Are You Worthy? (Greeks to Geeks) – Prezo artifacts and notes – Dave Olson's Creative Life Archive

Are You Worthy? (Greeks to Geeks) – Prezo artifacts and notes

By / / 1 minute of reading / Wordcamps x 2

Analog stuff at WordCamp Whistler by Miss604

Whilst tidying, I gathered up snaps of the materials in my suitcase plus various archiving notes and artifacts used in “Are you Worthy? – Publishing from Greeks to Geeks” talk presented at Wordcamp Whistler, January 2000.

Audio/video/round-up and Are you Worthy transcription also available.

These are the bits leftover, yet worthy indeed – loosely organized and starting with me, on the city bus in Whistler with my suitcase full of secrets:

Step one: get on the bus with a suitcase
Checklist (unverified) of items in suitcase

Notes for “part 1” – a brief history of personal and public publishing
notes for “part 2” – evolution of form and function
notes for “part 3” – how to make awesome-ness
a few more notes on the hotel stationery, including a Venn diagram

Where it came together for me (Guam)

in Oceania are many small islands…
while living on island of Guam, I discovered the internet after years of making “grassroots” publishing projects
indeed, the night I learned about the internet, i learned a bit more about “traditional” media
all “media” is created by someone about something…

Considering Classics (form and function)

classics were at one time, just a human trying to make a story and share it with others
Chinese masters carefully considered form and offered practical tips
the Greeks were revolutionary about exploring morals and human behaviour in mighty tales
example from Oresteia by Aeschylus which tells the story of King Agamemnon in a complex tale of human morals (and adventure)
Cervantes’ Don Quixote was (arguably) the first modern “novel” in this case combining handout pages, elegant binding and woodcut prints with his narrative (form + function)
James Joyce’s epic Ulysses was caught up in a complicated court battle (based on importation of p0rn0graphic works) regarding censorship – yet so challenging to read… more likely increased audience
Kerouac wrote On the Road on a teletype scroll (with no paragraph breaks), remixing the manner in which thoughts can go onto paper rapidly (and causing nightmare for editors)

Outliers

grassroots publishing in a means for propaganda in various forms (even disguised as literary criticism)
and grassroots publishing is used to create interesting adjuncts to an artist’s primary form (in this case, punk band DOA made a colouring book)

My Personal Publishing Projects (a sampler)

Pig Express, neighbourhood newsletter made on “ditto” mimeograph machine, 1977
volume 1 featured a comic by my cousin who later went on to be a minor pop star (ya gotta start somewhere)
continuing combing words and pictures in a social studies report, circa 1981 (scissors and glue remain my primary tools)
combining self-narrative with fair use images to create/re-contextualize information to a fresh audience
be your own media – make punk rock fanzines, help bands get exposure, build community (get free stuff) all equally important lessons
high school time gave opportunity to make a little story and experiment with ways of binding to make “pages into a book”
dot matrix printing was efficient and handy but super ugly and not unappealing
combining text with images – mixing digital tools with analog skills
a trip to Europe with no camera, instead analog story making tools (notebooks, pencils, watercolours, crayons…) to make items including this hitchhiking sign
while hitchhiking, made a series of watercolour drawings/paintings – (now can find photo of exact same place on internet / look at one thing for a long time rather than many things for fleeting glance
sketch journal along with way – no rules or expectations but immediately recall moment (in this case a hitch hike ride freebasing H whilst driving (not safe)
one more sketch (in Europe, seeing many museums and art helped inspire new technique) a man smoke a giant spliff at Turkish music fest while audience throws roses on stage
freezers poetry, snippets of prose, various sketches = treasures to share
combining Japanese poetry with impressionist colours, printed on help paper, hand bound and mailed to others (with almost no reaction… but that’s not the point, right?)
Note: suitcase made in Alcatraz by prison labour (under repair)
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