The New Craftsmen

The New Craftsmen How a renewed ethos of craftsmanship is inspiring a wave of creative businesses within independent print publishing

By Catherine MĂŠtayer

MA Publishing University of the Arts London London, September 2013

'As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of "do it yourself".' —Marshall McLuhan, 1957

'If everyone is running in one direction, it makes sense to take a look in the other direction and see what's going on.' — The Newspaper Club, 2012

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Abstract Whilst mainstream publishing is shifting towards new digital opportunities and raising concerns about the future of print, a wave of niched independent publishing initiatives, cultivated by a revitalised craftsmanship ethos, is flourishing. These publications range from small magazines and newspapers to handmade books, zines and self-published works, and offer fresh cultural perspectives on the physicality of print while making abundant use of digital tools. At the core of this nascent community, new types of creative businesses are coming forth and taking hybrid forms – at once as publishers, distributors, printers and consultants. They exist on digital platforms, but operate in the interest of print and facilitate communication between publishers and readers. This research intends to portray the emergence of such creative businesses within independent print publishing, and contextualise it in our contemporary culture.

This phenomenon is largely undocumented in existing publishing literature, and its terms have yet to be defined. Therefore, the research articulates a linguistic and conceptual framework around craftsmanship and creativity that asserts its essence, meaning and potential within the current publishing and cultural environments. To do so, the research mainly uses values and experiences as conceptual matter. An extensive literature review – drawing on media as well as cultural, social and creativity theories – initially investigates relevant contexts, looks at previous and similar manifestations of craftsmanship and defines the core notions of craftsmanship and creativity. Then, a phenomenological approach guides the empirical research, consisting of 5 recorded interviews with the founders of creative businesses, one mini business case study and 58 open-ended written questionnaires given to independent magazines and publishing houses, self-published authors and artists, and readers. The thematic coding of the findings revealed that the emergence of creative businesses and the revival of print within publishing are taking root as empowered and creative countercultural expressions that are transcending traditional publishing structures in reaction to the inadequacies of mainstream publishing, consumerism and individualism.

Ultimately, new elements of the definition of craftsmanship are proposed to reflect its contemporary manifestation around the notions of conviviality, communality, creativity and empowerment. Therefore, the research advances the understanding of the niche publishing phenomenon and suggests a conceptual outline to be acknowledged by the academic field of publishing. Indeed, these manifestations are promising, and further research could look more closely at these hybrid business models that suggest innovative ways of adapting to fluctuating times and strengthening the future of independent publishing.

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank my Thesis Director, Mr Simon Das, for embracing my research subject with great enthusiasm and for his invaluable insights as well as my Program Director, Mr Desmond O'Rourke for his constant dedication and support. I would also like to sincerely thank all of my interviewees for expressing deeply passionate views that infused my research with authenticity. And I could not have completed this thesis without the love and support of my colleague and friend Nazanin Shahnavaz, my friend Natalie Rinn and my husband Jeremy Young who showed unconditional patience before my stubbornness in writing a thesis that is true to my heart.

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Contents Title Page

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Abstract

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Acknowledgments

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Contents

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

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Overview | Scope

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Research focus

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Value of research

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Aims | Objectives

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Outline | Methodology

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CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

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Section 1. The New Post-Digital Print Era

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Print Production - Print on Demand - Online Platforms | Digital tools for conviviality New Symbolism of print | The Reversing of Mediums Section 2. Contemporary Phenomenon Within Independent Print Publishing

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A Portrait of new creative businesses | Creative platforms for conviviality Section 3. Economic and Technological Contexts

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Technology Leaps | Tails and Niches | The New Independents | The Creative Class The Pro-AMs | Impact of economic recession Section 4. Contemporary Cultural Context

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Liquid Culture | The Individualization of Identity | 'The Consumerist Syndrome' and 'The Experiential Lifestyle' | Cultural Capital | The Bobo, a Cultural Archetype | Inquiring Liquid Life, the Habitus and the Bobo Lifestyle | Glimpses On a New Counterculture Making And The Revival of Communities | Do It Yourself Culture | The Encompassing Craftsmanship Ethos | Arguments to consider Section 5. Previous Manifestations

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Transcendentalists | Arts & Crafts | 60's Counterculture

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CHAPTER 3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

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Craftsmanship - from traditional to contemporary definitions | Craftsmanship, in light of creativity | The middle ground between small and big creativity CHAPTER 4. METHODOLOGY

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Values and Ethos as Conceptual Matter | Phenomenology as Methodological Approach Blueprint & Data Collection Strategy | Limitation | Research Design | Framework for data analysis | Validity CHAPTER 5. FINDINGS ANALYSIS

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The Conviviality of the Digital Medium | A digital culture of expression, in print | The new crafted nature and the symbolic of print | Independent print publishing as countercultural expression | Review of Arguments to consider CHAPTER 6. FINAL DISCUSSION

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Towards a new definition of craftsmanship within independent publishing Craftsmanship as a Creative Response | Craftsmanship as an Expression of Cultural Capital | Craftsmanship as the Symbol of Making | Craftsmanship and the Use of Convivial Tools | Craftsmanship as communality | Craftsmanship as empowerment CHAPTER 7. CONCLUSION

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CHAPTER 8. APPENDICES

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I.

Portraits of new creative companies within independent publishing

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II.

Interviews | Summary of transcripts | Transcripts

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III. Mini-Case Study: McNally Jackson

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IV. Questionnaires | Summary of collection

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V.

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Wordcloud summary of participants' usage of terms

Chapter 9. Bibliography

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Chapter 10. Declaration of Authenticity

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Chapter 1. Introduction Overview | Scope The landscape of publishing in print is wilting, with publishing houses and bookshops in Europe and North America forced to close and a mere 10 per cent of paper-based magazines forecasted to survive beyond this decade (Renard, 2006, p.14). Meanwhile, mainstream publishing is adapting to the recent economic recession and a downfall in print by shifting its resources towards digital formats and the new breadth of Web possibilities. As a result, many predict the imminent death of print. Even if an overly daring statement, it does draw attention to a definite crisis affecting traditional publishing models (Losowsky, 2010, p.4).

Curiously, a closer look at trends within independent publishing reveals a refreshing wave of print initiatives and new creative businesses growing separately from mainstream channels and familiar territories. As LeMasurier (2012, p.383) indicates: 'In the shadows of this explosion of digital-led creativity and media-making, there has been a proliferation of low-circulation, independent magazines (indies) that choose print as their medium'; along with an influx of small imprints showing signs of a renewed excitement around print. Crafted handmade books and zines, self-published works by

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artists and writers, and new independent magazines and newspapers are all manifestations of this second 'golden age' of print (Renard, 2006; Losowsky, 2010).

Their publishers are truly independent by virtue of being both the creators and owners of their publications, and involved in the entire process of their making (Leadbeater & Oakley, 1999, p.11). Most are small-scale commercial initiatives and often the work of enthusiasts setting to create publications to professional standards and consequently developing a professional practice (Leadbeater, 2004, p.20). These independent publishers are generally not motivated by profit (LeMasurier, 2012, p.384); many of them work for free or barely break even. This is especially true of zines (p.388). Instead, they are driven by creative thought, passion and a need for expression (Koedinger 2009 cited in LeMasurier, 2012, p.386), but also by the pleasure of making (Flood, 2013) and sharing an object that can find meaning and cultural value within their communities (LeMasurier, 2012, p.387) of 'interconnected individuals' (Renard, 2006, p.15). The expression of their ideals has come to embrace values like craftsmanship (Sennett, 2008) and do-it-yourself (DIY) activities, which extend even beyond publishing.

At the heart of this newly weaved community is the rise of creative businesses dedicated to supporting the independent print publishing community (Frechette, 2010, p.95; Ludovico, 2012, p.11). These hybrid start-ups and organisations make innovative use of digital platforms in order to support print publishing activities. They are difficult to define, as they sit between the roles of publishers, printers, distributors, consultants and/or service providers. Many examples will be discussed further in this research (Appendix I, p.63).

This breakthrough has neither a chance of keeping the print medium afloat with the 'near-ubiquity of Internet access in the Western world' (Losowsky, 2010, p.5), nor of injecting huge revenues into independent publishing. The future of publishing is by all odds within the hands of pixels. Yet these new creative businesses and publishers are transforming print into a sustainable and meaningful form of expression, and making it the reflection of their own cultural ethos. 'For those of us who aren't concerned with keeping shareholders happy, now is a hugely liberating time to be making books,

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magazines, and newspapers', says Andrew Losowsky (2010, p.5). One could even say that in their modest capacity, the new independents are 'showing the mainstream media how to innovate and excite through their variety, originality, tenacity, thoughtfulness, creativity, inspiration, individuality, defiance' (p.9).

Research Focus In light of this discussion, the research wishes to consider how a renewed craftsmanship ethos in contemporary culture is inspiring the emergence of creative businesses and contributing to a revival of print within independent publishing. The research will focus on the value system underlying this phenomenon, based on the beliefs and experiences of its community, outlined within the conceptual framework of creativity and craftsmanship, and anchored in the relevant contemporary contexts.

Value of research Despite its growing presence, the revival of print within independent publishing is nearly undocumented, and minimally acknowledged in publishing literature. Even the experts on the subject claim that this phenomenon is unquantifiable (Leslie, 2003; LeMasurier, 2012; Losowsky, 2009; Renard, 2006) mainly because independent publishers and self-published authors and artists rarely adhere to statistical bodies (LeMasurier, 2012, p.384) whilst small start-ups and organisations do not use traditional marketing research methods (Watson to MĂŠtayer, 2013). Likewise, the rise of new creative businesses is largely unconsidered. Needless to say, the phenomenon as a whole has yet to be explained within a larger cultural, economic and social context. This lack of exploration creates an impasse: the phenomenon remains uncontextualised and undefined; the phenomenon's linguistic and conceptual terms, as well as its relevance, continue to be overlooked by the academic publishing and professional communities.

Research outlined here wishes to bridge the gap between a resurgence of independent print publishing and a lack of its proper investigation. By giving the phenomenon a

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clear definition and linguistic framework, it can concurrently achieve greater visibility and social relevance.

Aims | Objectives The overall aim of this research is dual. It intends to define and contextualise the phenomenon in order to advance its understanding, whilst articulating a conceptual and linguistic framework around the renewed craftsmanship ethos that it emerges from.

Ultimately, new elements of definition will be proposed in order to reflect the contemporary manifestations of craftsmanship within publishing. As a result, and with the motive of responding to the overall aim, the specific objectives of this thesis are to: 1. Define the contemporary phenomenon of the emergence of creative businesses within new independent print publishing; 2. Identify the phenomenon's cultural, technological and economic contexts; 3. Build a conceptual framework around craftsmanship and creativity that derives from the studied contexts and prepares for the methodological inquiry; 4. Explore, through empirical research, how creative businesses as well as publishers and readers relate to the conceptual framework through their experiences, and identify their value system; 5. Articulate a renewed definition of craftsmanship that helps understand the meaning of the contemporary phenomenon in regards to the literature and theoretical underpinnings, and empirical findings; 6. Formulate a conclusion about the key relevance of this new ecosystem for the future of independent publishing.

Outline | Methodology This research will draw on a review of literature that gradually builds a discourse around the phenomenon's context and ethos (Ridley, 2012, p.24). Chapter 1 will give an overview of contemporary independent print publishing through the recent

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transformations of the print and digital mediums in light of Marshall McLuhan's media theory, in order to contextualise and give an accurate portrait of the new creative businesses (Objective 1). Chapter 2 will take a step back to embrace the broader technological, economic and cultural contexts at the root of the phenomenon through the lens of, among others, the cultural, creativity and social theories of Zygmunt Bauman, Pierre Bourdieu, David Gauntlett, Ivan Illich and Charles Leadbeater (Objective 2). Emphasising on the cultural context will serve to explain why the renaissance of craftsmanship is taking place, and how it applies to independent publishing today. The researcher will then make a transition by looking at previous manifestations of craftsmanship and how they relate to and differ from its current forms (Objective 2). From the literature review underpinnings, a conceptual framework will be defined and discussed in Chapter 3 around the terms 'craftsmanship' and 'creativity' in order to set the basis for the methodological research (Objective 3). A phenomenological approach to methodology will be used to design the research blueprint, data collection, sampling, and framework for analysis, as elaborated in Chapter 4 (Objective 4), and the empirical research will ultimately seek to clarify the underlying values and cultural references of entrepreneurs who started creative businesses – but, also, of the rest of the publishing community in order to give a renewed definition of craftsmanship that embraces the wholeness of the phenomenon.

The findings will be summarised in Chapter 5 and structured after a list of themes developed from the literature review and the methodology (Objective 5). Chapter 6 will offer a final discussion proposing new elements of definition of craftsmanship in relation to its current manifestation within independent publishing (Objective 6). Lastly, Chapter 7 will consider the importance of this new phenomenon, and its underlying ethos, for the future of independent publishing. It will make conclusions on its broader social implications (Objective 7).

Reference List •

Atton, C. (2002) Alternative media. London: Sage Publications.

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Biggam, J. (2011) Succeeding with your master's dissertation: a step-by-step handbook.

2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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Flood, A. (2013) Editor of Philip Pullman and Mark Haddon bestsellers leaves Random House. The Guardian, 29 April [Internet]. Available from: <www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/29/david-finkling-leaves-randomhouse?INTCMP=SRCH> [Accessed 26 July 2013].

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Franchi, F. (2010) Prologue ♯II. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Frechette, Z. (2010) Prologue ♯IX. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: mass innovation, not mass production. 2nd ed.

London: Profile Books.

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Leadbeater, C. & Miller, P. (2004) The Pro-Am revolution: how enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. London: Demos.

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Losowsky, A. (2010) Introduction. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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LeMasurier, M. (2012) Independent magazines and the rejuvenation of print.

International Journal of Cultural Studies. vol.15, pt.4, pp.383-393.

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Maxwell, J. A. (2013) Qualitative research design: an interactive approach. 3rd ed.

London: SAGE Publications.

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Renard, D. ed. (2006) The last magazine. New York: Universe Publishing.

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Ridley, D. (2012) The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students. 2nd ed.

London: SAGE Publications.

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Chapter 2. Literature Review Section 1. The New Post-Digital Print Era The notion of 'post-digital print' (Ludovico, 2012) provides a thoughtful account of the digital environment's influence on the current print revival as well as the transforming nature of the print medium, which will be discussed further in this chapter. While many worry that print's increasing scarcity will result in the loss of cultural heritage, some believe that the steady disappearance of 'disposable books' (Moore, 2010) only shows evident signs that the future of print lies in the hands of small independent publishers (Ludovico, 2012, p.154).

Print Production | Print on Demand | Online Platforms With desktop publishing software, digital devices and the Internet, it is now more accessible and easier to make a print publication (LeMasurier, 2012, p.385). Digital tools, defined as anything numeric 'used to produce something' (Gauntlett, 2011, p.167), have 'enhanced almost every aspect of the workflow, from picture research to file delivery' (Losowsky, 2010, p.5). The cost of making a magazine or a book has also been greatly reduced and enables small print runs that were formerly reserved for vanity projects (Renard, 2006, p.15; Anderson, 2006, p.76).

New print-on-demand (POD) platforms such as Lulu and Blurb allow customized printings of a limited quantity of books and magazines â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly useful for selfpublishing without any intermediary (Berger, 2009, p.173). With a simple PDF file, the

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printing is ordered online and delivered anywhere. The other main print-on-demand technology is the Espresso Print Machine, 'an in-store unit' (Johnson, 2010) that can 'download, bind and trim a paperback in minutes' (Hoffman, 2011) and allows the printing of small editions of books or magazines from publishers or self-published authors (Kirch, 2012), out of print or backlist titles and even antiquarian books, (Mayersohn, 2011) using Google's public domain 'EspressNet Database' (Koerber, 2012), as well as lists from partnering publishing houses.

Online digital platforms also play an essential role in the sale and distribution of independent books and magazines. Publishers can now use online direct payment services and online distribution platforms to ship publications anywhere in the world.

Social Media platforms and websites have become a key element in the promotion of print publications, and sustaining relationships with a community of readers online is revolutionizing the modus operandi of independent publishers and magazines (LeMasurier, 2012, p.390).

At this stage, the Internet is not only enables more do-it-yourself (DIY) activities, but also do-it-with-others (DIWO) initiatives (Hartley, 2009 cited in LeMasurier, 2012, p.384) where people with different skill sets collaborate more efficiently on publishing projects (Dikkers, 2006 cited in LeMasurier, 2012, p.206). But all of these digital tools for 'making, sharing and connecting', as described by the sociologist and media theorist David Gauntlett (2011) have not diminished the enduring appeal of print publishing (Spencer 2005 cited in Gauntlett, 2011, pp.54-55). On the contrary, they are 'creating new types of makers and fuelling new communities of practice' (Charny, 2011, p.8).

Digital tools for conviviality The theorist and social critic Ivan Illich would have certainly used the term 'conviviality' to describe these new digital tools and platforms. In 1973, he voiced his hope for Tools for Conviviality, 'to work with rather than tools that "work" for [us]' (Illich, 1973, p.10), in response to the effects of industrialisation and the growing

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dependence on the knowledge of experts (Leadbeater, 2009, p.44). Illich wished for tools that let individual creative expression take control (Gauntlett, 2011, p.169) and that use personal connectedness to nurture 'autonomous and creative intercourse among persons' (Illich, 1973, p.11). Digital tools and online platforms for publishing are deeply convivial because they are accessible, they can be used for 'any kind of need or function, forcing the intellectual more and more into the role of social command' (McLuhan, 1994, p.36); and they enable all forms of connections, communications, and individual reactions (p.20). With the Web becoming the new mass media (p.349), it is possible to give the printed medium a fresh outlook.

New Symbolism of print In the 1960's, when print and television existed as mass media, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan accused print of being 'unconvivial' â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or, in McLuhan terms, a 'hot' medium, with no room for reaction, participation and interpretation, while he regarded television as a low definition and dynamic 'cool' medium (McLuhan, 1994, p.311) that inspired 'global connectedness' (Ludovico, 2012, p.23). For McLuhan, print was overly dictated by 'typographic principles of uniformity, continuity, and linearity' (McLuhan, 1994, p.14) and imposed such perspective on the world. Nowadays, with a daily average of four hours of television viewing (Gauntlett, 2011, p.10), McLuhan would possibly change his perspective on television, and find the openness, inclusiveness and dynamism of the Internet more 'cool' and enticing (McLuhan, 1994, p.7).

Meanwhile, now that it no longer occupies the main communication channels, print seems to gradually be transforming into a cool medium, a blank canvas for experimentation and creativity. This is noticeable in the exciting designs and editorial concepts of newly published magazines and books, which coincide with the readers' acute taste for design. Indeed, as a consequence of the information age, everyone has to visually filter information and make both layout and typographic decisions with desktop publishing tools on a daily basis (Lanhman, 2006 cited in LeMasurier, 2012, p.390).

This widespread cultural taste for design originates from the web, but transfers to print,

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through the making and consuming of aesthetic and creative independent publications.

It can also partly explain why readers often engage with design more seriously in selfpublished books or zines (Atkinson, 2006, p.1).

The physicality of print should also be reconsidered in the digital age. 'Material paper in immaterial times' (Ludovico, 2012, p.54) demands that the print medium conveys an experience. The revival of old fashioned techniques such as letterpress, screen-printing or handmade bindings, and the interplay of paperweights, textures and inks are on the rise because they make the 'form of a publication actually be part of the study' (Franchi, 2010, p.19). Indeed, the craft of making a publication is gaining value, and the reader enjoys when a book or magazine shows the 'spirit in which it was created' (Losowsky, 2010, p.5). For Losowsky, in the digital realm, 'the survival of the physical product only makes sense in those situations where its physicality is a deliberated curated part of its design' (Losowsky, 2010, p.7).

This thought can be expanded by considering that the physicality of creatively made independent publications carries what Walter Benjamin qualifies as an 'aura' (Benjamin 1968 cited in Berger, 2009, p.75) that mass produced objects and digital space donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have, and that reconnects us to our physical and tangible humaneness (Ludovico, 2012, p.67). In the case of zines, the making by hand, tied in with the personal narrative, truly speaks of this embodiment (Piepmeier, 2008, p.214; Atton, 2002, p.60). Curiously, McLuhan had foreseen this transformation by claiming in 1969 that the book, as 'archetype of culture', had been regarded 'as a peculiar and arty way of packaging experience' (McLuhan 1969 cited in Berger, 2009, p.172). And in our fast-paced and ultra connected digital world, print offers an immersion in a 'slow', creative and authentic experience to be collected and preserved.

The Reversing of Mediums The current return to the printed form can be understood in light of McLuhan's portentous theory of the reversing of mediums, which elaborates on the idea that, as a

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new mass medium becomes irreversible and deeply rooted in the lives of a majority of individuals, there is often a 'reversing' that occurs (McLuhan, 1994, 349). 'Indeed, when new technologies appear, older media often develop new functions and find new audiences.' (Thorburn & Jenkins, 2003, p.2) The main explanation for this counterreaction (Ludovico, 2012, p.54) is a 'cross-fertilization' of the mediums (McLuhan, 1994, p.39). In this present context, the outbreak of independent print publishing is without contest the result of the influence of digital technology while, paradoxically, equally a reaction against the values of this very medium.

Section 2. Contemporary Phenomenon Within Independent Print Publishing A Portrait of new creative businesses The two mediums intertwined find an eloquent archetype in new creative businesses, which, if difficult to pinpoint because of their hybrid form, break new ground by supporting the craft of print through the use of digital tools and platforms. They range from print-on-demand platforms and online subscription services to self-publishing consultancy and online distribution platforms. All operate within independent print publishing and act as intermediaries that enhance the relationship between publishers and readers, and provide them with tools to shape and diffuse independent expression (Leadbeater, 2009, p.44). The community that they foster is rooted within a common cultural ethos of creativity, do-it-yourself and craftsmanship at its core.

Appendix I (p.63) presents seven portraits of those businesses, each with a different mandate and located for the most part in North America and Europe. Among them, Magpile is a website that promotes, sells online and recommends independent print magazines, and where the user lists and reviews his favourite reads, while Self Publish Be Happy proposes a consultancy service and promotion platform for self-published photographers. On a different note, McNally Jackson, an independent bookstore in New York, uses a print-on-demand Espresso Machine.

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Creative platforms for conviviality This network of inspired creative businesses is 'making it possible for publishers to team up with like-minded colleagues, connect with potential customers, foster collective understanding of the unique and complementary role of paper within the new digital reality, and implement new and sustainable "hybrid" publishing models' (Ludovico, 2012, p.11). The enthusiastic and empowering attitude that these businesses encourage within the independent publishing community can certainly define them, in Illichian terms, as platforms for conviviality.

The next chapter will reframe this publishing phenomenon in a broader context – technologically, economically and culturally speaking – and start to define the cultural ethos at the root of this creative burst within independent print publishing.

Reference List

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Anderson, C. (2006) The Long Tail: why the future of business is selling less of more.

New York: Hyperion.

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Atkinson, P. (2006) Do It Yourself: democracy and design. Journal of Design History. vol. 19, no.1, pp.1-10.

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Berger, A. (2009) What objects mean: an introduction to material culture. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

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Charny, D. (ed.) (2011) Power of making: the importance of being skilled. London: V&A Publishing.

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Flood, A. (2013) Editor of Philip Pullman and Mark Haddon bestsellers leaves Random House. The Guardian, 29 April [Internet]. Available from: <www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/29/david-finkling-leaves-randomhouse?INTCMP=SRCH> [Accessed 26 July 2013].

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Franchi, F. (2010) Prologue ♯II. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Frechette, Z. (2010) Prologue ♯IX. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting: the social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Hoffman, J. (2011) Her life is a real page-turner, New York Times, 12 October [Internet]. Available from: < www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/fashion/sarah-mcnally-ofmcnally-jackson-books-in-manhattan.html> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

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Illich, I. (1973) Tools for Conviviality. London: Calder & Boyars.

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Johnson, B. (2010) Newspaper Club project is a winner for London agency, The Guardian, Monday 12 April, p.6. Available from: <www.theguardian.com/ media/2010/apr/12/newspaper-club> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

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Kirch, C. (2012) Self-Publishing rules the EBM at Indies. Publishers' Weekly, 26 October [Internet] Available from: < www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industrynews/bookselling/article/54519-self-publishing-rules-the-ebm-at-indies.html> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

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Koerber, J. (2012) Espress yourself: Espresso Book Machines tie self-publishing to maker culture. Library Journal. vol.137, pt.16, p.23.

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LeMasurier, M. (2012) Independent magazines and the rejuvenation of print.

International Journal of Cultural Studies. vol.15, pt.4, pp.383-393.

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Losowsky, A. (ed.) (2009) We make magazines: inside the independents. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Losowsky, A. (2010) Introduction. In: Klanten, R., Ehmann, S., Bolhöfer, K. & Schulze, F. eds. Turning pages: editorial design for print media. Berlin: Gestalten.

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Ludovico, A. (2012) Post-Digital Print − the mutation of publishing since 1894.

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Mayersohn, J. (2011) Hit 'print': how one bookstore uses its Espresso Book Machine.

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McLuhan, M. (1994) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. Cambridge: MIT Press.

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McLuhan, E. & Zingrone, F. eds. (1997) Essential McLuhan. New York: Routledge.

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Piepmeier, A. (2008) Why zines matter: materiality and the creation of embodied community. American Periodicals. vol.18, pt. 2, pp.213–238.

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Renard, D. (ed.) (2006) The last magazine. New York: Universe Publishing.

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Thorburn, D. & Jenkins, H. (2003) Introduction: toward an aesthetics of transition. In: Thorburn, D. & Jenkins, H. eds. Rethinking media change: the aesthetics of transition.

Cambridge: MIT Press, pp.1–16.

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Context | Background Section 3. Economic and Technological Contexts Our immersion in the information age has reworked our entire economy around digital culture, knowledge-based activities (Drucker 1993 cited in Florida, 2002, p.49), services (Florida, 2002, p.xv) and cultural production (Rifkin 2002 cited in Leadbeater & Miller, 2004, p.40). This paradigm has instigated new phenomena theorised as the Long Tail, the Independents, the Pro-Ams and the Creative Class, which already are greatly impacting the field of independent publishing.

Technology Leaps In the past decade, digital culture has completely transformed the way we produce and market information and culture, but just as equally the way we engage, express and define ourselves around its evolving platforms. Even before the Internet became widespread, McLuhan was noticing that, in the information age, 'we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, [...] [and] we can translate more and more of ourselves into other forms of expression that exceed ourselves' (McLuhan, 1994, p.57). That is noticeable in the publishing and social media domains, especially in the novel social habit of sharing opinions and information. One could say that in the digital realm, 'you are what you share' (Leadbeater, 2009, p.6). The dynamism and openness of digital platforms (blogs, websites, social media) have instituted a

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widespread culture of self-expression and collaboration (p.24) that influences our behaviours in the physical world (Atkinson, 2006, p.1). The recent burst of print initiatives within independent publishing is an illustration of this trend. Technology is instigating a 'gradual accumulation of small incremental changes in our day-to-day lives' (Florida, 2002, p.17) that are slowly shaping the way we create culture (Leadbeater, 2009, p. xxix).

Tails and Niches One of the most important repercussions of technology on our economy is how the Internet is making small businesses and niches of interests viable, thanks to new democratized tools (Anderson, 2006, p.54) for online distribution, marketing and social networking. These small aggregated communities make a substantial market. Anderson goes so far as to consider a 'mass market of niches' (Anderson, 2006, p.5). In the field of independent publishing, the 'Long Tail' economy (Anderson, 2006) has created a 'global niche' (Leadbeater & Miller, 2004, p.14) of publishers, creative businesses and readers that are connecting across borders. 'The niches of our culture' (Liebling 2009 cited in Colophon, 2009) contain, for many, the most significant and creative expressions of alternative cultural production (LeMasurier, 2012, p.392), and are possibly the gauge of the sustainability of print.

The New Independents As a result, a network of digitally connected, small cultural entrepreneurs are progressively forming a bigger part of the picture (Leadbeater & Oakley, 1999, p.11).

Young, educated (p.21) and fluent with new technologies, the new independents are developing a model of entrepreneurial work infused with an unbound desire for authorship (p.22) and creativity (p.13), which comes from the anti-establishment values' of their parents (p.15). This enthusiast cluster blurs the line between production and consumption, work and leisure, individual expression and collaboration as well as competitive and supportive communities (pp.24-25).

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The Creative Class Charles Leadbeater's depiction of this phenomenon corresponds quite fully to Richard Florida's 'Creative Class' (Florida, 2002). This group is, for the most part, established in 'creative cities' in North America and Europe, and encompasses 'people who add economic value through their creativity' (p.68) and use their professional activities to 'validate their identities as creative people' (Florida 2004 cited in LeMasurier, 2012, p.384). Both thrive on entrepreneurial creativity (p.21), but Leadbeater stresses the wish to stay small and to retain the most autonomy whereas Florida foresees that this group of creatives, artists and anti-conformists â&#x20AC;&#x201C; previously excluded from the capitalist system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; leading the economy (Florida, 2002, p. xxvii).

Florida's version sees the economy 'moving from an older corporate-centred system [...] to a more people-driven one' (p.6) and work interweaving with personal spheres, primarily through play (Florida, 2002, p.153). Indeed, the producers and consumers of technologies, art, commerce and culture now exist as one (McLuhan, 1994, p.247), and also socialize the same way (Florida, p.153). Cultural and social capitals, from now on, are omnipresent and define us as individuals and professionals. This constant overlapping is responsible for engendering a new group of professional amateurs.

The Pro-AMs Charles Leadbeater defines enthusiastic 'amateurs working to professional standards' as 'Pro-Ams'. They are a new 'social hybrid', present in various fields of cultural production, who cannot yet be understood in traditional economic terms as they tie together consumption, production, professionalism and amateurism (Leadbeater & Miller, 2004, p.20).

Yet, this group should play a significant role in our economy within the next two decades (p.9). Independent print publishing can testify of this trend, with the blooming of self-published books and new small magazine and zine titles (LeMasurier, 2012, p.389-390). Unfortunately, it is difficult to quantify their presence because their

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initiatives remain unregistered (Leadbeater & Miller, 2004, p.26). The Pro-Ams' inherently associate leisure with creative work and skills (p.20), which contradicts the passive consumerism prevalent in the mass markets. With the Pro-Ams, 'consumption becomes a knowledge-intensive activity' (p.40) and self-defining endeavour (p.21). And their personal activities often metamorphose into commercial and professional endeavours (p.23). This professional shift is another result of the impact of digital culture on our desire for self-expression (Atkinson, 2006, p.1) and a significant economic and cultural transformation (p.20).

Impact of economic recession These creative workers have not been impacted directly by the global recession in 2008. Even if they operate 'against the backdrop of economic uncertainty' (Elliot, p.271), they do not rely on the traditional economy. On the contrary, these difficult financial times have been triggers for creativity and 'enduring social change' (Florida, 2002, p.xxx). In the case of independent publishing, this period has seen the rise of newly striving creative businesses.

Reference List

•

Anderson, C. (2006) The Long Tail: why the future of business is selling less of more.

New York: Hyperion.

•

Atkinson, P. (2006) Do It Yourself: democracy and design. Journal of Design History. vol. 19, no.1, pp.1-10.

•

Colophon (2009) [Online]. Liebling — exclusive interview. Available from: <www.welovecolophon.com/archive/?mag_id=506> [Accessed 10 June 2013].

•

Elliot, A. (2009) Contemporary social theory: an introduction. Oxon: Routledge.

•

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

•

Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: mass innovation, not mass production. 2nd ed.

London: Profile Books.

•

Leadbeater, C. & Miller, P. (2004) The Pro-Am revolution: how enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. London: Demos.

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•

Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K. (1999) The Independents: Britain’s new cultural entrepreneurs. London: Demos.

•

LeMasurier, M. (2012) Independent magazines and the rejuvenation of print.

International Journal of Cultural Studies. vol.15, pt.4, pp.383-393.

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Section 4. Contemporary Cultural Context The emergence of creative businesses within independent print publishing is clearly fomented by the recent technology progress and the new creative economy.

Nevertheless, the current economic context does not suffice to explain what truly motivates this community of entrepreneurs, publishers and readers. Their undertakings are clearly the expression of a distinct cultural ethos, reflecting our contemporary cultural times.

Liquid Culture The postmodernist era is undeniably characterized by an acceleration of the speed of life, individualism and consumerism, as a result of the information age and unrestrained capitalism. This creates an atmosphere of 'uncertainty, unpredictability and ambivalence' (Elliot, 2009, p.253), which the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes as 'Liquid Modernity' (Bauman, 2000). Whereas culture used to be a rigid structure transformed only under the threat of revolutions, it is now defined by constant change.

As a result, individuals can no longer rely on stable institutions or even social ties. This 'liquidisation of life' not only affects our social foundations, it also 'penetrates to the core of the self and the fabric of everyday life' (Elliot, 2009, p.299).

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The Individualization of Identity In this adrift context, one has to constantly redefine his individual identity by fear 'of being left behind, of missing out on something, of becoming outdated' (Bauman, 2005, p.68). Identity has transformed from a 'given' into a purposeful 'task' (Elliot, 2009, p.300) of 'personal discovery' (Bauman, 2005, p.19). And this is manifest in how people progressively disengage themselves from their communities and 'collective ways of doing things' (Elliot, 2009, p.300). Florida supports this view: In this new world, it is no longer the organization we work for, churches, neighbourhoods or even family ties that define us. Instead, we do this ourselves, defining our identities along the varied dimensions of our creativity. Other aspects of our lives â&#x20AC;&#x201D;what we consume, new forms of leisure and recreation, efforts at community-buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;then organize themselves around this process of identity creation. (Florida, 2002, p.8) This individualistic dynamic, according to Bauman, is 'self-contradictory and selfdefeating: indeed, impossible to fulfil' (Bauman, 2005, p.18). How can one aspire to be truly unique in a society where everyone must be unlike everyone else? This can only lead to 'constant self-scrutiny, self-critique and self-censure' (pp.10-11).

'The Consumerist Syndrome' and 'The Experiential Lifestyle' In this context, people embrace every aspect of their lives 'as an art form to master' (Brooks, 2000, p.203), even the vector of choice for projecting one's identity: consumerism. Bauman describes the constant consumptions and replacement of things to fit ever-changing standards as 'the consumerist syndrome' (Bauman, 2005, p.62), which falsely resolves individual insecurities. And in our immaterial times, Bauman is concerned that this behaviour also appears in our consumption of technology, and in many peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s addiction to texting and surfing the Web, as an attempt to elude the silence associated with social exclusion (Elliot, 2009, p.300).

Richard Florida (2002, p.162) also evokes the 'consumption of experiences' that 'reflect and reinforce [people's] identities as creative people' (Florida, 2002, p.168).

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These experiences range from a cafĂŠ's atmosphere to a creative workshop, or choosing to make an independent publication.

Cultural Capital The notion of 'cultural capital', as developed by Pierre Bourdieu (1984), can perhaps best describe the relation between individual tastes and identity. It consists of our values, social and cultural preferences and 'accumulated stock of knowledge' (Trigg, 2001, p.113). Cultural capital's logic is based upon the idea of the habitus, 'deeply ingrained dispositions' (Elliot, 2009, p.145) that society imprints on one's identity, behaviours, habits and cultural preferences. According to Bourdieu (1984, p.77), even our most impulsive and bodily-affectionate reactions or aversions, corporeal hexis, are the result of social conditionings. Despite Bourdieu's deterministic reading of cultural capital, which will be discussed later, the mechanics of how individuals use cultural preferences to distinguish and define themselves offers an interesting perspective on the recent uptick of independent print publishing. Choosing to take part in independent print publishing as a consumer, a publisher or an entrepreneur can thus be perceived as the expression of cultural capital.

The Bobo, a Cultural Archetype The author David Brooks sums up very well the contemporary cultural conditions discussed above in the archetype of the Bobo (Brooks, 2000, p.11). Bobos have emerged from the merging and reconciliation of the bourgeois and the bohemians. 'The Bobo class has moved into bourgeois haunts and infused them with bohemian sensibilities', says Brooks (2000, p.83). Indeed, Bobos embody the values of the bourgeois' materialism, rational thinking and productivity as much as the counterculture's creativity, self-expression and celebration of vivid experience (p.69).

Consequently 'the sociologists that [Bobos] read in college taught that consumerism is a disease, and yet now they find themselves shopping for $3,000 refrigerators' (p.40).

This fundamental contradiction creates in the Bobo a restless desire for self-realisation,

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self-justification and achievement. [O]ne is struck by how much of their time is spent earnestly wrestling with the conflict between their reality and their ideals' (p.41). Bobos make very prolific artists and entrepreneurial creatives who live in a zone where 'creativity and commerce intersect' (p.41). But the fact that they 'admire art and intellect [but] find themselves living amidst commerce' (p.41) raises what Brooks calls 'the anxieties of abundance' (p.40). Brooks' portrait is somewhat ironic, but it offers great insight on the typical profile of individuals involved in independent print publishing.

Inquiring Liquid Life, the Habitus and the Bobo Lifestyle Despite his worrisome depiction of a liquid 'culture of disengagement, discontinuity and forgetting', it is important to stress that Bauman insists on the idea of 'liquid modernity' rather than postmodernity, because he sees, beyond risks and insecurities, a flexible potential for 'fresh opportunities' (Elliot, 2009, p.253). Unfortunately, Bauman does not consider the actual 'development of various critical, cosmopolitan identities, many of which contain possibilities for transcending the rigid determinations of identity' (p.304).

Despite cultural capital being relevant to this research, Bourdieuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s claim that there is an absolute conditioning of social structure denies any possibility of 'transform[ing] the existing social systems through [...] creative actions' (p.148). Through Bourdieu's theoretical lens, the world is ultimately 'one in which things happen to people, rather than a world in which they can intervene in their individual and collective destinies' (Jenkins, 2002, p.91).

David Brooks (2000, p.102) comes to the conclusion that because Bobos define themselves by their means of consumption, their endeavours cannot be genuine. But it is possible to argue that a countercultural alternative might approach consumption differently, starting with independent print publishing.

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Glimpses On a New Counterculture A growing number of people in publishing and other social and cultural spheres are refusing to be 'degrade[d] [...] to the status of mere consumers' (Illich 1973 cited in Gauntlett, 2011, p.168). They are articulating an anticonsumerist rhetoric in opposition with mainstream norms, and identify with a new set of words that exemplify their 'temper and spirit: authentic, natural, warm, rustic, simple, honest, organic, comfortable, craftsmanlike, unique, sensible, sincere' (Brooks, 2000, p.83). The emergence of new creative companies is fomented by such individuals, going 'against the grain' (Spencer 2005 cited in Gauntlett, 2011, p.53).

Making And The Revival of Communities In these Liquid Times, young creatives are trying to reclaim community, rituals and the virtue of smaller and slower paced things and activities, often inspired by traditions from the past (Putnam 2000 cited in Brooks, 2000, p.239). There is somehow an assumption that 'in our efforts to climb upward, we have left something important behind' and 'encrusted our lives with superficialities' (Brooks, 2000, p.240). In response, we need to relearn to appreciate essential things, and the spiritual value of sharing authentic experiences. Indeed, many individuals are 'trying to rebuild connections' in order to bring back a sense of reciprocity (Putnam 2000 cited in Florida, 2002, p.267), one that could help resolve the impossible quest for individuality that Bauman decries.

The sociologists David Gauntlett and Robert Putnam also insist on the importance of what Bourdieu defines as 'social capital', 'the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network' (Bourdieu In Gauntlett, 2011, p.132).

It is often around 'making' that these socially connected communities get formed (Gauntlett, 2011) because the act of making 'is one of the most significant means of human expression' (Charny, 2011, p.7) and ensures genuine engagement. It is also a way to counteract the fact that, generally speaking, the distance between the 'maker' and

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the 'user' is widening (ibid). 'To some, making is the fountain that releases creative ideas; to others, making is about participating in society as well as defining personal identity' (Ibid). Gauntlett suggests indeed that we are growing from a 'sit back and be told' culture to a 'making and doing' culture (Gauntlett, 2011, pp.8-13).

Making also evokes the recent regain in popularity of handcraft. According to the activist Sabrina Gschwandter, handcraft is 'a reaction against a whole slew of things, including our hyperfast culture, increasing reliance on digital technology, the proliferation of consumer culture' (Gschwandter 2008 cited in Levine & Heimerl, 2008, p.26), and is hence political (Wagner 2008 cited in Levine & & Heimerl, 2008, p.1).

Curiously, though, the recent surge of handicraft has taken off on digital platforms (Johnson 2008 cited in Levine & Heimerl, 2008, p.30). But the 'craft' of making also speaks to virtual forms (making a blog) and symbolic forms (engaging with crafted objects; self-publishing a book) of making.

Do It Yourself Culture This growing enthusiasm for the handmade, the homemade and the independently made (Gauntlett, p.61) is part of a revival of do-it-yourself activities, which combine creativity, expression and autonomy. Do-it-yourself first occurred in the 1950s from a 'post-war shortage of labour' and rise in home ownership, and revolved mainly around home improvement and the making of furniture, clothes, boats and even books (Atkinson, 2006, p.2). At the time, it was a mass-marketed and socially widespread phenomenon. It can be said that, in the past, DIY culture has 'acted as a leveller of class' (ibid). It incited the bourgeois to try manual labour and gave the working class a means of leisure activity and made subcultures more visible through self-publishing (Atkinson, 2006, p.1). Today it manifests itself in various ways, from companies giving people templates to make their own jewellery, furniture or books, to small start-ups and independent initiatives such as communal gardens, creative workshops and crowdfunded projects. As the Professor Paul Atkinson evokes: 'The involvement in the creation of goods in order to derive personal meaning has become increasingly

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important to many in an age of mass-consumption.' (Atkinson, 2006, p.7) DIY is also positive in both political and emotional terms' (p.162) because it enables the shaping of one's own environment (Wolf & McQuitty, 2014, p.199). This mindset, cultivated by individuals, collectives and start-ups, opens the possibility of an independent economy unrestrained from traditional corporate ties (Levine & Heimerl, 2008, p. ix). The DIY ethos is certainly influencing new independent publishers and businesses, and the selfpublishing initiatives of Pro-Ams. The Encompassing Craftsmanship Ethos If consumerism makes 'non-satisfaction permanent' (Bauman, 2005, p.80), the notion of craftsmanship, which will be discussed explicitly in this research, grasps onto the gratification of making and engaging with thoughtful and crafted objects (Gauntlett, 2011, p.60). Richard Sennett believes in the idea of craftsmanship as a 'template for living', a life against the current where one is able to 'influence the social setting in which choices are made and pursued' (Sennett, 2008, p.124). Craftsmanship is even more relevant now that work is more competitive and compartmented than ever, which is discouraging workers to do good work for 'its own sake' and interact with the process (Sennett, 2008, p.37). Making ourselves is empowering because it gives the power of choice and the knowledge of making, while consuming crafted things is making the conscious choice to support a specific set of values. In the end, one is able to make societal life more tangible, 'even in the midst of consumption' (Daniel Miller 2011 cited in Charny, 2011, p.22), in opposition with Bourdieu's conditioning habitus and Bauman's liquid life. The choice to support, make and consume independent print publications could hardly do more justice to this ethos.

Arguments to consider In light of this discussion, some arguments deserve to be considered, as they could call into question the decision of this new cultural class to embrace such values as craftsmanship, anticonsumerism, creative expression and community. These counter

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arguments should be reviewed in order to present an accurate description of the cultural context surrounding independent publishing.

Bourdieu's conditioning For Bourdieu, cultural tastes and social stances are solely the expression of class distinction and dominance (Elliot, 2009, p.147). From his perspective, the decision to start a creative publishing business, independent of the mainstream, is regarded as a specific form of high cultural expression of a new elite (Trigg, 2001, p.105), that shifted horizontally in the ladder by adopting a lower economic position, but that remains culturally dominant and 'distinct' from popular culture (Bourdieu, 1984, p.137). To the theorist, even our understanding of 'quality' is a tool for 'claiming status' (Sennett, 2008, p.245). Sentencing this countercultural phenomenon as a bourgeois expression is certainly reductionist, but it raises a valid point: this publishing intellectual group might well exist within a certain level of social hierarchy and cultural elitism (Trigg, 2001, p.110). Florida's Creative Class, which values 'creativity, individuality, difference and merit' (Florida, 2000, p.8) falls indeed under a very elitist paradigm.

Brooks' Non Commitment Brooks notices that the new cultural class is straddling the conflicting notions of autonomy and community (Brooks, 2000, p.241) and has a pessimist outlook on a society that is constantly compromising the virtues of each, without committing to any one thing deeply (p.246). 'This is a class of people who grew up with the word potential hanging around their necks' (p.273) This highly debated new cultural expression rests for some on false consumerist capitalism, narcissism and vanity (Gauntlett, 2011, p.115), a thought that seems 'trivial' to Gauntlett, who values the potential of DIY, craftsmanship and expression on digital platforms as a 'social glue' (p.217) and tools for satisfaction, authenticity and pleasure (p.223), which the research will help clarify.

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Reference List

•

Atkinson, P. (2006) Do It Yourself: democracy and design. Journal of Design History. vol. 19, no.1, pp.1-10.

•

Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Bauman, Z. (2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Berger, A. (2009) What objects mean: an introduction to material culture. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

•

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction. London: Routledge.

•

Brooks, D. (2000) Bobos in paradise: the new upper class and how they got there. New York: Simon & Schuster.

•

Charny, D. (ed.) (2011) Power of making: the importance of being skilled. London: V&A Publishing.

•

Elliot, A. (2009) Contemporary social theory: an introduction. Oxon: Routledge.

•

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

•

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting: the social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Jenkins, R. (2002), Pierre Bourdieu. London: Routledge.

•

Levine, F. & Heimerl, C. (2008) Handmade nation: the rise of DIY, art, craft, and design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

•

McLuhan, M. (1994) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. Cambridge: MIT Press.

•

Sennett, R. (2008) The craftsman. London: Penguin Books.

•

Trigg, A. (2001) Veblen, Bourdieu, and Conspicuous Consumption. Journal of Economic Issues. vol. XXXV, pt.1 March, pp.99-115.

•

Wolf, M. & McQuitty, S. (2013) Circumventing traditional markets: an empirical study of the marketplace motivations and outcomes of consumers’ do-it-yourself behaviors.

Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. vol. 21, pt. 2, Spring, pp.195–209.

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Section 5. Previous Manifestations Similar counter-cultural expressions of craftsmanship have occurred in the past, often as reactions to periods of great technological advances and economic turmoil. They grew out of frustration and feelings of inadequacy for the mainstream cultural and economic systems. The Transcendentalists, the Arts & Crafts and the Counterculture of the 1960's and 1970's are among its most eloquent examples.

Transcendentalists The Transcendentalist movement, with Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson at its forefront, took shape in the late 1820's in New England, America (Brooks, 2000, p.71). It was formed by a group of intellectuals and artists rising up against 'bourgeois industrialism' and proposing instead to cultivate a simpler life connected to nature (p.70). This historical period was marked by technological progress (steam engine, railways, factories), impregnated by bourgeois lifestyle (p.71) and working class labour (Thoreau, 2005, p.4). Transcendentalists wished to preserve the authentic and empowering value of independent and self-reliant men living with only the 'necessary of life' (Thoreau, 2005, p11). In their view, all 'material duties' â&#x20AC;&#x201C; professional or daily life activities â&#x20AC;&#x201C; were the 'stepping stone to spiritual exploration' (Brooks, 2000, p.70) and should bear a craftsmanship ethos, or the promise of a 'sincere' intention (Thoreau, 2005, p.90).

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Arts & Crafts Half a century later, in England, John Ruskin and William Morris initiated the Arts & Crafts movement in a somewhat comparable spirit. They supported craftsmanship (Ruskin, 2008, p.218) by promoting a return to the 'simple virtues embodied in the preindustrial handicraft guild communities' (Brooks, 2000, p.74). They condemned the division of labour and industrial consumption (Sennett, 2008, p.109), which denied people's autonomy, creativity and merit (Ruskin, 2008, p.12). Ruskin, 'the great Romantic analyst of craft' (Sennett, 2008, p.84) and Gothic architecture, yearned for 'local-level organic production' (p.25), beautiful tactility of objects (Sennett, 2011, p.110), 'connecting to other people through hand-made things' (p.108), and engaging in the entire process of work to stay independent from a system where man was once treated as a machine and is now enslaved by it (Stansky, 1985, p.44). Ruskin also felt that physical things should show 'the vivid expression of the intellectual life which has been concerned in their production' (Ruskin 1920 cited in Gauntlett, 2011, p.86), a sentiment that is present today in independent publishing.

Ruskin's disciple, William Morris, also gave consideration to the 'social implications' of craftsmanship as a vital 'binding force' (Gauntlett, 2011, p.25) in the shaping of 'empowered creative communities' (p.34). A talented entrepreneur himself, Morris founded Marshall, Faulkner & Co., a business based on the use of 400-year-old printing techniques (p.36), to purposefully 'disrupt' practices (Pinkney 2005 cited in Gauntlett, 2011, p.37); it was an endeavour that resembles in many ways the current emergence of creative businesses.

60's Counterculture Thereafter, many diametric movements followed. From the bohemian literary movement in the 1920's in which Thorstein Veblen and Ernest Hemingway took part, to the Beats in the 1950's. But only in the 1960's did the 'bohemian subculture turn into a mass movement' (Brooks, 2000, p.77) in America, and rapidly spread around the world.

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The Bohemians defined a social conduct that radically rejected conformity and routinisation, and challenged the power of the establishment and the 'conventional notions of success' (p.32) and the politics of the middle-class (Roszak, 1970, p.2).

Theodore Roszak, one of the prominent writers of the counterculture, criticized the power of large organisations, which he defined as 'technocracies' (Roszak, 1970), in similar terms as Ivan Illich's Tools for Conviviality, published in 1973. The 1960's also saw the rapid popularization of DIY culture spreading from home improvements to home-schooling movements, homemade clothing and farming communities, to punk zine culture and publications like Stewart Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog in 1968 that taught people how to take on all sorts of everyday tasks (Gauntlett, 2011, p.52).

In 1961, the American activist Jane Jacobs suggested a description of a good life in The Death and Life of Great American Cities that considered the ordinary activities of the craftsmen in her neighbourhood as a foundation for a 'healthy community' (Brooks, 2000, p.128). Her writings were admired by both the bohemians and the bourgeois of the time, and still influence our views today. The experiential lifestyle of the bohemians that she depicted in the 1960's corresponds very much with Florida's Creative Class (Florida, 2002, p.193). Guy Debord, leader of the French anarchist Situationist movement, pushed the notion of experience even further by orchestrating situations where the audience would be actively involved. In his manifesto Society of Spectacle, Debord defends the idea that people need to break free from passivity in order to create a healthy social dialogue (Leadbeater, 2009, p.45). DIY, Pro-Ams and independent initiatives within publishing, as well as the current social media and participative channels such as YouTube are eloquent examples of this theory.

The hippies' expression was highly political. Written in 1964, Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media evoked the height of the counterculture: The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns. We are suddenly eager to have things and people declare their beings totally. There is a deep faith to be found in this new attitude â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a faith that concerns the ultimate harmony of all being. (McLuhan, 1994, pp.5-6).

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In the 1970's, Rozsika Parker wrote a manifesto elevating embroidery as a 'weapon of resistance' for women (Gauntlett, 2011, p.2). She saw in creative making the 'finding of form for thought' that induced 'a transformative impact on the sense of self' (p.68).

The craftsmanship values of today are definitely inherited from the 1960's counterculture (Leadbeater, 2009, p.6) and inspired by the Transcendentalist and Arts & Crafts traditions. But the young leaders of the current idealistic phase, with independent print publishing as one of its most convincing manifestations, are unprecedented in the way that they do not refute new technologies to go back to a pre-digital era, but rather make a skilful use of digital tools.

Reference List

•

Brooks, D. (2000) Bobos in paradise: the new upper class and how they got there. New York: Simon & Schuster.

•

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

•

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting: the social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: mass innovation, not mass production. 2nd ed.

London: Profile Books.

•

Levine, F. & Heimerl, C. (2008) Handmade nation: the rise of DIY, art, craft, and design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

•

McLuhan, M. (1994) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. Cambridge: MIT Press.

•

Morris, W. (2008) Useful work v. useless toil. London: Penguin Books.

•

Roszak, T. (1970) The making of a counter culture. London: Faber And Faber.

•

Ruskin, J. (2008) The lamp of memory. London: Penguin Books.

•

Sennett, R. (2008) The craftsman. London: Penguin Books.

•

Stansky, P. (1985) Redesigning the world: William Morris, the 1880s, and the Arts and Crafts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

•

Thoreau, H. D. (2005) Where I lived and what I lived for. London: Penguin Books.

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Chapter 3. Conceptual Framework From this review of the cultural and economic contemporary contexts, and of previous counter movements, craftsmanship appears to be the most accurate concept for understanding the revival of print and the emergence of new creative businesses within independent publishing. It is therefore important to survey its definition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; along with the connected concept of creativity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; before moving onto its methodological exploration.

Craftsmanship - from traditional to contemporary definitions The Romantics were the first to think of craftsmanship as an act of emancipation. In previous times, craftsmanship was simply regarded as the skill of working by hand with machines or tools (Sennett, 2008, p.118). In this research, the concept of craftsmanship will be taken from the Romantic era onward, using the Arts & Crafts' definition as a guide.

In The Seven Lamps of Architecture, written in 1849, John Ruskin characterizes craftsmanship as the act of 'doing something for its own sake' and 'embracing difficulty', and 'guidance from a time before machinery ruled' (p.113). To this definition, William Morris added the notions of pleasure and achievement in the act of making (Morris,

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2008, pp.2-3). The Arts & Crafts' idea of craftsmanship was a 'middle ground' (Sennett, 2008, p.117) between a professional and an amateur activity; which corresponds very much to Leadbeater's definition of the Pro-Ams. In the 1970's, Alex Osborne emphasized the intention and 'expressiveness' contained in craftsmanship, and exposed 'the genuine pride in the process of production itself, a pride which drives a man to make whatever things he makes as well as they can be made, even beyond economic considerations of reward' (Osborne, 1977, p.143). At the same time, Illich saw in craftsmanship the convivial 'freedom to make things among which [people] can live' (Illich, 1973, p.11).

Since, Richard Sennett has offered the most contemporary notion of craftsmanship.

He defines it as 'the special human condition of being engaged' (Sennett, 2008, p.20) and 'doing good work for its own sake' (p.38). Sennett broadens the scope of craftsmanship by looking beyond the 'manual skill of the carpenter's sort' (p.20) to all forms of perfected work in physical and digital contexts. For Sennett, the 'emotional reward' (p.21) of craftsmanship is dual, as it extends inward as a sense of self-definition and accomplishment in the mastery of tools and 'quality-driven work' (p.24), as well as outward, anchoring ourselves in tangible reality, leaving our mark (p.135) and 'input[ing] human qualities to a raw material' (p.120). In some respects, Sennett recognizes the social aspect of craftsmanship by pointing to the Greek word for craftsman, demioergos, 'a compound between public (demios) and productive (ergon)' (p.22). He argues that craftsmanship has become marginal in our society as a result of the perverse effects of our capitalist economy (demotivation, fracturation of skills, quality standards) (p.51), and can therefore be considered political, as a form of expression of one's citizenship (Gauntlett, 2011, p.24).

Craftsmanship, in light of creativity Throughout his analysis, Sennett refrains from using the word creativity because of its romantic connotation. The author believes in a craftsmanship that is pragmatic, and

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untouched by passion and pleasure, but rather acquired slowly through learning and repetition in making, and making well. But the manifestation of craftsmanship within independent publishing has flourished from creative ideas for new businesses and publications, and has been enlivened by strong morals and passions. Therefore it is essential to look at a definition of creativity that can complement the conceptual framework of craftsmanship for the methodological research to follow.

Creativity can be defined as 'the process of destroying one's gestalt in favour of a better one' (Wertheimer 1945 cited in Florida, 2002, p.31). Indeed, creativity often emerges from 'divergent thinking' (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010, p.20) through engagement with materials, techniques and ideas' (Charny, 2001, p.9), and operates as 'one of the engines of cultural evolution' (Runco, 2004, p.658). It is the creative 'drive to make things' (Gauntlett, p.20) that provides an 'individual sense of freedom and control in the world' (Margetts 2011 cited in Charny, 2011, p.9).

The middle ground between small and big creativity It is essential to point out that the study of creativity usually confronts two main perspectives: the value of 'big' economic creativity, and 'small everyday' cultural creativity. Both complement the definition of craftsmanship, and leave room for further exploration.

Richard Florida, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Charles Lumsden suggest a 'high impact' definition of creativity, which relies strongly on peer recognition, talent (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010, p.30), and favourable economic environments (p.23). Richard Florida speaks of a Creative Class, a concept explained earlier, which emphasizes the creative power of the elite, using individuals comparable to 'Steve Jobs' (Florida, 2000, p. xiv) driving the economy. At the other end of the spectrum, David Gauntlett argues in favour of creativity that focuses on the personal and collective 'experience' (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010, p.23) of making and reveals 'various emotions, such as excitement and frustration, but most especially, a feeling of joy'

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(Gauntlett, 2011, p.76). This definition of creativity weaves in many elements of craftsmanship (p.217).

This dual definition of creativity helps emphasize two important aspects of craftsmanship: transcending traditional ideas, and the pleasure of making. Both need to be taken into account within the research. And whilst these perspectives offer an interesting array elements to consider, the contemporary expression of craftsmanship within independent publishing seems to be sitting somewhere between small and big creativity, at a level that neither Florida nor Gauntlett consider: medium creativity in small independent professional contexts, and in Pro-Am initiatives. Also, Gauntlett opposes the 'mass-produced' to the 'homemade media', with no regard for independently made media (Gauntlett, 2011, p.236).

These definitions offer an interesting array of themes to investigate, but an overall limited view of craftsmanship as a contemporary cultural expression. In light of these considerations, while exploring the values of the independent print publishing community, the research will set out to fill the gaps in the definition in order to elaborate a renewed and reflexive interpretation of craftsmanship.

Reference List •

Charny, D. (ed.) (2011) Power of making: the importance of being skilled. London: V&A Publishing.

•

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

•

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting: the social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Illich, I. (1973) Tools for Conviviality. London: Calder & Boyars.

•

Kozbelt, A., Beghetto, R. A. & Runco, M. A. (2010) Theories of creativity. In: Kaufman, J. C. & Sternberg, R. J. eds. (2013) Handbook of creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.20-47.

•

Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: mass innovation, not mass production. 2nd ed.

London: Profile Books.

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•

Osborne, A. (1977) The aesthetic concept of craftsmanship. British Journal of Aesthetics. vol.17, pt.2, pp.138-148.

•

Runco, M. A. (2004) Theories of creativity. Annual Review of Physiology. vol.55, pt.1, pp.657-687.

•

Sennett, R. (2008) The craftsman. London: Penguin Books.

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Chapter 4. Methodology To further the findings of the literature review, the empirical research will answer the specific objectives of exemplifying the phenomenon and investigating its underlying values. Collecting empirical data brings a more complete and contemporary perspective to the subject, which only the testimony of experience can provide (Moustakas, 1994, p.21).

Values and Ethos as Conceptual Matter Values and ethos have emerged from the literature review as well as a conceptual framework to guide and determine which data is of concern in this research. For purpose of clarity, 'values' should be regarded as 'affective possibilities guiding thought and action that reside in our responsiveness and commitment to "situations" ' (Altieri 2013 cited in Wallace Stevens Journal, 2013) while an 'ethos' is 'the disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement [...]; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society' (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, 2010).

Values are also constructs (Biggam, 2011, p.137), often expressed in the form of cultural and social capital (Brooks, 2000; Bourdieu, 1984), and in this case, a window

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on a specific cultural expression. The importance of values as conceptual matter demands a particular methodology.

Phenomenology as Methodological Approach Empirical Phenomenological Research, or Phenomenology, is the most suited approach and method of portraying the underlying values and meaning of a phenomenon (Moustakas, 1994, p.11). It is a qualitative and inductive method that describes 'the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon' (Creswell, 2013, pp.57-58) to come out with a description of its 'universal essence' (ibid). Phenomenology is interested in the meaning of experience (Moustakas, 1994, p.21), intentionality (p.28) and 'the subjectivity of other persons' (Englander, 2012, p.15) in the expression of their memories, perceptions, feelings, wishes and judgements (Moustakas, 1994, p.29). These can reflect both 'social meaning and personal significance' (p.104). The method embraces a research subject as a whole and surveys a variety of perspectives by giving them equal value (Moustakas, 1994, p.180), so as not to fall into the trap of fitting the findings into specific theoretical propositions. In this research, propositions have not been elaborated on purpose to allow for exploration.

Phenomenology is an approach that grows from a wide range of perspectives, some of which have been criticized and discredited in the past, especially in their most radical forms (Moustakas, 1994, p.25). Bourdieu accused the method of being unable to truly address social conditionings by concentrating 'too heavily on the immediate experience of the individual and his own interpretations of the social world', (Throop & Murphy, 2002, p.195), although researchers have proven that once his 'overly deterministic' theory was tempered, Bourdieu's notion of habitus and phenomenology have a lot in common (Throop & Murphy, 2002, p.198). But, within the context of this research, the 'common grounds' (Creswell, 2013, p.58) of the phenomenology philosophies will serve as a simple methodological guideline and 'interpretative process' (p.59) rather than a paradigm overlooking the entire research.

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Blueprint & Data Collection Strategy The data collection strategy will focus on obtaining 'na誰ve' and spontaneous descriptions (Moustakas, 1994, p.14) through informal conversations (p.114), openended and broad questions (p.116) and long 'topical guided interviews' (Moustakas, 1994, p.181) reporting 'first-person [...] life experiences' (p.84). These will not only include creative businesses, which are the core of the research, but also address the independent publishing community as a whole in order to get a more varied set of perspectives. As a result, the data collection's blueprint will consist of: o Face-to-face interviews with founders of creative businesses within independent publishing (5); o Questionnaires to independent print magazine publishers (7), publishing houses (2) and self-published authors/artists (7); o Questionnaires to readers of independent print publications (42).

Limitation With respect to the creative business McNally Jackson, an interviewee based in New York and unavailable for a recorded interview, a mini-case study will be conducted as a replacement (Appendix III, p.102). But, altogether, the lengthy interviews (from 30 minutes up to an hour each), case study and numerous questionnaires should provide a substantial overview of the rise of creative businesses and independent print publishing and an encompassing range of findings.

Research Design Research Subjects & Sampling A stratified sampling will break down the publishing community between strata (creative businesses, publishers and readers), and 'purposefully selected' samples (Creswell, 2009, p.178) will be taken from each group (Biggam, 2011, p.133). Their

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purposefulness will be defined both by the 'representativeness' of the community, as well as the 'heterogeneity' of experiences and testimonies (Maxwell, p.98). The sampling is neither based on randomness nor probability, but 'selected deliberately' (Maxwell, 2013, p.97) from a pool of founders of new businesses (past 5 years), independent print magazines, publishing houses and self-published authors and artists contacted for their relevant experience, and an invitation sent to 300 people specifying the need for independent print readers. All research subjects are part of the new active working class (20-45 years old), and located in North America or Europe.

Interview & Questionnaire Design The

semi-structured

recorded

interviews

and

the

self-completed

written

questionnaires will be designed after a list of structural themes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a common practice with phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994, p.181) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; derived from the literature review and conceptual framework and falling under three main subject matters: the revival of print, creative businesses and their links to craftsmanship and creativity.

Structural themes are as follow: o Self depiction and personal experiences; o Cultural, technological and economic context; o Community and relationships; o The medium of print; o Digital publishing platforms and tools; o Relation to DIY culture and craftsmanship in general life context.

More limiting in form, the written questionnaire will leave room for short but complex descriptive answers (Robson, 1993, p.247; Englander, 2012, p.15). When given multiple choices, these will cover a wide range of perspectives. Lastly, when suggested a stance on a subject, the questionnaire will make 'use of forced choice rather than "agree/disagree" statements' (Robson, 1993, p.249). (Appendix IV, p.105).

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Interview Protocol & Laddering Technique The researcher has established an interview protocol, which will consist of: asking the interviewee for the permission to record; briefly introducing the research in general terms; and start off the interview with a 'warm up' question (Robson, 1993, p.234) about the story behind the creation of their business to establish a narrative conversation (Gibbs, 2007, p.60).

During the interviews, the laddering technique (Gutman & Reynolds, 1988) will help unveil the values behind the interviewees' descriptions, perception of experiences and use of concepts. The ladder interview works like the pealing of layers, by starting with a general question about one's experience and gradually querying specifications about the meaning of and the reasons for certain answers.

Framework for data analysis: thematic coding Once all of the data is gathered, the researcher will make use of the same structural themes to systematically filter the information (Creswell, 2009, p.175; Maxwell, 2013, p.104). Themes, in phenomenological analysis, refer to the codes and categories for analysis (Gibbs, 2007, p.39). This also means 'horizontalizing the data' (Moustakas, p.118) to expose all perspectives and 'polarities and reversals' (p.97) of opinions (Maxwell, 2013, p.106).

Phenomenological research focuses mainly on 'the analysis of significant statements' and the use of subjective concepts and terms (p.184). These can derive from the description of 'specific acts', 'events', 'practices', 'meanings' and 'symbols' (Gibbs, 2007, p.47). This data will help cluster and synthesise 'meanings and essences' by identifying information that falls within predetermined themes (Biggam, 2011, p.159), as well as emerging themes, codes and patterns (Creswell, 2009, p.187); and a review of linguistic terms used by the participants throughout the research will be compiled (Appendix V, p.134). Labels of important concepts will also be used to support the coding process

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(Appendices II & IV, pp.66,105). As the coding, 'the process of organizing the material into chunks or segments of text before bringing meaning to information' (Rossman & Rallis 1998 cited in Creswell, 2009, p.186) progresses, 'composite description of the essence' (Creswell, 2013, p.58) of the findings will shape up and provide a new grid to review the terms of the phenomenon and, consequently, suggest an 'external generalization' (Maxwell, 2013, p.137) of the definition of craftsmanship.

Validity Phenomenology insists on the importance for the researcher to be self-reflexive (Maxwell, 2013, p.125) and to recognize his own subjectivity (Englander, 2012, p.25).

In that context, the researcher has made the decision to interview participants with whom she did not previously have contacts, to reduce his personal influence. Also, it is important for the researcher to embrace each interview with a 'receptive presence' (Moustakas, 1994, p.180) and to be open to 'negative or discrepant information that runs counter to the themes' (Creswell, 2009, p.191; Maxwell, 2013, p.127) in order to limit his control over the research (Maxwell, 2013, p.124).

In terms of external validity, the researcher made sure to follow the same protocol for all interviews and questionnaires to insure consistency in data collection (p.190).

The use of the laddering technique, as described above, is also meant to let the responses emerge naturally and elude defensiveness (Yin, 2003, p.90).

Reference List §

Biggam, J. (2011) Succeeding with your master's dissertation: a step-by-step handbook. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

§

Creswell, J. W. (2009) Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications.

§

Creswell, J. W. (2013) Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications.

§

Englander, M. (2012) The interview: data collection in descriptive phenomenological human Scientific Research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology. vol.43, pp.13-35.

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§

(n.d.) (2010) Ethos. In: Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. London: Random House [Internet]. Available from: <www.thefreedictionary.com/ ethos> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

§

Gibbs, G. (2007) Analyzing qualitative data. London: SAGE Publications.

§

Izenberg, O. (2013) Wallace Stevens and the demands of modernity: toward a phenomenology of value by Charles Altieri (review). Wallace Stevens Journal. vol.37, pt.1, pp.108-110.

§

Maxwell, J. A. (2013) Qualitative research design: an interactive approach. 3rd ed.

London: SAGE Publications.

§

Moustakas, C. (1994) Phenomenological research methods. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications.

§

Orna, E. & Stevens, G. (1995) Managing information for research. Buckingham: Open University Press.

§

Reynolds, T. J. & Gutman, J. (1988) Laddering theory, method, analysis, and interpretation.

Journal of Advertising Research. February/March, vol. 28, pt.1, pp.11-31.

§

Robson, C. (2011) Real world research. 3rd ed. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

§

Throop, C. J. & Murphy, K. M. (2002) Bourdieu and Phenomenology: a critical assessment.

Anthropological Theory. vol.2, pt.2, pp.185-207.

§

Yin, R. (2003) Case Study Research. 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications.

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Chapter 5. Findings Analysis This chapter will summarise the findings relevant to the independent publishing phenomenon and craftsmanship, in correlation with the discourse from the literature review and the conceptual framework. It will follow the thematic structure prescribed by the methodology and reconsider the arguments exposed throughout the research.

Also, a systematic compilation of the participant's usage of linguistic terms is annexed (Appendix I, p.63).

Rooting themselves in different domains within independent print publishing, the five interviewed businesses offered complementary perspectives that helped draw a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon, and review all elements of the definition of craftsmanship. Of varied natures, the businesses ranged from: Stack, a subscription to independent print magazines; Newspaper Club, a DIY print platform for independent newspapers; Magpile and Maggly, an online promotion platform for print magazines and a website template for magazines; AND Publishing, a print-on-demand consultancy, research and publishing platform, and Self Publish Be Happy, a curatorial platform for self-published photography books (Appendices I & II, pp.63-101). A small case study was also completed on McNally Jackson, an independent bookstore equipped with an Espresso Print Machine (Appendix III, p.102). The independent magazines (Appendix IV, p.105), independent publishing houses (Appendix IV, p.113), self-

44

published authors and artists (Appendix IV, p.116), and aggregate of 42 readers (Appendix IV, p.123) also gave conclusive insights.

The Conviviality of the Digital Medium The ubiquity of the digital medium within independent print publishing is undeniable in light of the research. Publishers and businesses make extensive use of digital tools to publish and operate their businesses. For Mörel Books, 'everything is done digitally — from scanning to layout to proofing to uploading to even printing out stamps to post books.' (Mörel Books to Métayer, 2013). And the digital tools enable just as many sharing and connecting possibilities (Gauntlett, 2011). A vast majority of the readers (79%) connect with magazines in print via their digital platforms. And the surveyed magazines and publishing houses consider those tools essential to their promotion and distribution. The magazine Offscreen sells 85% of its print copies online whilst Shoppinghour uses Facebook and Twitter to sustain their relationships with their readers and community. 'For smaller efforts with small budgets such as ours, advertising large scale is not an option. The Internet provides tools for us to do things we would otherwise not be able to afford' (Shoppinghour to Métayer, 2013). In the case of the newly published newspaper Intern, the crowd-funding site Kickstarter was 'instrumental in the project's development' (Intern to Métayer, 2013). For businesses, the digital medium is fundamental to their existence and activities. Newspaper Club operates and communicates solely via digital interfaces whilst social media is 'a fundamental part' of Self-Publish Be Happy (Ceschel to Métayer, 2013). Its founder, Bruno Ceschel, says it is even 'what prompted SPBH to become an ongoing project' when they noticed 'thousands and thousands of people gathering' on their first blog (Ceschel to Métayer, 2013).

In all these examples, conviviality (Illich, 1973) is eloquent, and contrasts with Sennett's difficult mastery of tools. Effectively, one of the reasons for creating a business was, for all interviewees, to make things easier for the publishers and readers.

With Stack, Watson wanted to 'take away the barrier for entry, take away the fact that

45

you have to work hard to go and find these magazines' (Watson to Métayer, 2013). As for Newspaper Club, the founders wanted to break off the difficulty of working with newspaper printers (Taylor to Métayer, 2013).

The findings validate the idea of creative businesses as convivial platforms for independent publishing. This is manifest especially in their inclusive nature, and the assistance and visibility that they offer. All of the businesses interviewed gave encompassing definitions of the types of publications they support. 'We are happy to include a zine that has been made with a printer at home in only 20 or 30 copies as well as an expensively offset hardback cover book produced in 1000 or 2000 copies' says Bruno Ceschel (to Métayer, 2013). Similarly, the Newspaper Club proudly asserts that it can now print an order from 1 to thousands of copies. As for the support they give to publishers, Maggly helps magazines 'to create their websites whenever they want' (Rowden to Métayer, 2013) whilst Newspaper Club also takes in self- publishing initiatives by 'helping people make and print their own newspapers' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013). As for Self Publish Be Happy and AND Publishing, they offer consultancy in that domain. In the SPBH workshops, 'A lot of artists get in touch with us because they need support into figuring out how to publish their book' says Ceschel (to Métayer, 2013). But beyond the tools that are offered to the attendees, what is advocated is the empowering thought that publishing is accessible to everyone by giving a 'glimpse of possibilities' (Ceschel to Métayer, 2013). In all cases, the creative businesses also give great visibility to independently published works on their websites, social media activities and through distribution. The vast majority of the magazines interviewed (85%) have used the services of at least one of the interviewed creative businesses, whilst both publishing houses have either used or considered their services.

A digital culture of expression, in print The conviviality, or 'coolness', of digital tools and platforms is definitely stimulating print publishing activities. Stack's founder, Steve Watson, is convinced that the current flowering of creativity within independent print publishing has to do with the fact that

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'more people out there now [...] are able to use InDesign, to make a good-looking magazine with their ideas out there. It's comparatively cheap and easy to print magazines these days' (Watson to Métayer, 2013). He also playfully compares publishing in print as a 'gateway drug': 'blogging and stuff, it doesn't cost you anything.

But then you end up throwing your money away printing magazines' (Watson to Métayer, 2013). Newspaper Club is also noticing the hype surrounding 'people wanting to see their writing and their work in print' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013).

The emergence of a prolific number of publications in recent years truly reflects the Long Tail theory of niches. In this research, when asked about their favourite independent print magazines, only 2 readers out of 39 mentioned the same title (Fantastic Man). These 38 titles added to the 7 surveyed in the research make for an impressive eclecticism. And most of the readers (76%) who enjoy independent magazines or newspapers in print also buy independent or self-published books.

These publications often make creative use of the book or magazine medium, and even more with newsprint, traditionally reserved for daily news. Newspaper Club wishes to bring 'people out of that mindset' and start innovating with the design of newsprint. As for the content, most independent publications 'tend to look at subjects from interesting, less obvious angles' (Anonymous reader to Métayer, 2013). The term 'perspective' was used abundantly by readers to pinpoint the 'socially engaging, progressive' and 'critical' nature of the publications they enjoy (Anonymous reader to Métayer, 2013) (Appendix V, p.134).

This passion for independent publications is also shared between the publishers themselves, who foster a 'real sense of solidarity among small independent publishers' (Delayed Gratification to Métayer, 2013), which is 'one of the best parts of publishing’ according to Mörel Books (to Métayer, 2013). For Shoppinghour (to Métayer, 2013), 'the magazine started with friendship at its core and [is] committed to growing this friendship into a community that includes not just the editors but also our contributors and readers'. Many of the participants acknowledge the value of social capital, which

47

reflects Bauman (2005) and Brooks' (2000) idea of the need to rebuild a sense of community.

Many of the creative businesses reward readers by giving them empowering tools to self-publish, and also in the case of Magpile, to take upon the role of the editor. Dan Rowden explains that the name Magpile 'comes from each user having his own pile of magazines of which ones they own, which ones they want in their wish list'. And the entrepreneur wishes to get the users more involved in running the site: 'I want it to be a community driven thing.' (Rowden to MĂŠtayer, 2013) As a result, an impressive majority of readers surveyed said that they were tempted to self-publish (52%). These passionate readers are often the ones who decide to launch a magazine or a new imprint, and become Pro-Ams. Likewise, most business founders started out of personal endeavours. Rowden from Magpile had never worked within any publishing capacity before he launched his start-up. 'It initially started off as a personal project. I wanted to keep track of the magazines that I owned so I just built this quick tool that let me list the magazines.' (Rowden to MĂŠtayer, 2013) It was a similar scenario for the co-founder of Newspaper Club, Tom Taylor, who explains that before launching Newspaper Club he was working as a freelancer on the web, and building things for companies that often 'came from doing silly projects for [him]self' whilst the initiative that started the company was Things Are Friends, 'a collection of blog posts from a bunch of [...] friends [...] designed to be a Christmas gift' (Taylor to MĂŠtayer, 2013).

These personal shifts into professional activities explain why the pleasure in the making, the passion and the care for quality, in other words craftsmanship, is at the heart of this community. Dan Rowden is amazed by the fact that every magazine is run by such small teams, 'but you know that you're going to get a good magazine out of it. [...] Even if it's just one person' (Rowden, 2013).

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The new crafted nature and the symbolic of print With this culture of creative expression emerging from the Web, one can wonder why these young independents decide to engage with print, and embrace craftsmanship values. McLuhan's theory of the reversing of the mediums ultimately predicted that the Web would become the new mass media, and that, as a result, digital culture would excite a revival of print in renewed forms. In her interview, Eva Weinmayr made an interesting Macluhanesque allusion to how print simultaneously became a mass media and closed medium with lithographic printing, and how it is now regaining freedom for creative experimentation, thanks to the help of digital tools. 'Because you send your PDF today to Lulu and tomorrow you send a different one according to what your reader said. [...] I feel that what we are exploring with print-on-demand what happens when the book isn't as resolved anymore.' (Weinmayr to Métayer, 2013) And as a result of the medium changing, Tom Taylor of Newspaper Club says: 'Timely news content [...] doesn't need to exist in print anymore. But in terms of stuff that is thoughtful, contemplative [...], I think there will be a role for print for quite a long time.' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013) The newsprint as a medium is one of the most affected in the mainstream, but gaining in popularity within independent publishing. It is the quick, cheap and dirty form of print, and 'feels like a good parallel for the Web' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013).

When asked why they buy in print, the greater majority of readers called on the importance of the physicality (88%) of independent publications in all forms. They evoked their personal relation to print in various terms (Appendix V, p.134) relating to the tactility, the materiality, the design and the great attention to detail. One reader sums up: 'Where I think print will survive is through unique hand touched objects made with love.' (Anonymous Reader to Métayer, 2013). As for independent magazines, they value 'the beautiful, tactile, highly collectible [aspect of] print products' (Little White Lies to Métayer, 2013), their 'physical presence and aura' (Shoppinghour to Métayer, 2013), and, curiously enough, the 'imperfection of print' (Pie to Métayer, 2013).

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This is an important point because the physicality of an object evokes the fact that it was fabricated, and in the case of independent publications, often in limited editions or by hand. In his day, Ruskin (2008) infused the definition of craftsmanship with the idea of acknowledging the making, the efforts and the human thought in the process by celebrating imperfections in the work. Interestingly, Tom Taylor refers to this very idea when asked in the interview why he works: 'to have made something that is your own, you don't care about the quality as much. [...] it's the magic of making it that weighs more.' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013) As for the self-published artists and writers, when asked what they enjoy the most about making a publication in print, they evoke similar terms, such as 'control', 'involvement', 'process', 'satisfaction', 'working with my hands', and 'holding the fruit of your labours' (Anonymous Self-Published Authors/Artists to Métayer, 2013). These notions are central to craftsmanship, and also relate to the experiential lifestyle defined in the literature review (Richard Florida, 2002; David Brooks, 2000). For Intern (to Métayer, 2013), 'It is great to experience the manifestation of all the hard work, considerations and passion that goes into creating that final artifact.' And the experience of physicality itself, the smell and touch, is something that 'we're starting to miss' according to the magazine Offscreen (to Métayer, 2013).

Making a physical publication also means, for the participants, getting involved in the process and establishing one's presence. Tom Taylor speaks of the satisfaction of 'someone seeing his or her work made physical.' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013), and tells the interesting story of his meeting with journalists from The Guardian to whom he presented a newspaper dummy made the day earlier. These journalists, remote from the process of making the newspaper they had been working at for years, as Sennett describes, were blown away: ' "Wow you made a newspaper, how did that happen?"

These were journalists who made a newspaper every single day' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013). This is the reason why Newspaper Club tries to show the process of making their newspapers to the clients who order them, so that they can feel close to it.

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For AND Publishing, the physical presence of publications also makes a statement.

Books and magazines 'are objects, which exist in the world, and their physical presence cannot be denied. [...] So the book might feel a bit old-fashioned in this whole discussion but there is something about it, which makes it really autonomous and independent. So that would be the political stance to it.' (Weinmayr, 2013) Independent print publishing as countercultural expression From the different perspectives they present in content, and their innovative approach to the materiality of print, new and independent publications are making a statement of some social, cultural and political nature and deliberately offering alternatives to the mainstream. As a community, they seem to gather as a form of countercultural expression. This is also true of the creative businesses interviewed as part of this research. The founders did not explicitly associate the launch of their business with specific contexts, but their stories all evoked a creative response to the inadequacy of traditional publishing and consumerist capitalism. 'I quit my job that I had with Chris Boot because I found the limitations of traditional trade frustrating and not fulfilling' says Ceschel, who got the idea for Self Publish Be Happy from noticing 'a wave of self-publishing artist initiatives.' 'The traditional trade became quite conservative. That has to do with a financial crisis [...] the business models were changing and the distribution was changing. [...] That left space for other people to be more adventurous and especially when they are not confined in certain kinds of expectations.' (Ceschel to MĂŠtayer, 2013) Watson had similar motives for starting Stack. The founder and editor was working for traditional inflight magazines and seeing small writers struggle behind bigger names to find work: 'I basically saw the journalism business going in one direction and I remember thinking 'I wanted to start my own business.' (Watson to MĂŠtayer, 2013) Newspaper Club wanted to give people the opportunity to create things with newspapers that were not 'even comparable to daily newspapers' (Taylor to MĂŠtayer, 2013) and to redefine newsprint in a more contemporary setting, remote from the constraints of daily newsprint. Newspaper Club was deciding to send this message: ' "We've broken your businesses and now we want

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your machines", which is a slightly crude way of saying that the Internet is making newsprint obsolete – and that 'the problem with print, it's not the print. It's the business model attached to it. [We wanted] to give people another option that is free of the weird complex legacy of business models that print has gotten itself wrapped up in for the 400 years.' (Taylor to Métayer, 2013) These operations have chosen to embrace hybrid business forms that are difficult to define and that purposefully do not comply with the established publishing structures.

'We say publishing activity because we don't take the traditional boxes of the publishing house. Because everything is so open, we would like to keep the name open. The whole publishing industry is changing.' says AND Publishing (Weinmayr, 2013). Ceschel also speaks of Self Publish Be Happy as an 'hybrid organisation', which includes a curated collection of self-published books, an online promotion platform, workshops and a 'travelling library'. When asked if they feel like they are redefining traditional publishing roles in a more open and democratized setting, the creative businesses all agreed they were, though did not openly claim so.

The creative entrepreneurs' expression of countercultural values extends beyond publishing, and is often articulated against what Bauman qualifies as 'Liquid Life', and in favour of a return to craftsmanship and DIY. 'I had a box of organic vegetables and meat delivered this morning. And that's because I care about the idea of things not being produced at a mass scale, which actually harms the product and harms the world', says Watson (to Métayer, 2013). Weinmayr supports the DIY expression on all levels, especially in education with a 'model of people taking things in their own hands' (to Métayer, 2013). Rowden from Magpile/Maggly observes a reaction against the digitalizing of many aspects of our life in how so many decide to 'go back to gardening and making their own food' and that it is in that mindset that many 'independent magazines are produced against the grain' (Rowden to Métayer, 2013). The magazine Offscreen draws a similar parallel by associating the DIY ethos of 'growing your own veggies to making your own mag' (Offscreen to Métayer, 2013) and Shoppinghour

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Magazine with ‘a real way of living [that] we should celebrate every minute of' (to Métayer, 2013).

As expected, self-published authors and artists strongly identified with craftsmanship and DIY as a way of life. And for the readers, the vast majority feels part of a DIY movement or community, which they identify as a true way of life rather than a fashion.

One reader comments: 'I see it as a way of living. I feel like I'm a part of that community as a consumer for now, maybe as a maker later' (Anonymous reader to Métayer, 2013).

Review of Arguments to consider Bourdieu would certainly depict this emerging cultural class as a new dominating cultural elite. The research does point in this direction, as all of the participants show in their responses that they are well educated, open-minded, curious and socially aware.

But the fact that giving accessibility to anyone to get involved in publishing was the main motive for the creation of all businesses, and that they are part of a community growing on the fringe of society -- culturally and economically -- confirms that Bourdieu's analytical grid is too rigid and pessimistic. That said, being marginal and alternative does carry certain risks for these niche communities of 'pigeon-holing themselves and becoming self-indulgent', and that is why they should remain 'a viable and widespread alternative to bland, profit-driven mass-production, not an elite circle of people removing themselves from a world of drone consumers', as a reader suggests (Anonymous reader to Métayer, 2013).

Bauman evoked such concern with his notion of 'consumerist syndrome' (Bauman, 2005, p.62), which associates obsessive consumerism and individualism with cultural capital and identity. Although the majority of readers in this research did associate buying print publications because they identify with them aesthetically (62%) and editorially (64%), they seem to be wanting to connect with a like-minded community of

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people, and their reasons for buying are anchored in slow and conscious consumerism, which partly resolves Bauman's concern.

Brooks speaks of a new cultural class unable to commit to anything but individualistic and experiential goals. However, even though it does not actively engage with the dominant social structures, the findings show that it is deeply passionate and striving to find new alternate forms of committing themselves.

Reference List §

Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

§

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction. London: Routledge.

§

Brooks, D. (2000) Bobos in paradise: the new upper class and how they got there. New York: Simon & Schuster.

§

Florida, R. (2002) The rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

§

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is connecting: the social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

§

Illich, I. (1973) Tools for Conviviality. London: Calder & Boyars.

§

Ruskin, J. (2008) The lamp of memory. London: Penguin Books.

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Chapter 6. Final Discussion Towards a new definition of craftsmanship within independent publishing The empirical research has helped establish and validate the presence of a new type of creative business supporting independent print initiatives. Moreover, craftsmanship has proven to be the ideal conceptual framework to help define and understand the values and the ethos underlying this phenomenon. And in return, these contemporary creative manifestations of craftsmanship within publishing can help suggest new elements of the definition of the concept.

Craftsmanship as a Creative Response Craftsmanship has traditionally been perceived as the learning of an established skill or craft and did not encompass creativity, understood as the transcending of structures and ideas. But for all of the creative businesses, publishers and even the readers interviewed in this research, the value and practice of craftsmanship rests upon a creative response to the deficiencies of the traditional publishing culture. This type of creativity, developed in small professional contexts and in the margins of the system, does not fit Gauntlett's (2011) small creativity nor Florida's (2002) big creativity, but rather a medium level of creativity. This countercultural expression was also true of the previous manifestations of craftsmanship, as illustrated in the literature review.

Therefore, a notion of 'creative response' could be introduced in the contemporary definition of craftsmanship.

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Craftsmanship as an Expression of Cultural Capital As illustrated by Zygmunt Bauman (2005), identity, cultural capital and creative expression are important elements of our contemporary times. The publishing, selfpublishing and consumption of independently made publications as well as establishing a creative business within the field are all ways of expressing one's ideas and aesthetic, social, cultural and political stances. Craftsmanship has been defined in the past as an expression of pride (Osborne, 1977) and good citizenship (Sennett, 2008), but it is definitely now taking the additional role of asserting identity and cultural capital.

Craftsmanship as the Symbol of Making Making is at the heart of craftsmanship. It ties the intention with the process, and the satisfaction of a completed object made by oneself. But with digital and print mediums evolving, the making of a blog is now as engaging as the making of a publication by hand, or orchestrated using print-on-demand technology. Independent publishers in print, as well as creative businesses, are deeply involved and interested in the making of independent publications. They relate to it through a whole progression of abstract and fluid concepts: engagement, intention, purpose, expression, process and presence.

Richard Sennett does consider the contemporary forms of making digitally with the example of the open source software Linux (Sennett, 2008, pp.24-27) and not solely the handcraft; he leaves out that making in our contemporary culture has symbolic value. It is a way to establish one's presence and make a statement, in a world where we are losing touch with the process of how things are made. Therefore, the revival of making in print is an expression of craftsmanship in its literal sense, but also a symbolic act.

Craftsmanship and the Use of Convivial Tools Tools are a core part of the craftsmanship practice and ethos. In their traditional and contemporary definitions, the craftsman's tools induce struggle and energy (Ruskin,

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2008) and they require a learning process to succeed in their mastery (Sennett, 2008), which challenges the maker to develop the right set of skills to overcome them. But with the recent digital shift, tools for making, sharing and connecting (Gauntlett, 2011), which the literature review and empirical research have proven to be 'convivial' (Illich, 1973), they have become an essential part of what independent publishers and entrepreneurs use to produce their work and print publications. These tools are rendering the making easier, more inclusive and accessible. Digital tools are also an invitation to explore and innovate within the canvas of print. Pleasure and passion are an essential part of the creative work of independent publishers, as well as the promise of quality and authenticity. As shown in this research, the new creative businesses' platforms also demonstrate 'convivial' qualities that foster what Ivan Illich would refer to as the 'triadic relationship between persons, tools, and a new collectivity' (Illich, 1973, p. xii).

Craftsmanship as communality Until now, craftsmanship has been associated until with the craftsmenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s individual act of making. Despite the recognition by Richard Sennett of a certain form of connectedness between makers as citizens, the communal nature of craftsmanship has not yet been considered. This research shows that people dive into the craft of independent publishing because making in print is a way of bonding with others and rebuilding a form of social capital. The makers of today 'need to feel that they exist in something larger, a community within a "social fabric" ' (Gauntlett, 2011, p.127).

Therefore publishing takes new collaborative forms, and cultivates a strong sense of solidarity. Even the existence of creative businesses rests on the assumption that valuing craftsmanship within independent publishing can foster communities. Therefore, the contemporary definition of craftsmanship should include communality.

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Craftsmanship as empowerment Illich raised the interesting question of the role that objects play in our lives 'and what meaning they embody' (Illich in Gauntlett, 2011, p.167). Craftsmanship as an ethos and a practice is the very idea of giving meaning and authentic value to what we make and own. This sentiment was consistent throughout the narrative of the creative businesses, publishers and readers. All participants gave passionate descriptions of the publications they make or consume, and the communities they actively engage with.

This is because independent print in our current time is becoming the symbolic of an empowered expression. Indeed, the notion of 'empowerment' overlooked the most meaningful findings of this research, among them: the desire for creative expression and making, for establishing one's presence, for being in control of the publishing process, for choosing to go against current, for starting a creative business on brand new grounds, and for rebuilding social capital through publishing.

Reference List §

Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

§

Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class: And how it's transforming work, leisure, community, & everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

§

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

§

Illich, I. (1973) Tools for Conviviality. London: Calder & Boyars.

§

Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: Mass Innovation, Not Mass Production. 2nd ed. London: Profile Books.

§

Osborne, A. (1977) The Aesthetic Concept of Craftsmanship. British Journal of Aesthetics. vol.17, pt.2, pp.138-148.

§

Ruskin, J. (2008) The Lamp of Memory. London: Penguin Books.

§

Sennett, R. (2008) The Craftsman. London: Penguin Books.

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Chapter 7. Conclusion The literature review and empirical research intended to give an encompassing depiction and contextualisation of the emergence of new creative businesses associated with the resurgence of print, and define an appropriate linguistic and cultural framework around the concept of craftsmanship that exposes the phenomenon's ethos, meaning and a new and exciting realm of possibilities for independent publishing. The new elements of craftsmanship considered in the final discussion helped refine the phenomenon's understanding.

The creative businesses holding the reins of the print revival within independent publishing are playing 'a critical role in promoting social cohesion and a sense of belonging' (Leadbeater & Oakley, 1999, p.17) and building a sustainable ecosystem of publishers, self-published individuals and readers that cultivate craftsmanship and DIY values. The 'creative capacity' with which these businesses are adapting to the new realities of print publishing in proposing alternative ways of making, connecting and operating is meaningful for the future of the field itself, but also on cultural and social levels â&#x2C6;&#x2019; 'and therefore political' (Gauntlett, 2011, p.19). This phenomenon is opening the door to a coherent countercultural expression that is already transcending social, cultural and economic structures and defying the 'liquidisation' of our social, cultural and professional practices by enabling a 'participative consumer culture' (Leadbeater, 2009, p.98). Within independent publishing, this is palpable in the involvement,

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pleasure, dedication and creative willpower of its actors, and foretells a promising future for independent publishing in print.

Ivan Illich insisted that 'progress should mean growing competence in self-care rather than growing dependence' (Illich, 1973, p.35) and enabling a shared knowledge and understanding of the world. The wave of print initiatives and the emergence of creative businesses within independent publishing are a manifestation of just how innovative and empowered a culture can be when given the tools to exist in the world not only as mere workers and consumers, but as makers and citizens. 'The care that we take in making something properly is cousin to a care and concern for our environment and its future.' (Miller 2011 cited in Charny, 2011, p.22) Whilst conducting research on this undocumented phenomenon within publishing, the researcher discovered a complex and dynamic realm of themes to explore, and the highly invested views of the independent publishing community on the future of the field. Now that this research has established the cultural value and portrait of these businesses, as well as the craftsmanship-infused environment that they operate within, future research could look more closely at their business models and their potential role in the sustainability of independent print publishing.

Reference List

•

Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction. London: Routledge.

•

Brooks, D. (2000) Bobos in paradise: the new upper class and how they got there. New York: Simon & Schuster.

•

Charny, D. (ed.) (2011) Power of making: the importance of being skilled. London: V&A Publishing.

•

Gauntlett, D. (2011) Making is Connecting: The Social Meaning of creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

•

Illich, I. (1973) Tools for Conviviality. London: Calder & Boyars.

•

Leadbeater, C. (2009) We-Think: mass innovation, not mass production. 2nd ed.

London: Profile Books.

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•

Leadbeater, C. & Miller, P. (2004) The Pro-Am revolution: how enthusiasts are changing our economy and society. London: Demos.

•

Leadbeater, C. & Oakley, K. (1999) The Independents: Britain’s new cultural entrepreneurs. London: Demos.

•

Osborne, A. (1977) The aesthetic concept of craftsmanship. British Journal of Aesthetics. vol.17, pt.2, pp.138-148.

•

Sennett, R. (2008) The craftsman. London: Penguin Books.

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Chapter 8. Appendices Appendix I –

Visual Research & Concept Maps

Appendix II –

Portraits of new creative companies within independent publishing

Appendix III –

Interviews | Summary of transcripts | Transcripts

Appendix IV –

Mini-Case Study: McNally Jackson

Appendix V –

Questionnaires | Participant Profiles | Summary of collection

Appendix VI –

Wordcloud summary of participants' usage of terms

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Appendix I Portraits of new creative companies within independent publishing Stack Founded in 2008 by Steven Watson and operating from London, Stack is a subscription service that delivers a different English language independent magazine in print every month. The delivery is a surprise and is meant to be a discovery and recommendation tool. The magazines are handpicked from an international selection of beautifully crafted magazines that offer fresh perspectives on a range of subjects. Stack widely uses digital platforms, and makes use of social media and its website to enhance the visibility of those magazines. www.stackmagazines.com Newspaper Club Newspaper Club is a unique printing service, launched in 2009, that allows to make newspapers online using a free online layout tools and with the support of a team of experts and get them printer in 1 or thousands of copies. Newspaper Club works in partnerships with daily news printing presses and uses their downtime to print and ship its orders on a weekly basis. It allows for various uses of regular print-on-demand publishing or special editions for independent and mainstream publishers, selfpublishing projects, artists projects and birthday or wedding invitations. Newspaper Club also promotes the publications they print on the website and social media platforms, and should soon add an online store to their business model. The company is also developing a partnership with The Guardian in printing a weekly customised newspaper for its readers. Tom Taylor is one of the three co-founders. www.newspaperclub.com

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Magpile Founded in 2012, Magpile is a unique promotion and distribution platform for print and digital magazines where publishers can freely subscribe to showcase and sell their magazines whilst readers can review, buy and make lists of their favourite titles. It is very popular with small independent niched publications and a community of savvy and creative readers. The website is a recommendation tool and place to discover new magazines. Magpile is also intended to be a wiki style archive and database of print and digital magazines that is community based, and Dan Rowden, the founder wishes to involve more readers in the managing and editing of the platform. www.magpile.com Maggly Maggly is a new and simple tool, also created by Dan Rowden in 2013, that allows magazines to make a website using an online template and platform. It is intended for independents that do not have the resources or the knowledge for building complex websites, and gives them ready-made and customizable pre-built themes to do so. It allows them, for a basic monthly fee (ÂŁ8), to set up a website with all of the necessary components (issue archive, blog, stockist page, features, etc.) in only a few minutes, maintain and update it regularly. Maggly will soon also be offering online tools to create digital magazines from scratch. www.maggly.com AND Publishing Lynn Harris and Eva Weinmayr created AND Publishing in 2009. It is a research-based publishing platform that explores the possibilities and issues surrounding print-ondemand technologies for both the digital and print mediums. They are based out of a small mobile office in London and work mainly with art-based independent publishers, students, artists and galleries. AND runs workshops and consultancies for self-published

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artists and writers, a permanent workshop at the university Central Saint-Martins, artbased research projects and also a small independent publishing imprint. www.andpublishing.org Self-Publish Be Happy SPBH is an organisation founded in 2010 by Bruno Ceschel. It consists of an independent self-publishing platform for art and photography books with a purposefully hybrid business model. SPBH curates collections of self-published books, takes part in exhibitions and art book fairs, runs workshops that help students, photographers and artists to self-publish and organises a 'traveling library' showcasing the works that it has taken under its wing. SPBH is also an elaborate promotion platform which promotes the works of its collection as well as other newly published works, publications in the making and various art projects of newly graduating students in order to build a dynamic community of artists, publishers and photographers. www.selfpublishbehappy.com McNally Jackson McNally Jackson is a New York City based independent bookstore founded in 2007 by Sarah McNally and Christopher Jackson, which specializes in local and international literary works. In 2011, the bookstore expanded its functions by acquiring a print-ondemand Espresso Book Machine, which allows in-store customizing, printing and binding books and magazines in paperback format, in only a few minutes. Its business model encompasses the bookstore as well as a self-publishing and print-on-demand printing and distribution service, an online store and a range of book clubs' meetings within the space of its bookstore and coffee shop in New York. www.mcnallyjackson.com

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Appendix II Interviews | Summary of Transcripts | Transcripts Interview Design: structural themes & questions Introduction, overview, and context: self-depiction and personal experience § § § § §

How would you define your business? Your model is very unique.

What made you start this business?

If you take a step back to when you started, were there any new technologies back then that influenced you?

How was the economic environment back then?

Are there any cultural trends or novelties that played a role?

Print Medium & Digital tools and platforms § § §

How do you relate to the medium of print?

Why choose to support print now while publishing is taking the digital turn?

How do you relate to social media tools? What have they enabled you to do with your business?

Community & Relationships § § §

What characterizes the initiatives that you choose to support?

How would you describe your users/readers?

Do you feel part of a community? If yes, how would you describe it?

Values of DIY culture and craftsmanship in general terms § §

How do you see the current revival of DIY and craftsmanship culture? Is it a bit of a fashion or a true way of life?

Do you take part in DIY initiatives outside of publishing as a consumer or a maker? If yes, can you describe your activities?

Labels for coding: CREATIVITY CULTURAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IDENTITY ANTICONSUMERISM MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL PRO-AMS CONVIVIALITY LIQUID CULTURE DIY EMPOWEREMENT CREATIVE REACTION DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS PRINT SHARING CONNECTING

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Interview 1 - Steven Watson, Founder of Stack Summary of transcripts Structural Themes Self-Definition | Identity Cultural Capital

Trigger for starting company

Contexts

Digital Tools & Platforms

Quotes from Transcript (Notes) 'Also they are used to the idea that they can express themselves. When I first started out, the only way that I could actually really reach a large audience with my writing was by being published in a magazine or a newspaper. Now any young people growing up are totally used to the idea that their writing and images can reach a large audience.'

IDENTITY CONVIVIALITY (Watson was working for traditional inflight magazines and seeing small writers struggle behind bigger names to find work, and reacted): ' I basically saw the journalism business going in one direction and I remember thinking "This is what I know how to do". All I can do is write and edit. So I took quite a conscious decision that I wanted to start my own business.'

Says was not affected by economy, technologies or cultural trends. But what he mentions as influences are a blog about magazines and a bespoke service of small edition of designed t-shirts.

(Stack enables discovery and finding, whilst bookshops are closing.)

'I started thinking more, wouldn't it be great if you could take away the barrier for entry, take away the fact that you have to work hard to go and find these magazines.'

'I think that there is a real flouring of creativity and I think that has to do with several things. There are more people out there now who are able to use InDesign, to make a goodlooking magazine with their ideas out there. It's comparatively cheap and easy to print magazines these days.

And I also think that people tend to put print and the web in opposition to each other and I actually think that now that someone in Brooklyn can make a cool looking magazine and where would that magazine would once had an audience in their vicinity is now visible through a social network, to everybody. I think of it as sort of a stepping-stone, or a gateway drug. You start by smoking marijuana and then you end up throwing your money away on heroin. I think that blogging and stuff, it doesn't cost you anything. But then you

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Personal activities as maker or consumer

Empowerment

Emergent Themes Nostalgia/Rituals of the past

end up throwing your money away printing magazines.'

CONVIVIALITY 'I had a box of organic vegetables and meat delivered this morning. And that's because I care about the idea of things not being produced at a mass scale which actually harms the product and harms the world.' ANTICONSUMERISM CRAFTSMANSHIP ' What I really wanted to do when I started out and I was dutifully doing my research and asking people about independent magazines, what I found is that a lot of people are interested in quite a passive way.'

'Nothing will ever replace walking into a well-stocked shop and being able to flick through magazines and find something there. Stack sits alongside all of that.' (Stack offers that type of experience) 'Partly because this is what I grew up with. I grew up reading print magazines when it was like, game boy magazines! I have a sentimental history with them.' (Why support print)

Business Idea/ leaps of creativity

'I went: "Ha this is the way!"'

State of the economy Use of concepts

Not concerned with the state of the economy Interesting Magazines/Be Interesting (6). Flouring of Creativity (2). Express themselves (1)

Transcripts [...] (Introducing the thesis subject) How do you introduce Stack? Or how do you define Stack? The business model is very unique.

Stack is a subscription service, which sends out a different independent magazine every month. You sign up, you don't know what you are going to get next. You do know it's going to be a beautiful intelligent magazine that you would not otherwise have seen.

And it's that finding thing that is key.

The aspect of discovery.

Exactly. When I started Stack, Borders was still around and so you could actually, if you lived in London or Birmingham or any city with a Borders, you actually could walk in and browse a pretty good selection of independent magazines. You cannot do that anymore. If you are in London of course there are still specialist shops. And Manchester has a place called The Corner House, which has a small selection. Really there aren't many places outside of London.

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Do you feel that Stack is in a small way replacing the role that the bookshop used to play in terms of discovery?

Well the thing is I don't want it too. I think that nothing will ever replace walking into a well-stocked shop and being able to flick through magazines and find something there.

Stack sits alongside all of that. What I really wanted to do when I started out and I was dutifully doing my research and asking people about independent magazines, what I found is that a lot of people are quite ambivalently interested in quite a passive way and said 'Oh that looks cool, let's have a look at that'. But they don't care for it enough to go out and search for it. And that's born out in the subscriber demographics now. Most Stack subscribers are in the UK, about 70% in the UK. And the subscribers split fairly evenly between big urban areas and little villages. I wondered whether I might find Stack really popular in big cities because they are kind of metropolitan people, or really popular with people in small villages because they could not get a hold of them. But it doesn't seem to differentiate like that.

How much do you know about your readers? Is there sort of a profile that you could elaborate on?

Yes in terms of where they live, obviously because I send the magazines through them and gender, but really not a lot outside of that. If I had more time, there are a million things I would love to do. One of them is actually to really survey people and find out who they are, why they use Stack, and what we could be doing better. [...] We are going through the rebranding exercise at the moment and we started out saying that we really should have a focus group to start out with and follow it with a survey. I just looked at the timeline and said, it's not happening. I want this rebranding to happen before Christmas. So I think what I'll do is actually to go ahead and push out the rebranding and retrospectively start checking this back with people.

Do you have a feeling that a special type or class of people enjoys independent print magazines? The wealthier and more educated, or is it more widespread?

I don't know. I can tell you that I have people contacted me fairly regularly saying that they need to cancel their subscription because they can't afford it. And Stack was always meant to be a very low entry point. Roughly speaking in the UK you are looking at about 6 pounds per month, which is a lot less than most magazines' cover prices. But certainly I think that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just rich people who are into print magazines.

What made you want to start Stack? Was it 4 years ago?

Yes 4, it will be 5 years ago in December. I wrote for some of these magazines, particularly Little White Lies. I was very involved with them. I basically realized talking to friends, people I knew would love this stuff... It's not even that they didn't read these magazines, they had never heard of them, they had no awareness of them. So I started thinking more, wouldn't it be great if you could take away the barrier for entry, take away the fact that you have to work hard to go and find these magazines. I was working 4 days a week as a magazine editor and the 1 day a week I was basically using to freelance, the idea being to get some by-lines with The Guardian and people like that.

I did that for a year or so and I got some by-lines, but I looked at how I was doing at the

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end of the year and realizes that I would have earned more money this year if I had been working just 5 days a week for my employer. Those by-lines were not setting the world on fire, and at the time I was also commissioning writers a lot and I was working for a company called Ink Global, which is a publisher of inflight magazines. When that started, it was seen as a dirty area of bad journalism. And over the few years I was there, I noticed that not only were we able to get those big writers, but we were getting people pitching us ideas. Also, some of the regular smaller writers that I had been using for years were really struggling to find work. I basically saw the journalism business going in one direction and I remember thinking: 'this is what I know how to do'. All I can do is write and edit. So I took quite a conscious decision that I wanted to start my own business. CREATIVE REACTION At that point, I didn't know what it was going to be.

And then I was on the lookout for opportunities and basically a friend of mine, his wife bought him a subscription to a t-shirt company and every month they delivered a different t-shirt with a limited edition designer. He didn't know what was going to be next but he loved every one of them. And at the same time I read a blog by a guy name Russell Davies about how magazines are a good way to stay interesting, because read a different magazine every week and you will stay interesting CULTURAL CAPITAL IDENTITY as opposed to these new...

So there was a bit of a cultural trend around...

It was more that these two things were on my mind, and came together at the same time that I was thinking that I would like to start a business. I went: 'Ha this is the way!'

CREATIVITY If you take a step back and look at the broader context in terms of where the economy was or new technologies and platforms, have those influenced you? Do you remember thinking at the time, 'we are in recession, I should not do this' or 'there are these new tools I could use on the Internet'.

No. If I thought about that at the time, I basically thought.... Apparently people say that recession is a good time to start a business because if you can make a business work in recession then when things turn around, you're great. And I probably blindly thought, we'll be in recession for two years. And here we are 5 years later! So that didn't really affect me to be honest. CONTEXT What differentiates the magazines that you decide to take upon versus the ones that you decide not to? What are their characteristics?

They need to be interesting. There are a lot of magazines out there that look really nice, but when you sit down to actually read them, they are not saying an awful lot.

That comes from your background in journalism!

Absolutely! [...] It has to be open and inclusive. There are a lot of magazines that are kind of a closed shop. They've got their niche and that's all they are really interested in.

And I send magazines out to all sorts of people all over the world so I need to know that they stand a good chance of being interesting. In that vein, not offensive... I like things to be controversial and things like that but I would not send something that has got a porny...

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Something vulgar.

Exactly. And then they need to balance with the rest of the magazines. So at the moment, there is an incredible burst of activity with food magazines. Loads of food magazines. So I have limited myself to only a couple of food magazines. Fireknives has been with us for years, and The Gourmand is now on Stack as well.

How do you see the state of independent print magazine publishing at the moment? Is it in a revival or in a growing crisis? Not to say, people have always struggled in independent publishing, but how is it evolving?

Yeah. I think that these two things sit in parallel of each other. I think that there is a real flouring of creativity and I think that has to do with several things. There are more people out there now who are able to use InDesign, to make a good-looking magazine with their ideas out there. It's comparatively cheap and easy to print magazines these days. And I also think that people tend to put print and the web in opposition to each other and I actually think that now that someone in Brooklyn can make a cool looking magazine and where would that magazine would once had an audience in their vicinity is now visible through a social network, to everybody. And so even if this is not increasing the number of independent magazines, its increasing their visibility so its seems that there are more of them. MAKING CREATIVITY CONVIVIALITY DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS Also there are used to the idea that they can express themselves. When I first started out, the only way that I could actually really reach a large audience with my writing was by being published in a magazine or a newspaper.

Now any young people growing up are totally used to the idea that their writings and images can reach a large audience. I think of it as sort of a stepping-stone, or a gateway drug. You start by smoking marijuana and then you end up throwing your money away on heroin. I think that blogging and stuff, it doesn't cost you anything. But then you end up throwing your money away printing magazines. CULTURAL CAPITAL IDENTITY CONVIVIALITY All of those things mean that there is this flouring of creativity. I am really weary of then saying that it means it's good news, that's its the second golden age of magazines. It's so hard to make a magazine and make it sustainable and keep in running. The people who are doing it well are doing it with a really clear idea of how it's going to work. [...]

Why do you choose to support print magazines? Because there are a lot of online and iPod magazines that are emerging.

Yes. Partly because this is what I grew up with. I grew up reading print magazines when it was like, game boy magazines! I have a sentimental history with them. PRINT But I am very interested in the question as to whether the kids that are growing up now with IPods and stuff, will they care about print? But also I support print because I think that it is a very interesting medium. There is a temptation to think that print is old hearted, but one of the things I love about print is how you can spread the page and your eye can really take in the whole sweep of a story. At the same time you can grasp on a tiny detail here that keys you in. And that's something that you can't do digitally. It just isn't possible. All this said, I am really interested in digital magazines and where they are

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going. But I haven't seen anything that really caught my imagination. [...] I have a one year old. I wonder when he is 18, will he care about print?

Are there any other areas of your life where you support or practice craftsmanship or DIY activities?

I guess so. I had a box of organic vegetables and meat delivered this morning. And that's because I care about the idea of things not being produced at a mass scale, which actually harms the product and harms the world. ANTICONSUMERISM CRAFTSMANSHIP And with your new born, is it something that you will try to keep present in his or her life?

He loved books! It sounds like a deluded parent thing to say but he genuinely likes books. He gets this funny little laugh when take one of his books down and sit with him and read it, and he loved turning the pages and stuff. Actually that's interesting. I sit with him with the iPod and will try to play with apps with him but he gets bored much quicker with an app than he does with a book!

He must have your genes!

Exactly! [...] Conclusion and thanks

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Interview 2 - Tom Taylor, Co-Founder of Newspaper Club Summary Structural Themes Self-Definition | Identity Trigger for starting company

Print Medium

Quotes from Transcript 'So we started by making a few things ourselves that were completely different to daily newspapers.' PRO-AMS Also we saw that there was a demand for people wanting to see their writing and their work in print. IDENTITY 'There is a discourse that is happening at the moment about the Internet of things. [...]And we sort of started thinking that maybe doing newsprint, turning Web things into newsprint [...]' (counteracting the Internet of things) PRINT CREATIVE REACTION 'One of our reactions, one of the reasons for starting Newspaper Club was as a reaction to the future that is coming and that is still coming of the ubiquitous screen, being on everything a part of everything. I guess one of our goals was to give people another way to read that doesn't involve a backlit device but still to feel like that they are part of a network people producing and people talking.'

Physicality | Making | Process | Empowerment Stuff that was digital made physical has a currency and a value beyond...(the empowering and important value of physicality/print) (Making physically in print): 'I like the magic of it. And I don't necessarily mean a kind of nostalgia of print. But I like someone seeing his or her work made physical.' 'we were in The Guardian, and we set the file for them to print with us, and it came out the next day and it was like 'wow you made a newspaper, how did that happen?' These were journalists who made a newspaper every single day.'

EMPOWEREMENT Process: 'What is it you think that really impressed them?

I think that they were close to it, and touching it and seeing the process. We haven't tried to hide the process too much.

We have videos of our printing presses. We try to talk about the physical aspects of it.'

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Digital Tools & Platforms

Community & Relationships Values of DIY Culture

Craftsmanship

Personal activities as maker or consumer

(McLuhan's idea of mediums reversing. Web is the new mass media) 'It's more complicated than that obviously but in terms of timely news content, that stuff doesn't need to exist in print anymore. But in terms of stuff that is thoughtful, contemplative and gives you a chance to reflect on what's been said, I think there will be a role for print for quite a long time.' 'No, it's quick and dirty and it's cheap. It's designed to be cheap and scalable. That's one of the things why I like newsprint so much, it's that it feels like a good parallel for the Web.' 'Making the web physical' Newspaper Club is a convivial platform: 'Newspaper Club help people make and print their own newspapers' MAKING DIY 'One is that the newspaper printers were really difficult, really hard to work with. We realize there was an opportunity to make that easier.' CONVIVIALITY 'That's quite empowering that people realize that a good photo or piece of writing will travel far.' SHARING EMPOWEREMENT Web enables culture of making: ' Showing those newspapers on the homepage gets people out of that mindset and they realize that what it means is all sorts of indie publishing and novelty stuff and all sorts of things.'

Using the web to operate and communicate: 'Yes all of it via email really. We're just really good at email unlike most printers' CONNECTING CONVIVIALITY ' The first paper we ever made, the idea that started all of this is this newspaper called Things Are Friends. It was a collection of blog posts from a bunch of our friends and it was designed to be a Christmas gift.' DIY Speaking of first homepages GSAT, could write on the Web for the first time. ' And I think, to have made something that is your own, you don't care about the quality as much. It's like you don't care that you are not very good at making newspapers, its the magic of making it that weights (out?) and you forgive all of the 'I wish I was a bit better at typography' etc.' MAKING EMPOWEREMENT 'I think it's usually when someone has tried something new or put a lot of efforts to make something beautiful, or not necessarily something that is beautiful but has an amazing story there.' MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP 'Before I started Newspaper Club, I freelanced building stuff on the web and I did some of that stuff, but a lot of stuff that I made for companies came from doing silly projects for myself.' PRO-AMS MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP

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Empowerment

Because I live in London and I don't have a lot of space, I think I do more tinkering with things digitally than I do physically. MAKING 'So we started by saying 'we're going to help people', people might be identified as a person or an individual rather than being a large organization, print their own newspapers.'

Emergent Themes Economic context & Business Model

Use of concepts

'From 1 copy now actually! And we've printed 76 000 I think.

So it has really expanded both ways.' (Long Tail) Operates and grows outside of traditional economy and business models 'It was in the recession but I don't think we really had considered the economic aspect, also because we are in a very lucky situation.' ' We didn't think of it really as a kind of as a way that people could make anything that was even comparable to daily newspapers. It's not even something that we really thought were the same thing.' ' "We've broken your businesses and now we want your machines", which is a slightly aggravated way of saying that the Internet basically has broken your business. And the problem with print, it's not the print. It's the business model attached to it.' COUNTERCULTURAL 'It's to give people another option that is free of the weird complex legacy of business models that print has gotten itself wrapped up in for the 400 years.' PRINT ' COUNTERCULTURAL Making (4), Making ourselves (4) easy/easier (3) privileged (2) physical (7) magic (5) Making Process (3), Empowering (1), thoughtful (1), not romantic (1)

Transcript [...] (Introducing the thesis subject) How do you define Newspaper Club? It is a very unique business model. It has a very unique role within publishing. How do you introduce your company?

When people ask me what I do, I say that Newspaper Club help people make and print their own newspapers. MAKING DIY EMPOWEREMENT And when you say people. I saw that you can print from 5 to 5000 copies.

From 1 copy now actually! And we've printed 76 000 I think. So it has really expanded both ways. There are a lot of connotations about newspapers. So when you say 'newspaper', people think of a daily newspaper published by a major publishing group.

Or they might think of the opposite, like the zines?

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Yes, the indie press and the zines, but a lot of that ha been printed on photocopies and A4 bits of paper and things like that. So we started by saying 'we're going to help people', people might be identified as a person or an individual rather than being a large organization, print their own newspapers. EMPOWEREMENT We left it really open to interpretation, what people felt that that meant. It is quite suitably ambiguous phrase. By kind of leaving it quite open, people read into it what they wanted to read into it. Some people thought 'Brilliant, can I make a paper for my wedding?' And we said, 'of course'!

So all of these ideas came out of the woodwork.

You were making new interpretations of the medium itself.

Yes. So we started by making a few things ourselves that were completely different to daily newspapers. PRO-AMS MAKING The first paper we ever made, the idea that started all of this is this newspaper called Things Are Friends. It was a collection of blog posts from a bunch of our friends and it was designed to be a Christmas gift. So it's 23 friends and we thought we would print 50 copies, thought we would do it on newspaper newsprint and we went to the newspaper printers and said 'do you want to print 50 copies' and they laughed at us. We ask what was the minimum copies we had to print and they said 1000. And we said, alright, we'll do it. We actually stock it on our website! We said, does anyone else want a copy? And people kept sending their addresses and we spent two weeks stuffing envelopes and sending them all over the world. SHARING CONNECTING There were 2 things that were quite weird about this. One is that the newspaper printers were really difficult, really hard to work with.

We realize there was an opportunity to make that easier. CONVIVIALITY Also we saw that there was a demand for people wanting to see their writing and their work in print.

IDENTITY Stuff that was digital made physical has a currency and a value beyond...

PRINT If you take a step back to when you first had the idea for the company or when you printed the first newspaper. What was the economic context, the technological context or even the cultural trends at the time? Was it in the middle of the recession four years ago?

It was in the recession but I don't think we really had considered the economic aspect, also because we are in a very lucky situation. This world of tech cities and start-ups and people doing that kind of work, we're so buffered from the real economy. It's been an incredibly privileged... I don't know anyone who has lost their job whereas if you look at any other industry...

Why is that?

It's kind of magic Silicon Valley money floating around. I think it's partly that it attracts privileged people. Not many people come from a mining town and go into programming. [...] What we wanted to do, it was making the web physical for us. That was kind of the goal. There is a discourse that is happening at the moment about the Internet of things. Objects that communicate and that are part of the Web in your house, in your home or in your office. And we sort of started thinking that maybe doing newsprint, turning Web things into newsprint was a really easy way of (coming home?) with the Internet of things, by making a blog post into a newspaper. It's easier because

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there is no electronics once you've made the newspaper. You don't really have to deal with warranties, newspapers don't fail. CREATIVE REACTION It's interesting because what's going on in mainstream publishing are giving up on print because they think that it's easier to make eBook than being responsible for printing books. But what you do is print-on-demand so it's a whole different perspective.

My background is as an engineer. So when I look at eBooks, I think easy. I see software, I see bits and bytes. I understand that quite deeply. When I look at the print medium, I see vans and printing presses with breakable parts. The physical aspects of it are really interesting for somebody who has worked mostly on digital platforms.

What is interesting about the physicality of print and printing?

I like the magic of it. And I don't necessarily mean a kind of nostalgia of print. But I like someone seeing his or her work made physical. PRINT A lot of the time you are working with writing something or taking photographs that are existing digitally all the way through, and then when you get to the end and you produce a product, I like the look of it in space. In the first year of Newspaper Club, we did this thing with the UK Government that was part of a launch of data.gov, a UK platform. It's data online and they ask people to do something interesting with it. And we went to this (...) and this (...) was at The Guardian. And we thought that it was interesting to try and explain why this data was important by turning some of it into a newspaper. This newspaper was tailored to a postcard, and the individual postcard you might receive it when you moved to a house for the first time and it would tell you about the services in your area, where is your GP. It would be generated automatically. So we did it as a one off, and we were in The Guardian, and we set the file for them to print with us, and it came out the next day and it was like 'wow you made a newspaper, how did that happen?' These were journalists who made a newspaper every single day. MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP EMPOWEREMENT What is it you think that really impressed them?

I think that they were close to it, and touching it and seeing the process. We haven't tried to hide the process too much. We have videos of our printing presses. We try to talk about the physical aspects of it. There is no escaping them. We try to make it as if you are about to press the button on a big printing machine. MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP When you started 4 years ago, do you feel that there was already a bit of a DIY trend? That you were part of a bigger movement of such initiatives? Did that cross your mind at all?

Again, I think that our background, coming from the digital world, having worked on the Web a lot, we saw that people were... For example take GSAT. They were a massive website, basically the first place where you could have a homepage on the Web. And there was an aesthetic to those pages that was quite unique. You look at those pages and they were ugly, in retrospective. And they were on all sorts of topic. Lots of conspiracy theory stuff, lots of fan fiction stuff. That was the first time I think that people could

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write on the Web. And even though they are kind of crazy and messy, there is a magic in there. And I think, to have made something that is your own, you don't care about the quality as much. It's like you don't care that you are not very good at making newspapers, its the magic of making it that weights (out?) and you forgive all of the 'I wish I was a bit better at typography' etc. MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP Do you think that the idea of being able to make your own of something comes from the digital world? Of course, there was a culture of making your own food and other things before, but we lost touch with making. Do you think that the digital world got us back in a making mode?

It certainly made it a lot easier. If I made something on the Web, I could put it in front of 300 people by the end of the day. I could write a post about it or mention it on Twitter. And if it has enough interest or enough people, it will carry. That's quite empowering that people realize that a good photo or piece of writing will travel far.

SHARING EMPOWEREMENT DIGITAL TOOLS/ And even as a consumer, to see the process of making in the things we buy. On the Newspaper Club website, you can read the story behind the newspapers. It makes you want to own something like that. Whereas newsprint from big corporations donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the same thought and craft behind them.

Yes. We didn't think of it really as a kind of as a way that people could make anything that was even comparable to daily newspapers. It's not even something that we really thought were the same thing. The discussion wasn't even worth having. A lot of people when we started asked us if we were the future of news. And we basically said that we are not the future of anything. We didn't want to become lumped with that future of journalism and future of news discussion.

You were growing completely aside from that.

Yes. We wanted the papers that we made to stand up on their own, to not be compared to any of that stuff. CREATIVE REACTION Who are your clients? I know that you support many different types of initiatives.

People who want to self-publish, small publishers, weddings, etc.

Yes. People have been able to print before. We haven't invented anything magic there.

But there must be first timers, no?

Yes. I think one of the things we did is we put it on the table like 'here is an offering, you can make our own newspaper'. All sorts of people came out of the woodwork.

There was stuff that was expected like community groups and schools. And there is the novelty with the weddings and the birthdays. And we have a lot of fun with those. Then we have literary journals, people who had published in different ways who wanted to try it, there are people who have been writing online for a long time and sort of started to take some of their writing offline. Sometimes it's a way to make a little bit of money with it. You print 50 newspapers, you sell them for 3 pounds, and you would probably make a few quid there. It's enough to pay for your server bill for three months or something. With a hobby, if they can keep it running neutral, then that feels sustainable

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then. PRO-AMS Newsprint, the physical object can be a thing that's much more easy to sell.

From the people of the independent publishing community that come to you, do you have a view on the state of independent publishing? Is it in a revival, or going through a crisis?

I don't know if we know much about it. It feels to be like one of those things that has been taking along, and will continue to. I don't know. Like in the last 10 years, we've seen completely new forms of writing appear online and shorter forms of literature and discourses. But like the zine world, it seems like it has been stable, and people have always been losing money in it. Publishers, even mainstream publishers, have always been losing money. [...] We've said this to a few newspapers, which is 'We've broken your businesses and now we want your machines', which is a slightly aggravated way of saying that the Internet basically has broken your business. And the problem with print, it's not the print. It's the business model attached to it. COUNTERCULTURAL I am talking about daily newspapers but it applies to other things as well. If you take the most reductionist view of the daily newspaper, its a printout of yesterday's news. It's more complicated than that obviously but in terms of timely news content, that stuff doesn't need to exist in print anymore. But in terms of stuff that is thoughtful, contemplative and gives you a chance to reflect on what's been said, I think there will be a role for print for quite a long time. PRINT One of our reactions, one of the reasons for starting Newspaper Club was as a reaction to the future that is coming and that is still coming of the ubiquitous screen, being on everything a part of everything. I guess one of our goals was to give people another way to read that doesn't involve a backlit device but still to feel like that they are part of a network people producing and people talking.

CREATIVE REACTION When you say 'we have broken your machines...' who is 'we'?

When I say 'we' I mean we coming from the Internet.

Does that mean that your business model relies mainly on the Internet? When you say the business model of traditional print isn't working... What is the nature of your business model?

We like to think that we understand the Web. And Newspaper Club's goal is not in any way to compete with digital forms of reading and writing. It's to give people another option that is free of the weird complex legacy of business models that print has gotten itself wrapped up in for the 400 years. CREATIVE REACTION PRINT We're not trying to be romantic about print necessarily. There is a beauty in it, and there is a lot of history in it.

Print can be romantic, but newspaper print is the most romantic print form.

No, it's quick and dirty and it's cheap. It's designed to be cheap and scalable. That's one of the things why I like newsprint so much, it's that it feels like a good parallel for the Web. PRINT They both decay at similar rates. Printed things, if you keep them on your desk in light, you have only 2 or 3 years before they really get yellow. If you keep them in drawers maybe a bit longer like a decade or 2.

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But people seem to regard printed things more and more as timeless collectable items. They want to buy something in print because they want to keep it. But the newspaper doesn't really allow that.

Some people believe that what goes on the Web stays on the Web and it's permanent but we have lost so much of the Web's history already. They are both quick, cheap and dirty mediums. We're not doing beautiful 300gsm lovely bound things and neither are people writing blogs. Newsprint is really cheap compared to other forms of printing, that's the goal of it. That's the goal. We actually do 2 different types of printing. We do litho for 300 copies upwards and below that we do what they call digital. [...] I think we're going to get to a stage when we can print 1 copy of a newspaper at a price that is comparable to a magazine you might buy on the shelf, so 3 to 5 pounds.

Are there small publishers that return to you monthly to print their publications?

Yes, and we are starting to try to do more services for those people. One of the things is if you order 200 or 300 newspapers, you need to get those to 200 people. So we are looking at ways that people could sell them through us and we would share the money with the author of the paper. [...]

The newspapers that you decide to feature on your website. What are the characteristics of the ones you decide to show versus the ones you decide not to?

If it's something different. Because when we say newspapers, people often think of daily newspapers. Showing those newspapers on the homepage gets people out of that mindset and they realize that what it means is all sorts of indie publishing and novelty stuff and all sorts of things. EMPOWEREMENT We usually try to show off the beautiful ones, or the stuff that's got a great story.

When you pick a story to feature, what are you looking for?

I think it's usually when someone has tried something new or put a lot of efforts to make something beautiful, or not necessarily something that is beautiful but has an amazing story there. MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP And obviously stuff that is good looking because they are there to sell Newspaper Club. But it's still something that we haven't got right, it's sort of managing people's expectations around newsprint itself. A lot of people who are designers are used to working on glossy things with spot colours. We cannot do it. There are things like show through and the intensity depth. Your design that looks great on screen can look awful in print. But one of the success of Newspaper Club is that we work really hard on customer service. We don't show that as much as we should on the side, and we are going to try to show it more soon. When you send a file through to us, we check it properly. There will be a back and forth between us in the team. 'Do you think they are going to be okay with that? Have they printed with us before? Did it turn out okay? Were they happy?' If not we send it back and say that maybe we should not go ahead or talk about resolution.

Most of that customer service happens online.

Yes all of it via email really. We're just really good at email unlike most printers.

DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS And we try to automate a lot of things. You don't

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want to have to speak to someone unless you really have to. We built a lot of tools so that when you upload... If we can make it such a good experience so that you don't need to ask us so many questions, you are comfortable and it's clear, that the whole process is understandable and it's straightforward, then we've saved you the time to talk to someone. And we do it for cheaper and better.

Do you feel part of a community within independent publishing? Or do you feel that you've created your own community? When you started your community, did you feel like you were stepping into a community?

Because we see so many different types of customers, it would be wrong to say that we feel we are part of one community. None of us have a background in anything that is overtly called publishing really. We are slightly an odd bunch I guess, but I think we realize more and more that there is a community there. And we sometimes advertise in festivals and papers but we have to really pick and choose because there are so many of them.

Which ones do you tend to pick?

It tends to be the stuff where it's a good paper, they've done a good job with the paper.

And we've been really lucking because when we ask people when they print if they have the space to mention they printed with the Newspaper Club. But we try to be quite a neutral platform I guess.

One last question. In your personal life, how do you relate to the digital and print mediums? What kind of place do they take in your life? Do you read a lot in print yourself?

It's funny I switch a lot. I buy some books in Kindle and some books in print. One of the things that we are sort of playing with is customized versions of newspapers. It's an interesting one, there are a lot of complications with it. We've been trying some things just between ourselves.

I am thinking of a Berlin start-up that did just that for a few years before going digital only.

Yes I know. They did different pages of newspapers, it was like a composite. We are not trying that really. We are doing a project at the moment with The Guardian. The Guardian has a service called 'The Long Good Read'. They publish 400 articles a day and obviously most of those are news and some of them are longer interviews and pieces. They look at the dwell time, how long do people stay on the page and they pull out what are the top 10 articles at the moment and publish 2 of them a day on a site called 'The Long Good Read'. Hopefully we will go into production soon but we are looking in doing a newspaper format generated programmatically. There would be only one version of it. But the idea is that further down the line people could customize it.

Those are the things that I want in my life really. A lot of the reasons for building this are purely selfish.

Are there other areas in your life where you feel that the do it yourself ethos is influencing you? It could be through other activities or hobbies that you have...

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Yes. Before I started Newspaper Club, I freelanced building stuff on the web and I did some of that stuff, but a lot of stuff that I made for companies came from doing silly projects for myself. PRO-AMS MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP Having an idea for a silly little app, a site or a game. A lot of those things turned into paid work for other people. I did that for a few years. And then DIY, you know house DIY and those kinds of things. My dad was an engineer as well so I grew up seeing up always tinkering with things. Because I live in London and I don't have a lot of space, I think I do more tinkering with things digitally than I do physically. MAKING [...] Conclusion and thanks

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Interview 3 - Dan Rowden, Founder of Magpile/Maggly Summary Structural Themes Self-Definition | Identity

Trigger for starting company Print Medium Digital Tools & Platforms Community & Relationships

Values of DIY Culture

Craftsmanship

Personal activities as maker or consumer Empowerment

Quotes from Transcript 'It initially started off as a personal project. I wanted to keep track of the magazines that I owned so I just built this quick tool that let me list the magazines.' PRO-AMS 'Have you worked in the past as a magazine editor yourself? No. (laughing) I just really like magazines.' PROAMS Leaps of creativity: Maggly: 'I realized "hang on, why don't I just build that platform" for all magazines to creates their websites whenever they want' Tools for the reader as editor on the website.

Maggly gives tools to publishers to make a website.

'As right from the beginning, the smaller magazines were signing up to Magpile, and the users were adding more obscure magazines.' CONNECTING SHARING 'I have not met another magazine addict in real life but there seem to be a lot of them!'

'There was a hype about the Internet and digitalizing the office and things like that and people are starting to rebellion against that a little bit and go back to gardening and making their own food. I think a lot of independent magazines are produced against the grain. They are different but a lot of people are doing it. Maybe at some point things will turn around and go the other way again.'

CREATIVE REACTION CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL 'That's something interesting for the independent magazines.

It is such a small team for every magazine but you know that you're going to get a good magazine out of it. It's interesting.

Even if it's just one person.' MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP 'I don't really get much opportunity because of where I am but I like making my own coffee (laughing) and I really want to get back into woodwork when I leave here because I did it in school and really loved it.'

Tools empowering the reader, giving him the role of an editor. 'The name comes from each user having his own pile of magazines of which ones they own, which ones they want in their wish list, and also to be able to sell their own second hand copies.' 'I am beginning to think that I should involve

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the users more and maybe get a team of core users that will help manage the site and I will have to do the admin but they will help decide the features. The users all have ideas about what the site could do and I want it to be a community driven thing rather than just one person deciding because it is an important resource that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist anywhere else.'

DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS SHARING PRO-AMS Emergent Themes Consumerism Use of concepts

'They go online to look for them, but they much prefer flicking through them and spending lots of money of them.' build (1) tool (4) platform (2)community (3) quality (1) passion (1)

Transcript [...] (Introducing the thesis subject) Maybe I would start with a very basic question. How do you define Magpile? Since its business model is very unique...

It initially started off as a personal project. PRO-AMS I wanted to keep track of the magazines that I owned so I just built this quick tool that let me list the magazines. It was a web application so if I added one magazine, then it was available in the system.

It was like a database, a reference for yourself.

Yes, and then I built it so that other people could sign up and that obviously built the archive into what it is today. There wasn't really any business model behind that, it was just meant to be a free tool, like a Wikipedia for magazines and then the store came about like a natural extension of that. So if you find out about a magazine, you can just buy it there rather than having to search Google.

You started Magpile about a year ago. If you take a step back, were there any new technologies or cultural trends that influenced your decision, of the idea of Magpile?

Yes in February 2012. Not really!

And when you introduce Magpile to people, how do you define it?

Nowadays, it is like an online reference to print and digital magazines. Before I sort of marketed it as a community for magazine readers but I've kind of turned it around because I think that the reference part of it is more important than the community.

What did you mean back then when you said that Magpile is a community? And how did that change?

One of the main focuses was that you could follow people and comment on things. That is still there but people don't use it a huge amount. People use it more as a reference or research tool.

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Would you say that in a small way Magpile is replacing what bookshops used to do in terms of referencing and offer? For people that are looking for magazines but not in a city like London or New York, it might be hard to find them as well as recommendations for magazines...

With most market nowadays, people like Amazon for example. When you find a camera, you look online to see what's out there. The Internet is the go to place to find out information. DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS What differentiates the magazines that you decide to take on-board with Magpile from the ones that you decide not to? What are your criterion for choosing magazines?

It's all user created so the main Magpile database is just what users have added. There are no restrictions to what is in there. The store is also user created. So the magazines sign up and it is like their online shop so we don't hold any stock ourselves. They sign up and list what they charge for each magazine and then when an order comes through, the customer pays Magpile. Then they get a notification that they've got an order, it's an order management tool and they send out the magazines.

Then what would you say are the characteristics of the magazines that decide to sign up?

Definitely the smaller ones. As right from the beginning, the smaller magazines were signing up to Magpile, and the users were adding more obscure magazines. SHARING CONNECTING There are Esquire, GQ and Vanity Fair, but most of them are independent small titles that maybe people want to show off and help.

Do you know much about the users? What are their characteristics? What type of people use Magpile?

Most of them seem to be creatives, or they work in design or publishing, or they are students studying publishing. But there are a lot of people who just like magazines. A lot of magazine addicts! Which is very funny. I have not met another magazine addict in real life but there seem to be a lot of them! CONNECTING DIGITAL PLATFORMS It is not a hugely varied crowd, it is mostly people you would expect to like magazines really.

And how would you define your role, the role of Magpile, within this community of magazine 'addicts' and magazine publishers?

As I said it was a personal project, but I think that it is becoming more of a magazine world I guess. It is not all encompassing at the moment, but the more people sign up, the more varied titles get added. I just want it to keep being online, and be in the history of magazines.

You showcase both print and digital magazines on Magpile. Do you relate to print magazines in a particular way?

Personally I don't really read any digital magazines because I can't get into them ever. I much rather like siting down and flicking through a magazine rather than having it load

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on a screen. PRINT Personally I am not worried that there aren't many digital magazines on there. It seems that most people are the same. They go online to look for them, but they much prefer flicking through them and spending lots of money of them.

CONSUMERISM You say 'spending a lot of money on them'. Do you think that people who support print might be wealthier ? That they might be part of a special class of people?

I am not sure. I don't know what the breakdown would be, but people don't seem to care that magazines cost 20 dollars plus shipping! They just buy them anyway because they know that it is a quality item that they know they'll enjoy. PRINT It's not like going to a news agent and buying a 2 or 3 pounds magazine. That's something interesting for the independent magazines. It is such a small team for every magazine but you know that you're going to get a good magazine out of it. It's interesting. Even if it's just one person. MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP Why do you think that's the case?

Self-publishers have got to be slightly crazy! A lot of passion, and they want their product to be really good. CRAFTSMANSHIP Yes, when we think that a lot of them don't even make any revenue. And what kind of tools do you give the users on your website? I saw that your website was broken down between: 'discover, build, share'. Those seem to relate to different kinds of tools. How do you define them?

Yes. So the main thing is discovery. You can browse around or search, or find new titles that you would not have seen before. The site is not great at it because it is mostly through recommendations that people find out about new magazines. But it's not going to work unless the users sign up and add their favourite titles or the ones that they are reading. The name comes from each user having his own pile of magazines of which ones they own, which ones they want in their wish list, and also to be able to sell their own second hand copies. DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS SHARING I don't think that exists online a second hand magazine shop. There are a lot of people with a lot of magazines.

I guess you could even curate a list of magazines to share...

Yes that should come this month or next month. The list. You create lists of magazines.

And what about the reviews?

Yes, so they can comment on the magazines and their issues. Each week I try to get a user to go more in debt and this becomes the featured magazine for the week.

So you are basically giving a user the role of the editor.

Yes! Obviously I've pushed and I've developed this site but I am beginning to think that I should involve the users more and maybe get a team of core users that will help manage the site and I will have to do the admin but they will help decide the features.

MAKING PRO-AMS EMPOWEREMENT DIGITAL TOOLS AND PLATFORMS

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The users all have ideas about what the site could do and I want it to be a community driven thing rather than just one person deciding because it is an important resource that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist anywhere else. I think it needs to go in the users' hands even more.

I discovered that you also give tools to publishers because you created another platform called Maggly. Could you describe it for me?

Yes. It lets magazines who don't want to take a lot of time setting up a website or having a website designed for a lot of money... They can just sign up to Maggly and straight away they have magazine related content and page types. They literally create a website, and page types that they initiates. There is an issue archive, a blog, you can put up features from your magazine and stockist page and stuff like that. They can pick a theme and the website is all ready. It takes like 5 minutes. DIGITAL TOOLS AND PLATFORMS It's 8 pounds a month for the basic one and then you can add on extra stuff if you want to.

How did that idea come about? Did you get requests from magazines?

Well yeah. There is this magazine We Are Here which I love and helped fund the second issue. He is based in Dubai, not far from where I am in Saudi Arabia. And he asked if I would help with his new website and while I was thinking what platform it would go on, I realized 'hang on, why don't I just build that platform' for all magazines to creates their websites whenever they want. EMPOWEREMENT DIGITAL TOOLS AND PLATFORMS CREATIVITY It launched in June, and since then I have been fleshing it out and it will be ready at the end of July.

Have you worked in the past as a magazine editor yourself?

No. (laughing) I just really like magazines. I have no experience working with them. I did digital printing in my degree so we did some magazine layouts and learned how printing stuff works and how they get bound and stuff but I've always done just web stuff. PRO-AMS And maybe just one last question that might sound a bit out of the blue. Do you relate at all in your personal life to the recent wave of do it yourself activities as a consumer or a maker?

Yes. I don't really get much opportunity because of where I am but I like making my own coffee (laughing) and I really want to get back into woodwork when I leave here because I did it in school and really loved it. DIY Do you feel like there is a hype at the moment around that stuff?

Yes definitely. There was a hype about the Internet and digitalizing the office and things like that and people are starting to rebellion against that a little bit and go back to gardening and making their own food. I think a lot of independent magazines are produced against the grain. They are different but a lot of people are doing it. Maybe at some point things will turn around and go the other way again. CREATIVE REACTION CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL [...] Conclusion and thanks

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Interview 4 - Eva Weinmayr, Co-Founder of AND Publishing Summary Structural Themes Self-Definition | Identity

Quotes from Transcript 'We say publishing activity because we don't take the traditional boxes of the publishing house. Because everything is so open, we would like to keep the name open. The whole publishing industry is changing.' COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION 'Artists, designers, writers and interconnections of creators.

We work also with galleries. All these people are excited and see potential in these open and not really defined forms of publishing.'

COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION

Trigger for starting company Print Medium

'it's partly research, partly a publishing house and partly a facilitating platform' ' Did you also notice that there was a need?

Totally. Because print-on-demand wasn't really explored.'

'They are objects which exist in the world and their physical presence cannot be denied.' ' So the book might feel a bit oldfashioned in this whole discussion but there is something about it which makes it really autonomous and independent.

So that would be the political stance to it.'

'It really came with litho printing and with technology that decided that this is the object, the resolved and edited and proofread. Our conception of the book as a permanent object really came with the litho printing and the mass production.'

And POD offers to regain freedom and experimentation.

DIGITAL TOOLS CONVIVIALITY 'With print-on-demand you can really understand the book as a very fluid object. This is interesting because it hasn't to contradict craftsmanship, not at all. Things can be really resolved and crafted even if they are fluid.'

CRAFTSMANSHIP .

Project Flatness: ' In a way we are now printing out of the Internet' 'These are the really interesting shifts at the moment. So when I see a really nicely designed book where everything

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Digital Tools & Platforms

Values of DIY Culture

Craftsmanship Empowerment

looks really nice, I am almost bored even if it looks really nice because it's closed and it's almost pretending that these other things don't exist. It can transfer especially to the printon-demand books, you can almost feel a closeness to the oral, to the spoken. Because you send your PDF today to Lulu and tomorrow you send a different one according to what your reader said. You can so quickly respond.'

New digital platforms are enabling more print initiatives.

'Were there new technologies, or did you feel you were picking up on a trend?

Yes definitely! Because software developed, and there are more API platforms.' ' Things are really developing with print-on-demand but also of course with hybrids, eBooks, and just looking at the market and at the figures, it's telling us that publishing is in a real change.'

'The whole history of self-publishing and zine publishing with the photocopier in a way is print-on-demand' And do you feel part of that in your personal life as a maker and a consumer?

Totally, on all levels I think.

'Starting with education, I think that universities aren't able to deliver what they should deliver. And think of other alternatives how what you learn at LCC could be delivered, there are initiatives like Open School East, it's a one-year course sort of like an MA, which is funded by the Barbican.

It's a really new model of giving education. And there are a lot of different schools like Art School UK and I know that the ICA is starting an MA. I think that this model of people taking things in their own hands when it comes to education and they decide when they want to learn. I think the degrees aren't as important anymore as they were just a couple of years ago.' COUNTERCULTURAL 'With craftsmanship, I feel that what we are exploring with print-on-demand is what happens when the book isn't as resolved anymore.' PRINT DIGITAL TOOLS They offer a consultancy to people who want to publish with POD. EMPOWEREMENT Are there people that have never published before that are just curious to try it out?

Yes that as well. So it's really opening the gate for lots of people to start looking around these ideas.

EMPOWEREMENT PRO-AMS Do you think that AND is in a small way replacing the role of the publisher but in a more open, flexible and

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democratized way by initiatives?

Yes I think so. Definitely.

Emergent Themes Values

supporting

self-publishing

Anticonsumerism & Against abuse of power in our society.

Examples: Propaganda in Afghanistan by US Government, Censorship in China, Abuse of privacy and labour by Facebook, our data gets commodified. Also education.

'And the way to control online publishing and the Internet, it's so easy to put up firewalls, to put down domains so censorship and control is so strong whereas the book can always be handed over from own hand to the next.'

COUNTERCULTURAL values that evoke resistance ANTICONSUMERISM CREATIVE REACTION

Use of concepts

The big problem is that users generate content and data which gets commodified by Zuckerberg and other shareholders (REF Jaron Lanier, but not part of my research). platform (11) creative (2) change (3) self-publish (4) produce (7) material (3) potential (2) open (10) possible (1) process(5) presence (2) physical (5) easy (4) countering(1) intervene/interfere(3) community(2) sharing (1) freedom (1) experimentation (1)

Transcript How do you define or introduce AND to people? Your model is very unique.

Yes! We define it as a publishing platform. And it consists of two strands: one is AND where we publish and commission books when we get funding or research money so we are closely connected with the development and the creative input, and the other strand is AND Public...

You don't see yourself as a publishing house.

That's funny. We say publishing activity because we don't take the traditional boxes of the publishing house. Because everything is so open, we would like to keep the name open. The whole publishing industry is changing. So in order to be able to experiment and test, we don't want to pin this down too much. COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION And the other publishing platform is an open publishing platform, AND Public. It's a self-publishing platform where people can produce and distribute their self-publish materials.

Is it a bit like a consultancy?

Not necessarily. People can have a consultancy if they feel they would like to see samples and get advice on material. When we did the variable formats, the idea was to

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make samples in order to be able to really see what the outcome is. These online platforms, you get the format and then they say it's on great paper, but you don't know really. So it's really important to have this material base of it. And this is what we developed and this is what we can offer. So people are contacting us and asking: 'I have this publishing project in mind, how should I go about it?'. And then we do consultancies.

Who comes to you, who are the people who reach out to AND Publishing?

It's really varied. Artists, designers, writers and interconnections of creators. We work also with galleries. All these people are excited and see potential in these open and not really defined forms of publishing. COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION Also people who don't have enough money to fund a litho printed 1000 edition. This is really important that print-on-demand makes possible due to the short print run. You develop a format and then you print 3, 30 or 100 copies. And then you can revise it. It's really open.

Are there people that have never published before that are just curious to try it out?

Yes that as well. So it's really opening the gate for lots of people to start looking around these ideas. EMPOWEREMENT PRO-AMS And what made you want to start this organization in 2009? How did it come about?

Well with my own practice as an artist. PRO-AMS Because for me it's almost like an art project. And publishing in my practice was always very important. Many of my own project found the form of publishing and I think at some point I wanted to look more at the format and the process. And I found I wanted to have a more collaborative and discursive platform around my practice. Lynn comes from a more curatorial and business side of things. We really shared similar interests and we slowly started to develop it.

Did you also notice that there was a need?

Totally. Because print-on-demand wasn't really explored. And I still feel there is so much to explore. There is so much potential, so many possibilities but questions as well.

And it's not that we try to promote print-on-demand. You have to test it, test the distribution and what it means for bookshops for example, and how can you sustain this kind of production and distribution.

Are there any elements, when you look back at when you started AND that maybe motivated you or inspired your decision to start the organization? Were there new technologies, or did you feel you were picking up on a trend?

Yes definitely! Because software developed, and there are more API platforms.

DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS API is the /ace where you upload your PDF. API transforms it in real time in a print-ready file. So you don't send your PDF to a printer and has to open the email and look at the file; it's an automated process. When we started it was about 60 000 pounds to develop it. And today many printers have

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established their own API. Things are really developing with print-on-demand but also of course with hybrids, eBooks, and just looking at the market and at the figures, it's telling us that publishing is in a real change. So this is all affecting us in our thinking.

We also developed workshops with students to work on these issues and test experimentally to work with gadgets and stuff. There is a big discussion and there is a big community researching around these issues creatively, scientifically and also business.

What about the medium of print? Why is it important for you to support print whilst a lot of people are moving towards digital only?

This is a very important and interesting question which is not easy to answer. I've never been satisfied with these answers, to say yes the physicality of the paper or the object.

But there are facts coming with print which need to be more looked at. I've just read this piece, it's a booklet published by Bookworks, the artist researched about American leaflets dropped in Afghanistan of propaganda against the Taliban. And it's really interesting how she speaks about how to infiltrate enemies' territory with leaflets which are a physical object. They take space, they have a weight, and they are present. They are objects which exist in the world and their physical presence cannot be denied.

PRINT So it's a propaganda that is very successful and this really made me think about the book as well. Also I am thinking about a research about China which I did with Andrea Franke with the Piracy Project. But I'll leave this now. So we went to China and talking with publishers, artists, and writers. And the way to control online publishing and the Internet, it's so easy to put up firewalls, to put down domains so censorship and control is so strong whereas the book can always be handed over from own hand to the next. COUNTERCULTURAL The physical presence in itself makes a statement.

Exactly. And it cannot be controlled how it travels. I've just been away in the mountains for a week and there was no Internet. I enjoyed of course that there was no Internet but it really rendered obvious as well the extreme point of control whether you have electricity and access to the Internet or not. So the book might feel a bit old-fashioned in this whole discussion but there is something about it which makes it really autonomous and independent. So that would be the political stance to it. PRINT And there are other things as well which have to do with autonomy like reading a book on the tube no matter what the situation of electricity or battery charge is. I am just back from Barcelona where I gave a talk about, it was the Open-Design Conference. My paper was about how online technology is influencing the way we produce books and how we read them. There is a list of case studies and examples where books are not really books anymore just because it's so easy to interfere with them through programs. That would be a counter example to what you were saying that they are really sorted and crafty. We published something with Rhizome in New York, it is called The Impermanent Book.

And I think that it is very much summarizing what I am trying to say now. It looks as examples where the printed book isn't what we assumed that it has been, because of the scribes have copied by hand, and had changed and modified through the copy process.

And this is very much what the piracy project is about, appropriating and changing through copying. It really came with litho printing and with technology that decided that

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this is the object, the resolved and edited and proofread. Our conception of the book as a permanent object really came with the litho printing and the mass production that had an authority. You produced 10 000 books and then the book that you hold in your hand has such a big backing in terms of economy whereas with print-on-demand book which can be published in an edition of 1 hasn't got this. It could become an authority because it's a unique book but...

About print-on-demand technology, what is the message or the ethos behind POD technology?

I think that it is really countering all of these difficulties which come with traditional publishing. You do not need to work with a publisher or an institution who is giving money to produce it. [...] You can decide whether you want to make it or not and how you want to make it. I know that there is a creative and professional impact when you work with a publisher just in terms of proofreading but of course they want to sell the book and they want to produce objects which are sellable and they have to make an income because they have to sustain their business. Print-on-demand can be more experimental and doesn't have to take these boxes. This is one thing, there is just more freedom.

Do you think that AND is in a small way replacing the role of the publisher but in a more open, flexible and democratized way by supporting self-publishing initiatives?

Yes I think so. Definitely.

What are the different methods of POD? I think of Lulu and the Espresso Machine, but are there most that I am not thinking of?

Yes there are a few more. There are the big ones like Lulu, Blurb and MacCloud. And then there are smaller digital printers who don't have an API so the shipping and distribution is not as easy but you could still order 10 copies when you need them. And later another 10 copies. It's not as seamless as with Lulu and Blurb. But then I really think to think of print-on-demand in a more open way which means for example our printer here which is a laser printer. And actually we print a lot of experimental projects and we only print when we need them. This is definitely print-on-demand as well. The whole history of self-publishing and zine publishing with the photocopier in a way is print-on-demand. The only difference is that here it is not an automated process. With Lulu it's always this automated process where you don't have the possibility to intervene. We all know that the outcome is quite volatile. Sometimes it's really good, sometimes it's really bad. The interesting projects are the ones who can play with it or conceptualize this way of production. CREATIVITY How would you define AND's community? And what is your role within this community?

Artists are the major part. But it is complex and varied. Through our workshop and research and publishing essays on Rhizome, we are part of a discourse which is conceptually discussing these things so it's partly research, partly a publishing house and partly a facilitating platform. These are the three main roles we have.

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How much do you interact with social media?

We use Twitter a lot because it feels like an immediate way to share even beyond promotion, it's an interesting tool to share links and essays about digital publishing.

SHARING CONNECTING Facebook... We were invited to do a talk last year in Rotterdam and we used this talk to discuss with the audience if we should get off of Facebook or not. At the end we decide to leave it, we clicked the button and you have two weeks to revise our decision, and we decided to stay on it until we find a similar platform which has different ethics. We haven't found it yet. It's such a big problem Facebook DIGITAL TOOLS What is the big problem?

The big problem is that users generate content and data which gets commodified by Zuckerberg and other shareholders. It's just totally unbalanced. It's unpaid labour. And the data is used for advertising, it is being sold and finally all of these privacy issues.

Being German, I come from a country where personal privacy is really at the top of the agenda. I see that Twitter is going down the same route but at the moment it's not. It might face the same problems in the future. At some point it will be sold and it will be commodified. ANTICONSUMERISM So yes social media are important but we try to find different forms and platforms. [...]

One thing that I didn't mention is that we started at an art school. We started at Central Saint Martins. We moved in a space in the library that was supposed to be closed and we ran the space for two years together with students. It was a self-organised space. It was highly educational and still we do a lot of workshops at universities. We did one at the RCA and I am teaching at LCC and at Central Saint Martins. We did a workshop with students in Denmark so I think this kind how we create our communities as well and it's much more about sharing and teaching and facilitating than making money.

SHARING ANTICONSUMERISM You are financed with public funding?

Yes, but no we are not financed at all. We have funding for the Piracy Project, we have a residency at the Showroom in West London. They have a long tradition of working with communities so in this respect it's really interesting for us. We've got Arts Council funding for this and then we've got the space at Central Saint-Martins and sometimes get a bit of money from Central Saint-Martins. [...] We generate money actually through workshops, talks, writing and consultancies.

I just have one last question that might sound out of the blue! Do you feel that there is a do-it-yourself movement at the moment that expands beyond publishing?

I am thinking about crafted foods, furniture making, etc. And do you feel part of that in your personal life as a maker and a consumer?

Totally, on all levels I think. Starting with education, I think that universities aren't able to deliver what they should deliver. And think of other alternatives how what you learn at LCC could be delivered, there are initiatives like Open School East, it's a one-year

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course sort of like an MA which is funded by the Barbican. It's a really new model of giving education. And there are a lot of different schools like Art School UK and I know that the ICA is starting an MA. I think that this model of people taking things in their own hands when it comes to education and they decide when they want to learn. I think the degrees aren't as important anymore as they were just a couple of years ago.

COUNTERCULTURAL Is it because the system is not well adapted to our reality?

Yes totally. You see there is something going wrong [...] but there is an inbuilt problem. [...] Students pay a lot of money and they want something delivered, but sometimes it is not about the measurability of things. It's really tricky and difficult. So the whole field of education is affected through the field of self-publishing and empowerment. But furniture making, I know that a lot of people are thinking about making. There was a really interesting talk by the Design boss at Kingston University Daniel Charny. That was really interesting. The artist that I work with, Andrea Franke, she did a project at The Showroom very much about making. She did a nursery for kids with workshops where parents and kids were invited and they made stuff.

Why is it so important the act of making?

Because we are losing it. We are totally detached from it. MAKING The making and the physicality of things like the paper, the weight, the volume and the presence in the space make you refer differently. With craftsmanship, I feel that what we are exploring with print-on-demand is what happens when the book isn't as resolved anymore.

CRAFTSMANSHIP This artist Joseph (&) Martinez, an American based artist who produced this reader called 'An incomplete reader for the project...' and [...] On the back of the reader it says that this reader should not be understood so much as a book but as a software which is constantly updating itself by things being edited and taken away and that version 1.0 will be followed by version 1.01! This is a really interesting approach to bookmaking that you don't have this object in your hand that you say 'okay that's it' and it will be for 10 years until the next edition will be published. With print-on-demand you can really understand the book as a very fluid object. This is interesting because it hasn't to contradict craftsmanship, not at all. Things can be really resolved and crafted even if they are fluid. CRAFTSMANSHI But there seems to be a funny contradiction in the immediacy of how things are being produced: typos, proofreading, graphic design, and templates. I am also working now with a curator and artist on a project called Flatness which explores how the Internet makes everything flat. She has essays and artworks on the Internet and online platforms and she approached us to ask how can we translate this into print. In a way we are now printing out of the Internet. It's really interesting to transform this in a physical object, but it still looks a bit like the Internet.

These are the really interesting shifts at the moment. So when I see a really nicely designed book where everything looks really nice, I am almost bored even if it looks really nice because it's closed and it's almost pretending that these other things don't exist. [..] It can transfer especially to the print-on-demand books, you can almost feel a closeness to the oral, to the spoken. Because you send your PDF today to Lulu and tomorrow you send a different one according to what your reader said. You can so quickly respond. [...]

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It seems to be also a frustrating technology POD because it has so much potential but it really has its limits.

Exactly. This is why we are now running a workshop at The Showroom. We do a publishing class where we say how can we explore these limits and how can we intervene in these limits and change them. Customize a book by bringing this cold automated random product back... But thinking of craftsmanship, I don't know how you would apply the concept of craftsmanship to this book because it's conceptually really clever and there is a craftsmanship in the way that they test the limits of this. [...] Conclusion and thanks

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Interview 5 - Bruno Ceschel, Founder of Self Publish Be Happy Summary

Structural Themes Self-Definition | Identity

Quotes from Transcript ' hybrid organisation' ' the main bulk of it is a curatorial project ' 'we curate a collection of artist books and that curated list becomes our collection, and then our collection is then shared with people via our website and then with a travelling library ' and workshops. (alternative model - COUNTERCULTURAL) Not a publisher (curated lists), not a bookshop/library (traveling library) very open model) They assist and give support ' A lot of artists get in touch with us because they need support into figuring out how to publish their book. They need all sorts of different kinds of assistance, technical assistance or sometimes more conceptual. And we offer workshops that deal with it. 'EMPOWEREMENT COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION ' We are happy to include zine that has been made with a printer at home in only 20 or 30 copies as well as an expensively produced offset hardback cover books produced in 1000 or 2000 copies.'

'An institution needs to have some sort of criteria, and they look after acquisitions. [...] This fits, this doesn't. [...]. A private collection in a way is different, it is sort of a rock your boat.'

Trigger for starting company Contexts

'I quit my job that I had with Chris Boot because I find the limitations of traditional trade frustrating and not fulfilling.'

CREATIVE REACTION 'And while I was in New York for one of these projects I engaged with a lot of artists that were producing all different kinds of printed matter.' ' Partly it has to do with the traditional trade became quite conservative. That has to do with a financial crisis and there wasn't that much money around. The business models were changing, the distribution was changing. [...] That left space for other people to be more adventurous and especially when they are not confined in certain kind of expectations.'

COUNTERCULTURAL CREATIVE REACTION

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Digital Tools & Platforms

SPBH platform is used to support initiatives not yet printed, just printed, just included, etc. Dynamic. ' For example, we do this thing on the website called 'Book to come' and there is a post that showcases the work that is in the making of becoming a book, or just generally we feature the work of students that just graduated. It's not that they are going to make a book but we start to engage with them and their practice and we follow their current practice. They might contribute to the post, they might make a zine and the zine becomes something else, etc.' EMPOWEREMENT CONVIVIALITY Social Media: 'I think that it's a fundamental part of the project. It's also how people engage with SPBH. In a way it's also what prompted SPBH to become an ongoing project.'

SPBH is an enabler via digital platforms, and was enabled by convivial platforms for sharing and connecting. 'we thought of doing a blog where we recorded the books that were sent to us. We just noticed that there were thousands and thousands of people gathering on that website. We thought 'Oh my god' It attracted people beyond the ones that were planning to come to London for the exhibition. And that prompted the idea, maybe there is an international community that is interested about this' SHARING CONNECTING

Values of DIY Culture

Empowerment

Use of concepts

'I was thinking about the idea of thinking outside the confined expectation of commerce in terms of art making.

Especially at the very beginning, performance art was a kind of rebellion against this idea of a product.' ' I even see a parallel between the spontaneity of performance art and the act of self-publishing.

Yes. It doesn't immediately appear as a commercial value. ' The workshops: ' Actually what we do is more an experience through the tools that we offer through the relationships with the attendees of the workshop, we offer them a kind of glimpse to possibilities I guess.' First interview said empowering. ANTICONSUMERISM hybrid (1) share (1) travelling library (1) support (1) tools (1) community (1) open (1)

Transcript *Second round of interviews. The microphone was not working the first time. [...] (Introduction no.2)

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How do you usually introduce Self Publish Be Happy? How do you present it?

Because your business model is very unique.

Do you mean how do I describe it?

Yes. How do you describe it, introduce it?

Well it's quite a hybrid organisation. I guess the main bulk of it is a curatorial project.

What we do here is that we curate a collection of artist books and that curated list becomes our collection, and then our collection is then shared with people via our website and then with a travelling library so that people can have a look at the books.

What do you mean exactly by travelling library? You have exhibitions of your books?

Well institutions for example in the past have asked us to come and show a selection of books or if we go and do a workshop of a talk, we bring a selection of the collection for people to loo at. And we are still not organised to do it properly but people can come and have a look at the books here.

And workshops are a big part of your activities as well.

A lot of artists get in touch with us because they need support into figuring out how to publish their book. They need all sorts of different kinds of assistance, technical assistance or sometimes more conceptual. And we offer workshops that deal with it. We cannot do a once one manner so we do it within a group. And this is an educational side of the project has taken a form. We do talks...

I remember you said something very interesting during our first interview. When I asked you what type of tools you give the artists that attend your workshops, you said you don't have definite tools that you give them but you want to plant the idea that it's possible.

Yes. Especially in most of the workshops that we do, people don't come to us to do the layout of a book. Actually what we do is more an experience through the tools that we offer through the relationships with the attendees of the workshop, we offer them a kind of glimpse to possibilities I guess. [...]

What happens is that you send a book to us and it's a curated collection so we decide to include it or not to the collection, and then it is featured on the website and it travels.

So the book is already published when it is submitted to be part of your collection.

Yes. What happens is that artists and photographers engage with SPBH prior to making the books. For example, we do this thing on the website called 'Book to come' and there is a post that showcases the work that is in the making of becoming a book, or just generally we feature the work of students that just graduated. It's not that they are going to make a book but we start to engage with them and their practice and we follow their current practice. They might contribute to the post, they might make a zine and the zine becomes something else, etc. CONVIVIALITY EMPOWEREMENT

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How important is social media for SPBH? I think that it's a fundamental part of the project. It's also how people engage with SPBH. In a way it's also what prompted SPBH to become an ongoing project. Because what happened is while we were putting together the selection of books for the first event at a photographers' gallery, we thought of doing a blog where we recorded the books that were sent to us. We just noticed that there were thousands and thousands of people gathering on that website. We thought 'Oh my god' It attracted people beyond the ones that were planning to come to London for the exhibition. And that prompted the idea, maybe there is an international community that is interested about this CONVIVIALITY SHARING CONNECTING Most of the people are different, who engage with the projects on a regular basis. That means that they might have seen the name of the photographer, it might be one of their friends who first contributed with a picture for submission and then there is a post when he graduated and then the zine appear. They might have their first gallery show and there is a feature about that. So there is a sense of a specific community there. And you recognize the names, you recognize the people who gravitate around the project.

What characterize the books that you choose to support, to include? What characteristics are you looking for?

It needs to work, which I know is kind of a very broad idea. Because there are all sort of publications. For example, certain kinds of collections have some kind of criterion. The publication should be made in a certain amount of edition, more or less than 50 or 20.

They need to follow a certain kind of form. We are open to anything. We are happy to include zine that has been made with a printer at home in only 20 or 30 copies as well as an expensively produced offset hardback cover books produced in 1000 or 2000 copies. It really depends if we like the publication. That's why it's difficult to describe what it is. That's what happens with a lot of institutions. For example the difference between a collector's collection and an institution. An institution needs to have some sort of criteria, and they look after acquisitions. And they have set-ups, they have certain kinds of rules. This fits, this doesn't. Of course a curator can put forward a proposal but it is within a certain kind of framework. A private collection in a way is different, it is sort of a rock your boat. CREATIVE REACTION COUNTERCULTURAL When you started SPBH in 2010, what made you decide to start it? You said you were a bit tired of working in traditional publishing.

Basically I quit my job that I had with Chris Boot because I find the limitations of traditional trade frustrating and not fulfilling. CREATIVE REACTION I basically kind of gave up. For 2 years I basically only lectured and I started doing some research for museums and projects. And while I was in New York for one of these projects I engaged with a lot of artists that were producing all different kinds of printed matter. So when I came back to London...

This is something that you were just noticing. It appeared as a new thing to you?

Yes. It did appear as new, especially with photo books. It was something new I guess.

Partly it has to do with the traditional trade became quite conservative. That has to do

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with a financial crisis and there wasn't that much money around. The business models were changing, the distribution was changing. Some independent publishing houses just became more and more conservative just because economically... That left space for other people to be more adventurous and especially when they are not confined in certain kind of expectations. Economic expectations, distribution, etc. That in 2010, that was the moment which things kind of (?).

Being more adventurous you mean... Publish the works of more established photographers before giving the chance to up and coming photographers?

I think that's partly it. Some of those books are quite idiosyncratic and weird. If you look at them, what's the audience for this? You will be questioned if you were to publish within traditional trade, some of them the content of it doesn't seem suitable for a large audience. A traditional publisher will say 'who's going to buy this?' When some of those books, it's great that they exist and they do find an audience. Most of them don't find an audience and they just disappear (laughing). Even a great book appears at the wrong time at the wrong place and just sinks. CREATIVE REACTION One last question. When I asked you at the end of the first interview about your take on DIY culture beyond publishing, you mentioned an interest for performance art.

I was thinking about the idea of thinking outside the confined expectation of commerce in terms of art making. Especially at the very beginning, performance art was a kind of rebellion against this idea of a product. Art becoming a product in the market place.

Because performance is ephemeral, it happens in that moment and then it disappears. So even if you are charging people like any performance for theatre for people coming in, that can be a way to make money but it doesn't quite work like that. Of course now performance had now become in form of documentation, photographic documentation or sound but originally it was kind of a rebellion. And I still find the idea of performance an interesting one. I think that it is not surprising that there is a reengagement by a younger generation with performing.

I even see a parallel between the spontaneity of performance art and the act of selfpublishing.

Yes. It doesn't immediately appear as a commercial value. The fundamental problem is that for a very long time, and still, things haven't changed but the value of something is given by the economic value. Those two things are quite separate. The cultural value of something can be completely apart from the economic value. In fact, a lot of very expensive artwork has an economic value but no cultural value other than the fact that they are really expensive. [...] Conclusion and thanks

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Appendix III Mini-Case Study: McNally Jackson 'McNally Jackson: A place where you can read books, buy books, write books, and talk about books. And now a place where you can make books, too.'

— McNally Jackson, 2013 Profile The independent bookstore McNally Jackson was opened in New York City in 2004. It specializes in literary works, organised by geography location in the store. In 2011, McNally Jackson acquired New York City's second print-on-demand Espresso Book Machine (the first one was bought by New York City Public Library in 2007), an instore unit that can print and bind paperback books and magazines in only a few minutes.

Within only 3 months of acquiring the in-store printing unit, the bookstore was already printing over 1000 books per month (Rosen, 2011) among which 700 were selfpublished. The machine is used for printing books on demand from 4 million titles from the public domain (Google Books; the Internet Archive) and partnerships with publishers (HarperCollins) (Rosen, 2011), and therefore limits issues of stocks and backlists. It also serves for printing the works of self-published authors. The bookstore has introduced a self-published section and a consultancy service.

Literature on Interview-related themes ⎯ Self-definition | Identity | Trigger for starting company | Contexts McNally Jackson is a creative business with an independent bookstore at its core, and an opened and flexible business model that extends to publishing, printing and consultancy services, which are a unique resource for independent publishers, selfpublished authors and readers.

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⎯ Print Medium | Digital tools The bookstore, since it acquired the Espresso Print Machine, has become a hub for people wanting to self-publish, but also readers curious to see a books being made and personalise some classics with a special line of text of image on the cover.

'You can’t be the centre of any kind of culture without being online.' (McNally Jackson, 2013) Besides the use of the Espresso printing tools, McNally Jackson has a very dynamic online platform that serves the purpose of an online recommendation system, an online bookstore, a blog (Tumblr), social media platforms (Facebook; Twitter) and an events calendar for the book clubs' meetings.

'Investing in the Espresso Book Machine, which can cost upward of $100,000, brings the cloud down to earth, and reveals a future-oriented instinct. It helps solve inventory challenges and satisfies impulse buyers by hitching technology to the tactile pleasures of print.' (Hoffman, 2011) McNally Jackson has found a way to value print in a contemporary setting. A good example of its use is the decision of the independent magazine ReadyMade in 2011 to use McNally Jackson's POD printer as an alternative way of printing their yearly supplement, a special edition of 100 DIY projects, being unable to afford the costs of traditional printing and stocking. Instead, the POD service allowed them to print just as needed (McNally Jackson, 2013). More recently, the independent literary journal n+1 has also subscribed to the service in order to be able to make back issues available on demand. ⎯ Community & Relationships Sarah McNally, the co-founder, had been working as an editor for Basic Books in New York when, from realising that people were 'greedy' and 'rabid' for books, decided that she wanted to 'be with readers' and open an independent bookshop (Hoffman, 2011). At the heart of the independent community of readers and publishers, is the platform for self-publishing, which empowers a new community of authors by giving

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them the tools to print a one off or small editions, and give them visibility on their 'selfpublished bookshelves' and website.

Reference List §

Hoffman, J. (2011) Her life is a real page-turner, New York Times, 12 October [Internet].

Available from: < www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/fashion/sarah-mcnally-of-mcnallyjackson-books-in-manhattan.html> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

§

Rosen, J. (2011) Book machines near the tipping point? Publishers Weekly, vol.258, no.24, p.20.

§

McNally Jackson (2013) [Internet]. Available from: <www.mcnallyjackson.com> [Accessed 15 July 2013].

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Appendix IV Questionnaires | Summary of collection

1- Independent Print Magazine Publishers (7) Questionnaire Mock-up 1. What is the title of your magazine?

2. How would you describe your publication (editorial content, design and physicality)?

3. What are you the most committed to?

4. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital?

5. What do you enjoy the most about the medium of print?

6. How do you make use of digital platforms and tools?

7. Are online distribution and print-on-demand platforms useful for you?

8. Have you ever used the services of Stack, Newspaper Club, McNally Jackson, Magpile or AND Publishing? If yes, please explain.

9. Do you feel part of a community within publishing? Please explain.

10. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement?

LABELS: CREATIVITY CULTURAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IDENTITY ANTICONSUMERISM MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL PRO-AMS CONVIVIALITY LIQUID CULTURE DIY EMPOWEREMENT CREATIVE REACTION DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS PRINT SHARING CONNECTING

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Summary of collection 1. What is the title of your magazine? § Delayed Gratification § Shoppinghour Magazine § Little White Lies § Offscreen § Pie § We Are Here § Intern 2. How would you describe your publication (editorial content, design and physicality)? §

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It's a beautiful quarterly 'slow journalism' magazine, which returns to stories after the dust has settled and gives the final analysis instead of the first kneejerk reaction. It's half way between a really slow magazine and a really fast history book. It is perfect bound with uncoated stock and high production values.

Arts/philosophy/design magazine targeted towards a contemporary up-beat audience with an awareness of contemporary issues and popular culture. The magazine is designed to reflect and engage with contemporary trends but also to maintain its own identity. We take great care in printing and presenting a publication that feels substantial in the hands of our readers. Shoppinghour is a magazine that you keep, re-read, reference and cherish, like a book. PRINT [...]

Offscreen is a new periodical with an in-depth look at the life and work of digital creators — captured in enduring print. Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of the websites and apps you use everyday? We invite you to turn off your device, grab a cup of coffee and meet their makers off screen. classical, timeless, bite-sized, accessible, curious, open-minded It is an independent quarterly travel magazine that has a lo-fi feel, and features photography, poetry, fiction, journalism and satire.

Content: A showcase of upcoming intern and unpaid talent from throughout the creative industries alongside a long overdue and meaningful debate about the current state of intern culture and its implications. Design: Inspired by a range of independent magazines from Purple to Offscreen, to Apartamento, to Port. The design for us is a vehicle through which to make the intern debate accessible to those not already engaged in it. Physicality: I am a firm believer in the tactile power of print media, as such we are currently in negotiations with a UK paper supplier in the hope of securing something texturally compelling to use as our cover stock and extend that sense of accessibility to those who respond to the physicality of objects. PRINT

3. What are you the most committed to? § Print and perspective. So, doing the most that print can do, creating a lovely and collectible publication. And taking the time to do justice to stories, revisiting

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§ § § § §

them with the benefit of the hindsight and making a virtue out of being 'Last to Breaking News'. PRINT Quality content that's unpredictable and different from other magazines, sensitive and sincere in approach, and relevant and aware of contemporary issues and trends. The magazine started with friendship at its core and we are committed to growing this friendship into a community that includes not just the editors but also our contributors and readers. SOCIAL CAPITAL [...] [...] [...]

Pushing the boundaries of print, particularly the travel magazine genre.

To empowering interns and pushing the debate regarding internships forward by increasing and sustaining engagement with the topic. EMPOWEREMENT

4. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital? PRINT § §

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Because print is still the best format for long-form features and infographics.

Because people still value it more than digital. Because it seems a more natural home to stories which revisit the past than digital does.

Print requires a different form of interaction than digital. Digital is far more suited to quick articles, blogs, snippets, tweets and links, whereas print is slower and more engaging, suited better to an audience that wants to take time to appreciate the content.

Because we believe that there is still a market for beautiful, tactile, highly collectible print products. (But we also love and fully embrace digital.)

Offscreen, as the name says, is a way for digital professionals to "turn off" for a while and to get away from the screen. Print offers a different experience (smell, touch, etc.) that we're starting to miss. digital seems a bit throw away. a physical book might remain in your bookshelf for years, always accessible.

I think print still has value and I personally like it more than digital unfortunately most magazines don't use the medium that well, and use the same paper stock, cover lines and service journalism that the internet is much better suited for.

Digital is fine but print retains a dedicated and passionate following. Anything committed to print becomes physical artifact and is treasured in a way that digital cannot be. I also feel that it is a big deal for those looking to break into photography, design, art and writing to get published in print these days especially seeing as it is so easy to publish yourself on-line.

5. What do you enjoy the most about the medium of print? § §

The smell! Followed by the texture of the pages and the way the ink sits on them. There's such a myriad of different paper options to play with too.

I enjoy the 'collectible feel' of actually having something of value in my hands that I'll keep coming back to. A 'cultural artifact' made by someone, with a

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§ § § § §

physical presence and aura of its own, rather than just showing up on the screen.

(Shoppinghour, 2013) The tangible nature of engaging with a physical product. Also the smell. (Little White Lies, 2013) The multisensory experience, the one-dimensional way of exploring content (you can't click away and end up watching farting cat videos) Turning pages, touching paper, mixing paper stocks, imperfection of print (Pie, 2013) I like the feel, the collectible nature of it, the smell, all of it! (We Are Here, 2013) The physicality of it and all that comes with it. I enjoy the touch, smell and aesthetic potential of print media. It is great to experience the manifestation of all of the hard work, considerations and passion that goes into creating that final artifact. (Intern, 2013)

6. How do you make use of digital platforms and tools? §

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We use our website as a sort of shop front which moves people towards buying subscriptions or back issues. We do some social media (FB and twitter) to generate interest and email newsletters every now and then. We store all our infographics in a searchable online 'vault' and we're looking to do the same with a selection of features too.

The Internet is a great platform for promoting the magazine and maintaining a consistent relationship with our audience in between issues (using Facebook, twitter and our website). It helps us grow our relationship with our readers and cultivate the community of Shoppinghour. For smaller efforts with small budgets such as ours advertising large scale is not an option, the Internet provides tools for us to do things we would otherwise not be able to afford.

By being a part of the conversation and engaging our audience across multiple digital platforms, from our website and social media channels to the LWLies App. I sell 85% of the magazine through our website. There is no digital version of the magazine.

We extend our content online with video pieces related to the themes in our paper. We do use blogs to promote our publication. We send out digital newsletters I use Facebook/Twitter and have a website, but all of these are tools to connect with readers and generate awareness of the magazine.

Digital platforms are an essential means of sustaining an interest in print media.

Social media is a vital tool of free promotion and engagement with your readership. For us Kickstarter has been instrumental in the project's development and provided an otherwise impossible means of communicating the concept with people around the world.

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7.

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8.

Comments: § §

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We've been sent out twice with Stack. (Delayed Gratification) Stack have written about Shoppinghour Magazine and we would like to have it available as part of their selection one day. McNally Jackson distributes us.

Soon we would like to have Shoppinghour on MagPile too. Haven't used AND Publishing. (Shoppinghour Magazine) LWLies has been a part of Stack since its inception. (Little White Lies) Not sure what to explain?! (Offscreen) Our Issue One newspaper was printed by Newspaper Club, distributed as a free insert with July's STACK delivery and Issue One will be sold through the Magpile store. (Intern)

9. Do you feel part of a community within publishing? Please explain. §

Yes, definitely. There's a real sense of solidarity among small independent publishers and we help each other out as much as possible.

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Yes, there is certainly an independent publishing community that's growing.

Really great magazines/publications with fantastic design and content by likeminded individuals across the world. Events such as Mag Dossier and blogs such as MagCulture are just some of few efforts that celebrate these magazines/publications. Small independent bookstores also play a big role. The Internet comes in handy again in connecting all these efforts to create a stronger community feel amongst us (against the larger mainstream publishing giants).

Within independent publishing, yes.

I'm trying really hard to establish a community. Coming from the web designer community where there are literally hundreds of social platforms and communities, there is still no real network of independent publishers out there where we can really connect and exchange experiences. A few blogs and sites like Magpile are inviting indie publishers to get in touch with each other, but we're still missing the tools to do so.

Not really, mainly because we are cut off from the rest of the world being located in New Zealand. Also our publication doesn't fit into a certain genre, which makes it harder to get integrated. However we are not seeking to be part of a community. We want to stay as broad as possible Yes, I think sites Stack and Magpile and MagCulture are very useful and it's great to see other magazines being set up. I try not to worry too much about whatever people are doing, but it's always nice to get feedback!

Absolutely, the independent magazine community is passionate and welcoming.

I spoke last week at PrintOut (hosted by Steve Watson from Stack and Jeremy Leslie from MagCulture) and off the back of that met up with folk from Oh Comely and Shellsuit Zombie. From my time interning I am very close to the team at Boat who were my mentors. Rachel from Another Escape and I briefly overlapped working at Boat and I have received great advice and support from the Editors of MOUSSE, Hello Mr, Dayjob, Offscreen and It's Nice That - all since setting out on this in January. I think that proves how strong the community is.

10. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement? §

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I think it's a mix of fashion and real changes in lifestyle. But we're not really 'do it yourself'ers - we're all magazine professionals who have launched a magazine as a commercial proposition not as a hobby. We're small and independent but we're deadly serious!

I think that it's a real way of living and we should celebrate every minute of it.

The world is going through hyper digitization (that is coming closer and closer to being saturated). The 90s celebrated the beginning of it but in the new millennium we are starting to question and distrust it more and more. Though the Internet is an excellent tool for communication and connecting people (and indeed many movements of resistance against political oppression and for protecting rights have found it integral) it should not be an end. I think it's

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§ §

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healthy and necessary for man to be in touch with their body and physical environment in balance with their mind. Once this balance is lost and people 'lose' their bodies and are digitized they become numbers and easily exploited.

It's easier to press a button that kills thousands (using drones for example) than to actually face them physically and do it. The physical gives humanity a sense of weight, a sense of substance, that is lost in the digital, and we have to fight for it! :) We've always done things our own way, which doesn't adhere to any trend or established movement.

"A real way of living"? Not sure what you mean. It's definitely a movement.

Whether it stays a movement or becomes more, we'll see. There is definitely demand for the idea of going back to the roots. In any sense of those words (from growing your own veggies to making your own mag) We hope that this is more than a fashion and people will revolutionize certain areas to become more independent from the big machine. Yes we do feel part of this movement.

I don't feel part of any movement - there are a lot of food/craft titles being launched, which may be due to a backlash to an increasingly connected world. I think real DIY/craftspeople are living in wood cabins somewhere isolated and not maintaining blogs or tweeting!

I think it is inspired by the current financial climate and has made people more resourceful. While it is a different set of considerations to tackle with the DIY approach, it strikes me that it really plays to people's creative strengths and in that respect is very much a real way of living. Like it or not, the way things are heading at the moment is far more industries are taking workers on in a freelance capacity.

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2- Independent Publishing Houses (2) Questionnaire Mock-up 1. What is the name of your publishing house?

2. How would you describe the books that you have published?

3. What are you the most committed to?

4. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital?

5. What do you enjoy the most about the medium of print?

6. How do you make use of digital platforms and tools?

7. Are print-on-demand or online distribution platforms useful for you?

8. Have you ever used the services of Stack, Newspaper Club, McNally Jackson, Magpile or AND Publishing? If yes, please explain.

9. Do you feel part of a community within publishing? Please explain.

10. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement?

LABELS: CREATIVITY CULTURAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IDENTITY ANTICONSUMERISM MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL PRO-AMS CONVIVIALITY LIQUID CULTURE DIY EMPOWEREMENT CREATIVE REACTION DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS PRINT SHARING CONNECTING Summary of collection 1. What is the name of your publishing house? § Shelter Press § Morel books 2. How would you describe the books that you have published? § Our publishing program focuses on contemporary art, writings, and experimental music through art books, mutliples and records. § Art books in limited editions made in close collaboration with the artist.

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3. What are you the most committed to? § Our imprint Shelter Press understands the printed matters as an on-growing living architecture where music, art, poetry, can co-habit and think in echoes. § Nothing 4. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital? § Because we love books ourselves! we are also books and records collectors: you cannot collect something that is digital. § I don't thing digital has or will effect art books - that's like assuming a jpeg of the Mona Lisa on an iPad would stop masses elbowing each other for a view of it at the Louvre.

5. What do you enjoy the most about the medium of print? § it possibility of being shared, borrowed, landed, offered PRINT § Books make great doorstoppers.

6. How do you make use of digital platforms and tools? § it's very important for us too. we put a lot of energy in our website, newsletters, social medias. since most of our costumers are far away, it's necessary to communicate § Everything is done digitally - from scanning to layout to proofing to uploading to even printing out stamps to post books. Further - marketing is all done via social media - Facebook/twitter/Instagram etc. - spreading by word of mouth and exponentially expanding as things are re- posted Newsletter are digital reaching out to over 17000 subscribers for close to nothing - Sales are safely done online - And importantly anything from the NY times to a small time blog can do a write up.

7. Are print-on-demand or online distribution platforms useful for you? § No § No, not sure what online distribution is? POD isn't useful - though I am thinking of using it in a project. It's not being used as our projects are limited and finite.

8. Have you ever used the services of Stack, Newspaper Club, McNally Jackson, Magpile or AND Publishing? If yes, please explain. § Yes, newspaper club yes, for special projects that needed newspapers. § No, but I did consider the newspaper club 9. Do you feel part of a community within publishing? Please explain. § Yes, before doing shelter press we were doing kaugummi books. bartolome is in the zine scene for 10 years now, so he had the chance to meet a lot of people. also, we do sometimes book fairs. § Yes - it's one of the best parts of publishing- We're a large crowd hat are into it because we love the art work and the book - we are all connected internationally and meet at least a few times a year at events - from the New York art book fair

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to the Copeland book market in Peckham. It's a mixture of major publishers bookshops - from König to small shops like ti pi tin in east LONDON - curators - artists - writers - gallarists- etc etc. We all hang out - geek out about books and get drunk...

10. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement? § It’s an art of living for sure. As I said before, kaugummi, the imprint bartolome ran before we create shelter press was created in 2004 I think, so it's been almost 10 years. We are doing shelter press on a non profit base, we are also vegetarian and about to move in the middle of the alps mountains next September, we don't go out that much to openings, even if we love art (I am an artist and a musician too). We have too much to do to party most of the time. This said, I think there is also "good" fashion, who do books and fashion, like etudes or cosmic wonder, people who do it in conscious and smart way. But concerning ourselves, we or a book publishing house and a experimental record label: we don't really do it for fashion or hype, more because this is a belief about we think music, art and books should be made and shared in 2013. § There have always been independent designers doing things DIY - dazed and confused stated at LCP - as a poster fanzine - now it's one of the most powerful fashion institutions - and it's influence - from Katie grande to photographers is amazing. Some will float and some will be washed down the river...

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3- Self-Published Authors/Artists (7) Questionnaire Mock-up 1. What is your occupation?

2. In which city do you currently live?

3. How did you decide to self-publish your first book/magazine/newspaper?

4. How would you describe in a few words the books/magazines/newspapers that you have published?

5. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital?

6. What do you enjoy the most about making a publication in print?

7. Have you acquired skills in the process (editing, printmaking, bookbinding, etc.)?

8. How do you promote and distribute your work to your readers?

9. Have print-on-demand platforms been useful to you? If yes, please explain.

10. Do you feel like you are part of a community within publishing? Please explain.

11. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement?

LABELS: CREATIVITY CULTURAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IDENTITY ANTICONSUMERISM MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL PRO-AMS CONVIVIALITY LIQUID CULTURE DIY EMPOWEREMENT CREATIVE REACTION DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS PRINT SHARING CONNECTING Summary of collection 1. What is your occupation? § §

Freelance editor & company director Film Maker

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Admin/Counsellor Producer Student Book Arts and Design Technician Photographer

2. In which city do you currently live? § § §

London (5) Singapore (1) Lancaster (1)

3. How did you decide to self-publish your first book/magazine/newspaper? §

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Matt & I had a drink in a pub and came up with the idea. We'd worked together before (he'd hired me to do some copywriting) and we'd always wanted to do something else together. We both had experience in food (me in publishing and him in branding) and wanted to create a magazine that we'd want to read. A zine really casual, fun, funny...

A group of friends and myself decided to publish an independent arts journal A4Ria in order to state independent positions on issues in the arts.

It felt the right thing to do with those stories. Too small for a publisher and wanted it to be unique and handmade.

I was making a film series and wanted to create something tangible to go alongside the films, which would sit, online.

Artistic Concept came about and we needed to work out a way to best represent it in an art form, and the printed book was the best fit for a medium. we wanted to incorporate visual aesthetic into the delivery of the concept and package it in a selfcontained and enclosed format. The great thing about a printed book is that it can be "bound", not just physically but that the concepts, stories and ideas can be metaphorically cocooned inside.

I self-published my first book whilst I was still at University. I was mainly interested in the question, if there is an audience out there that would buy/engage with my work.

In choosing between the painful route of trying to get a publisher, having heard that you then often still need to come with a bag of money and losing full control of how to make the book. Or the painful route of trying to work the money together yourself, I want for the last option.

4. How would you describe in a few words the books/magazines/newspapers that you have published? §

Tomorrow’s Chip Paper is a food newsletter about how, what and where we eat.

We want to know what’s going on now in food and we’ll also turn an eye to what’s come before, and explore anecdotes behind some favourite foods. We’ll yell about what we love but we’re not afraid to call bullshit on food we don’t like (for whatever personal or trivial reason), but we’ll do it with humour and

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good spirits. We like good writing, good images, strong opinions, and strong ideas – if it’s interesting, it goes in. We know what we like because we bought it and tried it, not because a PR sent it to us. So this is our folly; we’re creating the newspaper that we want to read. It’s our fanzine to food. We’re doing it lo-fi, on the fly, to produce something informative, celebratory and humorous, light but not trivial, easily consumed, and ultimately disposable. We wanted something very immediate, easy to read, and of course interesting and with the flexibility to use food images and fun design, but didn’t want to seem too serious, or make a publication that people felt they had to keep.

An arts journal that offers independent articles on theatre, writing, criticism and arts related topics.

An experiment. Living Rooms Stories is seven moments in the life of a couple, inspired by Ólafur Arnalds Living Room Songs Printed on individual double sided cards with accompanying art or photography, housed in a seven inch record sleeve, with a transparent print for the cover. [...]

Sound art and listening theory represented in a visual sphere. Communication between disciplinary epistemologies.

The book is called skeleton book, which is an experimental exploration and illustration of the rules of book design.

Just one book so far. A beautifully designed (not by me) hardcover, 512p book full of images and letters.

5. Why choose to print now while most people are turning to digital? § We love print. And I guess we were feeling contrary. It's not that we love the permanence of print - because we wanted this to be something quite immediate and disposable. But we both have backgrounds in print, and we both had spare time and a creative flame to burn. We love local newspapers, self-published fanzines, street press - we're both Australian which has a really strong culture in cities for these things, for such a small populations. Love that surprise of finding a fun publication to read in a bar while you're waiting for a friend. Reading a paper, then leaving it for someone else when your friend arrives - it's nice. § Because print books can never be replaced by digital books. Digital books are also extremely unstable. § A personal choice as I prefer print to digital. If done correctly how a story is displayed and the accompanying cover art can add to the story. Print feels a lot less throw away than digital. § The tangible nature of print means people can literally take something home with them. I think that's really important to remind people about your work - in my case, about what they've just seen. I see the paper I made as a kind of totem for the project. Something people will uncover when they're clearing about a bookshelf in a few years and remind them of the films. Stumbling across old links in that way just doesn't seem as possible. § Print is beautiful. Its superior to digital. People could access our book online in PDF form and read the entire contents if they liked, purchasing the physical copy is a different way of committing to it. I am not interested in "tricking"

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people into buying a book in physical format, keeping it packaged so that you don't know what's inside until you buy it. They can see it online if they want and those who would like to own it can purchase it in the printed form.

The state of the codex book in contemporary society is a current theme in my work and I am deeply interested in the latest innovations happening within publishing. I believe now, in this digital age, the book is shifting from an inevitable cultural experience to a specialized one.

I like how print stays. Digital is usually looked at for a few seconds or minutes at most and then people move on. A book keeps lying around someone’s house.

It also smells better.

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The editorial control was nice. We started this to please and amuse ourselves.

We ended up partnering with Feast (the food festival) who supported the print and distribution, and had an ad and listings page. But the entire editorial was us.

That's not specifically print... I think Matt really enjoyed the design aspect - that kind of editorial is not something he does in his day job. Involvement in every area was cool - not something you'd usually get to do on a staffed magazine.

The process of writing it and seeing the reactions.

The satisfaction of seeing the finished article and the individuality of each piece, as they are handmade.

The boxes arriving from the printers. Uncovering it and all the apprehension that goes with it - hoping there's no missed typos etc. - is a great buzz.

I love working with my hands.

The moment when your concept/idea is finally printed on paper.

I love the end result, holding the fruit of your labours.

7. Have you acquired skills in the process (editing, printmaking, bookbinding, etc.)? § § § § § § §

Speaking for myself, not really. I had to be much more involved in design/art than I would be in my usual work, so that was fun. And Matt did some writing, which he wouldn't usually do. But there was nothing too unfamiliar.

Yes, mostly in editing, marketing and distribution.

The process of writing the stories has aided my editing. The art is produced by hand and is an ongoing area of development.

I was already familiar with desktop publishing software like InDesign but it gave me a chance to brush up on my skills.

Yes. I didn't know how to do any of this shit before starting to make books!

I studied Graphic-Design and Book Arts and Design where I learned most of the skills I need to produce my own book.

I think getting the right people involved is one major thing I've learned. Get everyone to do what they're good at, don't try it all yourself.

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8. How do you promote and distribute your work to your readers?

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Comments: § Newspaper Club - brilliant service § I have used blurb and Lulu for other projects. Blurb for a photo book as a gift for family but Lulu for a self-published print on demand book:

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I used Blurb and Lulu. Print-on-demand means making only what is needed, when it's needed and the amount needed. You don’t have to worry about paper, size etc. as it is all given. I see these platforms as a place where you can experiment.

10. Do you feel like you are part of a community within publishing? Please explain. §

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As Tomorrow's Chip Paper? No. It's very much a side-project at the moment.

Hopefully that will change - we're only compiling our second issue now.

Personally, for me? Sort of. It's been my job for a long time, so it's definitely my field, though I don't do much networking etc.

No. I feel part of a community that sits outside traditional publishing. Not only in terms of how work is published, but what that work says.

Not really. I know a lot of independent creators in the comic and sequential art world but I'm not an illustrator so as a creator I'm not part of that field. I make films.

I feel like there is a community, and I desperately want to be a part of it, but that I am not yet. People still don't know our name.

I work/ed closely with AND Publishing and X Marks the Bökship and thereby feel part of a community.

I don't personally know many people that self-published a book or magazine. So I guess not.

11. Do you regard the current wave of 'do-it-yourself' and craftsmanship initiatives (publishing, food, furniture, blogs, craft, etc.) as a real way of living or just a fashion? Do you feel part of this movement? §

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Is it a way of living. It's a creative outlet, and output, which is important to me, and vastly improves my life. Can I make my living out of it? No. Not yet although, to be honest, I haven't tried. I think people can, it's hard work but so is any job. is it a fashion? I don't know. You hear more about it. I guess with the change in media - print v web; falling sales; eBooks; iPads ...etc. - the ways and reasons people self-publish is changing. But I don't know how it will work.

Again, I feel part of the movement because we're doing it.

It's definitely something real, how long it will last remains to be seen. I don't feel part of this movement and I've been doing it for a while.

I feel it is a real way of living, though elements of it can appear as fashionable and provide bandwagons for people to jump up, which may be a good thing as it opens up avenues to people. Though I feel thought needs to be given to content and for people not to churn out copies of other works. I don't feel part of the movement as some of the movement has a surface feel to it, whilst I view my work as having depth.

I sort of just feel like I'm pulling bits of what my friends do in comics or illustration into the film world. I definitely don't feel like it's a phase. It's really

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empowering and helps you refine and define what you want to achieve with a project or an initiative. But I wouldn't say that I feel part of a movement, per-se.

I just feel that these are tools that can help you create the work you want to create.

It’s a way of life, but its trendy right now. Maybe it always has been for the last half century, its hard for me to really put a perspective on that, but I feel like you can be someone who strives to live in a world of pure consumption, supporting foreign factories, computerized labour, digital communication and social isolation, or you can live in the world of presence, making and producing craft, a human touch, being close to nature and person-to-person social interaction, or you can live somewhere in between. The in-betweens are unfortunately the consumers that keep DIY brands alive, these are people who prefer to consume rather than produce themselves, but enjoy that sense of personality and uniqueness to the objects they surround themselves with in their lives. I like that the word "Edition" is coming into widespread use right now, and I see it as one of the most valuable and wealth-intense words in our vocabulary going forward into the future. I am using it to describe something physical, made in limited batches. It is used to counteract the loss of value and weightlessness associated with the word "Content". Content is digital, bits and bytes and nothing more than a few seconds of your time (probably less considering when you consumer content for content's sake you're also consuming other digital information simultaneously), but an Edition of something instills a sense of presence, and an extended relationship with the "Maker". Maker and Receiver are two sides of the same coin with an Edition, and neither is more important. Editions are not produced for profit or wide distribution, as is content, but are produced with a community of readers in mind and the idea that something can be made purely for the benefit of those whose eyes will appreciate looking at it. In other words, the person with eyes (or ears) is as important as the person with hands. I think that this is nothing short of a working understanding of the DIY agenda.

It is interesting to see how fashionable bookmaking became in the last few years but I can't really tell where this wave is going. Personally, I am inspired an interested in new aesthetic forms that are being birthed from digital technology, and yet also, what links them back to the traditional aspects of communicative tools.

I think hardly anyone makes a living with that. I certainly don't, but I still have the small hope that one day I will - I'm not counting on that though and do enjoy it even when I don't make a living from it.

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4- Readers of Independent Print Publications (42) Questionnaire Mock-up 1. What is your age? What is your gender?

2. What is your occupation?

3. What city do you currently live in?

4. Please describe one of your favorite independent magazines in print.

5. What is common to most independent magazines that you enjoy reading in print (theme, aesthetic, physicality, spirit and/or perspective on the world)? Please explain.

6. Why do you choose to buy independent publications (books, magazines, newspapers) in print?

7. Do you keep in contact with print magazines via their online platforms (website, newsletter, Facebook, Twitter) and/or share their content on social media platforms?

8. Do you buy printed books from either small independent publishing houses or self-published artists/authors?

9. Are you tempted to self-publish your own book, zine, magazine or newspaper now that print-on-demand platforms and printmaking services are widely accessible?

10. Do you regard the 'do-it-yourself' aesthetic favouring crafted, limited editions, homemade and/or handmade objects/products (publishing, food, furniture, etc.) as a way of living or just a fashion? And do you feel part of that community as a maker and/or consumer?

LABELS: CREATIVITY CULTURAL CAPITAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IDENTITY ANTICONSUMERISM MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP COUNTERCULTURAL PRO-AMS CONVIVIALITY LIQUID CULTURE DIY EMPOWEREMENT CREATIVE REACTION DIGITAL TOOLS/PLATFORMS PRINT SHARING CONNECTING

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Summary of Collection 1. What is your age? What is your gender?

2. What is your occupation? (42) § § § § § § § § §

Artist/Designer/Graphic Designer (6) Arts Organizer (1) Client Service Unit / Canadian High Commission (1) Coffee Roaster/Musician (1) Cultural Manager (1) Editor/Writer/Student (2) Executive Assistant (1) Filmmaker (1) Freelance translator (1)

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Journalist/Editor (3) Journalist/Filmmaker (1) Marketing Consultant (1) Multimedia Producer (1) Musician (2) Photographer (1) Photographer/Student (1) Production Manager (Feature Drama) (1) Public relations manager (1) Research manager (1) Sound Designer (1) Student (12) Teacher (1)

3. What city do you currently live in? (42) § § § § § § § § §

Buffalo NY, USA (1) London, UK (18) Montreal, Canada (11) New York City, USA (6) Paris (2) Royal Oak, USA (1) Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Canada (1) Zug, Switzerland (1) Zürich, Switzerland (1)

4. Please describe one of your favourite independent magazines in print. *Out of the 37 titles mentioned, the same was mentioned only twice (Fantastic Man) and most are from all around the world (Canada, UK, Italy, Australia, Germany, USA, Switzerland, France, Netherlands).

Dazed & Confused, The Wire, Maisonneuve, Walrus, Granta, Tom Tom Magazine!, du, Nouveau Projet, Utne Reader, Art Forum, FUKT Hb, Le Bathyscaphe, The Travel Almanac, Girls On Film (And Boys on Film) Zine, Frankie magazine, Kinfolk Magazine, Desillusion, Esopus, BOMB Magazine, Froots, n+1, The believer, Mark, bidoun, Pica Magazine, Apartamento, Worn-, Emigre, British Journal of Photography, dasbuchalsmagazin, Revue XXI, OOMK, Perle, Vice, Esse, The Gourmand *Subjects: music, culture, society, design, arts, photography, drawing, poetry, lifestyle, skateboard, literature, essay, criticism, home, fashion, food, travel, philosophy, politics, feminism, *Adjectives/nouns used to describe: energy, visibility, stories, different/critical perspectives (5), eclectic, poetic, aesthetic, creativity (2) beautiful (3), urban, modern, classy, awesome editorial approach, expression, new (4), love (2), collectable/collect/collection (3),

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* Meaningful quotes: § ' It covers a subject that is too often neglected and gives visibility to a bunch of amazing musicians around the world' (Reader about Tom Tom Magazine! about female drummers) § 'It's a cultural magazine that publishes new texts, thoughtful and mind-provoking to address the issues of our times and the possibility of a more balanced, satisfying and meaningful life.' (Nouveau Projet, translation from French) § ' Any independent magazine bringing creativity and perspective, the point be mainly not following the main stream.' (Reader) § ' The paper is thick and uncoated, and the product has a collectable appearance.

It's mainly a very nice object, talking about very nice things.' (Reader on Frankie Magazine, Australian) § 'A broad-ranging look at the middle east, Asia and diaspora communities from a critical perspective that is rigorous and challenges dominant perspectives but also celebrates absurdity' (Reader on Bidoun) § 'The magazine uses the home as a broad theme - it features some interior / architectural stories, but also, unlike magazines such as World of Interiors, is really dedicated to the "ordinary" man as it recounts his personal experiences through the spaces in which he has lived.' (Reader on Apartamento, Italy) § It is socially engaging, progressive and about clothing as expression- not promoting a lifestyle. (Reader on Worn-, Toronto) 5. What is common to most independent magazines that you enjoy reading in print (theme, aesthetic, physicality, spirit and/or perspective on the world)? Please explain. (41 valid answers) *Adjectives/nouns used to describe: new (8), long-form (2), object, tactile, unique (4), alternative youth culture, spirit, different/unusual/slow perspectives/angles (4), craft/ed (3), materiality, physicality (7), originality (2), quality (4), substance, personal (2), niche, beautiful (8), paper (5), innovative (2) , materials, different (2). *Meaningful quotes: § 'New voices, new visual art talents, long-form journalism, unsung stories, short fiction, arty photo shoots, avant-garde layout, intriguing cover art (for the people watching you read, hehe).' § 'unique tactile feel of the physical object. Content can be delivered so easily digitally, but it becomes a ubiquitous, bland experience. Where I think print will survive is through unique hand touched objects made with love.' (Reader) § ' I am always drawn to the physicality of an object which is bound to its aesthetic quality ranging from beautifully handcrafted publications to the ostentatious luxury mag-books. But what always excited me the most is a publications spirit, like Dazed it's rebellious, it's a celebration of alternative youth culture, it captures an age very romantically and for me this is often expressed through aesthetic, theme and stand point.' § 'nicely crafted'

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'The materiality of the magazine is important to me' ' I enjoy magazines with a unique perspective on world politics, and essays by emerging writers.' ' Physicality there is nothing like holding a book. Or a magazine. The way it is bound or built. It's weight. The type of paper how it’s printed. The format. The very specialized themes and perspectives.' 'slow perspective on the world' 'real freedom of expression' ' I love being able to flick through independent magazines and make lists of new people or work that fascinates me. There is something more personal with the design and content of these magazines.' ' the mags I like usually have an innovative packaging/layout, and are unique aesthetic objects as well as containing interesting content.' 'an attention to the detail, an avant-garde/experimental spin' 'They are all radical and strong in some sense, even if it is in a straight way.

They are somehow breaking rules of visuals, tone and language.' ' Really thoughtful writing' 'perspective on the world' ' I cherish magazines who employ form and space the way an artist would, free from the pressure to pack every pixel with text or info, buy also aware that I am paying money for the contents of the periodical and don't want page after page of negative space.' ' These magazines also tend to look at subjects from interesting, less obvious angles' ' Detail is also very important - I like detail, I am a detail-oriented person, and in many ways the magazines I am interested in pay homage to detail - they find charm in the small and everyday, and in such a fast paced city such as London I think one needs to find opportunities to appreciate the things around us that can so easily be taken for granted.' ' I would prefer a more cosmopolitan and socially aware/engaging perspective, not something simply trying to sell me something.' ' I really love magazines whose form is dictated by the content, that is, a graphic design magazine using innovative typesetting and materials in such a way that the magazine not only discusses a subject, but is itself discursive by physically embodying its content.'

'In my mind, independent magazines are defined by the fact that they are totally or in majority owned by the staff/contributors/readers, and are not dependent on advertising. Thus, I don't feed that the physicality or aesthetic is a crucial factor (though it's most welcome), because they can be very dependent on economic factors. So I guess my common ground is spirit - the editorial freedom and risk that are enabled by the two conditions I evoked above' 'These magazines are not only different in terms of content (highlighting subjects that no mainstream media ever published) but also in terms of form.

Most of the independent magazines that I read don't care about timing. Since many of these are quarterly or biannual, they simply can't offer a product that's in synch with the news' ' Detail is also very important - I like detail, I am a detail-oriented person, and in many ways the magazines I am interested in pay homage to detail - they find

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charm in the small and everyday, and in such a fast paced city such as London I think one needs to find opportunities to appreciate the things around us that can so easily be taken for granted.'

6. Why do you choose to buy independent publications (books, magazines, newspapers) in print?

The physicality (88%) and collectability (66%) of print are the main reasons for buying in print. And owning a publication that they identify with aesthetically (62%) and editorially (64%), and that represents who they are. More superficial reasons such as the habit of reading in print (24%), relaxation (40%), switching off from digital devices (36%) and decorating bookshelf (33%)

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Other answers (10) :'Requires no batteries'; 'not swamped in advertisement', 'prefer to carry around (on tube etc.) rather than a digital device', 'to study them', 'Independent magazines usually start with print, inspiration.

7. 79% of the respondents connect with print magazines via their digital platforms.

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8. Do you buy printed books from either small independent publishing houses or self-published artists/authors?

A vast majority of the participants (76%) also buy independent or self-published books.

Comments (31) *Meaningful quotes:' A friend put out a very limited, handmade poetry booklet.', ' In store comic book to support local artist', ' I like to buy books from independent bookstores when I see them, to make sure to help support them' 9.

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Comments (10) Quotes from comments: § Not immediately, but perhaps print-on-demand chapbook of short stories in future if no-one else will print it, or if it seems like self-publishing is a better route to go. § But I'll probably print it myself. § would like to... never have the time... sometime in the future for sure § Maybe one day if I ever finish that damn novel!

A majority of the readers are tempted to self publish (52%), 40% via print-on-demandplatforms and/or 28% with printmaking services.

10. Do you regard the 'do-it-yourself' aesthetic favouring crafted, limited editions, homemade and/or handmade objects/products (publishing, food, furniture, etc.) as a way of living or just a fashion? And do you feel part of that community as a maker and/or consumer? *Meaningful quotes: § ' As the means of electronic design and mass production become accessible to anyone, people react to this and seek out objects with physical artifacts/imperfections that make them unique.' § ' It’s a sort of activist consumerism that encourages DIY and small-batch production. At this point, I contribute to the DIY movement as a consumer, but I do have a 'maker' project in the works.' § ' I see it as a cultural shift. People with the means to do so are buying local and/or unique (original) items. I think they're tired of having a million choices of essentially the same thing. And I believe they are becoming more inquisitive (leading to educated) about the way things are produced and the effects they have on themselves and the world at large. I do everything I can to not buy mass produced objects anymore.' § ' I see it as a way of living. I feel like I'm a part of that community as a consumer for now, maybe as a maker later' § ' I feel like the 'do-it-yourself' trend is certainly very popular, especially in places like London everyone seems to be using that tag. However, this is a reflection of our times and a really positive one. We are living in an age where resources are so accessible and if you have the intuition and passion to self-publish then the tools are readily available.' § ' I think 'cottage industry' artifacts (be it music which I'm more involved with or print) are at best an extension of a way of living that it providing an alternative to mass produced products.' § ' For my self I love do it your self and homemade stuff especially to have a feeling for time and the process for sth again. So I do feel part of it.' § ' Yes, creating is a way of living, and I will always support all craft, physical or digital. The physical object tends to create a bond, which could make you feel part of a wider community. But I believe the general interest in craft is what

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makes that particular group more attuned with the difficulty/ limitation/ingenuity of it.' ' Somehow you gotta produce yourself, but it doesn't mean you're gonna earn money with it. Do it for the beauty and creativity, I mean.' ' Both-It is a lifestyle that has always existed, but the Internet has made it a lot easier for people to get involved and reach out to others. I would consider myself as a consumer.' ' Definitely a way of life that inspires me - I do feel part of that community by proxy, as I have many talented friends and colleagues who create such work.' ' I think it is a way of living and thinking. Right now I am in the process of being a maker.' ' I think they are quite on trend, but at the same time, it's really beneficial for artists to have more control over the production of the book, physically and financially. There is something more unique and personal about self published books, which ultimately leads to them having greater value to you as an object.

Self-published books tend to be scarcer too, so it's nice to know that you have a limited edition of an artist's work. These tend to go up in value and become a collectable.' ' This is a way of living for me. I love to own beautiful things, I love to TOUCH what I own and I want it to last for years and be of a good quality. I feel part of a community as a consumer, definitely.' ' With globalization the 'do-it-yourself'-lifestyle became very popular (and therefore in fashion), however, with the new reality of digitalization people do feel the need of leading a healthier, more conscious lifestyle, therefore it definitely is a way of living that will last.' ' As a way of living, definitely. But a hard one, depending on where you are and how easy the access to these things are. And yes, I do feel part of it as both maker and consumer.'

'Definitely a way of living. If you look back in history, people have always preformed DIY - and now it is even easier with all the digital tools we have around us. Some people will always be more interested in the process of creating something than others, and I think there will always be a market for both mainstream and independent media.' ' I think that, like a lot of countercultural movements, it began as something that was focused on creating a separate and sustainable economy for a small group of people, and has grown into something less economic and more fashion oriented.

But it can still be a way of living, it's just harder and harder to tell what's "legit" as corporations ape the aesthetics of the DIY movement' 'We live in a world where everybody can create a movie, a book, a magazine, let s do it like and identify with the do-it-yourself aesthetic and like to make things and put them out into the world independently' ' I regard it as a natural state of commerce, one in fact more human that those mass produced.'

'I think the DIY aesthetic is an indication of how technology as well as the motivations of the consumer are changing. It describes a stark shift in distribution models also - Chris Anderson describes this shift as "the long tail" -

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with advent of technology, distribution models are changing drastically, everyone is now increasingly able to find its niche and is increasingly turning to products, which are not mass-produced. Whereas before people would be resigned to whatever books were available in a bricks and mortar bookshop, now, with sites such as Amazon people are able to buy more obscure products and it is these "obscure" publications which actually make a significant portion of Amazon's profits. People generally like the idea of owning something that is unique and or limited edition and something has been made by human hands and I think the evidence is there that consumers will usually be happy to pay extra for such a product.' ' I think it is partly in reaction to mass production, but I think it is here to stay. I value objects that are handmade with care.' ' I see it more as a way of living, that is still in its baby shoes with a lot of potential, the more our life is shifting into digital, the more we need to reclaim a sense of agency by doing stuff ourselves. Its about finding the balance, at the moment, I still try to figure it out...' ' Tough question. As an aesthetic (food, making your own furniture, etc.), it is a true way of living that can give way to rich creativity. But as a means of production and diffusion, it can often become counter-productive, with creators pigeon-holing themselves and becoming self-indulgent, because DIY can become an excuse to stay in a very limited circle of like-minded makers/consumers, instead of confronting your work to the world at large. In other words, DIY should be a viable & widespread alternative to bland profitdriven mass-production, not an elite circle of people removing themselves from a world of "drone consumers"' ' I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people to do things themselves, and I believe this "do-it-yourself" aesthetic allows people to create and openly share what they do to a larger public. I would indeed define it as a way of living, a way of creating, more than just a fashion. However, I find there's perhaps one negative aspect from that lifestyle: the lack of criticism. It's not because you have the opportunity to publish your own novel or magazine that it means it's actually the best novel or magazine that ever existed; and sometimes I feel like some institutions (several publishing houses, for instance) exist as a mean to offer the necessary criticism to improve one's work. See, if I had written a novel, and submitted it to les Éditions de Minuit, which is, at least for me, one of the best publishing houses in France, and if I get feedback from them, and they tell me my novel is not quite good for X and Y reasons, I wouldn't disregard their comments and publish it on my own anyway - it's the publisher of Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, they sure know a bit about literature. I would therefore like to be part of that community as a maker (and I'm definitely part of the community as a consumer, too) but I still value institutions to a certain degree.'

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Appendix V Wordcloud summary of participants' usage of terms This Appendix presents a systematic and proportional summary of the linguistic terms that the 63 participants (creative business founders, publishers, self-published authors and artists, and readers) used the most abundantly during the data collection, whilst speaking of independent print publishing. This evocative list, in a phenomenological perspective, conveys a lot of meaning because it emerged naturally from open-ended descriptions. It also beautifully resumes the overall themes of this research, which revolves around the core notion of craftsmanship within independent print publishing.

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Chapter 10. Declaration of Authenticity

This report is my own work, contains my original research and has not been submitted for any other degree or diploma.

Catherine MĂŠtayer 9 September 2013

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