Tan Lin Metadata Extravaganza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: EDIT EVENT APRIL 21, 2010

Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking is Tan Lin’s latest book, or rather, it’s three or four books in one, linked by a Google search, a dilemma, and a tourist’s itinerary. Lin provides a provocative answer to our reading conundrum in a post-book world of Web 2.0: he makes everything into a book.

In a book filled with photos from flea markets, bar codes, and meta data tags, Lin traces the movement from reading books to reading everything everywhere: text messages, RSS feeds, your status updates on Facebook, the Company blog, tapas recipes, Yelp and Netflix user reviews, scribbles on electonic Post-It notes, tags on Flickr, fluttering balloons, and aisle signs.

What used to be called non-reading is the new reading. Lin—an intellectual trickster of a very high order—has written a book that defies categorization. It traps beauty in a bar code, on the back of a moist towelette, and in recipes for moo goo gai pan.

AND ON APRIL 21st 2010, as part of 'EDIT: Processing Network Publishing', organized by Danny Snelson at the Kelly Writers House in Philadelphia,

the EDIT staff will accompany Tan Lin in the reauthoring and republication of SCV on the spot in multiple formats.

The event will begin at 1pm and conclude at 7pm. A reception and Q&A is scheduled for 6pm. The works to be published include

Handmade book, PDF, lulu.com Appendix, Powerpoint, Kanban Board/Post-Its, Blurbs, Dual Language (Chinese/English) Edition, micro lecture, Selectric II interview, wine/cheese reception, Q&A (xerox) and a film.

“Edit: Strategizing Writing Technologies,” organized by Danny Snelson, focuses on editorial strategies and textual conditions in contemporary writing. It is a roving events series pairing innovative performances with focused critical responses toward an exploration of editorial strategies in contemporary writing and the arts. From reframing techniques in conceptual writing to live processing in new media performance, editorial issues of mediated composition seem increasingly pressing.

The events series is distributed in diverse locations around Philadelphia—from institutions such as Slought and the Kelly Writer’s House to smaller venues and galleries throughout the city. An extended argument of editorial theory will relate these diverse locations, with each event expanded online and occasionally drawn together in print or other media.