Thoughts on almanacs


25 October 2012

Currently thinking about methods to (a) keep notes as freely organised as possible and (b) make it accessible for me and others. Over the years, I collected several books that try to accomplished that.

Some of them have such interesting approaches that I thought, I share them with you.

Although, I’ll borrow their concepts in my future data collections, I still think of a way on how to integrate sonic artefacts into this and make it more “interactive”, i.e., for example it should be possible to do a full-text search, combine several ideas and export it in both machine and human processable formats.

Almanac archetypes

  • DeSilvery, Naylor and Sackett, editors (2011). Anticipatory history. Uniformbooks.

    The principal network output is a glossary of terms that relate in some way to anticipatory history, produced in collaboration with Uniformbooks. All of the core network participants—from artists to scientists—were invited to suggest terms that should be included and then asked them to take ownership of terms and to produce entries for them. The idea has not been to communicate scientific or policy ideas but to produce entries that provoke readers to problematize or reflect critically on received ways of thinking about environmental change and its pasts and futures. [home]

  • IDEO (2003). IDEO Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire Design. Cards with methods to get people involved into a design process. Every card has a side with a single photograph and a side with a descriptive text.
  • Burrows, J. (2010). A choreographer’s handbook. Taylor & Francis.

    A book with thoughts of the author to things related to dance choreographs (e.g. Technique, Virtuosity, Does it work?, Empty Hands). Very subjective writing, mostly following a certain pattern of “introduction/pitch”, “narrow it down”, “give it a twist such that it unfolds into another direction”

  • de Bragança, K. and Peschka, B., editors (2008). Ohrenkuss: Das Wörterbuch. self-published.

    German dictionary-style book with definitions of mostly everyday artefacts and terms (Gold, 1. Mai, Wüste) written and edited by people with Down’s Syndrome. Formal structure: left pages are text, right pages are photos of the people made by a professional photograph.

  • Erni, P., Huwiler, M., and Marchand, C. (1999). transfer: erkennen und bewirken. lars müller publishers, Baden, Switzerland.

    Roughly 400 pages of collected images and texts sorted into categories (e.g. transformieren, differenz umlagern, entwerfen, speicher). Many of the texts do not associate obviously with the term they are filed into, however, it becomes clear eventually and unfolds in a great way. Only drawback: all imagery (half of the book) has no references whatsoever.

  • Vyzoviti, S. (2006). Supersurfaces: Folding as a method of generating forms for architecture, products and fashion. Bis Pub.

    Small booklet showing different folding types with mixed materials by photos augmented with texts and explanatory drawings.

  • MedienKunstNetz A website collecting all things media art