Whole Earth Catalog
Book is part of Home at Arsenale curated library, commissioned by MAO for Architecture Biennale Venice 2016
The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture magazine and product catalogue established by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1998. It mainly focused on product reviews – together with prices, availability information and the vendor’s contact information – but also included articles and essays with a focus on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education and “do it yourself” instructions. Its function was to give access to users on the quality, availability and purchasability of products by listing items chosen by the Whole Earth Catalog’s editors, continually updated according to its users’ suggestions and experience. Today, the catalogue is regarded as the forerunner of online search engines like Google, which list items according to the relevancy of search terms, and it is thus a pioneer of the Information Age.