HUMANS

ELÆ (Lynne DeSilva-Johnson)

Founder, Publisher, Webmaster, Lifehacker, Alchemist.

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Welcome to The Operating System!

I’m Elæ / Lynne, (they/them/xe/per) the founder and facilitator of this amorphous, evolving organism, and I’m so very glad you’re here. I hope we can find a way to support you in building your best possible creative life — to reclaim the joy and wonder of it, by hacking your way to sustainable, thrivable practices.

First, let me tell you a little about myself, and how I landed here — I imagine your story might have some similarities to my own.

I don’t remember when I stopped saying that I’d be an artist when I grew up, but somewhere along the way I got the message that it wasn’t really an option, practically speaking. So I kept making art, writing, playing music, and inventing, but sidelined these joys, even shaming these inclinations as, ultimately, self-indulgent.

Growing up in a socio-economically challenged household excelling in school, getting into the best colleges, and making prudent decisions about my financial future were paramount concerns — but despite this I never truly connected to an established “career” path (even after completing a masters in Urban Design) instead choosing to continue along as an academic, as cultural anthropology suited my rabid-seeker nature, entering an esteemed doctoral program in my mid 20’s.

Ironically, what I observed about higher academia in those years (and in teaching as an adjunct at CUNY for the decade that would follow; I’m now a Visiting Asst Professor at Pratt Institute) made me fear more about the negative outcomes of our current educational system than anything else — and then, studying mid-century american politics and poetics in particular led me back away from claims of objectivity and “truth” and towards a major revelation wherein I came to believe that creative practice was perhaps the most important thing we still do as humans – a space in which questioning, wonderment, and awe are able to trump apathy and internal programming, bridging and connecting across language and barriers of all types: our best hope if humanity and the ecology that supports it are to survive… ergo, a dedication to supporting its flourishing became paramount. Enter The OS.

I’m lucky that my need to support myself was paired with a natural inclination towards both technology and entrepreneurship — I taught myself an early version of the Adobe suite back in 1999 when no one at my college was familiar with it while on a student grant to research, create branding and write a business plan for a nascent nonprofit, The I Do Foundation, still operational today.

This auto-didacticism continued, as I taught myself web design and basic coding, started and maintained a blog beginning in 2003, and engaged with any variety of passive-income possibilities, from the clunky cafe press shops days forward. Always looking for different and more, I participated in citizen journalism projects like Broowaha, played around with early versions of fellow Swattie Justin Hall’s PMOG/Nethernet, and generally became an early adopter of social tech. And then somehow, for 15 years, I served as a freelance business consultant, providing systems, design, language, and management support to dozens of individuals and organizations, preaching agile before I knew what to call it.

But I digress.

The point is this: I learned an enormous amount in the radical technology and entrepreneurship spaces I entered seeking new, viable, transformative outlets for my own creativity. I learned about Open Source and the P2P movement, connected with thought leaders all over the world, and I schooled myself in radical economics — ultimately, I found business models with which creators, with some education and encouragement, could transform their communities and their lives.

With which, just maybe, I could too.

Whether working with individuals, organizations, or more informal groups, my raison d’être is evolution. Above all, I’m interested in our unique capacity as an intelligent organism to constantly adapt and level up our abilities, our systems, and – as a result – our satisfaction with life.

Inspired by biological systems – and committed to considering our impact, always, on our environment — my passion is helping others to learn (and build!) agile, sustainable, efficient practices and models for the best possible life lived here, together, in the anthropocene (such as it is), and to encourage Open Source / P2P sharing of our learning along the way, for the good of the whole.

I’m encouraged and inspired by the cross disciplinary learning environments still very much alive in the archives of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, and by the expansive, revolutionary learning experiments exploding everywhere today both online and off — I think we can break out of our silos and influence our life and this planet in ways we’ve only imagined.

And that’s why the OS exists. There’s a reason that on our twitter it reads that “to understand The OS simply as a magazine would hurt its feelings.” Sure, we publish books, but the point is that there’s a way to create artifacts and documents to alter the ontological field and to challenge the questions of why we publish, how we publish, what we publish, and who gets to do it. Once we turn into just another press, I’ll close the chapter.

I hope you’ll take some time to explore the diverse resources here online or order any of our print volumes to learn more about who we are and what we do. The website is woefully, continuously imperfect and often a step behind our incredible work on the ground, but — even though I work with hundreds and hundreds of co-creators, most days I’m just one person on a mission… and miraculously, I’ve organized all the events you see on our happenings page, edited all the posts in our rich community content archive, facilitated that content from all our incredible contributors, and designed and edited this website and all our books to date.

Growing pains! Accepting the flaws and limitations, even while challenging them, is part of the game.

As I like to say,

ONWARD!
Thank you for being here.

Sincerely,

Elæ / Lynne

Peter Milne Greiner

Editor, Poet, Magician, Voice of Reason

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Shortly after publishing Executive Producer Chris Carter with the OS, Peter Milne Greiner joined the editorial team, assisting with the development of the 2016 catalogue, web content, and social media. His poetry, science fiction, and other work has appeared in Fence, Motherboard, Dark Mountain, Coldfront, Big Echo: Critical SF, Forklift,Ohio, glitterMOB, and elsewhere. He studied poetry at The New School, carries the rank of Ship’s Council at Diner Journal, and has sent a poem into space through the Jamesburg Earth Station in Carmel Valley, California. Find out more at The Recluse Goes Forth.

Kenning (FKA Kenyatta) JP García

Manuscript Hero, Experimental Speculative Poetics, Trying to find the Magical within the Real

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Kenning (FKA Kenyatta) JP García is the author of They Say (West Vine Press) as well as the speculative ebooks, ROBOT, Yawning on the Sands and Past And Again. JP was raised in Brooklyn but currently resides in Albany, NY where xe spends xyr nights putting boxes on shelves and counting. Lots of counting. By day, xe writes short humor, dreamfunk agenre cognitive assemblages and pines away in a series of chronicles.

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Adrian Silbernagel

Field Notes Coordinator, Courage, Southern Reach

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Adrian Silbernagel grew up in a small town twenty miles outside of Fargo, North Dakota. He holds a bachelor’s in philosophy and English from Minnesota State University Moorhead, and a master’s in philosophy from Texas Tech University. Adrian’s first book of poems, Transitional Object, is forthcoming from The Operating System in early 2019. His work has appeared in The Columbia Review, PANK Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, TYPO Magazine, The Atlas Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Fruita Pulp, and elsewhere. In addition to poetry, Adrian writes educational and autobiographical essays and talks that raise awareness for the queer and transgender community. Currently he lives with his partner in Louisville, Kentucky, where he works for a local coffee shop chain and roaster called Heine Brothers’.

Adrian writes: “The Operating System is everything that a press/artist community should be, but in this day and age rarely is. It is progressive, critical, accessible, and social-justice-oriented. It doesn’t just celebrate diversity; it prioritizes it. It doesn’t just bemoan academic elitism and the top-down structure of traditional publishing models, all the while passively reproducing these broken systems; it organizes its resources into a sustainable, ethical alternative. I’m tempted to call it a work of genius, but to do so would be counter to its message and mission. It’s a work of common sense, compassion, and courage.”

Amanda Glassman

Archive Whisperer, In Corpore Sano Coordinator, Diner Denizen

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Amanda Glassman works at Poets House as its Librarian and Archivist, as well as assembler of its annual Showcase and general editorial eye on its digital realms. She holds a BA from Brown and a MSLIS from LIU’s Palmer School, where she fell hard for the book-as-object. She writes, takes photos, and involves herself in personal projects as she sees fit; currently, her most outward-facing is a scheme to visit and research the history of every diner in Brooklyn. Among other things, she’s worked as an editorial assistant at Other Press, a menu collection community manager at NYPL, a freelance copyeditor, and, circa 2003, a teenage ghostwriter of Mad Libs.

Working with The Operating System—and in particular, with In Corpore Sano—was an obvious, immediate Yes for me. The OS is a builder of bridges and shiner of light; its output investigates both the strangest and most personal aspects of human experience until they become knowable. Its values are impeccable—growth, play, inclusivity. I’m honored to contribute to the mission of a press/phenomenon that, in addition to publishing incredible, boundary-pushing art, also sees community as a vital component of all its creative doings.

Robert Balun

Digital Chapbooks Coordinator, Defragmented Futures

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I’m excited to work with The Operating System because
working with The OS feels like working with the Syndicate of Initiative.  It seems like The Operating System is here from the future to offer new possible models of connection, collaboration, and collectivity.  Working with The OS is an opportunity to put energy back into the literary world, a moment to radically reconsider “writing,” “publishing,” the forms our work might take in an effort to seek solidarity and sacred joy in the face of division and strife, to radically reconsider what it means to engage with, disrupt and reconfigure what writing means now, and to find new possible future forms of dignity and inclusivity for our endeavors.

Robert Balun is an adjunct at The City College of New York, where he teaches creative writing and composition. His poems have recently appeared in TAGVVERK, Tammy, Prelude, Barrow Street, Poor Claudia, Apogee, Cosmonauts Avenue, and others.
find him at www.robertbalun.com or on IG @99rbalun

Zoe Guttenplan

Typography Wrangler / Development Coordinator : Serifs, Seeds

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The Operating System is the community I dreamed about, where inclusivity is the beating heart, hierarchies of traditional publishing are broken down, and the different, bizarre, and unorthodox are championed rather than quashed. “Interdisciplinary” doesn’t begin to do justice to the boundary-pushing work that the OS publishes, work that is at once deeply familiar and wonderfully revelatory. I am thrilled to be able to help connect far-flung dots on the systems map that is human kind.

I am a graphic designer, book maker, and freelance odd-jobber based in New York City. I was born and raised in London before moving to the US to attend Columbia University, where I earned a BA in English and History. I am currently setting lead type and editing Emergency INDEX at Ugly Duckling Presse, editing translations and designing books at Archipelago, and muddling together a portfolio of jobs on the side.

Ashkan Eslami Fard

Contributing Editor / Translator: Unsilenced Texts, Cartographies, Therianthropy

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I am Ashkan. I was born in 35.6892° N, 51.3890° E, Earth.
After exploring civil engineering and fine arts majors for a couple of years, I finally found my path in architecture. I’m currently a student at pratt. I’m 22 years old, and I left to the US when I was 19 to let another environment shape the rest of me. I’m enthusiastic about the power of language, and a speaker of Farsi, French, English, some Turkish and some german. Through these years of studying different languages and interacting with speakers of these languages I have come to understand the tragic reality of things that get lost in translation; the delicate coming-together of sounds and ideas that can only exist in one realm and perish once they are put into another. Beyond that, I have sympathetically observed amazing minds being hampered by their inability to use languages that do not have the privilege of being used by a majority of people. Therefore, part of my contribution is to try my best to help these minds, thoughts, and ideas translate over. I like to spend my free time reading, playing the piano, doing photography and drawing. I’m very bad at socializing and I’m critical of how social media have changed our behaviors towards one another. I do some writing and poetry here and there, in hopes to explore aspects of myself that are unknown to me, and I have been blessed to work with the Operating System and the extraordinarily thoughtful minds behind it.

Curtis Emery

Social Systems, Media Mind, Healing Technologies

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As a queer poet who is interested in the radical,
procedural, and fantastic, I will jump at any chance to further what The Operating System is doing. I believe that social media can be so much more than a self-serving technology–there is clearly a gap between the human spirit and the potential of technology, we must always strive to embolden the human spirit first through community to fully understand, and enjoy, the power of social media. There is no better way to embrace community, heal, and connect with those around us than to share beauty. Anything I can do to help others discover and enjoy art is worthwhile; I can think of no better platform to be a part of than OS to engage with formidable and formative work.

Bio: Curtis Emery is a poet from Massachusetts. His work is published in, among others, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Reality Beach, ELDERLY, Sink Review, Infinite Scroll, pastsimple, and is translated into German with the Berlin publication, Kathedrale19. His work also appears in DEVOURING THE GREEN: fear of a human planet: a cyborg / eco poetry anthology [Jaded Ibis Press 2015]. Curtis received his M.F.A. from Sierra Nevada College and is an Assistant Editor at Narrative Magazine.

Bahaar Ahsan

Contributing Editor, Glossarium / Resource Coordinator: Ignition, Field Analysis

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Bahaar writes: “I spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to engage in work and community that is prefigurative. That is, work and community which prefigures in the present the kinds of futurities we are seeking to create. I think in many ways the Operating System is precisely that: a creative community existing both in cyberspace and IRL which is really invested in doing transformative work not only in the content of the literary documents it puts forth but also in its process and in the relational practices being enacted by all who are part of this nebulous community.”

Bio: Bahaar Ahsan is a writer, artist, and translator based in the occupied Ohlone territory known as Bay Area, with familial origins in the port city of Abadan in the south of Iran. Grappling with ideas of (collective) memory, extraction, (dis)embodiment, illegibility, and mourning, Bahaar’s work aims to intervene on and disrupt ontologies which separate the ideological from the somatic, the aural from the visual, rage from softness, homeland from host-land, past from present from future.  Her writing can be found in Tagvverk, Apogee, and elsewhere.

Erick Sáenz

Communications, West Coast Punk, Zine-o-matic

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Erick writes: “Growing up in the punk scene, I’ve always valued the DO IT YOURSELF ethic. As I’ve gotten older, I learned that you can’t always “smash the state,” sometimes you have to work within those systems to create change. The OS is a perfect example of a grassroots organization that also happens to exist in the larger publishing world. I feel like a part of a true community of like-minded folx and that nostalgia makes me feel really lucky to have my book out on The OS and to be putting work back into the press. “

Bio: Erick Sáenz is a Latinx poet and English teacher born and raised in L.A.. He is the founding editor of Lilac Press; a small DIY imprint. In addition to self-publishing several chapbooks and zines, his work can be found online. His first book, SUSURROS A MI PADRE, was released by The Operating System in 2018. He is currently drinking too much coffee, and writing poems for a new manuscript.

Joe Cosmo Cogen

Operations Lead / Mac Guy-of-all-trades-ver

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Joe Cosmo Cogen is a multi-genre performance/recording artist currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Joe writes: “As an accompanying percussionist/vocalist & arranger for other solo artists, I have always looked to support & enhance the work of my collaborator–not redefine it. This type of approach has always been what attracted me to work with the OS as well: the idea that Lynne and the creative practitioners she is collaborating with (as a team) are working towards the same goal – to not only publish a book or produce an event, but to create a beautiful, unique work of art, of conversation and collaboration. The community of OS artists that I have seen Lynne build for the past five years are humans who not only look to promote their own work & ideas, but take pride & joy in supporting & nurturing the work of their peers. This, to me, is a true community, and one I am honored to take even a small part in.”

Sarah Dougherty

Operations & Accessibility Apprentice, Winter 2018-19

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As an interdisciplinary, intergenre organization, the OS holds nuance and ambiguity as closely at I do. It explores the USE of a press, wrestling with how to give tools and frameworks back to its communities. The OS values accessibility and inclusivity at its core, and I am deeply excited to work with them. What other publisher has a whole set of resistance resources?? I fell in love as soon as I read the mission.

BIO: Sarah Dougherty is a queer nonbinary human deeply interested in language and social justice. The connection between words and the real, politicized world drew them to a BA in linguistic anthropology and english at the University of Michigan. Since then, they’ve worked at Dzanc Books, Milkweed Editions, the University of Michigan Press (including its groundbreaking intersectional queer series and disability series), and many others. They recently made the big move from Michigan to NYC, where they were surprised and pleased to still see trees. Once, someone paid them for two glorious seasons to watch and analyze as many queer films as they could.

Mel Stevens

Operations Apprentice/ Spring 2018

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Hello! My name is Mel (they/them). I’m currently residing in Doylestown, PA an eclectic town outside of Philly.  When I’m not working, reading, or writing I’m spending my free time with my dog, Cosmo, a Pekingese poodle that has sass and is great at cuddling. For as long as I can remember I always loved to write. There were binders and notebooks filled with writing (most of it was cringeworthy and full of angst) in my bedroom that I would fill with my stories, poems, and songs. With a longwinded and arduous cycle of events in my 20s, I finally obtained my BA from Temple University, focusing on creative writing and LGBT studies. I got the chance to learn about the Operating System and other presses through a bookfair at Temple called Philalalia. It was a life-changing experience for me and it started my path to learn more about small press and publishing.  “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou

Hoang Nam Le

Operations Apprentice/ Bennington Field Work Term Intern / Winter 2018

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I am Nam, a Vietnamese freshman at Bennington College, and I’m on my first internship ever! An introvert, I enjoy my solitude on Friday nights, reading while outside Anaconda or Humble is blasting away outside from some other campus house. I spend more time in the library more than anywhere else, including my dorm room. So when I was roaming Bennington’s database, a position that requires independent working, with loads of books around, stood out. Temperamentally, I placed it on top of my list.

But surely, that can’t be the only reason why I’m here. I would be a shallow and nonchalant jerk if it were. There are two things I think a lot about: Education, and the search for knowledge. Much of those, especially the latter, I have found indicated in arts and literature. I, thus, have come to The Operating System, with its intriguing view on the archive, in search of clues to find answers for myself. What is being learned and what is not? What is being taught and what is not? How is knowledge being passed on and is it a good way? The specialization of knowledge and education has brought them to fragments where a researcher of one field knows and cares only about that field; the academy is an elite hub of prestige. That’s why the model The Operating System is pursuing fascinates me: Can a similar archival model be applied to humanity’s body of knowledge? Can collaboration be promoted across all fields, so that we can reach consilience of knowledge, an admirable and noble spirit reminiscent of the Enlightenment? I would love to think yes, and I believe important clues and instructions can be found in The OS’s model.

Emily Harburg

Operations Apprentice / Summer 2017

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My name is Emily and I’m heading into my senior year at Yale University. Although I’ve been known to lie and say I’m from DC to sound cooler, I live in Potomac, Maryland along the beautiful C&O canal. I enjoy acting and writing, but I define myself as a reader above just about everything else. My love of reading and the immersive power of literature is what brings me to publishing, and I’m excited to get my bearings starting with the intimate and collaborative experience offered by The Operating System.

As a college student I’ve become more familiar with the literary canon (though I personally feel like I haven’t been exposed to a diverse enough catalogue of authors), and now, from this somewhat steady (if limited) foundation, I feel it’s important to expand into new forms of diverse and interdisciplinary authorship. I’ve spent a lot of time as both a student and an actor studying Shakespeare, and I never stop being amazed by the moments of shocking nearness. I want to follow that incandescent moment of recognition, of “yes, that’s exactly it,” and “me too,” all the way to the newest incarnations of narrative. After devoting so much of my life to consuming stories in various forms (Netflix binges shamelessly included) I’m ready to flip the script and see what it’s like to help bring content into the world for others to explore. More than anything I am looking to learn by interacting with the creative, innovative souls that inhabit The Operating System, and observing and discussing firsthand.

OS PRINT:DOCUMENT CREATORS

Adra Raine – Want-Catcher
Alaina Ferris – While Listening [2016]
Alex Crowley – Improper Maps [2016]
Alexis Quinlan – An Admission as a Warning Against the Value of Our Conclusions [2013]
Amanda Ngoho Reavey – MARILYN [2015]
Andrea Mazzariello – One More Revolution [2018]
Anne Gorrick – An Absence So Great And Spontaneous It Is Evidence Of Light [2018]
Anton Yakovlev – Neptune Court [2015]
Anurak Saelow – Schema  [2015]
Ariel Resnikoff (with Jerome Rothenberg and Mikhl Likht) – TEN FOUR :: Poems, Translations, Variations  [2015] (trans. Resnikoff, Stephen Ross)
Ashraf Fayadh – Instructions Within [2016] (trans. Mona Kareem)
Bill Considine – Strange Coherence [2013], The Furies [2017]
blake nemec – Sharing Plastic [2018]
Caits Meissner – Let it Die Hungry [2016]
Chely Lima – What the Werewolf Told Them / Lo Que Les Dijo El Licantropo [2017] (trans. Margaret Randall)
Connie May Oliver – cosmos a personal voyage by carl sagan anne druyan steven soter and me [2017]
Chloe Bass – The Book of Everyday Instruction [2018]
Davy Knittle – Cyclorama [2015]
Erick Sáenz – Sussuros a mi Padre [2018]
Filip Marinovich – The Suitcase Tree [2018]
Gabriel Ojeda-Sague – Jazzercise is a Language [2018]
Gregory Crosby – Spooky Action at a Distance [2014]; Walking Away from Explosions in Slow Motion [2018]
Gregory Randall – Estar allí Entonces: Recuerdos de Cuba 1969-1983 / To Have Been There Then [2017] (trans. Margaret Randall)
Israel Domiguez – Return Trip / Viaje Al Regreso; Duel Language Edition (trans. Margaret Randall) [2018]
Ivy Johnson – Born Again [2018]
Jacq Greya – Greater Grave [2018]
Jacklyn Janeksela – Fixing a Witch/Hexing the Stitch [2017]
Jared Schickling – Needles of Itching Feathers [2018]
Jeff Musillo – Can You See That Sound [2014]
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright – Radio Poems [2017]
Jerome Rothenberg (with Harold Cohen) – Flower World Variations Expanded Edition [2017]
Jerome Rothenberg (with Ariel Resnikoff and Mikhl Likht) – TEN FOUR :: Poems, Translations, Variations  [2015] (trans. Resnikoff, Stephen Ross)
Jessica Tyner – Secret-Telling Bones [2017]
John Kropa (with Lancelot Runge) – Talk About Man Proof [2013]
Johnny Damm – Science Of Things Familiar [2017]
Joseph Cuillier –  The Sensitive Boy Slumber Party Manifesto [2015]
Judith Goldman – agon [2017]
Juliet P (JP) Howard – Say/Mirror [2015; expanded 2nd edition 2016]
Lancelot Runge (with John Kropa) – Talk About Man Proof [2013]
Leslie Anne Wheeler – Abandoners [2018]
In Corpore Sano : Creative Practice and the Challanged Body [Anthology, 2018] (Lynne DeSilva-Johnson and Jay Besemer, co-editors)
Israel Dominguez – Viaje de Regreso / Return Trip [2017] (tran. Margaret Randall)
Margaret Rhee – Love, Robot [2017]
Mark DuCharme – We, The Monstrous [2018]
Mark Gurarie – Everybody’s Automat [2016]
Maryam Parhizkar – Pull, A Ballad [2014]
Mehdi Navid – The Book of Sounds [2018]
Michael Flatt and Derrick Mund – Chlorosis [2018]
Mikhl Likht (with Jerome Rothenberg and Ariel Resnikoff) – TEN FOUR :: Poems, Translations, Variations  [2015] (trans. Resnikoff, Stephen Ross)
Peter Longofono – Chords [2016]
Peter Milne Greiner – Executive Producer Chris Carter [2014], Lost City Hydrothermal Field [2017]
Rebecca Lazier (with Dan Trueman, Sō Percussion and Mobius Percussion) – There Might Be Others [2016]
Shabnam Piryaei – Nothing Is Wasted [2017]
Sō Percussion – A Gun Show [2016]
Sparrow – How to Survive the Coming Collapse of Civilization [2016]
Stanford Cheung – Any Seam or Needlework  [2016]
Stephanie Heit – The Color She Gave Gravity [2017]
Steve Danziger – Moons Of Jupiter/Tales From The Schminke Tub [2014]
Susan Charkes – sp. [2017]
Tony Hoffman – The Sword of Things [2013]
Wally Swist – Singing For Nothing [2018]

COLLABORATING VISUAL ARTISTS

FLOWER WORLD VARIATIONS (Expanded Edition) – cover, interior computer drawings / paintings by Harold Cohen

IN CORPORE SANO (Anthology) – cover, featuring painting by Georgia Elrod

THE COLOR SHE GAVE GRAVITY [2017] – cover, interior photos from Gwynneth VanLaven’s series, “The Visibility Color”

VIAJE DE REGRESO / RETURN TRIP [2017] – cover, featuring street art from Wrinkles of the City – Havana by JR and Jose Parlá

INSTRUCTIONS WITHIN [2016] – cover, interior featuring original paintings by Ashraf Fayadh

MARILYN [2015] – front and back covers, featuring paintings by Joo Young Choi

CHAPBOOK SERIES 2017: INCANTATIONS
*featuring the asemic drawings of Barbara Byers 

CHAPBOOK SERIES 2016: OF SOUND MIND
*featuring the quilt drawings of Daphne Taylor

CHAPBOOK SERIES 2015: OF SYSTEMS OF
*featuring original cover art by Emma Steinkraus

CHAPBOOK SERIES 2014: BY HAND
*featuring original cover design by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson, photos courtesy of the poets

CHAPBOOK SERIES 2013: WOODBLOCK
*featuring original prints from Kevin William Reed 

Community Content Feature Contributors

Highlights from Coming Together/Attica from Rebecca Lazier on Vimeo.

IN a digital age, what does it mean to produce a print document, to publish books and magazines on paper? More and more it means having a rich relationship to a community that lives and breathes both in the sensory world and on the internet; here it becomes possible to sustain and deepen conversations and connections with print contributors, collaborators, allies, and those who inspire us through their creative practice — in ways we never could purely in paper circulation. Since the Spring of 2012, the following list of astounding, committed, impassioned individuals has joined in sharing their thoughts and words with you here through original online content – now archived for personal and community use, in the studio, at home, or in the classroom.
You are heartily encouraged to join us here.

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Daniel Aaron, Rachel Abramowitz, Matthew Abrams, Bayo Akomolafe, Sherry Akomolafe, Philip Ammonds, Zi Alikhan, Joel Allegretti, Ashleigh Allen, Keisha-Gaye Anderson, David Andersson, Pilar Rodriguez Aranda, Ada Athorp, Amber Atiya, Andre Bagoo, Lee Ballinger, Anna Barsan, Chloe Bass, Amy Beecher, Elana Bell, Bud Berkich, Michael Berube, Jay Besemer, Eliza Blue, Lois Bielefeld, Lindsey Boldt, Ana Bozicevic, Laura Braslow, Michael Broek, Catherine Bull, Sivan Butler-Rotholz, Martin Byrne, Laurel Callen,Vahni Capildeo, Lauren Marie Cappello, Anthony Cappo, Laura Carter, Eric Cha-Beach, Chia-Lun Chang, Mark Changizi, Ching-In Chen, Stanford Cheung, Michael Chocholak,Karen Clark, Rachel Collymore, Bill Considine, Kimberly Convery, Jack Cooper, Brittany Corrigan, Chella Courington, Karen Craigo, Gregory Crosby, Alex Crowley, Joseph Cuillier, Johnny Damm, Steve Danziger, Dr. Robert Davies, Bibi Deitz, Garrett Deming, Lynne DeSilva-Johnson, Annaliese Downey, Mel Elberg, Georgia Elrod, Nada Faris, Ashraf Fayadh, Lester Feder, Dia Felix, Carl Ferrero, Alaina Ferris, Benjamin Fine, Donna Fleischer, Michael Fusco, Julian Gallo, Matt Gano, Roger Geier, Sarah Giovanniello, Paul Gittleman, Bob Goldberg, Judith Goldman, Keena Gonzales, Howie Good, Ain Gordon, Mitch Grabois, Jay Grabowski, Peter Milne Greiner, Jeffrey Grunthaner, Mark Gurarie, Eric Harberson, Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo, Barney Haynes, Stefanie Heit, Jeannie Hoag, Jen Hofer, Roxanne Hoffman, Tony Hoffman, Bob Holman,Peggy Holman, JP Howard, MC Hyland, Sabina Ibarrola, Jacklyn Janeksela, Ivan Jenson, Emily Johnson, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Mona Kareem, Lawrence Kaplun, Jack Kennedy, David King, Lauren Klotzman, Davy Knittle, Philip Kobylarz, Solton Komor, John Kropa, Keetje Kuipers, Daniel L’homme, Linda Lambertson, Maya Lang, Michael Laurello, Stacey Lawrence, Rebecca Lazier, Casey Scott Leach, Max Leach, Courtney LeBlanc, Max Leon, Todd Lerew, David T. Little, Matt Longabucco, Katie Longofono, Peter Longofono, Clara Lou, Jim Lounsbury, Clarinda Mac Low, Danny Madden, Roberto Malini, Alexandra Manglis, Clare Smith Marash, Damon Ferrell Marbut, Hune Margulies, Farzhana Marie, Chris Martin, Shanna Maurizi, Carey Maxon, Andrea Mazzariello, Harmon McAllister, Alysse Kathleen McCanna, Jeffrey McDaniel, John McLane, Jessica Mehta, David Meiklejohn, Caits Meissner, Jim Meirose, Conor Messinger, Eric Meyer, Brian Mihok, Maiga Milbourne, Taha Abdel Moniem, Charan Morris, David Moscovich, Patrick Murray, Jeff Musillo, Uche Nduka, Lauren Neefe, Matt Nelson, Nana Nestoros, Ryan Nowlin,Bethany O’Grady, Najee Omar, Frank Ortega, Daniel Owen, Steve Palermo, Joe Pan, Annie Paradis, Maryam Parhizkar, Jacob Perkins, Sarah Pinder, Juan Carlos Pinero Escoriaza, Shabnam Piryaei, Penny Pollock, Cristina Preda, Stina Puotinen, Josh Quillen, Taylor Quilty, Alexis Quinlan, Julien Raffinot, Shivanee Ramlochan, Gregory Randall, Margaret Randall, Kameelah Rasheed, Montana Ray, Amanda Ngoho Reavey, Kevin William Reed, Matthias Regan, Pete Reilly, Ariel Resnikoff, Anna Rhys-Jones, Diana Rickard,Velcrow Ripper, Christina Rodriguez, Stephen Ross, Penina Roth, Jerome Rothenberg, Michael Rothenberg, Mariana Ruiz Firmat, Lancelot Runge, Legacy Russell, Frank Sabatte, Anurak Saelaow, Luz Sanchez, Janice Sapigao, Jordan Schnee, Sam Selinger, Jennifer Sertl, Sara Shaoul, Frank Sherlock, Peter Jay Shippy, Anis Shivani, Adam Sliwinski, Gary Sloboda, Mark Snyder, Chy Ryan Spain, Sparrow, Joannie Stangeland, Sophia Starmack, Jon Steinhagen, Emma Steinkraus, Nomi Stone, Tobias Sturt, Eliza Swann, Wally Swist, Kristen Tauer, Daphne Taylor, Charles Theonia, Dave Thrasher,TC Tolbert, Ed Toney, Stacey Toth, John J Trause, Jason Treuting, Christine Trudeau, Jack Tricarico, Daniel Trueman, Carrie Elston Tunick, Joanna Valente, Zane Van Dusen, Doug Van Dundy, Royce Vavrek, Morgan Vo, Patrick Wang, Randi Ward, Shannon Camlin Ward, Barrett Warner, Kristina Warren, Phyllis Wat, Abigail Welhouse, Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Ben Wiessner, Tishon Woolcock, Anton Yakovlev, Joo Young Choi, Don Zirilli, Laura Zuspan…and more! we update as frequently as we can!

Above: Ben Wiessner and Lynne DeSilva-Johnson at the Launch of the Operating System Vol. 3, at Launchpad BK, in the Fall of 2013.

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Ben Wiessner (Founding Editor, Print Vol 1-3/Exit Strata and The OS)
Jonathan Rose (Founding Editor, Co-Ed. Print Vol 1/Exit Strata)
Douglas Wright (Founding Editor, Co-Ed. Print Vol 1-2/Exit Strata)
Owen Hope (Origins, Vol 1, General Merriment)
Taylor Quilty (Operations Intern, 2013)

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From 2011-Spring 2013, OS founder Lynne DeSilva-Johnson and the above folks (and a large cast of collaborators, creators, and friends) began and/or supported the foundation of an “art and literature” magazine that we called “Exit Strata,” and under the umbrella of which the original chapbook series, two print volumes, and a large number of wonderful events took place. The web community and original web content solicited and developed under the Exit Strata moniker by Lynne and Ben Weissner evolved into the platform that became The Operating System, and all content was migrated to the new site in 2013. Together, with Kevin William Reed, Peter Milne Greiner, and Eric Meyer, the two produced the final collaborative PRINT: VOL.3, published in the Fall of 2013, under The Operating System, which has since focused on long form online storytelling, interviews and conversations, as well as the growth of our thriving press.

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Note: If you’ve by chance happened upon a version of the “Exit Strata” site still present online, please note that original co-founder and author Douglas Wright independently maintains a limited evergreen version of the site for his own purposes without input or collaboration from any of the other personnel listed above, and this site is in no way is reflective of the site as it existed. This present site is also without 90% of its original content which remains live on the OS.