Literature review of multi-modal and multi-linear theories and practices, collected for research in the Making Public research group 'standalone publications'.
Over the past decade, the Institute of Network Cultures has led several applied research projects about new (digital) publishing models: the Hybrid Publishing Toolkit, Urgent Publishing and Going Hybrid. Time and again, publishers, designers, coders, authors, and readers bring up the same problem: the ‘book publishing industry’ fails to fulfill the promise of a rich multi-media reading experience in the digital era. Many digital tools for publishing experiments remain marginal, while traditional publishers and big tech platforms shy away from new formats. Audio and video integration — technically possible for a good three decades — is all but absent. Book sales keep decreasing. Young people read less and less, both online and offline. All in all, it becomes increasingly harder to sustain indy and experimental publishing practices while the regressive gap between so-called real paper books and the ‘virtual’ social media swiping keeps growing. Gutenberg the Second, where are you now that we need you?
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Urgent publishing pertains both to timeliness and relevance. What strategies are available to publishers in the cultural and research domains to conceive, produce, and position their contents in an urgent way? Revolving around the key notions of relations, trust, and remediation, Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing presents methods and prototypes that counter the contemporary speedy information sphere in new and different ways. It develops a situated account of hybrid publishing, where authors, editors, publishers, designers, and readers operate together.
