We talked to the Seattle-based collaborative and artist initiative Anemone and Seattle-based animator and educator Alex Barsky about their upcoming programming in the Seattle Art Book Fair.
Q: What part do books play in building community?
A: Small press zines and books often cover topics that are important to a specific community or that don’t fit the commercial needs of traditional publishing. A small book doesn’t have to be perfect, or comprehensive, or appeal to a national audience, or be timeless, to be helpful and loved by a specific community. Because of this focus, they can help writers and readers discuss and explore issues that are important to them. Books help us find each other and support one another.
There is also something about these small books that feels like having a conversation with friends and a few friendly strangers in a cozy living room. Small press distribution is often regional, word of mouth, passing from hand to hand, with some books never leaving the city where they were made. Especially in the current era of the internet, the feel of reading – and writing – a small book allows for a conversation on paper that is more direct, personal, and open.
Q: Why is community important when facing the climate crisis?
A: How could anyone face something as big as the climate crisis alone? There is no individual or singular solution to climate change. It will take all of us, taking action together. The scale of the crisis can feel too overwhelming to face alone, but communities provide support, relationships, and resources. The sum is greater than its individual parts – a community is stronger than each individual acting on their own.
Q: Your event at the Seattle Art Book Fair creates an opportunity for shared space and resources, what inspired you to initiate that offering?
A: The climate emergency is an ongoing theme of conversation in all of our work, both making books and not, and it seems to be constantly on the minds of many collaborators and publishers in Seattle. Amelia and Elizabeth Case (who is also co-organizing the ongoing reading room with us, from the Netherlands) have collaborated on two publications — Climate Emergency Reading Recs and Biome I nurture/melt — that led to so many conversations, helped so many people find new ways to take action, and, essentially, build community. One driving question is: how do we take this seriously enough? How can we move even as we shatter, tend even as we flood? We wanted to make physical space for conversations on climate, a place of reflection.
A lot of times small press fairs can feel like a whirlwind – the variety and number of publications can be almost overwhelming. We were inspired to offer a quiet place at the fair to talk, slow down and have conversations, and especially to spark connections and conversations around the climate crisis. Places of rest and reflection are vital to the climate movement.
Also, sometimes talking to exhibitors at the tables at a big fair can be intimidating. The publications in the reading room will have a card with book notes about the publication, and where to find the publisher/artist within the art book fair or online. It’s so cool to flip through a publication and then realize you can go meet the person who made it, have a conversation with them, or get a copy of it yourself.
Q: What are some things people can expect when they come to your event at the fair?
A: The Climate Emergency Reading Room and Community Altar will be at Seattle Art Book Fair, tucked into the center stage on the high-ceilinged second floor. The reading room includes books, zines and pamphlets on topics of climate: including publishing as a way of addressing climate, local issues, renewable energy and solarpunk, political organizing, grief, taking action, resource sharing, and community.
At SABF the reading room will be a-frame shelves out of recycled materials for browsing publications. The community altar that Alex Barsky is building is inspired by Chaekgeori, the Korean still-life painting style depicting bookshelves filled with literature, educational and artist materials, and various objects associated with knowledge and aesthetics. Attendees are invited to bring objects like flowers, fruits, nuts, leaves, branches, and other local flora, rocks, shells, feathers to add to the community altar, as a symbol of our values, gratitude to each other and our planet, and wishes for our collective future.
We’re also risograph printing free takeaways for the event: a small zine/booklet with writing and drawing prompts and reading recommendations, as well as bookmarks or postcard art prints for people to take home.
Our aim is to create a space that sparks conversations and collaborations across the climate art, science, and publishing spheres.
Q: What is the Spectrolite app from ANEMONE and how can people use it?
A: Spectrolite is a free Mac desktop app that helps make colorful risograph prints and zines more easily. The app takes your art or book or zine and makes the special print files needed for risograph. You can also lay out books and zines for any type of printing, a process called imposition. You just need a PDF with all the pages of your book (like one you make in Google Docs, for example) and then you pick the layout you want, and Spectrolite gives you the double-sided print files. You can print those out on any printer, and bind them to make a book or zine. And if you’re printing with a risograph, you can RISO-ify images or even an entire book. There are even some tools for RISO animations.
We (ANEMONE) make Spectrolite to use in the process of making publications and risograph prints ourselves, and as a community service – making the app itself is an ongoing art project for us.
Q: If people are interested in trying out Risograph printing in Seattle, where can they get started?
A: Seattle has a thriving risograph printing community and there are several different ways to get started, depending on what you are looking for. You can:
- Take a class and/or go to open studio at Paper Press Punch or RECC.
- Go to a small press event like Seattle Art Book Fair, Short Run, or at Common Area Maintenance. Short Run also organizes the SHOW UP artist talk series throughout the year.
- Look at artist publications at a zine library like ZAPP or Vera Project and see what’s out there.
- Elsewhere in the Northwest, you can visit IPRC, Outlet, and Secret Room in Portland. In Olympia, there is Community Print and the Timberland Library zine collection. ANEMONE’s RISO PNW zine has even more regional resources.
- Spectrolite’s How-to section is full of information and tutorials on how to do color separation for risograph, and PDF booklet imposition.
- Our newsletters for ANEMONE and Alex’s Zine Hug also often mention resources and local events.
Q: If people want to take it a step further and get into Risograph animation, do you have any tips?
A: Alex Barsky wrote RISO Animation: Zine Hug’s How To Guide, and Zine Hug’s site is full of risograph animation tutorials and examples. They teach in person and online classes, and offer print for hire to print and scan the riso animation files you make. Spectrolite has some animation resources for laying out contact sheets (one part of the process).
There are so many amazing people making risograph animation out there to get inspired by: Kelli Anderson teaches riso animation classes, motion designer Hiromu Oka shares process online and made a process video and interview, Julia Schimautz has a bunch of riso animation examples, and there’s also Don’t Try Anything New.
Seattle Art Book Fair
May 11 – 12
Washington Hall, Seattle, WA