more book stuff

master
Stephen Kerr 3 months ago
parent 335c7913c7
commit ec6b60c383

@ -16,9 +16,7 @@
<li><a href="">Special Issues</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<div id="content"><p>Vulnerable Interfaces Four soft, silly and loud ways to tell heavy
stories. (on the cover)</p>
<p>Act 1. Scene 1.</p>
<div id="content"><p>Act 1. Scene 1.</p>
<p>Internal. A reader holds a book in their hands. The first page of the
book is opened, the reader holds it to their face and smells the paper,
touches it. The book touches them back.</p>

@ -2592,39 +2592,85 @@ and I was in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the
studio and we were in the studio and we were in the</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/keylogger.jpeg"
alt="Keylogging research, recording the buttons a graphic designer presses while working." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Keylogging research, recording the
buttons a graphic designer presses while working.</figcaption>
alt="Keylogging research. I recorded the buttons a graphic designer (me) presses while working, as an autoethnographic research method into what exactly it is that designers do. To celebrate this labour, I then used a pen plotter to make a series of posters. Three minutes of the designers keypresses took about eight hours to plot. October 24th 2023." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Keylogging research. I recorded the
buttons a graphic designer (me) presses while working, as an
autoethnographic research method into what exactly it is that designers
do. To celebrate this labour, I then used a pen plotter to make a series
of posters. Three minutes of the designers keypresses took about eight
hours to plot. October 24th 2023.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Practice-led artistic research into the 21st century phenomenon of
the graphic designer. I held graphic design in my hands using
ethnography, toolmaking and performance as research methods. I examined
how designers spend their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as
well as you, what are we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems,
mythologies and ideologies?</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/email.jpg"
alt="Email answering performance using Googles Gmail service. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th 2023" />
alt="Email answering performance using Googles Gmail service. To reveal the work of the designer clearly, I performed the designers task of answering email in front of an audience. Due to the performance happening at 7pm, out of office hours, there was extensive use of the Scheduled Email feature. Some stories emerged about our precarity including overdue rent and invalid payment information for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th 2023." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Email answering performance using
Googles Gmail service. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th
2023</figcaption>
Googles Gmail service. To reveal the work of the designer clearly, I
performed the designers task of answering email in front of an
audience. Due to the performance happening at 7pm, out of office hours,
there was extensive use of the Scheduled Email feature. Some stories
emerged about our precarity including overdue rent and invalid payment
information for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Leeszaal, Rotterdam,
November 7th 2023.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/laziness.jpg"
alt="A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter draws." />
alt="A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter draws, it creates a record of the tiny moments between the work." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">A performative tool that measures the
laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter.
The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter
draws.</figcaption>
draws, it creates a record of the tiny moments between the
work.</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p>Secondly, during my studies at XPUB, I plan to combine different
strands of my practices (design, music, programming, theatre). Being a
designer is an important part of my identity, and I am keen to make work
true to who I am.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Excerpt from xpub application letter, March 15th 2022.</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/peecee.jpg"
alt="Re-enacting dreams about work. Rotterdam, February 7th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Re-enacting dreams about work. Rotterdam,
February 7th 2024.</figcaption>
alt="Re-enacting dreams about work at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Participants use felt dolls to tell stories of our dreams on the small and squishy stage. Were trying to balance design labour with other labour like making food for our loved ones, we cant stop brushing our teeth, brushing, brushing, brushing. February 5th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Re-enacting dreams about work at Piet
Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Participants use felt dolls to
tell stories of our dreams on the small and squishy stage. Were trying
to balance design labour with other labour like making food for our
loved ones, we cant stop brushing our teeth, brushing, brushing,
brushing. February 5th 2024.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/amro.jpeg"
alt="Re-enacting dreams about work. Art Meets Radical Openness festival. May 11th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Re-enacting dreams about work. Art Meets
Radical Openness festival. May 11th 2024.</figcaption>
alt="Collective dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. Inside a tent, a group of people perform eachothers dreams about work and discuss and analyse them together. We feel like impostors, we dont know how to work these machines, were going to crash. March 11th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Collective dream re-enactment at Art
Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. Inside a tent, a group of people
perform eachothers dreams about work and discuss and analyse them
together. We feel like impostors, we dont know how to work these
machines, were going to crash. March 11th 2024.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/dizzy.jpeg" alt="Where do dreams come from?" />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Where do dreams come from?</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/form.png"
alt="do you ever dream about work? Online research and publication where we shared our dreams, worries, rants, designs. The answers to the question are published together as a collection of voices." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">do you ever dream about work? Online
research and publication where we shared our dreams, worries, rants,
designs. The answers to the question are published together as a
collection of voices.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/wood-keyboard.jpeg"
alt="Keyboard of things designers have said. Our feelings about work." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Keyboard of things designers have said.
Our feelings about work.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“A sane person”, says Zeno, “doesnt analyse himself, doesnt look in
the mirror”</p>
<p>2023-11-24 17:52:55,103 - Key.tab<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:57,175 - Key.alt_l<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:57,368 - Key.tab<br />
@ -3004,99 +3050,20 @@ the mirror”</p>
2024-06-06 15:55:30,561 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:33,281 - Key.cmd<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:33,617 - e</p>
<p><img src="imagename.png"
alt="Collective performative dream re-enactment at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. February 5th 2024." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="Collective performative dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. March 11th 2024." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="Keyboard of things designers have said." /> <img
src="imagename.png"
alt="do you ever dream about work? online research" /></p>
<p>An investigation into the practices and ideologies of graphic design
in 202324 though practice-led artistic research and ethnographic
methods. I held graphic design in my hands using ethnography, toolmaking
and performance as research methods. I examined how a designer spends
their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as well as you, what are
we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems, mythologies and
ideologies?</p>
<p><em>What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and
what does “graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?</em> is an assessment of
what the term “graphic design” means to its practitioners today. Through
experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of
reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries
that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own
practices as well as other people and groups that identify with “graphic
designer” as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with
interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a
series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the
research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative
cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is
conducted through the performative use and development of these
tools.</p>
<p>This research is carried out in three intersecting methods:
experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative
research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews
about the manual work of “immaterial labourers”, and dream analysis are
combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of
what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to
their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods
were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from
the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own
publication as part of one process.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own
practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on
technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my
laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with
designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the
discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I
will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods
such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the
results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools)
with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these
processes and who would benefit from it.</p></li>
<li><p>Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the
boundaries of “graphic design” as a category. For example at the
boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the
boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools
malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The
tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with
their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example
an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow),
or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with
their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use
of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software
and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work.</p></li>
<li><p>Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a
performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative
act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience,
research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal,
Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work
practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with
the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily
activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without
the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for
example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a
bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and
practices of the graphic designer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford
Geertzs ideas of why humans make culture: “to affirm it, defend it,
celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it” (Geertz, 1973). This
exploration will also involve less constructive actions like
participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and
disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about
“graphic design” and the effects it is known to have on its audiences,
practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to
“loosen the object” of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the
definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with.
This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by
it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it
hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good
way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also
dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from
the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage
with the effects on and by these bodies.</p>
<!-- # felt cute might delete later
*What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does "graphic design" even mean?!????!!1!?* is an assessment of what the term "graphic design" means to its practitioners today. Through experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own practices as well as other people and groups that identify with "graphic designer" as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is conducted through the performative use and development of these tools.
This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews about the manual work of "immaterial labourers", and dream analysis are combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own publication as part of one process.
1. Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools) with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these processes and who would benefit from it.
2. Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the boundaries of "graphic design" as a category. For example at the boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow), or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work.
3. Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience, research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal, Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and practices of the graphic designer.
I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford Geertz's ideas of why humans make culture: "to affirm it, defend it, celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it" (Geertz, 1973). This exploration will also involve less constructive actions like participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about "graphic design" and the effects it is known to have on its audiences, practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to "loosen the object" of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with. This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage with the effects on and by these bodies.
-->
</section>

@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ figure{
width: 133mm;
margin: -13mm 0 0 -30mm;
position: relative;
object-fit: cover;
}
.full-image figure{
margin: 0;
@ -111,6 +113,7 @@ figure{
img{
width: 100%;
break-before: page;
}
h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{

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@ -20,6 +20,12 @@
id="what-do-graphic-designers-do-all-day-and-why-do-they-do-it-and-what-does-graphic-design-even-mean1">What
do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does
“graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?</h1>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/its-ok.jpg"
alt="Custom keyboard mapping for efficient design practice." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Custom keyboard mapping for efficient
design practice.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I cut my thumb so every time I type i can feel it in my nerve
endings. Not true, its my left thumb so I dont type with it. Not true,
I feel it anyway. Why are most of the function keys on the left of the
@ -33,114 +39,486 @@ night Im writing this on my phone. If I had a dream this is when I
would be writing it. The memory is fuzzy: either I dont remember or it
didnt make sense in the first place. It was something to do with
fuzziness and memory no wait. Phones dont have keyboards in real life
third doesnt make sense. Im trying to type but I dont think I can get
this doesnt make sense. Im trying to type but I dont think I can get
it on the way to the office for the weekend and I think it was a good
idea to do it and I was thinking about you and I was thinking of you and
the kids in the morning and I was thinking about you and I was in the
same place as a friend of mine and I was in the car park and we were in
the car park and we were in the car park and we were in the car park and
we were in the</p>
<p><img src="imagename.png"
alt="The result of a tool that connects musical instruments to a pen plotter, using an arduino module. I created this tool to cross the boundary of “graphic design” as a discipline separate from music." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter will draw." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="A performative autoethnographic research of graphic design practices, in this case answering emails using Googles Gmail service. Leeszaal, Rotterdam West, November 7th 2023" />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="Collective performative dream re-enactment at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. February 5th 2024." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="Collective performative dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. March 11th 2024." />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="Keyboard of things designers have said." /> <img
src="imagename.png"
alt="keylogging research, recording the buttons a graphic designer presses while working" />
<img src="imagename.png"
alt="do you ever dream about work? online research" /></p>
<p>An investigation into the practices and ideologies of graphic design
in 202324 though practice-led artistic research and ethnographic
methods. I held graphic design in my hands using ethnography, toolmaking
and performance as research methods. I examined how a designer spends
their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as well as you, what are
we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems, mythologies and
ideologies?</p>
<p><em>What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and
what does “graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?</em> is an assessment of
what the term “graphic design” means to its practitioners today. Through
experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of
reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries
that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own
practices as well as other people and groups that identify with “graphic
designer” as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with
interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a
series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the
research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative
cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is
conducted through the performative use and development of these
tools.</p>
<p>This research is carried out in three intersecting methods:
experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative
research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews
about the manual work of “immaterial labourers”, and dream analysis are
combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of
what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to
their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods
were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from
the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own
publication as part of one process.</p>
<ol type="1">
<li><p>Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own
practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on
technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my
laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with
designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the
discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I
will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods
such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the
results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools)
with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these
processes and who would benefit from it.</p></li>
<li><p>Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the
boundaries of “graphic design” as a category. For example at the
boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the
boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools
malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The
tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with
their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example
an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow),
or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with
their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use
of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software
and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work.</p></li>
<li><p>Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a
performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative
act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience,
research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal,
Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work
practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with
the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily
activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without
the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for
example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a
bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and
practices of the graphic designer.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford
Geertzs ideas of why humans make culture: “to affirm it, defend it,
celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it” (Geertz, 1973). This
exploration will also involve less constructive actions like
participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and
disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about
“graphic design” and the effects it is known to have on its audiences,
practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to
“loosen the object” of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the
definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with.
This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by
it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it
hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good
way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also
dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from
the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage
with the effects on and by these bodies.</p>
I was thinking about you and I was in the same place as a friend of mine
and I was in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the
studio and we were in the studio and we were in the</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/keylogger.jpeg"
alt="Keylogging research. I recorded the buttons a graphic designer (me) presses while working, as an autoethnographic research method into what exactly it is that designers do. To celebrate this labour, I then used a pen plotter to make a series of posters. Three minutes of the designers keypresses took about eight hours to plot. October 24th 2023." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Keylogging research. I recorded the
buttons a graphic designer (me) presses while working, as an
autoethnographic research method into what exactly it is that designers
do. To celebrate this labour, I then used a pen plotter to make a series
of posters. Three minutes of the designers keypresses took about eight
hours to plot. October 24th 2023.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Practice-led artistic research into the 21st century phenomenon of
the graphic designer. I held graphic design in my hands using
ethnography, toolmaking and performance as research methods. I examined
how designers spend their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as
well as you, what are we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems,
mythologies and ideologies?</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/email.jpg"
alt="Email answering performance using Googles Gmail service. To reveal the work of the designer clearly, I performed the designers task of answering email in front of an audience. Due to the performance happening at 7pm, out of office hours, there was extensive use of the Scheduled Email feature. Some stories emerged about our precarity including overdue rent and invalid payment information for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th 2023." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Email answering performance using
Googles Gmail service. To reveal the work of the designer clearly, I
performed the designers task of answering email in front of an
audience. Due to the performance happening at 7pm, out of office hours,
there was extensive use of the Scheduled Email feature. Some stories
emerged about our precarity including overdue rent and invalid payment
information for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Leeszaal, Rotterdam,
November 7th 2023.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/laziness.jpg"
alt="A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter draws, it creates a record of the tiny moments between the work." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">A performative tool that measures the
laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter.
The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter
draws, it creates a record of the tiny moments between the
work.</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p>Secondly, during my studies at XPUB, I plan to combine different
strands of my practices (design, music, programming, theatre). Being a
designer is an important part of my identity, and I am keen to make work
true to who I am.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Excerpt from xpub application letter, March 15th 2022.</p>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/peecee.jpg"
alt="Re-enacting dreams about work at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Participants use felt dolls to tell stories of our dreams on the small and squishy stage. Were trying to balance design labour with other labour like making food for our loved ones, we cant stop brushing our teeth, brushing, brushing, brushing. February 5th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Re-enacting dreams about work at Piet
Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Participants use felt dolls to
tell stories of our dreams on the small and squishy stage. Were trying
to balance design labour with other labour like making food for our
loved ones, we cant stop brushing our teeth, brushing, brushing,
brushing. February 5th 2024.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/amro.jpeg"
alt="Collective dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. Inside a tent, a group of people perform eachothers dreams about work and discuss and analyse them together. We feel like impostors, we dont know how to work these machines, were going to crash. March 11th 2024." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Collective dream re-enactment at Art
Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. Inside a tent, a group of people
perform eachothers dreams about work and discuss and analyse them
together. We feel like impostors, we dont know how to work these
machines, were going to crash. March 11th 2024.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/dizzy.jpeg" alt="Where do dreams come from?" />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Where do dreams come from?</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/form.png"
alt="do you ever dream about work? Online research and publication where we shared our dreams, worries, rants, designs. The answers to the question are published together as a collection of voices." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">do you ever dream about work? Online
research and publication where we shared our dreams, worries, rants,
designs. The answers to the question are published together as a
collection of voices.</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>
<img src="../stephen/wood-keyboard.jpeg"
alt="Keyboard of things designers have said. Our feelings about work." />
<figcaption aria-hidden="true">Keyboard of things designers have said.
Our feelings about work.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>2023-11-24 17:52:55,103 - Key.tab<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:57,175 - Key.alt_l<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:57,368 - Key.tab<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:57,959 - Key.tab<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:58,239 - Key.tab<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:59,055 - Key.cmd<br />
2023-11-24 17:52:59,208 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:51:56,169 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:51:56,273 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:51:57,017 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:51:58,130 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:51:58,385 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:04,257 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:04,370 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:05,041 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:05,281 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:39,050 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:39,443 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:52:53,985 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:54,363 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:52:57,545 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:57,761 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:57,921 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,057 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,201 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,337 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,585 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,682 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:58,785 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:59,121 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:52:59,417 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:00,530 - k<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:00,626 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:00,890 - y<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:01,370 - l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:01,546 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:01,754 - g<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:01,882 - g<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:01,994 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:02,162 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:02,778 - .<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:03,146 - j<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:03,394 - p<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:03,562 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:03,818 - g<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:05,569 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,079 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,110 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,140 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,172 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,203 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,235 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,282 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,313 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,344 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,374 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,405 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,436 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,467 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,499 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,545 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,578 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,609 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,641 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,672 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,702 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,733 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,765 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,795 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,841 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,872 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,904 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,934 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,964 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:06,995 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,040 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,073 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,103 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,134 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,165 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,196 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,228 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:07,250 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:53:08,753 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:08,881 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:08,937 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:09,058 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:53:10,218 - Key.up<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:10,441 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:10,970 - Key.down<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:11,169 - Key.down<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:11,577 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:11,777 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:11,921 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:27,769 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:27,882 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:28,585 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:28,833 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:31,809 - z<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:32,090 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:32,682 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:32,753 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:38,450 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:38,713 - q<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:38,858 - u<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:38,937 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:39,082 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:39,129 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:39,201 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:44,858 - w<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:44,953 - i<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:45,129 - k<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:45,250 - i<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:48,817 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:55,257 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:55,513 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:53:56,418 - z<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:56,642 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:56,882 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:53:56,946 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:05,473 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:05,609 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,185 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,693 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,723 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,754 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,786 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,831 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,862 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,893 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,923 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,952 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:08,983 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:09,010 - A<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:09,177 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:09,778 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:09,842 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,026 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,130 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,242 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,634 - p<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,754 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:10,850 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:11,281 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:11,442 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:11,538 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:13,689 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:13,818 - ‘“’<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,225 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,731 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,760 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,791 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,839 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,869 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,899 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,930 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,962 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:14,992 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,023 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,055 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,281 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,513 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,625 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:15,705 - ‘“’<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,009 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,514 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,546 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,576 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,623 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,653 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,684 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,715 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,746 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,777 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,809 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,840 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,886 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:16,916 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:17,289 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:18,058 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:18,130 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:18,314 - y<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:18,394 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:19,242 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:19,409 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:19,634 - Z<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:19,866 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:20,034 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:20,114 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:20,336 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:20,441 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:21,433 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:21,521 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:22,586 - ,<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:22,665 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,177 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,207 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,239 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,270 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,301 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,332 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,378 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,409 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,440 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,577 - Key.left<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,826 - ,<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:23,937 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,446 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,477 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,508 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,539 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,570 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,616 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,648 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:24,889 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:25,049 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:25,289 - Key.right<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:25,425 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:25,737 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:25,825 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:26,554 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:26,617 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:26,993 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,506 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,537 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,568 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,599 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,610 - ‘“’<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:27,946 - d<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,090 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,218 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,322 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,394 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,897 -”’”<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:28,978 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:29,105 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:29,274 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:29,418 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:29,522 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:29,850 - l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:30,090 - y<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:30,241 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:30,394 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:30,609 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:30,930 - h<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,002 - i<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,137 - m<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,322 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,458 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,633 - l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:31,730 - f<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:32,241 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:32,353 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:33,737 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:33,833 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:34,442 - ,<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:34,585 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:34,834 - d<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:34,954 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,090 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,170 - s<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,298 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,898 -”’”<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,954 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:35,978 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,209 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,378 - l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,546 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,666 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,730 - k<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:36,881 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,034 - i<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,090 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,257 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,410 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,482 - h<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,586 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,681 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:37,874 - m<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:38,017 - i<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:38,233 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:38,562 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:38,898 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:39,210 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:39,945 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,448 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,478 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,525 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,556 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,587 - Key.shift<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:40,594 - ‘“’<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:41,033 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:41,137 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:42,545 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:42,650 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:44,257 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:44,466 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:54:45,105 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:45,217 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:46,361 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:46,537 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:46,729 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:48,706 - g<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:48,770 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:48,914 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:49,034 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:49,140 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:49,570 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:49,786 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:49,866 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:50,785 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,295 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,325 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,356 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,388 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,418 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,450 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,497 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,527 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,558 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,589 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,620 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,651 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,682 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:51,728 - Key.backspace<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:52,162 - p<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:52,649 - y<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:52,970 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:53,082 - h<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:53,122 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:53,265 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:53,817 - Key.space<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:54,410 - g<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:54,442 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:54,609 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:54,714 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:54,810 - r<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:55,073 - a<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:55,202 - t<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:55,306 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:55,809 - -<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:56,465 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:54:58,945 - Key.enter<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:06,353 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:06,473 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:07,265 - Key.tab<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:10,985 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,492 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,523 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,554 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,586 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,630 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:11,642 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:55:15,457 - Key.ctrl_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:15,730 - <br />
2024-06-06 15:55:16,210 - z<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:16,434 - e<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:16,626 - n<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:16,714 - o<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:20,953 - Key.alt_l<br />
2024-06-06 15:55:21,049 - Key.tab<br />
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<!-- # felt cute might delete later
*What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does "graphic design" even mean?!????!!1!?* is an assessment of what the term "graphic design" means to its practitioners today. Through experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own practices as well as other people and groups that identify with "graphic designer" as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is conducted through the performative use and development of these tools.
This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnographic research, reflexive tools, and performative research. Keylogging, performance of personal work habits, interviews about the manual work of "immaterial labourers", and dream analysis are combined in order to uncover less obvious and less discussed aspects of what a designer is and does in their daily life, as entry points to their worldviews, belief systems, mythologies or ideologies. The methods were developed in an iterative process that reflected on findings from the previous prototypes. The research took into account its own publication as part of one process.
1. Experimental ethnographic research methods: I documented my own practices as a graphic designer for nine months. Sometimes based on technical observations of my interaction with my tools, primarily my laptop computer and the software on it. I conducted interviews with designers. I recorded the interviews. I had prompts to open the discussion such as reading material and weird tools to try with them. I will carry out auto-ethnographic research using experimental methods such as mouse tracking and unusual annotation methods. I shared the results of this research as a series of interactive publications (tools) with a small but selected audience of people who are involved in these processes and who would benefit from it.
2. Reflexive tools: Software and hardware tools that explore the boundaries of "graphic design" as a category. For example at the boundaries between graphic design and other disciplines. At the boundaries between work and play, or between design and art. These tools malfunction in order to explore what it even means to be working. The tools aim to highlight what a graphic designer does by interacting with their user in ways that the designers standard tools do not (for example an interface to connect musical instruments to the designers workflow), or conversely by amplifying how the designer usually interacts with their tools (for example a keylogger to celebrate and focus on the use of the keyboard). The tools are digital in nature and involve software and hardware interventions into the graphic designers work.
3. Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience, research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal, Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and practices of the graphic designer.
I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford Geertz's ideas of why humans make culture: "to affirm it, defend it, celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it" (Geertz, 1973). This exploration will also involve less constructive actions like participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about "graphic design" and the effects it is known to have on its audiences, practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to "loosen the object" of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with. This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage with the effects on and by these bodies.
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@ -10,18 +10,28 @@ author: Stephen
I cut my thumb so every time I type i can feel it in my nerve endings. Not true, it's my left thumb so I don't type with it. Not true, I feel it anyway. Why are most of the function keys on the left of the keyboard. What's so functional about pressing buttons. Stephen Kerr is a designer and musician based in. Have you ever loved an instrument? The Ctrl key broke like four times since I moved here. I have one more replacement because I bought a bunch of them but at some point I gave up and use an external keyboard. I dunno I'm more confused than ever. It was something to do with dreams and working. It's the middle of the night I'm writing this on my phone. If I had a dream this is when I would be writing it. The memory is fuzzy: either I don't remember or it didn't make sense in the first place. It was something to do with fuzziness and memory no wait. Phones don't have keyboards in real life this doesn't make sense. I'm trying to type but I don't think I can get it on the way to the office for the weekend and I think it was a good idea to do it and I was thinking about you and I was thinking of you and I was thinking about you and I was in the same place as a friend of mine and I was in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the
![Keylogging research, recording the buttons a graphic designer presses while working.](../stephen/keylogger.jpeg)
![Keylogging research. I recorded the buttons a graphic designer (me) presses while working, as an autoethnographic research method into what exactly it is that designers do. To celebrate this labour, I then used a pen plotter to make a series of posters. Three minutes of the designers keypresses took about eight hours to plot. October 24th 2023.](../stephen/keylogger.jpeg)
![Email answering performance using Google's Gmail service. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th 2023.](../stephen/email.jpg)
Practice-led artistic research into the 21st century phenomenon of the graphic designer. I held graphic design in my hands using ethnography, toolmaking and performance as research methods. I examined how designers spend their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as well as you, what are we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems, mythologies and ideologies?
![A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter draws.](../stephen/laziness.jpg)
![Email answering performance using Google's Gmail service. To reveal the work of the designer clearly, I performed the designer's task of answering email in front of an audience. Due to the performance happening at 7pm, out of office hours, there was extensive use of the Scheduled Email feature. Some stories emerged about our precarity including overdue rent and invalid payment information for Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions. Leeszaal, Rotterdam, November 7th 2023.](../stephen/email.jpg)
![Re-enacting dreams about work. Rotterdam, February 7th 2024.](../stephen/peecee.jpg)
![A performative tool that measures the laziness of the designer as they work and graphs it on a pen plotter. The less the designer uses the mouse, the longer a line the pen plotter draws, it creates a record of the tiny moments between the work.](../stephen/laziness.jpg)
![Re-enacting dreams about work. Art Meets Radical Openness festival. May 11th 2024.](../stephen/amro.jpeg)
> Secondly, during my studies at XPUB, I plan to combine different strands of my practices (design, music, programming, theatre). Being a designer is an important part of my identity, and I am keen to make work true to who I am.
Excerpt from xpub application letter, March 15th 2022.
![Re-enacting dreams about work at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Participants use felt dolls to tell stories of our dreams on the small and squishy stage. We're trying to balance design labour with other labour like making food for our loved ones, we can't stop brushing our teeth, brushing, brushing, brushing. February 5th 2024. ](../stephen/peecee.jpg)
![Collective dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. Inside a tent, a group of people perform eachother's dreams about work and discuss and analyse them together. We feel like impostors, we don't know how to work these machines, we're going to crash. March 11th 2024. ](../stephen/amro.jpeg)
![Where do dreams come from?](../stephen/dizzy.jpeg)
![do you ever dream about work? Online research and publication where we shared our dreams, worries, rants, designs. The answers to the question are published together as a collection of voices.](../stephen/form.png)
![Keyboard of things designers have said. Our feelings about work.](../stephen/wood-keyboard.jpeg)
"A sane person", says Zeno, "doesn't analyse himself, doesn't look in the mirror"
2023-11-24 17:52:55,103 - Key.tab
2023-11-24 17:52:57,175 - Key.alt_l
2023-11-24 17:52:57,368 - Key.tab
@ -402,14 +412,7 @@ I cut my thumb so every time I type i can feel it in my nerve endings. Not true,
2024-06-06 15:55:33,281 - Key.cmd
2024-06-06 15:55:33,617 - 'e'
![Collective performative dream re-enactment at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands. February 5th 2024. ](imagename.png)
![Collective performative dream re-enactment at Art Meets Radical Openness, Linz, Austria. March 11th 2024. ](imagename.png)
![Keyboard of things designers have said.](imagename.png)
![do you ever dream about work? online research](imagename.png)
An investigation into the practices and ideologies of graphic design in 202324 though practice-led artistic research and ethnographic methods. I held graphic design in my hands using ethnography, toolmaking and performance as research methods. I examined how a designer spends their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as well as you, what are we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems, mythologies and ideologies?
<!-- # felt cute might delete later
*What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does "graphic design" even mean?!????!!1!?* is an assessment of what the term "graphic design" means to its practitioners today. Through experimental ethnographic research methods and the development of reflexive tools, the project highlights and questions the boundaries that exist around this apparent category. The research focuses on my own practices as well as other people and groups that identify with "graphic designer" as a label. The research was both conducted by and shared with interested parties in the form of the tools themselves, as well as a series of performances. There is no strict distinction between the research and its publication. The tools were released in an iterative cycle throughout the process of the project, and the research is conducted through the performative use and development of these tools.
@ -422,4 +425,4 @@ This research is carried out in three intersecting methods: experimental ethnogr
3. Performative research: I see all the methods above as having a performative element. For example the ethnographic-slash-performative act of answering my emails on a large screen in front of an audience, research which was carried out as part of this project at Leeszaal, Rotterdam West on November 7th 2023. By showing directly the work practices of graphic designers to an audience, or their interaction with the tools mentioned above, I am publishing through performance the daily activities of designers and my aim is to show these practices without the conventional lenses they are seen through. To be contrasted for example with how graphic design is presented on behance.net or in a bookshop, this performative approach will highlight the mythologies and practices of the graphic designer.
I made this to explore why designers make design, based on Clifford Geertz's ideas of why humans make culture: "to affirm it, defend it, celebrate it, justify it and just plain bask in it" (Geertz, 1973). This exploration will also involve less constructive actions like participating, dissociating, questioning, protesting, destroying and disregarding. There is a disconnect between the narratives about "graphic design" and the effects it is known to have on its audiences, practitioners, and society in more general terms. I am attempting to "loosen the object" of graphic design (Berlant, 2022), to make the definition less defined and maybe more useful or easier to engage with. This shit could be better. Its urgent for the people being exploited by it, to break the inequalities it serves to maintain, to expose what it hides, to improve things that are definitely working but not in a good way. Design can hide and reproduce inequalities in its output and also dominate workers in its practices. This research starts primarily from the bodies and actions of the practitioners so will primarily engage with the effects on and by these bodies.
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