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  • Thesis
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    Title

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    Thesis Description

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    This is where your thesis goes

    +

    ⊞

    +

    empty title

    +

    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).

    +
    +The Cadaster of Orange, unknown ⊞er, c. 100 CE. + +
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    +Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981. + +
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    +The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE. + +
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    empty title

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    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. +
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    empty title

    +

    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)

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • 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?
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      +
    • “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)
      • +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    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?

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • “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)
      • +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • ◱: 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.

    +

    empty title

    +

    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. +
    +

    empty title

    +

    ⊞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. +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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?

    +

    empty title

    +

    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

    +

    empty title

    +

    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

    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +

    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.

    +

    empty title

    +

    empty title

    +

    empty title

    +

    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.

    +

    Colophon

    +

    Written manically and edited in vexation in Etherpad. Composed +excitedly using paged.js. Typeset confidently in Work Sans by Wei Huang. +Digitally printed nervously at Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam on +Schoellershammer 75gsm and Clairefontaine Maya 270gsm.

    +

    Copyright held reluctantly by Stephen Kerr, 2024 under the SIXX +Licence, a free, copyleft license for rituals, games, books and +consolations in any medium, both software and hardware. For the purposes +of this paper, licensing is understood as a responsibility towards an +audience, towards each other and towards other people who might want to +contribute to, use or amplify any work. The precise terms can be found +at issue.xpub.nl/20/license

    +

    If you like this colophon you should really read the rest of the +thesis, its written specifically for you.

    @@ -226,7 +1185,7 @@ content of the week and our lives.

    -
    @@ -256,7 +1215,7 @@ content of the week and our lives.

    Colophon

    diff --git a/stephen/thesis-static.html b/stephen/thesis-static.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5737633 --- /dev/null +++ b/stephen/thesis-static.html @@ -0,0 +1,569 @@ + + + + + + + ⊞ + + + + + + + + + + + +
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    + + + + + diff --git a/stephen/thesis.html b/stephen/thesis.html index b6e4c18..026d2aa 100644 --- a/stephen/thesis.html +++ b/stephen/thesis.html @@ -16,9 +16,973 @@
  • Special Issues
    • -

    Title

    -

    Thesis Description

    -

    This is where your thesis goes

    +

    ⊞

    +

    empty title

    +

    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).

    +
    +The Cadaster of Orange, unknown ⊞er, c. 100 CE. + +
    +
    +Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981. + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    +The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE. + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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. +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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)

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • 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)
      • +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    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?

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • “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)
      • +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +
      +
    • ◱: 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.

    +

    empty title

    +

    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. +
    +

    empty title

    +

    ⊞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. +
    +

    empty title

    +

    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?

    +

    empty title

    +

    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

    +

    empty title

    +

    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

    +

    empty title

    +

    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. 

    +

    empty title

    +

    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.

    +

    empty title

    +

    empty title

    +

    empty title

    +

    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.

    +

    Colophon

    +

    Written manically and edited in vexation in Etherpad. Composed +excitedly using paged.js. Typeset confidently in Work Sans by Wei Huang. +Digitally printed nervously at Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam on +Schoellershammer 75gsm and Clairefontaine Maya 270gsm.

    +

    Copyright held reluctantly by Stephen Kerr, 2024 under the SIXX +Licence, a free, copyleft license for rituals, games, books and +consolations in any medium, both software and hardware. For the purposes +of this paper, licensing is understood as a responsibility towards an +audience, towards each other and towards other people who might want to +contribute to, use or amplify any work. The precise terms can be found +at issue.xpub.nl/20/license

    +

    If you like this colophon you should really read the rest of the +thesis, its written specifically for you.

    \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/stephen/thesis.md b/stephen/thesis.md index 2e9a082..03c6aa8 100644 --- a/stephen/thesis.md +++ b/stephen/thesis.md @@ -1,10 +1,1289 @@ ---- -title: Thesis -author: Stephen +# ⊞ ---- + -# Title +### empty title -### Thesis Description -This is where your thesis goes \ No newline at end of file + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +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). + +
    +The Cadaster of Orange, unknown ⊞er, c. 100 CE. +
    + +
    +Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981. +
    + +![Shams al-Ma'arif, Ahmad al-Buni Almalki, circa +1200.](./images/albuni2.jpg) + +![Cartesian Geometry, Rene Descartes, +1637.](./images/Simple_carthesian_coordinate_system.svg) + +![Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, +1954.](./images/art-josef-albers-study-for-homage-to-the-square-69.1917.jpg) + +![Counter Composition VI, +Theo Van Doesburg, +1925.](./images/TheoVAnDoesburgCounterCompositionVI.jpg) + +
    +The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE. +
    + +![Monogram, Piet Zwart, c. 1968.](./images/pietzwart.jpg) + +### empty title + + + +#### 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. *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.* + + + +### empty title + + +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) + +### empty title + + + +- 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) + +### empty title + + +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.  + +### empty title + + + +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. *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. *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. *I have taken three of the forty steps.* +5. *I have taken seven of the forty steps.* +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. *I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.* + + + +#### 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? + +### empty title + + + +- *“*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) + + + +### empty title + + +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.  + +### empty title + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +- ◱: 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. + +### empty title + + + +#### An annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, 23rd October 2023 + + + +1. *I read an email* +2. *and* +3. *I type* +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* + +### empty title + + +⊞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. *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. * + +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." * + +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.* + +### empty title + + +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? + +### empty title + + + +#### 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 + +### empty title + + + +#### 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 + +### empty title + + + +#### 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.  + + +### empty title + +#### 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. + + +### empty title + +### empty title + +### empty title + +#### 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*. 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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. + + + +#### Colophon + + +Written manically and edited in vexation in Etherpad. Composed excitedly +using paged.js. Typeset confidently in Work Sans by Wei Huang. Digitally +printed nervously at Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam on +Schoellershammer 75gsm and Clairefontaine Maya 270gsm. + +Copyright held reluctantly by Stephen Kerr, 2024 under the SIXX Licence, +a free, copyleft license for rituals, games, books and consolations in +any medium, both software and hardware. For the purposes of this paper, +licensing is understood as a responsibility towards an audience, towards +each other and towards other people who might want to contribute to, use +or amplify any work. The precise terms can be found at +issue.xpub.nl/20/license + +If you like this colophon you should really read the rest of the thesis, +its written specifically for you.