#gifted press

[elizabethminkel]

Earlier this week I reported on the very depressing for-profit fic pirating happening in certain corners of fandom—but (somewhat coincidentally, timing-wise) I also had the joy of reporting this story on fanbinding, and the work of the @renegadeguild! Featuring the words (and fanbinds) of the brilliant @celestial-sphere-press, @butterfingersbookbinding, and @fanboundbooks (who also talked about Renegade on the most recent Fansplaining episode).

Renegade's binders are strong proponents of the non-monetized gift economy—they truly embody the spirit of fanfiction, in my opinion, both in the communal way they share their work with fic writers and each other, and in the DIY way they approach making books:

There’s a strong parallel between the amateur, instinctive nature of fanfiction and the act of fanbinding. While plenty of fic is penned by formally trained writers, much of it is not. Tiffo, who binds as Fanboundbooks, likens the reverse-engineering involved in teaching oneself both activities. As writers, people try to figure out why stories work. Fanbinders collectively share the process of learning to turn that work into a physical object—tactile, clean, often beautiful. Fic is largely unencumbered by the forms and structures of traditional publishing, and fanbinders approach their work with the same spirit. “People will often say, ‘How do I do this?’ or ‘What’s the rule for this?’” Tiffo says. “The answer that we always try to throw in Renegade is, ‘This is what other people have done, but know that there is no rule to your book—you can make whatever you want.’”

It's a shame seeing people conflate the bad actors of the pirating situation—many of whom don't appear to be in fandom and seem motivated by pure profit—with the work of fanbinders at large, and seeing people scared to try out fanbinding because of the recent news. Not-for-profit fanbinding is just as legal as writing fanfiction, and I don't speak for all fic writers, but if someone ever bound one of my fics, I'd be so touched I would almost definitely weep. 😭

#fanbinding #fanfiction #renegade bindery #fanbound books #celestial sphere press #butterfingers binding #gift economy #fannish crafts #atlas obscura #my writing

[little-cat-press]

Sometime when my older siblings were little, my dad discovered that they found stories about his childhood more entertaining if he told them as "One time my friend Frederick..." instead of "One time when I was a kid...", and thus Frederick Stories were born.

I loved hearing Frederick Stories growing up, and so did all of my siblings. At some point, Dad decided to write (some of) them down, and a year or two ago I asked him for the file.

And now, currently in the mail to arrive late for Christmas, is a hand-bound copy of his book.

Two copies, actually, because I'm also sending one to his parents. He mentioned in the introduction that when he had first written these stories down, he had given them a copy for Christmas, and I thought they would like to have another, probably more nicely bound, one.

There's a third copy for me, but it took me long enough to finish these two before Christmas, and my copy isn't finished yet. Mostly, but not quite.

It is bound in a nice brown cloth I have, and titled with gold paint, because I thought it would lend it a sort of Old Book vibe that I thought would go well with the title.

Hence also the gothic font for the title.

I also did a few experiments with ways of turning cloth into bookcloth, which is why the two books are a bit different in color. The one on the right in the above picture is the original cloth color.

The edges are gilded with the same gold paint as the title is done in, which also helps with the Old Fancy Book vibe I wanted.

Almost all of the stories opened with "One day, Frederick..." or "One time, Frederick...", and I picked a nice ornamental font for the dropcaps there.

#little cat press #bookbinding #size: half letter #bound by me #a gift #author: my dad #gifted to my dad #gifted to my grandma #gifted to my grandpa

[hayden-christensen]

#how ironic

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN & EWAN MCGREGOR play Agree to Disagree for LADBIBLE

#hayden christensen #hchristensenedit #haydenchristensenedit #ewan mcgregor #ewanmcgregoredit #emcgregoredit #swedit #star wars #attack of the clones #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #swcastedit #starwarsblr #sw cast #kenobi press #*mine #*2022 #*gifs #9k #THIS GAME IS SUCH A GIFT #I make the most random things these days but they make me happy so :)

[blairpfaff]

Andrew Scott on His Favourite Things and George Orwell's 1984 | Audible UK

#step 1: give up sugar #step 2: go on a press tour where u are gifted haribo every five seconds #andrew scott #edits

[brokehorrorfan]

Your mind will be scarred forever by Sakuga Press' Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 collection. T-shirts ($29), hats ($25), posters ($10), and stickers ($1-3) are available through Monday, November 27. They’ll ship in 4-8 weeks.

#silent hill #silent hill 2 #silent hill 3 #konami #horror #survival horror #sakuga press #shirt #gift #silent hill nurse #pyramid head #red pyramid thing #team silent #playstation #playstation 2

[70sscifiart]

My art book just got a lovely shoutout in the Financial Times!

(This is only the latest reason why your dad will appreciate getting this for the holidays)

#art book #press #FT has its finger on the pulse of pop culture #apparently #Im cornering the dad gift market

[mellowstory]

Why You Should Search The Public Domain | Keeping Art History Alive

Whether you’re a crafter looking for decorative designs for journals and paper projects, or a college student searching for inexpensive materials for DIY decor, the public domain is the way to go.

Here are some of the best uses I’ve found as a paper crafter using Artvee.com

Faux ephemera for junk journals.

Notebook Covers

Bookmarks

Wrapping Paper

Mini Zines

Art Study

Stickers

Collages

Home Decor/ Framing

Art Inspiration

#cottagecore #pressed flowers #floraldesign #vintageinspired #unique gifts #art supplies #art tutorial #diy #art #handmade #art ideas #journaling #junk journal #paper craft #craftinspiration #books & libraries

[artemispt]

Carlando chatting and Carlos oh the question is for me 👆

#lewis deserves a gift #carlando #carlos sainz #carlos sainz jr #lando norris #44455 #post race press conference singapore gp 2023

[lightseoul]

no thoughts brain empty except for retired househusband!bakugou waiting for you to get home from work :(

#imagine coming home to him hacking on romaine lettuce for the salad you're gonna have for dinner #and he'd be wearing an apron #that says world's best husband #which u gifted to him on one of your anniversaries #you sneak up behind him and he startles ever so minutely when you wrap your arms around his torso #chastises you for startling him because he's holding a knife #doesn't want to admit that having you pressed against his back after a long day of not being with you is the highlight of his day--so far #bakugou x reader #bkg

[tabithatwo]

#thank you fallout press run for all the gifts you have given me #ella purnell woman that you are #ella purnell #lucy fallout #yellowjackets cast

[stockholmgf]

i have to mute myself every day on the phone with my bf so i can “tell” him all about the surprises i’m working on for him cause i simply cannot keep my mouth shut

#he gave me a little snoopy journal as part of my valentine’s day gift #so i’m writing little passages in it every time i come up with a reason that i love him or something i admire about him etc #and little momentos here and there like some pressed flowers from the bouquet he got me on his last visit 😁 #and receipts for lil date nights #also trying to learn vietnamese so i can make it a little easier on his family to talk to me #which is HARD ASS LANGUAGE btw #and gonna attempt to crochet a tapestry of his fav MTG card

[little-cat-press]

Trying To Communicate by @copperbadge for @saltyteethbooks for the @renegadepublishing mini book bang!

@saltyteethbooks did the typeset, and I bound it, and sent it over to them.

I'm supposed to make myself a copy too, but stuff happened and I wasn't able to bookbind for like half a month, after procrastinating the first half of the month, and I finished this copy on the last day before we were supposed to get them in the mail.

So.

I'll make my copy later.

It was fun making a sextodecimal book! It's a cute little size, and I'll probably make some more after this. This one might be a little bit of an odd size, because it's typeset for A4 paper, but I shrank it a little to print on Letter instead, and then the printer shrank it a little more because it likes to add margins.

So it's got A proportions, but is a little bit smaller.

The title is done with a new gold paint I got recently! Nice and shiny, and I only had to use one coat plus a few small touchups in spots.

#little cat press #bookbinding #typesetting by saltyteethbooks #bound by me #author: copperbadge #saltyteethbooks #copperbadge #a gift #gifted to saltyteethbooks #renegade exchange #size: A8 #mini book bang 2023 #typeset by someone else

[non-un-topo]

My Neekeys over the last two-odd years. I was curious to see the changes 🤔

#forgive the low quality dfghfds it was just an experiment #now to do the DRAW ANYONE ELSE challenge #siggy draws #he is my blorbo. my muse. i guess #don't get me wrong. i am CRINGING and SWEATING at just the thought of uploading this. #have i been drawing almost every day my entire life? yes. does my style still change all the time? yes! #and i'm mostly self-taught so i struuuuggle a lot. i'll finally admit that reference pictures help immensely. no shit lol. #i learned a lot in the last 2 years!!! there are some really ugly ones i didn't show but i kept the cringe old ones sdfghfds help. #i mean they're still here on tumblr so i can't exactly hide them #you can kind of see when i actually started to use reference pictures. and when i got more used to using a tablet #idk digital art is so hard. it's a whole other world. but i'm in it now and haven't drawn traditionally in forever #i can also literally see how i used to CRUSH my nibs while drawing. all those really thin lines?? i pressed too hard lol #i've actually kept all my nibs since i started drawing digitally and....... it's too many fghfds #that one slightly more realistic nicky in the bottom right of the first collage lmaooo. i should finish him... maybe... it's haaard. #the top right on the first collage and bottom right on the second one are good comparisons ;_; they're both pirate!nico gifts for lily!! #i'm feeling sentimental now omg

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Open Circuits

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet that picks up where the old, good internet left off. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

Every trip to Defcon – the massive annual hacker-con in Las Vegas – is a delight. Partly it's the familiar – seeing old friends, getting updates on hacks of years gone by. But mostly, it's the surprises, the things you never anticipated. Defcon never fails to surprise.

I got back from Vegas yesterday and I've just unpacking my suitcase, and with it, the tangible evidence of Defcon's cave of wonders. My gear bag has a new essential: Hak5's malicious cable detector, a little USB gizmo that lights up if it detects surreptitious malicious activity, even as it interdicts those nasty payloads:

https://shop.hak5.org/collections/omg-row2/products/malicious-cable-detector-by-o-mg

(In case you're wondering if it's really possible to craft a malicious USB cable that injects badware into your computer and is visually indistinguishable from a regular cable, the answer is a resounding yes, and of course, Hak5 sells those cables, with a variety of USB tips:)

https://shop.hak5.org/collections/omg-row2/products/omg-cable

But merch is only a sideshow. The real action is in the conference rooms, where hackers update you on the pursuit of their obsessions. These are such beautiful weirdos who pursue knowledge to ridiculous extremes, untangling gnarly hairballs just to follow a thread to its origin point.

For the second year in a row, I caught a presentation from Joseph Gabay about his work on warshopping: slicing up shopping cart wheels and haunting shopping mall parking lots during resurfacing to figure out how the anti-theft mechanism that stops your cart from leaving the parking lot works:

https://www.begaydocrime.com/

And of course, I got to give one of those presentations, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification," to a packed house. What a thrill! It was livestreamed, and if you missed it, you'll be able to catch it on Defcon's Youtube page as soon as they upload it (they've got a lot of uploading to do!):

https://www.youtube.com/@DEFCONConference/videos

After my talk, I went back to the No Starch Press booth for a book signing – which was amazing, so many beautiful hackers, plus I got to share a signing table with Micah Lee. As I was leaving, Bill Pollock slipped me a giant hardcover art-book, and said, "You're gonna love this."

I did. The book is Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components, by Windell Oskay and Eric Schlaepfer, and it is a drop-dead gorgeous collection of photos of electronic components, painstakingly cross-sectioned and polished:

The photos illustrate layperson-friendly explanations of what each component does, how it is constructed, and why. Perhaps you've pondered a circuit board and wondered about the colorful, candy-shaped components soldered to it. It's natural to assume that these are indivisible, abstract functional units, a thing that is best understood as a reliable and deterministic brick that can be used to construct a specific kind of wall.

But peering inside these sealed packages reveals another world, a miniature land where things get simpler – and more complex. Inside these blobs of resin are snips of wire, plugs of wax, simple screws, fine sheets of metal in stacks, wafers of plain ceramic, springs and screws.

Truly, quantity has a quality all its own. Miniaturize these assemblies and produce them at unimaginable scale and the simple, legible components turn into mystical black boxes that only the most dedicated study can reveal. Like every magician's trick, the unfathomable effect is built up through the precise repetition of something very simple.

A prolonged study of Open Circuits reveals something important about the hacker aesthetic, a collection of graphic design, fashion and industrial design conventions that begins with this realization: that the crisp lines of digital logic can be decomposed into blobby, probabilistic lumps of metal, plastic, and even wax.

It reminds me of George Dyson's brilliant memoir/history of computing, Turing's Cathedral, where he describes how he and the other children of the scientists building the first digital computers at the Princeton Institute spent their summers in the basement, hand-winding cores for the early colossi their parents were building on the floors above them:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/03/12/george-dysons-history-of-the-computer-turings-cathedral/

You can see my hacker aesthetic photos in my Defcon 31 photo set:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=date-taken-desc&safe_search=1&tags=defcon31&user_id=37996580417%40N01&view_all=1

In this video, Eric Schlaepfer illustrates the painstaking work that went into decomposing these tiny, precise components into their messy, analog subcomponents. It's pure hacker aesthetic, and it's mesmerizing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byKyJ0b04Lo

But Open Circuits isn't just an aesthetic journey, it's a technical one. After all, Oskay is co-founder of Evil Mad Scientist Labs, one of the defining places where hardware hackers gather to tear down, pick apart, mod, improve and destroy electronics. The accompanying text is a masterclass in the simple machines that combine together to make complex assemblies:

https://www.evilmadscientist.com/

Defcon is a reminder that the world only seems hermetically sealed and legible to authorized parties with clearance to crack open the box. From shopping cart wheels to thermal fuses, that illegibility is only a few millimeters thick. Sand away the glossy outer layer and you will find yourself in a weird land of wax-blobs, rough approximations, expedient choices and endless opportunities for delight and terror, mischief and care.

Back my anti-enshittification Kickstarter here!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/14/hidden-worlds/#making-the-invisible-visible-and-beautiful

#pluralistic #books #reviews #evil mad scientist laboratories #no starch press #Windell Oskay #Eric Schlaepfer #electronics #hacker aesthetic #makers #diy #secret knowledge #gift guide #photography

[brokehorrorfan]

Vice Press will release The Bride of Frankenstein 24x36 screen prints by Anthony Petrie today, February 29, at 1pm EST. The standard version is limited to 200 for $60, while the glow-in-the-dark variant is limited to 100 for $70.

#bride of frankenstein #the bride of frankenstein #elsa lanchester #universal monsters #frankenstein #boris karloff #vice press #art #gift #anthony petrie #30s horror #1930s horror #james whale #mary shelley #classic horror

[cherries-in-wine]

Pressed flowers :))

#my mom loves them so i make little stickers for her to put on her laptop #they're so pretty honestly #to me flowers are such a beautiful gift so i never throw them out i like to preserve them by drying them #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #girlblogger #this is a girlblog #this is what makes us girls #flowers #pressed flowers #art #dried flowers #dead flowers #just girl things #just girly things #cottage core #coquette #aesthetic #girlbloging #aditi's film roll