On Tuesday, March 20th Active Ideas Productions hosted Art, Publishing, & Technology, a panel discussion at General Assembly:
Art, Publishing, & Technology
Featured Panelists were:
David Grosz is Editor in Chief of Artifex Press, a new publisher of digital catalogues raisonnés. Caitilin Leffel: Author, Writer, and Editor at Rizzoli. Former editor at Assouline in New York and for the Christie’s magazine in London.
Indira Cesarine:Editor in Chief and publisher of XXXX Magazine and The Untitled Magazine. Former Editor at Large of Lush Magazine, as well as renowned photographer and director. Charlie Grosso: Director of Baang and Burne Contemporary. Charlie Grosso: Director of Baang and Burne Contemporary.
Art, Publishing, & Technology discussed: Are books, magazines, and art catalogues still relevant in today’s technology-saturated environment? Publishers in all mediums are facing critical questions on how to present their content as more and more people are looking toward new sources for information. E-readers, smartphones, and laptops are rapidly changing the way people view the art and literary world.
This panel discussed traditional and non traditional approaches to art, publishing, and technology while surveying the principal players that are instrumental in deciding how art issues are presented in print media. Exploring multiple perspectives the panel shed some light upon: art issues magazines are having, art used to illustrate a story, how the art catalogue industry is changing because of the internet, and how art book publishing companies are dealing with and effected by this.
These and many more questions were addressed by Annika Connor as she lead the discussion focused on Art, Publishing, & Technology.
The old aphorism that we should never judge a book by its cover is changing. This engaging panel got many reactions from the crowd as the audience shared in the discussion on how publishers and editors are looking to entice unsuspecting browsers with today’s new media!
Panelists Bios:
David Grosz is Editor in Chief of Artifex Press, a new publisher of digital catalogues raisonnés. Artifex Press is currently working with 11 artists/estates, including Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Sol LeWitt, and Agnes Martin. Artifex Press is also in discussions with several otherartists/estates, and we expect to launch our first catalogues later in2012.
Grosz was previously Editor if Chief of Artinfo.com, a catalogue editor at the Guggenheim Museum, and Managing/LIterary Editor at Grand Street. In 2011, he was a columnist for Sotheby's magazine, and from 2005 to 2007 he was an art critic for the New York Sun. His writing has also appeared in several other publications, including Slate, Modern Painters, the New Republic Online, Art News, the New Criterion, and the Forward.
Caitlin Leffel is a writer, editor, and author. Since 2004, she has worked as an editor for Rizzoli, editing books in the fashion and lifestyle categories. Recent projects include Dior Couture, Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent, and a forthcoming monograph on the illustrator Antonio Lopez. Prior to Rizzoli, Caitlin worked as an editor in the New York office of Assouline, and for Christie’s magazine in London.
Caitlin is the co-author of The Best Things to Do in New York: 1001 Ideas and NYC: An Owner’s Manual, and the author of Flair, with Los Angeles-based interior designer Joe Nye. Her essays, interviews, and creative work have been published in Blackbook, Mademoiselle, Art & Auction, Hawaii Women’s Journal, Vice Versa Magazine, Frontier Psychiatrist, What’s Contemporary, and Hunger Mountain. Her essay, “Hope for Dead Letters,” was the runner-up in The Southeast Review’s 2010 nonfiction contest, and “Learning to Adjust” took third place in The Writer Magazine’s 2011 essay and memoir contest. Earlier this month, Caitlin was featured on a panel about blogging and the publishing world at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference in Chicago.
Caitlin holds a BA in French and European Studies from Amherst College and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She completed the Columbia Publishing Course in 2003.
In this panel, Caitlin discussed the challenges and experiences of working in the book publishing world in a digital age, address questions of sustainability for book publishing, and spoke about ways that print publishing and digital platforms can work together, rather than as alternatives.
Indira Cesarine, owner of the New York based transmedia publishing company, Untitled Media, has been working in the creative industries since 1989. Her career started out in fashion and advertising, having worked as a photographer internationally for top fashion and lifestyle publications including British Vogue, GQ, Esquire, In Style and Marie Claire to name a few. She shot numerous worldwide advertising campaigns for clients such as Dior, Charles Jourdan, Kenzo and Cerruti. During the course of her career she collaborated with numerous publications as an editor. From 1994-1998 she was Editor at Large for the British fashion publication, Don't Tell It , and later from 2007-2009 was Editor at Large for Canada's premiere luxury publication Lush Magazine.
In 2009 she launched the multimedia publication XXXX Magazine. Coined "the new wave forward in multimedia publishing," it showcases original productions of fashion and video art films as well as documentary shorts. XXXX Magazine has been considered a pioneer in digital media with it's directional video content and progressive approach to publishing. The magazine collaborates with emerging and established directors and artists internationally to produce a new issue every 6 months which is available in print, online, on the ipad as well as in international exhibits, screenings and video billboards. Since launching, the publication has been invited to exhibit its original video productions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at fundraisers for the Louvre Museum, at Art Basel Miami and Cannes Film Festival, among many other exhibits and screenings internationally. The original video productions can also be seen daily on The Big Screen Plaza video art billboard in Chelsea, Manhattan. Aside from it's renowned editorial productions, the magazine presents extensive coverage of contemporary art exhibits, events and international fashion weeks on it's website.
Moving forward with the multimedia publication, in 2011 Indira Cesarine launched The Untitled Magazine, the print edition of XXXX Magazine. The print edition elaborates on the editorial productions from XXXX Magazine, as well as includes a stronger journalistic approach with articles on culture, fashion and contemporary art. The print edition is currently available in the US and the UK, with the September 2012 issue to be available in over 50 countries. As Editor in Chief of the publication, she oversees all editorial content, curating each issue with a thematic approach.
Aside from her work as an editor and publisher, Indira maintains an active career as a photographer and director, continuing to collaborate with other international publications and commercial clients. Her work has been featured internationally on TV shows such as E! TV, Fashion TV, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, HBO’s Special “Ford Supermodel of the World”, MTV, "High Society" and “Make Me A Supermodel” UK and US editions. Mostly recently she she presented the H&M LIFE TV Spring/Summer 2012 trend forecast during Paris Fashion Week.
Charlie Grosso: Director of Baang and Burne Contemporary. Baang and Burne Contemporary aims to challenge the premise of what an art gallery is. Baang and Burne Contemporary seeks to engage the world at large and present work that generates dialogue critically, socially, and culturally. They want to show you art that is "the barbaric expression of the soul" and an articulation of the world. We want to show you art that makes you feel, challenges preset notions, and cracks your consciousness open with possibilities. Baang and Burne Contemporary is curious to know how we can facilitate art’s becoming an agent for change and use it to transform the world.
Charlie Grosso has a background in professional advertising photography and as a creative director. She has experienced the change in publishing and media first hand from both ends of the spectrum. She frequently speaks and lectures on the issues of the effect of technology and media on the arts.
In this panel Charlie discussed ebooks and will provide some thoughts on how both the artists and galleries can best utilize the new opportunities in publishing and media to engage new audience.