Experimental Publishing

Week 1: What is Publishing

Image Source: The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core

Task #01

I was interested to read that the word publish has its roots in the idea of making something public (etymonline, 2025) and that the word experimental is about trying something new or untested (experimental, no date).

Although I am currently an MSc Creative Technologies student, most of my career has been in psychiatry, where publishing has mainly involved text-based materials like journals, textbooks, and clinical reports. Although these publications often included experimental data, the form of the media was always predictable and non-experimental.

I also hold an arts degree and founded a small LGBTQIA+ charitable company, where I regularly published digital content, engaging with diverse forms of making public, such as audio and video on social media platforms. Here, the content was often more experimental, but the publication platform, namely the internet or social media platform, could also be said to be predictable or non-experimental.

The University of Southampton defines my course as a blend of creative arts and digital technologies((University of Southampton, 2025), but I prefer Conner et al.’s broader definition of it as a “transdisciplinary domain” combining various disciplines (2016).

On this module, I aim to explore publishing beyond academic or clinical texts and integrate my professional, artistic, and voluntary sector experiences in new ways.I am also interested in the idea of the ‘experimental’ in publishing and how non-text forms might challenge or complement traditional book publishing.

References

Connor, A.M. and Marks, S. (2016) Creative Technologies for multidisciplinary applications. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.

etymonline (2025) etymonline. Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/publish#etymonline_v_2814 (Accessed: 8 April 2025).

experimental (no date) dictionary.cambridge.org. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/experimental.

University of Southampton. (2025). MSc Creative Technologies 3599 (1 year). [online] Available at: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/creative-technologies-masters-msc [Accessed 6 Feb. 2025].

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Week 2: Magazine Publishing

Image from Elska’s website – Image Source

Magazine Analysis Case Study: Elska Magazine

  • Sector (ie Fashion, beauty, regional etc)
    • Niche travel / gay interest magazine / erotica
  • Mission/purpose
    • “a project dedicated to exploring the world and its men” (Elska Homepage, n.d.)
    • “‘part intellectual queer pin-up mag and part sexy anthropology journal'”(Elska Homepage, n.d.)
  • Audience
    • Marketed at those who like looking at and reading about gay and queer men
    • It is a niche publication and it is difficult to find circulation figures or audience demographics
    • It is a mix of photography, travel journalism and a kind of confessional autoethnography
  • Platforms/formats
    • Print and Online
  • Competitors
    • As an indie niche magazine it is difficult to find one place where similar magazines are being sold.
    • Looking at News Stand (Alternative & Gay Magazine Subscriptions at Newsstand.co.uk) , they list mainly more well known (e.g. Attitude) magazines and the only indie magazine in their listings is ‘Crotch‘.
    • I know of one other magazine (Meatzine) but suspect that there are others
  • Design/style
    • Minimalist: Black and white style with full page photo spreads

Task #02

  • Reflecting on the session
    • It was useful to get an understanding of how commercial publication works and how challenging it can be as a business
    • Reflecting on the importance of planning / preparation, knowing your audience and working with others
    • The challenge of producing regular content and also the impact and uses of AI
  • Reflecting on the magazine I chose
    • How did I find this magazine and what role did it have in my life
    • What is the role of Niche magazines in community building
    • How do these kinds of magazines become popular
    • What is their financial model

References

Elska (no date) Homepage. Available at: https://www.elskamagazine.com/ (Accessed: 14 Feb 2025).

Week 3: Tactical Publishing

Book cover from The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges (1941) – Image Source

Task #03

Early in his lecture Dr Ludovico introduced us to the book The Library of Babel (Borges, 1941). He described it as a thought experiment where an information infinity becomes overwhelming and unwieldy. A world of publishing without limits – a kind of non-intentional, or non-tactical publishing. He argued that we are now living a version of this situation as we now all own devices where content is effectively infinite and that this creates specific opportunities and problems.

He explained that digital content is mediated by screens and the constraints they impose. He gave the example of reading a physical book and an e-book and how flicking through a book on a table has very little relation to the experience of scrolling through the book text on a screen. As someone who loves reading and books this feels intuitively right to me, but I would be interested to know what younger people who do not own books would think about this idea.  

In the conclusion of Tactical Publishing (Ludovico, 2024) he writes that digital is best “for content and quantity of information” and analogue “for usability and interfacing” (pg. 153). This was one of the key takeaway messages for me – that each environment has its strengths and knowing this I will hopefully be better able to make these different publishing formats work for me and my future projects.

References

Ludovico, A. (2024). Tactical Publishing. MIT Press.

Week 5: What is a Generative System?

Image generated by OpenArt.ai with the prompt: “painting with frame of AI dominating an artist in the style of Freida Kahlo. the image is sad, dramatic, with a sense of light.”

Task #05

I am interested in AI as generative systems. In his paper on Working with Generative Systems, An Artistic Perspective (McCormack, 2017) McCormack describes the benefit of a generative system as being concerned with process rather than outcome (pg. 1). They enable “database amplification” (pg. 1) by creating the potential for more outcomes than the sum of the data that you use to design them.

As an artist I am interested in how large language models and image models will impact our understanding of what it means to be the author or owner of the work that we make using these models. In this context AI generative systems may present a threat to established creative and economic models of art production and commercialisation. For example, the debate in a recent episode of the BBC’s Media Show (Peter Kosminsky, AI and publishing, Media crackdown in Turkey, 2025) heard an author’s perspective on the fact that their work has been used, without credit or payment, to train large language models and therefore seems to by pass existing copyright protection practice.

In my own practice, I am still tentatively exploring the potential for generative writing and image systems to support, but not replace, my existing practice. I hope that copyright law will eventually catch up with the technology as I would like to protect my work and as a creator, be paid for the effort and skill that it has taken to produce it.  

References

Peter Kosminsky, AI and publishing, Media crackdown in Turkey (2025) BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029767 (Accessed: 8 April 2025).

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Week 6: Create a book concept!!

Image Source: Jan Kahánek on Unsplash

Task #06

Book Title: There is Something Wrong with Me

Core Message: In my work in mental health and the voluntary sector, I have met many people who struggle with a thought that there is something deeply wrong with them. It comes up as self-esteem issues, can contribute to or be made worse by depression and also seems to sit comfortably in the minds of people who are functioning well.

I would like to write a book that examines the nature of our deep self-beliefs and what psychological purpose they may serve or not serve.

I also want the book to be something that offers people hope or a way to work with or let go of these thoughts.

The book would be underpinned by my own lived experience and I would like to share some of my successes and ongoing challenges as a way of grounding the writing.

What is Already Out There:

The website ‘The Strive’ lists 20 top self-help books for confidence and self-esteem (Morales, 2025), but I would argue that my idea is something different to these. I think that many try to promote a strategy or slogan-based approach, and I would like this book to be more nuanced and reflective.

Ideal Publisher: Vintage – as I have enjoyed their books and like their aesthetic. In saying this I know I would need to do a lot more research to know whether my idea would be suitable for their company.

References

Morales, N.L. (2025) 20 BEST BOOKS ON CONFIDENCE TO SKYROCKET YOUR SELF-ESTEEM, The STRIVE. Available at: https://thestrive.co/best-books-on-building-self-confidence/ (Accessed: 10 April 2025).

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Week 7: Field Trip – John Hansard Gallery – Kathy Prendergast – Stasis Field

Photographs from the trip

Task #07

Prendergast’s show is described as a mixed media installation exploring “themes of identity, geography, and the human body” (John Hansard Gallery, 2025).

The installation is set out across the large ground floor space with works on the floor and walls. Having works on the floor means that my journey through the room was directed by the artist.

It was only while writing this reflection that I made the link between the maps on the wall and the mapping of the exhibition space. I had to walk around things and this seemed like a good way of increasing my engagement with these works.

In the book, What Makes a Great Exhibition? (Marincola et al., 2016) they discuss the creation of exhibition spaces as a “making room for individuals to find their own place in relation to the work of art” (pg.136) and it felt like this was one of the intentions of the show.

My favourite work was the floor piece made out of preserved flower heads. It looked soft and naturalistic and contrasted with the stones and maps in the other rooms. For me, the exhibition encouraged further reflection and in this way, I think it was a success.

References

‌ John Hansard Gallery | Internationally recognised contemporary art gallery in Southampton, UK (no date) John Hansard Gallery. Available at: https://jhg.art/.

‌Marincola, P. et al. (2016) What makes a great exhibition? Philadelphia, Pa: The Pew Center For Arts & Heritage.

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Week 8: Create a niche / fan supported publication.

Image from Daily Mail online

Task #08

Man Enough – A Substack Experiment

My “Man Enough” Substack page (Kuch | Substack)

Subject

  • A positive, uplifting and curious take on masculinity, considering its complications and potential

Publishing Platform

  • Substack

The Aim and Focus of the Publication

  • I identify as a gay man and have had a complicated relationship to my own sense of masculinity, I want to reclaim, and reinvigorate this relationship while also creating a community that will follow me on this journey
  • I hope that by creating a community, people will find a reflective and supportive space where they can also think about their own relationships to their masculinity
  • I hope the platform will therefore be a contribution to making things better / easier for men including myself.
  • I want to use a combination of life experience, reading, and creative research to spark topics
  • I want to look for new perspectives on old problems and to add nuance or complexity to stereotypical narratives of masculinity
  • Where appropriate I want to use my expertise in mental health to promote resilience, healing and self-reflection

The Audience

  • Men over 35 and the people who might relate to this demographic

What is your Funding Model?

  • The first 5-6 posts will be free and then I would like to create a paid subscription only model for a monthly newsletter. I suspect it will take some time to generate a follower base and may need to revise this schedule / approach once I get a sense of what is working / not working.

Describe fan engagement for your model

  •  Long term, I would like to hold events and invite other thinkers on the subject to take part. This is probably at least a year down the line from now.

References

Kuch (2025). Man Enough | Kuch | Substack. [online] Substack.com. Available at: https://morethanaman.substack.com/?utm_source=global-search [Accessed 8 Apr. 2025].

Burgess, M. (2025) Danny Dyer says the ‘empty void’ of masculinity needs addressing as he reveals that he is planning…, Mail Online. Daily Mail. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14560001/Danny-Dyer-masculinity-Adolescence-son.html (Accessed: 8 April 2025).