Regional Language
Two experiences recently sort of expanded my mind a little in regards to how I think about what my influences are in terms of art making.
The first was when I was attending the Singapore Art Book Fair last week. This was my first time representing Tall Poppy Press at an international event and, as such, there was a lot to think about and learn.
One thing I observed was that book makers and publishers in Asia care a lot less about the construction of a book than those in Europe or the USA. In the Western countries I'm more familiar with, construction signals quality, in that more expensive options for book binding and printing are largely considered appropriate and serious, while cheaper options are seen as not quite good enough.
But this did not appear to be true in Asia. Spiral binding, for example, was everywhere, as was perfect binding and pamphlet binding. For those who aren't book makers, these are all super cheap ways to make a book (Officeworks can do them). It was somewhat freeing to be somewhere that had a totally different culture of publishing, one that was less precious or sacred and more free and lofi.
Of course, no good comes without it's bad, and this does mean that customers in Singapore are less willing to pay a reasonable price for a well-made book!
So while I was observing things and noticing that my books weren't flying off the shelves, I began reflecting a lot about how perhaps what I make is unduly influenced by far-away western countries and tastes. Here I was, presenting at an Asian fair, yet my content was really Australia-focused and white (I've yet to publish an artist who is a person of colour), and I could see that this meant there were folks that just didn't react or click with the work I brought.
Of course you'll never get 100% of people, but it felt really interesting to me to think 'am I making anything for this person?'.
I was thinking a lot about the differences in taste, making and approaches.
The second thing that got me thinking further was a comment from a friend just last night. We were brainstorming some event-related stuff and he mentioned how he's often thought about publishing as having regional dialect/accents.
That immediately struck me as a really smart way of framing things. We all have accents and regional slang, in American a full stop is called a period, etc.
While this may seem obvious, I've found it really interesting, as it makes me wonder 'am I trying to speak with a European accent when I'm publishing?'. Or rather, 'what's an Australian accent in publishing?'. I know I'm mixing metaphor and reality here, but I think the best way to put it is 'what makes a book Australian?'.
This is interesting to me as I think I'm making largely European books at the moment, which is no big deal, but I'd like to get closer to making something Australian. Or at least, something closer to what I consider an Australian approach. I don't know if that currently exists, but somewhere between Europe and Asia is a good place to think about.
Like always, if we don't know where we're coming from we sort of don't quite know what we're doing.