Arnolfini is delighted to welcome Jonathan Simons, founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea, for a discussion on printed books in the digital age.
Founded in 2018, Analog Sea is a publisher that seeks to highlight the importance of human interaction and reflection. Asking Artists and Writers what they see, what they feel and what they create when the machines are all sleeping and they find themselves back again amid that most valuable natural resource—time.
Analog Sea has become a favourite in Arnolfini Bookshop and we are delighted to welcome founder Jonathan Simons, who will be giving a reading and taking part in a conversation with Arnolfini’s Archivist Phil Owen.
This event is free but has a limited capacity and so booking is advised.
About Analog Sea:
As an offline publisher distributing exclusively to physical bookshops, our wish is for books to be traded between human beings and not relegated to robots and algorithms. Digital platforms are great for efficiency and massification, but we believe that efficiency and massification are in no way acceptable strategies for handling the arts and letters. Now is the time for each of us to determine which parts of our lives and culture must remain offline and not swept up and digitized.
Analog Sea explores these questions through our various publications, including our offline literary journal, The Analog Sea Review. And we receive thousands of answers in the form of thoughtfully crafted letters posted to us by our readers. But unless we take these conversations into physical spaces, we remain, albeit offline and analog, merely a virtual community.
One of our favorite reasons to hit the road is hosting bookshop readings in which we introduce our offline literary journal, The Analog Sea Review, and discuss topics related to offline culture and the printed word. We want people to think more about what it means to have human librarians, booksellers, and professional writers working within a community, and what the impact of their disappearance might be. We also enjoy discussing the effects of carving out offline space in our lives, and how our use of technology impacts on the way we think, dream, and create.
