Hasta La Ideas

Our interview with the founder of one of the world’s first iPad-only magazines

In the digital revolution’s wake, popular stances have it that only publications developed specifically for these new mediums are truly relevant. Post, one I recently spent time checking out, uses sound, video and interactive technology to cover the usual milieu of topics. We recently sat down with Post’s creator Xerxes Cook to find out more about how they made the entertaining application, available for download from iTunes for $3.

Why iPad and why now?

We felt the iPad has created another medium for experiencing information, one that sees us act beyond the traditional parameters of magazine editors, and also in some way as television programmers, film producers and computer game developers. It is an exciting time to be in publishing.

We consider the first issue of Post, called “Matter,” to be issue zero—a proposition for what can be done within this new medium. It is very much an experiment, one which we imagine will be continually evolving.

How long did it take to create Post?

It took us around four months, and it is a process far removed from print publishing or the blog-based format of most websites. Some of our features—especially in the next issue—take as much programming as other apps in their entirety, so we have now learned the order in which we need to produce and program the different elements of the magazine.

Was all of the content produced with the iPad in mind?

Other than the video art triptych by Sema Bekirovic, all of the elements were produced in-house. We were constantly exploring the different ways in which we could execute and communicate with the iPad in mind. If something could be replicated in a print magazine, we scrapped the idea and started from scratch. This also had an effect on Currents, a front of book section that can display videos from performances that have happened, yet had only been reported as previews or reviews in the press.

We also had to consider sound—how does a magazine have a soundtrack? Where shall this sound be placed? We wanted the sounds featured within the magazine to enhance the content of the magazine and create a “gesamtkunstwerk” of sorts, in which nothing falls out of the register of a total aesthetic experience. So, seeing as the first issue takes the shift from the physical state to the digital, an exploration of the tangibility of matter, our sounds came from the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. They are the sounds of particles colliding at the speed of light—these sounds were created by collating the information from these collisions and feeding them into an algorithm to create individual sound “objects” which we then rearranged to create a soundtrack that runs throughout the entire magazine.

Will subsequent issues be separate apps or releases within the one now available?

Yes, and our next issue, Post “Gravity” is an outer-space theme special that marks the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s space walk. Post “Gravity” explores the many ways in which humanity has sought to transcend the invisible forces that bind us to the earth, and we are collaborating with the International Space Station on many of our features. For our cover shoot, we wanted to create a fashion spread in which a single tap brings up a 3D wire-frame of the model’s body, which you can then rearrange and distort before flipping back to real video. To do this we had to crack the Xbox Connect software and write computer code of the fly, during the shoot itself. We are previewing this cover story during Paris fashion week at both Colette and the opening of La Gaite, the multimedia AV museum that opens then.

Can you comment on initial downloads and session times as they relate to typical magazine consumption?

We hope to reach 10,000 downloads before we release the next issue and we are nearly there. It would take an hour to experience all the features within it, which is probably the average amount of time someone spends with a magazine other than “The New Yorker.”

However, we do accept that it is a very data-heavy application. At the moment we are experimenting with various ways of streaming content, creating almost two versions of the magazine, one that can be viewed both off-line and online without compromising the audience’s experience.

From left, interior views of the Pantone Hotel and the newly transformed Ashmolean

Before planning your next trip, be sure to review the new crop of Travel + Leisure Design Award winners. Announced this week and appearing in the magazine’s March issue, the 2011 winners range from a far-flung dining destination (Table No. 1 in Shanghai, designed by Neri & Hu) to the ultimate in travel-friendly apparel (Patagonia’s M10 Jacket and Ultralight Down Shirt). Many of this year’s favorites will come as no surprise, including the Pantone Hotel in Brussels, the Yves Behar-designed Jawbone Jambox, and, of course, the iPad. Rick Mather‘s extraordinary expansion of the Ashmolean, the oldest public museum in the United Kingdom, got the nod for Best Museum, while Herzog & de Meuron’s 11 11 Lincoln Road won for Best Mixed-Use Venue. And right down the road from the parking lot-cum-retail hub is the pride and joy of this year’s Design Champion, ubercollector Micky Wolfson, who joins past honorees such as André Balazs and Amanda Burden. Tasked with choosing “the best new examples of design” in 16 categories was a jury that included fashion designer Norma Kamali, IDEO partner Fred Dust, crystals magnate Nadja Swarovski, and David Childs, chairman emeritus of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Keep reading for the full list of winners.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A free quarterly newspaper on contemporary art

In a world of diminishing print publications and—even more rare—free ones, The Art Street Journal is an inspiring example of how it can still be done. The latest issue, Volume II: Issue IV, features Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara and at 36 pages is its biggest edition yet since launching in August 2009. Other highlights include a pull-out poster by Slinkachu, a visit to Simon Haas’ studio and a review of John Baldessari’s recent show at the Met.

Helmed by editor Elisa Carmichael, who runs the Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles with her husband Seth, the full-color newsprint magazine’s most recent number boasts a distribution base of 30,000 copies spread among individual subscribers, museums, galleries, cafes and boutiques in 150 countries.

While some of the artists featured are indeed part of their gallery’s roster, the Journal extends its scope to include artists the founders believe its target audience of art collectors should pay more attention to or consider investing in—some of whom are artists the Carmichaels personally admire.
Each issue’s table of contents lists art show reviews sent in by volunteer writers, plus Q&As with artists, but interestingly the spotlight isn’t just on them. Galleries, auctions and art fairs make up the publication’s coverage too. In its regular section Backstage, The Art Street Journal makes a concerted effort to cover those, as well to provide a more rounded overview of the street and contemporary art world.

Sign up for a free subscription to the quarterly magazine here.

Underground art bible Juxtapoz will be celebrated with a film festival of sorts at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which next month screens seven new and recently released documentary features on artists associated with the San Francisco–based arts and culture journal. Each program will include conversations between the artists, filmmakers, and special guest speakers. Organized by MoMA’s Ron Magliozzi, the week-long series, “All the Wrong Art”: Juxtapoz Magazine on Film, kicks off on Monday, February 7, with the East Coast premiere of Douglas Blake’s 2010 biographical documentary Robert Williams: Mr. Bitchin’, which recounts the Juxtapoz founder’s emergence from his Kustom Kulture and Zap Comix roots to become a celebrated artist. Juxtapoz called it “an irreverent and hilarious view of what is so right about contemporary art in America.” Other programs include Tattoo the World on body art master Don Ed Hardy (before Christian Audigier got a hold of him), a new film on sculptor and rock musician Elizabeth McGrath (Miss Derringer), and Dirty Hands, Harry Kim’s portrait of artist David Choe. See the full schedule here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Back in August, reading this piece in the NY Times was the first time we’d thought about the Archie comics series in years. And now, just shy of five months later, here we are again. The big news is that Archie Comics has announced its plans to return to its original logo and cover design this May, after several years of living without the iconic red band on top and a generally more modern look to it. The blog Robot 6 on the Comic Book Resources site broke the story, with a quote from Archie’s CEO, telling them:

…we’re always looking at new ways to push the characters forward, but we’re also very aware of our history and what resonates with old and new readers. This new cover treatment puts the emphasis on the characters and brings back our unique and definitive cover design.

We can’t say it’ll make us start reading comic books again, but it’s always a pleasant thing to see a company buck the trend and go back to something warm and familiar.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.