The future of print lies in its past: provocative views of a futurologist.
April 30, 2010 (Germany) - Trend and design consultant Prof. Michael Hardt shows that the printing industry does not have to reinvent itself in order to be more successful. A report about old strengths that will be significant again in the future.
Everybody‘s talking about the economic crisis as if it descended on us out of a clear blue sky without any warning, caused by the blunders of Wall Street investment bankers. In truth we are witnessing a megatrend change, in this case the transformation from a consumer societyto a user society. The obedient consumer is mutating into an uncontrollable user.
What‘s happening in the communications industry? If we look at the developments of the individual advertising media and their predictions, it is obvious that online is booming and print is losing ground. In the rivalry among media forms for individualization and time optimization in communications, print will inevitably lose. In less than 10 years 95 percent of people will be Internet users where they can spontaneously call up any information they want and in a second step – ordering for instance – react immediately.
Despite the printing industry‘ successful efforts to increase capacity and speed, reduce costs and improve quality, printing companies are presently experiencing difficult times. The problem here is not product quality but content quality. It seems that many high-quality products are not worth being distributed.
In earlier times print products were very valuable. They were placed in long-term storage in virtually sacred buildings and rooms where they were available for generations. These days print products often end up in the garbage dump without being read. Their useful life can be measured in seconds. When the content of the message is worthless, even the most valuable print products are also worthless.
Goliath threatens David. We know the strengths of the opponent but what are his weaknesses? Goliath certainly had a giant brain but no long-term memory. The digital age is threatened with a gigantic memory lapse. Scientists prophecy the total loss of the stored knowledge of our time: digital dementia.
In 320 AD, one of the first media disasters was avoided at the last minute. The usual data carriers of that time, papyrus scrolls, began to disintegrate at an unexpected rate. Emperor Constantine the Great started an enormous rescue operation.
The scrolls were replaced by a book (Codex), parchment instead of papyrus. As many documents as possible were hurriedlytransferred to the more durable data carrier. There was probably a priority list whereby philosophical findings and laws were classified top-priority and technical information of secondary importance. As a result the entire engineering knowledge of the Ancient World was lost and our archeologists are today faced with unsolvable enigmas.
This started the practice of storing knowledge which continued up until well after Gutenberg‘ time. Knowledge was valuable and elaborately preserved. The core objective was not only to create ways to spread knowledge but also to safeguard cultural values. This latter was neglected as years went by.
Sustained archiving of knowledge. Our modern data carriers can only store data for a very short time. The papers produced industrially after 1850 have a much shorter useful life than the handcrafted papers produced before that time. We can see for ourselves the durability of photographs by looking at family photos. The situation with magnetic tapes is similar. NASA is at present desperately trying to rescue the data from various space missions. Today‘ digital media has an even shorter life. The printing industry possesses the knowledge and skills to save our society from losing cultural memory. This requires going back to the roots: sustained archiving of knowledge instead of short-lived information distribution. The direction of technical development is in principle correct. The printing industry is capable of analog reproduction of large amounts of digital data in a short time and enhancing it by a wide variety of methods. But this is still a matter of industrialized mass production mainly aimed at increasing consumption even further. We are so consumer and production-oriented that we can no longer imagine any other socioeconomic concept.
Is that really true? Since I was very young the printing industry has impressed me with its awareness of its cultural assignment. Reverting to this assignment could trigger the industry‘ renaissance; its future lies in its traditional cultural values. This means the printing industry has a clear briefing. From the paper manufacturers we need durable paper once again, from the ink manufacturers we need inks with the highest degree of light fastness, and from the printing system manufacturers we need presses that can convert fleeting digital data into durably archivable analog print products. The classic bookbinding methods and ultramodern print enhancement would then take on a completely new significance.
We need a communications industry that once again produces contents that are worth reading and keeping. We also need an Emperor Constantine who has the greatness to recognize the problem of digital dementia and remedy it.
(This article is taken from manroland "expressis verbis" 2010 Edition, written by Professor Michael Hardt, whom is a trend and design consultant and was a Guest Professor at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finlan.)
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The classic bookbinding methods and ultramodern print enhancement would then take on a completely new significance
