In the framework of Transmediale, Michael Murtaugh, Sarah Garcin and An Mertens presented how publishing activities – collective writing, editing and lay-out – lead to a pdf or a printed brochure as a reminder that digital creation can also exist without the cloud.

In recent years Constant became interested in the use of a local server as a writing and publishing platform for temporary collective work situations. Thanks to tools such as etherpad, git, ftp and a webserver it is fairly simple to install a virtual ’work table’ alongside the physical table where people share and develop ideas. You can read the interview with Etherbox in the Machine Research publication distributed during the festival or here: http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/p/machineresearch.interviewwithetherbox.raw.html
And what if we do not only share that table with humans, but also with algorithms? Little scripts can write and rewrite data in a customized way. They become personal tools, that enrich our text processes as spellcheckers and dictionaries do. And finally, on invitation of Constant, designer-programmer Sarah Garcin invented the PJ-machine, a device that allows one to compose a page using a few coloured buttons, transforming it into a pdf that flows out of the printer, with only one click on a green button.

Watch the video of the presentation:

Download the Machine Research publication as pdf:
http://www.aprja.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/machine_research.pdf