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Leonardo The Future of Publishing Author(s): Robert Maxwell Source: Leonardo, Vol. 20, No. 4, 20th Anniversary Special Issue: Art of the Future: The Future of Art (1987), pp. 361-362 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578532 . Accessed: 10/06/2014 02:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.92 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 02:21:55 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Leonardo

The Future of PublishingAuthor(s): Robert MaxwellSource: Leonardo, Vol. 20, No. 4, 20th Anniversary Special Issue: Art of the Future: TheFuture of Art (1987), pp. 361-362Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578532 .

Accessed: 10/06/2014 02:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLeonardo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.92 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 02:21:55 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: 20th Anniversary Special Issue: Art of the Future: The Future of Art || The Future of Publishing

The Future of Publishing Robert Maxwell

Abstract-The future of publishing is discussed in light of the 'third industrial revolution', now in progress, which is based upon information and the application of computers and electronics to information processing. The application of correct technologies will result in increased efficiency in both information dissemination by publishers and information retrieval by the end users.

It gives me great pleasure to contribute to the twentieth anniversary issue of Leonardo. Twenty years ago, when Frank Malina founded the journal, I supported his initiative to create a professional journal for artists to write about their own work. This journal was to assure quality through the peer review process common to technical journals, and the focus would be on work showing the interaction between the contemporary arts, science and technology. Leonardo's aims and scope reflect Frank Malina's multi-disciplinary achievements as an aeronautical engineer, pioneer in rocketry, research administrator, promoter of international cooperation, artist and editor. Leonardo is the embodiment in print of Frank Malina's striving as an artist. His kinetic murals expressed the fervour, pressures and constant motion of twentieth century civilisation; and by adding the fourth dimension of time to artistic expression Frank Malina helped open up a new vista in the expression of solid forms.

The issues relating to the interaction of the arts, sciences and technology are fundamental to the society in which we live. Leonardo has served, since its foundation, as an international forum for the promotion of communication among its chosen readership: artists, art theorists, historian, architects, art teachers and students, designers, engineers and scien- tists. Pergamon Press, which celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 1988, has had as its goal the promotion of communication in the broad fields of scientific, technical and medical research and the arts. Perhaps what makes Pergamon unique is not only the broad spread of its publishing programmes, from chemistry to the arts, from psychology to women's studies, from astronomy to languages, but the consistency of approach with which Pergamon has treated information. For us information is the critical common denominator of all problem-solving and

Robert Maxwell (publisher), Pergamon Press, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 OBW, England.

Received 1 October 1987.

decision-making. Information is the thread; and the efficient delivery of information, packaged in a user-friendly form to the users and the markets at the right time is, and always has been, the foundation of our business.

Information is the key to everything: - from the ancient libraries to the

modern networks of data banks; - from the armies of Alexander the

Great to Star Wars; - from the farmers of antiquity to the

modern corporation. The industrialised world is now par-

ticipating in the third industrial revolu- tion. The first was brought on by the harnessing of power sources such as coal and steam; the second by the development of the combustion engine, the jet engine and other technologies which increased the range of human effort. The third industrial revolution is built around information and the application of computers and electronics to information processing.

The information and communication industry is still on the threshold of its great leap forward. It is today perhaps where the oil industry was half a century ago with a proliferation of peddlers, dealers, distributors, packagers and in- termediaries of all kinds. Within 10 years, I believe, the information and com- munication industry will, like the mature oil industry, be predominantly in the hands of a dozen or so global corpora- tions.

The information industry is the most complex and dynamic sector in the economy, expanding both in volume and in area, as the traditional provinces of conventional technology fall one after another to the new technologies.

Information channels are becoming more specialised and segmented.

Successful players are extending their role backwards and forwards along the value-added chains to maximise their degree of control and value added.

What is the role of the publisher in this information revolution? In some respects the role of the publisher will remain the same as it has in the past: quality control

will continue to be one of the critical services supplied by a publisher, both to authors and to readers.

Marketing and distribution will still be critical services supplied by the publisher. The ability to deliver information packaged in the form customers require internationally will only grow in importance.

Whereas in the past the publisher has only had to be concerned with the packaging and distribution in print-and the added value that publishers have brought to information has been confined to these areas-today, and increasingly tomorrow, successful publishers-all publishers-will have to learn to harness and apply the new technologies that are having, and will continue to have, a significant impact, including on-line data- bases, CD-ROM (compact disc read only memory), video discs, microcomputers and main-frames. The future of publishing lies in the application of the correct technology to the information at hand, in identifying the best way of packaging the information and distributing it to the end user.

Future issues of this journal will consist of articles and images submitted elec- tronically, to be stored in a database and output on hard copy, which is what you are reading today, and in electronic form to enable readers at home, at study, in offices and other work places to access precisely the information they require, and only the information they require, from the computer.

The most important task the publisher will have in the future is in packaging information in suitable forms so that the user can apply it to solve problems in real time whether at the macro or micro level. I do not want to give the impression that the future of publishing will be solely technology driven. However, publishers will have to learn to apply technology in the process of collecting and disseminat- ing information to the end users. The ability of users to select material and speedily to retrieve their selections- whether text or graphics-is the common goal.

? 1987 ISAST Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/87 $3.00+0.00

LEONARDO, Vol. 20, No. 4, p. 361, 1987

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Page 3: 20th Anniversary Special Issue: Art of the Future: The Future of Art || The Future of Publishing

SCCA The Foundation for Creative Computer Applications

presents THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC ART

10-17 September 1988, The Netherlands

The Foundation for Creative Computer Applications (SCCA), in cooperation with the Utrecht School of Arts and many other institutions, is organizing a series of events on electronic art, which will take place simultaneously in several Dutch cities in September 1988.

During the events, a large number of artistic applications of electronic tech-

nology will be brought together. At the same time, an international organization will be founded during a scientific

symposium.

Art forms that will be presented and studied include: * Electronic Music * Computer Graphics, Computer Ani-

mation & Image Processing * Video Art * Interactive Electronic Art * Computer Poetry * Artificial Art (the application of A.I.

to art).

The events are aimed at several target groups, ranging from professionals to the

general public. The core of the event will be the symposium, but in addition there will be performances, exhibitions, work-

shops, hands-on sessions, lectures and

also some outdoor events and coverage in the media. The symposium will take place in the historic city of Utrecht, while other events will take place in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam (all are within one hour of Utrecht).

The programme committee consists of Frederik van der Blij (NL), Wim Crouwel (NL), Charles Csuri (US), Theo Hesper (NL), Robin King (Can), John Lansdown (UK), Tom Linehan (US), Jean-Claude Risset (France), Nadia Magnenat- Thalmann (Can), Roger Malina (US), John Vince (UK), lannis Xenakis (France) and others. Among the many institutions and universities that are cooperating are the Computer Music Association and the International Society for the Arts, Sciences & Technology.

The aim of the event is to start an international organization for 'electronic creativity' with several special interest groups. This organization will begin solving the problems that accompany electronic art in a systematic way, thus

opening the road to truly Computer Integrated Art. Examples of projects to be handled by the organization are: * Systems Integration * Special User Interfaces for Artists

* Artistic Productions in Real Time * Synchronization of Electronic Images

and Sound * Encoding Standards for Electronic

Music * Databanks for Artists * A Permanent Electronic Art TV-

channel.

With this event the new Center for Art, Media & Technology of the Utrecht School of Arts will be introduced to the world. As part of the largest arts school in Holland, students can study, among other things, Computer Music and Com- puter Graphics. A large research project on the application of A.I. to art, sub- sidized by the Ministry of Education, has

just started there.

The SCCA was founded in 1984 in order to stimulate cooperation among scien- tists, technicians and artists. The thought behind this is that scientific participation is a necessary incentive for successful artistic high-tech projects. The SCCA has

organized many educational projects on

Computer Art in Holland and initiated

Computer Graphics courses at Dutch art schools. Since 1987, the SCCA has worked closely with the Utrecht School of Arts.

Send this form to: F.I.S.E.A./SCCA, Admiraliteitskade 9a, 3063 EA Rotterdam, Holland

-] Keep me informed.

] Send me the Call for Papers (outlines may be sent immediately).

[7 I have a proposal for a performance, exhibition or the like (please specify). -

Send information on possibilities to demonstrate or advertise products.

Name

(Company/Institution)

Street

City & Postal Code

Country

Those who sent us a form earlier will automatically receive future mailings.

362

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