LOW←TECH MAGAZINE

How Image Dithering Works

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) features Low-tech Magazine's solar powered website in its latest show: "Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film".

Our installation titled: Photograph of a beach that no longer exists focuses on the historical technique we use to compress our images: dithering. The images are converted to greyscale, shrunk, and then blown up in size again and dithered.

The installation was designed b...

How thematic books are born

Low-tech Magazine is working on four more books to expand the thematic series. The first one will be available in a few weeks. Choosing the themes for the books and selecting the articles is often challenging. We want to publish each article only in one thematic book, while many articles cover several themes. The photo shows the preliminary selection. If any of you have ideas or comments, please let us know.

Behind the scenes (1)

Low-tech Magazine is not made by robots, but by flesh-and-blood people, with all their imperfections. In this series, we give a look behind the scenes. In this photo, from left to right: intern Hugo Lopez, founder Kris De Decker, and designer Marie Verdeil. The image was taken by Gui Maglio on the last day of a month of building solar cooker prototypes in Barcelona.

Book Launch Events

Coming Tuesday we organize a book launch event in Brussels where we talk about the design process behind the Compressed Book Edition. The presentation, by Kris De Decker and Marie Verdeil, is followed a by a discussion on sustainability in the book publishing business.

We have a number of compressed book editions for sale, as well as thematic books and a collection of discount...

Interview for "Planet: Critical"

Earlier this year Rachel Donald interviewed me for her podcast "Planet: critical". Here's the video. Also check out the other episodes, there's lot of interesting stuff there. https://www.planetcritical.com

Communal Luxury: The Public Bathhouse

We published a new article on Low-tech Magazine: Communal Luxury: The Public Bathhouse. Here's two images that did not make the final version. They show the interior and exterior of a public shower bathhouse in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Shower bathhouses were a late invention in the history of the public bathhouse, and they were the antithesis of preindustrial communal bat...

Epub Edition: How circular is the circular economy?

Our new thematic book is now available as a epub.

It is free to download for all patrons who are contributing as a "bike generator" or "windmill".

Video online: Back to the future of the internet

It took some time, but here's the video of our event in February in Barcelona this year. The (short) intro is in Spanish, but all talks are in English.

Low-tech Magazine: Stickers & Postcards

Patrons who subscribe to the "windmill" tier receive ten Low-tech Magazine stickers (1 design) and six postcards (3 designs) in their postbox. We will publish at least one new collection of stickers and postcards every year, which you will receive automatically.

Offline Bookshop in Barcelona

Low-tech Magazine opened its first physical bookstore. It is located in AkashaHub, a co-working and event space in Barcelona, Spain. The bookshop - built by Marie Verdeil - is open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 18:00. Visit upon request: hub@akasha.barcelona. The address is Carrer de la Verneda, 19, Nave 1, Sant Martí, 08018 Barcelona.

Ebooks for Patrons

Patrons can now download the complete Ebook collection of Low-tech Magazine for free.

The ebooks are free for Patrons who support us as a "bike generator", "windmill" or "sailboat".

The ebook collection will be further expanded in the future.

Back to the future of the internet: Event Poster

More info: https://www.meetup.com/akashabarcelona/events/299157033/

Poster design: Johanna Gratzer.

Offline Reading: e-books and PDF-archives

The accessibility of the solar-powered website depends on the season. Finding the right time to publish new content and send newsletters can be challenging in winter. Furthermore, as the battery of the solar systems ages, the website will go offline more often.

We are working on more offline reading options ...

Website down, here's the pdf of the newest article

This weekend I published a new article and this morning I sent out a newsletter to 14,000 subscribers. Unfortunately, I did so during one of the worst summer storms ever in Barcelona, being unaware of it because I am in another part of Spain. Lesson learned: always check the weather report before publishing, even in summer. This is the first time in 4 years that the solar powered website went down in August. If you missed the new article, find the PDF in attachment.

Low-tech Magazine: The Sky is the Limit

Spotted at the Schesaplana (2,996 metres), the summit of Vorarlberg in Austria. Images by Marie Verdeil. We have printed 1,000 stickers for promotion purposes and are curious to know if Patrons are interested.

Redesign of Patreon page

We have redesigned the tiers for the Patreon page. From now on, there are four tiers, each with their own benefits to which we will adhere to. We will be producing more exclusive content in the coming days, weeks and months. We also have two new books coming later this month.

1. Solar panel ($1). You are doing what you can, providing Low-tech Magazine with energy if the weather allows it.

2. Bike generator ($5). You make a physical effort to empow...

Rebuilding a solar powered website

During the last months we have been working on switching the solar powered website from one static site generator platform (Pelican) to another (Hugo). Many readers will not notice the changes right away, as we have not made any major adjustments to the design. Nevertheless, the new platform has allowed us to address some iss...

Low-tech Magazine: The Comic (in English)

As promised, here's a Patreon preview of the comic that Guillaume Lion made about Low-tech Magazine. It was first published in the Belgian magazine Médor and translated from French by Mira Matthew.

Pedal Power Video Series

We resumed the publishing of our video series, showcasing the possibilities of human power generation. The video above will be released next week but Patrons can see it already. 

The paper trail of a Low-tech Magazine article

Almost every article I write leaves a paper trail, and these printed and scribbled draft versions pile up every few years. This time, before offering the paper for recycling, I photographed all drafts for the two-article series on the bow and arrow. I also include one picture of all draft versions for another article, where the final title only appears late in the writing process.

Bike Powered Electric Guitar (2)

Germán Canyelles on guitar, Lorenzo Patuzzo on the bike. 

More about the bike generator: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-to-build-bike-generator.html

Bike Powered Electric Guitar (1)

Musician Germán Canyelles uses Low-tech Magazine's bike generator to power his electric guitar in Barcelona last Friday.

Solar web team image

Getting the complete solar web team in one place at the same time is a challenge. This is the closest we got in Barcelona last week. From left to right: Kris De Decker, Roel Roscam Abbing, Marie Otsuka, and Marie Verdeil. Kathy Vanhout is still missing. We will soon present the fruits of our work.

Talk: Solar Powered Website in Barcelona

The complete solar web team is in Barcelona to continue work on the project. Here's a presentation and Q&A we did yesterday at Akasha Hub. 

Low-tech Magazine: The Comic

Guillaume Lion, a filmmaker and cartoonist based in Brussels, spent a few weeks behind the scenes of Low-tech Magazine to make a comic for the Belgian magazine "Médor". See the PDF below. (CC BY NC SA). 

The Printed Website: Volume III

The newest Low-tech Magazine book collects 18 articles published between 2018 and 2021. Patrons can order it before everyone else, at a reduced price (-20%). This offer is valid until December 1, 2021.  

There's more books on the way but note that early access to books at reduced prices will be reserved to patrons who...

New Book Available, More Books on the Way

We're launching several new books in the coming weeks & months. 

The first one available is a second edition of the first book we published in 2019. This new edition has almost twice as many images. In contrast to the first edition, the images are not "dithered" and of higher quality. 

We used a smaller font to pack more content on fewer pages. The article about the solar powered website has been updated. This second edition also fixes some errors in the articles and...

The Printed Website: Second Volume Out Now

The second volume of the printed website contains 32 articles originally published between 2007 and 2012. The book has 620 pages and 268 images, and sells for $25.20 in the Lulu Bookstore. It will be launched next week, but patrons can already order it: http://www.lulu.com/shop/kris-de-decker/low-tech-magazine-2007-2012/paperback/product-24334851.html

The Printed Website -- Final Version

The Low-tech Magazine book is finally for sale -- and it has 159 illustrations. The 710-page paperback contains the 37 most recent articles from the blog.

Patrons who bought a non-illustrated version and prefer to replace their collectors item (only 50 were made without images) with a new, illustrated copy, please get in touch.

Heat your House with a Water Brake Windmill

Renewable energy production is almost entirely aimed at the generation of electricity. However, we use more energy in the form of heat, which solar panels and wind turbines can supply only indirectly and inefficiently. Thermal energy is required for many industrial processes and for space and water heating in buildings.

Solar thermal collectors skip the electricity conversion and supply renewable thermal energy in a direct and efficient way. Much less known is that mechanical windmills ...