Unbound library meeting w. OSP 
http://osp.kitchen/
Graphic design/programming exclusively with FLOSS software

Gijs, Ludivine, Alex + Martino, An, Elo + listener (FS)

Unbinding the unit of the book. Digital native book object. Page numbers? 

Many questions
- list projects OSP did before: Médor, Interpunctie, Cosic identity, student projects with KBR
- list tools that they're using/building: html2print, page.js, ether2print
linked to archives, many through pdf formats, f.ex. from harddrive into pdf & extracting matter
how to shape a form with this web 'book' format
-> cover the entire spectrum? from archive digging to shaping form that is legible to others?
not that many experience with archives, more specific work

practical aspects to discuss: agenda & planning 
Ludi/Alex: will only be available half days, because of remote jurys, not sure to be able to engage into own research
Gijs will be available


the book as an archival form - containers. PDF as book container.
libraries, archives & books are containers
it can be 1 pdf as a starting point
unbinding: look at information in other documents and extract
rebinding: html2print/ether2print in web 'book' format, there is a technical aspect to the tools
coming back to object you created before with a critical angle, could be interesting
-> presentation/sharing on documentation on unbinding/rebinding? Needs technical introduction?
ether2print is easy to handle, can be an exercise/entry to layer together a text, f.ex. text to present the research week :-)
output is a pdf for print
many experiences from web to pdf (to print), not so many on digital books not going to the printer
to what extent the pdf is different?
ex Médor, set-up lay-out in classical way, did not escape from it until now
ex. larger paper, through html2print: going from html to print + name of software they're developing
eacht ime we had to go from web to print, it was to produce a classical printed object, frustration to not be able to assume the web technologies more and changing structure, perhaps it is only imagination, no project we did succeeded in changing... maybe we're too formatted, or when you take into account the paper page you get into that structure
there is some sort of 'tyranny of the page'?
we have to deal with multiple authors, asking for callibrated text, the organisation behind a publication formats the content
f.ex. short articles should be formatted as column, convention of the page unit to commission illustrations/texts
will do next issue remotely, work together on same objects even if it doesn't reflect in the lay-out

What would help to get rid of the page?
theoretically starting from scratch is great
but we always would use existing tools, f.ex page.js: description of page is specific, meant for academic publication
we can also take side-path: look at description of page in page.js: the way it is named, when comparing to physical binding practise, there are quite some differences
-> empty, no where spaces that don't exist on real paper world and vice versa
-> look into black holes of both worlds

Solution can only come with proper situation...
the reader? it depends on nature of the text, if they cross reference each other...
Convention of page can be about unbinding the content / format of the page / tool for navigating in time...
This allows for thinking of the structure, not taking text only as reference, f.ex. text extracts & cross-referencing
It would be liberating to start from scans of pdfs, beside each other, the way you scroll is horizontal
http://rmo.zkm.de/vasulka-pdf/
really thinking about 'unbinding' a book, go through pages whatever the format

From digital to print - back to page format
Vasulka starts from print, giving new way of reading this print material
Focus on one/other? Do the full loop?
everything is interesting :-)

Good to hear how you reflect on different bindings & unbindings

What could be next step?
- Discuss terminology we use:
    what is a 'region'?
    wat is 'upper left corner'?
    screencast of content flowing into the grid
    trying to explain with words & show, would be interesting to make small visible collection
During the week people will be exchanging texts, notes, video, audio... maybe this flow - not meant to be combined in a book - will inspire more to get into a 'web book format'
- Relation to browser specifications, economies of digital lay-out in non-print
- potential of numbering/re-numbering, different spaces in page

Whatever will be the startingpoint the other questions will come in













LISTENER REPORT

web-to-book-to-web-to-book and binding and unbinding and rebinding
how to go from bound to unbound, what happens. what potential?
pdf as a container. Rebound pdfs -- are they radically different containers, differently compatible/standard? Or does it become a 'normal' object again in the end?
html2print as a software vs a principle. OSP html2print as a workaround of 'normal' html2print (a rebinding?)
The tyranny of the page (you're at 2%). (what tyranny? tyranny of structure/structurelessness)
Formatting happens on many levels (not just materially, but also editorially)
Unbinding as a decentralizing movement; multiple collaborators working on same object at a distance <-- the object binds the distributed contributors?
Looking for nowhere spaces -- between real and virtual paper. The interstice between digital and physical paper. Black holes!
"getting rid of the page". Why? For what texts/contents? What content/structure does a page imply? What other contents would be needed, that does not flourish on pages as they are?
Pagenumbering vs indexing and structuration of the book
"The page can be about many things". It is not just a format (also a norm, an information unit, ...?)
Ursula Leguin: She Unnames them. Unnumbering? (to think about WHY to get rid of the page and therefore pagenumbers?) "As for the fish of the sea, their names dispersed from them in silence throughout the oceans like faint, dark blurs of cuttlefish ink, and drifted off on the currents without a trace. NONE were left now to unname, and yet how close I felt to them when I saw one of them swim or fly or trot or crawl across my way or over my skin, or stalk me in the night, or go along beside me for a while in the day." unnumbering renumbering
Loose leaf, other orders exist, ... re-binding   ---   from print, generate new orders (but how much is this about scanning 'flatness'? could it work from digital files, how would it be different?)

page representations vs (css)regions -- vocabularies (and black holes, I think?). representations of pages in different technical/digital environments. Contents flowing in/through/outside of the grid.