The Aesthetics of Digital Books - A Dispute with the Digital Medium

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THE

AESTHETICS OF

DIGITAL BOOKS

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THE AESTHETICS OF DIGITAL BOOKS –

A DISPUTE WITH THE DIGITAL MEDIUM

University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities Master thesis in New Media and Digital Culture Supervisor: Dr. Erin La Cour

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TABLE OF

AC

KNOW

LEDGE

MENTS

For the design of this paper, I was inspired by the digital publishers I interviewed for this paper, mikrotext, Frohmann Verlag, CulturBooks and Das BEBEN, and also by the digital art catalogue “Playtime,” produced on the occasion of an events series in the Munich-based gallery Lenbachhaus. The catalogue was designed as ePub and PDF by the German agency Herburg Weiland and offers an appealing layout structure, typeface, and image representation. I encountered the publication after the interview with eBook developer and designer Andrea Nienhaus, who called my attention for it. Also, my design is influenced by the publication Thinking in Type by graphic designer, writer, and curator Ellen Lupton, the works of German book designer Jenna Gesse, as well as by the magazines of the independent music and art foundation “Subbacultcha” based in Amsterdam.

The type design of this paper contains the serif font “Times” for most of the body text. The sans serif typeface “Roboto” by designer Christian Robertson is used in condensed and bold for headlines and opening quotes, whereas the more “casual” parts, as well as image descriptions and footnotes, appear in the typeface’s regular style. I decided on these typefaces because the disparity between playful and rigid fonts reveals a harmonic and modern arrangement.

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Erin La Cour for her guidance, encouragement and inspiration. Thanks also goes to Claire De Jager for her editing work and advice. As my paper deals with issues of design aesthetics, I am grateful to Dr. Carolyn Birdsall and Dr. Carolin Gerlitz of the department of Media Studies for allowing me to cite in Chicago style, which fits the overall design of this paper. I want to dedicate this paper to my family who always support and motivate me. 

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1 INTRO

DUCTION

In this postmodern world, individuals flee from the "desert of the real" for the ecstasies of hyperreality and the new realm of computer, media, and technological experience. 1

As technology has become embedded into human lives, the relationship between the human body and artificial devices has begun to alter the image of humans remarkably. Indeed, our strong dependence on technologies has an impact and influence on everyday life; according to Baudrillard, individuals are no longer located in the real world, but have escaped to another world, or, let us phrase it more cynically, to an unreal world. Consequently, not only has 2

our environment changed, but so have individuals themselves: we transformed from humans to posthumans once we entered the gate of technological experience. Because Baudrillard interpreted the postmodern world in terms of media development in the late 1970s, and a great deal of advancement has occurred within the field of media since then, I am aware that it is precarious to present the French theorist in this light. That said, I want to stubbornly 3

continue to use his view because I am convinced that it has not become obsolete, as one could argue, but rather is still a fruitful consideration.

Within the realm of the digital era, electronic publishing, writing, and reading take place in the virtual world or hyperreality. Electronic publications—or

Baudrillard in Marcel Danesi, Encyclopedia of Media and Communication (Canada:

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University of Toronto Press, 2013), 49.

Mark BN Hansen, “Media Theory,” Theory, Culture & Society 23.2-3 (2006): 301.

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Baudrillard in Danesi, Encyclopedia, 49.

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eBooks as they are called—are burdened with the connotation of being “unreal” since they cannot be held in one’s hand (without a supporting device) and they do not smell of ink. These are two examples of why digital products still do not find the same admiration as traditional books, or put differently, why some readers are still located in the desert of the real. The history of eBooks may have started in the early 1970s with the first digital library called “Project Gutenberg,” but gained popularity and worldwide distribution beginning in 2003. So, while the digital book is not a new phenomenon at all, 4

the debate about the format’s advantages and issues is still ongoing even if at times it seems highly exhausted.

1.1 Problem and Motivation

Aesthetics play an important role in the production and existence of print books. Designers are offered many options to conceptualize the inside as well as the outside of a book. Since digital books are still in a nascent phase, it seems that they do not receive the same recognition in this particular field. Because paper type, paper thickness, and book jacket are not relevant in the digital medium, the question of what elements are required to create and achieve an aesthetic identity for eBooks arises. In connection to philosopher Vilém Flusser and his examination about photographers, who he states that “they do not want to change the world, but […] are in search of information,” I argue that we should be in search of information about the digital medium, and hence book culture. Therefore, I want to look beyond the aforementioned 5

debate about formats to instead investigate the design of digital books to “find information” in this field and help them receive a similar aesthetic consideration as print books do. Here, it is important to mention that I will mainly concentrate on born-digital books, which are primarily produced for digital reading, and thereby stand in contrast to converted eBooks, which are based on paper (a distinction that will be explained further into this paper). This will allow me to make the research on aesthetics more applicable and informative as it considers books born from the affordances of the digital medium. This paper, therefore, offers two key considerations, which are

Marie Lebert, A Short History of eBooks (Canada: University of Toronto, 2009), 65.

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Flusser in Brooke Wendt, The Allure of the Selfie: Instagram and the New Self Portrait (Amsterdam: Institute of Network

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strongly related to each other: “Aesthetic Standards for the eBook” and “The Aesthetic Divide between Print and Digital.”

1. Aesthetic Standards for the eBook

Aesthetics in general refers to the sensory experience of individuals, and mostly is connected to the idea of beauty. This approach is mainly based on the theorists Paul Hekkert, Clement Greenberg, Paul Ford, Walter Benjamin and Nick Peim, who will be demonstrated further into this paper. Due to the reason that decisions on aesthetics are normally influenced by personal senses, the theory is difficult to grasp and to consider impartially. However, when we shift away from subjectiveness and rather define beauty with the help of standard criteria, aesthetics might become less blurred. Different fields of media, such as art, music and literature have determined criteria in order to evaluate aesthetically beautiful objects. In focusing on the field of literature and more specifically the design of books, whereas print books need to fulfill certain well-established standards, the importance for digital book standards has not been recognized yet; eBooks are still said to be labelled with personal taste and thus do not receive full aesthetic recognition. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to find and develop 6

standards for eBooks to be able to evaluate their aesthetic appearance in the same objective way as traditional books. To find and compile criteria, I interviewed four digital publishers from Germany, mikrotext, Frohmann Verlag, CulturBooks and Das BEBEN, who already claim a digital aesthetic and try to produce valuable eBooks for their readers. The reason why I selected these publishers is because they each offer an appealing and conceived design concept, albeit in very different ways. The reason why I exclusively concentrate on Germany is because the eBook (pure digital) community is considerably large and was formed in early 2012, especially in Berlin and Munich. Besides many 7

publishers concentrating “only” on the digital book business and production, there are also plenty of events that aim to promote the digital medium in general, including The Electric Book Fair in Berlin (EBF), which was launched in 2014 by some of the interviewed publishers. The debut fair brought together digital experts and hosted

Andrea Nienhaus, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 1, 2015.

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“E-Book Verlage und Distributoren,” accessed June 1, 2015, http://www.text-manufaktur.de/e-book-verlage.html.

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talks on topical issues, including “The New Kind of Publishers,” Real-time Publishing,” “Visualization,” “Reading in the 21st Century,” and “Piracy.” Besides the EBF, there is the eBookathon, an eBook meet up 8

group, as well as the eBook Network, an initiative and community for digital publishing in Berlin. In addition, the scene also includes 9

independent distributors such as the eBook boutique minimore.de, who focus on the selling of eBooks only and thus work apart from large platforms like Amazon, for instance.

Overall, as Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard once said, “when Shakespeare is the greatest poet and Minetti the greatest actor, then Siegfried Unseld is the greatest publisher.” Unseld was a German 10

publisher and head of the famous publishing house, Suhrkamp. As the quote shows, when it comes to the topic of publishing, people still refer to reputable, traditional publishers. And yet, as the book culture has transformed and developed further into a digital realm, the question then arises: Who is the greatest digital publisher? Significantly, the purpose of this paper is not to award the best digital publisher; however, with the establishment of aesthetic standards for eBooks, perhaps in the future, a digital publisher will be able to join the list of the “greatest” and complete the aforementioned sentence according to the digital movement and current age in general.

2. The Aesthetic Divide between Print and Digital 

With the publisher’s data and information about their design concept, I wanted to learn if digital books have their own aesthetic look tied to the digital medium, or if, on the contrary, they overlap with the print medium, meaning that born-digital books share aesthetic features from both print and digital media. Possible results could be that the print and digital medium intertwine and that the design is hybrid, consisting of old elements in new forms. For instance, when we consider the production of both book formats, it becomes clear that they intersect: not only digital books, but also print publications are produced digitally, in Microsoft Word or InDesign for instance, and first when

“Programm 2014,” accessed March 18, 2015, http://2014.electricbookfair.de/en/ueber.

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“Information Text,” accessed March 20, 2015, http://ebooknetworkberlin.blogspot.nl/.

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Peter Muender, “Siegfried Unseld: Chronik 1971,” CulturMag, April 8, 2015, http://culturmag.de/rubriken/buecher/

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the PDF is sent to the printing shop, the physical character becomes visible. Since this example shows that it is problematic to regard the 11

media separated to each other, it is important to consider if the same can be applied for the field of aesthetics. However, another result could be that the “new” digital medium should be considered as detached and disconnected from the print medium because its aesthetics, in combination with technical possibilities, can only be realized in the virtual sphere.

With the study focusing on the above-mentioned aspects of aesthetics, the following research questions arise:

• What are the criteria to evaluate if digital books, and more specifically born-digital books, are aesthetically beautiful and valuable?

• In respect to aesthetics, are these eBooks tied to the digital medium or do they overlap with the print medium?

1.2 Overview

This paper is relevant for people who are interested in digital reading, writing, and publishing in general. Besides people who are already involved in the digital scene, it can also help classic print publishers learn more about aesthetic representation—the possibilities as well as limitations of digital book design. Therefore, the developed eBook criteria can be helpful for digital and print publishers, as well as for writers who want to self-publish texts in a professional and valuable way. However, my main aim is to both reach people who are willing to acknowledge digital books and to help shape and promote contemporary (digital) book culture.

In the following section “Book or Non-Book,” I investigate if digital books can be called books or if a new term is required to make the concept clearer. In my argument, I mainly use the paper “Bound to be a Book—Towards Print as Multimedia and eBooks as Paperbacks” by Florian Cramer and Century of

Artists’ Books by Johanna Drucker. The reason why I use these theorists is

because they provide a coherent argument about the labelling of books, which

Nienhaus, interview, 2015.

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provides a base to shape my own argument. While the focus of this paper is the aesthetics of digital books, before I come to this question, I first approach the digital medium in more detail. In the chapter “Among Media: Print and Digital,” I distinguish between the two different types of eBooks—digitized and born-digital books—where I primarily address the features the latter type implies. This part is used to highlight that the generalization of eBooks is problematic since the two types present different characteristics and potentials, and consequently might prevent the reader from learning about the “beauty” of electric books. In this chapter, I use the papers Post-Digital Print:

The Mutation of Publishing since 1894 by Alessandro Ludovico, “Ästhetik des

E-Books” (Aesthetics of eBooks) by the Advisory Board of the Electric Book Fair Berlin, Gramophone, Film and Typewriter by Friedrich Kittler, “Modeling Functionality: From Codex to eBook” by Johanna Drucker, “You say you want an evolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media” by Stuart Moulthrop, as well as statistics about genre classification in the USA by the Book Industry Group (BISC).

In the third chapter “The Aesthetic Look,” I first give an overview about the theory of aesthetics in general. Here, I focus on the articles “Design Aesthetics: Principles of Pleasure in Design” by Paul Hekkert, Homemade

Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste by Clement Greenberg, “What is

Aesthetics” by Paul Ford and “Walter Benjamin in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Aura in Education: A Rereading of ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’” by Nick Peim. The reason why I selected this literature in particular is because it allows me to cover a historic as well as modern meaning of the theory of aesthetics. Next, to present aesthetics in relation to print publications, I outline standard print criteria developed by the German foundation Stiftung Buchkunst, which performs an annual competition to award the most beautiful German and International books. Additionally, I use information from the interview with book designer and former jury member of Stiftung Buchkunst Jenna Gesse, who underlines the criteria by giving examples of what is important for the production of artful books. Afterwards I shift from print to digital experts, which is my main contribution to the topic. Here, I engage with the aesthetics of born-digital books by focusing on major design elements such as cover, layout, and structure, and typography. The information for this part is based on interviews that have been conducted with the four German digital publishers outlined earlier. The chapter concludes with the identification of eBook criteria that

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underlines the relevance of elements that are important for producing digital publications. In the fourth chapter “The Hybrid Identity,” I summarize and analyze the findings in relation to the papers “What comes after Remix” and “Understanding Hybrid Media” by Lev Manovich and “The History of Communication Media” by Friedrich Kittler. The final chapter is my conclusion, where I recap my research and answer the research questions.

1.3 Methodology

To gain insight into the topic and shape my research, I collected data through secondary sources. I searched electronic data mainly via search engines such as Google and the academic search program Google Scholar. Here I queried the keywords “digital books,” “books,” “aesthetics digital books,” “design e-books,” “digital publisher,” “digital publishing,” “independent publisher,” “aesthetics,” “digital artist,” “born-digital books,” “pure digital books,” “digital literature,” “e-book software,” “print versus e-book,” and “print book aesthetics.” Due to the reason that German is my mother tongue, I queried the same keywords also in this language. Moreover, I used the syllabus of the course “The Digital Book” (academic year 2014-2015), held by Dr. Erin La Cour of the department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Besides electronic literature, I ordered the paper books From print to Ebooks:

a Hybrid Publishing Toolkit for the Arts (INC), The Allure of the Selfie by

Brooke Wendt via the blog of the Institute of Network Cultures, Thinking with

Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors & Students by Ellen

Lupton, as well as the independent magazine “Flaneur” via a Dutch bookshop. Besides secondary sources, I collected primary data by means of a questionnaire survey and interviews. Questionnaires in German were sent via e-mail to the print book designer Jenna Gesse, organizer of the InDesign User Group Berlin and publishing conference PUBKON Klaas Posselt, eBook developer Tina Giesler, and hybrid writer Niels t’ Hooft (English version). More extended questionnaires were distributed to four digital publishers, which will be introduced in detail later: Nikola Richter and Andrea Nienhaus from mikrotext, Jan Karsten from CulturBooks, Christiane Frohmann from Frohmann Verlag and Jakob Schmidt, Markolf Hoffmann, and Lisa Naujack from Das BEBEN. The questions included in the survey were in regards to general information about the publisher, format, software, cover design, layout

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and structure, and typography of the publisher’s publications. Moreover, interviews were conducted via Skype with Andrea Nienhaus (mikrotext), Jan Karsten (CulturBooks), Christiane Frohmann (Frohmann Verlag), and Jakob Schmidt, and Lisa Naujack (Das BEBEN). The data has been recorded, translated into English, and is represented as summarized text and quotes throughout the paper. The questions from the survey and interviews are attached in the appendix of this paper.  

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2 BOOK OR

NON-BOOK?

What, in short, do we mean by the “idea of a book”? 12

A digital publication is defined as eBook, but is it really a book since it does not meet the physical requirements of a traditional book? Should we think of another definition, which is more suitable and contemporary for the object? Media theorist N. Katherine Hayles provides a range of possible titles; besides the “expanded book,” she suggests the “superbook,” the “hyperbook,” and, her personal favorite, the “book emulator.” The question then arises whether 13

these title options are doing digital publications justice or rather degrading and ridiculing them. Arguably, it is difficult to let electronic literature appear in a different light when the word “book” is still included in the supposedly new term. However, is there a need to find a distinct name at all—or is it actually fair to continue to call them eBooks?

Applied research professor Florian Cramer does not see the demand to change the term. In his paper “Bound to be a Book: Towards Print as Multimedia and eBooks as Paperbacks,” he observes that every material that is bound together in a certain context can be called a book. His justification is based on the American author and cultural 14

critic Johanna Drucker’s argument as posited in her paper Century of Artists’ Books,

Johanna Drucker, “Modeling Functionality: From Codex to eBook,” in SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in

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Speculative Computing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 167.

Katherine N. Hayles, My mother was a computer – Digital subjects and literary texts (Chicago: The University of

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Chicago Press, 2005), 165-166.

Florian Cramer, “Bound to be a Book: Towards Print as Multimedia and eBooks as Paperbacks,” in The Unbound Book,

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wherein she points to the importance of considering a book as complete work, “an entity, to be reckoned with in its entirety.” She explains that, although a book can 15

consist of loose pages, postcards or any unstable material, the binding of these “insides” is considered to be the smallest common ground to actually call it a book. She later clarifies that

works have to maintain a connection to the idea of the book—to its basic form and function as the presentation of material in relation to a fixed sequence which provides access to its contents (or ideas) through some stable arrangement.16

In regard to electronic literature, publications basically consist of different components, such as the text assembled of diverse HTML files, the navigation, and images, in the .jpeg or .png formats. When the “binding” argument by 17

Drucker is used as a valid criterion, eBooks can be defined as books even though they seem to exist as unstable forms. The reason for this is that the supposedly “loose” HTML files cannot escape the final format, which connects the elements and binds them into a logical sequence, making them public and visible for the reader. To make it clear:

ePub publications are not limited to the linear ordering of their contents, nor do they preclude linking in arbitrary ways—just like the Web, ePub publications are built on hypertext—but the basic consumption and navigation can be reliably accomplished in a way that is not true for a set of HTML pages.18

Contrary to websites offering content in an unstable arrangement, meaning that they do not primarily define or suggest how the user should navigate and “experience” the page, the key concept of ePub is that the “publication consists of multiple resources that may be completely navigated and consumed by a person or program in some specific order.” That said, it is important to 19

mention that although eBooks are allowed to carry the word “book” according to the theory explained, they do not enjoy the same print values such as added

Johanna Drucker, Century of Artists’ Books (New York: Granary Books, 2004), 122.

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Drucker, Century of Artists’ Books, 122.

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Klaas Posselt, “IDUG Berlin: E-Books mit InDesign,“ Einmanncombo, February 13, 2015,

http://einmanncombo.de/e-17

books-mit-indesign-screencastaufzeichnung-indesign-user-group-berlin/.

“ePub 3 Overview,” accessed April 14, 2015, http://www.idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-overview.html.

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“ePub 3 Overview.”

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value tax and fixed book price, as digital publisher Jan Karsten points out. 20

To make it clear, when eBooks are considered non-books, such as fluid texts or software for instance, the claim for equal treatment in terms of fixed book prices and reduced tax seems questionable. Therefore, the consideration of 21

eBooks as bound and complete entities is necessary for “physical” values to remain, or put differently, to be implemented, instead of becoming useless in the digital medium. Another reason why the binding argument should be valid and supported is because literary texts are consciously written to affect the reader in a certain way, Karsten further explains. Since closure is a 22

significant and important characteristic of literature, the frame should have the same function.

However, from a different perspective, and in regard to new digital options, the argument by Drucker and Cramer might be rethought. While print publications are rarely republished when errors occur, due to financial constraints, it is comparatively easy to open the format, hence “container” of the eBook and adjust the content and publish again. Regardless of the fact that the option is advantageous for the digital business, the “closure” argument seems a paradox. That said, it is perhaps fair to say that as long as one eBook version exists, the argument is valid and the final format binds and closes the material, and yet, when the project needs adjustments or is planned to be “open” right from the outset, meaning that various versions will be published, we can speak of a temporarily bound container, so to say, punched and filed until it will receive further undertakings. 23

Certainly there are arguments speaking strictly against eBooks being described as books, but most of the time this is linked to the major debate about the absence of physicality, smell, page numbers, and aura, for instance. Importantly, I want to distance myself from this view because I assert, along with writer Niels t’ Hooft, that the definition of “book” is necessary and useful for the future to describe a linear and finite text. In addition, I posit that 24

digital books in general are produced to affect the reader in the same way as

Jan Karsten, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 8, 2015.

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Karsten, interview, 2015.

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Karsten, interview, 2015.

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Christiane Frohmann, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 2, 2015.

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Niels t’ Hooft, e-mail message to author, April 29, 2015.

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print and therefore it is likely that we might return to simply “book” once the digital reality becomes definite.  25

t’ Hooft, e-mail message, 2015.

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3 AMONG MEDIA:

PRINT AND

DIGITAL

The advent of electronic textuality presents us with an unparalleled opportunity to reformulate fundamental ideas about texts and, in the process, to see print as well as electronic texts with fresh eyes. 26

Certainly there are arguments that digital publishing will make print become obsolete. Many theorists believe that paper books are moving from mass media to a boutique product or, as artist and media critic Alessandro Ludovico argues, a limited-edition object.2728 From a financial perspective, we can say that the production, distribution, and storage of print books are quite costly. Publishers are forced to calculate economic risks in advance so that the amount of copies is manageable in case the publication is unsuccessful. In addition, print books require a great deal of production time, which makes the selling and distribution date prolonged and simultaneously prevents more or less a timely reaction on current events and developments. These financial and time-based constraints could make some paper books appear antiquated and eventually make them disappear. Yet, other books remain appreciated if they arouse a certain aura. Writer Michael Agresta foreshadows how readers might treat print in the future; he writes, “[…] the next generation of paper books will likely rival the art hanging beside them on the walls for beauty, expense,

Katherine N. Hayles, My mother was a computer – Digital subjects and literary texts (Chicago: The University of

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Chicago Press, 2005), 89-90.

Florian Cramer, “Bound to be a Book: Towards Print as Multimedia and eBooks as Paperbacks,” in The Unbound Book,

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ed. Joost Kircz et al. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013), 78.

Alessandro Ludovico, Post-digital Print–The Mutation of Publishing Since 1894 (USA: Ram Publications, 2013), 108.

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and ‘aura.’” This means that the task of print will shift and, in regard to aura, 29

it is likely that the potentials of paper will find their maximum attention again when publications are only performed when they are plausible and valuable. Shifting away from possible transformations, there are many publications, which are still particularly suitable for print. The report “Consumer Attitudes Towards Ebook Reading,” published by the Book Industry Study Group (BISC) in 2013, reveals that the categories with the strongest preferences for the print medium in the United States are cookbooks, graphic novels, travel and how-to guides. It becomes clear that material wherein pictures and 30

layout are of great importance, that is, books with a strong relation to art, design, or photography, appear to be more affective in paper. Indeed, according to these statistics, print still covers a large part of the publishing field and therefore theories about the “death of the book” seem unlikely. In addition, the print medium is still qualified for long literary works because it is said to be easier and more pleasant for the readers to stay focused for a long period of time, and also because a large amount of pages makes the production economically reasonable. 31

While one can argue that image-based material, for instance, also suits the digital medium because the colors can be exhausted to a different degree, this is only applicable for reading devices such as tablets, which support the use of colors on the screen. On the contrary, when we look at e-ink-readers, a colorful representation is rather problematic: Due to the reason that standard reading devices normally break complex layout design according to its screen size and view material only in Black and White, an eBook including images as important support for the content or as the main substance of the work might appear affectless. And yet, by focusing on static text publications where images play no or only a little role, the digital medium provides many benefits for publishers. Besides the fact that financial expenses such as production, storage, and distribution are relatively low, another advantage is that projects can be realized and made available for readers quickly. Accordingly, the distribution and selling can start early and the publisher as well as the author can receive a comparatively prompt reaction on their efforts. Along with these

Michael Agresta, “What will Become of the Paper Book?” Slate, May 8, 2012, http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/

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design/2012/05/will_paper_books_exist_in_the_future_yes_but_they_ll_look_different_.4.html. Jack W. Perry, “BISG Report–A Few More Ebook Stats,” Digital Book World, November 14, 2013. http://

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www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/bisg-report-a-few-more-ebook-stats/.

Eva Wolfangel, “Bits und Bytes statt Buchregal,” Spektrum.de, October 22, 2013,

http://www.spektrum.de/news/bits-31

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rather economic reasons, further potentials of digital books can be summarized in terms of accessibility and functionality: these features allow readers to engage and interact with the content easily, meaning that they can copy and paste text, and link to other writers or websites referenced in the text.

However, since we are still in the beginning of electronic reading and publishing, digital books have not reached their maximum potential of attention. From a pessimistic point of view, we can say that eBooks continue to live in the shadow of print and are considered as by-products without any aesthetic claim. This could be the result of publishers who keep their businesses and processes focused on print and offer eBooks because they need to be competitive and are forced to keep up with innovation. Indeed, many publishers only offer eBooks “on the side,” without the willingness to invest money and time in the production of reasonable eBooks. That said, we can 32

recall the Dutch hybrid writer Niels t’ Hooft, who was surprised by how accurately his print book “De verdwijners” was produced, whereas in regard to the digital version, the accuracy remained absent:

The eBook was thrown together without my approval, and there were some issues with symbols and colors—it seemed like they did not even really look at it. 33

From a different and more optimistic perspective, there are publishers (mainly digital publishers) who try to engage with the electric medium properly and exploit the potentials it offers. In contrast to the above-mentioned example, digital publishers offer their readers as well as authors (such as t’ Hooft) an appropriate digital product, which is worthwhile to read and experience. The result of this “movement” is that eBooks steadily receive more attention and can slowly step out of the shadow of print. In order to observe the digital medium properly and make the comparison to the print medium more accurate, I will investigate the different types of eBooks in the following section to clarify what it exactly is that can step out of the shadow.

Charlotte Reimann, “Schöne eBooks – ein Plädoyer für digitale Typografie,“ in Ästhetik des E-Books. Beginn einer

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Debatte (Berlin: Advisory Board of Electric Book Fair, 2014), 18.

Niels t’ Hooft, e-mail message to author, April 29, 2015.

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3.1 Digitized and Born-Digital Books

Importantly, when we speak of eBooks, there is no particular standard type, but rather various types, which need to be separated in the debate. Significantly, I will not address enhanced eBooks with the possibility to include features such as audio and video material or interactive elements. Likewise, I will not address eBook apps, which offer even more features in terms of functionality than the previously mentioned type does. Instead, I will only focus on standard eBooks with static text and images because those, I argue, are produced for the reading experience, whereas the other types go beyond the meaning of a book.

Narrowing down to standard eBooks, such as in the format of ePub, there are also different types that need to be distinguished. In the following section, I will differentiate between digitized and born-digital books, which are summarized under the same name but have distinct characteristics.

3.1.1 Digitized Material

Many people think that eBooks are digitized paper books. As media theorist Friedrich Kittler described in the year 1987, “any medium can be translated into any other,” a statement that can be applied to digital books that are literally converted from print books. As remarked in the opening paragraph, 34

these eBooks can be considered an extension of the physical version, where the content of one medium is made available in another, and the media coexist and strongly overlap. Significantly, the notion of the book does not alter here because, most of the time, text, genre, format, and design remain the same. In regard to the latter, the appearance of digitized eBooks, in terms of covers for instance, is often problematic because it needs to correspond with the original. While the cover title in print can be complex and ornamental, in the digital version the design might appear affectless because the font is either too small or badly legible. For instance, the book cover “The Fault in our Stars,” by 35

John Green (image 01) does not work well in the digital format since the title font seems uneasy and pale, which becomes even more obvious with the

Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, translated by Geoffrey Winthrop Young and Michael Wutz (Stanford:

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Stanford University Press, 1999), 2.

Christiane Frohmann, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 2, 2015.

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01 Green: The Fault in our Stars

02 Green: The Fault in our Stars, iBooks 03 Eggers: The Circle

04 Eggers: The Circle, iBooks 05 Tartt: The Goldfinch 06 Tartt: The Goldfinch, iBooks

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screenshot taken of the view in iBooks (image 02). The same can be applied for additional information such as subtitle or newspaper quotes, which make the digital cover appear overloaded and thus unappealing. This can be seen on the cover “The Circle,” by Dave Eggers (image 03), which contains four quotes as well as a short note about the author. The eBook cover “The Goldfinch,” by Donna Tartt (image 05) shows three quotes and two award notifications. In the iBooks view (images 04 and 06), the additional information on both mentioned covers seem to distract the possible reader and buyer from the actual info, which should be title and name of the author.

Accordingly, these examples show that the overall work of the book does not change with the digitization process and thus, except for the format, it does not matter if the reader consumes the publication physically or digitally. Thus, according to personal reading preferences, the reader is free to purchase the material either in print or for an electronic device. To make it clear, we can compare the digitization process of books with other entertainment industries, as Florian Cramer explains:

[…] as the transition of films and TV to digital files and streams was a symbolic form transitioning into a new medium that did not fundamentally change the symbolic form of film from the symbolic form of computer games, the transition of books into digital files does not imply fundamental changes of the symbolic form of books. 36

In contrast to literal translations of books, text can also be digitized but enjoys a different representation to the original print. In respect to the previous section, it becomes obvious that a print book is used as base and origin for digital publications where the content as well as design features are equal across both media. However, there is a trend that classic publishers are willing to forward their texts to digital experts, who are familiar with the medium’s potentials and can create more valuable, and hence beautiful, eBooks. For instance, the classic German publisher Weidle Verlag cooperates and sells licensed editions of selected texts to the digital publisher CulturBooks. Thus, the print text with the branding of Weidle is made available digitally with the design concept of CulturBooks. Significantly, the cooperation pleases both sides because the text gets twice the amount of attention: in the traditional

Cramer, “Bound to be a Book,” 73.

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07 Nixon: Lucky Newman, Weidle

08 Goldschmidt: Weiter als der Himmel, Weidle 09 Nixon: Lucky Newman, CulturBooks

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market as well as in the virtual sphere where CulturBooks is networked to a different extent. In respect to the (e)Book covers “Lucky Newman” by Carl 37

Nixon and “Weiter als der Himmel” (Farther than the Heaven) by Pippa Goldschmidt, while the print publisher concentrates on images in combination with a rather small font (images 07 and 08), CulturBooks offers a minimalistic design with focus on font and pattern (images 09 and 10)—a consistent branding, which will be described more fully in the fourth chapter. Unlike the first type of digitization where the text is usually translated without further extras, these eBooks are likely to include functionality features such as hyperlinks and linked table of contents and indexes, which will be discussed and visually represented in the next chapter in more detail.

Overall, since digitized books mainly serve the first type, the literal translation, the production and aesthetics are often based on and synchronic to the original paper version, with the medium as the main distinguishing factor. Whereas digitized books are often considered the “right” eBooks, pure digital books that are original, hybrid, and open are often perceived as “wrong.” 38

Regardless of right or wrong, the question then arises if the latter can be considered as the real eBook because it exists without paper as a mother.

3.1.2 Born-Digital Material

We can summarize that digitized content always requires the print publication to be “alive” and thus speaking of the combination between digital and print makes the first type of eBook valid. Accordingly, it is important to understand the distinction between the characteristics of digitized and born-digital books. Early arguments about pure digital books were that they try to imitate familiar book stylistics and that electronic mimics the look of print. This look is 39

achieved not only through page layout, but importantly also through functionality features such as the simulation of flipping a page, for instance, as Johanna Drucker points to in her paper “Modeling Functionality: From Codex to e-Book.” Notably, the practice of imitation is not included in the 40

eBook itself, but is automatically installed by e-reading devices and apps such

Jan Karsten, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 8, 2015.

37

Frohmann, interview, 2015.

38

Ludovico, Post-digital Print, 93.

39

Johanna Drucker, “Modeling Functionality: From Codex to eBook,” in SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in

40

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as iBooks. While the software offers a minimalistic and decent layout, the above-mentioned feature rather appears “old-fashioned and feels slow and rigid.” Nevertheless, when we hide the software and focus on the eBook 41

itself, publishers and designers can act more freely in contrast to digitized books because they do not need to reflect the look of print. However, the question then arises: what are the aesthetics of born-digital books and how closely are they tied to the print medium?

Unlike digitized books, born-digital books include digital features as part of their character, as they are planned and designed for the digital reading experience in the first place. Since they do not need to imitate the original but are the “original,” it may seem that these publications are livelier because of the functions and possibilities of the medium can be better exhausted. Functionality, such as the embedding of links into plain text, on the one hand adds networking and current status, and on the other hand, lets the material appear less like a traditional paper book. Additionally, as aforementioned, 42

financial risks are manageable, which allow publishers to be movable and flexible; as publisher Christiane Frohmann explains, “digital publishing allows me to ‘go with the flow’ and have open projects.” “Going with the flow” 43

allows for the possibility to implement projects instantly in “real-time,” instead of starting the financing of the project two years in advance. Also, as 44

remarked in the previous chapter, the format of electric books can be opened after the eBook has been published, meaning that content or links, for example, can be adjusted without financial turbulences. 45

In terms of literature, short readings for “in between” or “on the road” appear as a strong possibility of born-digital books. One can say that through reading on the screen in general, and especially in respect to the comparably short exchange of content on networking sites, people have become accustomed to short formats and texts, as Nikola Richter argues in an interview with the

t’ Hooft, e-mail message, 2015.

41

Chris Armstrong, “Books in a virtual world: the evolution of the e-book and its lexicon,” Journal of Librarianship and

42

Information Science 40. 3 (2008): 197, http://lis.sagepub.com/content/40/3/193.abstract.

43

Elisabeth Rank, “’Print wäre verrückt’: Christiane Frohmann versammelt 1000 Texte über den Tod in einem E-Book,”

44

Wired,

https://www.wired.de/collection/latest/christiane-frohmann-arbeitet-einem-internationalen-e-book-uber-den-tod-das-sich-selbst. Frohmann, interview, 2015.

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newspaper “Die Welt.” In contrast to print books that are suitable for 46

comprehensive work as mentioned earlier, born-digital texts often consist of around 50 or 150 pages.4748 However, not only is the length a significant characteristic, but so is their literary direction.

Liquid storytelling, for instance, can be defined as one of the new forms of writing in the virtual space. Here, people use the technological possibilities networking platforms offer and collectively write and complete a text. Besides this type of literature, uncommon novels such as novellas, or niche and experimental productions seem to be appreciated in the digital medium. To 49

give an example for experimental writing, we can recall the digital publisher Christiane Frohmann in her current project “Tausend Tode schreiben” (Writing a Thousand Deaths), a collaborative writing of 1000 authors writing about death. The experimental character of this project is obvious in two ways: 50

first the topic which is unusual, a rather a grey zone that seems to be difficult to approach readers, and second, the accessibility and openness of the work, which allows people to e-mail their story and participate in the book. One can say that many texts speak their own literary language, although they have not been primarily planned as eBooks. For instance, the publication “Der klügste Mensch im Facebook“ (The Smartest Guy on Facebook) by Aboud Saeed (mikrotext) consists of curated Facebook posts. While these posts appear ordinary within the platform’s frame, it appears as though the content develops a highly different meaning bound as eBook: “as soon as the material was pulled out from Facebook, it suddenly evolved a poetic and political view, a mix of consciousness, diary, and column,” mikrotext founder Nikola Richter points out. Likewise, the publication “Der Gin des Lebens” (The Gin of Life) 51

by Stefan Adrian (mikrotext) does not deal with social media platforms, but instead uses the medium of e-mails as the main source. Namely, the eBook contains poems about cocktails, which have been sent out earlier as invitations via an e-mail newsletter by a bar in Berlin Kreuzberg. Poems about the

Jan Schapira, “Eine Missionarin der digitalen Literatur,” Die Welt, September 30, 2013, http://www.welt.de/kultur/

46

literarischewelt/article120453102/Eine-Missionarin-der-digitalen-Literatur.html. Schapira, “Eine Missionarin der digitalen Literatur.”

47

Jakob Schmidt, interview by Janina Sommerlad, April 9, 2015.

48

Digital Publishing Toolkit Collective, From Print to Ebooks: A Hybrid Publishing Toolkit for the Arts (Amsterdam:

49

Institute of Network Cultures, 2015), 25.

Christiane Frohmann, “The Digital Us,” Buchmesse Blog, September 5, 2014, http://blog.book-fair.com/2014/09/05/

50

the-digital-us/.

Nikola Richter, e-mail message to author, April 16, 2015.

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alcoholic drinks “Manhattan” or “Sazerac” for instance are presented in combination with information for cocktail preparations:

This heat has me totally burned, has me forgot the things I’ve learned. A glass of milk or another nap? Fuck off—let’s have a Sazerac!

⇾ New Orleans Sazerac: 1 cl Zuckersirup, 6-7 cl Rye Whiskey, 2 Spritzer Peychaud’s Bitter, 1 Spritzer Angostura, Absinth.52

Significantly, the content compiled in a digital book suddenly becomes a cocktail recipe book, which, like the Facebook publication, has not been intended as such in the first place. Besides the experimental aspect, these 53

examples show that born-digital texts are often comparatively short and contemporary—and have a strong connection to writing on the Internet. One can say that people who are involved in the digital scene make the virtual world into their primary workspace, where new literary forms can be found and applied, projects can be conducted and distributed “instantly,” and feedback can be received immediately. Here, I want to quote Nikola Richter again:

The echo space has shifted to real-time. Authors immediately receive an “echo,” meaning reader reactions such as comments and consequently, connecting texts appear. All at once, text can be everywhere and reach readers at any place.54

It appears as though the main potential of the medium is literature being networked, as Stuart Moulthrop points to: “hypertext is nothing more than an extension of what literature has always been: a temporally extended network of relations.” Since the beginning of book culture, the book has been 55

understood as a networking medium with the task to connect thoughts, people, and society in general. From a critical perspective, we can say that born-digital literature, in relation to the fast moving Internet and the constantly changing content on New Media platforms, is losing its networking character opposed to traditional literature. For instance, it is possible that content, which

Stefan Adrian, Der Gin des Lebens (Berlin: mikrotext, 2014), 6.

52

Richter, e-mail message, 2015.

53

Karl Karst, “Schöne neue E-Book-Welt – Dichtung digital,“ WDR 3 Forum, Podcast Radio program, March 3, 2015,

54

http://www.wdr3.de/literatur/forum372.html.

Stuart Moulthrop, “You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media,” in The New Media Reader, ed.

55

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is current and valid today might be unavailable at a later point in time. So to say, when a text externally links to a website where the link does not work (properly) or where the data will not be updated and becomes outdated, the practice of networking seems useless. However, regardless if links do or do not function, we have to admit that the “service” of linking in general computes interconnection and allows publishers and authors to be even more networked and contemporary nowadays. Due to the reason that the possibilities of the web can be better exhausted, one can say that instead of reflecting a language that has been published on paper, born-digital books speak their own language and may provoke a literary discussion or revolution. 56

However, what is considered to be advantageous for short and Internet literature could also cause problems. The German author Thomas Hettche fears that people, and especially the younger generation, which is more strongly confronted with digital material, will lose the ability to read longer books of more than 300 pages. He describes that literature found on the web 57

has nothing to do with the literature we used to know because the texts cannot speak for themselves: the literary figures and scenes in the extensive work might depreciate because the reader is not able to find the way to really dive into the story. 58

One can say that we are dealing with an old conception of what books should and should not do. The notion that books need to take the reader to another world is partly problematic because not all books want the reader to leave the “real” world (non-fiction, for instance), and second, who decides that short literature cannot affect the reader in a certain way? According to this critique, there are many digital publishers who try not to follow old conceptions, but rather rethink literature. They consider born-digital books as something that wants to perform apart from the mainstream and simultaneously are willing to look beyond genre boundaries. Nikola Richter, founder of the digital publisher mikrotext, distances herself from restricting and labelling books, as she wants to widen the formats and allow readers to decide what they are reading. The 59

freedom to define the text, as well as the option to change the layout setting

56

Karst, “Schöne neue E-Book-Welt,” 2015.

57

Karst, “Schöne neue E-Book-Welt,” 2015.

58

Richter, e-mail message, 2015.

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on the reading device explained earlier, link both to a new democratic and participatory form the digital era offers.

Overall, every medium can be translated into another one. When a book is converted into a movie, the content or work appears in a different “shape” but is still tied to the original. Likewise, digitized books with either a similar or 60

different representation of the physical print version offer a different reading experience, but the content more or less remains the same. Born-digital books, on the other hand, are published for the sake of being digital only, or at least first, and thus rely on their own dynamics and literary possibilities. One can argue that their potentials do justice to digital reading and thus develop an innovative and real digital medium. This may link to the assumption that digitized material rather serves a “pseudo” medium since it is strongly interlinked with print. However, I want to distance myself from this approach and argue that born-digital books are not better or worse than digitized books. But perhaps, since digitized material can be considered as the step in between print and digital medium (intermedia), it is preventing us from seeing the digital as its own medium separate from the book. And yet, we still have to 61

ask if born-digital publications are tied to the digital medium at all—or if they also swing between media. Put differently, does this this type of eBook behave similarly to digitized books, where the strong dependence on print hinders the digital medium from being embodied as its own medium? This is a question I will focus on in the following chapter on the aesthetics of born-digital books. 

Elmar Krekeler, “Wenn Bücher auf Regisseure treffen,” Die Welt, March 3, 2008, http://www.welt.de/kultur/

60

article1799573/Wenn-Buecher-auf-Regisseure-prallen.html.

Jens Schröter, "Discourses and Models of Intermediality.,” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.3 (2011): 2,

61

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4 THE

AESTHETIC

LOOK

Perhaps dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.62

I like it, it is beautiful. I do not like it, it is not beautiful. When we talk about

aesthetics or when something is aesthetic, what do we mean by it? With the

use of online synonym programs, the results such as artistic taste, theory of art, study of beauty, artful, pretty, tasteful, and beautifying reveal that aesthetics is strongly connected to beauty.6364 But how can we define beauty adequately, and, to take it further, what is the beauty of a digital book?

“Aesthetics” derives from the Greek word aesthesis, which refers to perception and sensory understanding in general. In the 18th century, the 65

German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten posited that the capability to evaluate aesthetic or non-aesthetic objects is possible in compliance with human senses. In his publication Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art

and Taste, American Art critic Clement Greenberg underlines this theory of

senses and explains that aesthetic decision is based on subjectivity:

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (New York: Dover Publications, 2002), 39.

62

Thesaurus, “Aesthetic,” accessed March 14, 2015, http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/aesthetic?s=t.

63

Collins Dictionary, “Aesthetic,” accessed March 14, 2015,

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-64

thesaurus/aesthetic?showCookiePolicy=true.

Paul Hekkert, “Design aesthetics: principles of pleasure in design,” Psychology Science, 48, (2006): 158, http://

65

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[…] value—indeed the very existence—of art resides in nothing so much as its esthetic merit. When no esthetic value judgment, no verdict of taste, is there, then art isn't there either.66

“When art is there” in reference to Greenberg, or put differently, when a particular piece of art for instance affects the beholder, many cognitive processes such as association, interpretation, and memory influences the person’s decision to like or dislike the object. Regarding the aspect of 67

memory, it appears that people are likely to compare and connect the supposedly new object to a feeling from the past. To underline this with an example, the person who listens to a new music album might like it because he or she is reminded of their favorite band who has a similar sound, for instance. Therefore, for this particular person, the new band cannot exist independently because it is associated with another band with related characteristics. According to the theory, subjectiveness predominates the actions of people because they are likely to evaluate and compare the new with the old. As a consequence, one might argue that the theory is pointless because, on the one hand, aesthetics cannot produce meaning beyond a person’s subjective perception, and on the other hand, when people are likely to compare a “new” object with a feeling from the past, nothing entirely new can emerge. 68

Accordingly, does this imply that electronic books cannot establish their own aesthetic appearance because they are likely to be compared with traditional print books?

Under the assumption that beauty is related to personal taste and that taste can never completely be shared or proven, aesthetics can hardly imply concrete criteria to justify a position objectively. However, the theory of aesthetics does not only refer to individual experience, but also to cultural influences and the interest of large amounts of people. From the perspective of Kant, beauty does not appear in objects, but through definitions. He believes that the “rose is 69

not beautiful—it is beautiful when one decides and views it as such and

Clement Greenberg, Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000),

66

62.

Hekkert, “Design aesthetics: principles of pleasure in design,” 158.

67

Seth Tichenor, “What is Aesthetics? Why bother? (Part 2/3),“ YouTube, 15:17, November 19, 2011, https://

68

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mywFoAYzgkU.

Paulford.com, “What is Aesthetics,” accessed April 2, 2015, http://paulford.com/what-is-aesthetics/.

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society in general agrees, making beauty a property, rather than an opinion.” 70

To illustrate this idea with another example, the cult sneakers Nike Air Force from the nineties are not beautiful in and of themselves, but rather became an aesthetic trend again when many people in 2014 started to wear them. One can assume it is true that the decision to wear the shoes is a result of personal preference, but, at the same time, however, it is not the taste of individuals, but rather a (fashion) movement where the mass decides what is popular.

Shifting from fashion to literature, this mass appreciation can be applied to the traditional book institutes or professional juries who decide which characteristics make a book beautiful and valuable. In the following section, I want to demonstrate that aesthetics cannot be considered as sensory and individual experience only, but moreover that it is necessary to define criteria in order to investigate books objectively. The reason why I examine the criteria for print aesthetics is to detect possible overlaps with the characteristics of digital books, which I will analyze in the next subchapter.

4.1 The Look of Print

The German foundation Stiftung Buchkunst annually performs a competition to award the most beautiful German, as well as international, print books in respect to design, conception, and production. In Germany, it is considered to be one of the most prestigious awards for book designers and typographers. 71

The foundation contains a jury, which evaluates books with the following major criteria, among others: 72

1. Does the design concept meet the character of the book and is it performed consistently?

2. Are the print space and image format compatible? 3. Does the type suit the content and is it easily readable? 4. Are the table of contents and critical apparatus clear?

Paulford.com, “What is Aesthetics.”

70

Stiftung Buchkunst, “Über die Stiftung Buchkunst,” accessed May 3, 2015, http://www.stiftung-buchkunst.de/de/

71

stiftung-buchkunst/ueber-die-stiftung.html.

Julia Unkel and Tabea Kerner, “Aufbau zur Gestaltung eines Buches” (paper presented as report at the University of

72

Applied Sciences Dortmund, 2007/2008), http://www.fh-dortmund.de/de/fb/2/personen/lehr/winde/medien/ Buchgestaltung_Referat.pdf.

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5. Does the cover and binding suit the purpose of the book and is it integrated into the overall concept?

6. Is the paper type selected correctly and does it suit the purpose of the book?

7. Is the printing of the text and images even and clean? 8. Is the book easy to open?

Regardless of the fact that I have presented criteria of only one competition award, it shows that books need to meet a range of objective requirements to be defined as aesthetically beautiful. To investigate a little further, I conducted an interview with Jenna Gesse, a German author, book designer, and 2013 jury member of Stiftung Buchkunst. Besides designing of magazines and photography books, Gesse collaborates with the Museum Marta Herford in Germany, where she produces catalogues for various exhibitions. For her works, the designer has been awarded by, among others, the institutes Stiftung Buchkunst, Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, and Deutscher Designer Club. 73

Gesse explains that in addition to a book being well produced, it is considered valuable when the designer has consciously dealt with the elements offered by print, meaning when the design respects, analyses, and completes the content. While a designer is able to influence the elements that build the 74

entire object, this does not mean that he or she steadily needs to use all available means, however. Before the book is designed, certain elements such as fonts, pattern, images, text balances, and page layout are defined to characterize the book. In terms of the cover, certain elements should be captured so that the inside and outside ideally build a cohesive unit. In 75

addition, the cover title should be emphasized and inviting, and the relation between text and image should be prominent, Gesse outlines.

In respect to book structure and layout, the designer often follows a clear and classic structure to create a system that is easy for the reader to manage. However, in the book compiled for the exhibition “Visionen“ (Visions) in the Museum Marta Herford (images 11, 12 and 14), Gesse instead worked with irritations, for instance ghostly images and moving page numbers. In this case

Jennagesse.de, “Was denn überhaupt,” accessed April 4, 2015, http://www.jennagesse.de/sagt-hallo.

73

Jenna Gesse, e-mail message to author, April 19, 2015.

74

Gesse, e-mail message, 2015.

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11 Gesse: Visionen - Atmosphären der Veränderung 12 Gesse: Visionen - Atmosphären der Veränderung 13 Gesse: Meta-Porträts