In late August, while preparing syllabi and accompanying course materials for my university teaching position, the hard drive on my computer, as well as some of the backup information, crashed. I lost the book. The first priority was to rebuild course information for the classes that were starting up. It took a few sleepless nights, but I was able to get my teaching materials together fast enough so that the students taking the classes did not notice anything out of the ordinary. The photogravure instruction book, however, has taken longer to put back together.
At this point, I have all of the images arranged in InDesign, and have been re-writing the content from what hand-written notes I have. The process is slow because I'm now carefully making backup copies. I'll make a big push this week to see how much I can get done. After this week, I should be able to approximate the new publishing date.
I am considering some kind of feedback mechanism, in which owners of the book can comment and direct any later editions. It will probably be something as simple as a dedicated email address.
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Losing all of this digital data has reinforced my belief that images and text on paper are still better ways to archive historical information. From an art perspective, no virtual image can replace the experience of viewing a physical artifact. The physicality of a print (drawing, book, notes, etc) has a presence that engages not only the visual sense, but also the sense of touch. The tactile quality exists, and can be felt, even if the viewer does not actually touch the object. I believe that this presence is even felt on a small scale. Think of the impression of quality difference between business cards that are printed with and inkjet printers vs. those that use an offset printing process. The raised letters have a physical impression that might only be perceived on an unconscious level, but their added dimension stimulates another sensory experience.
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***update***
Finished the
Black and White version of the book.
Here is a link to the
Amazon page.
and, since videos help, here is a link to a video showing the printing process in real time...
http://youtu.be/0HkvxnO22s4
