The Book: Changing Technologies
Friday 30th September from 10am – 6pm.
A full day event as part of Opening Up the Book, spannings book genres (artist’s books, digital, novels, poetry etc), looking at how technology has influenced and continues to effect both content and form and our understanding of what a book is, how books work and how we ‘use’ them.
There will be a clear focus on what this might mean for the book’s future but we will seek to embed such discussion within the context of how technological developments have always influenced and changed the book (something that is often missing when addressing technology today). This will include but not be limited to: printing presses, mass print, cheap paper, transport developments, digital print, internet etc).
The morning sessions will offer more of an historical or theoretical context whilst in the afternoon sessions will be in smaller groups and be more practitioner based. The exact format of the day is still to be determined.
Conformed contributors to date include:
- Alice Bell – digital fiction – technology and form
- Joe Bray – the relationship between technology and the rise of the novel in the eighteenth century
- Will Finley -the relationship between image and text, specifically printed images in nineteenth-century books
- David Hucklesby – how literary innovations amongst twentieth century authors such as B. S. Johnson, Ann Quin, and Marc Saporta were direct responses to new technologies and new media as well as how we can see similar trends in contemporary writers such as Mark Z. Danielewski, Steven Hall, and Jonathan Safran Foer
- Sharon Kivland – The Good Reader: person and object
- Rob Kovitz – a Skype session from Canada giving a very brief description of the Treyf Books followed by Q+A or discussion about POD/distribution and other changing technologies including composition/design
- Liam Rodgers – POD and self publishing (a start up and social perspective)
More to follow.
The event will last the whole day and a cafe will be available in the Centre throughout. the Artist’s Book Prize will be in the galleries at the time so that will also provide a visual context without taking up too much space – we are limiting the exhibition to 200 books this year!
The event is free but places are limited so tickets need to be reserved in advance. We are able to offer free places as a result of generous support from the organisers, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield Hallam University and The University of Sheffield. If you are in a position to pay for your place (and we can provide invoices) then we would be grateful to receive any donations when you book. We can’t guarantee that any donations will be rewarded in Heaven but they will be acknowledged at the bar on the day.
