Internal. A reader holds a book in their hands. The first page of the book is opened, the reader holds it to their face and smells the paper, touches it. The book touches them back.
*Internal. A reader holds a book in their hands. The first page of the book is opened, the reader holds it to their face and smells the paper, touches it. The book touches them back.*
the book (whispering in the reader's ear):
**the book (whispering in the reader's ear):**
Being vulnerable means being transparent, open and brave, trusting others to handle stories with care. By publicly sharing and processing our narratives, we take ownership of our experiences while contributing to a collective voice. Even when we incorporate stories from others, our names remain attached to this collective creation: Ada, Aglaia, Irmak, Stephen. We have created interfaces highlighting the balance between communal sharing, individual responsibility and awareness.
the reader:
**the reader:**
Interfaces?
the book:
**the book:**
Interfaces are boundaries that connect and separate. They're the spaces that fill the void between us. An interface can be an act, a story, a keyboard, a cake; It allows us to be vulnerable together, to share our stories with and through each other. I am a collection of these interfaces.
the reader (confused):
**the reader (confused):**
What do you mean a collection, like a catalogue?
the book:
**the book:**
Yeah I guess. I weave the words and the works we created during...
the reader:
**the reader:**
we?
the book:
...I mean the four of us, the students of Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute. From 2022 until today, June 2024, we published three special issues together. We wrote four theses and made four graduation projects. We grew our hair out and cut it and grew it again and dyed it. We cared and cried for each other, we brewed muddy coffee and bootlegged books. (The book tears up) Finishing a Master's is a bit of a heavy moment for us and this book is a gentle archive, a memory of things that have been beautiful to us.
**the book:**
...I mean the four of us, the students of Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute. From 2022 until today, June 2024, we published three special issues together. We wrote four theses and made four graduation projects. We grew our hair out and cut it and grew it again and dyed it. We cared and cried for each other, we brewed muddy coffee and bootlegged books.
the reader (sarcastically):
(The book tears up).
Finishing a Master's is a bit of a heavy moment for us and this book is a gentle archive, a memory of things that have been beautiful to us.
<liclass="toc-title"><ahref="#section-10">What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does “graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?</a></li>
do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does
“graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?</h1>
@ -4169,15 +4168,12 @@ This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnogr
I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford Geertz's ideas of why humans make culture: "to affirm it, defend it, celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it" (Geertz, 1973). This exploration will also involve less constructive actions like participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about "graphic design" and the effects it is known to have on its audiences, practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to "loosen the object" of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with. This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage with the effects on and by these bodies.
