audience'. The collective 'readership' -- this magazine has a readership of two million -- is a far-gone abstraction. To think of readers as a united group, we have to fall back on calling them an 'audience', as though they were in fact listeners." (p. 73)

• "Oral man is not so likely to think of words as 'signs', quiescent visual phenomena. Homer refers to them with the standard epithet 'winged words' -- which suggests evanescence, power and freedom: words are constantly moving, but by flight, which is a powerful form of movement, and one lifting the flier free of the ordinary, gross, heavy, 'objective' world." (p. 76)

• "Some societies of limited literacy have regarded writing as dangerous to the unwary reader, demanding a guru-like figure to mediate between reader and text." (p. 92)

• "Spoken words are always modifications of a total situation which is more than verbal. They never occur alone, in a context simply of words. Yet words are alone in a text. Moreover, in composing a text, in 'writing' something, the one producing the written utterance is also alone." (p. 100)

From "Standing by Words" by Wendell Berry:

• "If one wishes to promote the life of language, one must promote the life of the community -- a discipline many times more trying, difficult, and long than that of linguistics, but having at least the virtue of hopefulness." (p. 34)

Interesting Things

• Bikes Against Bush: Cool project by Joshua Kinberg. "Bikes Against Bush is an interactive protest/performance occurring simultaneously online and on the streets of NYC during the Republican National Convention. Using a wireless Internet enabled bicycle outfitted with a custom-designed printing device, the Bikes Against Bush bicycle can print text messages sent from web users directly onto the streets of Manhattan in water-soluble chalk." [more]

• Egg Advertising: "The process involves inkjet printing each egg after it is washed and candled with a U.S.D.A. approved vegetable based food grade ink with a date of 45 days after the egg was laid." [more and more]

• Sushi Prepared on a Printer: "[T]he sushi made by Mr. Cantu, the 28-year-old executive chef at Moto in Chicago, often contains no fish. It is prepared on a Canon i560 inkjet printer rather than a cutting board. He prints images of maki on pieces of edible paper made of soybeans and cornstarch, using organic, food-based inks of his own concoction. He then flavors the back of the paper, which is ordinarily used to put images onto birthday cakes, with powdered soy and seaweed seasonings." [more]

• Quiet Parties: "Come to the Quiet Party. No loud music, no yelling, no cell phones and one designated area where there is no talking AT ALL!! Maybe you'll even find love through silent dating! The Quiet Party is a totally unique experience. Inside the silent room we provide paper & pencils. Pass notes around - be mischievous, have a little fun, meet some new people!" [more, more, more and still more]