Independent manifestos: Broken Dimanche, Copy Press
The importance of publishing is not diminished. Two independent publishing companies make this clear in the following excerpts from their manifestos (let us all manifest!).
Broken Dimanche:
1.1. The avant garde and experimental, the poetic and intellectual are being denigrated and sidelined because publishing is not commercial enough in its current state. The lowest common denominator is the only one getting paid.
1.2. The Book (qua text, literature, fiction) offers writers or literature a fruitful domain for experimenting with words; and the Book in turn can be treated as an exhibition space in itself.
1.3. We see ourselves working therefore with Novelist Visual Artists. Or Visual Essayists. Or artists. Or whatever.
2. The digital turn in publishing offers possibilities that have yet to be fully explored and mapped out. However the printed book is the domain of choice due to the haptic nature of printed matter.
2.1. To decide to make physical Books one must do so to the highest possible standards. Form matters, content matters – design & production matter.
2.1.1. And in making this decision to make a physical book, we realise that one is working with a form under attack – Books no longer hold a monopoly. We find a beautifully melancholic poetry hidden in this fact – that books have become decadent. This in turn opens new possibilities: is there anything more wonderful than the luxury of the futile, the pointless and the useless? That which cannot be read, understood, that which accumulates no knowledge, no power in the traditional, reactionary way: to embrace this is to embrace a great FREEDOM.
2.2. We continually want to re-invent the Book.
2.2.1. We put ISBNs on anything if we term it to be a Book.
3.The political is everywhere, even when it’s not to be found.
3.2. While the legacy of a hubristic and colonial Europe of the Enlightenment continues to wreck havoc across the globe, solutions, sympathy, empathy and interest should be continually sought after and advanced.
3.3. Such quests should be carried out in the abstract currencies of: Internet social exchanges, blogs, forums of various media, group emails, Facebook, active travel and live readings (including long winded Q&As hors sujet), exhibitions, vernissages, touring exhibitions, concerts, screenings, collective writing activities, public protests, voting etc etc.
3.4. NEW FORMS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED! NEW IDEAS OF THE BOOK ARE ALWAYS NEEDED!
3.4.1. New forms of reading, new forms of loving, new forms of eating, etc, are always needed!
4. FREEDOM does not equal personal freedom (cultural traditions, social contracts, etc).
4.1. Making money is not the most important outcome, by-product or even nice surprise of BDP’s activities. On the contrary.
4.2. It is important to always endeavor to have fun. Together.
4.3. Generosity of spirit, thought and ideas should permeate all activity.
4.4. So called ‘haters’, ‘narcissists’, ‘hipsters’ are all accepted as inevitable. Together, with fun, individually each can be overcome.
////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\
Copy Press:
There are times when publishing is, in itself, immediately a political act. Are these times with us now? Those who answer yes are perhaps those who take a chance when told that there are no chances to take. They are not bothered by profit (economic, personal or otherwise) and care radically for the possible. Those who are inclined in this way, who lean in this way (and who possibly dare to be pure inclination) are what Copy Press need. We need your appetite. We need your talents and skills. We need each project (and let a thousand bloom) to form a we that is a commune of talents and skills that comes together for as long as it takes.
Broken Dimanche:
1.1. The avant garde and experimental, the poetic and intellectual are being denigrated and sidelined because publishing is not commercial enough in its current state. The lowest common denominator is the only one getting paid.
1.2. The Book (qua text, literature, fiction) offers writers or literature a fruitful domain for experimenting with words; and the Book in turn can be treated as an exhibition space in itself.
1.3. We see ourselves working therefore with Novelist Visual Artists. Or Visual Essayists. Or artists. Or whatever.
2. The digital turn in publishing offers possibilities that have yet to be fully explored and mapped out. However the printed book is the domain of choice due to the haptic nature of printed matter.
2.1. To decide to make physical Books one must do so to the highest possible standards. Form matters, content matters – design & production matter.
2.1.1. And in making this decision to make a physical book, we realise that one is working with a form under attack – Books no longer hold a monopoly. We find a beautifully melancholic poetry hidden in this fact – that books have become decadent. This in turn opens new possibilities: is there anything more wonderful than the luxury of the futile, the pointless and the useless? That which cannot be read, understood, that which accumulates no knowledge, no power in the traditional, reactionary way: to embrace this is to embrace a great FREEDOM.
2.2. We continually want to re-invent the Book.
2.2.1. We put ISBNs on anything if we term it to be a Book.
3.The political is everywhere, even when it’s not to be found.
3.2. While the legacy of a hubristic and colonial Europe of the Enlightenment continues to wreck havoc across the globe, solutions, sympathy, empathy and interest should be continually sought after and advanced.
3.3. Such quests should be carried out in the abstract currencies of: Internet social exchanges, blogs, forums of various media, group emails, Facebook, active travel and live readings (including long winded Q&As hors sujet), exhibitions, vernissages, touring exhibitions, concerts, screenings, collective writing activities, public protests, voting etc etc.
3.4. NEW FORMS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED! NEW IDEAS OF THE BOOK ARE ALWAYS NEEDED!
3.4.1. New forms of reading, new forms of loving, new forms of eating, etc, are always needed!
4. FREEDOM does not equal personal freedom (cultural traditions, social contracts, etc).
4.1. Making money is not the most important outcome, by-product or even nice surprise of BDP’s activities. On the contrary.
4.2. It is important to always endeavor to have fun. Together.
4.3. Generosity of spirit, thought and ideas should permeate all activity.
4.4. So called ‘haters’, ‘narcissists’, ‘hipsters’ are all accepted as inevitable. Together, with fun, individually each can be overcome.
////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\
Copy Press:
There are times when publishing is, in itself, immediately a political act. Are these times with us now? Those who answer yes are perhaps those who take a chance when told that there are no chances to take. They are not bothered by profit (economic, personal or otherwise) and care radically for the possible. Those who are inclined in this way, who lean in this way (and who possibly dare to be pure inclination) are what Copy Press need. We need your appetite. We need your talents and skills. We need each project (and let a thousand bloom) to form a we that is a commune of talents and skills that comes together for as long as it takes.
posted by Nor at 07:14
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