book-a

Administrative Landscape
OSS at LaBoral

"Administrative Landscape. Form Follows Norm" is the project proposed by OSS / Angel Borrego Cubero to participate in the exhibition “Learning from the Cuencas” for LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, 2013.

“Administrative Landscape” proposes to revise the solutions found and exposed to learning in the Cuencas Mineras (Coalfields) , from the bureaucratic perspective, of planning, norms and laws that sought to bring order (and still insist on keeping it during full decay) to an activity dominated by economic opportunity, social and geographical chance . The detection of displacements and misalignments of the regulatory or administrative landscape usually imported —the more inappropriate the more powerful are the forces that must order— is part of an overall strategy by OSS to retrieve for individuals some negotiation capacity and action on their immediate environment.

More about 'Leraning from Las Cuencas' here.

The Lubetkin’s innovator collage.

The russian architect changed the traditional English architecture with his pionner project Highpoint I&II where collage was used as a design tool.

In the ’30, the English architectura was strongly conservative, building followed the main principle of english racionalism.   In this years, those buildings didn’t follow it was considered an abomination.

However with this historic and cultural setting, a group of architects decided to exceed the reservations of local authorities about any avant-garde ideas.  Lubetkin and Tecton group built two buldings to Sigmund Gestner, Highpoint I & Highpoint II, where they wanted to show how the newest and oldest things should be combined to built the History.

Missbehave,
finally in our hands.

We are happy to give you this news!

Missbehave, by photographer and artist Simona Rota becomes the first book produced through y Book-a. Edited by Paula Álvarez and published by Vibok Works, the book consists of a limited edition of 100 copies signed and numbered by the author.

We would greatly like to thank all the co-financiers who have contributed to this project. We are preparing your shipments and we hope the work excites you as much as has done the process to us.

For those interested, we inform that the book is available in both libraries-galleries that have hosted the exhibition of the photographic series, as well as through the Vibok Works website.

We also invite you to visit the exhibitions of the photography series, germ of this book, which are at Un Gato en Bicicleta (Regina 8), and Lugadero (Correduría, 5) in Seville.

Recolectores Urbanos
publishers join Book-a.

We want to welcome to Book-a the publishing group Recolectores Urbanos. We are very excited about this participation.

Recolectores Urbanos was created in Seville by three young entrepreneurs whose names are Enriqueta Molina Segura (physicist), Daniel Ayala Serrano (architect and social media) and Ferrán Ventura Blanch (architect and teacher). This initiative aims to create a 2.0 online platform that connects people and knowledge from the same field of study, to facilitate the production work of researchers, and give their work greater quality and rigor.

Its researching inquisitiveness has led them to develop other projects related to innovative tools in the generation, management and dissemination of knowledge. One example of this is the portfolio of advanced editorial services where Realidad Aumentada has a leading role, working in a proprietary format of interactive books: the COOlbOOk.

Parallel to his research, RU addresses the dissemination of knowledge through his own publishing firm. RU Publisher focuses on the editing and publication of unpublished research for the purpose of promoting this kind of texts outside the academic groups. These fall into four collections: Texts [TXT] Thesis [TSS], Master [TFM] and [DLG] and that shape the publishing universe of Recolectores Urbanos.

RU's work has received several awards and recognition from institutions such as the Young Entrepreneurs Association (AJE), the Confederation of Employers of Seville (CES), the City and Social Council of the University of Seville. It has also undergone major awards in national enterprise platforms such as Big Bang Challenge.

We have conducted the following interview to learn more about their work.

When do you study the division of the works in four collections and what are the characteristics that define each of them?

Our editorial concentrates two of his collections, Thesis [TSS] and Final Master Works [TFM] on the publication of unpublished research of young researchers. Therefore, in most cases their characteristics are very noticeable from the beginning. In them our job is to provide our experience and accompany the authors in the transition from an academic exercise to an informative and accessible book while maintaining the essence of the work. The other two collections, Texts [TXT] and Dialogues [DLG] have the transdisciplinarity and the conversation as the main character. Texts [TXT] is a collection that includes reflections on research which hybridize two or more fields of knowledge. Thus we find, for example, mathematician thinking about architecture, architects writing about art, etc.. Dialogues [DLG], in the other hand, involves the compilation and dissemination of open investigations that are worth by the feedback generated by them in the process of disclosure.

What are the guidelines that lead you to the selection of the contents?

Our criteria are completely personal. They have a lot to do with the ability to 'hooked' that the publication may have but also with the idea of service that research give to society. Once we decide, are the guidelines that deal with the rigor, innovation, knowledge diffusion capacity and thematic analysis the things that direct our editorial work. We seek those texts reflect on each of its pages the researcher working years, and the author as the first person who must be able to transmit the knowledge to us.

What are the first approximations to believe with researchers?

From RU Publisher we think that is so important to know the author, his career, concerns and aspirations as the author to know us, what our team is and our methodology. We understand that researchers offer us something important about themselves and therefore we pursue that the publication of this project is disclosed in the most professional and neat way as possible, and at the same time turns into a qualitative leap in the career of the researcher. For this reason, it is essential a personal contact with the author to let them additionally benefit from innovative outreach tools we use from RU Publisher for their work to have a greater impact among readers and institutions.

How and when you consider an editorial group should get involved with the work handled?

In RU Publisher, for our educational training, we know very well the research career and we are very aware of the enormous dedication behind each text. That is way we take care of the entire publishing process so that the end result is a quality work that accomplishes the author’s expectations. Meanwhile our commitment is to offer the reader an informative-scientist document able to understand beyond the academic field. So we take care of aesthetic, design and of course we make a great effort in the tone and character of the content. We look for attractive books, both for its outside as for its inside. Our desire is to connect the author and readers for what we use the channels and appropriate dissemination tools that allow us to catch up with this objective.

What sector of society would you like to reach with the publishing of researches with which you work and what communication strategies do you use?

Because of working with specialized texts and with a very specific topic it might be thought that our target audience is one that is within academia. But as mentioned above our aim is to overflow this area and bring research to the citizens through affordable texts, agile and informative. Arguably the target of RU Publisher is all the people with concerns that are driven by the desire to know more about their environment, and who are committed to ideas and innovative viewpoints. How important do you think the association of the research content is to the realization of the work (aesthetics of publication, edition style, formalization of the organization)?

For us the design and aesthetics of the book was a very important point. We wanted to make quality books at an affordable price that would allow any reader to access a quality publication for less than 15 €. We made therefore great efforts in designing each collection that allowed us to eliminate the superfluous and let our publications on three basic pillars: good paper, careful layout and quality content.

How do you imagine the production work that offers you the Book-a platform?

Book-a platform offers us a collaborative environment, an ideal space to publicize RU Publisher’s texts and a skip to go beyond for addressing our books. Crowdfunding is a concept that has been on the table since we started and that matters much to us from the point of view in which we understand there is a relationship between author, readers and publisher. In Book-a it is encouraged the contact between people with common interests and an environment of mutual cooperation is created, and we find it especially enlightening.

Seville, July 2013.

We are glad to invite you to check out "Collage and Architecture", the first title in Urban Collectors Book-a.

Books have guts: a video on Missbehave edition.

'Missbehave' is dedicated to the underground ties between ‘Ostalgia’ and ‘Big Exit’ series by photographer Simona Rota. While ‘Ostalgia’ evokes the effects of monumental buildings and infrastructures subtly displayed in soviet cities as political propaganda, ‘Big Exit’ talks about the tensions between domestic space and its inhabitant, whose appropriation instinct becomes a political act.

This video shows some of the key decission we made while crafting the edition.

Missbehave | Simona Rota from Vibok Works on Vimeo.

Missbehave, as well as the series which includes, is open to subjective interpretations. As for Paula V. Álvarez, editor of the book, Misbehave poses two key questions for architectural practice seen as a way of political agency. Whether architectural and urban projects, as politics, have the power of inhibiting social life, public debate or individual expression, could they also enhance the collective or personal pursuit of a change of life?. As for architects involved in this political agenda, how much is there not to miss?

Missbehave is a limited edition of 100 numbered copies signed by author. Missbehave is available in English or Spanish language. The book includes, along with the series, the short story ‘So it Goes with Dogs’ by author Agustín Fernández Mallo, and the texts ‘Apartment’, ‘Ostalgia’ and ‘Intâmplare’ by Simona Rota, the last being based on the editor’s interview with the artist. Edited by Paula V. Alvarez. Published by Vibok Works, 2013. Crowdfunded at Book-a.net.

Learn more and buy it here.

Video Production: Vibok Works

Video Take: Simona Rota
Video Concept: Paula Alvarez / Vibok Works
Production Assistant: Alberto Vilches / Vibok Works
Music: Kevin Mac Leod

www.simonarota.es
www.vibokworks.com
www.book-a.net

"Passable Orographies":
Noon Session, Sevilla

Last 8th October Grupo Aranea delivered the lecture "Building Legends", within the framework of the Noon Lectures Cycle at the ETSA of Seville. Taking advantage of this occasion —and as part of the book "Passable Orographies" we are currently developing with Grupo Aranea— we organized an EDITORIAL PICNIC. This event was an alternative format for the formal Question Time which usually follows lectures and presentations.

We really enjoyed Grupo Aranea's lecture. It was a gift to have the opportunity to learn so thoroughly and with such warmth exposure the legends and process behind Grupo Aranea's constructions. From Vibok Works we would like to congratulate this office for both their great work and enormous tenacity.

As for the editorial action, we designed little cards to be filled in by the conference attendees, who were invited to write a comment or a question related to Grupo Aranea's lecture. At the end of the event,  we collected this feedback and moved to amore relaxed atmosphere, to have a lunch-debate. Francisco Leiva took some of these questions randomly and reacted to them: each card-and-answer originated a little debate between those who were gathered around the table. We loved the experience!

All this exchange will continue in the following months and will be incorporated in the book "Passable Orographies. Aranea-Leiva Notebooks".

We would like to thank Paco Sánchez and Javier López, from the Culture Department of ETSAS, and to all those who participated in our EDITORIAL PICNIC.

Hope to see you very soon at the next and last stop of our book-trip, which will be organised by Grupo Aranea in Alicante.

Find out more about this project here.