A year of many changes: physical and mental. I completed my switch to using Linux exclusively, gave several talks and workshops in places near and far, visited Africa for the first time (and loved it), released two eBooks which I am really proud of, visited Detroit for the first time (and loved it), relished my sixth journey to lovely Malta, learned a few key things about myself, co-curated the 10th edition of the Dutch Electronic Art Festival, made some positive decisions for my physical health and mental well-being, met several extraordinary people — including a person who grows giant vegetables in a tiny Dutch village who was born in the same Canadian city as me, broke my weightlifting records, and tasted Champagne at several chateaux on a drive through the Champagne region — taking a few bottles home for a very special upcoming occasion in 2015.
Author: MK
I’ve always been interested in publishing — from the zines I made as a teenager, to the articles I’ve written for magazines over the years, to the blog I kept as a Master’s student (back when it was a hot thing to blog), and now for the past three years at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, initiating and leading the e-publishing programme as part of my Blowup series of events.
Over this past three years, there have been many lessons learned in terms of both producing and distributing content in eBook form. In May this year I was invited to give a talk entitled The eBook as a Vehicle for Re-dissemination and Creation, as part of Off The Press: Electronic Publishing in the Arts, a conference convened by the Institute for Network Cultures and hosted by the Boijmans Museum. The talk sums up some of my thoughts on the eBook as a form — in particular as a unique platform to give new life to old content, to repackage and remix, and to inspire groups to rapidly generate content which responds to current events (“booksprinting”).
As 2014 draws to a close, I looked back over the year and thought it timely to share the link to my talk on e-publishing alongside links to download the eBooks that I produced at V2_ this year (which all relate to themes of innovation, materiality, and extreme scenarios). They are free to download, so enjoy, and happy holidays!
Responsible Technological Innovation (in collaboration with the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan)
Blowup: New Materials, New Methods
Outer Space as Extreme Scenario
Categories
My Art+Tech Columns This Year
I’ve been writing for Akimbo’s Art+Tech blog for some time now. The discipline of a (more-or-less) monthly column is a nice, gentle pressure to look for interesting things around me, and come up with some coherent thoughts on them. Since writing a monthly column I also now have immense respect for newspaper columnists who have to crank out a column a week, especially within a narrow subject area — it is really tough to keep it fresh. Anyway for your reading pleasure, here is a handy list of links to the columns I wrote in 2014:
Nelly Ben Hayoun’s Disaster Playground
Archilab at the FRAC Centre in Orleans, France
Quadriennale Dusseldorf
The Digital Collectible
Going, Going, Gone! Digital Art Up for Auction
Cooking in the Age of Information
The Value of Nothing
The Big Future of Data
A Call to Arms for Craft in the Age of Tech
Last but not least, my yearly summary of the big topics and issues.
The year of PANTONE 18-3224, Radiant Orchid.
The Centenary of the First World War.
The year of the Wood Horse.
The 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth.
The Centennial of the Royal Ontario Museum.
The 350th anniversary of New Jersey.
The International year of Crystallography.
The International year of Family Farming.
The European year of Reconciling Work and Family Life.