User:Francg/expub/thesis/thesis-outline

Thesis Outline

What you want the thesis to be about?

I want the thesis to be a bridge between the digital and the handmade, showing a research focused on the study of the growth of techno-dependency, how deeply embedded is in our daily habits and which future scenarios can be speculated from this ongoing issue; e.g.: "Who would be able to design a book in a post-apocalyptic digital era where Adobe no longer exists (neither other similar software replacements)? maybe only coders." This could be an interesting discussion that could be further explored and so interpreted by suggesting new possible directions, which can bring attention to the close connections between technology, politics, economy and design.

For instance, the book "Conversations" shows how a book can be designed using markdown languages and to still keep a beautiful layout with code-based imagery. It offers a good example of a workflow (based on existing platforms + tools; namely etherpad (web based text editor), latex (specific mdown reader) or bash (shell scripting), which in this case involves "sociality" with a group of participants. That is to say, the social aspect should be an important factor in the development of my thesis, deepening into a more concrete study case.

Building a book through markup languages would be a laborious handwork indeed, specially bearing in mind that nowadays we have software to ease design (layout making). Nevertheless this is a way to encourage myself to be a more self-sufficient designer, not to become a developer, but a more multidisciplinary designer by integrating code. Nevertheless, this should also be an inspiring challenge for people with complete different profiles and levels of specialization, such as writers, artists, activists, etc. Most importantly, by using these tools we will be questioning our active roles with technology and their social significance.

What is exciting about this, is that markup text can transition and acquire the physical qualities of rough-looking printed matter and even more; (e.g. "Autonomous Archive" project, html/css -> to printable PDF). What other experimental publishing forms or collaborative spaces can this body incorporate? Can this alter and modify research and production processes by allowing users to configure it? Would this material be aimed for designers, non-designers, youth, politicians... and to what purpose? What is the pedagogical value of having a sort of technological freedom? Can this type of workflow be interesting for documenting a dialogue between man and machine and to highlight the potential of using code without loosing the quality and craft of a handmade work?

This could be an initial connection to some previews essays on cybernetics.

Bibliography

sarah garcin: the PJ machine (Publishing Jockey) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvL6N168Dg4
Ricardo Lafuente -> https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Lettersoup
http://conversations.tools
https://www.forkable.eu/generators/dit/o/free/A3/dit-A3-001.pdf
https://archive.org/details/designforbrain00ashb
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https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet
http://www.latex-project.org/
http://pandoc.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/epub
https://www.scribus.net/

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Session 2 thesis outline + prototype