Backend Books
This is a collection of artifacts, created during an interaction design diploma at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
The project explored the use of interaction design in a contemporary publishing context, and the demos below are the outcomes of smaller modules in the project. The demos are accompanied by links to references and resources that inspired the project. Please have a look around and enjoy!
If you have anything on your mind, don't hesitate to contact me. You can also visit the old website if you like.
Riso Separation Tool

An RGB-color separation tool for multicolor Risograph printing. It can be used for semi-accurate color matching, or for more creative expressions. Try the Color Magic™ layer treatment for some cool results!
GitHub
Tools used:
p5.js, jQuery, HTML, CSS
Digital Risograph

An exploration of color separation for Riso printing. The website is an interactive showcase of three different prints. The left column represents the digital and the right column represents the physical, highlighting different qualities of the media.
GitHub
Tools used:
photoshop, risograph printer, jQuery, HTML, CSS
Game of Life

This was an exploration of scripting for InDesign. Four different cellular automata were simulated procedurally in InDesign using basil.js, which resulted in an 800 page book. You can buy the book on Lulu, or try the visualizer to see the cellular automata in action.
Buy book
GitHub
Tools used:
basil.js, InDesign, lulu
Concrete Poetry

This project was an exploration of using text as visual content rather than verbal content. It's an in-browser drawing tool for creating concrete poetry, inviting users to play around with letters in a non-traditional way. You can either find a random poem or type in your own text to use as material.
GitHub
Tools used:
p5.js, Google Firebase, PoetryDB
Group Show

A digital experiment in the form of a collaborative photo book. The project is an attempt to visualize what kind of imagery people keep stored on their computers and mobile devices and to highlight what they find interesting, funny, weird or in general worth keeping/saving.
The intent is to recontextualize the submissions and open up for reflections around their origin and existence. It gives a glimpse into the mundane, revealing both intimate moments and seemingly random artifacts and screenshots.
See Vol. 1 here, or Vol. 2 below.
Buy book
GitHub
Tools used:
firebase, vanilla javascript, HTML, CSS
Our Book

A web interpretation the 1926 essay, Our Book, by El Lissitzky. The project was an exploration of generative expressions, aiming to demonstrate possibilities of digital media as well as visualizing aspects of our contemporary visual culture. The website uses the Pexels stock photo API as a pictographic writing system.
Buy book
GitHub
Tools used:
Pexels API, Vanilla JavaScript, HTML, CSS
Vellum

An exploration of interactive text and micro-interactions as narrative device. The text is written by Truls Bauer and deals with a thirteen year old boy with alzheimers.
GitHub
Tools used:
vanilla javascript, html, css, splitting.js
Digital Decay

This project was an exploration of transforming qualities from physical to digital media, which resulted in a digital zine. The backdrop of the zine, a painting by Thomas Cole, will gradually deteriorate, depending on the amount of visitors and how they behave on the website.
GitHub
Tools used:
p5.js, Vanilla JavaScript
Links
Filter ↓
Web
Video
Publisher
Shop
Reading
Clear
Actual Source
Publisher of art-and-design-related books.
Webshop with a selection of interesting publications as well as misc. merch and objects.
Also a design studio.
Artists' Publishing
Back Office
Book Machines
Seven early "book machines" designed to enhance the reading experience somehow. Quite interesting!
Open LinkBooks Read By
BOOOK.LAND
A digital experiment on collaborative writing, "bringing the online world together to write a novel".
Open LinkBrutalist Web Design
Guidelines for brutalist web design. The good, old-fashioned way: raw content true to its construction.
Open LinkCatalog Press
A small edition press publishing catalogs of readymade objects, images, words, and artists’ work. Run by Ben Denzer. Also check out Catalogue Press.
Open LinkCenter for Book Arts
The Center for Book Arts promotes active explorations of both contemporary and traditional artistic practices related to the book as an art object. Check out their online classes!
Open LinkCoda Press
Cyberfeminism Index
Dear Lulu
Book: A Futurist's Manifesto
A book on the digital future of books, all available for free in a browser-reading-tool. Also available as eBook and in print.
Open LinkDigital Underground Volume 1
Draw Down
Draw Down Books is a designer-run publishing platform based in New England, producing small and unique books with a focus on graphic design, photography, typography and illustration.
Open LinkFifteen Words
Flusser Archive
"The Vilém Flusser Archive holds and looks after the literary remains of the cultural theorist Vilém Flusser (1920–1991)."
Lot of stuff to dig in to here.
Open LinkFor the Voice
Documentation of the publication "Dlya Golosa" (For the Voice) from 1918. Poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, designed and typeset by El Lissitzky. A significant experiment with typography and book design from the period.
Open LinkFred Perry x Raf Simons Lookbook
An interactive and immersive lookbook for the Fred Perry x Raf Simons collaboration. Designed by Random Studio.
Also check out the SS19 and AW19 versions.
Open LinkHack the Word!
A call from New Aesthete James Bridle to love the net's new language. From Dazed's Hack Your Future series.
Open LinkHistory of Printing
Holloway Reading Stand
How to Make a Book with Steidl
A documentary on the creation of photo books. "A cinematic tribute to “good books” – and an independent portrait of a unique publisher."
You can rent the movie for €3.90.
Open LinkHyphen Press
"Hyphen Press publishes books on design – in the largest sense of the word. Situated in London, our books are mostly produced on the European continent, in the attempt to find good standards of industrial craft."
Open LinkIraq War Wikihistoriography
"'The Iraq War: A History of Wikipedia Changelogs' is a twelve-volume set of all changes to the Wikipedia article on the Iraq War."
An interesting project by James Bridle on visualizing digital content through the book object.
Open LinkJames Jennifer Georgina
Jason Nelson
Krisis Publishing
Letterform Archive
Letterform Archive is a nonprofit center for inspiration, education, and community with a vast archive of typography related content.
Open LinkLiteraturwurst
Long Story Short
A collection of classics – in very condensed versions. Featuring a quirky page-turning interaction.
Open LinkLow-tech Magazine
"A solar-powered, self-hosted version of Low-tech Magazine. It has been designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content."
Open LinkMagical Riso
Recording from the livestreamed "Magical Riso" event, featuring in depth discussions on everything Riso-related.
Open LinkMass-Driver Workship
Small web tools for working with fonts, developed internally by Mass-Driver (type foundry) and made available to anyone.
Currently only a tool that find words with the same visual length for the selected font.
Open LinkMillion Dollar Homepage
Mosoma Books
Muriel Cooper, Information Landscapes
Article from the Back Office journal on Muriel Coopers work with the project Information Landscapes.
Open LinkMuriel Cooper – TED
Muriel Cooper talking about the Information Landscapes project at the TED5 conference in 1994.
Open LinkOccasional Papers
"Occasional Papers is a non-profit publisher of affordable books devoted to the histories of architecture, art, design, film and literature. Founded in 2008 by Sara De Bondt and Antony Hudek."
Open LinkOpen Data Institute: Data as Culture
The Data as Culture programme is a world class contemporary art programme by The Open Data Institute.
Open LinkOur Book, El Lissitzky
Pamflett
Pamflett is a mediator of artists’ books, a self-publishing workshop with focus on risograph printing and organizers of the annual Bergen Art Book Fair.
Open LinkPNCA Design Panel w/ Erik Carter
Post-Digital Publishing Archive
"The aim of P—DPA is to systematically collect, organize and keep trace of experiences in the fields of art and design that explore the relationships between publishing and digital technology. The archive acts as a space in which the collected projects are confronted and juxtaposed in order to highlight relevant paths, mutual themes, common perspectives, interrelations, but also oppositions and idiosyncrasies."
Open LinkPrinted Matter, Inc.
"The world’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination, understanding and appreciation of artists’ books."
Open LinkPseudonym Publishing
Read Me: Magazine
Revue Faire
Rhizome.org
Risotto Studio
Sternberg Press
"Sternberg Press is a Berlin-based publishing house of art and cultural criticism, creative nonfiction, and literary and experimental fiction."
Open LinkStrelka Mag
An online magazine "exploring new urban conditions", focused on topics such as art & design, architecture, urbanism and technology. Driven by the Strelka Institute.
Open LinkThe Condition of Music, James Bridle
The Electro Library – MoMA
A collection of European Avant-Garde Magazines from the 1920s. Rooted in El Lissitzky's idea of "The Elector Library" from 1923.
Open LinkThe Graphic Design Reader
"The Graphic Design Reader brings together key readings to provide an essential resource for students, researchers, and practitioners in a time when graphic design is continuing to evolve."
Open LinkThe New Aesthetic
An ongoing research project by James Bridle, regarding the aesthetical impact of technology on society.
Open LinkThe Serving Library
"The Serving Library is a non-profit organization that variously serves as a publishing platform, a seminar room, a collection of framed objects, and an event space."
Open LinkTim Berners-Lee on eBooks
Tree of Codes
An interesting book by Jonathan Safran Foer exploring the possibilites and limits of the book-medium.
Open LinkUncreative Writing
"Managing Language in the Digital Age"
I haven't read the book yet, but it seems interesting.
Open LinkVerso Books
"Verso Books is the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world, publishing one hundred books a year."
Open LinkXPUB Wiki
Zine Wiki
Resources
basil.js
Bookup
Firebase
A set of services such as database and storage that's easy to implement in your website or webapp.
Open WebsiteInternet Archive
"Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more."
Open WebsiteKirby CMS
A flexible CMS which is still easy to set up and use. It was used to build this website.
Open WebsiteLulu
matter.js
Monoskop
Netlify
p5.js
A JavaScript library for creative coding in the browser. Great for drawing stuff to a canvas.
Open WebsitePexels API
PoetryDB
Prince XML
Riso Colors
Sanity
Space Type Generator
In-browser dynamic typographic tool. Really fun to play around with, and can be used to create posters etc.
Open Websitesplitting.js
JavaScript library for working with words and characters in HTML. Good for e.g. animating text .
Open WebsiteStack Overflow
The Coding Train
three.js
Typography on the Web
Ubu