Floor-thesis outline

Thesis outline proposal

Invisible environmental impact of publishing

How to question the production problems in the anthropocene by small projects?

⧼Introduction⧽

A guide in the shape of a thesis for self-publishers to understand the environmental impact and costs of resources when you publish online or in printed mater. By first researching the different ways of how self-publishers append to the climate chaos, showing materialistic research on colors used in printing processes and giving an overview in examples in projects exposing the ingredients of their production means to get a grasp on the materialistic hidden side of publishing.

¿Question 1: How do self-publishers contribute to ecocide?

To answer this question I would like to investigate many means of publishing and the environmental impact of the publishing methods. Examples of methods: e-mail newsletters, social media platforms, website servers, use of paper, Riso printing, silkscreen printing, copy machines etc.

¿Question 2: How to understand colors?

For this question I would like to delve into the world of pigments and colorants. To answer this question I would like to expose the abstract view on colors used in publishing, in inks and common art supplies, to show the distance between the origin of the resources and the consumer (self-publishers). I would like to give an answer on what is cmyk?

¿Question 3: What are examples of light/minimalistic publishing low in use of resources?

An overview on projects that are interesting in this topic. For example the Low Tech magazine, with especially the Solar powered website made by Roel Roscam Abbing. Besides reflections on publishing projects I would like to create an overview on existing tools that make design more efficient, such as ImageMagick, Paged.js and other programming instruments.

⧼Conclusion⧽

An analyzation and self-reflection on the findings.

WHY

To document the role as a self-publisher and its consequences on environmental problems. As a self-publisher I feel the need to research on these consequences and solutions inside the field, tools and reflect for my own design practise, which could be interesting for other self-publishers too.

Methods:

Researching for databases, (b)logging self-research in html pages, analyze examples of publishing projects. Searching for existing tools.

Timeline:

↻November/ December. January: Searching, categorize and creating overviews on examples in publishing, tools and databases.

↻December: Reflect on findings and keep a (b)log in the shape of html pages.

↻January: Make try-outs in alternative designs that embody the outcomes of research so far.

↻February/ March: Shape all findings in the form of a guide.

References:

☯︎ old.artiscreation.com database on pigments and colorants

☯︎ Het geheime leven van kleuren by Kassia St Clair

☯︎ Colour, making and using dyes and pigments by Thames & Hudson

☯︎ Waste, a new media primer by Roberto Simanowski

☯︎ Low Tech magazine: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website.html

☯︎ ImageMagick https://imagemagick.org/index.php