Albert Cheng-Syun Tang — ACST Design — Bergen, Norway / Taipei, Taiwan

Given the number of magazines that have gone digital, how and why do you see printed publications surviving, if you do? “The way I see it, printed publications possess an irreplaceable quality (for now, at least) — an intimacy with knowledge, which is more of a spiritual value than a functional one. Such a quality, expressed through the paper, texture, odour and weight, still activates our senses and will perhaps be one of the few things that remind us of what human physical experience is in our already digitized everyday life. As for how, the concept of seeing printed publication as an “art of materialising ideas” could be one of the directions towards its survival and development.”

Albert Cheng-Syun Tang is a design practitioner, researcher and educator specialising in communication design and has been engaging with operating design as a critical practice and inquiry in research, cultural and technological contexts. He believes that design is not merely a means of solving problems, but also a unique approach to understanding the world that sustains us.