stephen thesis

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@ -841,6 +841,18 @@ This map will reveal your mode of reading. The order of reading will be indicate
   	 <section id="section-10" class="section">
       		 <h1 id="section">⊞</h1>
 <hr />
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <hr />
 <h4 id="to-de-sign-design-i-will-assign-a-sign">To de-sign design, I
 will assign a sign: ⊞</h4>
 <p>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).</p>
 <hr />
 =======
 <p>Stephen Kerr</p>
 <p>⊞</p>
 <p>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 &amp; ⊞: Experimental Publishing.</p>
@ -849,40 +861,180 @@ Second Reader: Joseph Knierzinger<br />
 Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <h4 id="to-de-sign-design-i-will-assign-a-sign">To de-sign design, I will assign a sign: ⊞</h4>
 <p>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).</p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/orange.jpg" alt="The Cadaster of Orange, unknown ⊞er, c. 100 CE." class="image-45" /><figcaption>The Cadaster of Orange, unknown ⊞er, c. 100 CE.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/Niggli-Grid-systems-in-graphic-design-7.jpg" alt="Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981" class="image-95" /><figcaption>Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/albuni2.jpg" alt="Shams al-Ma’arif, Ahmad al-Buni Almalki, circa 1200." class="image-95" /><figcaption>Shams al-Ma’arif, Ahmad al-Buni Almalki, circa 1200.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/Simple_carthesian_coordinate_system.svg" alt="Cartesian Geometry, Rene Descartes, 1637." class="image-95" /><figcaption>Cartesian Geometry, Rene Descartes, 1637.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/art-josef-albers-study-for-homage-to-the-square-69.1917.jpg" alt="Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954." class="image-95" /><figcaption>Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/TheoVAnDoesburgCounterCompositionVI.jpg" alt="Counter Composition VI, Theo Van Doesburg, 1925." class="image-45" /><figcaption>Counter Composition VI, Theo Van Doesburg, 1925.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/po-valley2.png" alt="The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE." class="image-95" /><figcaption>The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <figure>
 <img src="../images/../images/pietzwart.jpg" alt="Monogram, Piet Zwart, c. 1968." class="image-45" /><figcaption>Monogram, Piet Zwart, c. 1968.</figcaption>
 </figure>
 <hr />
 <hr />
 <h4 id="introduction">Introduction</h4>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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
 ⊞? </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 <hr />
 =======
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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 ⊞? </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <h4 id="what-is-a-er">What is a ⊞er?</h4>
 <ol type="1">
 <li><em>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. </em></li>
 <li><em>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.</em></li>
 </ol>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <hr />
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>⊞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. </p>
 <hr />
 <h4 id="geestelijk">Geestelijk</h4>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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
 <em>Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art</em> (1917). They claimed a shared
 spirit was driving this universalisation. A later paragraph of the
 manifesto is translated into english as:</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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.”</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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:</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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.”</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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? </p>
 <h4
 id="excerpt-from-an-interview-with-conor-clarke-1st-december-2023">Excerpt
 from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023</h4>
 <p><em>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 ⊞</em>, <em>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</em>. (⊞west.eu, 2023)</p>
 =======
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>⊞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. </p>
 <h4 id="geestelijk">Geestelijk</h4>
@ -900,6 +1052,7 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <h4 id="excerpt-from-an-interview-with-conor-clarke-1st-december-2023">Excerpt from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023</h4>
 <p><em>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 ⊞</em>, <em>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</em>. (⊞west.eu, 2023)</p>
 <hr />
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 <ul>
 <li>SK: What do you think is the best shape?</li>
 <li>CC: Oh yeah, good god. square.</li>
@ -919,6 +1072,7 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li>CC: Oh good god. Good god no.</li>
 </ul>
 <!-- -->
 <hr />
 <h4 id="maths-and-grids">Maths and grids</h4>
 <p>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 <em>Grid Systems</em> (Figure 2) for example or Karl Gerstner’s <em>⊞ing Programmes</em> (1964). I read these ⊞ theorists as you might comparatively read religious texts. What were or are the beliefs of the authors and their audiences?<br />
     <br />
@ -934,7 +1088,78 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
     <br />
     <br />
     <br />
     <br />
     <br />
     <br />
     </p>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <hr />
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <hr />
 <h4 id="the-grid-and-the-written-word">The ⊞ grid and the written
 word</h4>
 <p>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 <em>CARNIVAL</em>
 (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. </p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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 <em>CARNIVAL</em><br />
 (The Idea of the Book, 2024)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <hr />
 <p>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?</p>
 <hr />
 <h4 id="mystically-assigning-or-finding-meanings-in">Mystically
 assigning or finding meanings in ⊞</h4>
 <p>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. </p>
 =======
 <ul>
 <li>“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.”</li>
 <li>(Gerstner, 1964)</li>
@ -955,6 +1180,7 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <h4 id="mystically-assigning-or-finding-meanings-in">Mystically assigning or finding meanings in ⊞</h4>
 <p>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. </p>
 <hr />
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <ol type="1">
 <li><em>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.</em></li>
 <li><em>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.</em></li>
@ -964,6 +1190,57 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li><em>⊞ 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?</em></li>
 <li><em>I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.</em></li>
 </ol>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <hr />
 <h4
 id="what-does-do-what-is-the-er-trying-to-do-by-pressing-all-these-buttons-and-making-the-screen-vibrate">What
 does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons
 and making the screen vibrate?</h4>
 <blockquote>
 <p><em>“</em>⊞ only generates longing” (Van Der Velden, 2006)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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.</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p><em>“</em>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.” (Bierut, 2018)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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?</p>
 <hr />
 <blockquote>
 <p><em>“</em>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)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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.</p>
 <hr />
 <h4
 id="excerpt-from-an-interview-with-the-members-of-distinctive-repetition.">Excerpt
 from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition.</h4>
 <p>Principal ⊞er 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 seats.</p>
 =======
 <h4 id="what-does-do-what-is-the-er-trying-to-do-by-pressing-all-these-buttons-and-making-the-screen-vibrate">What does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons and making the screen vibrate?</h4>
 <ul>
 <li><em>“</em>⊞ only generates longing”</li>
@ -983,6 +1260,7 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <h4 id="excerpt-from-an-interview-with-the-members-of-distinctive-repetition-on-1st-december-2023.">Excerpt from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition on 1st December 2023.</h4>
 <p>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.</p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <ul>
 <li>◲: whats your favourite colour?</li>
 <li>◰: red.</li>
@ -1007,13 +1285,81 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li>◱: yeah yeah.</li>
 <li>(obscured)</li>
 <li>◲: why were you taking grids out of drawers?</li>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <li>◱: 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.</li>
 =======
 <li>◱: 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.</li>
 <li>(section redacted by request of interviewees)</li>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 </ul>
 <!-- -->
 <hr />
 <h4 id="about-the-interview">About the interview</h4>
 <p>Before meeting them in person, I mailed a small booklet to the interviewees entitled <em>Enthusiasm</em> 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:<br />
     </p>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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. <em>The
 Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the Search of Truth in the
 Sciences</em> 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.”</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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
 <span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px">relationship with grids that there
 is a relationship with ⊞.</span></p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>◳: jelly that’s not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge
 yet and its just oozing through my fingers</p>
 </blockquote>
 <!-- -->
 <p>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? </p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>◱: 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.</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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.</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>◱: just fucking use those grids</p>
 </blockquote>
 =======
 <ul>
 <li>“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. <em>The Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the Search of Truth in the Sciences</em> 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.”</li>
 </ul>
@ -1030,9 +1376,73 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <ul>
 <li>◱: just fucking use those grids</li>
 </ul>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <!-- -->
 <p>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.</p>
 <h4 id="modern-work">Modern work</h4>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <blockquote>
 <p>“A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt, and
 as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous” Adolf Loos, <em>On
 Thrift,</em> 1924 (Loos, 2019)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as
 <em>Ornament and Crime</em> 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 <em>The Protestant Ethic and the
 Spirit of Capitalism</em> (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.</p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <hr />
 <h4 id="the-roman-grid">The Roman grid</h4>
 <p>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:</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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.” (Driessen, 2020)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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. </p>
 =======
 <ul>
 <li>“A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt, and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”</li>
 <li>Adolf Loos, <em>On Thrift,</em> 1924 (Loos, 2019)</li>
@ -1048,11 +1458,35 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li>Descartes was Here, Clemens Driessen, 2020</li>
 </ul>
 <p>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. </p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <hr />
-<ul>
+<blockquote>
-<li>◱: for fucks sake why don’t we use those grids</li>
+<p>◱: for fucks sake why don’t we use those grids</p>
-</ul>
+</blockquote>
 <!-- -->
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>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.</p>
 <h4 id="an-analysis-of-a-joke-about-in-the-early-21st-century">An
 analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century</h4>
 <p>When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞
 critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>“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)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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.</p>
 =======
 <p>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.</p>
 <h4 id="an-analysis-of-a-joke-about-in-the-early-21st-century">An analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century</h4>
 <p>When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞ critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:</p>
@ -1061,6 +1495,7 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li>(Shaughnessy, 2013)</li>
 </ul>
 <p>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.</p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <hr />
 <h4 id="an-annotation-of-my-practices-as-a-graphic-er-on-a-typical-working-day-23rd-october-2023">An annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, 23rd October 2023</h4>
 <ol type="1">
@ -1070,14 +1505,91 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li><em>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</em></li>
 </ol>
 <hr />
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>⊞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). </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 <hr />
 =======
 <p>⊞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). </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <h4 id="libreoffice">LibreOffice</h4>
 <ol type="1">
 <li><em>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.</em></li>
 <li><em>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. </em></li>
 </ol>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>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 ⊞. </p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p><em>my god im trying to use scribus to prepare a booklet</em><br />
 <em>im going crazy</em><br />
 <em>im going crazy</em> (kamo, 2024)</p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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.</p>
 <blockquote>
 <p><em>“And I don’t care.” </em></p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>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. <br />
 =======
 <p>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 ⊞. </p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <ul>
@ -1091,24 +1603,67 @@ Word count: 7828 words</p>
 <li><em>“And I don’t care.” </em></li>
 </ol>
 <p>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. <br />
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
  </p>
 <h4 id="work-sans">Work Sans</h4>
 <ol type="1">
 <li><em>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.</em></li>
 </ol>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>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.</p>
 <p>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. <br />
 =======
 <hr />
 <p>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.</p>
 <p>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. <br />
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
  <br />
 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?</p>
 <hr />
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <hr />
 <h4 id="follow-up-questions-for-conor">Follow up questions for
 Conor</h4>
 <p>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:</p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <p>And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im
 totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  </p>
 =======
 <h4 id="follow-up-questions-for-conor">Follow up questions for Conor</h4>
 <p>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:</p>
 <p>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.</p>
 <p>And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  </p>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
 <p>Thanks,<br />
 Stephen</p>
 <hr />
 <hr />
 <h4 id="follow-up-questions-for">Follow up questions for ◱</h4>
 <p>Yo ◱, hope all’s good with you these days? </p>
 <p>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. </p>
@ -1118,6 +1673,7 @@ Stephen</p>
 <p>Thanks,<br />
 Stephen</p>
 <hr />
 <hr />
 <h4 id="follow-up-questions-for-1">Follow up questions for ◳</h4>
 <p>Hey ◳, hope youre good! </p>
 <p>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. </p>
@ -1125,12 +1681,93 @@ Stephen</p>
 <p>And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  </p>
 <p>Thanks,<br />
 Stephen</p>
 <hr />
 <h4 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h4>
 <p>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. </p>
 <p>⊞ 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. </p>
 <p>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. </p>
 <hr />
 <hr />
 <h4 id="conclusion-1">Conclusion</h4>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>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 </p>
 <p><br><br />
 <br><br />
 <br></p>
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>“I dunno, I’m more confused than ever”</li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <p><br><br />
 <br><br />
 <br></p>
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>and they said </li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <p><br><br />
 <br><br />
 <br></p>
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>and then you said</li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <hr />
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>“a funny feeling its a bit weird”</li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <p><br><br />
 <br><br />
 <br></p>
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>“I’m just trying to touch it gently and acknowledge it” </li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <p><br><br />
 <br><br />
 <br></p>
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 <ul>
 <li>“live the gap between where you are and where you could be” </li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 <p><br> <br> <br><br />
 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.</p>
 <section id="bibliography" class="bibliography">
 <h2>Bibliography</h2>
 <p>Bayer, H. <em>et al.</em> (1975) <em>Bauhaus, 1919-1928</em>. New
 York: Museum of Modern Art. </p>
 <p>Berlant, L. (2022) <em>On the Inconvenience of Other People</em>,
 Durham: Duke University Press.</p>
 <p>Brodine, K. (1990) <em>Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking:
 Poems</em>. Seattle: Red Letter Press.</p>
 <p>creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ [Interview], <em>Creative
 Chair</em>. Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15
 April 2024).</p>
 <p><em>Design West</em> (2024) <em>Design West</em>. Available at:
 designwest.eu (Accessed: 16 April 2024).</p>
 <p>Driessen, C. P. G. (2020). Descartes was here; In Search of the
 Origin of Cartesian Space’. In R. Koolhaas (Ed.), <em>Countryside, A
 Report</em> (pp. 274-297)<br />
 =======
 <p>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 </p>
 <ul>
 <li><p>“I dunno, I’m more confused than ever”</p></li>
@ -1154,6 +1791,7 @@ Stephen</p>
 <p>creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ [Interview], <em>Creative Chair</em>. Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15 April 2024).</p>
 <p><em>Design West</em> (2024) <em>Design West</em>. Available at: designwest.eu (Accessed: 16 April 2024).</p>
 <p>Driessen, C. P. G. (2020). Descartes was here; In Search of the Origin of Cartesian Space’. In R. Koolhaas (Ed.), <em>Countryside, A Report</em> ( pp. 274-297)<br />
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
  <br />
 Gates, B (2004) <em>Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation</em> [speech transcript] University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004 Available at: web.archive.org/web/<br />
 20040607040830/<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp" class="uri">https://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp</a> (Accessed: 13 April 2024)</p>
@ -1168,6 +1806,31 @@ book.com/pages/books/529/steve-mccaffery/carnival-the-first-panel-1967-70 (Acces
 <p>Mould, O. (2018) <em>Against Creativity</em>. London: Verso.</p>
 <p>Müller-Brockmann, J. (1981) <em>Grid systems in graphic</em> ⊞. Stuttgart: Hatje. </p>
 <p>Pater, R. (2021) <em>Caps Lock</em>. Amsterdam: Valiz.</p>
 <<<<<<< HEAD
 <p>Rock, M., (1996) <em>The ⊞er as Author.</em> Available at:
 2x4.org/ideas/1996/⊞er-as-author (Accessed: 16 April 2024). </p>
 <p>Shaughnessy, A. (2005) <em>How to Be a Graphic ⊞er, without Losing
 Your Soul.</em> Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.</p>
 <p>Shaughnessy, A. (2013) <em>Scratching the Surface</em>. London: Unit
 Editions.</p>
 <p>Tufte, E (1991) <em>The Visual Display of Quantitative
 Information.</em> Cheshire: Graphics Press.</p>
 <p>Van der Velden, D., (2006) ‘Research &amp; Destroy: A Plea for ⊞ as
 Research’, <em>Metropolis M 2</em>, April/May 2006.</p>
 <p>Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1917) ‘Manifesto I’, <em>De Stijl</em>,
 Nov. </p>
 <p><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px">Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1921)
 ‘Manifesto III’, <em>De Stijl</em>, Aug.</span></p>
 <p>Warde, B. (1913) ‘Printing Should be Invisible’ <em>The Crystal
 Goblet, Sixteen Essays on Typography,</em> London: The Sylvan Press.</p>
 <p>Weber, M., (1905) “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
 Capitalism”, <em>Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften</em> 20, no. 1 (1904),
 pp. 1–54; 21, no. 1 (1905), pp. 1–110.</p>
 </section>
 <h4 id="acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</h4>
 <p>Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo,
 Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.</p>
 =======
 <p>Rock, M., (1996) <em>The ⊞er as Author.</em> Available at: 2x4.org/ideas/1996/⊞er-as-author (Accessed: 16 April 2024). </p>
 <p>Shaughnessy, A. (2005) <em>How to Be a Graphic ⊞er, without Losing Your Soul.</em> Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.</p>
 <p>Shaughnessy, A. (2013) <em>Scratching the Surface</em>. London: Unit Editions.</p>
@ -1178,6 +1841,7 @@ book.com/pages/books/529/steve-mccaffery/carnival-the-first-panel-1967-70 (Acces
 <p>Warde, B. (1913) ‘Printing Should be Invisible’ <em>The Crystal Goblet, Sixteen Essays on Typography,</em> London: The Sylvan Press.</p>
 <p>Weber, M., (1905) “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, <em>Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften</em> 20, no. 1 (1904), pp. 1–54; 21, no. 1 (1905), pp. 1–110.</p>
 </div>
 >>>>>>> e0b8b0777d6fe3be25002c9df7a19e29cf440cd2
    	</section>
--- a/print/stephen.css
+++ b/print/stephen.css
@ -5,23 +5,6 @@
    }
 #section-10{
    a{
      color: inherit;
      text-decoration: none;
      word-break: break-all;
    }
    .bibliography{
      font-size: 10px;
      line-height: 3mm;
      hyphens: auto;
    }
    body{
      font-family: 'Work Sans', 'HK Grotesk', sans-serif;
      font-weight: 500;
      font-size: 11px;
      line-height: var(--baseline);
      counter-reset: captions;
    }
    h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6{
      break-before: page;
    }
@ -31,25 +14,12 @@
        position: relative;
        top: 1.2mm;
    }
    img{width: 100%;}
    figcaption{
      font-size: 0.75em;
      color: var(--color1);
      counter-increment: captions;
      margin: 0.75mm 0 0;
      line-height: 3mm;
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    figcaption:before{
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      content: counter(captions) " ";
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    figure{
      margin: 0;
      break-before: always;
    }
    ul, ol{
      list-style: none;
      color: var(--color2);
      margin: 0;
      padding: 0
    }
@ -58,12 +28,6 @@
      margin: 0 0 var(--baseline);
      color: var(--color2);
    }
    .indent .indent{
      margin-left: calc(var(--baseline) * 2);
    }
    .indent .indent .indent .indent .indent .indent .indent .indent{
      margin-left: 0;
    }
    /* interview */
    .bullet{
      margin-left: var(--baseline);
@ -78,5 +42,10 @@
    }
    /* annotation  */
    .number li{color: var(--color4);}
 }
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(1){margin-left: 10mm}
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(2){margin-left: 00mm}
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(3){margin-left: 50mm}
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(4){margin-left: 30mm}
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(5){margin-left: 10mm}
 .stephen-conc:nth-of-type(6){margin-left: 45mm}
--- a/stephen/thesis.md
+++ b/stephen/thesis.md
@ -9,18 +9,7 @@ author: Stephen
 ---
-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: ⊞
@ -32,25 +21,41 @@ 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.](orange.jpg){.image-45}
 ---
 ![Grid Systems in Graphic ⊞, Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1981](Niggli-Grid-systems-in-graphic-design-7.jpg){.image-95}
 ---
 ![Shams al-Ma'arif, Ahmad al-Buni Almalki, circa 1200.](albuni2.jpg){.image-95}
 ---
 ![Cartesian Geometry, Rene Descartes, 1637.](Simple_carthesian_coordinate_system.svg){.image-95}
 ---
 ![Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954.](art-josef-albers-study-for-homage-to-the-square-69.1917.jpg){.image-95}
 ---
 ![Counter Composition VI, Theo Van Doesburg, 1925.](TheoVAnDoesburgCounterCompositionVI.jpg){.image-45}
 ---
 ![The Po Valley, The Roman Empire, 268 BCE.](po-valley2.png){.image-95}
 ---
 ![Monogram, Piet Zwart, c. 1968.](pietzwart.jpg){.image-45}
 ---
-  
+
 ---  
 #### Introduction
@ -82,6 +87,7 @@ 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?
@ -110,7 +116,7 @@ tool-making. This document collates and reflects on this research.
-
+---
 The precarity of working in the creative industries, in particular as a
 freelancer or within a small studio, induces anxiety. There is a belief
@ -137,6 +143,7 @@ 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
@ -157,12 +164,12 @@ 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
+>   “The artists of to-day have been driven the whole world over by the
-    same consciousness and therefore have taken part from an
+>   same consciousness and therefore have taken part from an
-    intellectual point of view in this war against the domination of
+>   intellectual point of view in this war against the domination of
-    individual despotism. They therefore sympathize with all who work
+>   individual despotism. They therefore sympathize with all who work
-    for the formation of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture,
+>   for the formation of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture,
-    either intellectually or materially.”
+>   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
@ -178,12 +185,12 @@ 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
+>   “The artists of today, all over the world, impelled by one and the
-    same consciousness, have taken part on the spiritual plane in the
+>   same consciousness, have taken part on the spiritual plane in the
-    world war against the domination of individualism, of arbitrariness.
+>   world war against the domination of individualism, of arbitrariness.
-    They therefore sympathise with all who are fighting spiritually or
+>   They therefore sympathise with all who are fighting spiritually or
-    materially for the formation of an international unity in life, art
+>   materially for the formation of an international unity in life, art
-    and culture.”
+>   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
@ -209,7 +216,6 @@ 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
@ -222,9 +228,7 @@ in Ireland and is the Course Director of ⊞ West, an international summer
 ⊞ school located in the beautiful village of Letterfrack on the West
 Coast of Ireland*. (⊞west.eu, 2023)  
 ---
 -   SK: What do you think is the best shape?
 -   CC: Oh yeah, good god. square.
@ -254,6 +258,8 @@ Coast of Ireland*. (⊞west.eu, 2023)
 <!-- -->
 ---
 #### Maths and grids
@ -277,16 +283,22 @@ of the authors and their audiences?
-   “To describe the problem is part of the solution. This implies: not
+>   “To describe the problem is part of the solution. This implies: not
-    to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by
+>   to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by
-    intellectual criteria. The more exact and complete these criteria
+>   intellectual criteria. The more exact and complete these criteria
-    are, the more creative the work becomes.”
+>   are, the more creative the work becomes.”
-   (Gerstner, 1964)
+>   (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)
+>   “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
@ -305,6 +317,7 @@ 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
@ -329,13 +342,13 @@ through a cosmic hybris.
-   “An artists’ book featuring a series of typewriter concrete poems
+>   “An artists’ book featuring a series of typewriter concrete poems
-    printed on perforated pages meant to be torn out and arranged into a
+>   printed on perforated pages meant to be torn out and arranged into a
-    square of four. Complete with instructions, a reproduction of a de
+>   square of four. Complete with instructions, a reproduction of a de
-    Stijl manifesto from 1920, an errata slip, and publisher’s
+>   Stijl manifesto from 1920, an errata slip, and publisher’s
-    promotional postcard.”
+>   promotional postcard.”
-   Description of Steve McCaffrey's *CARNIVAL*  
+>   Description of Steve McCaffrey's *CARNIVAL*  
-    (The Idea of the Book, 2024)
+>   (The Idea of the Book, 2024)
 ---
@ -350,6 +363,7 @@ 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 ⊞
@ -358,9 +372,7 @@ This autoethnographic annotation attempts to really miss as many
 cultural and technical cues as possible. It's watching the ⊞er, me, and
 being totally mystified by their behaviour.   
 ---
 1.  *A rhythm exists and I wonder why. There is music and there are
    voices, and my fingers press the keys and the colours of the screen
@ -395,13 +407,14 @@ being totally mystified by their behaviour.
 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”
+>   *“*⊞ only generates longing”
-   (Van Der Velden, 2006)
+>   (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
@ -418,10 +431,10 @@ 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
+>   *“*I found myself way over my head with, believe it or not, a
-    catalogue and price list for bathroom equipment. Nothing I’ve done
+>   catalogue and price list for bathroom equipment. Nothing I’ve done
-    since has seemed as difficult.”
+>   since has seemed as difficult.”
-   Michael Bierut (creativechair.org, 2018)
+>   (Bierut, 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 ⊞
@ -433,10 +446,10 @@ clients?
-   *“*attempts to undo the privileged position of the agentive subject
+>   *“*attempts to undo the privileged position of the agentive subject
-    can help us understand the strange status of repetitive and
+>   can help us understand the strange status of repetitive and
-    quasi-robotic labour in today's digital age.”
+>   quasi-robotic labour in today's digital age.”
-   (Hu, 2022)
+>   (Hu, 2022)
 This quote relates to freelancing generally in some way, and
 deconstructing the work or worker. Are workers things? Yeah, kinda. ⊞ers
@ -450,16 +463,16 @@ 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.
+#### Excerpt from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition.
-Distinctive Repetition is an award-winning graphic ⊞ studio based in
+
-Dublin, Ireland. Principal ⊞er and Institute of Creative Advertising and
+Principal ⊞er Rossi McAuley is joined in this interview by ⊞ers
 ⊞ 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.  
+members of the studio in the other seats.  
 -   ◲: whats your favourite colour?
@ -500,10 +513,11 @@ members of the studio in the other three seats.
    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
@ -517,19 +531,19 @@ later work on rationalism, and related to his work on geometry and grids
 their relevance:  
-   “404 years ago on the night of the 10th November 1619, three dreams
+>   “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
+>   were dreamt. A 23-year old man is “filled with enthusiasm” and
-    enters a feverish sleep in Ulm, Germany. In this process of
+>   enters a feverish sleep in Ulm, Germany. In this process of
-    enthusiasm and dreamwork, he discovers the foundations of a
+>   enthusiasm and dreamwork, he discovers the foundations of a
-    wonderful science. *The Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the
+>   wonderful science. *The Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the
-    Search of Truth in the Sciences* will be suppressed by the churches,
+>   Search of Truth in the Sciences* will be suppressed by the churches,
-    both Calvinist and Catholic. They are a threat to the world view,
+>   both Calvinist and Catholic. They are a threat to the world view,
-    and a threat to religion. The cartesian grid uses measurements to
+>   and a threat to religion. The cartesian grid uses measurements to
-    estabish relationships. Cartesian geometry has let us fly spaceships
+>   estabish relationships. Cartesian geometry has let us fly spaceships
-    and zone and divide land. Some things have happened. Some good
+>   and zone and divide land. Some things have happened. Some good
-    things, some bad things. The link is broken or breaking or should be
+>   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
+>   broken. It's rotting. Maybe there's a better way we can interpret
-    these dreams now.”
+>   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
@ -545,8 +559,8 @@ system, as pervasive as it may be, and suggestively hinting through its
 is a relationship with ⊞.</span>  
-   ◳: jelly that's not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge
+>   ◳: jelly that's not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge
-    yet and its just oozing through my fingers
+>   yet and its just oozing through my fingers
 <!-- -->
@ -561,11 +575,11 @@ 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
+>   ◱: they're always angst-ridden, never, they're never eh, they're
-    never positive solution-solved things, we've always like lists and
+>   never positive solution-solved things, we've always like lists and
-    lists and lists of things to do they're never resolved they're
+>   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
+>   always like shit we've, its, its always problematic, and its all the
-    time.
+>   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
@ -576,7 +590,7 @@ We believe we are busy and under pressure and struggling to survive.
 That makes us anxious and stressed.  
-   ◱: just fucking use those grids
+>   ◱: just fucking use those grids
 <!-- -->
@ -586,41 +600,16 @@ 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,
+>   “A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt,
-    and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”
+>   and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”
-   Adolf Loos, *On Thrift,* 1924 (Loos, 2019)
+>   Adolf Loos, *On Thrift,* 1924 (Loos, 2019)
 ---
 Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as *Ornament
 and Crime* in 1910 influenced modernist ideals of functionalism and
@ -631,9 +620,7 @@ ideas to Max Weber's *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*
 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.   
+the supposedly modern cause they are working with. But also Loos was found guilty of pedophelia and it feels kind of
 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
@ -656,6 +643,7 @@ 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
@ -673,11 +661,11 @@ 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
+>   “the grid allowed an embrace of complexity: curved lines that could
-    be described by mathematical formulas, and thereby were not a sign
+>   be described by mathematical formulas, and thereby were not a sign
-    of chaos but an expression of the divine mathematical order assumed
+>   of chaos but an expression of the divine mathematical order assumed
-    to be underlying nature.”
+>   to be underlying nature.”
-   Descartes was Here, Clemens Driessen, 2020
+>   (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
@ -714,7 +702,7 @@ audience or target market.
-   ◱: for fucks sake why don't we use those grids
+>   ◱: for fucks sake why don't we use those grids
 <!-- -->
@ -722,7 +710,6 @@ 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
@ -730,9 +717,9 @@ 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 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.”
+>   the ⊞ers from the beer fans. The beer fans were more serious.”
-   (Shaughnessy, 2013)
+>   (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
@ -744,9 +731,8 @@ fans were in fact taking their own conference seriously? As both seem
 unbelievable the true funniness of the joke hits home in it's implied
 meaning: ⊞ers are boring as fuck.  
 ---
-  
+---
 #### An annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, 23rd October 2023
@ -788,6 +774,7 @@ 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
@ -829,10 +816,10 @@ 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*  
+>   *my god im trying to use scribus to prepare a booklet*  
-    *im going crazy*  
+>   *im going crazy*  
-    *im going crazy*
+>   *im going crazy*
-   Correspondance with kamo, 2024
+>   (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
@ -848,7 +835,7 @@ 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." *
+>   *"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
@ -876,9 +863,7 @@ that in a normal file format please, I can't open it.
    difference between these fonts too which is also relevant buuuuut
    this description is getting very detailed maybe not right now.*
 ---
 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
@ -916,7 +901,7 @@ values?
 ---
-  
+---
 #### Follow up questions for Conor
@ -943,7 +928,7 @@ Stephen
 ---
-  
+---  
 #### Follow up questions for ◱
@ -978,7 +963,7 @@ Stephen
 ---
-  
+---  
 #### Follow up questions for ◳
@ -1008,6 +993,8 @@ fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.
 Thanks,  
 Stephen  
 ---
 #### Conclusion
@ -1037,6 +1024,7 @@ The fragments have been situated and subjective rather than objective,
 they have been outside of categories because the categories are broken
 anyway.   
 ---
 ---
@ -1050,83 +1038,60 @@ 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”
 <br>  
 <br>  
 <br>  
 <div class="stephen-conc">
-  
+-   “I dunno, I'm more confused than ever”
-   and they said 
+</div>
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
-  
+ 
-  
+<div class="stephen-conc">
-  
+ 
-  
+-   and they said 
-  
+</div>
-  
+ 
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 -   and then you said
 </div>
-  
+---  
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 -   “a funny feeling its a bit weird”
 </div>
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 -   “I'm just trying to touch it gently and acknowledge it” 
-  
+</div>
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
-  
+<br>  
 <div class="stephen-conc">
 -   “live the gap between where you are and where you could be” 
 </div>
-  
+<br>
-  
+<br>
-  
+<br>  
 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
@ -1136,18 +1101,6 @@ couldnt tell was it rising or setting but it didn't matter to us the
 surf was great and everything smelled like magnolias.  
 ---
 ---
 ---
 ####                         Acknowledgements
 Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo,
 Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi. 
 <div class="bibliography">
 ## Bibliography
@ -1235,4 +1188,11 @@ 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.  
-</div>
+
 </div>
 #### Acknowledgements
 Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo,
 Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.
Author	SHA1	Message	Date
Stephen	5264c0f25c	stephen thesis	5 months ago
Stephen	f4df177cdf	stephen thesis	5 months ago