miscellaneous
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De Nieuwe Cultuur? De Groene Amsterdammer Jaargang 124, nummer 32, 12 augustus 2000

The New Culture? News and debates about new media are mainly found in the economy pages, and rarely in the cultural supplements of our newspapers. Cultural professionals grudgingly look at the colonisation of their field by economic thinking. If everything is seen in terms of commerce, then public space threatens to become a mere market place.

 

De toekomst als kunstwerk Infodrome Issuepaper ICT & cultuur De vraag naar de culturele effecten van ICT roept een mix  van technologische, historische en metaforische feiten en  beelden op, waarvan het niet zeker is of ze een oplossing  vormt of een emulsie... Het beeld van de 'totale communicatie', dat gesuggereerd  wordt door de technologische aspecten van ICT, blijkt  overtrokken en deels gevaarlijk te zijn als we naar de  culturele effecten kijken...  Nu onze cultuur zich snel ontwikkelt tot een kennis-cultuur,  wordt de noodzaak om al in een vroeg stadium te beginnen  met een degelijke scholing in 'culturele geletterdheid' een dringende…  cultuur en economie hebben altijd al in een gespannen  verhouding gestaan. Nu lijkt het soms alsof de economie  definitief heeft gewonnen. Is er nog ruimte voor - naar  Kant -'interesselose' waarde?

 

The erotics of type in: Sex Appeal ed. Steve Heller Allworth Press, New York, 2000 From the simple figure 69, to elaborate tongue-in-cheek exercises like Michael Worthington's 'Dominatrix' typeface, typographers and type designers as well as readers (and censors) have used letters and ciphers to suggest 'prurient' content. Throughout the history of typography, the 'abstract' medium of type is employed to evoke eroticism, not by merely using the obvious words, but by using the letterforms: Copulating letters, erotic ligatures and the dot.

 

First things first 2000 manifesto published jointly in: Eye, Emigre, Adbusters, Items, Form Blueprint, The AIGA Journal, Fall 1999 / spring 2000 "We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more  useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication -  a mindshift away from product marketing and toward  the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning."

 

Mode(s) d'emploi tentoonstelling Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam, zomer 1999 introductie

Mode(s) d'emploi exhibition Fund BKVB, Amsterdam, Summer 1999 introduction Design has become a way of communicating. Its use is a given; no instructions are needed. What counts is how a design is employed in the visual culture that surrounds us. Less than a guide, the designer these days has become a co-user, a participant. The handbook has become a series of ‘ways of employing’. A way of working – an employment. The fourteen designers who are presented here  are not a well defined group, but their chance encounter in this exhibition does result in a portrait of a generation.

 

Een ideaal ontwerp is nog niet uit: De wereld moe(s)t anders - grafisch ontwerpen en idealisme Leonie ten Duis, Annelies Haase, met bijdragen van Henk Oosterling en Max Bruinsma Sandberg uitgave no.18 Sandberg Instituut / De Balie, 1999 isbn 90 6617 208 8 essay

An ideal design is not yet from: The world must change - graphic design and idealism Leonie ten Duis, Annelies Haase, with contributions by Henk Oosterling and Max Bruinsma Sandberg uitgave no.18 Sandberg Instituut / De Balie, 1999 isbn 90 6617 208 8 essay A design, which – even if only temporarily – imposes meaningful  structure on the chaos of possible meanings and references in the  information culture's hall of mirrors; A design. which questions the one-dimensionality of things that  are taken for granted – however politically correct they may be; A design, which derives its originality, regardless of the medium  or the ultimate form, from the independent, well informed and well argued vision of the designer; A design, which – in true ‘metadisciplinarity’ – achieves a real  integration of form, content, technology and media; Such a design may, because it is never finished, always not yet,  be termed idealistic.

 

Crossings from: Aiga Journal no.1 vol.17 1999 Bordertown Issue This book is about a small town on the Mexican American border.  Not a happy place. A town to get out of, a town where everything  seems to smell after what's missing. The aroma comes from the  other side, behind the fence. You can smell it, but you cant  touch it, unless you sneak in and hide for not getting kicked out  again.  I don't know that feeling very well. I come from the other side.

 

The reader's terms from: The designer's terms Jan van Eyck Academy, department of design, 1998 project tutor: Armand Mevis introduction This text was conceived and written for a workshop at the Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht, department of design.  The assignment for the participants was to explore the  (im)possibilities and materials and contexts of design in  relation to printing. The results were collected in a booklet, The designer's terms. The title and the cover  design were taken from a small book of printer's terms in  four languages, with schematic drawings of printing  processes and examples of type families. The book, aptly  titled The printer's terms, was written by Rudolf Hostettler  and designed by Tschichold. The cover of its 1969 edition was adapted for this publication  with 'designer's' printed over 'printer's'.

 

Design interactive education from: The education of a graphic designer ed. Steve Heller Allworth Press, New york, 1998, p.57-62. ISBN 1-880559-99-4 Theory, criticism and practice should be linked in a more  meaningful way than they are now.  The educational institutions should think about what  they can mean for each other in terms of preparing their  students for a world in which anything has to do with  everything else. And most of all: they should learn their students, be they academics, designers or artists, to  work together, to understand the complexities and  challenges of each other's projects and to realize that  these projects are different faces of the same dice.  So don't just teach interactive design; design an  interactive education!

 

Het Haagse Plat in: NRC-Handelsblad za. 19 September 1998 opinie pagina Er heerst in politiek Nederland, als het over kunst gaat, een vervelende hypocrisie, die in toenemende  mate cynische trekjes krijgt. Natuurlijk, we zijn al heel lang een volk van kruideniers dat, om met de nieuwbakken staatssecretaris voor Cultuur te spreken, die het weer van Oscar Wilde heeft, van alles de prijs weet en van niets de waarde. Op zichzelf is een dergelijke materialistische waardering van en voor kunst niet huichelachtig – of je nu schilderijen of brood koopt of verkoopt, je zou slecht voor je zaken zorgen als je niet scherp op de centen zou letten. Van “Brood des Levens” kan de kachel niet branden. Anders wordt het, wanneer je sinds mensenheugenis, als het over kunst gaat, varianten prevelt van de frase “omdat het moet”.

 

Official Anarchy Dutch Graphic Design from: The Low Countries Arts and society in Flanders and The Netherlands A Yearbook, 1997 - 1998 Stichting Ons Erfdeel, 1997 ISBN 90-75862-10-5 essay Dutch graphic design has emerged from an essentially  typographic tradition and this analytical background  has resulted in a clear and well organized typography -  a management of the page-, that is deeply concerned  with visualizing the hierarchies and the construction of texts.  the designers that I want to introduce here are generally  aiming at an image. Ordering information is the least one  can do. On top of that the design must be evocative,  emotional - and personal. Dutch graphic design is concerned  with two- apparently conflicting - goals: To order information  so that it becomes generally recognizable, but at the same  time to be recognizably individual: the designer, the carrier  of messages, wants to assert himself as well.

 

Een civiel beeldmerk De politie huisstijl van Studio Dumbar uit: Politievormgeving Uitgave van het Ministerie van Binnenlandse zaken, juni 1997 essay "Huisstijlen voor overheden zijn een groeiend fenomeen", sprak Ben Bos bij de introductie van Total Design's nieuwe huisstijl voor de Gemeente Leeuwarden in 1991, en hij had gelijk. Dat 'groeiend fenomeen' is de buitenkant van een maatschappelijke ontwikkeling: sinds de vroege jaren '80 is er een tendens te bespeuren naar een meer bedrijfsmatige presentatie van de overheid en haar diensten, die zich uit in opvallende veranderingen in beeld en taal.

 

The Civilised Anarchy of Studio Dumbar from: Graphis no.301 vol.52 January/February 1996 To say that Gert Dumbar is a very established designer, is a truism and an insult at the same time. In his long career he worked for most of Holland's major clients. Despite this distinguished list, Dumbar's designs have always been controversial in one way or another.

 

Dialogue between two souls from: Artificial Remko Scha / Trademarktm Amsterdam, 1993 introduction Introduction to a booklet about 'Artificial', a computer program by Remko Scha that generates random pictures. The catalogue in which this article appeared was published on the occasion of the first exhibition of Artificial-output at Van Rijsbergen Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, October 17 - November 14, 1993

 
 

unpublished texts

 
 
 

Words On Screens ATypI 1998 Congress, Palais des Congrès,Lyon Friday 23 October 15.30  lecture I've always been amazed at the lack of typographic scrutiny invested until recently in making type fit for reading text on screen. I would rather hope that typographers would stop worrying about resolution and learn to love the screen for what it can be - a great medium for reading.

 

Europa is een boekenkast Europa, Europa congres, De Balie, december 1995 lezing 'Europa', de Europese Unie, dient eerst en vooral gefundeerd  te worden op de gezamenlijke culturele erfenis van de Europeanen,  en niet uitsluitend op economische of daarvan afgeleide politieke opportuniteiten.  De culturele verankering van de Europese Unie begint met de herbevestiging van de Europese culturele identiteit, met een besef  van 'Europeesheid', en een daaruit voortvloeiend besef van  noodzakelijkheid, of liever, wenselijkheid van politieke eenwording.

 

We do not need new forms... IDEM, Industrial Design Educational Meeting Alden-Biesen, Belgium, 17-23 September 1995 lecture There are so many signs - the world has become a text and we are walking through it, reading, trying to keep up with the vast amount of messages that are tossed our way...  We have to ask ourselves: what is the story behind all these messages, what does this text say to us?  But it seems that all these objects and products are as many loose words without grammatical structure. We can read each word for itself, each isolated object has a meaning, or a function, for itself. But what do all these messages, all these words add up to? How are they connected? What meanings lie hidden behind the forms?

 
 
 

© max bruinsma