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title: ⊞
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author: Stephen
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---
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# ⊞
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---
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---
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#### To de-sign design, I will assign a sign: ⊞
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This symbol represents design in this writing in an attempt to avoid the
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assumed meaning of the word and examine it as something unknown, to
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mystify it, to examine its structure. The label ⊞ is a functional part
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of a belief system involving order, structure, and rationality and I
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want to break it. Removing the label is part of loosening the object,
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making it avilable to transition (Berlant, 2022).
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---
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{.image-45}
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{.image-95}
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---
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{.image-95}
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{.image-95}
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{.image-95}
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{.image-45}
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{.image-95}
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{.image-45}
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---
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#### Introduction
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This document is a collection of fragments exploring beliefs about
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labour in the creative industries, in particular graphic ⊞. Each
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fragment focusses on the social, cultural, political, spiritual or
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religious aspects of these beliefs through an ethnographic lens. They
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record, celebrate and question the meaning that ⊞ers give to their
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actions and how those meanings affect the world they live in. And it's
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about how ⊞ers feel when we live with these beliefs: we feel a bit funny
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and I want to talk about it.
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I use various modes of address and different lenses to further fragment
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the definition of ⊞. The origin of the word thesis is to set or to put,
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but I am trying to show you something liquid that can't be placed but
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shimmers and disappears through the sand. I document some ⊞ activities,
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in my own work and the work and writings of others who identify with the
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label of ⊞er. The writing dissolves and reintegrates definitions of ⊞
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from different voices to show the multiplicity of beliefs from
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practitioners, and to explore what it means to acknowledge these beliefs
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beside eachother: the tensions and harmonies, some lineages and some
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breaks. What is going on here in this thing we call ⊞?
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This is a collection of stories about living life with particular
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working conditions, located at certain points in social, economic and
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cultural webs. In my practice-based research I gather and tell these
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stories through (auto)ethnographic methods: documenting how ⊞er's work,
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conducting interviews, improvising communal performances and exploratory
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tool-making. This document collates and reflects on this research.
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---
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#### What is a ⊞er?
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1. *A ⊞er is a person who wakes up at 5am but refuses to open their
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eyes. There are birds talking outside, it's probably getting bright
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already. Something is wrong, not sure what. They finally open their
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eyes and there's the ceiling again. When the light comes in sideways
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over the curtains this early you can see all the little ripples and
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imperfections in it. Nothing. Ribcage. Stomach. The front of the
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⊞er's legs ache. It would be better to sleep again. Have to pay
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taxes again next week. A ⊞er is someone who wonders if that invoice
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will come through I need to follow up on it. The birds are so
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loud. *
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2. *The role of the ⊞er is to count back from five to two and realise
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that was only three hours same as yesterday. They use ⊞ thinking to
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never get back to sleep. They need excellent time management skills
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to make this short moment feel like an eternity, several times a
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week. ⊞ers have an acute spatial awareness and an eye for detail:
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although the ceiling seems miles away they focus on each tiny ripple
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for hours. A ⊞er is someone who will work the whole waking day
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today, but it's better than last week when there was no work. ⊞ers
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look at their phone and see their alarm is going to go off in ten
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minutes, so they switch it off and get up.*
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---
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The precarity of working in the creative industries, in particular as a
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freelancer or within a small studio, induces anxiety. There is a belief
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that the ⊞er as freelancer is empowered by their autonomy, but in fact
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the ⊞er as worker is trapped by it. ⊞ is work and this work is believed
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to be inherently good. Work in our society is understood as “an
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individual moral practice and collective ethical obligation” which
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shapes the worker's identity in positive ways (Weeks, 2011). The ⊞er
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believes they are a skilled or talented worker, someone who possesses
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spatial awareness, time management skills, and the capacity to carry out
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work effectively and efficiently.
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⊞ers are entangled in the Protestant religious underpinnings of the
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European work ethic (Pater, 2022). ⊞ is seen as a vocation which
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expresses and creates the ⊞er's identity, and the process or its results
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make a valuable contribution to society. People understand the world and
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interact with it smoothly, thanks to the work of ⊞ers. ⊞ers pick the
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right materials to save the planet and increase efficiency and whatever
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else it is people find important. But the ⊞er becomes anxious despite
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meeting these goals and becoming this person. In reality, the ⊞er is a
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bot, the ⊞er is software. Value is extracted from their time, creativity
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and expertise which makes them stressed. ⊞ers are a creative cloud, a
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service to be tapped into, a cpu being run too hot. There is something
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to be learnt from the revelation that being replaced by machines proves
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we were being treated as machines all along.
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---
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#### Geestelijk
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There was a belief that ⊞ could be a crystal goblet (Warde, 1913),
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something unbiased, clear and, in more recent versions of the theory,
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serving the context it fits within. But the foundations of this belief
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in functionality and rationality dont seem to come themselves from
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something functional or rational.
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De Stijl members, such as Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg (Figure
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6), in their 1917 manifesto described a “new consciousness of the age
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\[…\] directed towards the universal”. There was a drive towards
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universal standardisation or pureness of culture from the rich white
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men. Purity is a concept that turns up a lot in Mondriaan's writings, eg
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*Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art* (1917). They claimed a shared spirit
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was driving this universalisation. A later paragraph of the manifesto is
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translated into english as:
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> “The artists of to-day have been driven the whole world over by the
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> same consciousness and therefore have taken part from an
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> intellectual point of view in this war against the domination of
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> individual despotism. They therefore sympathize with all who work
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> for the formation of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture,
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> either intellectually or materially.”
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In this translation it appears the authors believed in an emerging
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consciousness of the age, something collective which would bring an
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international unity. The members of De Stijl were neither aligning
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themselves with the capitalists or socialists but believed in an inner
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connection between those who were joined in the spiritual body of the
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new world (De Stijl, Manifesto III, 1921). The word intellectual, or
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geestelijk in the original Dutch, can also be translated as “spiritual,
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mental, ecclesiastical, clerical, sacred, ghostly, pneumatic”. The
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choice to translate as intellectual seems to be the most rational
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interpretation of this sentence, an effort to make the theories of De
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Stijl appear more materialist without the spiritual element. Compare
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with this translation:
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> “The artists of today, all over the world, impelled by one and the
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> same consciousness, have taken part on the spiritual plane in the
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> world war against the domination of individualism, of arbitrariness.
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> They therefore sympathise with all who are fighting spiritually or
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> materially for the formation of an international unity in life, art
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> and culture.”
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In this translation it is clearer that the members of De Stijl saw a
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link between the effects of what they made materially and their attempts
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to be fighting spiritually against the domination of individualism. I
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care about this story because of how it contextualises contemporary ⊞
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practice. Is contemporary ⊞ practice still involved in this spiritual
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battle? Did the new consciousness of 1917 survive the past century, did
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it procreate? Can aesthetics have generational trauma? William Morris,
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Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, International Style, International
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Typographic Style, Swiss Style, then what happened. Modernist artists
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had spiritual beliefs, and again I care about these people from a
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hundred years ago because of the effect they have on the present.
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Imagine I could trace this thought from Mondriaan all the way to myself,
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wow, cool thesis. Swiss style became corporate identity ⊞ and encouraged
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minimalism in ⊞. 21st century Flat ⊞, such as Metro ⊞ language from
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Microsoft and Material ⊞ (Google, 2014), claim direct descendance from
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the International Typographic Style and that pretty much brings us up to
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date. I wonder about the use of the word Material in Google's ⊞
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strategy, I wonder about the ghostly absence of the geestelijk fight of
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De Stijl. Is Google's choice of name another example, as with the subtle
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change in the translation above, that the spiritual element is no longer
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as important a part of the ⊞er's worldview as it was a hundred years
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ago?
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#### Excerpt from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023
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*Conor Clarke is a Director of ⊞ Factory, independent Irish ⊞ agency
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based in Dublin. His work has featured in international publications
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such as Who’s Who in Graphic ⊞*, *Graphis, Novum Gebrauchsgrafik, and
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the New York Art Directors Club Annual. He was the recipient of the
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Catherine Donnelly Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to ⊞
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in Ireland and is the Course Director of ⊞ West, an international summer
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⊞ school located in the beautiful village of Letterfrack on the West
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Coast of Ireland*. (⊞west.eu, 2023)
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- SK: What do you think is the best shape?
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- CC: Oh yeah, good god. square.
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- SK: Square? how come?
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- CC: Dunno, it just, it just seems resolved. I don't like spheres.
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Circles I sometimes like.
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- SK: Yeah, squares, do you use grids?
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- CC: Sometimes. Not always.
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- SK: Once you have grids squares make sense. But you like squares
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maybe because you like logos?
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- CC: If I'm in an art gallery and I see, you know Joseph Albers
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(Figure 5) or something I just kind of feel, I just like, or
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Malevich i just like that stuff. If I see a Kandinsky and all those
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squiggles and circles it just, that just kind of upsets me a little
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bit.
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- SK: That's a bit chaotic?
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- CC: Yeah. And even if I'm looking at Vermeer I can see some kind of
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square structure and logic, for some reason that always appeals to
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me.
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- SK: Things are a bit organised when there's squares around?
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- CC: Yeah. And really great artists who don't work that way I look at
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their stuff and think well that's just beyond me.
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- SK: Its something else?
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- CC: Yeah. so yeah.
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- SK: At least you didn't say triangle.
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- CC: Oh good god. Good god no.
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<!-- -->
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---
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#### Maths and grids
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Why not choose a spiral or a circle if you dream of ⊞ers as shamans? Why
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the grid of squares? There are strong links beween ⊞ and mathematics,
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Josef Muller-Brockmann's *Grid Systems* (Figure 2) for example or Karl
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Gerstner's *⊞ing Programmes* (1964). I read these ⊞ theorists as you
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might comparatively read religious texts. What were or are the beliefs
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of the authors and their audiences?
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> “To describe the problem is part of the solution. This implies: not
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> to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by
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> intellectual criteria. The more exact and complete these criteria
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> are, the more creative the work becomes.”
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> (Gerstner, 1964)
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---
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> “This is the expression of a professional ethos: the ⊞er's work
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> should have the clearly intelligible, objective, functional and
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> aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.”
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> (Muller-Brockman, 1981)
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These texts present a worldview where ⊞ can be mathematical, objective
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or problem-solving. In Muller-Brockman's text the focus is on the formal
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qualities of the ⊞ in particular the use of grids and typographic
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systems. Gerstner's focus is more on the effect of the ⊞, and the
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ability of ⊞ to solve a problem. Rationality and creativity are
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presented as proportional to eachother. He makes space for the
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intellectual by pushing aside feelings.
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The graphic ⊞er is presented as a functional actor in society who makes
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the world better. Gerstner seems to be implying that creative ⊞ comes
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from following the intellect and some rational cause and effect process.
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I find it interesting that ⊞ claims this rational basis in the same
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historical period when science and mathematics, its supposed
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foundations, became much less rational and predictable, for example in
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chaos theory. It makes me think that the rationality serves some other
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purpose.
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---
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#### The ⊞ grid and the written word
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Why do ⊞ers believe in using a grid to present the written word, and
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where did this belief come from and how did it develop? It can be
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materially traced back to Guthenberg and metal type but that's boring.
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Magic squares have been used in astrology books and grimoires throughout
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history (Figure 3). French poet Stéphane Mallarmé is sometimes quoted as
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a precursor to modernist typography (Muller-Brockmann, 1981). Why did
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Steve McCaffrey include the manifesto of De Stijl with *CARNIVAL*
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(1973)? De Stijl is best known for its painters and architects, and
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theories from both of these fields affected later ⊞ theories. But they
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also were poets and had literary theories similar to the german
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expressionists. Man's attempt to find oneness with the whole of creation
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through a cosmic hybris.
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> “An artists’ book featuring a series of typewriter concrete poems
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> printed on perforated pages meant to be torn out and arranged into a
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> square of four. Complete with instructions, a reproduction of a de
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> Stijl manifesto from 1920, an errata slip, and publisher’s
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> promotional postcard.”
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> Description of Steve McCaffrey's *CARNIVAL*
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> (The Idea of the Book, 2024)
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---
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The developments of the written word and its relationship to form in the
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20th century is very much a part of the history of ⊞. I care about this
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story because it affects contemporary practitioners. I believe there is
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something magical in graphic composition and the layout of typography,
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something that can't be grasped in the words alone. They're
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non-canonical for ⊞ers but how have people who put words on pages like
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Mallarmé and McCaffrey influenced my beliefs about the written word?
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What makes one thing fit in the category of art, another ⊞ and yet
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another concrete poetry?
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---
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#### Mystically assigning or finding meanings in ⊞
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This autoethnographic annotation attempts to really miss as many
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cultural and technical cues as possible. It's watching the ⊞er, me, and
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being totally mystified by their behaviour.
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1. *A rhythm exists and I wonder why. There is music and there are
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voices, and my fingers press the keys and the colours of the screen
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flicker and morph. There appears to be a life or energy flowing
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somewhere between these things and I am curious about it.*
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2. *The screen shimmers between different symbols, letters, images. The
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colours are symbolic. White means the ground, although sometimes it
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switches to white symbols on a dark ground. They are full of meaning
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and relationship. I press two buttons to the left of the keyboard
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and the screen answers with a flicker.*
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3. *I count out loud to 40. It symbolises both the number of pages to
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be made and the enormity of the task. It represents a period in the
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desert, long but with an end in sight. What is the relationship of
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the desert to the stars? If the screen can flicker from a dark to a
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light ground, is it possible for the sky to also switch from day to
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night?*
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4. *I have taken three of the forty steps.*
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5. *I have taken seven of the forty steps.*
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6. *⊞ is a series of movements and reconfigurations. It is a creative
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act and one of elision. I use the keyboard to communicate my will to
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the machine with commands such as “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V”. I firstly
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inform the computer that I wish to control it. Each letter has a
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deep and layered meaning. CVCVCVCVCVCVCVCVCV. “Alt+Tab” asks the
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screen to flicker. The computer must match my multithreading. It
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must be prepared to follow my changing demands in our shared focus.
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FAVCV. F is to seek, but it is optimistically labelled to find. I
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enter the incorrect combination of symbols (“samle”) the incantation
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is useless and I will not find what I seek. I try again “sample” and
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the computer gives me what I desire. Why does the machine demand
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perfection? Why does it value perfection in me, what is it trying to
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teach me? Why wont it leave me alone?*
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7. *I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.*
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---
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#### What does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons and making the screen vibrate?
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> *“*⊞ only generates longing”
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> (Van Der Velden, 2006)
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I wasn't trying to generate longing, I was trying to make an annual
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report. It was a corporate job I was working on, a nice one to have
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because it's fairly well paid and not too complicated. A bit boring and
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kinda repetitive, but you can just put your headphones on and get stuck
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into it. I was pretty happy with the results in the end, but for sure
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not the type of work you're supposed to be proud of as a ⊞er.
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> *“*I found myself way over my head with, believe it or not, a
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> catalogue and price list for bathroom equipment. Nothing I’ve done
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> since has seemed as difficult.”
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> (Bierut, 2018)
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And of course Piet Zwart's (Figure 8) famous electrical cable
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catalogues. ⊞ is just work, chill. Is a ⊞er a user or a server? Maybe ⊞
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is an example of our general belief in this dichotomy not quite making
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sense or fitting reality. The ⊞er is working for whom? Themselves? Their
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clients?
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---
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> *“*attempts to undo the privileged position of the agentive subject
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> can help us understand the strange status of repetitive and
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> quasi-robotic labour in today's digital age.”
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> (Hu, 2022)
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This quote relates to freelancing generally in some way, and
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deconstructing the work or worker. Are workers things? Yeah, kinda. ⊞ers
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don't have super powers, contrary to some beliefs within the industry.
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For example on what⊞cando.com it is suggested that we should “re⊞
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everything!”. Let's actually not do that. ⊞ers are mostly just humans
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working on computers like so many other bots. ⊞ers try to create
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clarity, to assign meaning and understand: “Confusion and clutter are
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failures of ⊞, not attributes of information” (Tufte, 1990, p.53). What
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if the sounds of my fingers and my keyboard are not noise but music: we
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are quasi-robots and maybe its good to listen to our little Taylorist
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finger tappings and see what else is being said.
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---
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#### Excerpt from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition.
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Principal ⊞er Rossi McAuley is joined in this interview by ⊞ers
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Jenny Leahy and Ben Nagle. This interview was carried out around a table
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with the interviewer in the bottom right corner (◲) and the three
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members of the studio in the other seats.
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- ◲: whats your favourite colour?
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- ◰: red.
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- ◲: red.
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- ◱: really? thats it? are you fucking kidding me?
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- ◰: do i fill it in?
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- ◳: they're warm up questions obviously they're to get you
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comfortable answering questions.
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- ◳: yellow
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- ◲: if the seat of your consciousness was in your hands, like all of
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your feelings and your thoughts and your desires and your emotions
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come through your hands, can you describe to me the day that you've
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had so far please?
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- ◳: jelly that's not quite solid
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- ◳: not quite solidified in the fridge yet
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- ◳: and its just oozing through my fingers
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- (redacted sentence)
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- ◳: that's what today has been like but its my brain thats oozing out
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of me
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- ◲: yes. that's a good answer. ok will we keep going in a circle?
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- ◱: whatever you like bro.
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- ◲: do you ever dream about work?
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- ◱: all the time.
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- ◲: would you care to share one of those dreams?
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- ◱: they're always angst-ridden, never, they're never eh, they're
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never positive solution-solved things, we've always like lists and
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lists and lists of things to do they're never resolved they're
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always like shit we've, its, its always problematic, and its all the
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time.
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- ◳: weren't you taking grids out of drawers in a dream recently?
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- ◱: yeah yeah.
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- (obscured)
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- ◲: why were you taking grids out of drawers?
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- ◱: emm recently I had a dream where I was giving out to ◳ about not
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having things done, this ◳, participant two, about not having things
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done, and i was opening up drawers in my office and I was like, just
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use this grid and the drawers were full of grids and I was giving
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them to her and saying just fucking use those grids for fucks sake
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why don't we use those grids.
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<!-- -->
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---
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#### About the interview
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Before meeting them in person, I mailed a small booklet to the
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interviewees entitled *Enthusiasm* to give context to the conversation.
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The word enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or possession by a god.
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The booklet recounted three mystical dreams René Descartes had which he
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credited as a moment of inspiration or enthusiasm that influenced his
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later work on rationalism, and related to his work on geometry and grids
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|
(Figure 4). As well as the content of the dreams, the booklet described
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|
their relevance:
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> “404 years ago on the night of the 10th November 1619, three dreams
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> were dreamt. A 23-year old man is “filled with enthusiasm” and
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> enters a feverish sleep in Ulm, Germany. In this process of
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> enthusiasm and dreamwork, he discovers the foundations of a
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|
> wonderful science. *The Method of Properly Guiding the Reason in the
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|
> Search of Truth in the Sciences* will be suppressed by the churches,
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|
> both Calvinist and Catholic. They are a threat to the world view,
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|
> and a threat to religion. The cartesian grid uses measurements to
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> estabish relationships. Cartesian geometry has let us fly spaceships
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|
> and zone and divide land. Some things have happened. Some good
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> things, some bad things. The link is broken or breaking or should be
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> broken. It's rotting. Maybe there's a better way we can interpret
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> these dreams now.”
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Descartes felt that interpreting his dreams was an appropriate method to
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develop a rational theory of skepticism, which led to some of the
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philosophical foundations of modern scientific and mathematical
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theories. The booklet also drew parallels with Martin Luther's
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|
scrupulous doubt, “Only God and certain madmen have no doubts!”. Like
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|
Descartes, Luther's new theories helped to give the basis for the
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|
structure of thought for the following centuries. These stories were
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|
presented together to direct the focus of the conversation towards
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belief, rationalism and grids. The fact that rationalism is a belief
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|
system, as pervasive as it may be, and suggestively hinting through its
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.2px">relationship with grids that there
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|
is a relationship with ⊞.</span>
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> ◳: jelly that's not quite solid, not quite solidified in the fridge
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> yet and its just oozing through my fingers
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|
<!-- -->
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They seem so sad it hurts to hear them talk about the oozing. Are you
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supposed to put jelly in the fridge, it just needs time to settle right?
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|
My nana used to put the jelly in the freezer. There's an instability in
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|
how they talk in the interview for sure, or more a desire for stability.
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Was it ever stable? Do you really want it to be? Its gooey and not the
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|
way it should be but its still jelly and thats fun and its probably
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|
delicious. Their hands are there as something that is for grasping and
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|
jelly is there as something that can't be grasped. Is it terrifying, are
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|
they resigned to it?
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> ◱: they're always angst-ridden, never, they're never eh, they're
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> never positive solution-solved things, we've always like lists and
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|
> lists and lists of things to do they're never resolved they're
|
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|
> always like shit we've, its, its always problematic, and its all the
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|
> time.
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|
I can't explain the angst they are feeling but I can describe it because
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|
I've felt it too. It feels like I'm having a heart attack. It feels like
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|
I'm about to black out. It got to a stage where I couldn't talk to other
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|
people without being completely frozen jelly. It is the feeling of lists
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|
and lists and lists. It's the feeling of never resolved, all the time.
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|
We believe we are busy and under pressure and struggling to survive.
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|
That makes us anxious and stressed.
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> ◱: just fucking use those grids
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|
<!-- -->
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|
The grids are not being used, the grids are useless. Drawers full of
|
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|
them, all useless. Whats the point of sitting here in this studio. They
|
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|
dont fit, they dont make sense, they're trying to order something that
|
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|
can't be ordered. Or possibly shouldnt be ordered, the ordering is
|
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|
misplaced and there is a human urge to stop, just stop.
|
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|
|
|
#### Modern work
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|
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|
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|
|
> “A cause becomes unmodern at the moment when our feelings revolt,
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|
> and as soon as we feel ourselves becoming ridiculous”
|
|
|
> Adolf Loos, *On Thrift,* 1924 (Loos, 2019)
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|
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|
|
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|
|
Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as *Ornament
|
|
|
and Crime* in 1910 influenced modernist ideals of functionalism and
|
|
|
minimalism. He rejected ornament and favoured the use of good materials
|
|
|
which showed “God's own wonder”. I wonder what is the relation of Loos'
|
|
|
ideas to Max Weber's *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*
|
|
|
(Weber, 1905) that was published five years earlier. Work as a duty
|
|
|
which benefits the individual and society as a whole, do ⊞ers still
|
|
|
believe this today? I like taking Loos' quote out of context here,
|
|
|
instead in the context of the feelings of the interviewees, revolting
|
|
|
the supposedly modern cause they are working with. But also Loos was found guilty of pedophelia and it feels kind of
|
|
|
aggressive to include his voice here at all. This is part of the point
|
|
|
of what I'm getting at: there's this tradition of ⊞ and so many parts of
|
|
|
it make me uncomfortable or really disgusted and I don't know what to do
|
|
|
with all that. I just wanted to go to art school and draw circles and
|
|
|
maybe thats the problem and sure simple materials are pretty, but yeah
|
|
|
jelly is exactly what it feels like, you're right.
|
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|
Graphic ⊞ is often performed by paid professionals in what is known as
|
|
|
the creative industry: as a profession and an activity, ⊞ is considered
|
|
|
to be creative. There are some positive preconceptions about the
|
|
|
creative industry and what it does, but I see it as an assimilation of
|
|
|
cultural activity into a neoliberal economic framework. Creativity in
|
|
|
this context is used to reproduce the status quo and and grow capital
|
|
|
(Mould, 2018). But maybe we can profit from examining the margins
|
|
|
created by this terminology: ⊞ is less functional than it seems. People
|
|
|
in creative jobs are stressed and this is reflected in their dreams.
|
|
|
Workers have rights and those rights are systemically undermined. Being
|
|
|
self employed or part of an independent studio brings anxiety and
|
|
|
challenges. Some ⊞ers try to structure the world around them and like
|
|
|
things to be neat and tidy, which makes us uncomfortable existing in
|
|
|
precarious work conditions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
#### The Roman grid
|
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|
|
|
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|
|
The Roman grid was a land measurement method used in the Roman colonies
|
|
|
for example in the Po Valley (Figure 7). With a surveying tool called
|
|
|
the groma, the colonisers would divide the land from north to south and
|
|
|
east to west, resulting in a square grid of roads and land. At Orange,
|
|
|
France, a cadaster has been found which shows the division of land in a
|
|
|
geometric way, helping the colonisers to privatise the land and allocate
|
|
|
it to roman veterans (Figure 1). The name groma, as well as referring to
|
|
|
the surveying tool, describes the central point of the grid, the origin.
|
|
|
Is making grids just a way to control and colonise? Do all grids have
|
|
|
origins? In Descartes' use of the grid there was also an attempt to
|
|
|
order and structure chaos:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
> “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)
|
|
|
|
|
|
A part of the belief systems of ⊞ers is that the world is chaotic and
|
|
|
their role is to order it or even simplify it. This belief may be
|
|
|
inherited from a wider cultural belief of the same general drive: to
|
|
|
order and simplify. Humans try to make sense of the world. ⊞ers make
|
|
|
sense of ⊞ briefs and structure them into something understandable to an
|
|
|
audience or target market.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
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|
> ◱: for fucks sake why don't we use those grids
|
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|
|
|
|
<!-- -->
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is there an answer to this question, do they know the answer to this
|
|
|
question? I get the impression they have a gut feeling about the answer
|
|
|
but are afraid of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#### An analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞
|
|
|
critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
> “The venue was shared with a beer festival, but it was easy to tell
|
|
|
> the ⊞ers from the beer fans. The beer fans were more serious.”
|
|
|
> (Shaughnessy, 2013)
|
|
|
|
|
|
This joke is funny because in the setup where it is easy to tell them
|
|
|
apart, the reader should assume the beer fans are drunk and therefore
|
|
|
raucous, misbehaving or maybe just having a lot of fun. But then he
|
|
|
unexpectedly suggests that they were in fact more serious than the ⊞ers.
|
|
|
This gives the reader a problem to address: is he claiming the ⊞ers were
|
|
|
even more outrageous than what we assumed of the beer fans, or the beer
|
|
|
fans were in fact taking their own conference seriously? As both seem
|
|
|
unbelievable the true funniness of the joke hits home in it's implied
|
|
|
meaning: ⊞ers are boring as fuck.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
#### An annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, 23rd October 2023
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. *I read an email*
|
|
|
2. *and*
|
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|
3. *I type*
|
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|
4. *Alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab ctrl c ctrl
|
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|
v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v
|
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|
ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v*
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
⊞ers interact with the computer through keyboard and mouse usage.
|
|
|
Compared to other computer users, my interaction involves lots of
|
|
|
pressing of function keys, something common with other technical
|
|
|
computer users and not so much with other creative workers. What is
|
|
|
creative in the repetitive and low level operation of a computer? Is a
|
|
|
pianist creative? What's the difference, I think they are being creative
|
|
|
in different ways. ⊞ers and other specialists like video editors or
|
|
|
photo colourists are using a computer as a tool, the musician is
|
|
|
performing on an instrument. Maybe this distinction doesn't have to be
|
|
|
so clear though. I am questioning this here because I think there is
|
|
|
some fairly complicated belief system about artists and their tools that
|
|
|
has had an effect on ⊞ers. ⊞ gives itself a history of conflict and
|
|
|
harmony between artisans and industrialisation, for example in Bauhaus
|
|
|
founder Walter Gropius claiming William Morris as a precursor (Bayer,
|
|
|
1975).
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think it is important to show that ⊞ers are workers with tools, their
|
|
|
repetitive tasks are a form of labour as are their creative processes.
|
|
|
In the annotation opposite my aim is to mystify the manual and digital
|
|
|
labour, rather than demystify the creative ideation part.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Following this annotation I made a digital tool to record all keystrokes
|
|
|
on my computer. Then I printed them out with a pen plotter to celebrate
|
|
|
the labour that had taken place. It took several hours to plot the
|
|
|
keylogging data from just a few minutes of the ⊞er's labour.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
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|
|
|
#### LibreOffice
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
1. *I have no idea what any of this structuring does. And I don't care.
|
|
|
But I would like to remove the page title from the export. It is in
|
|
|
another tab called User Interface. I also select only page 1 to save
|
|
|
to PDF. Now I run into a software issue in this workflow: the best
|
|
|
software for the next part of the job is Adobe Acrobat Pro. How
|
|
|
aggressively do I want to remove this software from my workflow? Not
|
|
|
aggressively enough I guess because here I am still using it. I
|
|
|
don't know any other software that really gives me details of how a
|
|
|
document will print or lets me edit PDFs on such a useful level.*
|
|
|
2. *For example the title still exported (it always does, is this a
|
|
|
LibreOffice bug or just I don't know what to do with the new
|
|
|
software yet?). It takes two seconds to remove in edit mode in
|
|
|
Acrobat. I also delete the page number, I don't even know how to
|
|
|
turn that off from LibreOffice. The print dialogue in Acrobat is
|
|
|
also so powerful, its so easy to print actual size which is
|
|
|
important to me. It is structured and reliable. *
|
|
|
|
|
|
Like many other ⊞ers, I was trained to only use Adobe products. I try to
|
|
|
switch to open source alternatives because I believe in using software
|
|
|
developed and maintained by a community rather than a private company,
|
|
|
and as a worker believe I should be in control of my tools. In this
|
|
|
annotation, I was trying to ⊞ and export a single page document in
|
|
|
LibreOffice, an open source desktop publishing software. The
|
|
|
documentation reflects on my frustrations and struggles to switch to a
|
|
|
workflow that relies less on proprietary software for print ⊞.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Proprietary software from big mean tech corporations is based on a model
|
|
|
of society and economy where a few people own things and everybody else
|
|
|
has a hard time. I believe the internet gives an opportunity for
|
|
|
knowledge (including software code) to be shared. I like the idea of
|
|
|
modifying my tools, this is easier technically and legally with open
|
|
|
source software. I would prefer my tools to be developed by me and my
|
|
|
peers. These are some of my beliefs as a ⊞er about my work and my tools.
|
|
|
They're a bit idealistic but also optimistic in a good way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
> *my god im trying to use scribus to prepare a booklet*
|
|
|
> *im going crazy*
|
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> *im going crazy*
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> (kamo, 2024)
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Transitioning to open source software sucks. I spent years learning
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other tools and its like starting all over again. There is a dual
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commitment in my beliefs about how my tools should be built and my
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desire to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. My action of
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fumbling with open source programs reflects my belief that they are
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worthwhile, and my action of still using Adobe Acrobat Pro reflects my
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belief that there are better things to do with my time than restarting
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software when it crashes again. Some parts of graphic ⊞ have become so
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entangled in capitalist ways of working, it can be immobilising to try
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to act without engaging with the icky parts. Our dependencies on
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ecosystems of tools and workflows are not enforced, but it can be
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difficult to exist outside them, or more specifically, beside them.
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> *"And I don't care." *
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It's so obviously not true. The conflict of wanting to change my
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workflow with wanting to complete my work tasks efficiently doesn't keep
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me up at night, but it is important to me and other ⊞ers. Open source ⊞
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software is unreliable and unstandardised, it takes longer to do things
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and then when they are nearly done the program crashes and I've lost all
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my work. The standards of open source software have not been widely
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embraced by the ⊞ community. To fit into a workflow with peers you have
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to use Adobe products. Even web ⊞ers who engage with open standards can
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find the need to work with proprietary software, because these tools are
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deeply integrated into the workflows of their peers. Can you send me
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that in a normal file format please, I can't open it.
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#### Work Sans
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1. *The font is Work Sans SemiBold and it is set in 10pt, colour
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"automatic". I think even if it wasn't automatic I would make it
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black, because I want to print it clearly and cheaply. I use Work
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Sans because I am trying to switch to using Open Font Licence and
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open source fonts more generally. Previously I would have used
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Helvetica Now or some other proprietary font. There is a visual
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difference between these fonts too which is also relevant buuuuut
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this description is getting very detailed maybe not right now.*
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Similarly to the software changes, this documentation of my practice
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sees me choosing open source fonts. I'm really ambivalent about this. I
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do like the idea of being able to modify a font when needed, but I have
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done so regardless of whether the font licence allows it. I'm more
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comfortable ethically with a font being open source. Buying fonts is
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expensive for freelancers and small studios, and open source fonts are
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more commonly free of charge. Many ⊞ers pirate fonts rather than buy
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them, or are locked into a font subscription. In Adobe software, Adobe
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subscription fonts don't load unless a connection to the creative cloud
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is verified.
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For my work, fonts are also a tool, one that I need to practice with and
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one that needs to be suitable for the job. So changing font is a little
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like a ceramicist changing clay. Work Sans is good for online use
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because Google Fonts serves it as a web font for free, the open source
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font I want to use is served most reliably by a large corporation I have
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issues with. This balancing act of practical considerations and
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idealistic beliefs is kind of ironic and reminds me again that my values
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can be inconsistent and to me a bit funny.
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The use of fonts as tools is full of tensions from ⊞ers' belief systems.
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Like many ⊞ers, I want to use open source fonts. I also want to use
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fonts that will load quickly from a content delivery network for web
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projects. I also want fonts to be cheap and well made and I am
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interested in fonts that are free. The internet is full of illegal and
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pirated copies of fonts that are not supposed to be free of charge. I
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sometimes receive or am asked to send font files outside of their
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licence. I dont have a huge amount of respect for some of these
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licences. But at the same time font ⊞ers are my friends and colleagues,
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I have ⊞ed fonts. What does a ⊞er's actual use of fonts say about their
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beliefs around copyright? Do ⊞ers believe in intellectual property? What
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value do ⊞ers, specifically typographers, see in their work and that of
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their close peers, the font ⊞ers, and how does copyright relate to these
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values?
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---
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---
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#### Follow up questions for Conor
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Hey Conor, hope you're keeping well these days? I've been going through
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the interview from back in December and was wondering if you would mind
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me including this piece in my thesis:
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I guess the thesis has become a lot about ⊞ers and the beliefs they have
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about their work, and its effect on the world around them. I was really
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interested in your answer to this question because I think it shows
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something a lot of other ⊞ers including me feel too; some desire to
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structure the world around us, to have things be resolved, organised,
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fitting together. And not just a desire but maybe even a belief that
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this is really what our job is for? Maybe I'm reading too much into it,
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but to me this maybe hints at part of the reason we're am drawn to a
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field like graphic ⊞? Curious to know what you think.
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And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im totally
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fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.
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Thanks,
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Stephen
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---
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---
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#### Follow up questions for ◱
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Yo ◱, hope all's good with you these days?
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I've been piecing together the interviews from December and I'd love to
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include this section about your dream if that's alright with you? It
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seems to get at something I feel as well: this system that we've built
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up and these drawers full of grids, sometimes there's an angst or
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unresolved feeling that they're not going to work, they dont fit as an
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answer to the problem.
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For me I think it might be something to do with order and chaos if that
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doesn't seem too much of a stretch, I've this need to structure things
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and fit them in a form, and the dream seems to get at that fear that
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it's not going to work. The grid is solid but reality turns out to be
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jelly at best, but very often custard and little bits of tinned
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strawberry and soggy sponge.
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I assumed the dream is about the pressure or anxiety of running a
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studio? I wonder for you, do you see it more relating to the work itself
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or the management around that, or are these things that you consider
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separate from eachother? I'm curious to know if you think of it the same
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way, or maybe it's something else to you and I'm projecting :)
|
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And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im totally
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fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.
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|
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|
Thanks,
|
|
|
Stephen
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|
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|
---
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|
---
|
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|
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#### Follow up questions for ◳
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Hey ◳, hope youre good!
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I'm thinking of putting this section of the interview we did back in
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|
|
december in my thesis. Is that ok with you? I want to include it because
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|
I think it really captures some emotions that ⊞ers feel quite often,
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|
some stress or anxiety or an attempt to grab onto something more stable.
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|
But I also find it really interesting that you were talking about jelly
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|
slipping through your hands, any idea why you didn't say sand or mud or
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|
gold but jelly? To me it seems like a fun and cute material to pick,
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|
even though its a bit lumpy and maybe even kinda gross sometimes.
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|
I've been really interested in foods made of gelatin recently and
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|
there's something so mesmerising about them even though they're never
|
|
|
the most appetising, and for sure unnatural or over-processed. Maybe you
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|
just said it off hand, but it makes sense to me as well about being a
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|
|
⊞er in some way? Something enjoyable and lovable about the jelly despite
|
|
|
its weird unnatural wiggliness. Really interested to know if you have
|
|
|
any thoughts or maybe you meant something completely different.
|
|
|
|
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|
And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im totally
|
|
|
fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks,
|
|
|
Stephen
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
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|
|
|
#### Conclusion
|
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|
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.
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|
|
⊞ involves a wide range of activities; typing, drawing grids,
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|
|
communicating with other specialists, quoting, drinking coffee, working
|
|
|
out of office hours, having panic attacks, arguing, building myths,
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|
|
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.
|
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|
|
|
|
These stories were gathered through various modes of describing,
|
|
|
listening and understanding. It is important that these are different
|
|
|
from conventional ways to frame the discipline, as I think a shift in
|
|
|
viewpoint is needed. So not “⊞er as Author” (Rock, 1996), “⊞er as
|
|
|
salesperson” (Pater, 2021) but instead ⊞er “sitting at the machine,
|
|
|
thinking” (Brodine, 1990) or “⊞er without qualities” (Lorusso, 2023).
|
|
|
The fragments have been situated and subjective rather than objective,
|
|
|
they have been outside of categories because the categories are broken
|
|
|
anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
|
|
#### Conclusion
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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
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|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<br>
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|
|
<br>
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<div class="stephen-conc">
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|
|
|
|
- “I dunno, I'm more confused than ever”
|
|
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|
|
</div>
|
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|
|
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|
<br>
|
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|
<br>
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<div class="stephen-conc">
|
|
|
|
|
|
- and they said
|
|
|
</div>
|
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|
|
|
|
<br>
|
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|
<br>
|
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|
<br>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<div class="stephen-conc">
|
|
|
- and then you said
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
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|
|
|
---
|
|
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|
|
<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>
|
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|
<br>
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
|
and then I was them and you were me and we laughed and fell over and the
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|
|
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.
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|
|
|
|
<div class="bibliography">
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|
|
|
## Bibliography
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|
|
Bayer, H. *et al.* (1975) *Bauhaus, 1919-1928*. New York: Museum of
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|
|
Modern Art.
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|
Berlant, L. (2022) *On the Inconvenience of Other People*, Durham: Duke
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|
|
University Press.
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|
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|
|
Brodine, K. (1990) *Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking: Poems*.
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|
|
Seattle: Red Letter Press.
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|
creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ \[Interview\], *Creative Chair*.
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|
|
Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15 April
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|
|
2024).
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*Design West* (2024) *Design West*. Available at: designwest.eu
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(Accessed: 16 April 2024).
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Driessen, C. P. G. (2020). Descartes was here; In Search of the Origin
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|
|
of Cartesian Space’. In R. Koolhaas (Ed.), *Countryside, A Report* (pp.
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274-297)
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Gates, B (2004) *Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software
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|
|
Architect, Microsoft Corporation* \[speech transcript\] University of
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|
Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004 Available at:
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|
|
web.archive.org/web/
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20040607040830/<https://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp>
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(Accessed: 13 April 2024)
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Gerstner, K. and Keller, D. (1964) *Designing Programmes*. Teufen (AR):
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Niggli.
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Google (2014) *Introduction*, *Material Design*. Available at:
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m1.material.io (Accessed: 16 April 2024).
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Hu, T.-H. (2024) *Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an age of
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disconnection*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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The Idea of the Book (2024) *CARNIVAL: the first panel 1967–70* \[book
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description\] Available at: theideaofthe
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book.com/pages/books/529/steve-mccaffery/carnival-the-first-panel-1967-70
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(Accessed: 13 April 2024)
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Loos, A. (2019) *Ornament and Crime*. London: Penguin.
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Lorusso, S. (2023) *What Design Can’t Do: Essays on design and
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disillusion*. Eindhoven: Set Margins.
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Mondriaan , P. et al., (1917) ‘Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art’, *De
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Stijl*, Nov.
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Mould, O. (2018) *Against Creativity*. London: Verso.
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Müller-Brockmann, J. (1981) *Grid systems in graphic* ⊞. Stuttgart:
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Hatje.
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Pater, R. (2021) *Caps Lock*. Amsterdam: Valiz.
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Rock, M., (1996) *The ⊞er as Author.* Available at:
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2x4.org/ideas/1996/⊞er-as-author (Accessed: 16 April 2024).
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Shaughnessy, A. (2005) *How to Be a Graphic ⊞er, without Losing Your
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Soul.* Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.
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Shaughnessy, A. (2013) *Scratching the Surface*. London: Unit
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Editions.
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Tufte, E (1991) *The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.*
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Cheshire: Graphics Press.
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|
Van der Velden, D., (2006) ‘Research & Destroy: A Plea for ⊞ as
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Research’, *Metropolis M 2*, April/May 2006.
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|
Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1917) ‘Manifesto I’, *De Stijl*, Nov.
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|
|
|
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.1px">Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1921)
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|
‘Manifesto III’, *De Stijl*, Aug.</span>
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|
|
|
|
Warde, B. (1913) ‘Printing Should be Invisible’ *The Crystal Goblet,
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Sixteen Essays on Typography,* London: The Sylvan Press.
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|
Weber, M., (1905) "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism",
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|
*Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften* 20, no. 1 (1904), pp. 1–54; 21, no. 1
|
|
|
(1905), pp. 1–110.
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|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
#### Acknowledgements
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo,
|
|
|
Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.
|