It’s seems only appropriate to address this rather over-discussed topic in my first blog-entry on Stereo Spillage. I hope I may finally be able to lay it to rest forever.

The end of print is heralded many times, starting with the utopia of the paperless office, announced when the first computers started to replace the typewriter. We know now it’s rather the internet than the computer that will potentially swallow all existing mass media, and therefore eventually also paper media. The 1995 monograph of David Carson, titled ‘The End Of Print’ is actually a fine example of what digital media enables for print. So it should have been called ‘The Digital To The Rescue’. Some call his design misguided and illegible, but he did inspire a whole new approach to layout design. He mixed the warm feel of physical materials with the possibilities of digital layout. One of my favorite magazines Lodown builds exactly on this layout approach.

Currently the digital is in the offense. The fetish of holding tangible paper seems to be the only thing that print still has going for it. Damning the art of bookmaking to diminishing (?) enthusiasts. A scientific fact is that people’s attention span for online reading is about 50% compared to conventional paper. So unless we have another revolution in monitor/screen design soon, we are to become an incredibly shallow society, only able to speak in bullet-points (already the case I might add). The discussion if any content on the web can actually be trusted to be the truth, I leave aside here, for this post would become too long (like 100%).

This revolution in screen design is coming though, or so I was told in the prologue of the coffee-table book ‘The Last Magazine’ (featuring the first Stereo Publication). The prolific title became more acceptable when I read the chapter on E-paper. E-paper is a new device, basically a thin bendable display that is not tiring on the eyes like current monitors. The content is interactive. This technology is being developed by companies such as Philips, Sony and IBM. Philips Polymer Vision has already demonstrated award-winning prototypes. (see image).

However, I believe the final blow is to come from the kids growing up today, who have not lived life without the Internet. Who already spend more time behind the computer than behind the TV. Who all have their personal blog online as an extention of their personal image.
So the Stereo Publication – and all other ‘Last of the Magazines’ – will fight this losing battle, firmly believing in the synthesis of the digital and the physical. Just to be sure we also started the 5th-billion-and-first weblog called Spillage.