Urgent Publishing Conference
- Partner(s): ArtEZ studium generale, Institute of Network Cultures, Willem de Kooning Academy
- Started in: May 2019
- Finished in: May 2019
An ever-accelerating development of emergent technologies has led to a wide array of publishing practices, be it in the form of long reads, vlogs, zines, collaborative platforms, or print-on-demand. Digital technologies have brought the printing press to the masses, with many voices being able to enter the stage.
However, it has not eradicated the distribution of fake news, nor has it led to less information pollution. It can be argued that these processes are now even more distinctly present in this post-truth era.
How can designers, developers, artists, writers, and publishers intervene in the public debate and counter misinformation in a meaningful and relevant way? What are the new publishing strategies for our current media landscape? How to design for urgency without succumbing to an accelerated hype cycle? These are some of the critical questions that were tackled during the Urgent Publishing Conference, a three-day event with discussions, explorations, and experiments that centred the urgency of qualitative and sustainable publishing strategies in post-truth times.
In collaboration with the Institute for Network Cultures and Willem de Kooning Academy, ArtEZ invited students, developers, artists, writers, publishers, and researchers to reflect on these urgent questions together, and to explore proposals for the future of publishing. Embedded within a two-year trajectory titled Making Public, Urgent Publishing has connected and produced knowledge and experiences from a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and with skills that can be shared among educational institutions and other parties interested in the emancipatory value of publishing strategies.
