Borsuk references the kind of play present in the formation and structuring of modern children’s books in the introduction of the book, before going through a timeline of the book’s evolving form. As “informational needs” evolve, the book evolves (3). Given the book’s pervious and various forms, its not necessarily reasonable to assume the book’s form will not change again past things like e-books.
To this point, I enjoyed how Borsuk points out that the book as we know it, already take on various forms or styles across the world. For example, Borsuk notes the specific kinds of strokes used in order to not pierce papyrus leaves (13) or the size of bamboo slips influencing the top to bottom style of Chinese print (26). The available materials within a given region has effected what the “book” looks like. Even without the the threat of an increasing digital information age, the book has never been a stable singular object, and its history is inherently wrapped up in technological advancement, as evident by the way that the verbage used for digital and physical information mediums tends to overlap (scroll, type) (17).
We’ve discussed the discourse about books and AI as being centered around the fear of the book (and therefor writing and learning) as we know it becoming obsolete. But I’ve found myself more fixated on the environmental effects of AI. I feel like any conversation about AI that doesn’t talk about AI data centers’ water consumption is incomplete. However, I found it interesting that Borsuk details the economic and environmental cost of making parchment and vellum. It seems like, since the development from oral the the written word, there has always been an environmental cost when it comes to developing new information technologies. I think I’d be curious about the proportional environmental damage of different information technologies.
Additionally, I enjoyed the section about different ways to bind pages together (37). I’ve been making my own paper recently, and have started experimenting with binding it together. I’m still a beginner so sometimes I’m not sure what the paper will look like, but I’ve found it exciting to come up with new ideas for what the use the paper for, if not traditional handwriting like I had planned. I’ve included a photo of my most recent batch from yesterday, along with the cat Kristofferson.
Hi Demree,
Thanks for sharing your paper-making project! That is really cool, and I love how vibrant those pages are! I love watching paper making videos online. This class has been making me think about trying it out myself, and seeing your project makes me want to do it even more. Would you share more about your process and how you got started?
(Also, hi to Kristofferson!)
Hi Vide,
I wanted to get back to you about the process of paper making. I’m still new to this, so there are probably more advanced methods than what I list here.
Pulp: You need to make pulp first, which I do by soaking torn strips of paper. I’ve been recycling tissue paper and old mail. I got really good results using a paper shredder but you can just rip the paper into pieces by hand. Make sure theres no plastic bits in it, like there is with letters sometimes. Soak the paper in water overnight (sometimes I soak the water for days and keep it in the fridge when I know I don’t have time to get back to it). Once you soak the paper, you can blend it. I bought a cheap personal blender for like $18. Blend it until smooth.
Slurry: Once you have the pulp all smooth, you can pour it into a container of water (I’ve used a bucket and a storage container, just something substantial enough to at least twice as much water as your pulp). You can adjust how thick your paper comes out by your water to pulp ratio. More water, thinner paper. Less water, thicker paper.
Mould and Deckle: This is probably the only thing you’ll have to buy. It’s just two frames with a screen in-between. There are multiple tutorials on how to make one, but I just bought mine on Amazon 🙁 boo I’m sorry. If you have some sort of mesh screen that you can cut into the size you want your paper this is fine too. Dip your mould and deckle into the water the lift it up and let the excess water drip away.
Towel: Get some sort of towel to lay on flat surface and press the screen face down (pulp down). Use another cloth/paper towel/ or sponge to gently dap up more excess water from the other side of the screen. Lift up the screen and your paper should stay on the towel. You’ll need to let it dry, and once it does you’ll have paper 🙂