Post- Digital Print - Monoskop

under development throughout the computer industry) should feature
a vertical screen, as well as a completely new interface (thus avoiding
any preconceived computer conventions). 172 News would be updated in
real time through a wireless connection to the host newspaper and possibly
even read out loud by celebrity voices (something which Octave
Uzanne and Albert Robida 173 would have been proud of; see chapter
1.2). Peggy Bair, the Information Design Lab’s applications manager,
declared that “We accept it may be 20 years before as many people
subscribe to an electronic news service as they do to other forms.
Already, 60% of newspaper costs are in manufacture and delivery.” 174
So after nearly two decades we now have the iPad, the realisation
of a concept incorporating several elements of Fidler’s vision. Aside
from the embedded platforms (iBooks and whatever else may come in
the future) and the predictable multitude of ‘clones’, this is clearly an
attempt by Apple to establish a new category of device (the simplest of
computers, specifically designed for accessing media) while supplanting
a previously established category (the e-book reader). For the first
time, books and magazines are regarded here as completely equivalent
to video and music. Meanwhile, the basic physical gestures of reading,
which are of course a fundamental part of the ‘interface’ of printed
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An example of an
eye-tracking device,
software interface and
visualisation used for a
newspaper project.