Liberated From the Cloud

The idea of curating a physical publication pulled from internet media--this is what Letterpress Shanty is about. Of course, we're not the first. There is a growing aggregation of web-savvy artists, DIY enthusiasts, and publishers that are not just returning to physical publications like zines, artist books, and letterpress chapbooks, but who are creating new ways for seemingly disparate online and physical media to interface and interact.

Which is why we noticed this little gizmo, from the design consultancy, BERG. It's a micro printer and a personalized publishing service that allows users to create their own receipt-sized newspapers, culled from social media sites like Facebook.

Of course, we're less interested in marketing a consumable product then we are in creating a temporary interactive art form, tied to a specific location and event, the 2012 Art Shanty Projects. But BERG's ideas around Little Printer resonate with us. BERG's CEO, Matt Webb, was recently interviewed by Fast Company, and had this to say:

But why paper? Isn't that so 20th century? Webb disagrees--in fact, he thinks that paper is an ideal interface for social media. But not the kind of "social media" that pings you with meaningless updates about people you're not sure you even care about; Webb's talking about social interactions between small groups of real people in the physical world, like families. "We love physical stuff. What's great about paper is that it's made for sharing," he explains. "You can scribble on a puzzle and give it to a friend, or stick birthday reminders up on the fridge for your family to see. Paper is basically a technology tailor-made for a home full of people."

All of us, by degree, are becoming more acclimated to online socialization and production, but we are no less physical beings for it, and we delight in processes that express the physical and that make a special connection to our minds through the tactile. That's why we're doing what we're doing out on the ice this coming January.

"What we concentrate on now is density of information or delight."

That sounds about right.

We hope to see you on Medicine Lake. We'll print for you our little broadside newspaper of liberated tweets form the cloud.

Follow @shantyquarian on Twitter. Tag your tweets with #shantyQ to get published on an old-fashioned press on the ice.