[Libri] Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Three-Dimensional Magazine Lives Again in Two Dimensions

[Sharon Shaloo]

> To the Libri List -- an interesting article about ASPEN magazine -- the
> "three-dimensional magazine" that was published from 1965-1971.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sharon
>
> ************************************************
> Sharon Shaloo, Executive Director
> Massachusetts Center for the Book
> On the web at www.massbook.org
>
> "There is no frigate like a book" -- Emily Dickinson
>
> > Three-Dimensional Magazine Lives Again in Two Dimensions
> >
> > December 9, 2002
> > By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL
> >
> > Published 10 times between 1965 and 1971, Aspen billed
> > itself as the first three-dimensional magazine. Most issues
> > arrived in a notebook-size box stuffed with articles that
> > had been printed individually rather than stapled together.
> > But it was the nature of its contents that made Aspen
> > magazine stand out like a ski lift in a cornfield. Each
> > issue was as likely to hold postcards, posters and
> > phonograph records as essays. And among the magazine's 235
> > contributors were many prominent figures on the 60's
> > cultural landscape, including Roland Barthes, John Lennon,
> > Marshall McLuhan, Lou Reed and Andy Warhol.
> >
> > Thirty years after Aspen ceased publication, copies of the
> > actual magazines are rarely found outside museum libraries
> > and dusty flea-market bins. Now, though, Aspen can be
> > viewed on the Internet, where the three-dimensional
> > magazine has been digitally reproduced for the
> > two-dimensional computer screen with remarkable verve. The
> > material was put online last month at Ubu.com/aspen.
> >
> > Aspen provided a vivid snapshot of its era. The Pop Art
> > issue came in a Warhol-designed soapbox. Another issue
> > described works by denizens of the Judson Memorial Church
> > gallery, a mecca of early performance art in New York. The
> > Fluxus issue had conceptual scores by Philip Glass and
> > Steve Reich and a LaMonte Young recording. Deborah Wye,
> > chief curator of prints and illustrated books at the Museum
> > of Modern Art in New York, said, "The accuracy of the
> > moment is something that hits you between the eyes when you
> > open one of the boxes."
> >
> > Given Aspen's historical importance, one might assume that
> > a digital re-creation of the magazine would become the work
> > of a museum. Instead, the online version is a labor of love
> > by Andrew Stafford, 48, a San Francisco bookseller who
> > gradually amassed a set of the magazines during the 1990's.
> > He wanted to share his collection.
> >
> > "As an example of creative publishing, Aspen is just
> > stunning," he said.
> >
> > Mr. Stafford's project provides a primer in the pleasures
> > and pitfalls of putting real-world materials on the
> > Internet. But there is no denying that Aspen is an ideal
> > candidate for online presentation. At a time when magazines
> > are routinely accompanied by compact disks with music or
> > computer software, it is easy to overlook how progressive
> > Aspen was in packing its issues with the thin plastic
> > records called flexidiscs and, in one instance, a reel of
> > 8-millimeter film: a truly multimedia magazine.
> >
> > Adapting the magazine for the Web's multimedia capabilities
> > became irresistible to Mr. Stafford. In 1999 he started
> > digitizing some of the magazine's printed pages. He
> > converted the flexidisc recordings into sound files that
> > could be played on a computer and also asked a friend with
> > a movie projector to transfer a reel of short abstract
> > films by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Robert Rauschenberg and two
> > other artists into video files.
> >
> > Happily, Mr. Stafford did not stop there. He learned
> > Web-animation techniques so that he could create
> > interactive versions of some exhibits. For instance online
> > visitors can flip through the digitized pages of Lennon's
> > 1969 diary, playfully created in 1968 (sample entry: "got
> > up. went to work. came home. watched telly"), or rotate the
> > lines and dots on a page of John Cage's score for "Fontana
> > Mix."
> >
> > Mr. Stafford completed his digitizing effort in 2000, just
> > as lawsuits over copyright violations involving online song
> > files were reaching the courts. He said, "I became totally
> > intimidated by the prospect of breaking about 150
> > copyrights." Deterred by the amount of work that would be
> > needed to acquire permission to republish all the Aspen
> > materials online, he put the project in a drawer. Instead
> > he created a free tutorial about Marcel Duchamp, which he
> > put online last August at UnderstandingDuchamp.com.
> >
> > He was soon contacted by the artist's vigilant and unhappy
> > rights administrators. So far, he said, he is dodging their
> > demand for several thousand dollars. While researching the
> > problem, he approached Kenneth Goldsmith, a New York poet
> > who has operated UbuWeb, an Internet-based archive of
> > experimental poetry and avant-garde works, since 1996. The
> > site is at Ubu.com.
> >
> > Mr. Goldsmith volunteered to put the Aspen project on his
> > site, which he did last month.
> >
> > Despite Mr. Stafford's experience with the Duchamp
> > tutorial, Mr. Goldsmith said: "Over the years I've found
> > that people only come after you for rights when you're
> > making money. Since UbuWeb is completely free, nobody has
> > ever really bothered us about rights." He said he removes
> > entries when living artists complain, but that rarely
> > happens.
> >
> > "Most artists who find their stuff on UbuWeb are thrilled,"
> > he said. Avant-garde artists rarely expect royalties. "They
> > want an audience."
> >
> > He may be right. The editors of several Aspen issues said
> > they were pleased that the material was available again.
> > Jon Hendricks, who edited the performance-art issue, said,
> > "The idea was to get the information out rather than to
> > think of it as property." Nor did Jeffrey H. James,
> > executive director of the Cunningham Dance Foundation,
> > object to audio recordings of the choreographer Merce
> > Cunningham on the Aspen site. Mr. James said, "The
> > educational value of having Merce's thoughts out there on
> > the Web outweighs our motives of ownership."
> >
> > Still, Mr. Stafford worried that individual contributors
> > would force him to remove select entries. He said, "Losing
> > just 10 percent of the contributors would reduce its
> > usefulness by at least half, so I'm hoping all will
> > cooperate."
> >
> > The ultimate arbiter would probably be Phyllis Johnson, a
> > former intimate-apparel editor of Women's Wear Daily who
> > created Aspen. But her contributors have lost touch with
> > her, and she could not be reached for comment.
> >
> > Ms. Wye of the Museum of Modern Art was enthusiastic about
> > Mr. Stafford's Web site, saying that it achieved the same
> > goal as the original magazine: making art available to a
> > larger public. (The magazine's circulation was 15,000 to
> > 20,000.) She also appreciated having the audio and video
> > entries online, noting that even an institution like the
> > Modern does not always have turntables and movie projectors
> > around.
> >
> > On the other hand, the Web site does not convey the tactile
> > qualities of the real magazines. "You can't imagine how
> > beautiful these flexidiscs are in person," Mr. Goldsmith
> > said. "An audio file is no substitute for the sensuality of
> > vinyl." And Mr. Stafford's straightforward site design
> > encourages online visitors to go through each issue in a
> > linear fashion, losing the treasure-chest element.
> >
> > There is one gap in Mr. Stafford's collection, the last of
> > Aspen's 10 issues. Recently a book dealer with a complete
> > set (asking price: $10,000) offered to mail him color
> > copies of its pages. Mr. Stafford said the issue should be
> > online by Christmas.
> >
> > Mr. Stafford said he understood that he would never recover
> > a dime from his preservation project. Aspen magazine "was a
> > folly," he said, "as is my Web site, I guess."
> >
> > He continued: "Aspen the magazine never made a penny, I'm
> > sure. So Phyllis Johnson and I share that across all these
> > years."
> >
> >
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/arts/design/09ARTS.html?ex=1040493946&ei=1
> &en=36131f4f96e276ef
> >
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