Experiments with the academic book

My research on the photobook and my teaching practice at Coventry University on the BA Photography programme has led to numerous interactions with, and a questioning of, the role of the academic book in a post-digital landscape. It has been for a number of years a self-appointed (and recently formally recognised) core of my practice to better aid students’ reading in the many guises this can take – from consideration of networked conversations on Twitter to the comprehension and enjoyment of significant books, and even the exploration of narrative with a literal tearing up of a classic photobook. These diverse experiences with the ‘book’, (a term used in its loosest manner), has led to the creation of ebooks, ibooks, posters, leaflets, artists’ books and monographs, all with readership and pedagogy in mind. Outside of my teaching role there is no respite from reading and the book — I am a PhD student with bookRoom at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, working towards a thesis on the disjuncture between production, intent and outcome of the post-digital photobook.