2011 Speakers
The British Library
Aquiles Alencar Brayner is a Digital Curator at the British Library, managing digitisation projects, implementation of digital resources and development of e-research tools. He is a member of the peer review committee for the ESRC (Economic and Social Sciences Research Council) and the author of Literature of the Senses (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009). His research interests include digital humanities, contemporary Latin American literature and music.
The British Library has taken the lead, nationally and internationally, in aiming to overcome the challenges of collecting, preserving and providing contemporary and long term access to the world’s digital knowledge. The Library’s strategic vision is to ‘provide both physical and digital access to world-class information where and when people need it’. During the last years Library has developed a number of partnerships and business models to drive forward mass digitisation and create a valuable and enduring resource for researchers and the public alike. www.bl.uk. Twitter @britishlibrary.
Blurb Books
Teresa Pereira is Regional VP of European Market Development for Blurb®. It is a creative publishing and marketing platform that unleashes the creative genius inside everyone. Blurb’s platform makes it easy to design, publish, market and sell professional-quality books, using the Blurb Bookify™ online bookmaking tool, Blurb’s free, award-winning Blurb BookSmart® app or by using Blurb’s PDF to Book workflow. Blurb’s bookstore and online marketing tools enable customers to market and sell their books, and keep 100% of their profit. Blurb’s social and community features allow customers to create and share Blurb books among friends and colleagues with ease.
Blurb was founded by Eileen Gittins in 2004, and includes a team of design, Internet and media veterans who share a passion for helping people bring their stories to life. In 2010, Blurb shipped just under 1.4 million books to more than 70 countries and territories. That same year, Blurb was ranked the fastest growing media company on the Inc. 500. Blurb is based in San Francisco with offices in London. www.blurb.com. Twitter @blurbbooks.
Photo Book Club
Matt Johnston is a photographer, researcher and teacher currently working in the UK. Matt works on commercial and personal photography projects in Europe and the USA as well as consulting on social media and audience strategies for photographers and artists including Elinor Carucci, Steve Pyke and Simon Roberts.
Most recently, Matt has worked alongside photographer and educator Jonathan Worth to provide two, free and open undergraduate photography classes titled #phonar and #picbod that are hosted by Coventry University in the UK. Both courses have received interest and critical acclaim from around the world.
Together with Designer Wayne Ford, Matt set up the Photo Book Club which is a space to facilitate and engage with discussion of photobooks. Each month the club looks at a previously published, often old or rare photobooks and invite the community to contribute. www.photobookclub.org. Twitter @photobookclub.
Oxford International Centre for Publishing
Angus Phillips is Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University. He has degrees from Oxford and Warwick Universities, and many years’ experience in the publishing industry including running a trade and reference list at Oxford University Press. He has acted as consultant to a variety of publishing companies, and trained publishing professionals from the UK and overseas in editorial, marketing and management. Angus is the author, with Giles Clark, of Inside Book Publishing (2008); and the editor, with Bill Cope, of The Future of the Book in the Digital Age (2006) and The Future of the Academic Journal (2009). He is the editor-in-chief of the publishing journal Logos. www.ah.brookes.ac.uk/publishing. Twitter @PubOxford.
The Comics Grid
Ernesto Priego is a researcher, poet, translator, editor and curator. His interest in comics led him to pursue a PhD in Information Studies at University College London, researching how the media-specificity of comic books, webcomics, mobile comics apps and comic book culture fits within current debates about the future of the book.
He is passionate about practical and theoretical issues around the effects of digital technology on humanities research. He initiated and co-organised the formation of The Comics Grid, a collaborative, peer-edited and authored blog dedicated to comics scholarship. The purpose of the Grid is to make original contributions to the field of comics scholarship and to advance the appreciation of comic art within academia and the cultural mediascape. www.comicsgrid.com. Twitter @comicsgrid.
The Ballet Bag
The Ballet Bag was a “social media” presence from day one. With the aim to give ballet a new spin, the webzine covers dance under a younger light and uses different channels (Blogging, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook) to create communities. The Ballet Bag writes about dancers, companies, performances and about how web 2.0 has changed the way the audience look at and interact with the art form. They have also attracted the attention of Vanity Fair US editor James Wolcott (Aug 2009), Time Out London (Aug 2010), The Wall Street Journal (March 2011), The Times UK (Apr 2011 “Best arts tweeters”) and The Independent (Apr 2011) and of such influential arts organisations as the Royal Opera House and the Australian Ballet, for whom The Ballet Bag has produced content and guest blogs.
Emilia Spitz is a former Investment Banking lawyer with over 12 years experience in securities law, including eight years at J.P. Morgan London where she developed writing and editorial skills. After doing freelance writing for Brazilian women’s portal Bolsa de Mulher, Emilia now dedicates her time to The Ballet Bag and other online projects. When Emilia is not watching, reading, writing or thinking about dance, she likes to devote her spare time to literature, theatre, classical music, indie rock and art.
Linda Uruchurtu has a Physics PhD from Cambridge and is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College London in String Theory. She dedicates most of her free time to The Ballet Bag, as a launch pad to research new technologies for web 2.0 engagement around various fields. Besides dance and science, she is passionate about books, music, film and photography. www.theballetbag.com. Twitter @theballetbag.
Not On The Wires
Marcus Gilroy-Ware is Not on the Wires’s resident academic, designer, coder and lawyer. He is a visiting lecturer in Online Journalism at City University and has taught and spoken at length on journalism, its philosophies, technologies and challenges ahead. He designed and created the present Not on the Wires website and branding, as well as the entire content management system that powers it, which is an open-source project and can be downloaded here. He is also studying for an LLM degree at Birkbeck, University of London and researching intellectual property and media law. www.mjgw.net. www.notonthewires.com. Twitter @notonthewires.
NUJ Book Branch
Fiona Swarbrick previously worked in academic publishing, during which time she was an NUJ rep and a member of the National Executive Council. After a year spent working with a blue-collar union as part of the TUC Organising Academy, she joined the NUJ staff in 2003. She is now National Organiser in the Publishing Department. The Department covers members working in magazines, books, public relations, newspapers, agencies and new media both in England and Wales.
The National Union of Journalists is the voice for journalists and journalism. It is an active, campaigning organisation seeking to improve the pay and conditions of members and working to protect and promote media freedom, professionalism and ethical standards in all media.
Founded in 1907, the NUJ is among the biggest and best-established journalists’ unions in the world, with 38,000 members in broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, books, in public relations and in a variety of new media. Their members work across the media industry – as staffers and freelances, writers and reporters, editors and sub-editors, photographers and illustrators. www.nujbook.org
Mag+
Sam Syed is Creative Director of Bonnier Technology Group. He is an art director with a strong specialisation in image driven design. Originally trained in journalism and TV documentary at the University of Westminster, he switched to print, working for big British publishers Emap, Haymarket, Redwood, Future and Dennis publishing. Sam then moved to New York with the British invasion men’s magazines Maxim and Stuff. As creative director of Bonnier Corporation’s R&D department, he played an important role in the development of the Mag+ digital publishing platform. Sam is currently creative director of Bonnier Technology Group, which includes the brands Popular Science, Popular Photography, American Photo and Sound+Vision. http://samsyed.com
Mag+ is a flexible platform for publishing creative content on touch screen tablets. It was premiered on the first iPads in April 2010 with the award winning Popular Science+. On 7 September 2011, British Journal of Photography launched its first iPad issue using Mag+. Mag+ supports dozens of titles in the Apple Newsstand and now has titles on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, too. ‘One push’ takes tablet magazines to Google Android and Apple iOS. With its streamlined production system, powerful backend and feature-rich app framework, Mag+ provides an ideal solution for magazine, book publishers, catalogue marketers and design agencies by bringing beautiful, immersive content to the millions using digital devices. Built by the R&D task force of global publishing powerhouse Bonnier Magazine Group, Mag+ was spun out as an independent company, Moving Media+, in 2011.
Mag+ for designers: Mag+’s simple InDesign-based workflow puts full creative control in the hands of the designers, not the tech guys. Video, HTML5 elements and other interactive features are added directly in InDesign. It is the only system that offers instant fully functional layout review on the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab, which lets designers try new things and see immediately what the user experience will be. Mag+ offers cost effective solution for publishing on tablets, where publishers only start to pay when published and can choose a monthly subscription or per-issue model. www.magplus.com. Twitter @magplus.
Sojournposse is partner of The London Design Festival.
In 2010 and 2011, our London Design Festival project was hosted at University College London, with the kind support of The Department of Anthropology.
“Whatever is to become of books?” in 2011 was sponsored by Paul Wayne Gregory Chocolates, Nestle UK Ltd and University College London.
2011 Partners
Sojournposse was a partner of The London Design Festival.
In 2010 and 2011, our London Design Festival project was hosted at University College London, with the kind support of The Department of Anthropology.
“Whatever is to become of books?” in 2011 was sponsored by Paul Wayne Gregory Chocolates, Nestle UK Ltd and University College London.
Supporting 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project
The 2011 event was also done in support of the innovative 3/11 Tsunami Photo Project, to help the victims of the Japanese quake in March 2011. £1 of tickets sale was donated to the Japan Red Cross. You can purchase the Tsunami Photo Project iPhone and iPad apps on their new website here or on iTunes.”Whatever is to become of books?” held at UCL was a non-profit event.
2011 Team
Concept & Curation
Project Leader & Wordsmith – Salina Christmas, MSc Digital Anthropology (2011). Sojournposse
Creative Director – Zarina Holmes, MA Design. Sojournposse
Ebook Researcher – Kevin Biderman, MSc Digital Anthropology (2012)
The Crew
Juliano Spyer, MSc Digital Anthropology (2011)
Cosimo Lupo, MA Social Anthropology (2012)
Viphul Bhatti, London Love Is
Dominic Patmore, BSc Mathematics, Birkbeck University. The Pi Lifter
Lida Papamatthaiaki, MSc Digital Anthropology (2011)
Alisson Hissey, MSc Medical Anthropology (2011)
Storytellers
By
Hamish Low. Poet
& Janet Greco. Photographer
Guest Twitterer
Tina Remiz, BA (Hons) Photographic Arts, University of Westminster. Photographer
With the kind support of
Professor Susanne Kuechler, Head, Department of Anthropology
Dr Allen Abramson, Editor, UCL Anthro News
Diana Goforth, Administrator, Department of Anthropology
Martin O’Connor, Administrator, Department of Anthropology
Chris Haggisava, Technician, Department of Anthropology
