Urban Reader
The Urban Reader is a concept book series currently in its 4th issue. Every issue centers around a specific theme and comes with a unique title, diversified content and style. It premiered in spring 2009 and since then appeared biannually in Japan and Switzerland.
The Urban Reader series is A Tour into the realm of the word "urban" - its people and places, stories and adventures that furnish the term urbanity. It combines artwork, design and fashion with photography, philosophy and self-irony. Initially, the idea crystallized when designer Colin Schaelli and JykK Japan Inc. were contacted by Urban Research Co., Ltd - a Japanese corporate fashion group - to create a fashion catalogue. Each book of the series tells short worldly wisdoms with the intention to make people think. Therefore, the emphasis is set on text rather than pictures, despite the visual dominance of the contained images.
Urban Reader 1
Title
Urban - The Biggest Urban Myth
Synopsis
Almost everybody will give a unique explanation of what urban means to him or her. The first book centers around the terminology and perception of the word urban and dismisses established definitions. Instead of researching urbanity in cities and towns, the makers set out to find the real people that furnish urbanity - arguing that rural people portray urbanity at its best and that the countryside might reflect urban lifestyle clearer than any metropolis. In conclusion, the first issue remarks that ironically the word urban has fallen victim to urban myths, leading to the title Urban – The Biggest Urban Myth
Concept and Creation
Friends, family members and acquaintances are visited in their own homes in rural Switzerland. Every featured main character is accompanied by a supporting character and fictitiously explains what makes him or her urban.
Themes
- Terminology of urban and urbanity
- Familiar people
- Rural environment
Main Characters
Colin Schaelli with grandfather Peter, from Chur, in Chur (p. 3-14)
Markus Freitag, Daniel Freitag with Anouk, from Zurich, in Meilen (p. 17-27)
Prof. Ruedi Widmer and daughter Rosita, from Aarau, in Zurich (p. 29-36)
Marcel Wyss with mother Brigitte, from Bern, in Bern (p. 39-49)
Rodja Galli with father Remo, from Bern, in Bern (p. 51-61)
Peter Conradin Zumthor with son Antunin, from Haldenstein, in Haldenstein (p. 63-73)
Gina Graeser with grandmother Hanna, from Bern, in Bern (p. 75-85)
Anita Baumann with great-uncle Fritz, from Bern, in Bern (p. 87-97)
Zahra Abdalla with best friend Angélique, from Lucerne, in Lucerne (p. 99-110)
Makers
Colin Schaelli as conceptioner
Noë Flum as photographer
Claudio Hartmann as texter
Colin Schaelli as designer
Publication Facts
Published in April 2009
ISBN 978-3-033-01885-3
Number of copies: 2'000
112 pages, 16.5 x 23.5 cm
Front and back cover made of chipboard
Content printed with FM Raster on a Arctic Volume paper
Font: Gravur
Urban Reader 2
Title
Hygroscopic Urban Challengers
Synopsis
The second issue of the series is a bilingual book in English and Japanese highlighting the challenges of the urban life space that we are confronted with. Each protagonist, dubbed challenger throughout the book gives his or her personal advice on how to deal with selectet challenges.
Packed into a series of photographs, the challengers face real challenges in which urbanity is replaced by water. The fact that the main characters appear to attract and absorb water suggests that urbanity is a flowing contemporary parameter. Besides the staged photography each challenger also speaks about his or her ways and techniques to outfox and handle such situations. Put into several small philosophical paragraphs headed by mnemonic titles, the readers find inspirations and help for their own personal urban challenges from the chosen Hygroscopic Urban Challengers.
Concept and Creation
The makers took the urban challengers afresh into some of Switzerland's least urban places and confronted them with real life challenges, replacing them metaphorically with water: being flushed by gallons of water or splashed from water hoses and buckets, surfing on a motor boat's stern wave, being kicked out from a water-filled barrel, diving in a mermaid's costume, or jumping from cliff are just some of the challenges included.
Themes
- Urban challenges
- Challengers' advice
- Water as metaphor
Main Characters
Andrea Vetsch from Zurich, at Mollis Airport (p. 2-11)
Claudio Hartmann from Chur, at Lake Zurich (p. 12-19)
Sabine Rausch and Lisa Mettier from Munich and Bern, at the industrial area Binz in Zurich (p. 20-29)
Martin Baumann and Peter Baumann from Bern, at the climbing wall in Haldenstein (p. 30-39)
Björn Allemann from Chur, at the tennis courts in Haldenstein (p. 40-47)
Karin Freitag with Konstantin from Zurich, at the camping ground in San Bernardino (p. 48-56)
Edith Hunkeler from Altishofen, at the Paraplegikerzentrum Nottwil (p. 58-65)
Céline Bardy from Chur, at the waterfalls in Vira, Gambarogno (p. 66-73)
Noë Flum from Basel, at the Sihlwald Zürich (p. 74-81)
Makers
Colin Schaelli as conceptioner
Noë Flum as photographer
Claudio Hartmann as texter
Colin Schaelli as designer
Publication Facts
Published in October 2009
ISBN 978-3-033-02094-8
Number of copies: 1'500
104 pages, 16.5 x 23.5 cm
Front and back cover made of Chromolux
Content printed with FM Raster on a Arctic Volume paper and RecyStar recycling paper
Font: Gravur
Urban Reader 3
Title
The Synergetic Issue
Synopsis
In an entirely new approach, the third issue centers around the term synergy and uses the internet as an artificial urban space connecting the makers and the contributors.
It is a team work, an issue in which people who live in different cities, countries, and even continents work together without meeting in person. The contributing protagonists worked according to pre-set guidelines on their own and without conscious knowledge of co-operating with the other contributors.
Synergies exist when different elements interact and produce a result that any individual part could not achieve alone. The book, as a combined whole aims at supporting the assumption that the generated synergy is more than just the sum of its parts. The result is an extremely versatile and multisided collective interpretation presented in the The Synergetic Issue.
Concept and Creation
The participating international artists were asked to interpret six different tasks according to pre-set guidelines.
At first they had to visualize the fatal car crash of James Dean on September 30, 1955, followed by the second task of portraying their personal heroine. A brain twister, the creation of a visual mystery, formed the third task before the artists could freely create the fourth Carte Blanche task with relatively few restrictions. Task number five was dubbed My Hawaii in which a mobile phone picture is supposed to reflect the title. Finally, in task six, the contributors set in scene a package of clothing for which every technique was allowed.
The third issue is the first to appear with a poster and contains a key section for the reader, in order to ease comparison between the different artistic interpretations of identical tasks and solutions to individual artwork, such as the Carte Blanche task.
Themes
- Synergy
- The Internet as urban space
Tasks:
- Little [...]
- Heroine
- Brain Twister
- Carte Blance
- My Hawaii
- In the Name of...
Main Characters
Amy Hunting from Norway, in London (1st to appear)
Diego Gravinese from Argentina, in Buenos Aires (2nd to appear)
Fernando Elvira from Spain, in Malaga (3rd to appear)
Himaa from Japan, in Tokyo (4th to appear)
iseneehihinee from Japan, in Tokyo (5th to appear)
Loredana Sperini from Switzerland, in Zurich (6th to appear)
Norman Palm from Germany, in Berlin (7th to appear)
Shinko Okuhara from Japan, in Tokyo (8th to appear)
so+ba from Switzerland, in Tokyo (9th to appear)
Makers
Colin Schaelli and Alain Schibli as conceptioners
Amy Hunting as contributing artist
Diego Gravinese as contributing artist
Fernando Elvira as contributing artist
Himaa as contributing artist
iseneehihinee as contributing artists
Loredana Sperini as contributing artist
Norman Palm as contributing artist
Shinko Okuhara as contributing artist
so+ba as contributing artists
Claudio Hartmann as texter
Colin Schaelli and Ralph Steinbrüchel as designers
Publication Facts
Published in April 2010
ISBN 978-3-033-02387-1
Number of copies: 1'000
132 pages, 16.5 x 23.5 cm
Front and back cover made of Luxo Satin
Cover poster made of Luxo Satin
Content printed with FM Raster on Lessebo 1.3 White and Lessebo Smooth White
Fonts: Georgia and Gravur
Urban Reader 4
Title
Anything but a Collective Issue
Synopsis
The fourth issue is to be seen as a contrast to its predecessor and turns upside down everything that the Synergetic Issue established, because with synergies comes the concept of social loafing. This terminology describes the phenomenon of people working less efficiently as a team than as individuals. As part of a social and self-criticism, everything in the fourth issue, from A-Z, is made by a single person and is Anything but a Collective Issue.
Concept and Creation
The setting is again in Switzerland, but this time very locally, mostly inside the creators own four walls with only one model - Paris-based Angela W. - and occasional appearances of the creator himself.
Unlike the other books, the fourth issue has no purposely created text but features cited quotes of partly famous people as headers for each chapter. Furthermore, the textual content in each section, consisting of several keywords reflecting the photographs, is taken from Wikipedia's online encyclopedia.
Themes
- Anything but collective
- Quotes and Wikis
Main Characters
Angela Katherina Weber (throughout the book)
Colin Schaelli (occasional appearances)
Makers
Colin Schaelli as conceptioner, photographer, designer
The Quotations Page as headline source
Wikipedia as text source
Publication Facts
Published in October 2010
ISBN 978-3-033-02604-9
Number of copies: 500
128 pages, 21.5 x 27.0 cm
(no front or back cover)
Content printed with FM Raster on Luxo Satin
Fonts: Georgia and Franklin Gothic