slaak is born

Welcome to SLAAK August 2004

This was our pilot issue for testing if there actually where some interest for a product like this. There was!

We had some feedback, the most important was that some people would rather have SLAAK completely in English instead of some items in Swedish and some items in English as it is in this issue. In future issues we will only write in English. And we do hope all our readers can forgive us for the fact that we do not have English as a native language.

The way SLAAK is organised (and produced) is very inspired by the thoughts of Lev Manovich. For instance, you will notice that SLAAK consists of a sorted number of disparate items, like short reading notes on small pieces of paper (or from a database). The sorting is then based on our view of what is the most important. Another thing you will notice is the fact that there are no narrative structure. We never provide a complete analysis, nor a journalistic presentation that contextualize the material we have collected. This is intentional, since we believe that such a strong contextualization will get in the way for your creative reading of the sampled material. After all, you are an experienced creative professional with the skills and knowledge necessary to create a strong contextualization on your own.

What we have done is to give every material a handle or a connector. It is in the shape of a reading instruction or a partial analysis. We have done this as a tool for your convenience. That way it will be possible for you to work much faster when creatively connecting different items together into your own analysis.

Now we are sure your anxious to begin slaaking so we better let you. Happy slaaking while we prepare the next issue.

Article written by Rasmus