Markdown, dive deep

23 May 2025, 15:00-16:30 CEST

Hosted by Julien McHardy and Simon Bowie at the Open Book Futures Experimental Publishing Group.

On the 23rd of May 2025, we are bringing together a group of writers, makers, and publishers to explore Markdown writing and publishing workflows for experimental digital monographs at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in Den Haag. In the afternoon hybrid online session, we will share and broaden our conversation. We would be delighted to see you for the event online.

In the session, we will share and discuss our experience with Markdown publishing using the publishing platform Juncture. Juncture is a digital publishing tool developed by JSTOR Labs for visual essaying that allows the author to dynamically display text alongside a range of other media materials. You can find more information about Juncture in our Experimental Publishing Compendium.

The session is based on our current work on two digital-first monographs that will use markdown writing and publishing for the mapping of heterogenous archives and bodies of writing. James Smith's project Deep Maps: Blue Humanities, a deep mapping of the challenger point, will take readers on a dive to the deepest point on Earth and back. This blog post introduces James' project. Nirmal Puwar's project Hear Here: Spatial Practices undertakes a postcolonial mapping of the brutalist Coventry Cathedral as an internationally recognised post-war modernist infrastructure. In the session, we will share our experience with these two book projects as starting points for a joint exploration of markdown publishing practices.

Deep Mapping & Markdown

Deep mapping is essential to the study of the humanities because it is a methodology as memento mori. It reminds the researcher that their knowledge is imperfect and incomplete, but that this is a source of excitement rather than frustration. By drawing together strands of deep narrative and telling dynamic and ever-changing stories of them, the deep mapper is embracing and celebrating the possibilities of embracing chaotic knowledge, and the stories that bring a larger sense of meaning in unprecedented times.

Markdown hints at the benefit of complex content and simple form: it is simple, easily interoperable, shareable, and yet endlessly extensible. Visual essaying thrives in this environment, drawing time and resources away from complex technical solutions into time spent on dynamic narratively rich content. Furthermore, the organisation of simple .md files need not also be simplistic - a plethora of interconnections, rhizomatic assemblages and visual presentations are possible.

Please register for the event here: https://www.eventsforce.net/cugroup/frontEnd/reg/registerNew.csp?ef_sel_menu=9520&eventID=2093

Best regards,

James, Simon & Julien

The header image uses a CC BY-SA 2.0 licensed photo by Angelo Gargano and GitHub screenshots from James Smith’s book project.