diff --git a/irmak/thesis.md b/irmak/thesis.md index c0bbdf7..66c4a6b 100644 --- a/irmak/thesis.md +++ b/irmak/thesis.md @@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ person I lost. As funny as it may appear, I felt like I was sabotaged by these bees that I thought were here to hurt me but in the end they made me understand that its ok to let things go and every being does what it has to do to find its way of survival. The little habitat that they chose to create in my room -seemed like a calling or a sign that I can aff ect another living being significantly without being +seemed like a calling or a sign that I can affect another living being significantly without being aware of it. This goes for everything, no matter if some people leave us in this world, they have living matter in us that keeps pulsing. So then I started researching bees and their ecosystems. I read Alan Watts, Alan Lightman, Emily Dickinson, Maurice Sendak, Meghan O’Rourke, Oliver @@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ the moment a certain story sparked for us. Nowadays storytelling takes many forms. For example, some readers’ story might even begin from here although it isn’t the beginning. Interactivity is one of the storytelling forms that can signifi- cantly improve children’s creativity. This is mainly because children as readers or listeners get to -contribute and aff ect the story. This of course requires and improves creative and active thinking. +contribute and affect the story. This of course requires and improves creative and active thinking. Getting the chance to choose a path for a fictional character gives the child the freedom and confi dence of constructing a world, a character or an adventure. Although this is essentially “writing” as we know it, children think of this as a game, yet to discover they are actually becoming writers. @@ -246,9 +246,9 @@ to foster the love for reading. ### Loop 4 Ways of using interactivity in digital platforms -CASA theory, also known as the Cognitive-Aff ective-Social Theory of Learning and Development, +CASA theory, also known as the Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning and Development, is a framework used in educational psychology to understand how learning occurs within -the context of cognitive, aff ective, and social factors. Research on cognitive learning with keeping +the context of cognitive, affective, and social factors. Research on cognitive learning with keeping in mind the limited attention span and memory factors. For children in specific, I think these are very important factors to keep in mind when trying to design an interactive experience. This is because children get bored very easily and can be disengaged because of failure of solving/understanding diff --git a/print/index.html b/print/index.html index 83b2432..abbb6b2 100644 --- a/print/index.html +++ b/print/index.html @@ -18,35 +18,35 @@ -
  • <?water bodies>
    • +
  • Backplaces
    • -
  • Backplaces
    • +
  • <?water bodies>
    • -
  • Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s
    • +
  • Talking Documents
    • -
  • Talking Documents
    • +
  • Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s
    • -
  • Fair Leads
    • +
  • Wink!
    • -
  • Wink!
    • +
  • Fair Leads
    • -
  • ⊞
    • +
  • Do you ever dream about work?
    • -
  • Do you ever dream about work?
    • +
  • ⊞
    • @@ -144,6 +144,119 @@ alt="Photo by Leslie Robbins" />
    +

    Backplaces

    +

    vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/backplaces

    +

    Hi.
    +I made this play for you. It is a question, for us to hold together.

    +

    Is all intimacy about bodies? What is it about our bodies that makes +intimacy? What happens when our bodies distance intimacy from us? This +small anthology of poems and short stories lives with these +questions—about having a body without intimacy and intimacy without a +body. This project is also a homage to everyone who has come before and +alongside me, sharing their vulnerability and emotions on the Internet. +I called the places where these things happen backplaces. They are +small, tender online rooms where people experiencing societally +uncomfortable pain can find relief, ease, and transcendence.
    +

    +

    I made three backplaces for you to see, click, and feel: Solar +Sibling, Hermit Fantasy, and Cake Intimacies. Each of these is the +result of its own unique performance or project. Some of the stories I +will share carry memories of pain—both physical and emotional. As you +sit in the audience, know I am with you, holding your hand through each +scene. If the performance feels overwhelming at any point, you have my +full permission to step out, take a break, or leave. This is not +choreographed, and I care deeply for you.
    +

    +
    + + +
    +

    Solar Sibling is an online performance of shared loss about leaving +and siblings. This project used comments people left on TikTok poetry. I +extracted the emotions from these comments, mixed them with my own, and +crafted them into poems. It is an ongoing performance, ending only when +your feelings are secretly whispered to me. When you do, by typing into +the comment box, your feelings are sent to me and the first act closes +as the sun rises.
    +

    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    Hermit Fantasy is a short story about a bot who wants to be a hermit. +Inspired by an email response from a survey I conducted about receiving +emotional support on the Internet, this story explores the contradiction +of being online while wanting to disconnect. As an act it’s a series of +letters, click by click.
    +

    +
    +The first letter. + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    Cake Intimacies is a performance that took a year to bring together. +It is a small selection of stories people told me and I held to memory +and rewrote here. The stories come from two performances I hosted. +First, I asked participants to eat cake, sitting facing or away from +each other and sharing their stories about cake and the Internet. The +second performance was hosted at the Art Meets Radical Openness +Festival, as part of the Turning of the Internet workshop. For this +performance, I predicted participants’ future lives on the Internet +using felted archetypes and received stories from their Internet past in +return. Now the stories are here, each of them a cake with a filling +that tells a story, merging the bodily with the digital and making a +mess of it all.
    +

    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    The play ends as all plays do. The curtains close, the website stays +but the stories will never sound the same. For the final act, I give you +the stories. It’s one last game, one last joke to ask my question again. +Digital intimacies about the digital, our bodies and the cakes we eat. +For the last act, I ask you to eat digital stories. To eat a comment, to +eat a digital intimacy. Sharing an act of physical intimacy with +yourself and with me, by eating sweets together. Sweets about digital +intimacies that never had a body. There is no moral, no bow to wrap the +story in. A great big mess of transcendence into the digital, of +intimacy and of bodies. The way it always is. Thankfully.
    +

    +
    + + +
    + +
    + + + + +

    <?water bodies>

    A narrative exploration of
    divergent digital intimacies @@ -903,121 +1016,105 @@ University of Nebraska Press.
    - -
    -

    Backplaces

    -

    vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/backplaces

    -

    Hi.
    -I made this play for you. It is a question, for us to hold together.

    -

    Is all intimacy about bodies? What is it about our bodies that makes -intimacy? What happens when our bodies distance intimacy from us? This -small anthology of poems and short stories lives with these -questions—about having a body without intimacy and intimacy without a -body. This project is also a homage to everyone who has come before and -alongside me, sharing their vulnerability and emotions on the Internet. -I called the places where these things happen backplaces. They are -small, tender online rooms where people experiencing societally -uncomfortable pain can find relief, ease, and transcendence.
    -

    -

    I made three backplaces for you to see, click, and feel: Solar -Sibling, Hermit Fantasy, and Cake Intimacies. Each of these is the -result of its own unique performance or project. Some of the stories I -will share carry memories of pain—both physical and emotional. As you -sit in the audience, know I am with you, holding your hand through each -scene. If the performance feels overwhelming at any point, you have my -full permission to step out, take a break, or leave. This is not -choreographed, and I care deeply for you.
    -

    -
    - - -
    -

    Solar Sibling is an online performance of shared loss about leaving -and siblings. This project used comments people left on TikTok poetry. I -extracted the emotions from these comments, mixed them with my own, and -crafted them into poems. It is an ongoing performance, ending only when -your feelings are secretly whispered to me. When you do, by typing into -the comment box, your feelings are sent to me and the first act closes -as the sun rises.
    -

    + +
    +

    Talking Documents

    +
    +

    - - + +
    +

    This project appeared as a need to explore potential bureaucratic +dramaturgies within the educational institution I was part as a student. +I was curious about educational bureaucratic mechanisms being driven by +smaller-scale paperwork struggles and peers’ narratives, stories and +experiences. However, unexpected emergencies - due to my eviction on the +31st of January 2024 - placed centrally my personal struggles unfolded +in parallel with the making period. I ended up conducting accidentally +auto-ethnography as the project was dynamically being reshaped due to +the material constraints of the bureaucratic timeline.

    +

    Talking Documents are performative bureaucratic text inspections that +intend to create temporal public interventions through performative +readings. I utilized the paperwork interface of my smaller-scale story +in order to unravel and foreground questions related to the role of +bureaucracy as less material border and as a regulatory mechanism +reflecting narratives, ideologies, policies.

    +

    Central element of this project is a seven-act scenario that +construct my personal paperwork story, unraveling the actual struggles +of my communication with the government. The body of the text of the +“theatrical” script is sourced from the original documents, email +threads as well as recordings of the conversations with the municipality +of Rotterdam I documented and archived throughout this period. I +preserved the sequence of the given sentences and by discarding the +graphic design of the initial forms, I structured and repurposed the +text into a playable scenario.

    +

    +

    +

    +

    I perceive the document as a unit and as the fundamental symbolic +interface of the bureaucratic network. The transformation of the +materiality of a document into a scenario to be enacted collectively in +public aims to examine these artifacts and highlight the shrouded +performative elements of these processes.

    +

    I see the collective readings of these scenarios as a way of instant +publishing and as a communal tool of inspecting bureaucratic bordering +infrastructures. How can these re-enactments be situated in different +institutional contexts and examine their structures? I organized a +series of performative readings of my own bureaucratic literature in +different spaces and contexts, pubic and semi-public WDKA, Art Meets +Radical Openness Festival in Linz, the City Hall of Rotterdam where I +invited people to perform the play together, like a tiny theater.

    +
    - - + +
    -

    Hermit Fantasy is a short story about a bot who wants to be a hermit. -Inspired by an email response from a survey I conducted about receiving -emotional support on the Internet, this story explores the contradiction -of being online while wanting to disconnect. As an act it’s a series of -letters, click by click.
    -

    +

    +
    +

    The marginal voices of potential applicants are embodying and +enacting a role. “The speech does not only describe but brings things +into existence”(Austin, 1975). My intention was to stretch the limits of +dramaturgical speech through vocalizing a document and turn individual +administrative cases into public ones. How do the inscribed words in the +documents are not descriptive but on the contrary “are instrumentalized +in getting things done”(Butler,1997). Words as active agents. Bodies as +low-tech “human microphones”. A group of people performs the +bureaucratic scenario in chorus, out loud, in the corridor of the +school’s building, in the main hall, at the square right across, outside +of the municipality building.

    +

    I documented and recorded these public acts and I re-created the +collectively voiced scenario. This audio piece is a constellation of +different recordings and soundscapes of these public moments, a vocal +archive, published in the graduation exhibition of XPUB in 2024.

    +
    -The first letter. - + +
    - - -
    -

    Cake Intimacies is a performance that took a year to bring together. -It is a small selection of stories people told me and I held to memory -and rewrote here. The stories come from two performances I hosted. -First, I asked participants to eat cake, sitting facing or away from -each other and sharing their stories about cake and the Internet. The -second performance was hosted at the Art Meets Radical Openness -Festival, as part of the Turning of the Internet workshop. For this -performance, I predicted participants’ future lives on the Internet -using felted archetypes and received stories from their Internet past in -return. Now the stories are here, each of them a cake with a filling -that tells a story, merging the bodily with the digital and making a -mess of it all.
    -

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    The play ends as all plays do. The curtains close, the website stays -but the stories will never sound the same. For the final act, I give you -the stories. It’s one last game, one last joke to ask my question again. -Digital intimacies about the digital, our bodies and the cakes we eat. -For the last act, I ask you to eat digital stories. To eat a comment, to -eat a digital intimacy. Sharing an act of physical intimacy with -yourself and with me, by eating sweets together. Sweets about digital -intimacies that never had a body. There is no moral, no bow to wrap the -story in. A great big mess of transcendence into the digital, of -intimacy and of bodies. The way it always is. Thankfully.
    -

    -
    - - + +
    - -
    + +

    Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s

    @@ -1933,105 +2030,128 @@ and solidarity in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis. London: Rowman - -
    -

    Talking Documents

    + +
    +
    +

    Wink!

    -

    +

    A Prototype +for Interactive Children’s Literature

    +

    Wink is a prototype for an interactive picture book platform. This +platform aims to make reading into a mindfull and thought provoking +process by using interactive and playful elements, multiple stories +within one narrative and sound elements. Especially today where +consumerism and low attention span is a rising issue especially amongst +young readers, this was an important task to tackle. The thought of Wink +emerged to find a more sustainable and creative way of reading for +elementary school children.

    - - + +
    -

    This project appeared as a need to explore potential bureaucratic -dramaturgies within the educational institution I was part as a student. -I was curious about educational bureaucratic mechanisms being driven by -smaller-scale paperwork struggles and peers’ narratives, stories and -experiences. However, unexpected emergencies - due to my eviction on the -31st of January 2024 - placed centrally my personal struggles unfolded -in parallel with the making period. I ended up conducting accidentally -auto-ethnography as the project was dynamically being reshaped due to -the material constraints of the bureaucratic timeline.

    -

    Talking Documents are performative bureaucratic text inspections that -intend to create temporal public interventions through performative -readings. I utilized the paperwork interface of my smaller-scale story -in order to unravel and foreground questions related to the role of -bureaucracy as less material border and as a regulatory mechanism -reflecting narratives, ideologies, policies.

    -

    Central element of this project is a seven-act scenario that -construct my personal paperwork story, unraveling the actual struggles -of my communication with the government. The body of the text of the -“theatrical” script is sourced from the original documents, email -threads as well as recordings of the conversations with the municipality -of Rotterdam I documented and archived throughout this period. I -preserved the sequence of the given sentences and by discarding the -graphic design of the initial forms, I structured and repurposed the -text into a playable scenario.

    -

    -

    -

    -

    I perceive the document as a unit and as the fundamental symbolic -interface of the bureaucratic network. The transformation of the -materiality of a document into a scenario to be enacted collectively in -public aims to examine these artifacts and highlight the shrouded -performative elements of these processes.

    -

    I see the collective readings of these scenarios as a way of instant -publishing and as a communal tool of inspecting bureaucratic bordering -infrastructures. How can these re-enactments be situated in different -institutional contexts and examine their structures? I organized a -series of performative readings of my own bureaucratic literature in -different spaces and contexts, pubic and semi-public WDKA, Art Meets -Radical Openness Festival in Linz, the City Hall of Rotterdam where I -invited people to perform the play together, like a tiny theater.

    -
    +

    Working as a children’s literature editor for years, I came to a +realisation that picture books were turning into another object that +kids read and consume on daily basis.

    - - + +
    -

    -
    -

    The marginal voices of potential applicants are embodying and -enacting a role. “The speech does not only describe but brings things -into existence”(Austin, 1975). My intention was to stretch the limits of -dramaturgical speech through vocalizing a document and turn individual -administrative cases into public ones. How do the inscribed words in the -documents are not descriptive but on the contrary “are instrumentalized -in getting things done”(Butler,1997). Words as active agents. Bodies as -low-tech “human microphones”. A group of people performs the -bureaucratic scenario in chorus, out loud, in the corridor of the -school’s building, in the main hall, at the square right across, outside -of the municipality building.

    -

    I documented and recorded these public acts and I re-created the -collectively voiced scenario. This audio piece is a constellation of -different recordings and soundscapes of these public moments, a vocal -archive, published in the graduation exhibition of XPUB in 2024.

    -
    +

    Teachers and parents were finding it difficult to find new books +constantly or were tired of rereading the same book.

    - - + +
    - - + + +
    +

    +

    +

    As a young person in the publishing sector, I believe there should be +more options for children as there is for adults; such as ebooks, +audiobooks etc. But moreover a “book” that can be redefined, reread or +be interacted with… So I revisited an old story I wrote, translated to +English and called it, “Bee Within”.

    +

    Bee Within, is a story about grief/memory and it is based on my +experiences throughout the years. I erased it, rewrote it, edited it, +destroyed it multiple times over the past years; simultaneously with new +experiences of loss. In the end, I believe the story turned out to be an +ode to remembering or might I say an ode to not being able to forget or +an ode to the fear of forgetting which I now think is a great and sweet +battle between death and life. I think it is an important subject to +touch upon, especially for children dealing with trauma in many parts of +the world.

    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    Over the past two years, experimenting with storytelling techniques, +interactivity options and workshops with children and adults, around +reading and doing various exercises on Bee Within, I improved the story +to be a more playful and interactive one which can be re-read, re-played +and eventually re-formed non digitally to be reachable for all +children.

    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + +
    - -
    + +

    Fair Leads

    Fair @@ -2250,7 +2370,7 @@ very guilty and I remember thinking I betrayed the person I lost.

    that I thought were here to hurt me but in the end they made me understand that its ok to let things go and every being does what it has to do to find its way of survival. The little habitat that they chose to -create in my room seemed like a calling or a sign that I can aff ect +create in my room seemed like a calling or a sign that I can affect another living being significantly without being aware of it. This goes for everything, no matter if some people leave us in this world, they have living matter in us that keeps pulsing. So then I started @@ -2323,7 +2443,7 @@ moment a certain story sparked for us.

    story might even begin from here although it isn’t the beginning. Interactivity is one of the storytelling forms that can signifi- cantly improve children’s creativity. This is mainly because children as -readers or listeners get to contribute and aff ect the story. This of +readers or listeners get to contribute and affect the story. This of course requires and improves creative and active thinking. Getting the chance to choose a path for a fictional character gives the child the freedom and confi dence of constructing a world, a character or an @@ -2416,17 +2536,17 @@ ambition, which is a good start to foster the love for reading. 11

    Loop 4

    Ways of using interactivity in digital platforms

    -

    CASA theory, also known as the Cognitive-Aff ective-Social Theory of +

    CASA theory, also known as the Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning and Development, is a framework used in educational psychology -to understand how learning occurs within the context of cognitive, aff -ective, and social factors. Research on cognitive learning with keeping -in mind the limited attention span and memory factors. For children in -specific, I think these are very important factors to keep in mind when -trying to design an interactive experience. This is because children get -bored very easily and can be disengaged because of failure of -solving/understanding something in a story. This is something I kept in -mind as I wrote for children and chose the interactive elements in the -story. CASA framework helped me understand the key elements in designing for children.

    @@ -2912,1177 +3032,97 @@ me in my studies and encouraged me to do better, always…

    - -
    -
    -

    Wink!

    -
    -

    A Prototype -for Interactive Children’s Literature

    -

    Wink is a prototype for an interactive picture book platform. This -platform aims to make reading into a mindfull and thought provoking -process by using interactive and playful elements, multiple stories -within one narrative and sound elements. Especially today where -consumerism and low attention span is a rising issue especially amongst -young readers, this was an important task to tackle. The thought of Wink -emerged to find a more sustainable and creative way of reading for -elementary school children.

    -
    - - -
    -

    Working as a children’s literature editor for years, I came to a -realisation that picture books were turning into another object that -kids read and consume on daily basis.

    -
    - - -
    -

    Teachers and parents were finding it difficult to find new books -constantly or were tired of rereading the same book.

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    -

    -

    As a young person in the publishing sector, I believe there should be -more options for children as there is for adults; such as ebooks, -audiobooks etc. But moreover a “book” that can be redefined, reread or -be interacted with… So I revisited an old story I wrote, translated to -English and called it, “Bee Within”.

    -

    Bee Within, is a story about grief/memory and it is based on my -experiences throughout the years. I erased it, rewrote it, edited it, -destroyed it multiple times over the past years; simultaneously with new -experiences of loss. In the end, I believe the story turned out to be an -ode to remembering or might I say an ode to not being able to forget or -an ode to the fear of forgetting which I now think is a great and sweet -battle between death and life. I think it is an important subject to -touch upon, especially for children dealing with trauma in many parts of -the world.

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    Over the past two years, experimenting with storytelling techniques, -interactivity options and workshops with children and adults, around -reading and doing various exercises on Bee Within, I improved the story -to be a more playful and interactive one which can be re-read, re-played -and eventually re-formed non digitally to be reachable for all -children.

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    - -
    - - -
    -

    ⊞

    +

    do you ever dream about +work?

    +

    stephen kerr, 2024

    +

    Reading an email in a dream and you can hear the voices of every word +you read. Or the one where you’re on a computer working, frantically +typing, late, stressed, rushed. What about that dream where you had no +idea how to do your job, everyone is going to know you’re a fake. In +this project I have made spaces for us to share our dreams about labour, +and through that allow conversations about our work, our working +conditions, and the feelings we’re left with when we fall asleep each +night.

    +

    For the past year I have spoken with designers, artists and makers +finding out how they spend their time in everyday life, what they +believe and how they feel. In our dreams we feel the weird bits the +most: hmm a bit uncomfortable, ooh that gave me a fright, aah so, so +sad. Through performances, online tools and storytelling, I want to hold +these dreams together, to unite our experiences. Online I have made tools to gather +stories and tools to tell them. I have facilitated group dream re-enactments (a few times), using felt dolls to share our night time +theatre.

    +

    stephen kerr is a graphic designer or a musician or a very weird +and long dream.

    + + +
    -

    Stephen Kerr

    -

    ⊞

    -

    Thesis submitted to the Department of Experimental Publishing, Piet -Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, in partial fulfilment of the -requirements for the final examination for the degree of Master of Arts -in Fine Art & ⊞: Experimental Publishing.

    -

    Adviser: Marloes de Valk
    -Second Reader: Joseph Knierzinger
    -Word count: 7828 words

    -

    To de-sign design, I -will assign a sign: ⊞

    -

    This symbol represents design in this writing in an attempt to avoid -the assumed meaning of the word and examine it as something unknown, to -mystify it, to examine its structure. The label ⊞ is a functional part -of a belief system involving order, structure, and rationality and I -want to break it. Removing the label is part of loosening the object, -making it avilable to transition (Berlant, 2022).

    - - + +
    - - + +
    - - + +
    - - + +
    +Web page to share and read labour dreams. Scroll down for more. +
    -Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954. - + +
    +Interactive dream telling. Click then type your story. +
    - - + +
    - - + +
    - - -
    -
    -

    Introduction

    -

    This document is a collection of fragments exploring beliefs about -labour in the creative industries, in particular graphic ⊞. Each -fragment focusses on the social, cultural, political, spiritual or -religious aspects of these beliefs through an ethnographic lens. They -record, celebrate and question the meaning that ⊞ers give to their -actions and how those meanings affect the world they live in. And it’s -about how ⊞ers feel when we live with these beliefs: we feel a bit funny -and I want to talk about it. 

    -

    I use various modes of address and different lenses to further -fragment the definition of ⊞. The origin of the word thesis is to set or -to put, but I am trying to show you something liquid that can’t be -placed but shimmers and disappears through the sand. I document some ⊞ -activities, in my own work and the work and writings of others who -identify with the label of ⊞er. The writing dissolves and reintegrates -definitions of ⊞ from different voices to show the multiplicity of -beliefs from practitioners, and to explore what it means to acknowledge -these beliefs beside eachother: the tensions and harmonies, some -lineages and some breaks. What is going on here in this thing we call -⊞? 

    -

    This is a collection of stories about living life with particular -working conditions, located at certain points in social, economic and -cultural webs. In my practice-based research I gather and tell these -stories through (auto)ethnographic methods: documenting how ⊞er’s work, -conducting interviews, improvising communal performances and exploratory -tool-making. This document collates and reflects on this research. 

    -

    What is a ⊞er?

    -
      -
    1. A ⊞er is a person who wakes up at 5am but refuses to open their -eyes. There are birds talking outside, it’s probably getting bright -already. Something is wrong, not sure what. They finally open their eyes -and there’s the ceiling again. When the light comes in sideways over the -curtains this early you can see all the little ripples and imperfections -in it. Nothing. Ribcage. Stomach. The front of the ⊞er’s legs ache. It -would be better to sleep again. Have to pay taxes again next week. A ⊞er -is someone who wonders if that invoice will come through I need to -follow up on it. The birds are so loud. 
      2. -
    2. The role of the ⊞er is to count back from five to two and -realise that was only three hours same as yesterday. They use ⊞ thinking -to never get back to sleep. They need excellent time management skills -to make this short moment feel like an eternity, several times a week. -⊞ers have an acute spatial awareness and an eye for detail: although the -ceiling seems miles away they focus on each tiny ripple for hours. A ⊞er -is someone who will work the whole waking day today, but it’s better -than last week when there was no work. ⊞ers look at their phone and see -their alarm is going to go off in ten minutes, so they switch it off and -get up.
      3. -
    -

    The precarity of working in the creative industries, in particular as -a freelancer or within a small studio, induces anxiety. There is a -belief that the ⊞er as freelancer is empowered by their autonomy, but in -fact the ⊞er as worker is trapped by it. ⊞ is work and this work is -believed to be inherently good. Work in our society is understood as “an -individual moral practice and collective ethical obligation” which -shapes the worker’s identity in positive ways (Weeks, 2011). The ⊞er -believes they are a skilled or talented worker, someone who possesses -spatial awareness, time management skills, and the capacity to carry out -work effectively and efficiently. 

    -

    ⊞ers are entangled in the Protestant religious underpinnings of the -European work ethic (Pater, 2022). ⊞ is seen as a vocation which -expresses and creates the ⊞er’s identity, and the process or its results -make a valuable contribution to society. People understand the world and -interact with it smoothly, thanks to the work of ⊞ers. ⊞ers pick the -right materials to save the planet and increase efficiency and whatever -else it is people find important. But the ⊞er becomes anxious despite -meeting these goals and becoming this person. In reality, the ⊞er is a -bot, the ⊞er is software. Value is extracted from their time, creativity -and expertise which makes them stressed. ⊞ers are a creative cloud, a -service to be tapped into, a cpu being run too hot. There is something -to be learnt from the revelation that being replaced by machines proves -we were being treated as machines all along. 

    -

    Geestelijk

    -

    There was a belief that ⊞ could be a crystal goblet (Warde, 1913), -something unbiased, clear and, in more recent versions of the theory, -serving the context it fits within. But the foundations of this belief -in functionality and rationality dont seem to come themselves from -something functional or rational. 

    -

    De Stijl members, such as Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg -(Figure 6), in their 1917 manifesto described a “new consciousness of -the age […] directed towards the universal”. There was a drive towards -universal standardisation or pureness of culture from the rich white -men. Purity is a concept that turns up a lot in Mondriaan’s writings, eg -Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art (1917). They claimed a shared -spirit was driving this universalisation. A later paragraph of the -manifesto is translated into english as:

    -
      -
    • “The artists of to-day have been driven the whole world over by the -same consciousness and therefore have taken part from an intellectual -point of view in this war against the domination of individual -despotism. They therefore sympathize with all who work for the formation -of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture, either intellectually -or materially.”
      • -
    -

    In this translation it appears the authors believed in an emerging -consciousness of the age, something collective which would bring an -international unity. The members of De Stijl were neither aligning -themselves with the capitalists or socialists but believed in an inner -connection between those who were joined in the spiritual body of the -new world (De Stijl, Manifesto III, 1921). The word intellectual, or -geestelijk in the original Dutch, can also be translated as “spiritual, -mental, ecclesiastical, clerical, sacred, ghostly, pneumatic”. The -choice to translate as intellectual seems to be the most rational -interpretation of this sentence, an effort to make the theories of De -Stijl appear more materialist without the spiritual element. Compare -with this translation:

    -
      -
    • “The artists of today, all over the world, impelled by one and the -same consciousness, have taken part on the spiritual plane in the world -war against the domination of individualism, of arbitrariness. They -therefore sympathise with all who are fighting spiritually or materially -for the formation of an international unity in life, art and -culture.”
      • -
    -

    In this translation it is clearer that the members of De Stijl saw a -link between the effects of what they made materially and their attempts -to be fighting spiritually against the domination of individualism. I -care about this story because of how it contextualises contemporary ⊞ -practice. Is contemporary ⊞ practice still involved in this spiritual -battle? Did the new consciousness of 1917 survive the past century, did -it procreate? Can aesthetics have generational trauma? William Morris, -Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, International Style, International -Typographic Style, Swiss Style, then what happened. Modernist artists -had spiritual beliefs, and again I care about these people from a -hundred years ago because of the effect they have on the present. 

    -

    Imagine I could trace this thought from Mondriaan all the way to -myself, wow, cool thesis. Swiss style became corporate identity ⊞ and -encouraged minimalism in ⊞. 21st century Flat ⊞, such as Metro ⊞ -language from Microsoft and Material ⊞ (Google, 2014), claim direct -descendance from the International Typographic Style and that pretty -much brings us up to date. I wonder about the use of the word Material -in Google’s ⊞ strategy, I wonder about the ghostly absence of the -geestelijk fight of De Stijl. Is Google’s choice of name another -example, as with the subtle change in the translation above, that the -spiritual element is no longer as important a part of the ⊞er’s -worldview as it was a hundred years ago? 

    -

    Excerpt -from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023

    -

    Conor Clarke is a Director of ⊞ Factory, independent Irish ⊞ -agency based in Dublin. His work has featured in international -publications such as Who’s Who in Graphic ⊞, Graphis, Novum -Gebrauchsgrafik, and the New York Art Directors Club Annual. He was the -recipient of the Catherine Donnelly Lifetime Achievement Award for his -contribution to ⊞ in Ireland and is the Course Director of ⊞ West, an -international summer ⊞ school located in the beautiful village of -Letterfrack on the West Coast of Ireland. (⊞west.eu, 2023)

    -
    -
      -
    • SK: What do you think is the best shape?
      • -
    • CC: Oh yeah, good god. square.
      • -
    • SK: Square? how come?
      • -
    • CC: Dunno, it just, it just seems resolved. I don’t like spheres. -Circles I sometimes like.
      • -
    • SK: Yeah, squares, do you use grids?
      • -
    • CC: Sometimes. Not always.
      • -
    • SK: Once you have grids squares make sense. But you like squares -maybe because you like logos?
      • -
    • CC: If I’m in an art gallery and I see, you know Joseph Albers -(Figure 5) or something I just kind of feel, I just like, or Malevich i -just like that stuff. If I see a Kandinsky and all those squiggles and -circles it just, that just kind of upsets me a little bit.
      • -
    • SK: That’s a bit chaotic?
      • -
    • CC: Yeah. And even if I’m looking at Vermeer I can see some kind of -square structure and logic, for some reason that always appeals to -me.
      • -
    • SK: Things are a bit organised when there’s squares around?
      • -
    • CC: Yeah. And really great artists who don’t work that way I look at -their stuff and think well that’s just beyond me.
      • -
    • SK: Its something else?
      • -
    • CC: Yeah. so yeah.
      • -
    • SK: At least you didn’t say triangle.
      • -
    • CC: Oh good god. Good god no.
      • -
    - -

    Maths and grids

    -

    Why not choose a spiral or a circle if you dream of ⊞ers as shamans? -Why the grid of squares? There are strong links beween ⊞ and -mathematics, Josef Muller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems (Figure 2) -for example or Karl Gerstner’s ⊞ing Programmes (1964). I read -these ⊞ theorists as you might comparatively read religious texts. What -were or are the beliefs of the authors and their audiences?
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    
    -    

    -
      -
    • “To describe the problem is part of the solution. This implies: not -to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by intellectual -criteria. The more exact and complete these criteria are, the more -creative the work becomes.”
      • -
    • (Gerstner, 1964)
      • -
    • “This is the expression of a professional ethos: the ⊞er’s work -should have the clearly intelligible, objective, functional and -aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.”
      • -
    • (Muller-Brockman, 1981)
      • -
    -

    These texts present a worldview where ⊞ can be mathematical, -objective or problem-solving. In Muller-Brockman’s text the focus is on -the formal qualities of the ⊞ in particular the use of grids and -typographic systems. Gerstner’s focus is more on the effect of the ⊞, -and the ability of ⊞ to solve a problem. Rationality and creativity are -presented as proportional to eachother. He makes space for the -intellectual by pushing aside feelings. 

    -

    The graphic ⊞er is presented as a functional actor in society who -makes the world better. Gerstner seems to be implying that creative ⊞ -comes from following the intellect and some rational cause and effect -process. I find it interesting that ⊞ claims this rational basis in the -same historical period when science and mathematics, its supposed -foundations, became much less rational and predictable, for example in -chaos theory. It makes me think that the rationality serves some other -purpose.

    -

    The ⊞ grid and the written -word

    -

    Why do ⊞ers believe in using a grid to present the written word, and -where did this belief come from and how did it develop? It can be -materially traced back to Guthenberg and metal type but that’s boring. -Magic squares have been used in astrology books and grimoires throughout -history (Figure 3). French poet Stéphane Mallarmé is sometimes quoted as -a precursor to modernist typography (Muller-Brockmann, 1981). Why did -Steve McCaffrey include the manifesto of De Stijl with CARNIVAL -(1973)? De Stijl is best known for its painters and architects, and -theories from both of these fields affected later ⊞ theories. But they -also were poets and had literary theories similar to the german -expressionists. Man’s attempt to find oneness with the whole of creation -through a cosmic hybris. 

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      -
    • “An artists’ book featuring a series of typewriter concrete poems -printed on perforated pages meant to be torn out and arranged into a -square of four. Complete with instructions, a reproduction of a de Stijl -manifesto from 1920, an errata slip, and publisher’s promotional -postcard.”
      • -
    • Description of Steve McCaffrey’s CARNIVAL
      -(The Idea of the Book, 2024)
      • -
    -
    -

    The developments of the written word and its relationship to form in -the 20th century is very much a part of the history of ⊞. I care about -this story because it affects contemporary practitioners. I believe -there is something magical in graphic composition and the layout of -typography, something that can’t be grasped in the words alone. They’re -non-canonical for ⊞ers but how have people who put words on pages like -Mallarmé and McCaffrey influenced my beliefs about the written word? -What makes one thing fit in the category of art, another ⊞ and yet -another concrete poetry?

    -

    Mystically -assigning or finding meanings in ⊞

    -

    This autoethnographic annotation attempts to really miss as many -cultural and technical cues as possible. It’s watching the ⊞er, me, and -being totally mystified by their behaviour. 

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    -
      -
    1. A rhythm exists and I wonder why. There is music and there are -voices, and my fingers press the keys and the colours of the screen -flicker and morph. There appears to be a life or energy flowing -somewhere between these things and I am curious about it.
      2. -
    2. The screen shimmers between different symbols, letters, images. -The colours are symbolic. White means the ground, although sometimes it -switches to white symbols on a dark ground. They are full of meaning and -relationship. I press two buttons to the left of the keyboard and the -screen answers with a flicker.
      3. -
    3. I count out loud to 40. It symbolises both the number of pages -to be made and the enormity of the task. It represents a period in the -desert, long but with an end in sight. What is the relationship of the -desert to the stars? If the screen can flicker from a dark to a light -ground, is it possible for the sky to also switch from day to -night?
      4. -
    4. I have taken three of the forty steps.
      5. -
    5. I have taken seven of the forty steps.
      6. -
    6. ⊞ is a series of movements and reconfigurations. It is a -creative act and one of elision. I use the keyboard to communicate my -will to the machine with commands such as “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V”. I -firstly inform the computer that I wish to control it. Each letter has a -deep and layered meaning. CVCVCVCVCVCVCVCVCV. “Alt+Tab” asks the screen -to flicker. The computer must match my multithreading. It must be -prepared to follow my changing demands in our shared focus. FAVCV. F is -to seek, but it is optimistically labelled to find. I enter the -incorrect combination of symbols (“samle”) the incantation is useless -and I will not find what I seek. I try again “sample” and the computer -gives me what I desire. Why does the machine demand perfection? Why does -it value perfection in me, what is it trying to teach me? Why wont it -leave me alone?
      7. -
    7. I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.
      8. -
    -

    What -does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons -and making the screen vibrate?

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      -
    • “⊞ only generates longing”
      • -
    • (Van Der Velden, 2006)
      • -
    -

    I wasn’t trying to generate longing, I was trying to make an annual -report. It was a corporate job I was working on, a nice one to have -because it’s fairly well paid and not too complicated. A bit boring and -kinda repetitive, but you can just put your headphones on and get stuck -into it. I was pretty happy with the results in the end, but for sure -not the type of work you’re supposed to be proud of as a ⊞er.

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      -
    • “I found myself way over my head with, believe it or not, a -catalogue and price list for bathroom equipment. Nothing I’ve done since -has seemed as difficult.”
      • -
    • Michael Bierut (creativechair.org, 2018)
      • -
    -

    And of course Piet Zwart’s (Figure 8) famous electrical cable -catalogues. ⊞ is just work, chill. Is a ⊞er a user or a server? Maybe ⊞ -is an example of our general belief in this dichotomy not quite making -sense or fitting reality. The ⊞er is working for whom? Themselves? Their -clients?

    -
    -
      -
    • “attempts to undo the privileged position of the agentive -subject can help us understand the strange status of repetitive and -quasi-robotic labour in today’s digital age.”
      • -
    • (Hu, 2022)
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    -

    This quote relates to freelancing generally in some way, and -deconstructing the work or worker. Are workers things? Yeah, kinda. ⊞ers -don’t have super powers, contrary to some beliefs within the industry. -For example on what⊞cando.com it is suggested that we should “re⊞ -everything!”. Let’s actually not do that. ⊞ers are mostly just humans -working on computers like so many other bots. ⊞ers try to create -clarity, to assign meaning and understand: “Confusion and clutter are -failures of ⊞, not attributes of information” (Tufte, 1990, p.53). What -if the sounds of my fingers and my keyboard are not noise but music: we -are quasi-robots and maybe its good to listen to our little Taylorist -finger tappings and see what else is being said.

    -

    Excerpt -from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition on 1st -December 2023.

    -

    Distinctive Repetition is an award-winning graphic ⊞ studio based in -Dublin, Ireland. Principal ⊞er and Institute of Creative Advertising and -⊞ past-president, Rossi McAuley, is joined in this interview by ⊞ers -Jenny Leahy and Ben Nagle. This interview was carried out around a table -with the interviewer in the bottom right corner (◲) and the three -members of the studio in the other three seats.

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      -
    • ◲: whats your favourite colour?
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    • ◰: red.
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    • ◲: red.
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    • ◱: really? thats it? are you fucking kidding me?
      • -
    • ◰: do i fill it in?
      • -
    • ◳: they’re warm up questions obviously they’re to get you -comfortable answering questions.
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    • ◳: yellow
      • -
    • ◲: if the seat of your consciousness was in your hands, like all of -your feelings and your thoughts and your desires and your emotions come -through your hands, can you describe to me the day that you’ve had so -far please?
      • -
    • ◳: jelly that’s not quite solid
      • -
    • ◳: not quite solidified in the fridge yet
      • -
    • ◳: and its just oozing through my fingers
      • -
    • (redacted sentence)
      • -
    • ◳: that’s what today has been like but its my brain thats oozing out -of me
      • -
    • ◲: yes. that’s a good answer. ok will we keep going in a -circle?
      • -
    • ◱: whatever you like bro.
      • -
    • ◲: do you ever dream about work?
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    • ◱: all the time.
      • -
    • ◲: would you care to share one of those dreams?
      • -
    • ◱: they’re always angst-ridden, never, they’re never eh, they’re -never positive solution-solved things, we’ve always like lists and lists -and lists of things to do they’re never resolved they’re always like -shit we’ve, its, its always problematic, and its all the time.
      • -
    • ◳: weren’t you taking grids out of drawers in a dream recently?
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    • ◱: yeah yeah.
      • -
    • (obscured)
      • -
    • ◲: why were you taking grids out of drawers?
      • -
    • ◱: emm recently I had a dream where I was giving out to ◳ about not -having things done, this ◳, participant two, about not having things -done, and i was opening up drawers in my office and I was like, just use -this grid and the drawers were full of grids and I was giving them to -her and saying just fucking use those grids for fucks sake why don’t we -use those grids.
      • -
    • (section redacted by request of interviewees)
      • -
    - -

    About the interview

    -

    Before meeting them in person, I mailed a small booklet to the -interviewees entitled Enthusiasm to give context to the -conversation. The word enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or -possession by a god. The booklet recounted three mystical dreams René -Descartes had which he credited as a moment of inspiration or enthusiasm -that influenced his later work on rationalism, and related to his work -on geometry and grids (Figure 4). As well as the content of the dreams, -the booklet described their relevance:
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    • “404 years ago on the night of the 10th November 1619, three dreams -were dreamt. A 23-year old man is “filled with enthusiasm” and enters a -feverish sleep in Ulm, Germany. In this process of enthusiasm and -dreamwork, he discovers the foundations of a wonderful science. The -Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the Search of Truth in the -Sciences will be suppressed by the churches, both Calvinist and -Catholic. They are a threat to the world view, and a threat to religion. -The cartesian grid uses measurements to estabish relationships. -Cartesian geometry has let us fly spaceships and zone and divide land. -Some things have happened. Some good things, some bad things. The link -is broken or breaking or should be broken. It’s rotting. Maybe there’s a -better way we can interpret these dreams now.”
      • -
    -

    Descartes felt that interpreting his dreams was an appropriate method -to develop a rational theory of skepticism, which led to some of the -philosophical foundations of modern scientific and mathematical -theories. The booklet also drew parallels with Martin Luther’s -scrupulous doubt, “Only God and certain madmen have no doubts!”. Like -Descartes, Luther’s new theories helped to give the basis for the -structure of thought for the following centuries. These stories were -presented together to direct the focus of the conversation towards -belief, rationalism and grids. The fact that rationalism is a belief -system, as pervasive as it may be, and suggestively hinting through its -relationship with grids that there -is a relationship with ⊞.

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      -
    • ◳: jelly that’s not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge -yet and its just oozing through my fingers
      • -
    - -

    They seem so sad it hurts to hear them talk about the oozing. Are you -supposed to put jelly in the fridge, it just needs time to settle right? -My nana used to put the jelly in the freezer. There’s an instability in -how they talk in the interview for sure, or more a desire for stability. -Was it ever stable? Do you really want it to be? Its gooey and not the -way it should be but its still jelly and thats fun and its probably -delicious. Their hands are there as something that is for grasping and -jelly is there as something that can’t be grasped. Is it terrifying, are -they resigned to it? 

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      -
    • ◱: they’re always angst-ridden, never, they’re never eh, they’re -never positive solution-solved things, we’ve always like lists and lists -and lists of things to do they’re never resolved they’re always like -shit we’ve, its, its always problematic, and its all the time.
      • -
    -

    I can’t explain the angst they are feeling but I can describe it -because I’ve felt it too. It feels like I’m having a heart attack. It -feels like I’m about to black out. It got to a stage where I couldn’t -talk to other people without being completely frozen jelly. It is the -feeling of lists and lists and lists. It’s the feeling of never -resolved, all the time. We believe we are busy and under pressure and -struggling to survive. That makes us anxious and stressed.

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    • ◱: just fucking use those grids
      • -
    - -

    The grids are not being used, the grids are useless. Drawers full of -them, all useless. Whats the point of sitting here in this studio. They -dont fit, they dont make sense, they’re trying to order something that -can’t be ordered. Or possibly shouldnt be ordered, the ordering is -misplaced and there is a human urge to stop, just stop.

    -

    Modern work

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    • “A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt, -and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”
      • -
    • Adolf Loos, On Thrift, 1924 (Loos, 2019)
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    -

    Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as -Ornament and Crime in 1910 influenced modernist ideals of -functionalism and minimalism. He rejected ornament and favoured the use -of good materials which showed “God’s own wonder”. I wonder what is the -relation of Loos’ ideas to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the -Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1905) that was published five years -earlier. Work as a duty which benefits the individual and society as a -whole, do ⊞ers still believe this today? I like taking Loos’ quote out -of context here, instead in the context of the feelings of the -interviewees, revolting the supposedly modern cause they are working -with. 

    -

    But also Loos was found guilty of pedophelia and it feels kind of -aggressive to include his voice here at all. This is part of the point -of what I’m getting at: there’s this tradition of ⊞ and so many parts of -it make me uncomfortable or really disgusted and I don’t know what to do -with all that. I just wanted to go to art school and draw circles and -maybe thats the problem and sure simple materials are pretty, but yeah -jelly is exactly what it feels like, you’re right.

    -

    Graphic ⊞ is often performed by paid professionals in what is known -as the creative industry: as a profession and an activity, ⊞ is -considered to be creative. There are some positive preconceptions about -the creative industry and what it does, but I see it as an assimilation -of cultural activity into a neoliberal economic framework. Creativity in -this context is used to reproduce the status quo and and grow capital -(Mould, 2018). But maybe we can profit from examining the margins -created by this terminology: ⊞ is less functional than it seems. People -in creative jobs are stressed and this is reflected in their dreams. -Workers have rights and those rights are systemically undermined. Being -self employed or part of an independent studio brings anxiety and -challenges. Some ⊞ers try to structure the world around them and like -things to be neat and tidy, which makes us uncomfortable existing in -precarious work conditions.

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    The Roman grid

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    The Roman grid was a land measurement method used in the Roman -colonies for example in the Po Valley (Figure 7). With a surveying tool -called the groma, the colonisers would divide the land from north to -south and east to west, resulting in a square grid of roads and land. At -Orange, France, a cadaster has been found which shows the division of -land in a geometric way, helping the colonisers to privatise the land -and allocate it to roman veterans (Figure 1). The name groma, as well as -referring to the surveying tool, describes the central point of the -grid, the origin. Is making grids just a way to control and colonise? Do -all grids have origins? In Descartes’ use of the grid there was also an -attempt to order and structure chaos:

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      -
    • “the grid allowed an embrace of complexity: curved lines that could -be described by mathematical formulas, and thereby were not a sign of -chaos but an expression of the divine mathematical order assumed to be -underlying nature.”
      • -
    • Descartes was Here, Clemens Driessen, 2020
      • -
    -

    A part of the belief systems of ⊞ers is that the world is chaotic and -their role is to order it or even simplify it. This belief may be -inherited from a wider cultural belief of the same general drive: to -order and simplify. Humans try to make sense of the world. ⊞ers make -sense of ⊞ briefs and structure them into something understandable to an -audience or target market. 

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    -
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    • ◱: for fucks sake why don’t we use those grids
      • -
    - -

    Is there an answer to this question, do they know the answer to this -question? I get the impression they have a gut feeling about the answer -but are afraid of it.

    -

    An -analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century

    -

    When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞ -critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:

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    • “The venue was shared with a beer festival, but it was easy to tell -the ⊞ers from the beer fans. The beer fans were more serious.”
      • -
    • (Shaughnessy, 2013)
      • -
    -

    This joke is funny because in the setup where it is easy to tell them -apart, the reader should assume the beer fans are drunk and therefore -raucous, misbehaving or maybe just having a lot of fun. But then he -unexpectedly suggests that they were in fact more serious than the ⊞ers. -This gives the reader a problem to address: is he claiming the ⊞ers were -even more outrageous than what we assumed of the beer fans, or the beer -fans were in fact taking their own conference seriously? As both seem -unbelievable the true funniness of the joke hits home in it’s implied -meaning: ⊞ers are boring as fuck.

    -
    -

    An -annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, -23rd October 2023

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    1. I read an email
      2. -
    2. and
      3. -
    3. I type
      4. -
    4. Alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab ctrl c -ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v -ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v
      5. -
    -
    -

    ⊞ers interact with the computer through keyboard and mouse usage. -Compared to other computer users, my interaction involves lots of -pressing of function keys, something common with other technical -computer users and not so much with other creative workers. What is -creative in the repetitive and low level operation of a computer? Is a -pianist creative? What’s the difference, I think they are being creative -in different ways. ⊞ers and other specialists like video editors or -photo colourists are using a computer as a tool, the musician is -performing on an instrument. Maybe this distinction doesn’t have to be -so clear though. I am questioning this here because I think there is -some fairly complicated belief system about artists and their tools that -has had an effect on ⊞ers. ⊞ gives itself a history of conflict and -harmony between artisans and industrialisation, for example in Bauhaus -founder Walter Gropius claiming William Morris as a precursor (Bayer, -1975). 

    -

    I think it is important to show that ⊞ers are workers with tools, -their repetitive tasks are a form of labour as are their creative -processes. In the annotation opposite my aim is to mystify the manual -and digital labour, rather than demystify the creative ideation -part. 

    -

    Following this annotation I made a digital tool to record all -keystrokes on my computer. Then I printed them out with a pen plotter to -celebrate the labour that had taken place. It took several hours to plot -the keylogging data from just a few minutes of the ⊞er’s labour. 

    -

    LibreOffice

    -
      -
    1. I have no idea what any of this structuring does. And I don’t -care. But I would like to remove the page title from the export. It is -in another tab called User Interface. I also select only page 1 to save -to PDF. Now I run into a software issue in this workflow: the best -software for the next part of the job is Adobe Acrobat Pro. How -aggressively do I want to remove this software from my workflow? Not -aggressively enough I guess because here I am still using it. I don’t -know any other software that really gives me details of how a document -will print or lets me edit PDFs on such a useful level.
      2. -
    2. For example the title still exported (it always does, is this a -LibreOffice bug or just I don’t know what to do with the new software -yet?). It takes two seconds to remove in edit mode in Acrobat. I also -delete the page number, I don’t even know how to turn that off from -LibreOffice. The print dialogue in Acrobat is also so powerful, its so -easy to print actual size which is important to me. It is structured and -reliable. 
      3. -
    -

    Like many other ⊞ers, I was trained to only use Adobe products. I try -to switch to open source alternatives because I believe in using -software developed and maintained by a community rather than a private -company, and as a worker believe I should be in control of my tools. In -this annotation, I was trying to ⊞ and export a single page document in -LibreOffice, an open source desktop publishing software. The -documentation reflects on my frustrations and struggles to switch to a -workflow that relies less on proprietary software for print ⊞. 

    -

    Proprietary software from big mean tech corporations is based on a -model of society and economy where a few people own things and everybody -else has a hard time. I believe the internet gives an opportunity for -knowledge (including software code) to be shared. I like the idea of -modifying my tools, this is easier technically and legally with open -source software. I would prefer my tools to be developed by me and my -peers. These are some of my beliefs as a ⊞er about my work and my tools. -They’re a bit idealistic but also optimistic in a good way.

    -
      -
    • my god im trying to use scribus to prepare a booklet
      -im going crazy
      -im going crazy
      • -
    • Correspondance with kamo, 2024
      • -
    -

    Transitioning to open source software sucks. I spent years learning -other tools and its like starting all over again. There is a dual -commitment in my beliefs about how my tools should be built and my -desire to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. My action of -fumbling with open source programs reflects my belief that they are -worthwhile, and my action of still using Adobe Acrobat Pro reflects my -belief that there are better things to do with my time than restarting -software when it crashes again. Some parts of graphic ⊞ have become so -entangled in capitalist ways of working, it can be immobilising to try -to act without engaging with the icky parts. Our dependencies on -ecosystems of tools and workflows are not enforced, but it can be -difficult to exist outside them, or more specifically, beside them.

    -
      -
    1. “And I don’t care.” 
      2. -
    -

    It’s so obviously not true. The conflict of wanting to change my -workflow with wanting to complete my work tasks efficiently doesn’t keep -me up at night, but it is important to me and other ⊞ers. Open source ⊞ -software is unreliable and unstandardised, it takes longer to do things -and then when they are nearly done the program crashes and I’ve lost all -my work. The standards of open source software have not been widely -embraced by the ⊞ community. To fit into a workflow with peers you have -to use Adobe products. Even web ⊞ers who engage with open standards can -find the need to work with proprietary software, because these tools are -deeply integrated into the workflows of their peers. Can you send me -that in a normal file format please, I can’t open it. 
    - 

    -

    Work Sans

    -
      -
    1. The font is Work Sans SemiBold and it is set in 10pt, colour -“automatic”. I think even if it wasn’t automatic I would make it black, -because I want to print it clearly and cheaply. I use Work Sans because -I am trying to switch to using Open Font Licence and open source fonts -more generally. Previously I would have used Helvetica Now or some other -proprietary font. There is a visual difference between these fonts too -which is also relevant buuuuut this description is getting very detailed -maybe not right now.
      2. -
    -
    -

    Similarly to the software changes, this documentation of my practice -sees me choosing open source fonts. I’m really ambivalent about this. I -do like the idea of being able to modify a font when needed, but I have -done so regardless of whether the font licence allows it. I’m more -comfortable ethically with a font being open source. Buying fonts is -expensive for freelancers and small studios, and open source fonts are -more commonly free of charge. Many ⊞ers pirate fonts rather than buy -them, or are locked into a font subscription. In Adobe software, Adobe -subscription fonts don’t load unless a connection to the creative cloud -is verified.

    -

    For my work, fonts are also a tool, one that I need to practice with -and one that needs to be suitable for the job. So changing font is a -little like a ceramicist changing clay. Work Sans is good for online use -because Google Fonts serves it as a web font for free, the open source -font I want to use is served most reliably by a large corporation I have -issues with. This balancing act of practical considerations and -idealistic beliefs is kind of ironic and reminds me again that my values -can be inconsistent and to me a bit funny. 
    - 
    -The use of fonts as tools is full of tensions from ⊞ers’ belief systems. -Like many ⊞ers, I want to use open source fonts. I also want to use -fonts that will load quickly from a content delivery network for web -projects. I also want fonts to be cheap and well made and I am -interested in fonts that are free. The internet is full of illegal and -pirated copies of fonts that are not supposed to be free of charge. I -sometimes receive or am asked to send font files outside of their -licence. I dont have a huge amount of respect for some of these -licences. But at the same time font ⊞ers are my friends and colleagues, -I have ⊞ed fonts. What does a ⊞er’s actual use of fonts say about their -beliefs around copyright? Do ⊞ers believe in intellectual property? What -value do ⊞ers, specifically typographers, see in their work and that of -their close peers, the font ⊞ers, and how does copyright relate to these -values?

    -
    -

    Follow up questions for -Conor

    -

    Hey Conor, hope you’re keeping well these days? I’ve been going -through the interview from back in December and was wondering if you -would mind me including this piece in my thesis:

    -

    I guess the thesis has become a lot about ⊞ers and the beliefs they -have about their work, and its effect on the world around them. I was -really interested in your answer to this question because I think it -shows something a lot of other ⊞ers including me feel too; some desire -to structure the world around us, to have things be resolved, organised, -fitting together. And not just a desire but maybe even a belief that -this is really what our job is for? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, -but to me this maybe hints at part of the reason we’re am drawn to a -field like graphic ⊞? Curious to know what you think.

    -

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im -totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

    -

    Thanks,
    -Stephen

    -
    -

    Follow up questions for ◱

    -

    Yo ◱, hope all’s good with you these days? 

    -

    I’ve been piecing together the interviews from December and I’d love -to include this section about your dream if that’s alright with you? It -seems to get at something I feel as well: this system that we’ve built -up and these drawers full of grids, sometimes there’s an angst or -unresolved feeling that they’re not going to work, they dont fit as an -answer to the problem. 

    -

    For me I think it might be something to do with order and chaos if -that doesn’t seem too much of a stretch, I’ve this need to structure -things and fit them in a form, and the dream seems to get at that fear -that it’s not going to work. The grid is solid but reality turns out to -be jelly at best, but very often custard and little bits of tinned -strawberry and soggy sponge. 

    -

    I assumed the dream is about the pressure or anxiety of running a -studio? I wonder for you, do you see it more relating to the work itself -or the management around that, or are these things that you consider -separate from eachother? I’m curious to know if you think of it the same -way, or maybe it’s something else to you and I’m projecting :)

    -

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im -totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.

    -

    Thanks,
    -Stephen

    -
    -

    Follow up questions for ◳

    -

    Hey ◳, hope youre good! 

    -

    I’m thinking of putting this section of the interview we did back in -december in my thesis. Is that ok with you? I want to include it because -I think it really captures some emotions that ⊞ers feel quite often, -some stress or anxiety or an attempt to grab onto something more stable. -But I also find it really interesting that you were talking about jelly -slipping through your hands, any idea why you didn’t say sand or mud or -gold but jelly? To me it seems like a fun and cute material to pick, -even though its a bit lumpy and maybe even kinda gross sometimes. 

    -

    I’ve been really interested in foods made of gelatin recently and -there’s something so mesmerising about them even though they’re never -the most appetising, and for sure unnatural or over-processed. Maybe you -just said it off hand, but it makes sense to me as well about being a -⊞er in some way? Something enjoyable and lovable about the jelly despite -its weird unnatural wiggliness. Really interested to know if you have -any thoughts or maybe you meant something completely different.

    -

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im -totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

    -

    Thanks,
    -Stephen

    -

    Conclusion

    -

    The title of this document, ⊞, was borrowed from the mathematical -theory of free probability where it symbolises free additive -convolution, a way of relating terms that is more nuanced than -traditional ideas of cause and effect. In the fragmented look at ⊞ in -this document, which we’ve reached the end of now, I hope to have done -something similar: a convoluted addition, freely placing things together -to be held for a moment. 

    -

    ⊞ involves a wide range of activities; typing, drawing grids, -communicating with other specialists, quoting, drinking coffee, working -out of office hours, having panic attacks, arguing, building myths, -personal expression, keyboard shortcuts, dreaming, rubbing paper and -exhaling, tilting your head and looking at the screen. We have examined -when and how these actions happen, and more importantly, why they do, -according to the ⊞ers carrying them out. 

    -

    These stories were gathered through various modes of describing, -listening and understanding. It is important that these are different -from conventional ways to frame the discipline, as I think a shift in -viewpoint is needed. So not “⊞er as Author” (Rock, 1996), “⊞er as -salesperson” (Pater, 2021) but instead ⊞er “sitting at the machine, -thinking” (Brodine, 1990) or “⊞er without qualities” (Lorusso, 2023). -The fragments have been situated and subjective rather than objective, -they have been outside of categories because the categories are broken -anyway. 

    -
    -

    Conclusion

    -

    Last night I dreamt I was standing on a hill in the Swiss Alps and -you were there and all of our friends and the hill was covered in little -fields but not like a grid like lots of different shapes and sizes and -the sky opened in two and a ring of light so bright it nearly blinded me -came out of my chest and yours and they all merged into eachother and -everyone opened their mouths to sing and the air was filled with so many -sounds and one ⊞er walked up to me and smiled and said 

    -
      -

    • “I dunno, I’m more confused than ever”

      • -

    • and they said 

      • -

    • and then you said

      • -

    • “a funny feeling its a bit weird”

      • -

    • “I’m just trying to touch it gently and acknowledge it” 

      • -

    • “live the gap between where you are and where you could -be” 

      • -
    -

    and then I was them and you were me and we laughed and fell over and -the hill turned into a bright pink jelly ocean the whole sky was this -sort of green-blue and we all surfed wobbly waves and some people’s -surfboards were Quiksilver and some they had built themselves from a git -repository but the sun was a walnut and it was definitely moving but I -couldnt tell was it rising or setting but it didn’t matter to us the -surf was great and everything smelled like magnolias.

    -
    -
    -
    -

    Acknowledgements

    -

    Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo, -Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.

    -
    -

    Bibliography

    -

    Bayer, H. et al. (1975) Bauhaus, 1919-1928. New -York: Museum of Modern Art. 

    -

    Berlant, L. (2022) On the Inconvenience of Other People, -Durham: Duke University Press.

    -

    Brodine, K. (1990) Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking: -Poems. Seattle: Red Letter Press.

    -

    creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ [Interview], Creative -Chair. Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15 -April 2024).

    -

    Design West (2024) Design West. Available at: -designwest.eu (Accessed: 16 April 2024).

    -

    Driessen, C. P. G. (2020). Descartes was here; In Search of the -Origin of Cartesian Space’. In R. Koolhaas (Ed.), Countryside, A -Report (pp. 274-297)
    - 
    -Gates, B (2004) Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software -Architect, Microsoft Corporation [speech transcript] University of -Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004 Available at: -web.archive.org/web/
    -20040607040830/https://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp -(Accessed: 13 April 2024)

    -

    Gerstner, K. and Keller, D. (1964) Designing Programmes. -Teufen (AR): Niggli. 

    -

    Google (2014) Introduction, Material Design. -Available at: m1.material.io (Accessed: 16 April 2024). 

    -

    Hu, T.-H. (2024) Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an age of -disconnection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

    -

    The Idea of the Book (2024) CARNIVAL: the first panel -1967–70 [book description] Available at: theideaofthe
    -book.com/pages/books/529/steve-mccaffery/carnival-the-first-panel-1967-70 -(Accessed: 13 April 2024)

    -

    Loos, A. (2019) Ornament and Crime. London: Penguin. 

    -

    Lorusso, S. (2023) What Design Can’t Do: Essays on design and -disillusion. Eindhoven: Set Margins. 

    -

    Mondriaan , P. et al., (1917) ‘Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art’, -De Stijl, Nov. 

    -

    Mould, O. (2018) Against Creativity. London: Verso.

    -

    Müller-Brockmann, J. (1981) Grid systems in graphic ⊞. -Stuttgart: Hatje. 

    -

    Pater, R. (2021) Caps Lock. Amsterdam: Valiz.

    -

    Rock, M., (1996) The ⊞er as Author. Available at: -2x4.org/ideas/1996/⊞er-as-author (Accessed: 16 April 2024). 

    -

    Shaughnessy, A. (2005) How to Be a Graphic ⊞er, without Losing -Your Soul. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.

    -

    Shaughnessy, A. (2013) Scratching the Surface. London: Unit -Editions.

    -

    Tufte, E (1991) The Visual Display of Quantitative -Information. Cheshire: Graphics Press.

    -

    Van der Velden, D., (2006) ‘Research & Destroy: A Plea for ⊞ as -Research’, Metropolis M 2, April/May 2006.

    -

    Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1917) ‘Manifesto I’, De Stijl, -Nov. 

    -

    Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1921) -‘Manifesto III’, De Stijl, Aug.

    -

    Warde, B. (1913) ‘Printing Should be Invisible’ The Crystal -Goblet, Sixteen Essays on Typography, London: The Sylvan Press.

    -

    Weber, M., (1905) “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of -Capitalism”, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften 20, no. 1 (1904), -pp. 1–54; 21, no. 1 (1905), pp. 1–110.

    -
    - -
    - - - - -
    -

    do you ever dream about -work?

    -

    stephen kerr, 2024

    -

    Reading an email in a dream and you can hear the voices of every word -you read. Or the one where you’re on a computer working, frantically -typing, late, stressed, rushed. What about that dream where you had no -idea how to do your job, everyone is going to know you’re a fake. In -this project I have made spaces for us to share our dreams about labour, -and through that allow conversations about our work, our working -conditions, and the feelings we’re left with when we fall asleep each -night.

    -

    For the past year I have spoken with designers, artists and makers -finding out how they spend their time in everyday life, what they -believe and how they feel. In our dreams we feel the weird bits the -most: hmm a bit uncomfortable, ooh that gave me a fright, aah so, so -sad. Through performances, online tools and storytelling, I want to hold -these dreams together, to unite our experiences. Online I have made tools to gather -stories and tools to tell them. I have facilitated group dream re-enactments (a few times), using felt dolls to share our night time -theatre.

    -

    stephen kerr is a graphic designer or a musician or a very weird -and long dream.

    - - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - -
    -Web page to share and read labour dreams. Scroll down for more. -
    -
    -
    - -
    -Interactive dream telling. Click then type your story. -
    -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - + +

    .

    @@ -4477,20 +3517,980 @@ alt="Where do dreams come from?" />
    - -*What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does "graphic design" even mean?!????!!1!?* is an assessment of what the term "graphic design" means to its practitioners today. Through experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own practices as well as other people and groups that identify with "graphic designer" as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is conducted through the performative use and development of these tools. - -This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews about the manual work of "immaterial labourers", and dream analysis are combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own publication as part of one process. - -1. Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools) with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these processes and who would benefit from it. - -2. Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the boundaries of "graphic design" as a category. For example at the boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow), or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work. - -3. Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience, research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal, Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and practices of the graphic designer. - -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. - --> - + +*What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does "graphic design" even mean?!????!!1!?* is an assessment of what the term "graphic design" means to its practitioners today. Through experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own practices as well as other people and groups that identify with "graphic designer" as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is conducted through the performative use and development of these tools. + +This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews about the manual work of "immaterial labourers", and dream analysis are combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own publication as part of one process. + +1. Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools) with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these processes and who would benefit from it. + +2. Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the boundaries of "graphic design" as a category. For example at the boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow), or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work. + +3. Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience, research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal, Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and practices of the graphic designer. + +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. + --> + +
    + + + + +
    +

    ⊞

    +
    +

    Stephen Kerr

    +

    ⊞

    +

    Thesis submitted to the Department of Experimental Publishing, Piet +Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, in partial fulfilment of the +requirements for the final examination for the degree of Master of Arts +in Fine Art & ⊞: Experimental Publishing.

    +

    Adviser: Marloes de Valk
    +Second Reader: Joseph Knierzinger
    +Word count: 7828 words

    +

    To de-sign design, I +will assign a sign: ⊞

    +

    This symbol represents design in this writing in an attempt to avoid +the assumed meaning of the word and examine it as something unknown, to +mystify it, to examine its structure. The label ⊞ is a functional part +of a belief system involving order, structure, and rationality and I +want to break it. Removing the label is part of loosening the object, +making it avilable to transition (Berlant, 2022).

    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    +Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954. + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    +

    Introduction

    +

    This document is a collection of fragments exploring beliefs about +labour in the creative industries, in particular graphic ⊞. Each +fragment focusses on the social, cultural, political, spiritual or +religious aspects of these beliefs through an ethnographic lens. They +record, celebrate and question the meaning that ⊞ers give to their +actions and how those meanings affect the world they live in. And it’s +about how ⊞ers feel when we live with these beliefs: we feel a bit funny +and I want to talk about it. 

    +

    I use various modes of address and different lenses to further +fragment the definition of ⊞. The origin of the word thesis is to set or +to put, but I am trying to show you something liquid that can’t be +placed but shimmers and disappears through the sand. I document some ⊞ +activities, in my own work and the work and writings of others who +identify with the label of ⊞er. The writing dissolves and reintegrates +definitions of ⊞ from different voices to show the multiplicity of +beliefs from practitioners, and to explore what it means to acknowledge +these beliefs beside eachother: the tensions and harmonies, some +lineages and some breaks. What is going on here in this thing we call +⊞? 

    +

    This is a collection of stories about living life with particular +working conditions, located at certain points in social, economic and +cultural webs. In my practice-based research I gather and tell these +stories through (auto)ethnographic methods: documenting how ⊞er’s work, +conducting interviews, improvising communal performances and exploratory +tool-making. This document collates and reflects on this research. 

    +

    What is a ⊞er?

    +
      +
    1. A ⊞er is a person who wakes up at 5am but refuses to open their +eyes. There are birds talking outside, it’s probably getting bright +already. Something is wrong, not sure what. They finally open their eyes +and there’s the ceiling again. When the light comes in sideways over the +curtains this early you can see all the little ripples and imperfections +in it. Nothing. Ribcage. Stomach. The front of the ⊞er’s legs ache. It +would be better to sleep again. Have to pay taxes again next week. A ⊞er +is someone who wonders if that invoice will come through I need to +follow up on it. The birds are so loud. 
      2. +
    2. The role of the ⊞er is to count back from five to two and +realise that was only three hours same as yesterday. They use ⊞ thinking +to never get back to sleep. They need excellent time management skills +to make this short moment feel like an eternity, several times a week. +⊞ers have an acute spatial awareness and an eye for detail: although the +ceiling seems miles away they focus on each tiny ripple for hours. A ⊞er +is someone who will work the whole waking day today, but it’s better +than last week when there was no work. ⊞ers look at their phone and see +their alarm is going to go off in ten minutes, so they switch it off and +get up.
      3. +
    +

    The precarity of working in the creative industries, in particular as +a freelancer or within a small studio, induces anxiety. There is a +belief that the ⊞er as freelancer is empowered by their autonomy, but in +fact the ⊞er as worker is trapped by it. ⊞ is work and this work is +believed to be inherently good. Work in our society is understood as “an +individual moral practice and collective ethical obligation” which +shapes the worker’s identity in positive ways (Weeks, 2011). The ⊞er +believes they are a skilled or talented worker, someone who possesses +spatial awareness, time management skills, and the capacity to carry out +work effectively and efficiently. 

    +

    ⊞ers are entangled in the Protestant religious underpinnings of the +European work ethic (Pater, 2022). ⊞ is seen as a vocation which +expresses and creates the ⊞er’s identity, and the process or its results +make a valuable contribution to society. People understand the world and +interact with it smoothly, thanks to the work of ⊞ers. ⊞ers pick the +right materials to save the planet and increase efficiency and whatever +else it is people find important. But the ⊞er becomes anxious despite +meeting these goals and becoming this person. In reality, the ⊞er is a +bot, the ⊞er is software. Value is extracted from their time, creativity +and expertise which makes them stressed. ⊞ers are a creative cloud, a +service to be tapped into, a cpu being run too hot. There is something +to be learnt from the revelation that being replaced by machines proves +we were being treated as machines all along. 

    +

    Geestelijk

    +

    There was a belief that ⊞ could be a crystal goblet (Warde, 1913), +something unbiased, clear and, in more recent versions of the theory, +serving the context it fits within. But the foundations of this belief +in functionality and rationality dont seem to come themselves from +something functional or rational. 

    +

    De Stijl members, such as Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg +(Figure 6), in their 1917 manifesto described a “new consciousness of +the age […] directed towards the universal”. There was a drive towards +universal standardisation or pureness of culture from the rich white +men. Purity is a concept that turns up a lot in Mondriaan’s writings, eg +Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art (1917). They claimed a shared +spirit was driving this universalisation. A later paragraph of the +manifesto is translated into english as:

    +
      +
    • “The artists of to-day have been driven the whole world over by the +same consciousness and therefore have taken part from an intellectual +point of view in this war against the domination of individual +despotism. They therefore sympathize with all who work for the formation +of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture, either intellectually +or materially.”
      • +
    +

    In this translation it appears the authors believed in an emerging +consciousness of the age, something collective which would bring an +international unity. The members of De Stijl were neither aligning +themselves with the capitalists or socialists but believed in an inner +connection between those who were joined in the spiritual body of the +new world (De Stijl, Manifesto III, 1921). The word intellectual, or +geestelijk in the original Dutch, can also be translated as “spiritual, +mental, ecclesiastical, clerical, sacred, ghostly, pneumatic”. The +choice to translate as intellectual seems to be the most rational +interpretation of this sentence, an effort to make the theories of De +Stijl appear more materialist without the spiritual element. Compare +with this translation:

    +
      +
    • “The artists of today, all over the world, impelled by one and the +same consciousness, have taken part on the spiritual plane in the world +war against the domination of individualism, of arbitrariness. They +therefore sympathise with all who are fighting spiritually or materially +for the formation of an international unity in life, art and +culture.”
      • +
    +

    In this translation it is clearer that the members of De Stijl saw a +link between the effects of what they made materially and their attempts +to be fighting spiritually against the domination of individualism. I +care about this story because of how it contextualises contemporary ⊞ +practice. Is contemporary ⊞ practice still involved in this spiritual +battle? Did the new consciousness of 1917 survive the past century, did +it procreate? Can aesthetics have generational trauma? William Morris, +Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, International Style, International +Typographic Style, Swiss Style, then what happened. Modernist artists +had spiritual beliefs, and again I care about these people from a +hundred years ago because of the effect they have on the present. 

    +

    Imagine I could trace this thought from Mondriaan all the way to +myself, wow, cool thesis. Swiss style became corporate identity ⊞ and +encouraged minimalism in ⊞. 21st century Flat ⊞, such as Metro ⊞ +language from Microsoft and Material ⊞ (Google, 2014), claim direct +descendance from the International Typographic Style and that pretty +much brings us up to date. I wonder about the use of the word Material +in Google’s ⊞ strategy, I wonder about the ghostly absence of the +geestelijk fight of De Stijl. Is Google’s choice of name another +example, as with the subtle change in the translation above, that the +spiritual element is no longer as important a part of the ⊞er’s +worldview as it was a hundred years ago? 

    +

    Excerpt +from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023

    +

    Conor Clarke is a Director of ⊞ Factory, independent Irish ⊞ +agency based in Dublin. His work has featured in international +publications such as Who’s Who in Graphic ⊞, Graphis, Novum +Gebrauchsgrafik, and the New York Art Directors Club Annual. He was the +recipient of the Catherine Donnelly Lifetime Achievement Award for his +contribution to ⊞ in Ireland and is the Course Director of ⊞ West, an +international summer ⊞ school located in the beautiful village of +Letterfrack on the West Coast of Ireland. (⊞west.eu, 2023)

    +
    +
      +
    • SK: What do you think is the best shape?
      • +
    • CC: Oh yeah, good god. square.
      • +
    • SK: Square? how come?
      • +
    • CC: Dunno, it just, it just seems resolved. I don’t like spheres. +Circles I sometimes like.
      • +
    • SK: Yeah, squares, do you use grids?
      • +
    • CC: Sometimes. Not always.
      • +
    • SK: Once you have grids squares make sense. But you like squares +maybe because you like logos?
      • +
    • CC: If I’m in an art gallery and I see, you know Joseph Albers +(Figure 5) or something I just kind of feel, I just like, or Malevich i +just like that stuff. If I see a Kandinsky and all those squiggles and +circles it just, that just kind of upsets me a little bit.
      • +
    • SK: That’s a bit chaotic?
      • +
    • CC: Yeah. And even if I’m looking at Vermeer I can see some kind of +square structure and logic, for some reason that always appeals to +me.
      • +
    • SK: Things are a bit organised when there’s squares around?
      • +
    • CC: Yeah. And really great artists who don’t work that way I look at +their stuff and think well that’s just beyond me.
      • +
    • SK: Its something else?
      • +
    • CC: Yeah. so yeah.
      • +
    • SK: At least you didn’t say triangle.
      • +
    • CC: Oh good god. Good god no.
      • +
    + +

    Maths and grids

    +

    Why not choose a spiral or a circle if you dream of ⊞ers as shamans? +Why the grid of squares? There are strong links beween ⊞ and +mathematics, Josef Muller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems (Figure 2) +for example or Karl Gerstner’s ⊞ing Programmes (1964). I read +these ⊞ theorists as you might comparatively read religious texts. What +were or are the beliefs of the authors and their audiences?
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    
    +    

    +
      +
    • “To describe the problem is part of the solution. This implies: not +to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by intellectual +criteria. The more exact and complete these criteria are, the more +creative the work becomes.”
      • +
    • (Gerstner, 1964)
      • +
    • “This is the expression of a professional ethos: the ⊞er’s work +should have the clearly intelligible, objective, functional and +aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.”
      • +
    • (Muller-Brockman, 1981)
      • +
    +

    These texts present a worldview where ⊞ can be mathematical, +objective or problem-solving. In Muller-Brockman’s text the focus is on +the formal qualities of the ⊞ in particular the use of grids and +typographic systems. Gerstner’s focus is more on the effect of the ⊞, +and the ability of ⊞ to solve a problem. Rationality and creativity are +presented as proportional to eachother. He makes space for the +intellectual by pushing aside feelings. 

    +

    The graphic ⊞er is presented as a functional actor in society who +makes the world better. Gerstner seems to be implying that creative ⊞ +comes from following the intellect and some rational cause and effect +process. I find it interesting that ⊞ claims this rational basis in the +same historical period when science and mathematics, its supposed +foundations, became much less rational and predictable, for example in +chaos theory. It makes me think that the rationality serves some other +purpose.

    +

    The ⊞ grid and the written +word

    +

    Why do ⊞ers believe in using a grid to present the written word, and +where did this belief come from and how did it develop? It can be +materially traced back to Guthenberg and metal type but that’s boring. +Magic squares have been used in astrology books and grimoires throughout +history (Figure 3). French poet Stéphane Mallarmé is sometimes quoted as +a precursor to modernist typography (Muller-Brockmann, 1981). Why did +Steve McCaffrey include the manifesto of De Stijl with CARNIVAL +(1973)? De Stijl is best known for its painters and architects, and +theories from both of these fields affected later ⊞ theories. But they +also were poets and had literary theories similar to the german +expressionists. Man’s attempt to find oneness with the whole of creation +through a cosmic hybris. 

    +
      +
    • “An artists’ book featuring a series of typewriter concrete poems +printed on perforated pages meant to be torn out and arranged into a +square of four. Complete with instructions, a reproduction of a de Stijl +manifesto from 1920, an errata slip, and publisher’s promotional +postcard.”
      • +
    • Description of Steve McCaffrey’s CARNIVAL
      +(The Idea of the Book, 2024)
      • +
    +
    +

    The developments of the written word and its relationship to form in +the 20th century is very much a part of the history of ⊞. I care about +this story because it affects contemporary practitioners. I believe +there is something magical in graphic composition and the layout of +typography, something that can’t be grasped in the words alone. They’re +non-canonical for ⊞ers but how have people who put words on pages like +Mallarmé and McCaffrey influenced my beliefs about the written word? +What makes one thing fit in the category of art, another ⊞ and yet +another concrete poetry?

    +

    Mystically +assigning or finding meanings in ⊞

    +

    This autoethnographic annotation attempts to really miss as many +cultural and technical cues as possible. It’s watching the ⊞er, me, and +being totally mystified by their behaviour. 

    +
    +
      +
    1. A rhythm exists and I wonder why. There is music and there are +voices, and my fingers press the keys and the colours of the screen +flicker and morph. There appears to be a life or energy flowing +somewhere between these things and I am curious about it.
      2. +
    2. The screen shimmers between different symbols, letters, images. +The colours are symbolic. White means the ground, although sometimes it +switches to white symbols on a dark ground. They are full of meaning and +relationship. I press two buttons to the left of the keyboard and the +screen answers with a flicker.
      3. +
    3. I count out loud to 40. It symbolises both the number of pages +to be made and the enormity of the task. It represents a period in the +desert, long but with an end in sight. What is the relationship of the +desert to the stars? If the screen can flicker from a dark to a light +ground, is it possible for the sky to also switch from day to +night?
      4. +
    4. I have taken three of the forty steps.
      5. +
    5. I have taken seven of the forty steps.
      6. +
    6. ⊞ is a series of movements and reconfigurations. It is a +creative act and one of elision. I use the keyboard to communicate my +will to the machine with commands such as “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V”. I +firstly inform the computer that I wish to control it. Each letter has a +deep and layered meaning. CVCVCVCVCVCVCVCVCV. “Alt+Tab” asks the screen +to flicker. The computer must match my multithreading. It must be +prepared to follow my changing demands in our shared focus. FAVCV. F is +to seek, but it is optimistically labelled to find. I enter the +incorrect combination of symbols (“samle”) the incantation is useless +and I will not find what I seek. I try again “sample” and the computer +gives me what I desire. Why does the machine demand perfection? Why does +it value perfection in me, what is it trying to teach me? Why wont it +leave me alone?
      7. +
    7. I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.
      8. +
    +

    What +does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons +and making the screen vibrate?

    +
      +
    • “⊞ only generates longing”
      • +
    • (Van Der Velden, 2006)
      • +
    +

    I wasn’t trying to generate longing, I was trying to make an annual +report. It was a corporate job I was working on, a nice one to have +because it’s fairly well paid and not too complicated. A bit boring and +kinda repetitive, but you can just put your headphones on and get stuck +into it. I was pretty happy with the results in the end, but for sure +not the type of work you’re supposed to be proud of as a ⊞er.

    +
      +
    • “I found myself way over my head with, believe it or not, a +catalogue and price list for bathroom equipment. Nothing I’ve done since +has seemed as difficult.”
      • +
    • Michael Bierut (creativechair.org, 2018)
      • +
    +

    And of course Piet Zwart’s (Figure 8) famous electrical cable +catalogues. ⊞ is just work, chill. Is a ⊞er a user or a server? Maybe ⊞ +is an example of our general belief in this dichotomy not quite making +sense or fitting reality. The ⊞er is working for whom? Themselves? Their +clients?

    +
    +
      +
    • “attempts to undo the privileged position of the agentive +subject can help us understand the strange status of repetitive and +quasi-robotic labour in today’s digital age.”
      • +
    • (Hu, 2022)
      • +
    +

    This quote relates to freelancing generally in some way, and +deconstructing the work or worker. Are workers things? Yeah, kinda. ⊞ers +don’t have super powers, contrary to some beliefs within the industry. +For example on what⊞cando.com it is suggested that we should “re⊞ +everything!”. Let’s actually not do that. ⊞ers are mostly just humans +working on computers like so many other bots. ⊞ers try to create +clarity, to assign meaning and understand: “Confusion and clutter are +failures of ⊞, not attributes of information” (Tufte, 1990, p.53). What +if the sounds of my fingers and my keyboard are not noise but music: we +are quasi-robots and maybe its good to listen to our little Taylorist +finger tappings and see what else is being said.

    +

    Excerpt +from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition on 1st +December 2023.

    +

    Distinctive Repetition is an award-winning graphic ⊞ studio based in +Dublin, Ireland. Principal ⊞er and Institute of Creative Advertising and +⊞ past-president, Rossi McAuley, is joined in this interview by ⊞ers +Jenny Leahy and Ben Nagle. This interview was carried out around a table +with the interviewer in the bottom right corner (◲) and the three +members of the studio in the other three seats.

    +
      +
    • ◲: whats your favourite colour?
      • +
    • ◰: red.
      • +
    • ◲: red.
      • +
    • ◱: really? thats it? are you fucking kidding me?
      • +
    • ◰: do i fill it in?
      • +
    • ◳: they’re warm up questions obviously they’re to get you +comfortable answering questions.
      • +
    • ◳: yellow
      • +
    • ◲: if the seat of your consciousness was in your hands, like all of +your feelings and your thoughts and your desires and your emotions come +through your hands, can you describe to me the day that you’ve had so +far please?
      • +
    • ◳: jelly that’s not quite solid
      • +
    • ◳: not quite solidified in the fridge yet
      • +
    • ◳: and its just oozing through my fingers
      • +
    • (redacted sentence)
      • +
    • ◳: that’s what today has been like but its my brain thats oozing out +of me
      • +
    • ◲: yes. that’s a good answer. ok will we keep going in a +circle?
      • +
    • ◱: whatever you like bro.
      • +
    • ◲: do you ever dream about work?
      • +
    • ◱: all the time.
      • +
    • ◲: would you care to share one of those dreams?
      • +
    • ◱: they’re always angst-ridden, never, they’re never eh, they’re +never positive solution-solved things, we’ve always like lists and lists +and lists of things to do they’re never resolved they’re always like +shit we’ve, its, its always problematic, and its all the time.
      • +
    • ◳: weren’t you taking grids out of drawers in a dream recently?
      • +
    • ◱: yeah yeah.
      • +
    • (obscured)
      • +
    • ◲: why were you taking grids out of drawers?
      • +
    • ◱: emm recently I had a dream where I was giving out to ◳ about not +having things done, this ◳, participant two, about not having things +done, and i was opening up drawers in my office and I was like, just use +this grid and the drawers were full of grids and I was giving them to +her and saying just fucking use those grids for fucks sake why don’t we +use those grids.
      • +
    • (section redacted by request of interviewees)
      • +
    + +

    About the interview

    +

    Before meeting them in person, I mailed a small booklet to the +interviewees entitled Enthusiasm to give context to the +conversation. The word enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or +possession by a god. The booklet recounted three mystical dreams René +Descartes had which he credited as a moment of inspiration or enthusiasm +that influenced his later work on rationalism, and related to his work +on geometry and grids (Figure 4). As well as the content of the dreams, +the booklet described their relevance:
    +    

    +
      +
    • “404 years ago on the night of the 10th November 1619, three dreams +were dreamt. A 23-year old man is “filled with enthusiasm” and enters a +feverish sleep in Ulm, Germany. In this process of enthusiasm and +dreamwork, he discovers the foundations of a wonderful science. The +Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the Search of Truth in the +Sciences will be suppressed by the churches, both Calvinist and +Catholic. They are a threat to the world view, and a threat to religion. +The cartesian grid uses measurements to estabish relationships. +Cartesian geometry has let us fly spaceships and zone and divide land. +Some things have happened. Some good things, some bad things. The link +is broken or breaking or should be broken. It’s rotting. Maybe there’s a +better way we can interpret these dreams now.”
      • +
    +

    Descartes felt that interpreting his dreams was an appropriate method +to develop a rational theory of skepticism, which led to some of the +philosophical foundations of modern scientific and mathematical +theories. The booklet also drew parallels with Martin Luther’s +scrupulous doubt, “Only God and certain madmen have no doubts!”. Like +Descartes, Luther’s new theories helped to give the basis for the +structure of thought for the following centuries. These stories were +presented together to direct the focus of the conversation towards +belief, rationalism and grids. The fact that rationalism is a belief +system, as pervasive as it may be, and suggestively hinting through its +relationship with grids that there +is a relationship with ⊞.

    +
      +
    • ◳: jelly that’s not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge +yet and its just oozing through my fingers
      • +
    + +

    They seem so sad it hurts to hear them talk about the oozing. Are you +supposed to put jelly in the fridge, it just needs time to settle right? +My nana used to put the jelly in the freezer. There’s an instability in +how they talk in the interview for sure, or more a desire for stability. +Was it ever stable? Do you really want it to be? Its gooey and not the +way it should be but its still jelly and thats fun and its probably +delicious. Their hands are there as something that is for grasping and +jelly is there as something that can’t be grasped. Is it terrifying, are +they resigned to it? 

    +
      +
    • ◱: they’re always angst-ridden, never, they’re never eh, they’re +never positive solution-solved things, we’ve always like lists and lists +and lists of things to do they’re never resolved they’re always like +shit we’ve, its, its always problematic, and its all the time.
      • +
    +

    I can’t explain the angst they are feeling but I can describe it +because I’ve felt it too. It feels like I’m having a heart attack. It +feels like I’m about to black out. It got to a stage where I couldn’t +talk to other people without being completely frozen jelly. It is the +feeling of lists and lists and lists. It’s the feeling of never +resolved, all the time. We believe we are busy and under pressure and +struggling to survive. That makes us anxious and stressed.

    +
      +
    • ◱: just fucking use those grids
      • +
    + +

    The grids are not being used, the grids are useless. Drawers full of +them, all useless. Whats the point of sitting here in this studio. They +dont fit, they dont make sense, they’re trying to order something that +can’t be ordered. Or possibly shouldnt be ordered, the ordering is +misplaced and there is a human urge to stop, just stop.

    +

    Modern work

    +
      +
    • “A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt, +and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”
      • +
    • Adolf Loos, On Thrift, 1924 (Loos, 2019)
      • +
    +
    +

    Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as +Ornament and Crime in 1910 influenced modernist ideals of +functionalism and minimalism. He rejected ornament and favoured the use +of good materials which showed “God’s own wonder”. I wonder what is the +relation of Loos’ ideas to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the +Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1905) that was published five years +earlier. Work as a duty which benefits the individual and society as a +whole, do ⊞ers still believe this today? I like taking Loos’ quote out +of context here, instead in the context of the feelings of the +interviewees, revolting the supposedly modern cause they are working +with. 

    +

    But also Loos was found guilty of pedophelia and it feels kind of +aggressive to include his voice here at all. This is part of the point +of what I’m getting at: there’s this tradition of ⊞ and so many parts of +it make me uncomfortable or really disgusted and I don’t know what to do +with all that. I just wanted to go to art school and draw circles and +maybe thats the problem and sure simple materials are pretty, but yeah +jelly is exactly what it feels like, you’re right.

    +

    Graphic ⊞ is often performed by paid professionals in what is known +as the creative industry: as a profession and an activity, ⊞ is +considered to be creative. There are some positive preconceptions about +the creative industry and what it does, but I see it as an assimilation +of cultural activity into a neoliberal economic framework. Creativity in +this context is used to reproduce the status quo and and grow capital +(Mould, 2018). But maybe we can profit from examining the margins +created by this terminology: ⊞ is less functional than it seems. People +in creative jobs are stressed and this is reflected in their dreams. +Workers have rights and those rights are systemically undermined. Being +self employed or part of an independent studio brings anxiety and +challenges. Some ⊞ers try to structure the world around them and like +things to be neat and tidy, which makes us uncomfortable existing in +precarious work conditions.

    +

    The Roman grid

    +

    The Roman grid was a land measurement method used in the Roman +colonies for example in the Po Valley (Figure 7). With a surveying tool +called the groma, the colonisers would divide the land from north to +south and east to west, resulting in a square grid of roads and land. At +Orange, France, a cadaster has been found which shows the division of +land in a geometric way, helping the colonisers to privatise the land +and allocate it to roman veterans (Figure 1). The name groma, as well as +referring to the surveying tool, describes the central point of the +grid, the origin. Is making grids just a way to control and colonise? Do +all grids have origins? In Descartes’ use of the grid there was also an +attempt to order and structure chaos:

    +
      +
    • “the grid allowed an embrace of complexity: curved lines that could +be described by mathematical formulas, and thereby were not a sign of +chaos but an expression of the divine mathematical order assumed to be +underlying nature.”
      • +
    • Descartes was Here, Clemens Driessen, 2020
      • +
    +

    A part of the belief systems of ⊞ers is that the world is chaotic and +their role is to order it or even simplify it. This belief may be +inherited from a wider cultural belief of the same general drive: to +order and simplify. Humans try to make sense of the world. ⊞ers make +sense of ⊞ briefs and structure them into something understandable to an +audience or target market. 

    +
    +
      +
    • ◱: for fucks sake why don’t we use those grids
      • +
    + +

    Is there an answer to this question, do they know the answer to this +question? I get the impression they have a gut feeling about the answer +but are afraid of it.

    +

    An +analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century

    +

    When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞ +critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:

    +
      +
    • “The venue was shared with a beer festival, but it was easy to tell +the ⊞ers from the beer fans. The beer fans were more serious.”
      • +
    • (Shaughnessy, 2013)
      • +
    +

    This joke is funny because in the setup where it is easy to tell them +apart, the reader should assume the beer fans are drunk and therefore +raucous, misbehaving or maybe just having a lot of fun. But then he +unexpectedly suggests that they were in fact more serious than the ⊞ers. +This gives the reader a problem to address: is he claiming the ⊞ers were +even more outrageous than what we assumed of the beer fans, or the beer +fans were in fact taking their own conference seriously? As both seem +unbelievable the true funniness of the joke hits home in it’s implied +meaning: ⊞ers are boring as fuck.

    +
    +

    An +annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, +23rd October 2023

    +
      +
    1. I read an email
      2. +
    2. and
      3. +
    3. I type
      4. +
    4. Alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab ctrl c +ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v +ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v
      5. +
    +
    +

    ⊞ers interact with the computer through keyboard and mouse usage. +Compared to other computer users, my interaction involves lots of +pressing of function keys, something common with other technical +computer users and not so much with other creative workers. What is +creative in the repetitive and low level operation of a computer? Is a +pianist creative? What’s the difference, I think they are being creative +in different ways. ⊞ers and other specialists like video editors or +photo colourists are using a computer as a tool, the musician is +performing on an instrument. Maybe this distinction doesn’t have to be +so clear though. I am questioning this here because I think there is +some fairly complicated belief system about artists and their tools that +has had an effect on ⊞ers. ⊞ gives itself a history of conflict and +harmony between artisans and industrialisation, for example in Bauhaus +founder Walter Gropius claiming William Morris as a precursor (Bayer, +1975). 

    +

    I think it is important to show that ⊞ers are workers with tools, +their repetitive tasks are a form of labour as are their creative +processes. In the annotation opposite my aim is to mystify the manual +and digital labour, rather than demystify the creative ideation +part. 

    +

    Following this annotation I made a digital tool to record all +keystrokes on my computer. Then I printed them out with a pen plotter to +celebrate the labour that had taken place. It took several hours to plot +the keylogging data from just a few minutes of the ⊞er’s labour. 

    +

    LibreOffice

    +
      +
    1. I have no idea what any of this structuring does. And I don’t +care. But I would like to remove the page title from the export. It is +in another tab called User Interface. I also select only page 1 to save +to PDF. Now I run into a software issue in this workflow: the best +software for the next part of the job is Adobe Acrobat Pro. How +aggressively do I want to remove this software from my workflow? Not +aggressively enough I guess because here I am still using it. I don’t +know any other software that really gives me details of how a document +will print or lets me edit PDFs on such a useful level.
      2. +
    2. For example the title still exported (it always does, is this a +LibreOffice bug or just I don’t know what to do with the new software +yet?). It takes two seconds to remove in edit mode in Acrobat. I also +delete the page number, I don’t even know how to turn that off from +LibreOffice. The print dialogue in Acrobat is also so powerful, its so +easy to print actual size which is important to me. It is structured and +reliable. 
      3. +
    +

    Like many other ⊞ers, I was trained to only use Adobe products. I try +to switch to open source alternatives because I believe in using +software developed and maintained by a community rather than a private +company, and as a worker believe I should be in control of my tools. In +this annotation, I was trying to ⊞ and export a single page document in +LibreOffice, an open source desktop publishing software. The +documentation reflects on my frustrations and struggles to switch to a +workflow that relies less on proprietary software for print ⊞. 

    +

    Proprietary software from big mean tech corporations is based on a +model of society and economy where a few people own things and everybody +else has a hard time. I believe the internet gives an opportunity for +knowledge (including software code) to be shared. I like the idea of +modifying my tools, this is easier technically and legally with open +source software. I would prefer my tools to be developed by me and my +peers. These are some of my beliefs as a ⊞er about my work and my tools. +They’re a bit idealistic but also optimistic in a good way.

    +
      +
    • my god im trying to use scribus to prepare a booklet
      +im going crazy
      +im going crazy
      • +
    • Correspondance with kamo, 2024
      • +
    +

    Transitioning to open source software sucks. I spent years learning +other tools and its like starting all over again. There is a dual +commitment in my beliefs about how my tools should be built and my +desire to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. My action of +fumbling with open source programs reflects my belief that they are +worthwhile, and my action of still using Adobe Acrobat Pro reflects my +belief that there are better things to do with my time than restarting +software when it crashes again. Some parts of graphic ⊞ have become so +entangled in capitalist ways of working, it can be immobilising to try +to act without engaging with the icky parts. Our dependencies on +ecosystems of tools and workflows are not enforced, but it can be +difficult to exist outside them, or more specifically, beside them.

    +
      +
    1. “And I don’t care.” 
      2. +
    +

    It’s so obviously not true. The conflict of wanting to change my +workflow with wanting to complete my work tasks efficiently doesn’t keep +me up at night, but it is important to me and other ⊞ers. Open source ⊞ +software is unreliable and unstandardised, it takes longer to do things +and then when they are nearly done the program crashes and I’ve lost all +my work. The standards of open source software have not been widely +embraced by the ⊞ community. To fit into a workflow with peers you have +to use Adobe products. Even web ⊞ers who engage with open standards can +find the need to work with proprietary software, because these tools are +deeply integrated into the workflows of their peers. Can you send me +that in a normal file format please, I can’t open it. 
    + 

    +

    Work Sans

    +
      +
    1. The font is Work Sans SemiBold and it is set in 10pt, colour +“automatic”. I think even if it wasn’t automatic I would make it black, +because I want to print it clearly and cheaply. I use Work Sans because +I am trying to switch to using Open Font Licence and open source fonts +more generally. Previously I would have used Helvetica Now or some other +proprietary font. There is a visual difference between these fonts too +which is also relevant buuuuut this description is getting very detailed +maybe not right now.
      2. +
    +
    +

    Similarly to the software changes, this documentation of my practice +sees me choosing open source fonts. I’m really ambivalent about this. I +do like the idea of being able to modify a font when needed, but I have +done so regardless of whether the font licence allows it. I’m more +comfortable ethically with a font being open source. Buying fonts is +expensive for freelancers and small studios, and open source fonts are +more commonly free of charge. Many ⊞ers pirate fonts rather than buy +them, or are locked into a font subscription. In Adobe software, Adobe +subscription fonts don’t load unless a connection to the creative cloud +is verified.

    +

    For my work, fonts are also a tool, one that I need to practice with +and one that needs to be suitable for the job. So changing font is a +little like a ceramicist changing clay. Work Sans is good for online use +because Google Fonts serves it as a web font for free, the open source +font I want to use is served most reliably by a large corporation I have +issues with. This balancing act of practical considerations and +idealistic beliefs is kind of ironic and reminds me again that my values +can be inconsistent and to me a bit funny. 
    + 
    +The use of fonts as tools is full of tensions from ⊞ers’ belief systems. +Like many ⊞ers, I want to use open source fonts. I also want to use +fonts that will load quickly from a content delivery network for web +projects. I also want fonts to be cheap and well made and I am +interested in fonts that are free. The internet is full of illegal and +pirated copies of fonts that are not supposed to be free of charge. I +sometimes receive or am asked to send font files outside of their +licence. I dont have a huge amount of respect for some of these +licences. But at the same time font ⊞ers are my friends and colleagues, +I have ⊞ed fonts. What does a ⊞er’s actual use of fonts say about their +beliefs around copyright? Do ⊞ers believe in intellectual property? What +value do ⊞ers, specifically typographers, see in their work and that of +their close peers, the font ⊞ers, and how does copyright relate to these +values?

    +
    +

    Follow up questions for +Conor

    +

    Hey Conor, hope you’re keeping well these days? I’ve been going +through the interview from back in December and was wondering if you +would mind me including this piece in my thesis:

    +

    I guess the thesis has become a lot about ⊞ers and the beliefs they +have about their work, and its effect on the world around them. I was +really interested in your answer to this question because I think it +shows something a lot of other ⊞ers including me feel too; some desire +to structure the world around us, to have things be resolved, organised, +fitting together. And not just a desire but maybe even a belief that +this is really what our job is for? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, +but to me this maybe hints at part of the reason we’re am drawn to a +field like graphic ⊞? Curious to know what you think.

    +

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

    +

    Thanks,
    +Stephen

    +
    +

    Follow up questions for ◱

    +

    Yo ◱, hope all’s good with you these days? 

    +

    I’ve been piecing together the interviews from December and I’d love +to include this section about your dream if that’s alright with you? It +seems to get at something I feel as well: this system that we’ve built +up and these drawers full of grids, sometimes there’s an angst or +unresolved feeling that they’re not going to work, they dont fit as an +answer to the problem. 

    +

    For me I think it might be something to do with order and chaos if +that doesn’t seem too much of a stretch, I’ve this need to structure +things and fit them in a form, and the dream seems to get at that fear +that it’s not going to work. The grid is solid but reality turns out to +be jelly at best, but very often custard and little bits of tinned +strawberry and soggy sponge. 

    +

    I assumed the dream is about the pressure or anxiety of running a +studio? I wonder for you, do you see it more relating to the work itself +or the management around that, or are these things that you consider +separate from eachother? I’m curious to know if you think of it the same +way, or maybe it’s something else to you and I’m projecting :)

    +

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.

    +

    Thanks,
    +Stephen

    +
    +

    Follow up questions for ◳

    +

    Hey ◳, hope youre good! 

    +

    I’m thinking of putting this section of the interview we did back in +december in my thesis. Is that ok with you? I want to include it because +I think it really captures some emotions that ⊞ers feel quite often, +some stress or anxiety or an attempt to grab onto something more stable. +But I also find it really interesting that you were talking about jelly +slipping through your hands, any idea why you didn’t say sand or mud or +gold but jelly? To me it seems like a fun and cute material to pick, +even though its a bit lumpy and maybe even kinda gross sometimes. 

    +

    I’ve been really interested in foods made of gelatin recently and +there’s something so mesmerising about them even though they’re never +the most appetising, and for sure unnatural or over-processed. Maybe you +just said it off hand, but it makes sense to me as well about being a +⊞er in some way? Something enjoyable and lovable about the jelly despite +its weird unnatural wiggliness. Really interested to know if you have +any thoughts or maybe you meant something completely different.

    +

    And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

    +

    Thanks,
    +Stephen

    +

    Conclusion

    +

    The title of this document, ⊞, was borrowed from the mathematical +theory of free probability where it symbolises free additive +convolution, a way of relating terms that is more nuanced than +traditional ideas of cause and effect. In the fragmented look at ⊞ in +this document, which we’ve reached the end of now, I hope to have done +something similar: a convoluted addition, freely placing things together +to be held for a moment. 

    +

    ⊞ involves a wide range of activities; typing, drawing grids, +communicating with other specialists, quoting, drinking coffee, working +out of office hours, having panic attacks, arguing, building myths, +personal expression, keyboard shortcuts, dreaming, rubbing paper and +exhaling, tilting your head and looking at the screen. We have examined +when and how these actions happen, and more importantly, why they do, +according to the ⊞ers carrying them out. 

    +

    These stories were gathered through various modes of describing, +listening and understanding. It is important that these are different +from conventional ways to frame the discipline, as I think a shift in +viewpoint is needed. So not “⊞er as Author” (Rock, 1996), “⊞er as +salesperson” (Pater, 2021) but instead ⊞er “sitting at the machine, +thinking” (Brodine, 1990) or “⊞er without qualities” (Lorusso, 2023). +The fragments have been situated and subjective rather than objective, +they have been outside of categories because the categories are broken +anyway. 

    +
    +

    Conclusion

    +

    Last night I dreamt I was standing on a hill in the Swiss Alps and +you were there and all of our friends and the hill was covered in little +fields but not like a grid like lots of different shapes and sizes and +the sky opened in two and a ring of light so bright it nearly blinded me +came out of my chest and yours and they all merged into eachother and +everyone opened their mouths to sing and the air was filled with so many +sounds and one ⊞er walked up to me and smiled and said 

    +
      +

    • “I dunno, I’m more confused than ever”

      • +

    • and they said 

      • +

    • and then you said

      • +

    • “a funny feeling its a bit weird”

      • +

    • “I’m just trying to touch it gently and acknowledge it” 

      • +

    • “live the gap between where you are and where you could +be” 

      • +
    +

    and then I was them and you were me and we laughed and fell over and +the hill turned into a bright pink jelly ocean the whole sky was this +sort of green-blue and we all surfed wobbly waves and some people’s +surfboards were Quiksilver and some they had built themselves from a git +repository but the sun was a walnut and it was definitely moving but I +couldnt tell was it rising or setting but it didn’t matter to us the +surf was great and everything smelled like magnolias.

    +
    +
    +
    +

    Acknowledgements

    +

    Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo, +Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.

    +
    +

    Bibliography

    +

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    +

    Berlant, L. (2022) On the Inconvenience of Other People, +Durham: Duke University Press.

    +

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    +

    creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ [Interview], Creative +Chair. Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15 +April 2024).

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