Help:Places

Places are the primary organizational unit of An Atlas of Modern Risography, a central project within stencil.wiki. Originally conceived as a global census of stencil duplicator users, the Atlas has evolved into a broader resource for documenting locations connected to stencil-based printing. This page provides some guidelines for working with, creating, and editing places.

History

The project began in 2013 as An Atlas of Modern Risography and was integrated into the larger stencil.wiki platform in 2014. In 2024, the Atlas migrated to MediaWiki, enabling enhanced functionality and organization.

This is a public map, and not all studios may want their exact address displayed. For our purposes, city-level data is sufficient. For example, knowing a studio is or was located in Montréal is enough—we don’t need its precise location. If you know the neighborhood, that’s even better. Neighborhood-level coordinates help provide a more accurate distribution of studios within a city while maintaining privacy and anonymity.

Walkthrough

If you manage a riso somewhere, check and see if your space already has a page on the wiki! Use the search bar at the the top of the page to search for your press/printshop/studio name.

1. If the page already exists, click the "Edit with form" button at the top of the page.
2. To create a new place page you'll want to use Form:Place, typing in the name of your studio, and then clicking "Create or edit."

Once you're in the form for the page, you can change the details of the place, or use the big free text box at the end of the page to edit the article content.

1. Check and update your website link, inventory of inks, list of machines, etc. You can also add location information and services.
2. If you add coordinates, your place will show up on the atlas!
3. For the article, try adding some text explaining your studio!
   • See that {{Inventory}} text in there? That invokes the Template:Inventory component, which displays a visual list of the inks and machines you selected.
   • You can add a citation to some other page (maybe the about page on your site) if you want, by including the link in <ref></ref> tags (for example: <ref>https://perfectly-acceptable.com/print/</ref>). Then at the end of the free text/article box, add {{References}}
   • Generally for place pages, there's some kind of introduction, then people might have subheadings to talk about different topics (e.g. == History ==), then they have the {{Inventory}} template and the {{References}} template (if there were citations on the page).
4. Once you're done editing, click "Save changes" and your new/updated page will be saved to the wiki!
   • You can optionally provide a little descriptions of the edits you made in the "Summary" box before saving—this will be saved along with the record of your edits, and can be useful when looking through the history of a page (but is not strictly necessary).
   • If you have "Watch this page" selected you'll get a little notification (when logged into the wiki) whenever this page is edited in the future.
5. If you want to check out the other ways of editing a page, try the "Edit" button (for the Visual Editor) or "Edit source" button (for the wikitext editor), both in the top bar of the page.

Feel free to use the atlas to look at other place pages for ideas! (Though many are also mostly blank pages, waiting to be updated.)

Technical details

Creating and editing places

All standard work with the data/information in places should happen via the Form:Place (which can be invoked on existing pages with the Edit with form button. When submitted, this form passes its contents to Template:Place which handles the data storage, and finally Template:Infobox place and Template:Inventory which display the information on the page.

The articles themselves (everything not in the infobox or inventory can either be edited in the "article text" section of the form or directly on the page with the VisualEditor via the Edit button on the page (or the wikitext editor with Edit source if you prefer).

• Help:Using the place form
• Help:Validating a place
• Help:Writing a place article

Get on the map

To have a place listing appear on the main Atlas maps, it must meet two criteria:

1. Active status: The place must have an active designation (see below for more information about Place status).
2. Coordinates provided: The listing must include geographic coordinates.

The simplest way to find and add coordinates is by using Google Maps:

1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Search for the address, neighborhood, or city of the place you want to map.
3. Right-click on the location marker or name in the map.
4. In the menu that appears, select the first item (coordinates).
5. Copy the coordinates and paste them into the designated field in the Event Form.

By following these steps, you can ensure your place is accurately represented on the map!

Place status

Places on the wiki have a status around whether they are active (AKA still open, printing, doing business, etc.) and various forms of inactive. This is used to: (1) notify users if they are viewing a place that might not exist anymore, (2) prioritize the display of active places in atlas + listings, (3) provide an archive of closed places on the wiki.

Active — Open and operational, stencil printing.

Closed — No longer existent, defunct. Category:Closed places

Temporarily closed — Currently not active in the printing world, but planning to return. Category:Temporarily closed places

Inactive — Still operating, but no longer stencil printing. Category:Inactive places

Historic — Places which predate the wiki or the contemporary duplicator printing community, but which are included in homage or historical reference.

Unknown — Status unknown, either was not set from a previous import or could not be determined the last time the page was updated. Category:Places of unknown status

Place types

Before its migration to MediaWiki, all locations within the Atlas were categorized as "Studios." The transition to MediaWiki introduced a more expansive classification system, allowing for the following place types.

Note: Each place is categorized based on its primary function and may be assigned one or more types accordingly. Secondary activities, such as hosting workshops, exhibitions, or pop-up shops, do not determine a place's classification.

Studio — A creative workspace equipped with duplicator printing tools (often this is the base type if no others are a better fit).

Example: A personal artist studio that creates local posters and zines.

Print shop — A business or service specializing in duplicator printing, offering affordable printing for zines, posters, or small-run projects for artists and organizations.

Example: A local printer where customers can submit designs to be printed in bulk.

Publisher — An independent press that curates and distributes small-batch publications like zines, books, and posters, typically with a focus on experimental or independent creators.

Example: An indie press producing art books and limited-edition zines, like Zine Hug.

Store — A physical or online shop that sells printed goods (e.g., art prints, zines, postcards) and possibly tools or supplies related to stencil duplicator printing.

Example: A book store specializing in artist-made publications, such as PrintRoom.

School — A university, art school, or community center that offers workshops or classes teaching stencil duplicator printing techniques and design fundamentals.

Example: A non-profit art school hosting monthly printmaking courses, like the SVA RisoLAB.

Venue — A gallery, pop-up space, or community center hosting events, exhibitions, or print fairs showcasing duplicator-printed works or fostering community connections.

Example: the regular host of an annual Art Book Fair, such as Bergen Kunsthall.

Collective — A group of artists or printmakers sharing resources and a creative vision, often working collaboratively in a shared studio to create and promote printed works.

Example: An artist collective producing collaborative zines and prints.

Community space — A community-driven space providing open access to duplicator printing equipment, often alongside other tools, with options for short-term use or memberships.

Example: The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) in Portland, OR.

Archive — A historical collection of duplicator related publications, equipment, or resources.

Zine library — A contemporary collection of zines and other printed ephemera.