UN-PUBLISH (2.07)

postface: pretty good privacy
by Yuri Pattison

Banner Repeater UN-PUBLISH

ISSN 2050-795X 2015

UN-PUBLISH (2.07) postface: pretty good privacy by Yuri Pattison was commissioned by Banner Repeater in tandem with the Publishing As Process event in the second part of the mini-series at the Goethe-Institut London on exhibiting and publishing in a digital age.

pretty good privacy focussed on an early instance of publishing as a strategy to avoid censorship – whereby the computer coder Phillip Zimmerman had produced a free software permitting anyone who used it to enjoy the same security as governments and large corporations – and notably became of interest to the US govern-ment as a result. He published the code on paper and distributed it globally, counting on the fact that it would be politically difficult for the Government to then prohibit the export of a book that anyone may find in a public library or a bookstore.

The Un-Publish commission was in tandem with a panel discussion at the Goethe, that addressed how publishing is affected by digitalisation and the distribution channels the internet provides, and raised the question of how publishing can be understood as a process; as an expanded way of thinking that might permit us to consider more broadly current conditions in art production. As it particularly addresses text production through new technologies that test both the limits and co-evolution of humans and technology.

Publishing as Process event page HERE