We held this at St Bride Foundation on Saturday September 21st 2024. It was a one day conference on the past and future of paper.
Check out a Linkedin post about it.
Keynotes
Mark Tippin (Director, Strategic Next Practices at MURAL) and Adam Somlai-Fisher (founder of Prezi) in conversation with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino.
Note: This talk will be streamed as Mark and Adam will dial in remotely.
Echoes on Paper: Archival Treasures and Their Stories
by Harlynn Homan, Senior archivist at Black Cultural Archives
Dive into the rich tapestry of Black Cultural Archives‘ paper-based materials, from historical reports and newspapers to evocative photographs. This talk will explore the diverse types of documents preserved and the powerful language they carry, shedding light on the narratives captured in each sheet. Join us for a journey through time, told through the paper treasures of our collection.
Talks
E-paper and high-frequency poetry
by Matt Webb
This year I’ve been deep in the worlds of e-paper and also algorithmic poetry, and I’ll share both journeys. I’ve learnt about what makes e-paper like paper, and what makes it different, and how to compose high-frequency poetry to display on it. Then I’ll deconstruct the prompts behind Poem/1 (and how they’ve evolved) and ask who is the poet really.
Old and New Volvelles
by Holly Gramazio
A volvelle is one of those rotating stacks of paper circles – you know the ones. Maybe you made a code wheel as a kid? If so, that was a volvelle. But volvelles get a lot more complicated than that, and they’ve been around since the thirteenth century. There are astronomical volvelles, volvelles for maths, grammar, fortune-telling, advertising, even generative poetry volvelles. Take a scoot through the long strange history of volvelles, ending up with some contemporary artists making volvelles today.
52 Things About Cards
by John V Willshire
Since the ninth century, cards have been a material part of societies around the world, from the games we play to the information we retrieve. From Poker to Pokémon, Nabokov to Nintendo, John will deal out a whistle-stop tour of 52 things that you might (or might not) know about cards.
Journey into ’sustainable’ book printing
by Rebecca Lardeur & Léa Silvestrucci
Rebecca and Léa will discuss the journey they undertook to design and publish Creative Climate Investigations, a book embedded in circular economy principles and low carbon practices. They will talk about the opportunities and challenges that designing a visually appealing and low carbon book presented, and share some tips to make your design practice more sustainable.
Independent magazines – a 21st-century technology
by Steven Watson
With their lovely, thick paper and beautiful print design, independent magazines can sometimes look like a nostalgic throwback to a slower, simpler media age. But in this talk, Stack founder Steven Watson will argue that ink on paper is just a form of technology like any other, with its own particular functions that can be used to produce specific effects. Beginning with the world’s first magazine, he’ll show what we can learn from that pioneering publication, and how today’s independent publishers continue to push the boundaries of what a magazine can be.
Analogue Archives
by Stefanie Posavec
A talk about obsolete (or nearly obsolete) paper-based methods of collecting and transmitting data (and why I love them)
Robot handwriting & AI assisted journaling
by Dan Catt
Daniel really loves the idea of journaling, but he’s too busy to do it, and besides his handwriting is steadily getting worse. So he’s doing what any sensible person would do and handed over all responsibility for journal writing to an AI (Kitty), who he’s probably unwisely also given his encoded handwriting and access to a drawing machine to. A short talk & demo on how this hasn’t turned out to be a terrible idea, algorithmic handwriting, and the joy of fountain pens & index cards.
What else?
The print workshop was open to attendees for tours and they printed a keepsake with their Victorian printing presses.
Sponsors
This event took place thanks to the support of:
Why Papercamp 3?
Because Matt Jones and Russell Davies ran Papercamp 1 and 2 over 15 years ago and they gave me permission to pick this up again.
Tickets are not refundable as all speakers are paid and so is the venue irrespective of the number of attendees. Ticket sales help to cover those costs.