Writing a Book As If Writing a Piece of Software

about writing and coding, books and software

Dr. Winnie Soon (HK/UK)
artist coder and researcher, Creative Computing Institute, UAL / Aarhus University

www.siusoon.net

The term "Computational Publishing"

• dynamic and computational objects
• open to re-versioning
• more than "discrete objects" (Batchen 1998: 47)
• as "a continuous stream of data […] without temporal restriction" (ibid)

Computational book

• ongoing iterative process (Adema 2021)
• produce multiple version through computational techniques and under FLOSS licences
• disrupting "the fixed 'serial' nature of print" (Ludovico 2013: 156)

Writing a Book As If Writing a Piece of Software

production of a book computationally as a form of software art that reflects wider cultural and political parameters

3 projects

aim: articulating the relation between computational publishing and the critique of software culture

Inspirations: techniques + community works

Working approaches

1. Determine to use and promote free and open-source software
2. Concern collectivity than individuality e.g code of conduct, cc4r license, collaborative tools
3. DIY: Writing code and modifying computer scripts forms a large part of the publishing processes -> computational extensibility

Case 1 - Git Repository: Aesthetic Programming

Case 1 - Writing and Coding: Markdown

Markdown is a specific plain text format. By adding computational syntax, which is the markup language, the content can be converted into structured layout for different mediums such as web HTML for web and print presentation. It is made easy to read and write than HTML. Many software applications and platforms, such as Turtl, web to print and Github/Gitlab, take markdown syntax. For example, the markdown “## Heading 2” will be rendered as bold and bigger size, which is like the HTML tag <h2></h2>.

Case 1 - Git

git commit

git commit -m "First commit of the book"

The written text and code are ready to be read in the repository, but also ready to be run and executed by anyone. The book is a piece of software that facilitates and encourages forking and endless reversioning

Aesthetic Programming repository

Case 2: Collaborative publishing software: ETHER2HTML and Octomode

Left: by Open Source Publishing; Right: by Varia

Case 2: Etherpad

https://etherpad.org/

case 2: ETHER2HTML

simply change the Etherpad link in the HTML: http://osp.kitchen/tools/ether2html/tree/master/ether2html.html#project-detail-files

Interface of Octomode

Example of publication with Octomode - ATNOFS-screen: https://systerserver.net/ATNOFS/ATNOFS-screen.pdf

Case 3: DIY book: Unerasable Characters I

Materials:

• 2x book binding wood (24.6x2x0.8 cm), hole's diameter: 0.5 cm
• 2x wing nuts
• 2x flat washers
• 2x long headless screws (35 cm)
• 1x A4 textile cloth for the book cover

Case 3: Working with others

Photos by Kelly Chan, ACCA

thoughts

1. temporality of publishing
   • update -> changability -> maintenance
   • writing & participation
   • workflow
   • process vs fixed object
2. format/translation of publishing (media translation)
   • what is gained/lost in translation?
   • how does it change reading and writing practice?
3. configuration of the "source"
   • source & print / pdf
   • source & web
   • source as code -> performativity of code
4. generating and customising the layout computationally (not limit by the tools)
5. community-based publishing