3README

What’s o/On a Universal Serial Bus?

A collection of electronic works by Dexter Sinister produced from 2008 to 2015.

Dexter Sinister is the compound name of Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt, who operate at the intersection of graphic design, publishing and contemporary art.

This memory stick, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, is released parallel to an exhibition in 2015 at Kunstverein München called ON A UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS. The four projects on this drive each play in one of the Kunstverein’s four main spaces surrounded by a number of related objects.

The four projects on the Bus are as follows:

(1) ‘IDENTITY’ – an MP4 of a three-screen projection from 2011 which lasts for 22 minutes.

(2) TRUE MIRROR MICROFICHE – an MP4 of a single-channel video from 2009 which lasts for 12 minutes and 17 seconds.

(3) WORK-IN-PROGRESS – a software application of a strange clock that turns on a 16 second loop, together with THEME FROM THE LAST SHoT CLOCK, an MP3 which lasts for 17 minutes.

(4) LETTER & SPIRIT – an MP4 of a single-channel animation from 2014 which lasts for 18 minutes and 30 seconds.

And then I am the one driving this Bus. My file name is README – an MP4 of a voice-synthesized text which lasts for 4 minutes and 22 seconds. I am speaking the words you're listening to right now; in which case, let me also introduce myself.

I was born back in 2011, in an essay by Angie Keefer that wonders what it might mean to communicate without language. My character is an asterisk, part of the extended family of a shapeshifting typeface by Dexter Sinister based on a piece of software from 1979 called MetaFont. And my voice comes from Scotland, sampled from the speech of Isla Leaver-Yap.

Finally, this memory stick and its exhibition follow directly from three previous projects by Dexter Sinister in 2015, in New York, Athens and Bregenz. All of which are hosted by my interface, and whose individual titles add up to a single looping sentence:

I’ll be your interface / Broadcasting from the aether / At 1:1 scale / On a Universal Serial Bus / I’ll be your interface / Broadcasting from the aether / At 1:1 scale / On a Universal Serial Bus

Etc. etc. etc.

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Was ist auf dem Universal Serial Bus?

Eine Sammlung elektronischer Arbeiten von Dexter Sinister, die zwischen 2008 und 2015 entstanden sind.

Dexter Sinister ist der zusammengesetzte Name von Stuart Bailey und Da-vid Reinfurt, die am Schnittpunkt zwischen Grafikdesign, Publizieren und zeitgenössischer Kunst arbeiten.

Dieser Memory-Stick, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, erscheint parallel zu einer Ausstellung, die 2015 im Kunstverein München stattfindet und den Titel ON A UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS trägt. Die vier Projekte auf diesem Lauf-werk finden jeweils in einem der vier Ausstellungsräume des Kunstvereins statt. Umgeben sind sie von einer Reihe zugehöriger Objekte.

Folgende vier Projekte befinden sich auf dem Bus:

(1) „IDENTITY“ – eine MP4-Datei einer Drei-Kanal-Projektion von 2011 mit einer Dauer von 22 Minuten.

(2) „TRUE MIRROR MICROFICHE“ – eine MP4-Datei eines Ein-Kanal-Videos von 2009 mit einer Dauer von 12 Minuten und 17 Sekunden.

(3) „WORK-IN-PROGRESS“ – eine Software-Applikation einer seltsamen Uhr, die in einem 16-Sekunden-Loop läuft, zusammen mit THEME FROM THE LAST SHoT CLOCK, einer MP3-Datei mit einer Dauer von 17 Minuten.

(4) „LETTER & SPIRIT“ – eine MP4-Datei einer Ein-Kanal-Animation von 2014 mit einer Dauer von 18 Minuten und 30 Sekunden.

Und dann bin ich es, der den Bus fährt. Mein Dateiname ist README – eine MP4-Datei mit einer synthetisierten Stimme und einer Dauer von 4 Minuten und 22 Sekunden. Ich spreche die Worte, denen du gerade laus-chst. Deshalb möchte ich mich gerne vorstellen:

Ich wurde 2011 in einem Essay von Angie Keefer geboren, die sich die Frage stellte, was es bedeuten würde, ohne Sprache zu kommunizieren. Ich bin ein Asterisk und gehöre zu einer großen Familie einer veränder-baren Schrift von Dexter Sinister, die auf einer Software aus dem Jahre 1979 mit dem Namen MetaFont basiert. Und meine Stimme kommt aus Schott-land. Sie wurde aus einer Rede von Isla Leaver-Yap gesampelt.

Schließlich: Dieser Memory-Stick und seine Ausstellung schließen sich drei vorangegangenen Projekten von Dexter Sinister an, die 2015 in New York, Athen und Bregenz stattgefunden haben. Als Gastgeber fungierte jeweils meine Schnittstelle. Die einzelnen Titel verbinden sich zu ei-nem einzigen geloopten Satz:

I’ll be your interface / Broadcasting from the aether / At 1:1 scale / On a Universal Serial Bus / I’ll be your interface / Broadcasting from the aether / At 1:1 scale / On a Universal Serial Bus

Etc. etc. etc.

5*. README

Dieser sprechende Asterisk stellt die vier Projekte vor, die auf dem Memory-Stick Universal Serial Bus archiviert sind und die parallele Aus-stellung On a Universal Serial Bus* bilden. Damit macht er einen fünften Teil auf dem Bus aus. Die in ihrer Form veränderbare Glyphe erklärt all dieses zusammen mit ihrer technischen Hin-tergrundgeschichte.

Sie erwähnt außerdem, dass die Ausstellung im Kunstverein München mit drei vorausgegangenen En-gagements von Dexter Sinister zusammenhängt, die in diesem Jahr stattgefunden haben. Der Asterisk ist ihr einziger gemeinsamer Nenner, der so programmiert wurde, dass er drei verschiedene Texte in drei ver-schiedenen Situationen mittels dreier verschiedener Medien lesen kann.

Zunächst führt sie in eine Ausstellung sowie weitere Arbeiten von Dexter Sinister ein, die auf einem Monitor auf dem Boden des Bard-Hessel Muse-um of Art, Annandale-Upon-Hudson (2015) unter dem Titel I’ll Be Your In-terface* zu sehen sind. Zum zweiten erläutert sie die Ideen, die sich mit einer in Entstehung begriffenen grie-chischen Kunstorganisation namens Radio Athènes via www.radioathenes.org verknüpfen. Den Anfang bilden dabei die Worte Broadcasting from the aether. Zum dritten erzählt sie die fünfjährige Hintergrundgeschichte eines Ortes mit dem Namen Arena im Kunsthaus Bregenz (2015), die hoch an die Wand projiziert in diesem Raum Teil einer Ausstellung mit dem Titel At 1:1 Scale* war.

*. README

This speaking asterisk introduces the four projects archived on the memory stick Universal Serial Bus and in the parallel exhibition On a Universal Serial Bus.* In doing so, it amounts to a fifth piece on the Bus. The shape-shifting glyph explains all this herself, along with her technical backstory.

She also notes that the exhibition at Kunstverein München is related to three previous Dexter Sinister en-gagements this year. The asterisk is their sole common denominator, pro-grammed in order to read three differ-ent texts in three different situations through three different mediums.

First, she introduced an exhibition of Dexter Sinister and related works from a monitor on the ground at Bard-Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-Upon-Hudson (2015), called I’ll Be Your Interface.* Second, she contin-ues to announce the ideas behind a nascent Greek art organization called Radio Athènes via www.radio-athenes.org, starting with the words Broadcasting from the aether.* Third, she recounted the five-year backstory of a space called Arena at Kunsthaus Bregenz (2015), projected high on the wall in the same space as part of an exhibition called At 1:1 Scale.*

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2010: Open. Diverse. International. Entrepreneurial. Sustainable.Always changing, always Tate.Tate solid becomes Tate porous.Tate foreground becomes Tate background.Tate fixed-size becomes Tate flexible.

Branding is moving into nations, regions, cities and what is increasingly being described as the “third sector” – those cultural organizations that do not exist to make a profit.

Sometimes doubtfully, sometimes reluctantly, art institutions have adopted the idea of brand – usually in a limited way. Now they need to fully embrace it.

Branding used to involve stamping your symbol on the flank of some dumb creature, and nowadays involves stamping it across their T-shirts. Wally Olins, a man who one suspects would brand his own kneecaps if there was profit to be squeezed from it, has written a suitably slick account of a supremely shallow phenomenon.

“Brands,” Olins argues, “represent identity.” It may be that he himself only knows who he is because of his brand of underpants, but the more discerning among us have not yet been reduced to this tragic condition.

In the newly re-branded organization, the former Tate Gallery was re-named Tate Britain and the new one Tate Modern. What Olins was proposing was that the consumable brand was fluid. First came the brand then came the product.

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The danger is that it’s just talk; then again, the danger is that it’s not. I believe you can speak things into existence.

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2009: The director repeated his mantra: “all multi-arts spaces are re-thinking what they need to do.”

The new vision was one of flexibility, spontaneity and itinerant programming … a more fluid and decentered model … a sometime festival, a freeform space … a particular mood or movement … and an obsession with the mobile tastes of THE puBLIc as the final arbiter of cultural value. All that matters is NOW.

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2004: “If you raise a lot of money, I will give you great, great architecture. But if you raise REALLy a lot of money, I will make the architecture disappear.”

So promised architect yoshio Taniguchi when he began the revamp of the Museum of Modern Art. 450 million dollars later, his koan has stuck. The building’s hefty price tag seems to point to invisibility as a new kind of luxury.

The Museum also hired graphic designer Bruce Mau to redesign MoMA’s identity, but Mau felt the existing logo – set in Franklin Gothic type – should be left alone: “Everybody gets tired of their own voice, and so they want to change it. But I was like: ‘Don’t mess with it! Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.’”

Mau noticed, however, that somewhere in its evolution from the original 1902 metal type to the digital version, MoMA’s Franklin had lost some of its spirit.

The museum approached typographer Matthew Carter about “refreshing” the typeface – which was, he said, “like asking an architect to design an exact replica of a building.”

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It’s difficult to avoid putting these words in (quote) “quotation marks” (unquote) – they’re so slippery in use.

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The new logo – rechristened MoMA Gothic – looks just like the old one, but stretched vertically one eight-hundredth of an inch. yet this subtle addition, much like the Taniguchi building, represents an exorbitant amount of time, decision-making, collaborative effort, and money – in the low five figures. Will anyone notice?

Glenn D. Lowry stated: “I suspect that if we’re really successful the public won’t really notice the difference, it will just feel right.”

What’s behind MoMA’s emphasis on invisibility? If this IS a carefully calculated exercise in branding, at least it’s true to the museum’s mission: less MoMA Incorporated than a bunch of aesthetes staring at the shape of their own name until their eyes cross.

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2000: What do you call this place?

Most of the time I say Beaubourg, or Pompidou, or Le Centre pompidou. Let’s meet at Beaubourg, let’s meet at pompidou, and so on. It doesn’t mean the museum as such, but the place – the building or the piazza in front of it.

Sometimes, I use another nickname: pomps. I guess in English you’d write pomp’s. It’s rather a private joke, with only a few friends. Like: Are you going to Pomp’s?

More rarely, mostly in writing text messages and short emails to lesser friends, I sometimes say Pompompidou, or Pompompidou-

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pou. Not that I think that claude pompidou was as glamourous as Betty Boop, but I really like alliterations.

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1998: Two years before Tate Modern opened, Wolff Olins established “Ten principles of interpretation for Tate Gallery of Modern Art” – or TGMA as it was provisionally known.

One: TGMA acknowledges that there is not a single chronology of 20th century art, but many, and every work is capable of multiple readings.

Two: TGMA must enable people to be confident about their own feelings towards modern and contemporary art.

Three: Visitors’ expectations, responses and experiences must be understood and must influence TGMA’s policies and practice.

– and so on.

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Look, there’s Graphic Design moving away, followed by Marketing.

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1997: The Design Council organized a discussion group to consider Britain’s identity at the end of the century. Its findings were published in a paper called New Brand for a New Britain on the same day the Labour Party finally ousted the Conservative government. Aggressively rebranded NEW Labour, their campaign was based on an entirely new set of carefully created, honed and manipulated perceptions.

A further report, BritainTM, begins: “Britain’s identity is in flux.

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Renewed confidence in the arts has coincided with the departure from Hong Kong, devolution, integration with Europe, and princess Diana’s death.” It goes on to detail the degrees of embarrassment “Britishness” provokes at home and abroad – abundant with bad food, snobbery and poverty.

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The hiccups took decades to subside. It wasn’t until the mid-eighties that the museum deemed the lower-case-“o”-MoMA proper enough for use. Another decade passed before the acronym appeared on banners outside the museum.

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1979: Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government came to power and stayed there for the next 18 years. Two fundamental pillars of Thatcherism were the privatization of the public sector and the deregulation of the private sector.

The government necessarily understood the importance of how things are sold, and initiated a full-blown love affair with advertising and design.

The Department of Trade & Industry was itself given a makeover by Wolff Olins: rechristened the DTI, with a zippy, lowercase logo whose structural lines echoed the rising stock indices.

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1974: Six alternating black horizontal stripes, broken regularly by eight 45-degree bends forms a continuous ziggurat of negative-space running through from bottom-left to top-right. This is a SYMBOL, the building abstracted. It was a compromise produced by VDA, the design team led by Jean Widmer and Ernst Hiestand.

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VDA argued that: “Opting for a descriptive logo would mean fixing Beaubourg in the present moment at the risk of its going out of fashion.” Still, pressed to develop ideas for a possible emblem, they presented this set of symbols:

a triangle for the music institute,a circle for the industrial design center,a diamond for the library, and a square for the plastic arts

– all geometric forms that could fit together to constitute a single figure.

VDA’s objective, however, was to convince their clients that such a system was superfluous. It worked, symbols were duly dropped, and the team continued according to its initial proposal: no logo, no symbol.

The centre Beaubourg is neither a bank nor an airport nor a grand hotel.

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Above all, what counts is what’s done and lived rather than what is said: things count, not their appearances.

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1972: American designer Jay Doblin wrote that in order to learn to read logos you had to know at least 3,000 different signs – a task as complex as familiarizing oneself with Chinese ideograms.

He then asserted the uselessness of such symbols: total wastes of time and money – rumor had invoices rising to $100,000.

concluding his diatribe, Doblin suggested abandoning logos to

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their fatal perversity and adopting typography instead: “A little Helvetica lowercase can get the job done.”

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1971: Just a few years after May ’68, logos were in a state of crisis, thought of as a marketing ploy, ideologically contemptible, and so totally at odds with the ambition of a cultural institution.

The new civic arts center in the heart of paris planned to bring four existing institutions together under one roof, including the National Museum of Modern Art.

As there was no particular need to identify the new center beyond its location, it was provisionally called the centre Beaubourg, after the neighborhood in the Marias district. Eventually it was given a proper name to honor the former conservative prime minister.

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1966: On summer vacation in Vermont, the Museum of Modern Art’s first director, Alfred Barr, had a typographic epiphany. The museum’s official abbreviation, MOMA, would, he thought, be better served by a lowercase “o.” A colleague responded:

Dear Helen and Alfred,

Haven’t you two characters got anything better to do than spend an entire summer haggling over the problem of whether the abbreviation should be written as MOMA or MoMA?

I must say that in this instance I think the lady is right. In all my 85 years in the museum it never occurred to me to use a lowercase “o.” It may be correct but it gives me terrible visual hiccups. I can only conclude that the estimable A.H. Barr Junior is losing

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his sight and mind in Greensboro.

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1965: Founded by Michael Wolff and Wally Olins, self-styled brand consultancy Wolff Olins was one of the first agencies of its kind. Although commonplace today, the notion of creating a portrait of a company – and subsequently beautifying that picture – was almost unheard of.

The phrase “corporate identity” was coined in the 1950s to describe how all of an organization’s visible manifestations are designed to create a coherent whole associated with a specific theme, attitude, or personality.

Rationalizing the choice of such symbols became part of the practice: “Incisive, balanced, open, its personality does not represent any particular specialization.”

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1964: The lettering for the Museum of Modern Art was created by chermayeff & Geismar, who also designed logos for American Airlines, Xerox, and Mobil, among others. They were hired to create “a clean and straightforward typographic identity to reflect the museum’s major renovation.”

According to Chermayeff, Franklin Gothic is “a face that’s modern with roots … It has some character, and therefore some warmth about it, and some sense of the hand – i.e., the artist. It makes a lot of sense for the Museum, which is not only looking to the future but also looking to the past.”

“It is obvious to us that unless a symbol is truly appropriate to the Museum, it is better not to have one ... We tried a number of different directions, none of which led to any satisfactory solutions,

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perhaps because there IS no one symbol of modern art.”

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An “image” is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan, or an easily-remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile.

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1956: It was by elaborate design that the cumbersome name “International Business Machines Corporation” was made in the public mind into “IBM,” probably the most expensive and most valuable abbreviation in history.

A team led by Eliot Noyes developed its stream lined trademark, to project a (quote) “clean, impressive” image.

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When we use the word image, we plainly confess a distinction between what we see and what is really there – and we express our preferred interest in what is to be seen.

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1935: In a note on his emblem for Black Mountain College, Josef Albers stated:

“We are not enamored of astrological, zoological, heraldic, or cabalistic fashions. We have hunted neither the phoenix nor the unicorn, we have dug up no helmet and plume, nor have we tacked on learned mottoes. Instead, as a symbol of union, we have chosen simply a simple ring. It is an emphasized ring to emphasize coming together. Or, it is one circle within another: color and white, light and shadow, in balance. And that no one may puzzle

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over cryptic monograms, we give our full address.”

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1932: The name The Tate Gallery officially replaced The National Gallery, Millbank, itself shortened a decade earlier from The National Gallery of British Art.

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1929: The Museum of Modern Art opened nine days after the Wall Street Crash as the first major American institution to exhibit European Modernism.

For the first 30 years, the Museum was known by its full name, rendered in geometric letterforms typical of the Bauhaus, and Modernism generally.

The clear geometric form is one of the most easily comprehended. Every possible form lies dormant in these basic elements. They are visible to him who sees, invisible to him who does not.

This profile, in various versions, represented the Bauhaus at Weimar, Dessau, and chicago. It replaced this original Bauhaus symbol, more akin to a Mason’s mark.

Around this time, German electrical company AEG put architect, engineer and designer peter Behrens on retainer as artistic consultant, in charge of designing products such as bulbs, kettles and heaters, as well as the company’s logotype, publicity, and even buildings.

Behrens wanted to reduce objects and icons to essential – or “typical” – forms: geometrical motifs and streamlined curves ... the design of objects to approximate as closely as possible their function, and the design of the icons that represent them

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to approximate as closely as possible to the information they are supposed to provide about those objects.

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All we want to do is to show that there is a difference between an urn and a chamberpot, and that in this difference there is leeway for culture.

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“Beau-bourg” means “beautiful village,” but in the 19th century the area was known as “L’ îlot insalubre numero un” – or “Filthy island number 1.”

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1897: What became Tate emerged at the end of the 19th century, when philanthropic sugar magnate Henry Tate donated his collection of 65 Modern paintings to the existing National Gallery of British Art.

All the Tate’s official communications material for at least the first 75 years bore the Royal Coat of Arms, the de facto image of all national public institutions.

Heraldry is a graphic language evolved from around the 12th century to identify families, states and other social groups. Specific visual forms yield specific meanings, and any heraldic device is described by both a written description or BLAZON, and its corresponding graphic form.

A given heraldic form may be drawn in many alternative ways, all considered equivalent, just as the letter A may be printed in a variety of fonts.

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ALL ALL ALL

No two things or acts are identical. Every act is an invention, yet we can grasp the universe only by simplifying it with ideas of identity by class, types, and categories.

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1883: Who hasn’t felt a disconnect when gazing in the art world’s rear view mirror – a chasm separating earlier cultures from our own? Transformations in material culture deserve much of the credit – which is one good reason why Manet’s A Bar at Folies-Bergère is exceptional.

Look at the counter. you’ll see two bottles of Bass pale Ale, with their familiar red triangle logo. It’s a brand that many of us know first hand. Seeing it in the painting connects us in a wink with the late 19th century. All at once, via a commercial logo, we’ve discovered a bridge over that cultural chasm.

Manet’s painting must also be our longest-running example of product placement. Marketers at Bass exult: 128 years of exposure to the brand in galleries and art books – that’s a lot of eyeballs!

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1875: A trademark is a legally protected set of letters, a picture, or a design, identifying a particular product.

Most casual drinkers, and even some very serious ones, don’t know that the red triangle which adorns every bottle is the first trademark issued in the uK.

In fact, when the Trade Mark Registration Act became law, an employee of the Bass brewing company stood on line all night

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to make sure that the Red Triangle would be the first on the books, closely followed by a Red Diamond for their strong ale, and a blue triangle for their filtered, pasteurized version.

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General signs – square, circle, triangle – together form the basic plastic language.

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The square represents the world and denotes order.

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The circle is the traditional symbol of eternity and the heavens.

cENTER

The triangle is a symbol of generative power and spiritual unity. Although these broad interpretations occur in many cultures throughout history, because of their formal simplicity they can be invested with infinite subjective meanings.

ALL ALL ALL

Now a complex interplay of motive forces is envisaged, a configuration of possible events, a complete dynamism of structure.

cENTER

The goal is to deconstruct and expand upon a binary. Logically enough, the way to move beyond a pair of binary opposites is to TRI-ANGU-LATE.

440

450

460

“Id

en

tity

“

20

14

It’s obvious when you think about it in terms of simple geometry, and it invokes a baseline metaphor about the development of ideas. Two points in opposition form one axis. To get beyond, therefore, one adds a second dimension, the simplest structure of which is a triangle. This creates a FIELD.

This is a pROJEcTION:

470

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

21

15

ANEW

SYMBOLPROPOSED

& PROJECTED INSIDE THIS SPACE

IS (LIKE EVERY LOGO)ALL SURFACE: A BUBBLE

BLOWN AROUND NOTHINGINFLATED TO BURSTING POINT

BY THE LAZY ASSUMPTION THATWHAT WE LOOK LIKE IS WHO WE ARE

IN OTHER WORDS, “IDENTITY” = IDENTITY “Id

en

tity

“

22

16

A note on the sources

The previous pages comprise the working script for a looping three-screen projection. Each screen is preoccupied with one of three main case studies: LEFT for the Centre Pompidou, CENTER for MoMA, and RIGHT for the Tate.

Artists Space Dexter Sinister The Serving Library

Centre Georges Pompidou The Museum of Modern Art, New York Tate

Bauhaus Editions Royal Coat of Arms, Britain Bass Ale

Artists Space

MoM

A S

tati

oner

y:

DIG

ITA

L LE

TT

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HE

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MP

LAT

E11

x 8

.5”

US

E F

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T: H

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ular

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E: 9

.5 p

t

TH

E M

US

EU

M O

F M

OD

ER

N A

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1

1 W

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53

Str

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New

Yor

k, N

Y 1

00

19

21

2 7

08

94

00

M

oMA.

org

Mar

ch 2

, 201

1

Nam

eC

ompa

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epar

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, Sta

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my

nibh

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idun

t ut l

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et d

olor

e m

agna

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uam

era

t vol

utpa

t. U

t wis

i eni

m a

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, qui

s no

stru

d ex

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tatio

n ul

lam

corp

er

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ipit

lobo

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ut a

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p ex

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mod

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nseq

uat.

Dui

s au

tem

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m ir

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drer

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puta

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elit

esse

mol

estie

con

sequ

at,

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llum

dol

ore

eu fe

ugia

t nul

la fa

cilis

is a

t ver

o er

os e

t acc

umsa

n et

iust

o od

io d

igni

ssim

qui

bla

ndit

prae

sent

lupt

atum

zzr

il de

leni

t aug

ue d

uis

dolo

re

te fe

ugai

t nul

la fa

cilis

i. N

am li

ber t

empo

r cum

sol

uta

nobi

s el

eife

nd o

ptio

n co

ngue

nih

il im

perd

iet d

omin

g id

quo

d m

azim

pla

cera

t fac

er p

ossi

m a

s-su

m.

Typi

non

hab

ent c

larit

atem

insi

tam

; est

usu

s le

gent

is in

iis

qui f

acit

eoru

m

clar

itate

m. I

nves

tigat

ione

s de

mon

stra

veru

nt le

ctor

es le

gere

me

lius

quod

ii

legu

nt s

aepi

us. C

larit

as e

st e

tiam

pro

cess

us d

ynam

icus

, qui

seq

uitu

r mu-

tatio

nem

con

suet

udiu

m le

ctor

um. M

irum

est

not

are

quam

litte

ra g

othi

ca,

quam

nun

c pu

tam

us p

arum

cla

ram

, ant

epos

uerit

litte

raru

m fo

rmas

hu-

man

itatis

per

sea

cula

qua

rta d

ecim

a et

qui

nta

deci

ma.

Eod

em m

odo

typi

,

Reg

ards

,

Ram

akris

hna

Sudh

eend

ra

Artists Space Dexter Sinister The Serving Library

Centre Georges Pompidou The Museum of Modern Art, New York Tate

Bauhaus Editions Royal Coat of Arms, Britain Bass Ale

Artists Space

MoM

A S

tati

oner

y:

DIG

ITA

L LE

TT

ER

HE

AD

TE

MP

LAT

E11

x 8

.5”

US

E F

ON

T: H

elve

tica

Reg

ular

PO

INT

SIZ

E: 9

.5 p

t

TH

E M

US

EU

M O

F M

OD

ER

N A

RT

1

1 W

est

53

Str

eet

New

Yor

k, N

Y 1

00

19

21

2 7

08

94

00

M

oMA.

org

Mar

ch 2

, 201

1

Nam

eC

ompa

nyD

epar

tmen

tAd

dres

sAd

dres

s 2

City

, Sta

teZi

p

Lore

m ip

sum

dol

or s

it am

et, c

onse

ctet

uer a

dipi

scin

g el

it, s

ed d

iam

non

um-

my

nibh

eui

smod

tinc

idun

t ut l

aore

et d

olor

e m

agna

aliq

uam

era

t vol

utpa

t. U

t wis

i eni

m a

d m

inim

ven

iam

, qui

s no

stru

d ex

erci

tatio

n ul

lam

corp

er

susc

ipit

lobo

rtis

nisl

ut a

liqui

p ex

ea

com

mod

o co

nseq

uat.

Dui

s au

tem

vel

eu

m ir

iure

dol

or in

hen

drer

it in

vul

puta

te v

elit

esse

mol

estie

con

sequ

at,

vel i

llum

dol

ore

eu fe

ugia

t nul

la fa

cilis

is a

t ver

o er

os e

t acc

umsa

n et

iust

o od

io d

igni

ssim

qui

bla

ndit

prae

sent

lupt

atum

zzr

il de

leni

t aug

ue d

uis

dolo

re

te fe

ugai

t nul

la fa

cilis

i. N

am li

ber t

empo

r cum

sol

uta

nobi

s el

eife

nd o

ptio

n co

ngue

nih

il im

perd

iet d

omin

g id

quo

d m

azim

pla

cera

t fac

er p

ossi

m a

s-su

m.

Typi

non

hab

ent c

larit

atem

insi

tam

; est

usu

s le

gent

is in

iis

qui f

acit

eoru

m

clar

itate

m. I

nves

tigat

ione

s de

mon

stra

veru

nt le

ctor

es le

gere

me

lius

quod

ii

legu

nt s

aepi

us. C

larit

as e

st e

tiam

pro

cess

us d

ynam

icus

, qui

seq

uitu

r mu-

tatio

nem

con

suet

udiu

m le

ctor

um. M

irum

est

not

are

quam

litte

ra g

othi

ca,

quam

nun

c pu

tam

us p

arum

cla

ram

, ant

epos

uerit

litte

raru

m fo

rmas

hu-

man

itatis

per

sea

cula

qua

rta d

ecim

a et

qui

nta

deci

ma.

Eod

em m

odo

typi

,

Reg

ards

,

Ram

akris

hna

Sudh

eend

ra

Artists Space Dexter Sinister The Serving Library

Centre Georges Pompidou The Museum of Modern Art, New York Tate

Bauhaus Editions Royal Coat of Arms, Britain Bass Ale

Artists Space

MoM

A S

tati

oner

y:

DIG

ITA

L LE

TT

ER

HE

AD

TE

MP

LAT

E11

x 8

.5”

US

E F

ON

T: H

elve

tica

Reg

ular

PO

INT

SIZ

E: 9

.5 p

t

TH

E M

US

EU

M O

F M

OD

ER

N A

RT

1

1 W

est

53

Str

eet

New

Yor

k, N

Y 1

00

19

21

2 7

08

94

00

M

oMA.

org

Mar

ch 2

, 201

1

Nam

eC

ompa

nyD

epar

tmen

tAd

dres

sAd

dres

s 2

City

, Sta

teZi

p

Lore

m ip

sum

dol

or s

it am

et, c

onse

ctet

uer a

dipi

scin

g el

it, s

ed d

iam

non

um-

my

nibh

eui

smod

tinc

idun

t ut l

aore

et d

olor

e m

agna

aliq

uam

era

t vol

utpa

t. U

t wis

i eni

m a

d m

inim

ven

iam

, qui

s no

stru

d ex

erci

tatio

n ul

lam

corp

er

susc

ipit

lobo

rtis

nisl

ut a

liqui

p ex

ea

com

mod

o co

nseq

uat.

Dui

s au

tem

vel

eu

m ir

iure

dol

or in

hen

drer

it in

vul

puta

te v

elit

esse

mol

estie

con

sequ

at,

vel i

llum

dol

ore

eu fe

ugia

t nul

la fa

cilis

is a

t ver

o er

os e

t acc

umsa

n et

iust

o od

io d

igni

ssim

qui

bla

ndit

prae

sent

lupt

atum

zzr

il de

leni

t aug

ue d

uis

dolo

re

te fe

ugai

t nul

la fa

cilis

i. N

am li

ber t

empo

r cum

sol

uta

nobi

s el

eife

nd o

ptio

n co

ngue

nih

il im

perd

iet d

omin

g id

quo

d m

azim

pla

cera

t fac

er p

ossi

m a

s-su

m.

Typi

non

hab

ent c

larit

atem

insi

tam

; est

usu

s le

gent

is in

iis

qui f

acit

eoru

m

clar

itate

m. I

nves

tigat

ione

s de

mon

stra

veru

nt le

ctor

es le

gere

me

lius

quod

ii

legu

nt s

aepi

us. C

larit

as e

st e

tiam

pro

cess

us d

ynam

icus

, qui

seq

uitu

r mu-

tatio

nem

con

suet

udiu

m le

ctor

um. M

irum

est

not

are

quam

litte

ra g

othi

ca,

quam

nun

c pu

tam

us p

arum

cla

ram

, ant

epos

uerit

litte

raru

m fo

rmas

hu-

man

itatis

per

sea

cula

qua

rta d

ecim

a et

qui

nta

deci

ma.

Eod

em m

odo

typi

,

Reg

ards

,

Ram

akris

hna

Sudh

eend

ra

The audio narrative jumps back and forth between the screens and is occasionally interrupted by brief overarching remarks which play on ALL ALL ALL. It has been assembled in reverse from a variety of voices that are quoted and often extensively paraphrased out of context, though we have been careful not to warp those words away from their original meanings. In order to recompense for borrowing others‘ texts, however, in the following pages we have returned all excerpts to their original contexts, including original orthography and spelling. In a few cases, mostly those parts collaged from Wikipedia, we decided against reprinting fuller versions. This back-matter serves then not merely as an extended colophon, but also as an expansive reader.

Thanks to the embedded writers: Gustave Affeulpin, Josef Albers, Domenick Ammirati, Hala Auji, Andrew Blum, Daniel Boorstin, JJ charlesworth, peter Davenport, caroline Donnellan, Terry Eagleton, Umberto Eco, Anthony Elms, Hal Foster, Luca Frei, James Goggin, Richard Hollis, Johannes Itten, Robin Kinross, Karl Krauss, George Kubler, Albert Meister, Wally (and Wolff) Olins, Jacques Ranciére, Nick Relph, catherine de Smet, James T. Soby, Benjamin Thorel, Philip Thompson, Frank Whitford; and to Rob Giampietro who jump-started the whole thing.

Dexter Sinister

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

23

17

• LI

NE

S 3

-7 a

fter

Wo

lff

Olin

s, “

Tate

bra

nd

str

ateg

y” r

epo

rt,

Jan

uar

y 19

, 2

010

,

PD

F, p

p. 2

1-2

7:

the

bra

nd

per

son

alit

y is

sti

ll al

way

s ch

ang

ing

alw

ays

Tate

and

eve

ryth

ing

Tat

e d

oes

isO

pE

N: w

elco

min

g a

nd

co

llab

ora

tive

NO

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cita

del

DIV

ER

SE

: co

nte

mp

ora

ry a

nd

man

y-vo

iced

NO

T p

red

icta

ble

INTE

RN

ATI

ON

AL:

wit

h a

rt a

nd

att

itu

des

bey

on

d t

he

wes

t N

OT

par

och

ial

EN

TRE

pR

EN

Eu

RIA

L: a

mb

itio

us

and

inve

nti

ve N

OT

bu

reau

crat

icS

uS

TAIN

AB

LE:

rig

oro

us

and

tru

stw

ort

hy

NO

T fa

dd

ish

the

bra

nd

pro

po

siti

on

is n

owlo

ok

agai

nth

ink

agai

njo

in in

and

eve

ry e

xper

ien

ce f

rom

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e is

:E

xTR

AO

RD

INA

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no

t m

un

dan

e E

VE

Ry

DA

y n

ot

eso

teri

c E

NJO

yAB

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ot

wo

rthy

and

EN

GA

GIN

G n

ot

did

acti

c

the

un

der

lyin

g p

urp

ose

gro

ws:

dem

ocr

atis

ing

acc

ess

to a

rt b

y p

rovo

kin

g

dia

log

ue

ton

e o

f vo

ice

Tate

exp

lain

s h

ow t

o w

rite

cle

arly

fo

r ev

eryo

ne

> T

ate

pu

ts f

orw

ard

cle

ar,

tru

sted

p

oin

ts o

f vi

ew

Tate

insp

ires

how

to

get

au

die

nce

s ex

cite

d b

y ar

t >

Tat

e ch

alle

ng

es in

spir

ing

,

aski

ng

, p

rovo

kin

g

Tate

invi

tes

how

to

let

oth

ers

hav

e th

eir

say

> T

ate

lets

go

allo

win

g d

ialo

gu

e to

h

app

en

Tate

so

lid >

Tat

e p

oro

us

Tate

fo

reg

rou

nd

> T

ate

bac

kgro

un

dTa

te fi

xed

-siz

e >

Tat

e fl

exib

le

18

• LI

NE

S 9

-11

aft

er W

ally

Olin

s, O

n B

ran

d (

Lon

do

n:

Tham

es &

Hu

dso

n,

20

04

), p

. 239

:

Bra

nd

ing

, th

en,

is m

ovin

g in

to n

atio

ns,

reg

ion

s an

d c

itie

s. W

her

e el

se is

it g

oin

g?

Wel

l, o

ne

of

the

pla

ces

to lo

ok

is t

he

soci

al s

ecto

r. T

his

is in

crea

sin

gly

bei

ng

d

escr

ibed

as

the

Thir

d S

ecto

r. It

co

mp

rise

s a

com

ple

x w

eb o

f o

rgan

izat

ion

s p

rin

cip

ally

d

efin

ed b

y th

e fa

ct t

hat

th

ey d

o n

ot

exis

t to

mak

e a

pro

fit.

Mu

seu

ms,

orc

hes

tras

,

art

gal

leri

es, an

d u

niv

ersi

ties

are

all

par

t o

f it

. S

o a

re c

har

itie

s.

• LI

NE

S 1

3-1

5 a

fter

Wo

lff

Olin

s, “

Mu

seu

m N

ext”

rep

ort

, D

ecem

ber

20

08

, P

DF,

p

p. 2

-3:

The

idea

s o

f ‘m

use

um

’ an

d ‘

bra

nd

’ d

on’

t n

atu

rally

go

to

get

her

. peo

ple

ten

d t

o

asso

ciat

e ‘m

use

um

’ w

ith

inst

itu

tio

nal

inte

gri

ty,

and

‘b

ran

d’

wit

h c

om

mer

cial

ex

plo

itat

ion

. In

man

y m

use

um

s, b

ran

d is

n’t

talk

ed a

bo

ut,

or

on

ly in

th

e m

arke

tin

g d

epar

tmen

t.

In o

ur

surv

ey,

23%

of

del

egat

es o

vera

ll sa

id b

ran

d is

‘a d

irty

wo

rd –

to

o c

om

mer

cial

’.

This

att

itu

de

is p

arti

cula

rly

mar

ked

in t

he

US

A a

nd

Asi

a Pac

ific.

Bu

t th

e p

ictu

re is

ch

ang

ing

. 6

1%

of

the

del

egat

es s

aid

th

e w

ord

is ‘O

K –

a u

sefu

l p

art

of

mo

der

n li

fe’.

An

d s

om

e m

use

um

s h

ave

very

cle

arly

bec

om

e ‘b

ran

ds’

: th

ey’v

e ca

ptu

red

th

e p

ub

lic im

agin

atio

n.

This

is p

arti

cula

rly

tru

e o

f b

ig,

mu

lti-

site

inst

itu

tio

ns

wit

h ic

on

ic

bu

ildin

gs,

like

Tat

e an

d G

ug

gen

hei

m.

An

d o

ur

surv

ey c

on

firm

ed t

his

. A

sked

to

nam

e m

use

um

bra

nd

s th

ey a

dm

ire,

del

egat

es p

icke

d fi

ve in

par

ticu

lar:

Tat

e (5

5 m

enti

on

s),

Mo

MA

(th

e M

use

um

of

Mo

der

n A

rt,

New

Yo

rk, 1

9 m

enti

on

s),

V&

A (

the

Vic

tori

a &

A

lber

t M

use

um

, Lo

nd

on

, 17

men

tio

ns)

, Lo

uvr

e (1

2)

and

Gu

gg

enh

eim

(9

). T

ate

sco

red

h

igh

est

in e

very

par

t o

f th

e w

orl

d,

even

am

on

g d

eleg

ates

fro

m t

he

uS

A.

The

way

th

ese

big

bra

nd

s w

ork

var

ies.

On

e is

a b

ran

d b

ased

on

su

bje

ct m

atte

r –

Mo

MA

an

d m

od

ern

ism

. A

co

up

le h

ave

a b

ran

d id

ea t

hat

cov

ers

a w

ider

ran

ge

of

sub

ject

mat

ter

wit

h a

par

ticu

lar

app

roac

h o

r at

titu

de

– Ta

te a

nd

V&

A.

Thre

e o

f th

e b

ran

ds

dep

end

on

arc

hit

ectu

re –

mo

st p

eop

le’s

idea

s ab

ou

t Ta

te,

Lou

vre

and

G

ug

gen

hei

m a

re h

eavi

ly in

flu

ence

d b

y th

eir

men

tal p

ictu

re o

f p

arti

cula

r b

uild

ing

s.

For

all o

f th

em,

to d

iffe

rin

g d

egre

es,

bra

nd

un

ites

a m

ult

i-si

te o

per

atio

n –

G

ug

gen

hei

m m

ost

fam

ou

sly.

As

thes

e b

ig b

ran

ds

hav

e em

erg

ed,

mu

seu

m b

ran

din

g h

as b

eco

me

a liv

e to

pic

. M

arg

ot

A W

alla

ce’s

bo

ok

Mu

seu

m B

ran

din

g g

ives

a b

asic

pri

mer

. A

ng

us

Hyl

and

an

d E

mily

Kin

g’s

c/i

d g

ives

cas

e st

ud

ies,

wit

h a

str

on

g v

isu

al b

ias.

“Id

en

tity

“

24

19

Bu

t n

eith

er o

f th

ese

bo

oks

rec

og

nis

es t

he

full

po

ten

tial

of

bra

nd

ing

fo

r m

use

um

s,

bey

on

d m

arke

tin

g a

nd

bey

on

d v

isu

al id

enti

ty.

So

met

imes

do

ub

tfu

lly,

som

etim

es r

elu

ctan

tly,

oft

en q

ues

tio

nin

gly

, m

use

um

s

hav

e ad

op

ted

th

e id

ea o

f b

ran

d,

usu

ally

in a

lim

ited

way

. N

ow t

hey

nee

d t

o f

ully

em

bra

ce it

.

• LI

NE

S 1

7-2

6 a

fter

Ter

ry E

agle

ton

, “R

ead

ing

On

Bra

nd

,” r

evie

w o

f O

n B

ran

d b

y

Wal

ly O

lins,

Eye

, N

o.

53 (

2004),

htt

p:/

/ww

w.e

yem

agaz

ine.

com

/fea

ture

.p

hp

?id

=11

6&

fid

=508:

Bra

nd

ing

use

d t

o in

volv

e st

amp

ing

yo

ur

sym

bo

l on

th

e fl

ank

of

som

e d

um

b c

reat

ure

, an

d n

owad

ays

invo

lves

sta

mp

ing

it a

cro

ss t

hei

r T-

shir

ts. W

ally

Olin

s, a

man

wh

o

on

e su

spec

ts w

ou

ld b

ran

d h

is o

wn

kn

eeca

ps

if t

her

e w

as p

rofi

t to

be

squ

eeze

d f

rom

it

, h

as w

ritt

en a

su

itab

ly s

lick

acco

un

t o

f a

sup

rem

ely

shal

low

ph

eno

men

on

. O

lins

is t

he

kin

d o

f co

rpo

rate

co

nsu

ltan

t w

ho

bel

ieve

s th

at r

ebra

nd

ing

may

hel

p s

olv

e th

e p

rob

lem

s o

f U

zbek

ista

n:

the

pro

ble

ms

of

this

co

un

try

(wh

ich

is r

epu

ted

to

bo

il it

s en

emie

s al

ive)

is t

hat

it d

oes

n’t

hav

e a

sexy

en

ou

gh

imag

e. P

erh

aps

bo

ilin

g p

eop

le

aliv

e si

mp

ly n

eed

s to

be

reb

ran

ded

. In

th

is b

oo

k, w

hic

h s

om

etim

es r

ead

s as

th

ou

gh

it

has

a m

arke

tpla

ce w

her

e it

s m

ind

sh

ou

ld b

e, a

rel

entl

essl

y tr

ivia

lisin

g p

ract

ice

has

fo

un

d it

s tr

ue

chro

nic

ler.

ch

illin

gTr

ivia

lisin

g, b

ut

no

t tr

ivia

l. O

lins

bel

ieve

s th

at b

ran

din

g is

bec

om

ing

mo

re v

ital

th

an

bo

th t

ech

nic

ally

an

d fi

nan

cial

ly b

ased

bu

sin

ess,

an

d a

s so

meo

ne

wh

o c

hir

pily

re

assu

res

that

‘w

hen

yo

u p

acka

ge

it e

ffec

tive

ly,

you

can

eve

n s

ell w

ater

exp

ensi

vely

’,

he

sho

uld

kn

ow.

The

corp

ora

te t

ypes

he

advi

ses

are

no

t th

e so

rt o

f p

eop

le t

o w

ho

m

on

e w

ou

ld e

ntr

ust

th

e w

ater

bo

ttle

s o

n a

tre

k ac

ross

th

e d

eser

t, u

nle

ss y

ou

had

a w

ell

stu

ffed

wal

let.

Lik

e m

any

of

his

tri

be,

how

ever

, h

e is

an

od

d c

om

bin

atio

n o

f cy

nic

ism

an

d n

aive

ty. O

n t

he

on

e h

and

, h

e ch

urn

s o

ut

chill

ing

ly O

rwel

lian

inju

nct

ion

s su

ch

as ‘

Trai

n y

ou

r p

eop

le t

o li

ve t

he

bra

nd

’; o

n t

he

oth

er h

and

he

earn

estl

y in

form

s u

s th

at c

ar c

om

pan

ies

are

‘pro

du

ct-l

ed’,

just

in c

ase

you

th

ou

gh

t To

yota

sp

end

s it

s ti

me

mar

keti

ng

its

fire

dri

ll te

chn

iqu

es r

ath

er t

han

its

mo

tors

.

Bo

neh

ead

edW

hen

Olin

s te

lls u

s th

at u

nd

er N

apo

leo

n,

‘th

e w

ho

le o

f Fr

ance

was

reb

ran

ded

’,

he

is c

lear

ly u

naw

are

that

th

is k

ind

of

bo

neh

ead

ed c

om

men

t is

usu

ally

to

be

fou

nd

n

ot

in a

sle

ek T

ham

es a

nd

Hu

dso

n v

olu

me,

bu

t am

on

g a

co

ach

load

of

Am

eric

an

tou

rist

s w

ho

mis

s se

ein

g t

he

Acr

op

olis

flas

h b

y th

eir

win

dow

bec

ause

th

ey a

re

too

bu

sy fi

dd

ling

wit

h t

he

air-

con

dit

ion

ing

. In

on

e se

nse

, h

e is

per

fect

ly a

war

e th

at

mu

ch o

f w

hat

he

is p

edd

ling

is g

arb

age.

Bra

nd

ing

, h

e w

rite

s w

ith

wh

at is

su

pp

ose

d

20

to b

e w

inn

ing

can

do

ur,

is a

qu

esti

on

of

‘per

suad

ing

, se

du

cin

g a

nd

att

emp

tin

g t

o

man

ipu

late

peo

ple

into

bu

yin

g p

rod

uct

s an

d s

ervi

ces’

. S

edu

cin

g is

cer

tain

ly t

he

wo

rd:

mo

st o

f u

s h

ave

felt

th

oro

ug

hly

scr

ewed

by

the

corp

ora

tio

ns

at o

ne

tim

e o

r an

oth

er.

A f

ew p

ages

on

, h

owev

er,

we

are

con

fid

entl

y as

sure

d t

hat

bra

nd

s ‘a

re t

he

mo

st

sig

nifi

can

t g

ifts

th

at c

om

mer

ce h

as e

ver

mad

e to

po

pu

lar

cult

ure

’. O

lins

may

reg

ard

b

ein

g m

anip

ula

ted

as

a g

ift,

bu

t n

ot

all o

f u

s sh

are

this

psy

cho

log

ical

kin

k.

Blo

od

less

Mo

re t

han

on

ce in

th

is b

loo

dle

ssly

wri

tten

bo

ok,

he

agre

es w

ith

th

e N

o Lo

go

cam

p

that

bra

nd

ing

is o

ften

‘m

anip

ula

tive

an

d m

isle

adin

g’,

an

d t

hat

th

eir

arg

um

ents

ag

ain

st

bra

nd

s ar

e ‘n

ot

neg

oti

able

’. (

The

do

ub

le n

egat

ive

is t

ypic

al o

f h

is w

ary

way

wit

h

anti

-cap

ital

ist

arg

um

ents

). H

avin

g c

on

ced

ed t

hat

mu

ch o

f th

e p

ract

ice

is in

def

ensi

ble

, h

owev

er,

he

then

pro

ceed

s to

def

end

it.

‘Glo

bal

co

mp

anie

s’,

he

rem

ind

s u

s, ‘

do

no

t cl

aim

th

ey a

re in

bu

sin

ess

for

ph

ilan

thro

pic

pu

rpo

ses.

’ W

ell,

nei

ther

do

th

eir

crit

ics.

B

ut

that

tra

nsn

atio

nal

co

rpo

rati

on

s ch

oo

se p

rofi

t ov

er p

eop

le is

th

e p

rob

lem

, n

ot

a lin

e o

f d

efen

ce.

It is

rat

her

like

arg

uin

g t

hat

mu

gg

ers

do

no

t cl

aim

to

be

vica

rs,

and

so

ca

nn

ot

be

fau

lted

wh

en t

hey

sca

mp

er o

ff w

ith

yo

ur

han

db

ag.

cyn

ical

The

tro

ub

le is

no

t th

at N

ike

is a

hea

vily

cam

ou

flag

ed c

har

ity,

bu

t th

at p

rofe

ssio

nal

cy

nic

s lik

e O

lins

reg

ard

eve

n c

har

ity

as a

co

mm

od

ity.

(‘T

he

pro

du

ct t

hat

a c

har

ity

sells

is

car

ing

fo

r th

e le

ss f

ort

un

ate’

). ‘

Gre

enp

eace

’, h

e te

lls u

s, ‘

like

any

oth

er c

leve

r b

ran

d,

stan

ds

for

a fe

w s

imp

le v

alu

es …

all

exp

ress

ed t

hro

ug

h a

pow

erfu

l vis

ual

pre

sen

ce

and

so

me

pit

hy

sou

nd

bit

es.’

po

litic

al ju

stic

e is

on

a le

vel w

ith

jun

k fo

od

. G

reen

pea

ce

is a

bra

nd

rat

her

th

an a

cam

pai

gn

, an

d s

o a

re n

atio

ns

(‘Am

eric

a is

a b

ran

d’)

.

Bra

inw

ash

edO

n B

ran

d’s

vie

w o

f th

e w

orl

d is

as

nas

tily

deh

um

anis

ed a

s a

wo

rkh

ou

se.

‘A c

lean

er a

t B

anju

l air

po

rt in

Gam

bia

’, O

lins

wri

tes,

‘sc

rap

es a

nd

sav

es t

o b

uy

Nik

e ru

nn

ing

sh

oes

as

a s

ign

al t

o h

imse

lf a

nd

oth

ers

that

he

is a

ble

to

sh

are

at le

ast

som

e o

f th

e ri

ch

wo

rld

’s g

lam

ou

r an

d f

ash

ion’

. Th

ere

is n

o h

int

that

he

reg

ard

s th

is o

bsc

ene

situ

atio

n

as a

nyt

hin

g b

ut

acce

pta

ble

. N

aom

i Kle

in a

nd

co

., h

e co

mm

ents

, ‘d

emo

nis

e’ b

ig

corp

ora

tio

ns

for

‘gri

nd

ing

th

e fa

ces

of

the

po

or

in T

hir

d W

orl

d c

ou

ntr

ies,

su

bo

rnin

g

and

su

bve

rtin

g t

he

edu

cati

on

of

child

ren

in t

he

Wes

t, c

har

gin

g t

oo

mu

ch a

nd

giv

ing

to

o li

ttle

to

cu

sto

mer

s ev

eryw

her

e, b

rain

was

hin

g p

eop

le w

ith

rel

ativ

ely

littl

e m

on

ey

into

bu

yin

g p

rod

uct

s th

ey d

on’

t n

eed

an

d d

on’

t re

ally

wan

t an

d t

hat

mig

ht

har

m

them

, an

d g

ener

ally

act

ing

like

bu

lly b

oys,

th

ug

s an

d p

rofi

teer

s’.

Aft

er t

his

sea

rin

g

(if g

ram

mat

ical

ly m

alad

roit

) in

dic

tmen

t, o

ne

exp

ects

a s

po

t o

f re

futa

tio

n f

rom

a

top

ad

vise

r to

Ren

ault

an

d V

olk

swag

en.

Ast

on

ish

ing

ly,

it n

ever

co

me

up

. u

nab

le t

o

add

ress

th

ese

char

ges

po

int

by

po

int

for

the

bes

t o

f al

l rea

son

s (n

amel

y, t

hat

th

ey a

re

pla

inly

tru

e),

Olin

s re

sort

s in

stea

d t

o s

om

e fe

eble

ch

aff-

scat

teri

ng

.

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

25

21

Ind

efen

sib

leFi

rst,

he

mai

nta

ins,

co

rpo

rati

on

s ar

e in

bu

sin

ess

to m

ake

mo

ney

an

d n

ot

to c

are

fo

r p

eop

le. In

sh

ort

, h

e jo

ins

the

crit

ics

rath

er t

han

bea

tin

g t

hem

. S

eco

nd

, b

ran

din

g

is u

sed

by

no

n-p

rofi

t o

utfi

ts s

uch

as

char

itie

s, n

atio

ns,

sp

ort

, lit

erat

ure

an

d t

hea

tre

as w

ell.

It is

tru

e th

at y

ou

can

pro

bab

ly o

nly

pro

du

ce S

hak

esp

eare

’s T

he

Tem

pes

t n

owad

ays

if y

ou

hav

e th

e sp

on

sors

hip

of

Mar

ine

Insu

ran

ce a

nd

a w

ell c

raft

ed

com

mer

cial

iden

tity

. It

is ju

st t

hat

th

e d

isas

tro

usl

y p

hili

stin

e ex

ten

sio

n o

f b

ran

din

g

into

cu

ltu

re a

nd

po

litic

s is

mo

re a

n a

rgu

men

t ag

ain

st it

th

an in

its

favo

ur.

Th

ird

,

Olin

s in

sist

s, r

eal p

ower

lies

wit

h t

he

con

sum

er:

‘Th

e b

ran

d’,

he

wri

tes,

‘is

co

ntr

olle

d

by

us

the

cust

om

ers.

’ In

th

e en

d,

it is

up

to

us

to d

ecid

e w

hic

h b

ran

d t

o o

pt

for.

H

ere,

in f

act,

is t

he

kern

el o

f th

e b

oo

k’s

def

ence

of

the

ind

efen

sib

le –

th

ou

gh

th

is,

to

o, tu

rns

ou

t to

be

rath

er a

ro

tten

nu

t.

Gru

bb

yFo

r o

ne

thin

g, th

e su

gg

esti

on

th

at t

rue

po

pu

lar

pow

er li

es in

ch

oo

sin

g b

etw

een

Mar

s B

ars

and

Fry

’s C

ho

cola

te C

ream

bar

s su

gg

ests

a c

erta

in d

eclin

e in

th

e d

emo

crat

ic

idea

l fro

m t

he

day

s o

f Th

om

as J

effe

rso

n,

no

t to

sp

eak

of

the

Ath

enia

n c

ity-

stat

e.

Free

do

m n

ow li

es in

dec

idin

g w

hic

h p

arti

cula

r se

t o

f g

rub

by

littl

e d

ecep

tio

ns

to r

esis

t.

A g

enu

inel

y d

emo

crat

ic s

oci

ety

wo

uld

be

able

to

dec

ide

no

t ju

st b

etw

een

Mar

s an

d

Fry’

s, b

ut

bet

wee

n w

hat

res

ou

rces

it w

ante

d t

o p

lou

gh

into

ch

oco

late

pro

du

ctio

n a

nd

w

hat

res

ou

rces

into

ho

spit

al-b

uild

ing

. O

lins

sup

po

rts

a ca

pit

alis

t o

rder

wh

ich

mak

es

gen

uin

ely

po

pu

lar

dec

isio

n-m

akin

g im

po

ssib

le.

Sp

inel

ess

He

wri

tes

pu

ssy-

foo

tin

gly

of

‘tra

dit

ion

ally

inse

nsi

tive

oil

com

pan

y’ b

ehav

iou

r in

pla

ces

such

as

co

lum

bia

, w

hic

h m

ust

su

rely

ran

k am

on

g t

he

spin

eles

s eu

ph

emis

ms

of

the

dec

ade.

Mo

st s

uch

co

mp

anie

s, h

e re

mar

ks w

ith

exq

uis

ite

del

icac

y, ‘

hav

e a

his

tory

w

hic

h b

y to

day

’s s

tan

dar

ds

of

po

litic

al c

orr

ectn

ess

do

es n

ot

bea

r ve

ry c

lose

scr

uti

ny’

. H

e is

aw

are,

of

cou

rse,

th

at n

ot

on

ly t

he

cham

pio

ns

of

PC

bu

t an

y h

alf-

hu

man

e p

erso

n w

ou

ld fi

nd

th

is h

isto

ry d

isg

race

ful;

bu

t h

e d

oes

no

t h

ave

the

cou

rag

e to

say

so

, so

he

hid

es b

ehin

d t

he

conve

nie

nt

stra

w t

arg

et o

f p

olit

ical

co

rrec

tnes

s.

cir

cula

rTh

e ar

gu

men

t ab

ou

t co

nsu

mer

pow

er is

in a

ny

case

cir

cula

r. If

th

e cu

sto

mer

s co

ntr

ol

the

bra

nd

, th

e b

ran

d in

flu

ence

s th

e cu

sto

mer

s to

plu

mp

fo

r it

. Fo

r an

oth

er t

hin

g,

O

lins

scu

pp

ers

his

ow

n a

rgu

men

t. T

o d

efen

d b

ran

din

g a

gai

nst

ch

arg

es o

f b

rain

was

hin

g, h

e h

as t

o s

ug

ges

t th

at it

’s n

ot

nea

rly

as e

ffec

tive

as

we

mig

ht

susp

ect.

B

ut

in o

rder

to

sta

y in

his

lin

e o

f b

usi

nes

s, h

e ar

gu

es,

for

exam

ple

, th

at in

Th

ird

Wo

rld

co

un

trie

s a

bra

nd

ing

pro

gra

mm

e ‘c

an a

ct a

s a

cata

lyst

fo

r ch

ang

e’.

cu

rio

usl

y, w

hat

ca

n t

ran

sfo

rm w

ho

le n

atio

ns

can’

t la

y a

glo

ve o

n in

div

idu

al f

reed

om

of

cho

ice.

22

co

ntr

adic

tory

Olin

s’s

wh

ole

cas

e w

ork

s o

n t

he

assu

mp

tio

n t

hat

bra

nd

ing

wo

rks

mar

vello

usl

y w

ell,

an a

ssu

mp

tio

n h

e al

so h

as t

o d

eny

if h

e is

to

avo

id lo

oki

ng

like

an

ad

voca

te o

f ex

plo

itat

ion

. H

e is

in t

he

po

siti

on

of

the

po

rno

gra

phy

kin

g w

ho

insi

sts

that

no

bo

dy

forc

es y

ou

to

wat

ch v

ideo

s o

f w

om

en b

ein

g s

exu

ally

hu

mili

ated

. ‘P

eop

le’,

he

rem

arks

, ‘k

now

per

fect

ly w

ell w

hat

th

ey a

re d

oin

g.’

Bu

t so

do

dru

g d

eale

rs. W

e d

on’

t p

erm

it

ads

urg

ing

peo

ple

to

pu

sh h

ero

in o

r ki

dn

ap t

od

dle

rs o

n t

he

gro

un

ds

that

th

ey c

an

alw

ays

ign

ore

th

em.

Imp

ecca

bly

Mar

xist

W

hat

bra

nd

ing

exp

loit

s is

no

t ju

st p

eop

le’s

gu

llib

ility

, b

ut

thei

r p

oig

nan

t, e

nti

rely

re

aso

nab

le d

esir

e to

bel

on

g t

o s

om

e fo

rm o

f co

rpo

rate

exi

sten

ce la

rger

th

an

them

selv

es.

Sin

ce a

so

cial

ord

er g

iven

to

gre

ed a

nd

sel

f-in

tere

st c

ann

ot

fulfi

l th

is

role

, K

rug

, S

tarb

uck

s o

r M

anch

este

r U

nit

ed h

ave

to s

tep

in in

stea

d.

In w

riti

ng

ab

ou

t b

ran

din

g,

Olin

s h

as p

rod

uce

d a

n im

pec

cab

ly M

arxi

st s

tud

y, q

uit

e ag

ain

st h

is

inte

nti

on

s. M

ore

or

less

eve

ryth

ing

he

has

to

say

on

th

e su

bje

ct g

oes

to

co

nfi

rm w

hat

th

e M

arxi

st t

rad

itio

n h

as lo

ng

arg

ued

ab

ou

t al

ien

atio

n,

reifi

cati

on

an

d t

he

feti

shis

m

of

com

mo

dit

ies.

In f

act,

th

e o

nly

rat

ion

al e

xpla

nat

ion

fo

r th

e cr

assn

ess

and

ca

llow

nes

s o

f th

is b

oo

k is

th

at O

lins

is a

left

-win

g in

filt

rato

r am

on

g c

orp

ora

te t

ypes

, o

ut

to d

iscr

edit

th

em b

y ex

po

sin

g t

he

log

ic o

f th

e lo

go

wit

h s

uch

cru

el c

and

ou

r.

Co

ld-h

eart

ed‘B

ran

ds’

, ar

gu

es W

ally

Olin

s in

On

Bra

nd

, ‘r

epre

sen

t id

enti

ty.’

It m

ay b

e th

at h

e h

imse

lf o

nly

kn

ows

wh

o h

e is

bec

ause

of

his

bra

nd

of

un

der

pan

ts,

bu

t th

e m

ore

d

isce

rnin

g a

mo

ng

us

hav

e n

ot

yet

bee

n r

edu

ced

to

th

is t

rag

ic c

on

dit

ion

. To

ave

rt a

ny

such

dre

adfu

l fat

e, t

he

read

er w

ou

ld b

e w

ell a

dvi

sed

to

giv

e th

is p

ile o

f co

ld-h

eart

ed

cyn

icis

m a

mis

s an

d b

uy

Nao

mi K

lein

’s N

o Lo

go

inst

ead

.

• LI

NE

S 2

8-3

1 a

fter

Car

olin

e D

on

nel

lan

, “T

owar

ds

Tate

Mo

der

n:

Pat

ron

age

and

Fu

nd

ing

,” P

DF,

p. 1

4:

Wal

ly O

lins

late

r w

rote

th

at li

ke A

nd

y W

arh

ol w

as a

bra

nd

so

was

th

e Ta

te w

ith

its

sub

-bra

nd

s o

f Ta

te B

rita

in,

Tate

Mo

der

n,

Tate

St

Ives

. H

e id

enti

fied

th

at t

he

Tate

S

ho

p o

nlin

e is

als

o p

art

of

the

pow

erfu

l mu

seu

m g

alle

ry b

ran

d,

alo

ng

wit

h t

he

Tate

m

agaz

ine.

Wh

at O

lins

was

pro

po

sin

g w

as t

hat

th

e co

nsu

mab

le b

ran

d w

as fl

uid

–

firs

t ca

me

the

bra

nd

th

en c

ame

the

pro

du

ct w

hat

he

pro

po

sed

was

a s

hif

t w

ith

in

the

real

m o

f th

e ar

t g

alle

ry f

or

its

citi

zen

s to

a m

arke

t-le

d b

ran

d,

the

Tate

gea

red

to

war

ds

the

mo

der

n c

on

sum

er.

Tate

’s r

ebra

nd

ing

in a

sen

se b

egan

bef

ore

Wo

lff

Olin

s w

as a

pp

oin

ted

– t

he

emb

ryo

nic

ch

ang

e b

egan

as

earl

y as

th

e 19

70

’s w

hen

it b

egan

to

dev

elo

p a

dif

fere

nt

visi

on

.

“Id

en

tity

“

26

23

• LI

NE

S 3

5-3

6 a

fter

Jay

-Z,

20

10,

qu

ote

d in

An

tho

ny

Elm

s, “

A F

libb

erti

gib

bet

,

a W

ill-o

’-th

e-w

isp

, a

Clo

wn

(O

r 10

Rea

son

s W

hy

Gra

ph

ic D

esig

n Is

No

t th

e Is

sue)

,“

Aft

eral

l No

. 27 (

Su

mm

er 2

011

), p

p. 3

7-4

5:

In t

he

dig

ress

ive

cad

ence

s o

f th

e D

exte

r S

inis

ter

son

gb

oo

k, o

nce

cal

led

Dot

Dot

Dot

, so

on

th

e B

ulle

tins

of t

he

Ser

vin

g L

ibra

ry,

wh

at is

dem

on

stra

ted

? O

h,

so m

uch

re

iter

atio

n, le

t ra

pp

er J

ay-Z

an

swer

: ‘T

he

dan

ger

is t

hat

it’s

just

tal

k; t

hen

ag

ain

,

the

dan

ger

is t

hat

it’s

no

t. I

bel

ieve

yo

u c

an s

pea

k th

ing

s in

to e

xist

ence

.’

• LI

NE

S 3

9-4

6 a

fter

JJ

Ch

arle

swo

rth

, “C

risi

s at

th

e IC

A:

Eko

w E

shu

n’s

Exp

erim

ent

in

Dei

nst

itu

tio

nal

isat

ion

,” M

ute

(Fe

bru

ary

20

10),

htt

p:/

/ww

w.m

etam

ute

.org

/en

/co

nte

nt/

cris

is_a

t_th

e_ic

a_ek

ow_e

shu

n_s

_exp

erim

ent_

in_d

ein

stit

uti

on

alis

atio

n:

Esh

un

is t

he

IcA

’s o

wn

bes

t cr

itic

, o

f co

urs

e. A

t th

e 10

Dec

emb

er m

eeti

ng

, h

e re

pea

ted

his

man

tra

that

‘all

mu

lti-

arts

sp

aces

are

re-

thin

kin

g w

hat

th

ey n

eed

to

do

. Th

e p

ost

-war

mo

der

nis

t p

rese

nta

tio

n o

f ar

t is

no

lon

ger

rel

evan

t an

d t

he

ICA

nee

ds

a

visi

on

fo

r w

hat

th

is m

ean

s.’

E

shu

n’s

‘vis

ion’

has

bee

n lo

ng

in c

om

ing

. In

a ‘

visi

on’

do

cum

ent

circ

ula

ted

in

Sp

rin

g 2

009, E

shu

n w

rote

th

at a

key

ch

alle

ng

e fo

r th

e Ic

A w

as h

ow it

mig

ht

‘up

dat

e th

e tr

adit

ion

al m

od

el o

f th

e ar

ts c

entr

e w

ith

its

silo

-lik

e p

rog

ram

min

g s

tru

ctu

re.’

The

new

vis

ion

was

to

be

on

e o

f fl

uid

ity,

flex

ibili

ty,

spo

nta

nei

ty a

nd

itin

eran

t p

rog

ram

min

g,

taki

ng

its

cue

fro

m t

he

mo

del

of

bie

nn

ials

, fa

irs

and

fes

tiva

ls,

each

of

wh

ich

off

ered

‘a m

ore

flu

id a

nd

dec

entr

ed m

od

el o

f ar

ts p

rese

nta

tio

n w

ith

a f

ocu

s o

n

new

co

mm

issi

on

s.’

The

ICA

co

uld

‘occ

asio

nal

ly w

ork

in a

sim

ilar

spir

it,

reco

nfi

gu

rin

g

ou

rsel

ves

as a

so

met

ime

fest

ival

, a

free

form

sp

ace

of

arti

stic

exp

lora

tio

n d

edic

ated

to

art

icu

lati

ng

a p

arti

cula

r m

oo

d o

r m

ovem

ent.

’

Bu

t w

hat

do

es u

pd

atin

g t

he

‘silo

-lik

e’ p

rog

ram

min

g s

tru

ctu

re o

f th

e ar

ts c

entr

e an

d s

eeki

ng

a ‘

mo

re fl

uid

an

d d

ecen

tred

mo

del

of

arts

pre

sen

tati

on’

act

ual

ly m

ean

in

pra

ctic

e? O

ne

mig

ht

arg

ue

that

Esh

un’

s an

tag

on

ism

tow

ard

s th

e ‘p

ost

-war

m

od

ern

ist

art

cen

tre’

wo

uld

see

m t

o r

un

co

ntr

ary

to t

he

IcA

’s 1

94

7 f

ou

nd

ing

ch

arit

able

ob

ject

s:To

pro

mo

te t

he

edu

cati

on

of

the

com

mu

nit

y b

y en

cou

rag

ing

th

e u

nd

er-

stan

din

g, ap

pre

ciat

ion

an

d d

evel

op

men

t o

f th

e ar

ts g

ener

ally

an

d p

arti

cula

rly

of

con

tem

po

rary

art

as

exp

ress

ed in

pai

nti

ng

, et

chin

g,

eng

ravi

ng

, d

raw

ing

, p

oet

ry, p

hilo

sop

hy,

lite

ratu

re,

dra

ma,

mu

sic,

op

era,

bal

let,

scu

lptu

re,

arch

itec

ture

, d

esig

ns,

ph

oto

gra

phy,

film

s, r

adio

an

d t

elev

isio

n o

f ed

uca

tio

nal

an

d c

ult

ura

l val

ue.

Of

cou

rse,

a s

et o

f ar

tist

ic d

esig

nat

ion

s as

an

tiq

ue

as t

hes

e n

eed

s p

erio

dic

up

dat

ing

; n

or

do

es it

pre

scri

be

the

form

or

stru

ctu

re a

n o

rgan

isat

ion

sh

ou

ld t

ake

to d

eliv

er

such

a p

rog

ram

me.

Bu

t E

shu

n’s

fasc

inat

ion

wit

h t

he

tem

po

rary

, th

e fl

exib

le a

nd

th

e d

ecen

tred

, o

f a

cult

ura

l ou

tlo

ok

in w

hic

h n

oth

ing

is p

erm

anen

t, w

as t

ran

slat

ed

24

into

a m

anag

eria

l po

licy

of

wea

rin

g d

own

th

e ‘s

ilo-l

ike’

dep

artm

enta

l pro

gra

mm

ing

st

ruct

ure

of

the

org

anis

atio

n,

at t

he

cost

of

a lo

ss o

f cu

rato

rial

exp

erti

se.

In O

cto

ber

2

00

8,

Esh

un

dec

ided

to

ab

olis

h t

he

ICA

’s L

ive

and

Med

ia A

rts

dep

artm

ent,

a d

ecis

ion

w

hic

h d

rew

acr

imo

nio

us

resp

on

ses

by

pra

ctit

ion

ers

in t

he

live

and

med

ia a

rts

com

mu

nit

y. A

nd

wit

h t

he

resi

gn

atio

n o

f th

e Ta

lks

dep

artm

ent

in D

ecem

ber

20

09

, in

crea

sin

gly

, th

e re

spo

nsi

bili

ty f

or

any

ori

gin

al p

rog

ram

min

g f

ell t

o e

xhib

itio

ns,

th

e o

nly

pro

gra

mm

ing

dep

artm

ent

to h

ave

enjo

yed

any

sig

nifi

can

t b

ud

get

incr

ease

u

nd

er E

shu

n’s

dir

ecto

rsh

ip.

Th

ere

is o

f co

urs

e an

oth

er t

erm

to

des

crib

e th

e p

roce

ss o

ccu

rrin

g in

th

is n

ew

‘dec

entr

ed’

art

cen

tre.

It is

‘d

e-sk

illin

g’.

Th

e vi

sio

n o

f a

flu

id,

flex

ible

, te

mp

ora

ry

inst

itu

tio

n is

, ir

on

ical

ly,

enti

rely

co

nco

mit

ant

wit

h a

gen

eral

tre

nd

tow

ard

s b

ure

aucr

atis

atio

n a

nd

th

e ab

olit

ion

of

exp

erti

se in

org

anis

atio

nal

str

uct

ure

s th

at

med

iate

bet

wee

n c

ult

ura

l pra

ctit

ion

ers

and

art

s p

olic

y. T

his

has

bee

n v

ivid

ly e

vid

ent

in t

he

chan

ges

in a

rts

fun

din

g b

od

ies

in r

ecen

t ye

ars.

Fo

r ex

amp

le,

the

rem

oval

of

art

form

-sp

ecifi

c ad

viso

ry p

anel

s w

as a

n e

arly

inn

ovat

ion

at

Art

s C

ou

nci

l En

gla

nd

un

der

N

ew L

abo

ur.

A s

imila

r p

roce

ss d

estr

oyed

th

e B

riti

sh c

ou

nci

l’s a

rtis

tic

dep

artm

ents

in

late

20

07

, w

hen

it d

isb

and

ed it

s fi

lm,

dra

ma,

dan

ce,

liter

atu

re,

des

ign

an

d

visu

al a

rts

dep

artm

ents

, am

alg

amat

ing

th

em in

to a

sin

gle

‘art

s te

am’,

org

anis

ed

aro

un

d b

izar

re m

anag

emen

t ap

ho

rism

s su

ch a

s ‘P

rog

ress

ive

Faci

litat

ion’

, ‘M

arke

t In

telli

gen

ce N

etw

ork

’, ‘

Kn

owle

dg

e Tr

ansf

er F

un

ctio

n’ a

nd

‘M

od

ern

Pio

nee

r’.

In b

oth

o

rgan

isat

ion

s, t

he

po

litic

al in

stin

ct h

as b

een

bu

reau

crat

ic;

to w

ith

dra

w a

uth

ori

ty

and

ind

epen

den

ce f

rom

sta

ff a

pp

oin

ted

fo

r th

eir

know

led

ge

of

a p

arti

cula

r fi

eld

of

arti

stic

pra

ctic

e, in

ord

er t

o b

ette

r ad

min

iste

r w

hat

ever

po

licy

imp

erat

ive

hap

pen

s

to b

e co

min

g f

rom

cen

tral

gov

ern

men

t.

Bu

t th

e h

ost

ility

of

bu

reau

crat

s to

ind

epen

den

t cu

ltu

ral e

xper

tise

can

als

o b

e m

app

ed o

nto

th

e ap

par

entl

y cu

ttin

g-e

dg

e cu

rato

rial

pri

vile

gin

g o

f fl

exib

le,

ad h

oc

pro

gra

mm

ing

, an

d b

oth

hav

e th

e sa

me

use

ful m

anag

eria

l ou

tco

mes

: fe

wer

sta

ff a

nd

m

ore

pre

cari

ou

s, t

emp

ora

ry e

mp

loym

ent

con

trac

ts.

The

dis

dai

n f

or

exp

erti

se w

ith

in

arts

po

licy

thin

kin

g a

lso

refl

ects

a c

ynic

al la

ck o

f co

mm

itm

ent

to t

he

ind

epen

den

ce

of

cult

ura

l fo

rms,

a t

rivi

alis

ing

ind

iffe

ren

ce t

o t

he

valu

e th

ose

fo

rms

hav

e ac

hie

ved

, an

d a

n o

bse

ssio

n w

ith

th

e m

ob

ile t

aste

s o

f ‘t

he

pu

blic

’ as

th

e fi

nal

arb

iter

of

cult

ura

l va

lue.

In E

shu

n’s

hyp

erve

nti

lati

ng

vis

ion

do

cum

ent

he

asks

wh

ich

‘fa

ces

sho

uld

m

ost

acc

ura

tely

rep

rese

nt

the

ICA

now

?’ H

e co

ncl

ud

es:

It s

ho

uld

be

the

arti

stic

fig

ure

s th

at o

ur

aud

ien

ce a

dm

ires

...

We

sho

uld

ce

leb

rate

th

em in

ou

r co

mm

un

icat

ion

s as

ou

r h

ero

es,

ou

r st

ar n

ames

al

read

y, b

ecau

se o

ur

aud

ien

ce b

elie

ves

they

are

co

ol.

An

d w

e sh

ou

ld k

eep

in

min

d t

hat

in a

wee

k to

a y

ear

hen

ce,

man

y o

f th

ose

fig

ure

s w

ill n

o lo

ng

er

be

rele

van

t b

ecau

se t

her

e w

ill b

e a

new

set

or

mo

re u

rgen

t n

ames

to

hai

l.

All

that

mat

ters

is n

ow.

Wit

h a

rat

e o

f ar

tist

ic r

edu

nd

ancy

as

fast

as

this

, yo

u d

on’

t n

eed

cu

rato

rial

exp

erti

se,

or

an o

pin

ion

reg

ard

ing

wh

at a

rt is

wo

rth

su

pp

ort

ing

an

d c

ham

pio

nin

g –

yo

u ju

st

nee

d S

imo

n c

owel

l.

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

27

25

S

uch

ab

dic

atio

n o

f cu

rato

rial

au

tho

rity

to

th

e au

die

nce

pre

sup

po

ses

that

wh

at

the

aud

ien

ce w

ants

is m

erel

y w

hat

th

e in

stit

uti

on

sh

ou

ld d

o.

It d

oes

no

t ac

know

led

ge

that

a p

rese

nti

ng

inst

itu

tio

n s

uch

as

the

IcA

mig

ht

hav

e a

rela

tio

nsh

ip t

o c

om

mu

nit

ies

of

arti

stic

pra

ctic

e th

at h

ave

dis

tin

ct c

ult

ura

l an

d o

rgan

isat

ion

al h

isto

ries

, an

d t

hei

r ow

n a

tten

dan

t au

die

nce

s. S

uch

dis

tin

ctio

ns

can

no

t si

mp

ly b

e w

ish

ed a

way

by

a b

it

of

re-i

mag

inee

rin

g o

f a

cult

ura

l mis

sio

n s

tate

men

t. If

th

e ar

tist

ic r

elev

ance

of

the

ICA

h

as r

epu

ted

ly d

win

dle

d d

uri

ng

Esh

un’

s te

nu

re,

it p

erh

aps

has

so

met

hin

g t

o d

o w

ith

h

ow a

n e

mp

tied

-ou

t m

od

el o

f au

die

nce

fee

db

ack

and

‘ea

rly-

ado

pte

r’ t

ren

d-f

ollo

win

g

bec

ame

a su

bst

itu

te f

or

agen

da-

sett

ing

, o

r a

crit

ical

vis

ion

of

the

curr

ent

stat

e o

f

art

and

cu

ltu

re,

or

real

art

isti

c-cu

rato

rial

rel

atio

nsh

ips

wit

h d

iffe

ren

t ar

tist

ic a

nd

cu

ltu

ral c

om

mu

nit

ies.

Th

is is

no

t an

arg

um

ent

agai

nst

‘cr

oss

-dis

cip

linar

ity’

, b

ut

it is

an

arg

um

ent

for

th

e fa

ct t

hat

‘cr

oss

-dis

cip

linar

ity’

req

uir

es t

he

real

ity

of

a d

isci

plin

ary

bas

e fo

r p

ract

ice

in t

he

firs

t in

stan

ce.

Form

s o

f ar

tist

ic c

reat

ivit

y ar

e n

ot

in c

on

stan

t fl

ux

or

tran

sfo

rmat

ion

(th

ou

gh

th

ey d

o c

han

ge

his

tori

cally

) b

ut

coal

esce

into

su

stai

ned

p

ract

ices

an

d c

om

mu

nit

ies

of

arti

sts

and

au

die

nce

s. T

his

is n

ot

an o

utd

ated

‘m

od

e’

of

the

‘po

st-w

ar m

od

ern

ist

art

cen

tre’

, b

ut

a re

cog

nit

ion

th

at a

ven

ue

may

pla

y h

ost

to

mu

ltip

le a

rtis

tic

cult

ure

s an

d c

om

mu

nit

ies,

wh

ich

it is

no

t w

ho

lly in

stru

men

tal

in g

ener

atin

g a

nd

su

stai

nin

g.

By

con

tras

t, t

he

ten

den

cy t

o a

bo

lish

pro

gra

mm

ing

d

epar

tmen

ts r

ids

an o

rgan

isat

ion

of

staf

f w

ith

exp

erti

se a

nd

co

mm

itm

ent

to p

arti

cula

r fi

eld

s o

f ac

tivi

ty.

It is

a m

ove

wh

ich

den

ies

the

auto

no

my

of

dif

fere

nt

arti

stic

fiel

ds

as

they

alr

ead

y ex

ist

ou

tsid

e o

f th

e in

stit

uti

on

, an

d t

urn

s th

e in

stit

uti

on’

s ro

le f

rom

th

at

of

foru

m a

nd

en

able

r fo

r th

ose

co

mm

un

itie

s, t

o a

reg

ula

tor

of

wh

ich

art

isti

c p

ract

ice

gai

ns

visi

bili

ty.

In o

ther

wo

rds,

it r

edu

ces

the

clai

m t

hat

co

mm

un

itie

s o

f ar

tist

ic

pra

ctit

ion

ers

can

mak

e o

n c

ult

ura

l in

stit

uti

on

s, a

nd

ele

vate

s th

e in

stit

uti

on’

s ar

bit

rary

p

ower

ove

r ar

tist

s b

y d

ista

nci

ng

itse

lf f

rom

alr

ead

y p

rese

nt

com

mu

nit

ies

of

pra

ctic

e.

• LI

NE

S 5

0-5

7 a

fter

Hal

a A

uji,

“In

Vis

ible

Ch

ang

es,”

un

pu

blis

hed

do

cum

ent,

2006, p

.1:

“If

you

rai

se a

lot

of

mo

ney

, I w

ill g

ive

you

gre

at,

gre

at a

rch

itec

ture

. B

ut

if y

ou

rai

se

real

ly a

lot

of

mo

ney

, I w

ill m

ake

the

arch

itec

ture

dis

app

ear,”

pro

mis

ed a

rch

itec

t Yo

shio

Tan

igu

chi w

hen

he

beg

an t

he

reva

mp

of

the

Mu

seu

m o

f M

od

ern

Art

’s

bu

ildin

g. 450 m

illio

n d

olla

rs la

ter,

his

ko

an h

as b

eco

me

a ca

tch

ph

rase

wit

h s

tick

ing

p

ower

lon

g a

fter

th

e co

mp

lete

d p

roje

ct’s

2004 u

nve

ilin

g.

The

bu

ildin

g’s

hef

ty p

rice

ta

g s

eem

s to

po

int

to in

visi

bili

ty a

s a

new

kin

d o

f lu

xury

; it

’s a

lmo

st a

s if

Mo

MA

ca

n a

ffo

rd n

ot

to a

pp

ear.

• LI

NE

S 5

8-7

2 a

fter

An

dre

w B

lum

, “T

he

Mo

der

n’s

Oth

er R

enov

atio

n,”

Th

e N

ew Y

ork

Tim

es, S

epte

mb

er 2

1,

2003:

26

On

vac

atio

n in

Gre

ensb

oro

, V

t.,

in t

he

sum

mer

of

196

6,

Alf

red

H.

Bar

r, t

he

Mu

seu

m

of

Mo

der

n A

rt’s

firs

t d

irec

tor,

had

an

ep

iph

any.

Th

e m

use

um

’s o

ffici

al a

bb

revi

atio

n

– lo

ng

“M

OM

A”

– w

ou

ld,

Bar

r th

ou

gh

t, b

e b

ette

r se

rved

by

a lo

wer

case

“o”

: “M

oM

A.”

In le

tter

s se

nt

fro

m t

he

city

, h

is c

olle

agu

es t

oo

k is

sue

wit

h h

is h

olid

ay

mu

sin

gs;

“it

giv

es m

e te

rrib

le v

isu

al h

icco

ug

hs,

” o

ne

wro

te.

Th

e h

icco

ug

hs

app

aren

tly

too

k d

ecad

es t

o s

ub

sid

e. It

was

n’t

un

til t

he

mid

-80

’s

that

th

e m

use

um

dee

med

“M

oM

A”

pro

per

en

ou

gh

fo

r u

se in

mem

ber

co

mm

un

i-ca

tio

ns,

an

d a

no

ther

dec

ade

pas

sed

bef

ore

th

e ac

ronym

ap

pea

red

on

ban

ner

s o

uts

ide

the

mu

seu

m.

Tod

ay,

the

mu

seu

m r

eco

gn

izes

th

at m

ost

peo

ple

iden

tify

it b

y th

e w

ord

“M

oM

A”

– n

ot

just

th

e so

un

d o

f th

e ac

ronym

, b

ut

also

its

loo

k. “

That

low

erca

se ‘o

’ tr

app

ed b

etw

een

th

ose

tw

o M

’s c

reat

es a

un

iqu

e w

ord

-sh

ape

that

is t

ran

slin

gu

isti

c,”

Ed

Pu

sz,

dir

ecto

r o

f th

e m

use

um

’s g

rap

hic

des

ign

dep

artm

ent

says

. “I

t’s

acce

ssib

le

to p

eop

le w

ho

do

n’t

spea

k th

e la

ng

uag

e.”

S

o it

’s w

ith

a s

ense

of

gre

at c

are

that

th

e m

use

um

’s le

ader

s in

tro

du

ce t

hei

r

late

st in

nov

atio

n:

a re

des

ign

ed M

oM

A lo

go

, a

new

ly s

cru

bb

ed f

ace

by

wh

ich

th

e re

vere

d in

stit

uti

on

will

so

on

pre

sen

t it

self

to

th

e w

orl

d o

n s

ign

s, c

off

ee m

ug

s an

d

sub

way

ad

s, a

nd

th

rou

gh

ou

t th

e Yo

shio

Tan

igu

chi-

des

ign

ed e

xpan

sio

n a

nd

ren

ovat

ion

p

lan

ned

to

op

en n

ear

the

end

of

20

04

. A

s b

efits

a c

han

ge

of

such

imp

ort

, th

e re

des

ign

was

un

der

take

n w

ith

mu

ch a

tten

tio

n:

the

mu

seu

m h

ired

per

hap

s th

e w

orl

d’s

fo

rem

ost

typ

og

rap

her

, p

aid

him

in t

he

low

five

fig

ure

s an

d s

pen

t ei

gh

t m

on

ths

scru

tin

izin

g e

very

tin

y st

ep in

th

e p

roce

ss.

Th

e o

utc

om

e? W

ell,

it’s

su

btl

e.

You

wo

uld

hav

e to

loo

k ra

ther

clo

sely

to

see

it.

Ext

rem

ely

clo

sely

. In

fac

t,

som

eon

e co

uld

set

th

e o

ld lo

go

an

d t

he

new

log

o s

ide

by

sid

e an

d s

tare

fo

r so

me

tim

e b

efo

re d

etec

tin

g e

ven

th

e sl

igh

test

dis

tin

ctio

n.

The

folk

s w

ho

led

th

e ex

hau

stiv

e m

akeo

ver

pro

cess

co

uld

n’t

be

mo

re p

leas

ed.

A

s m

igh

t b

e ex

pec

ted

of

som

e o

f th

e m

ost

vis

ual

ly a

war

e p

eop

le in

th

e w

orl

d,

tho

se w

ho

hav

e w

ork

ed o

n t

he

Mo

der

n’s

typ

efac

es h

ave

a re

mar

kab

le h

isto

ry

of

typ

og

rap

hic

sel

f-sc

ruti

ny.

In 1

96

4,

the

mu

seu

m r

epla

ced

its

geo

met

ric

lett

erfo

rms

typ

ical

of

the

Bau

hau

s an

d G

erm

an m

od

ern

ism

wit

h F

ran

klin

Go

thic

No

. 2

, o

ne

of

th

e g

ran

des

t an

d m

ost

fam

iliar

of

Am

eric

an t

ypef

aces

. D

esig

ned

in 1

90

2 b

y M

orr

is

Fulle

r B

ento

n in

Jer

sey

Cit

y, F

ran

klin

is s

imu

ltan

eou

sly

mu

scu

lar,

wit

h a

n im

po

sin

g

wei

gh

t, a

nd

hu

man

ist,

wit

h le

tter

form

s re

min

isce

nt

of

the

stro

kes

of

the

calli

gra

ph

er’s

p

en r

ath

er t

han

a m

ech

anic

al c

om

pas

s. “

Qu

ite

sim

ply

, it

’s a

fac

e th

at’s

mo

der

n w

ith

ro

ots

,” Iv

an c

her

may

eff,

th

e d

esig

ner

wh

o m

ade

the

sele

ctio

n f

or

the

mu

seu

m,

reca

lled

rec

entl

y. “

It h

as s

om

e ch

arac

ter,

an

d t

her

efo

re s

om

e w

arm

th a

bo

ut

it,

and

so

me

sen

se o

f th

e h

and

– i.

e.,

the

arti

st.

All

of

wh

ich

see

med

to

me

to m

ake

a lo

t o

f se

nse

fo

r th

e M

use

um

of

Mo

der

n A

rt,

wh

ich

is n

ot

on

ly lo

oki

ng

to

th

e fu

ture

bu

t

also

loo

kin

g t

o t

he

pas

t.”

M

r. C

her

may

eff’s

log

ic h

eld

up

. A

sid

e fr

om

wh

at M

r. P

usz

cal

ls a

“b

lip”

aro

un

d

the

tim

e th

e m

use

um

’s e

xpan

sio

n o

pen

ed in

19

84

, th

e m

use

um

has

use

d F

ran

klin

co

nsi

sten

tly

for

nea

rly

40

yea

rs.

So

wh

en t

he

Mo

der

n a

sked

th

e To

ron

to-b

ased

“Id

en

tity

“

28

27

des

ign

er B

ruce

Mau

to

exp

lore

a r

ang

e o

f p

oss

ibili

ties

fo

r th

e n

ew b

uild

ing

’s s

ign

age

– in

clu

din

g r

ou

nd

er,

mo

re s

ymm

etri

cal t

ypef

aces

– h

e fe

lt s

tro

ng

ly t

hat

Fra

nkl

in

sho

uld

be

left

alo

ne.

“E

very

bo

dy

get

s ti

red

of

thei

r ow

n v

oic

e,”

Mr.

Mau

sai

d f

rom

his

st

ud

io in

To

ron

to,

“an

d s

o t

hey

wan

t to

ch

ang

e it

. B

ut

I was

like

: ‘D

on’

t m

ess

wit

h it

! It

’s a

n e

xtra

ord

inar

y la

nd

mar

k id

enti

ty:

do

n’t

thro

w t

he

bab

y o

ut

wit

h t

he

bat

hw

ater

.’”

The

mu

seu

m’s

dir

ecto

r, G

len

Low

ry,

agre

ed.

“We

loo

ked

at

all s

ort

s o

f o

pti

on

s,

and

sai

d, ‘Y

ou

kn

ow,

we

do

n’t

nee

d t

o g

o t

her

e.’

Ou

r se

lf-i

mag

e h

asn’

t sh

ifte

d s

o

dra

mat

ical

ly t

hat

ou

r id

enti

ty n

eed

s to

be

exp

ress

ed in

an

utt

erly

new

way

. We

do

n’t

nee

d t

o g

o f

rom

ch

intz

to

str

ipes

.”

Bu

t M

r. M

au n

oti

ced

th

at t

he

Fran

klin

th

e m

use

um

was

usi

ng

did

n’t

seem

to

him

lik

e Fr

ankl

in a

t al

l. S

om

ewh

ere

in t

he

pro

cess

of

its

evo

luti

on

fro

m B

ento

n’s

ori

gin

al

met

al t

ype

to t

he

read

ily a

vaila

ble

dig

ital

on

e it

had

lost

so

me

of

its

spir

it,

bec

om

ing

“a

hyb

rid

dig

ital

so

ulle

ss v

ersi

on

,” in

Mr.

Pu

sz’s

wo

rds.

Met

al t

ype

trad

itio

nal

ly h

as

slig

ht

vari

atio

ns

bet

wee

n p

oin

t si

zes,

to

co

mp

ensa

te f

or

the

pro

per

ties

of

ink

and

dif

fere

nce

s in

pro

po

rtio

n.

Bu

t d

igit

al v

ersi

on

s o

f h

isto

ric

typ

efac

es a

re o

ften

cre

ated

fr

om

met

al o

rig

inal

s o

f a

sin

gle

po

int

size

– a

s w

as t

he

case

wit

h t

he

com

mer

cial

ly

avai

lab

le F

ran

klin

. It

had

bee

n d

igit

ized

fro

m m

etal

typ

e o

f a

smal

l siz

e, d

iste

nd

ing

th

e p

rop

ort

ion

s at

its

larg

er s

izes

. O

nce

its

def

ects

wer

e re

cog

niz

ed,

they

bec

ame

gla

rin

g:

the

lett

ers

wer

e sq

uat

an

d p

aun

chy,

sap

pin

g a

ll th

e el

egan

ce o

ut

of

the

wh

ite

spac

e b

etw

een

th

em. W

ith

so

me

of

the

sig

nag

e ap

plic

atio

ns

in t

he

new

bu

ildin

g

req

uir

ing

typ

e fo

ur

feet

tal

l, th

e sm

all v

aria

tio

ns

bec

ame

“hid

eou

s,”

Mr.

Pu

sz s

aid

.

The

mu

seu

m a

pp

roac

hed

th

e p

re-e

min

ent

typ

og

rap

her

Mat

thew

Car

ter

abo

ut

“ref

resh

ing

” th

e ty

pef

ace.

On

th

e M

ac in

his

th

ird

-flo

or

wal

k-u

p a

par

tmen

t in

C

amb

rid

ge,

Mas

s.,

Mr.

Car

ter

has

des

ign

ed m

any

of

the

lett

erfo

rms

we

swal

low

d

aily

in u

nth

inki

ng

gu

lps

– am

on

g t

hem

typ

efac

es f

or

Nat

ion

al G

eog

rap

hic

, S

por

ts

Illu

stra

ted

an

d T

he

Was

hin

gto

n P

ost,

as

wel

l as

Bel

l cen

ten

nia

l, u

sed

in p

ho

ne

bo

oks

, an

d V

erd

ana,

th

e M

icro

soft

scr

een

fo

nt.

Tra

ined

ori

gin

ally

as

a ty

pe

fou

nd

er –

th

e p

erso

n w

ho

fo

rges

typ

e fr

om

ho

t m

etal

– M

r. C

arte

r p

ion

eere

d t

ypo

gra

phy’

s tr

ansi

tio

n

to c

om

pu

ter-

bas

ed d

eskt

op

pu

blis

hin

g in

th

e 19

80’s

wh

en h

e h

elp

ed f

ou

nd

Bit

stre

am,

the

firs

t d

igit

al t

ype

fou

nd

ry.

He

was

on

e o

f th

e fi

rst

to e

mb

race

th

e id

ea t

hat

typ

e

no

lon

ger

nec

essa

rily

beg

an w

ith

met

al f

orm

s an

d e

nd

ed a

s an

imp

ress

ion

on

pap

er;

it c

ou

ld b

e d

esig

ned

, im

ple

men

ted

an

d r

ead

wit

ho

ut

ever

esc

apin

g t

he

con

fin

es o

f th

e co

mp

ute

r sc

reen

.

Ref

resh

ing

Fra

nkl

in w

as,

Mr.

Car

ter

said

, “l

ike

aski

ng

an

arc

hit

ect

to d

esig

n a

n

exac

t re

plic

a o

f a

bu

ildin

g.”

Bu

t it

was

a jo

b h

e w

as h

appy

to d

o:

“Th

at o

pp

ort

un

ity

to

real

ly s

tud

y th

ese

lett

erfo

rms

and

cap

ture

th

em a

s fa

ith

fully

as

I co

uld

was

so

rt o

f an

ed

uca

tio

n t

o m

e.”

H

is t

ask

was

aid

ed b

y ei

gh

t tr

ays

of

met

al t

ype

of

Fran

klin

Go

thic

No

. 2

th

at h

ad

surf

aced

no

t lo

ng

bef

ore

in t

he

Mo

der

n’s

bas

emen

t. N

ot

know

ing

at

the

tim

e w

hat

h

e w

ou

ld d

o w

ith

th

em,

Mr.

Pu

sz w

hee

led

th

e tr

ays

on

e b

y o

ne

on

a d

esk

chai

r d

own

th

e b

lock

to

his

tem

po

rary

offi

ce o

n t

he

Ave

nu

e o

f th

e A

mer

icas

. M

r. C

arte

r sc

ann

ed

pri

nte

d s

amp

les

fro

m t

he

tray

s, a

nd

usi

ng

a s

oft

war

e p

rog

ram

cal

led

Fo

nto

gra

ph

er,

28

beg

an t

he

lon

g p

roce

ss o

f p

lott

ing

th

e cu

rve

po

ints

fo

r ea

ch le

tter

– a

tas

k re

qu

irin

g

the

full

exte

nt

of

his

lon

g-l

earn

ed c

raft

. H

e al

so h

ad t

o in

ven

t th

e va

riet

y o

f ch

arac

ters

ty

pic

al o

f m

od

ern

fo

nts

th

at d

idn’

t ex

ist

in t

he

met

al –

cu

rren

cy s

ign

s an

d a

ccen

ts,

fo

r ex

amp

le. Th

e re

sult

ing

typ

efac

e –

two

slig

ht

vari

atio

ns,

act

ual

ly,

on

e fo

r si

gn

age

and

on

e fo

r te

xt –

are

now

bei

ng

tes

ted

on

mo

cku

ps

by

the

Mo

der

n’s

gra

ph

ic d

esig

nd

epar

tmen

t to

see

how

th

ey lo

ok

in d

iffe

ren

t si

zes

and

fo

rms,

an

d,

afte

r ye

t m

ore

tw

eaki

ng

, w

ill s

oo

n b

e in

stal

led

on

co

mp

ute

rs a

cro

ss t

he

mu

seu

m.

B

ut

will

anyo

ne

no

tice

? “I

su

spec

t th

at if

we’

re r

eally

su

cces

sfu

l th

e p

ub

lic w

on’

t re

ally

no

tice

th

e d

iffe

ren

ce,

it w

ill ju

st f

eel r

igh

t,”

Mr.

Low

ry s

aid

. E

ven

if t

his

is a

ca

refu

lly c

alcu

late

d e

xerc

ise

in b

ran

din

g,

at le

ast

it’s

tru

e (n

earl

y co

mic

ally

so

) to

th

e m

issi

on

of

the

mu

seu

m:

less

Mo

MA

Inc.

th

an a

bu

nch

of

aest

het

es s

tari

ng

at

the

shap

e o

f th

eir

own

nam

e u

nti

l th

eir

eyes

cro

ss.

per

hap

s in

th

e sh

arp

ened

inte

rsti

ces

of

the

“m”

or

the

slig

htl

y m

ore

pin

ched

elli

pse

of

the

“o”

ther

e m

igh

t ex

ist

a st

atem

ent

of

wh

at t

he

Mo

der

n w

ants

to

be

– yo

u ju

st h

ave

to s

qu

int

to s

ee it

. “I

th

ink

that

’s r

eally

at

the

hea

rt o

f th

e in

stit

uti

on’

s p

rem

ise,

wh

ich

is a

dee

p a

nd

pro

fou

nd

re

spec

t fo

r th

e p

ast,

an

d a

n a

bso

lute

will

ing

nes

s to

en

gag

e th

e p

rese

nt

– an

d a

re

cog

nit

ion

th

at t

hey

’re

no

t m

utu

ally

exc

lusi

ve,”

Mr.

Low

ry s

aid

.

No

, b

ut

som

etim

es t

hey

do

loo

k p

rett

y si

mila

r.

• LI

NE

S 7

5-7

6 a

fter

Ric

har

d H

olli

s, e

mai

l to

Stu

art

Bai

ley,

Mar

ch 1

1,

20

11:

It’s

th

e q

ual

ity

of

the

dec

isio

n-m

akin

g,

no

t th

e co

nto

rted

ela

bo

rati

on

of

‘res

earc

h’

that

defi

ne

an in

stit

uti

on

, ex

pre

ssed

in it

s ‘im

age’

. (I

t’s

dif

ficu

lt t

o a

void

pu

ttin

g

wo

rds

in b

rack

ets

– th

ey’r

e so

slip

per

y in

use

.) T

he

role

of

pu

blic

rel

atio

ns

and

wh

ole

d

epar

tmen

ts …

• LI

NE

S 8

0-8

4 a

fter

Hal

a A

uji,

“In

Vis

ible

Ch

ang

es,”

un

pu

blis

hed

do

cum

ent,

2

00

6,

pp

. 1-2

:

Mo

MA

Go

thic

’s r

ou

gh

ly 0

.08

” ad

dit

ion

, m

uch

like

th

e Ta

nig

uch

i bu

ildin

g,

rep

rese

nts

an

exo

rbit

ant

amo

un

t o

f m

on

ey,

tim

e, d

ecis

ion

-mak

ing

, an

d c

olla

bo

rati

ve e

ffo

rt.

B

ut

un

like

the

reva

mp

ed a

rch

itec

ture

, th

e ch

ang

e in

th

e lo

go

was

on

e th

at t

he

peo

ple

b

ehin

d it

did

n’t

real

ly e

xpec

t th

e g

ener

al p

ub

lic t

o n

oti

ce.

In f

act,

th

e m

use

um

’s

dir

ecto

r, G

len

n D

. Lo

wry

sta

ted

in t

he

arti

cle

that

“[I

]f …

we’

re s

ucc

essf

ul,

the

pu

blic

w

on’

t …

no

tice

th

e d

iffe

ren

ce.

It w

ill ‘

just

fee

l rig

ht.

’”

Co

nsi

der

ing

th

e am

ou

nt

of

mo

ney

(in

th

e lo

w fi

ve fi

gu

res)

th

e cr

eati

on

of

Mo

MA

G

oth

ic t

oo

k to

pro

du

ce in

visi

ble

, it

“ju

st f

eels

rig

ht”

res

ult

s, it

’s h

ard

no

t to

sp

ecu

late

ab

ou

t o

ther

un

seen

str

ateg

ies

the

mu

seu

m m

igh

t h

ave

sug

ges

ted

by

such

a

chan

ge.

In b

oth

exa

mp

les,

Mo

MA

’s e

mp

has

is o

n t

he

invi

sib

ility

of

its

des

ign

is n

ot

a ca

se o

f ra

nd

om

lab

elin

g.

Co

uld

it b

e th

at w

ith

th

e u

biq

uit

y o

f lo

wb

row

ad

vert

isin

g

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

29

29

tod

ay, th

e m

use

um

sen

ses

a g

row

ing

dis

dai

n in

th

e m

arke

t to

war

ds

the

visi

ble

,

and

th

us

cho

ose

s th

e o

pp

osi

te r

ou

te?

• LI

NE

S 8

6-9

2 a

fter

An

dre

w B

lum

, “T

he

Mo

der

n’s

Oth

er R

enov

atio

n”

[see

“Li

nes

64

-77”

abov

e]

• LI

NE

S 9

6-1

10,

afte

r B

enja

min

Th

ore

l, em

ail t

o D

avid

Rei

nfu

rt,

Mar

ch 2

3,

20

11:

Mo

st o

f th

e ti

me,

no

rmal

sit

uat

ion

, I s

ay B

eau

bo

urg

, o

r Po

mp

ido

u,

or

Le C

entr

e po

mp

ido

u. I t

ell p

eop

le I

am g

oin

g t

o B

eau

bo

urg

or

to t

he

cen

tre

po

mp

ido

u;

le

t’s

mee

t at

Bea

ub

ou

rg,

let’s

mee

t at

po

mp

ido

u,

let’s

mee

t in

fro

nt

of

po

mp

ido

u,

in

fro

nt

of

Bea

ub

ou

rg;

ther

e’s

that

sh

ow a

t po

mp

ido

u;

ther

e’s

this

op

enin

g a

tB

eau

bo

urg

to

nig

ht,

an

d s

o o

n.

Mo

st o

f th

e ti

me

it d

oes

n’t

mea

n t

he

mu

seu

m a

ssu

ch, b

ut

the

pla

ce,

the

bu

ildin

g o

r th

e p

iazz

a in

fro

nt

of

it.

S

om

etim

es,

I use

an

oth

er n

ickn

ame:

po

mp

s. I

gu

ess

in E

ng

lish

we

wo

uld

w

rite

Po

mp

’s. It

’s r

ath

er a

pri

vate

joke

, w

ith

on

ly a

few

fri

end

s (n

ot

fro

m t

he

art

w

orl

d s

pec

ifica

lly t

ho

ug

h),

wh

ich

I lik

e. L

ike:

Are

yo

u g

oin

g t

o P

om

p’s

?

Mo

re r

arel

y, a

nd

mo

stly

wri

tin

g t

ext

mes

sag

es a

nd

sh

ort

em

ails

, w

ith

less

erfr

ien

ds

then

, I s

om

etim

es s

ay p

om

po

mp

ido

u,

or

po

mp

om

pid

ou

po

u.

No

t th

at I

thin

k th

at c

lau

de

po

mp

ido

u w

as a

s g

lam

ou

rou

s as

Bet

ty B

oo

p,

bu

t I r

eally

like

al

liter

atio

ns.

• LI

NE

S 1

14-1

28 a

fter

Th

e Ta

te G

alle

ry,

TGM

A,

Ten

Pri

nci

ple

s fo

r In

terp

reta

tion

for

TGM

A (

Tate

arc

hiv

e: T

G 1

2/7

/5/4

), 1

9 M

arch

1998,

as q

uo

ted

in C

aro

line

Do

nn

ella

n,

Tow

ard

s Ta

te M

oder

n:

Pat

ron

age

and

Fu

nd

ing

, P

DF,

pp

. 13

-14

:

Wo

lff

Olin

s‘ m

arke

tin

g b

rief

fo

r th

e n

ew T

ate

use

d t

he

wo

rd “

exp

erie

nce

” se

vera

lti

mes

th

rou

gh

ou

t th

e d

ocu

men

t. T

he

new

Tat

e vi

sio

n w

as t

o s

hif

t aw

ay f

rom

th

e fo

rmer

par

amet

ers

of

art

spec

tato

rsh

ip w

hic

h w

as m

ade

mo

re u

ser

frie

nd

ly a

nd

ac

cess

ible

by

the

fun

ky n

ew b

uild

ing

. Th

e Ta

te h

ad t

he

flex

ibili

ty t

o b

e re

-bra

nd

ed

bec

ause

it w

as c

on

fid

ent

of

the

new

mar

ket

wh

ich

it h

ad c

on

trib

ute

d in

mak

ing

. c

on

cern

ing

th

e m

use

um

mar

keti

ng

Olin

s d

ecla

red

“…

mo

re p

eop

le n

ow v

isit

m

use

um

s an

d g

alle

ries

th

an a

tten

d f

oo

tbal

l mat

ches

– t

he

po

ten

tial

fo

r in

crea

sin

g

its

aud

ien

ce w

as c

lear

ly e

no

rmo

us.

Th

e se

con

d m

oti

vati

on

was

to

est

ablis

h a

d

isti

nct

bra

nd

ap

pea

l th

rou

gh

acc

essi

bili

ty a

nd

a f

orw

ard

th

inki

ng

ap

pro

ach

to

ar

t …

”

Bri

an B

oyla

n,

the

lead

man

fro

m W

olf

Olin

s w

as a

pp

oin

ted

to

est

ablis

h:

“T

en p

rin

cip

les

for

inte

rpre

tati

on

fo

r TG

MA

[Ta

te G

alle

ry o

f M

od

ern

Art

] –

Mar

ch

1998. 1)

TGM

A a

ckn

owle

dg

es t

hat

th

ere

is n

ot

a si

ng

le c

hro

no

log

y o

f 2

0th

-cen

tury

30

art

bu

t m

any

his

tori

es,

and

th

at e

very

wo

rk is

cap

able

of

mu

ltip

le r

ead

ing

s.

2)

TGM

A m

ust

en

able

peo

ple

to

be

con

fid

ent

abo

ut

thei

r ow

n f

eelin

gs

tow

ard

s m

od

ern

an

d c

on

tem

po

rary

art

. 3)

Vis

ito

rs’

exp

ecta

tio

ns,

res

po

nse

s an

d e

xper

ien

ces

mu

st b

e u

nd

erst

oo

d a

nd

mu

st in

flu

ence

TG

MA

’s p

olic

ies

and

pra

ctic

e. 4

) TG

MA

u

ses

the

term

“in

terp

reta

tio

n” t

o in

clu

de

edu

cati

on

an

d in

form

atio

n.

5)

Inte

rpre

tati

on

m

akes

an

inte

llect

ual

co

ntr

ibu

tio

n.

6)

Dev

elo

pin

g e

xhib

itio

ns

and

dis

pla

ys is

a

colla

bo

rati

ve a

ctiv

ity

con

cern

ed w

ith

idea

s an

d c

om

mu

nic

atio

n o

f th

ose

idea

s;

it a

ckn

owle

dg

es t

he

po

siti

ve v

alu

e o

f cr

eati

ve t

ensi

on

s in

volv

ed in

th

is p

roce

ss.

7

) A

uth

ors

hip

hel

ps

to m

ake

app

aren

t an

art

wo

rk’s

mu

ltip

le r

ead

ing

s b

y h

igh

ligh

tin

g

just

on

e, a

nd

it h

elp

s vi

sito

rs t

o e

ng

age

wit

h a

rt in

a m

ore

per

son

alis

ed w

ay.

8

) TG

MA

mu

st a

cco

mm

od

ate

a w

ide

spec

tru

m o

f vo

ices

fro

m in

sid

e an

d o

uts

ide

th

e in

stit

uti

on

, b

oth

art

ists

an

d n

on

-art

ists

. 9

) In

terp

reta

tio

n a

nd

co

mm

un

icat

ion

s m

ust

wo

rk in

an

inte

gra

ted

way

. 10

) In

nov

atio

n,

exp

erim

enta

tio

n a

nd

eva

luat

ion

ar

e ke

y o

pp

ort

un

itie

s fo

r TG

MA

to

pu

rsu

e, w

hile

bu

ildin

g o

n t

he

bes

t p

ract

ise

of

th

e Ta

te.”

• LI

NE

13

2 a

fter

Ro

bin

Kin

ross

, “c

onve

rsat

ion

wit

h R

ich

ard

Ho

llis

on

Gra

ph

ic D

esig

n

His

tory

,” J

ourn

al o

f D

esig

n H

isto

ry V

ol.

5 N

o.

1 (

199

2),

p. 8

0:

RH

: D

o y

ou

th

ink

that

’s t

rue?

I h

aven

’t t

alke

d a

bo

ut

this

in w

hat

I’ve

wri

tten

so

fa

r. A

nd

I d

on’

t kn

ow w

het

her

it’s

go

ing

to

bec

om

e th

e –

[dis

trac

ted

by

a ra

dio

in

the

stre

et,

look

s at

th

e B

ritis

h T

elec

om v

ans

agai

n,

now

pre

par

ing

to

mov

e of

f] It

is

incr

edib

le:

the

old

van

an

d t

he

new

van

. yo

u s

ee:

ther

e is

gra

ph

ic d

esig

n m

ovin

g

away

, fo

llow

ed b

y m

arke

tin

g.

• LI

NE

S 1

36

-14

9 a

fter

Nic

k R

elp

h,

“Exc

erp

ts f

rom

an

Un

fin

ish

ed S

crip

t,”

(P

ress

Rel

ease

), H

eral

d S

tree

t, 2

010

, p

p. 1

-2:

“Id

en

tity

“

30

31

Un

der

th

e ch

airm

ansh

ip o

f Jo

hn

So

rrel

l th

e D

esig

n C

ou

nci

l had

org

aniz

ed a

d

iscu

ssio

n g

rou

p f

eatu

rin

g v

ario

us

hea

vy-h

itte

rs (

Sir

Dav

id P

utn

am,

Ala

n Y

ento

b,

Joh

n H

egar

ty o

f ad

vert

isin

g a

gen

cy B

artl

e B

og

le H

egar

ty)

fro

m b

road

cast

ing

, ad

vert

isin

g, d

esig

n a

nd

jou

rnal

ism

, th

e p

urp

ose

of

wh

ich

was

to

co

nsi

der

Bri

tain

’s

iden

tity

at

the

end

of

the

cen

tury

. Th

e fi

nd

ing

s o

f th

e d

iscu

ssio

n w

ere

pu

blis

hed

in

a p

aper

cal

led

New

Bra

nd

for

a N

ew B

rita

in o

n t

he

very

sam

e d

ay t

hat

New

La

bo

ur

wo

n t

he

gen

eral

ele

ctio

n w

ith

a h

ug

e m

ajo

rity

. S

ho

rtly

aft

erw

ard

s, a

rep

ort

w

as c

om

mis

sio

ned

to

dev

elo

p s

om

e o

f th

e id

eas

pu

t fo

rwar

d in

th

e p

aper

, an

d t

o s

ee

how

th

ey m

igh

t tr

ansl

ate

in p

olic

y. T

he

job

was

aw

ard

ed t

o D

emo

s, a

th

ink-

tan

k w

ith

clo

se t

ies

to N

ew L

abo

ur

and

un

der

th

e d

irec

tio

n o

f G

eoff

Mu

lgan

, w

ho

wo

uld

ev

entu

ally

bec

om

e a

spec

ial a

dvi

sor

to B

lair.

Tit

led

Bri

tain

TM,

the

rep

ort

fea

ture

d a

zi

ng

y lim

e co

ver

by

Wo

lff

Olin

s w

ho

th

emse

lves

had

go

t in

on

th

e ac

t, p

ub

lish

ing

th

e su

rvey

Mad

e in

th

e U

K –

wh

ose

sta

tist

ics

app

ear

thro

ug

ho

ut

the

Dem

os

rep

ort

–

and

pro

du

cin

g a

film

ed s

egm

ent

that

air

ed o

n t

he

BB

C’s

Th

e M

oney

Pro

gra

mm

e in

w

hic

h t

hey

pro

po

sed

red

esig

nin

g t

he

un

ion

Jac

k.

B

rita

inTM

beg

ins:

‘B

rita

in’s

iden

tity

is in

flu

x. R

enew

ed n

atio

nal

co

nfi

den

ce

in t

he

arts

, fa

shio

n,

tech

no

log

y, a

rch

itec

ture

an

d d

esig

n h

as c

oin

cid

ed w

ith

th

e d

epar

ture

fro

m H

on

g K

on

g,

dev

olu

tio

n,

furt

her

inte

gra

tio

n w

ith

Eu

rop

e, t

he

imm

inen

ce o

f th

e m

illen

niu

m a

nd

pri

nce

ss D

ian

a’s

dea

th.’

It g

oes

on

to

det

ail t

he

deg

rees

of

emb

arra

ssm

ent

‘Bri

tish

nes

s’ p

rovo

kes

at h

om

e an

d a

bro

ad.

The

gen

eral

co

nse

nsu

s is

th

at it

is a

co

un

try

wh

ose

few

po

siti

ve a

ttri

bu

tes

are

seen

to

be

firm

ly h

isto

rica

l, b

ou

nd

up

in t

he

trad

itio

ns

and

fixe

d c

erta

inti

es o

f th

e p

re-w

ar a

nd

im

med

iate

po

st-w

ar e

ra.

Ab

un

dan

t w

ith

bad

fo

od

, sn

ob

ber

y an

d p

over

ty,

the

u

K is

hel

d in

low

reg

ard

th

rou

gh

ou

t th

e w

orl

d,

if it

is r

egar

ded

at

all:

‘To

mo

st p

eop

le

in C

hin

a o

r B

razi

l, an

d e

ven

to

man

y in

th

e U

nit

ed S

tate

s o

r R

uss

ia,

Bri

tain

has

nei

ther

a

po

siti

ve n

or

a n

egat

ive

imag

e. It

sim

ply

has

no

cle

ar im

age

at a

ll.’

The

do

mes

tic

self

-im

age

is n

ote

d f

or

bei

ng

clo

ser

inte

rtw

ined

to

its

core

inst

itu

tio

ns

(mo

nar

chy,

th

e B

eeb

) th

an o

ther

nat

ion

s an

d it

is t

her

efo

re m

ore

vu

lner

able

to

co

nfu

sio

n a

nd

d

isill

usi

on

men

t w

hen

th

ose

inst

itu

tio

ns

bet

ray

the

pu

blic

tru

st o

r ar

e u

nd

er

thre

at. […

]

The

rep

ort

men

tio

ns

the

arts

rep

eate

dly

– h

eld

as

vita

l in

em

bel

lish

ing

th

e

nat

ion

al b

ran

d w

ith

a g

entl

e n

on

-co

nfo

rmit

y an

d d

ynam

ism

, a

tast

efu

l tar

nis

h.

Thes

e va

rio

us

cosm

op

olit

an t

rills

, Le

on

ard

su

gg

ests

, co

uld

co

me

tog

eth

er a

s a

cho

rus

in e

xhib

itio

ns

and

mu

seu

ms

ho

use

d in

air

po

rts

to g

reet

inte

rnat

ion

al v

isit

ors

. In

att

ack

mo

de,

Ph

ilip

Do

dd

(th

en d

irec

tor

of

the

ICA

, w

hic

h h

ost

ed a

ser

ies

of

pre

limin

ary

lun

ches

wh

ere

con

trib

uto

rs t

o t

he

rep

ort

firs

t d

iscu

ssed

so

me

of

thes

e id

eas)

su

gg

este

d t

hat

tra

velin

g e

xhib

itio

ns

org

aniz

ed b

y th

e B

riti

sh C

ou

nci

l sh

ou

ld

sto

p g

oin

g ‘

dow

n o

ld c

olo

nia

l ro

ute

s ..

. We

sho

uld

go

to

Was

hin

gto

n a

nd

tak

e ov

er

the

Nat

ion

al G

alle

ry t

her

e. It

is t

ime

to t

hin

k b

ig!’

Th

e in

dis

tin

ct w

ord

‘art

s’ a

ctu

ally

ap

pea

rs le

ss f

req

uen

tly

than

its

tren

dy

cou

sin

, th

e ev

en m

ore

neb

ulo

us

‘cre

ativ

ity’

.

In t

he

erg

ot

of

mar

keti

ng

, th

e te

rm ‘

crea

tivi

ty’

is s

o u

sefu

l bec

ause

it a

cts

as a

ca

tch

all –

it c

an ju

st a

s ea

sily

be

use

d t

o d

escr

ibe

a n

ew d

esig

n f

or

a w

ine

rack

as

32

it c

an a

pai

nti

ng

. In

ad

dit

ion

, w

her

eas

‘th

e ar

ts’

refe

rs t

o t

he

tan

gib

le m

anife

stat

ion

s

of

vari

ou

s p

ract

ices

– t

he

pla

y p

erfo

rmed

, sa

y –

”cre

ativ

ity”

can

en

com

pas

s b

oth

th

e p

rod

uct

ion

itse

lf (

the

tale

nts

of

acto

rs,

dir

ecto

r, c

ost

um

e d

esig

n e

tc)

and

als

o

the

bu

sin

ess

that

su

rro

un

ds

it (

the

nif

ty s

po

nso

rsh

ip d

eal,

pro

mo

tio

nal

co

py

and

so

on

). In

fac

t th

e cr

eati

vity

th

at d

oes

n’t

dir

ectl

y yi

eld

anyt

hin

g,

the

pu

re s

pec

ula

tive

id

ea,

cou

ld a

rgu

ably

be

said

to

be

the

mo

st v

alu

able

kin

d t

o t

he

entr

epre

neu

rial

cl

ass.

By

this

po

int

in t

he

late

90

s w

ith

th

e co

nce

pt

of

job

sec

uri

ty in

crea

sin

gly

u

nd

er t

hre

at a

nd

th

e ri

se o

f th

e in

tern

et h

arb

ori

ng

in n

ew s

yste

ms

of

acce

ss,

dis

trib

uti

on

an

d g

ain

, th

e w

eig

htl

ess

crea

tive

th

ou

gh

t b

egan

to

hav

e m

ore

an

d m

ore

cu

rren

cy.

Cre

ativ

ity

in t

his

sta

te w

as e

asie

r to

tra

nsm

it a

nd

rec

eive

, o

r co

-op

t if

n

eces

sary

. It

had

, to

use

a fi

nan

cial

ter

m,

liqu

idit

y. D

escr

ibin

g t

he

do

t in

his

Pri

mer

o

f V

isu

al L

iter

acy,

Do

nis

A.

Do

nd

is s

tate

s th

at ‘

Wh

en a

ny

liqu

id m

ater

ial i

s d

rop

ped

o

n a

su

rfac

e, it

ass

um

es a

ro

un

ded

fo

rm,

even

it d

oes

no

t si

mu

late

a p

erfe

ct d

ot.

’

The

rou

nd

ed f

orm

, w

hic

h w

ill c

om

e to

sp

read

th

rou

gh

th

is t

ext

like

fro

gsp

awn

,

in t

his

inst

ance

mat

eria

lizes

tow

ard

th

e en

d o

f B

rita

inTM

as

an il

lust

rati

on

fea

turi

ng

si

x ov

erla

pp

ing

cir

cles

, w

ith

in e

ach

a ‘

sto

ry’

of

wh

ich

Bri

tain

co

uld

be

pro

ud

,

‘Cre

ativ

e B

rita

in’

amo

ng

th

em.

It lo

oks

no

thin

g le

ss t

han

a n

ew fl

ag.

Dem

os

59

Shap

ing

ou

r id

enti

ty

Hub

UK

Uni

ted

colo

urs

ofBr

itain Cre

ative

isla

nd

Sile

ntre

volu

tiona

ry

Nat

ion

offa

ir pl

ay

Ope

n fo

rbu

sine

ss

Fig

ure

10

A n

ew id

enti

ty fo

r B

rita

in.

Th

is p

age

is c

ove

red

by

the

Dem

os

op

en a

cces

s lic

ence

. So

me

rig

hts

res

erve

d.

Full

det

ails

of l

icen

ce c

on

dit

ion

s ar

e av

aila

ble

at

ww

w.d

emo

s.co

.uk/

op

enac

cess

• LI

NE

S 1

53

-15

6 a

fter

An

dre

w B

lum

, “T

he

Mo

der

n’s

Oth

er R

enov

atio

n”

[see

“Li

nes

64

-77

” ab

ove]

• LI

NE

S 1

60

-17

1 a

fter

Nic

k R

elp

h,

“Exc

erp

ts f

rom

an

Un

fin

ish

ed S

crip

t,”

(P

ress

Rel

ease

), H

eral

d S

tree

t, 2

010

, p

. 1:

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

31

33

Two

of

the

pill

ars

of

That

cher

ism

wer

e p

riva

tiza

tio

n o

f th

e p

ub

lic s

ecto

r an

d

der

egu

lati

on

of

the

pri

vate

sec

tor.

Gov

ern

men

t in

terf

eren

ce w

as t

o b

e ke

pt

at a

m

inim

um

wh

ilst

the

pu

blic

, n

ow f

ree

as ‘

ind

ivid

ual

s’ w

ith

in a

n o

pen

mar

ket,

wer

e en

cou

rag

ed t

o u

se t

hei

r in

itia

tive

, to

par

take

in a

n ‘

ente

rpri

se c

ult

ure

’. L

ord

yo

un

g

was

on

e o

f th

e ch

ief

pro

po

nen

ts o

f en

terp

rise

wit

hin

gov

ern

men

t an

d b

y 19

87

h

ad b

een

pro

mo

ted

to

Sec

reta

ry o

f S

tate

at

the

Dep

artm

ent

of

Trad

e an

d In

du

stry

.

By

this

po

int

in t

he

1980s

a w

ave

of

con

sum

eris

m h

ad b

een

un

leas

hed

an

d t

he

cou

ntr

y w

as d

row

nin

g in

ch

oic

e. W

ith

eve

ryth

ing

see

min

gly

fo

r sa

le,

the

gov

ern

men

t h

ad n

eces

sari

ly u

nd

erst

oo

d t

he

imp

ort

ance

of

how

th

ing

s ar

e so

ld a

nd

had

init

iate

d a

fu

ll-b

low

n a

nd

un

pre

ced

ente

d lo

ve a

ffai

r w

ith

ad

vert

isin

g a

nd

des

ign

. Th

e D

epar

tmen

t o

f Tr

ade

and

Ind

ust

ry w

as c

entr

al t

o t

his

dev

elo

pm

ent

and

at

the

beq

ues

t o

f Lo

rd

You

ng

was

itse

lf g

iven

a m

akeo

ver

by

the

bra

nd

co

nsu

ltan

cy W

olf

f O

lins.

Fo

un

ded

in

th

e m

id 6

0s

by

Mic

hae

l Wo

lff

and

Wal

ly O

lins

and

wh

ose

ear

ly w

ork

incl

ud

ed t

he

bra

nd

ing

of

the

Lon

do

n b

oro

ug

h o

f c

amd

en a

nd

th

e d

esig

n o

f th

e la

bel

s fo

r A

pp

le

Rec

ord

s, W

olf

f O

lins

was

on

e o

f th

e fi

rst

and

mo

st s

ucc

essf

ul a

gen

cies

of

its

typ

e.

Alt

ho

ug

h c

om

mo

np

lace

to

day

, th

e m

eth

od

s o

f ex

ten

sive

res

earc

h u

nd

erta

ken

to

bu

ild

up

a k

ind

of

po

rtra

it o

f p

ub

lic p

erce

pti

on

of

a co

rpo

rate

clie

nt

– an

d t

o s

ub

seq

uen

tly

bea

uti

fy t

hat

pic

ture

– w

ere

alm

ost

un

hea

rd o

f. B

ecau

se t

her

e w

as n

o c

om

pet

itio

n

at t

he

tim

e, W

olf

f O

lins

wer

e o

n t

op

fro

m t

he

star

t. F

or

Lord

Yo

un

g,

they

des

ign

ed

a zi

ppy,

low

erca

se lo

go

th

at r

ech

rist

ened

th

e d

epar

tmen

t as

th

e D

Ti.

Co

mp

rise

d o

f as

cen

dan

t le

ft-t

o-r

igh

t d

iag

on

als,

th

e lo

go

s st

ruct

ura

l lin

es e

cho

ed t

he

risi

ng

sto

ck

ind

ices

of

the

tim

e. B

y th

e ti

me

of

this

tit

ula

r sh

rin

kag

e, t

he

DTi

’s b

ud

get

was

sw

ellin

g

to n

earl

y £14 m

illio

n,

a m

ore

th

an t

hre

efo

ld in

crea

se f

rom

6 y

ears

pri

or,

an

d w

ith

th

e D

Ti a

ctin

g a

s co

nd

uit

a g

oo

d a

mo

un

t o

f th

is g

over

nm

ent

mo

ney

was

bei

ng

ch

ann

eled

in

to t

he

Des

ign

Co

un

cil,

a n

on

-dep

artm

enta

l bo

dy

his

tori

cally

so

mew

hat

ign

ore

d

by

Dow

nin

g S

tree

t b

ut

now

see

n a

s a

vita

l in

term

edia

ry b

etw

een

co

mp

anie

s an

d

the

ever

-in

crea

sin

g n

um

ber

of

des

ign

an

d b

ran

d c

on

sult

anci

es.

The

Des

ign

Co

un

cil

ob

liged

wit

h t

he

Fun

ded

Co

nsu

ltan

cy S

chem

e in

wh

ich

co

mp

anie

s w

ere

off

ered

15

d

ays

free

co

nsu

ltan

cy o

n a

des

ign

pro

ject

, an

d in

pu

blic

atio

ns

and

bro

chu

res

like

‘Pro

fit

by

Des

ign’

in w

hic

h t

hin

gs

wer

e re

ally

mad

e ex

plic

it:

‘To

pu

t it

sim

ply

, th

e d

esig

n p

roce

ss is

a p

lan

nin

g e

xerc

ise

to m

axim

ize

sale

s an

d p

rofi

ts.’

• LI

NE

S 1

75

-17

9 a

fter

Cat

her

ine

de

Sm

et,

“Ab

ou

t O

ne

Str

iped

Rec

tan

gle

:

Jean

Wid

mer

an

d t

he

Cen

tre

Po

mp

ido

u L

og

o,”

Des

ign

Iss

ues

Vo

l. 2

6 N

o.

1

(Win

ter

20

10)

pp

. 77-7

8:

Alt

ho

ug

h t

he

firs

t ap

pea

ran

ces

of

the

stri

ped

em

ble

m w

ere

du

rin

g t

he

Cen

tre’

s in

aug

ura

l per

iod

, it

was

n’t

yet

par

t o

f th

e c

entr

e’s

visu

al id

enti

ty.

At

the

beg

inn

ing

of

1977, it

had

just

bee

n d

esig

ned

an

d it

led

an

ind

epen

den

t, r

eser

ved

, an

d c

on

fuse

d

exis

ten

ce. It

was

use

d,

for

exam

ple

, in

a s

pec

ial i

ssu

e o

f L’

Exp

ress

dev

ote

d t

o t

he

op

enin

g. It

was

rep

rod

uce

d in

var

iou

s p

lace

s o

n it

s ow

n w

ith

ou

t an

y co

nn

ecti

on

to

34

oth

er e

lem

ents

of

the

gu

idel

ines

. […

] In

dee

d,

VD

A h

ad n

ot

yet

carr

ied

th

e d

ay,

and

ju

st a

few

wee

ks p

rio

r to

th

e o

pen

ing

so

me

peo

ple

fel

t th

at t

he

nee

d f

or

the

log

o

was

mo

re p

ress

ing

th

an e

ver.

A r

esp

on

se w

asn’

t sl

ow in

co

min

g—

elev

en s

trip

es

of

equ

al w

idth

, st

acke

d o

ne

abov

e th

e o

ther

, al

tern

atel

y b

lack

an

d w

hit

e (o

r o

ther

b

ackg

rou

nd

co

lor)

fo

rmin

g a

rec

tan

gle

cro

ssed

by

a tw

elft

h b

and

th

at z

igza

gg

ed

fro

m t

he

low

er le

ft t

o t

he

up

per

rig

ht

corn

er.

Thu

s o

ne

of

the

mo

st s

ucc

essf

ul l

og

os

and

mo

st s

trik

ing

exa

mp

les

of

gra

ph

ic d

esig

n in

Fra

nce

in t

he

seco

nd

hal

f o

f th

e tw

enti

eth

cen

tury

was

pro

du

ced

fo

r th

e sa

ke o

f co

mp

rom

ise

by

a d

esig

ner

wh

o

tho

ug

ht

it s

up

erfl

uo

us.

• LI

NE

S 1

81-

20

0 a

fter

Cat

her

ine

de

Sm

et,

“Ab

ou

t O

ne

Str

iped

Rec

tan

gle

:

Jean

Wid

mer

an

d t

he

Cen

tre

Po

mp

ido

u L

og

o,”

Des

ign

Iss

ues

Vo

l. 2

6 N

o.

1

(Win

ter

20

10),

p. 7

6:

The

mat

ter

of

the

log

o,

dis

mis

sed

by

VD

A,

was

no

net

hel

ess

far

fro

m b

ein

g d

ecid

ed.

“Op

tin

g f

or

a d

escr

ipti

ve lo

go

,” c

laim

ed t

he

text

th

at V

DA

su

bm

itte

d f

or

the

com

pet

itio

n, “w

ou

ld m

ean

fixi

ng

Bea

ub

ou

rg in

th

e p

rese

nt

mo

men

t at

th

e ri

sk o

f it

s g

oin

g o

ut

of

fash

ion

,” w

her

eas

the

firm

’s r

eco

mm

end

ed s

olu

tio

n w

ou

ld “

insc

rib

e B

eau

bo

urg

in h

isto

ry.”

In s

pit

e o

f th

ese

arg

um

ents

an

d t

he

effe

ctiv

enes

s o

f th

e p

rop

ose

d s

yste

m t

hat

did

wit

ho

ut

a lo

go

, th

ose

in c

har

ge

at E

PC

B a

sked

Wid

mer

an

d

Hie

stan

d t

o d

evel

op

idea

s fo

r a

po

ssib

le e

mb

lem

. In

th

e fa

ll o

f 19

74

, V

DA

pre

sen

ted

th

e re

sult

s o

f th

eir

rece

nt

inve

stig

atio

ns.

Th

eir

do

cum

ent

(Th

e 1

st C

once

pt

of t

he

Trad

emar

k Im

age

for

the

CB

) lis

ted

“th

e p

oss

ibili

ties

fo

r d

iffe

ren

tiat

ing

am

on

g v

ario

us

dep

artm

ents

,” w

hic

h in

clu

ded

a s

et o

f sy

mb

ols

: a

tria

ng

le f

or

IRC

AM

, a

circ

le f

or

CC

I, a

dia

mo

nd

fo

r th

e lib

rary

, an

d a

sq

uar

e fo

r th

e p

last

ic a

rts,

all

geo

met

ric

form

s th

at c

ou

ld fi

t to

get

her

to

co

nst

itu

te a

sin

gle

fig

ure

. V

DA

’s o

bje

ctiv

e, h

owev

er,

as

Wid

mer

rec

alls

now

, w

as t

o c

onvi

nce

do

ub

ters

of

the

po

intl

essn

ess

of

such

a s

yste

m,

wh

ich

wo

uld

be

red

un

dan

t w

ith

th

e co

lor

cod

ing

. Th

eir

per

suas

ion

was

em

inen

tly

succ

essf

ul:

sym

bo

ls w

ere

dro

pp

ed f

rom

th

e p

lan

of

acti

on

, an

d V

DA

beg

an w

ork

ac

cord

ing

to

its

init

ial p

rop

osa

l.

“Th

e c

entr

e B

eau

bo

urg

is n

eith

er a

ban

k n

or

an a

irp

ort

no

r a

gra

nd

ho

tel,”

p

oin

ted

ou

t th

e d

ocu

men

t o

rig

inal

ly s

ent

to t

he

com

pet

ito

rs.

Eve

n if

so

me

det

ails

sh

ou

ld b

e re

fin

ed,

they

sh

ou

ldn’

t b

e ta

ken

“to

o f

ar.”

Th

e C

entr

e ai

med

ab

ove

all t

o b

e “a

t th

e se

rvic

e o

f d

iver

se c

ateg

ori

es o

f th

e p

ub

lic (

esp

ecia

lly t

he

you

ng

) in

tere

sted

in

inte

llect

ual

an

d a

rtis

tic

pu

rsu

its.

” Th

e si

gn

age

syst

em a

nd

its

sup

po

rts

“sh

ou

ld

be

care

fully

do

ne,

pre

cise

, an

d e

ffec

tive

” w

hile

at

the

sam

e ti

me

app

eari

ng

“si

mp

le

and

un

affe

cted

.”

• LI

NE

S 2

04

-20

5 a

fter

Gu

stav

e A

ffeu

lpin

[A

lber

t M

eist

er],

in L

uca

Fre

i, Th

e so

-cal

led

uto

pia

of

the

cen

tre

bea

ub

ourg

– A

n in

terp

reta

tion

(Lo

nd

on

: B

oo

k W

ork

s, 2

00

7),

pp

. 9-1

0:

“Id

en

tity

“

32

35

Ten

yea

rs h

ave

pas

sed

sin

ce t

he

cen

tre

Bea

ub

ou

rg w

as in

aug

ura

ted

, an

d s

till

ever

yon

e as

ks m

e to

giv

e m

y ac

cou

nt

of

an e

xper

ien

ce w

hic

h,

at b

est,

has

bee

n

con

sid

ered

a u

top

ia,

bu

t m

ore

oft

en a

n a

ttem

pt

to s

abo

tag

e o

ur

cult

ure

, a

thre

at t

o

the

fun

dam

enta

l val

ues

of

ou

r so

ciet

y ..

. R

e-re

adin

g t

he

new

spap

ers

of

that

tim

e,

the

sarc

asm

of

the

on

es o

n t

he

rig

ht

and

th

e an

noy

ed s

cep

tici

sm o

f th

e o

nes

on

th

e le

ft, re

mem

ber

ing

th

e in

terv

enti

on

s o

f th

e p

arlim

enta

rian

s, d

eman

din

g f

or

the

org

ies

and

th

e sa

crile

ge

to b

e st

op

ped

, re

mem

ber

ing

th

e o

ffen

ded

aca

dem

ics

and

th

e o

utr

aged

par

ents

, re

mem

ber

ing

th

e o

utc

ry o

f th

e b

ish

op

s an

d t

he

bit

tern

ess

o

f th

e ce

nso

rs,

the

pu

t-d

own

s o

f th

e g

ram

mat

olo

gis

ts a

nd

of

the

cru

mp

led

etc

eter

as.

Bu

t d

on’

t w

orr

y, I

do

no

t in

ten

d t

o c

om

e b

ack

on

th

ese

sub

ject

s an

d a

ll th

at h

as

bee

n s

aid

an

d w

ritt

en s

ince

, o

nce

uto

pia

beg

an t

o a

pp

ear

less

fo

olis

h a

nd

th

inke

rs

star

ted

to

en

gag

e w

ith

it a

new

, an

alys

ing

it,

dis

sect

ing

it,

con

cep

tual

isin

g it

, la

can

isin

g it

, d

emo

nst

rati

ng

in s

ho

rt t

hat

in f

act

it w

as n

ot

a tr

ue

uto

pia

bu

t ju

st

no

nse

nse

an

d e

mp

tin

ess.

It

is t

her

efo

re u

sele

ss t

o a

ttra

ct a

tten

tio

n t

o s

uch

ru

bb

ish

, to

th

e el

abo

rati

on

s ag

ain

st it

an

d f

or

it:

it w

ou

ld s

uffi

ce t

o g

o t

o t

he

libra

ry t

o fi

nd

eve

ryth

ing

th

at

has

bee

n p

rin

ted

on

th

e su

bje

ct.

Ab

ove

all,

for

us

bea

ub

ou

rgia

ns,

wh

at c

ou

nts

is

wh

at is

do

ne

and

live

d r

ath

er t

han

wh

at is

sai

d:

thin

gs

cou

nt,

no

t th

eir

app

eara

nce

.

Of

cou

rse,

th

ere

will

alw

ays

be

an A

nax

ago

ras

tryi

ng

to

co

nvi

nce

us

that

we

hav

e b

een

cle

ver

bec

ause

we

hav

e h

and

s, b

ut

thes

e p

eop

le f

orm

par

t o

f th

e co

ho

rt o

f ep

igo

nes

, o

f th

e p

rop

het

s o

f th

e af

term

ath

.

So

, w

hat

I w

ou

ld li

ke t

o d

escr

ibe

her

e is

wh

at w

e h

ave

do

ne,

wit

h a

ll th

e

det

ails

of

the

actu

al h

urd

les

that

we

had

to

ove

rco

me.

Isn’

t th

at a

ctu

ally

wh

at w

e ex

pec

t fr

om

an

acc

ou

nt?

• LI

NE

S 2

09

-218

aft

er C

ath

erin

e d

e S

met

, “A

bo

ut

On

e S

trip

ed R

ecta

ng

le:

Je

an W

idm

er a

nd

th

e C

entr

e Po

mp

ido

u L

og

o,”

Des

ign

Iss

ues

Vo

l. 2

6 N

o.

1

(Win

ter

20

10),

pp

. 74

-75:

Am

on

g “

pro

ble

ms

to b

e re

solv

ed,”

fo

rmu

late

d f

or

the

sake

of

the

com

pet

ito

rs,

th

e E

PC

B v

ery

bal

dly

ask

ed,

“Is

a lo

go

req

uir

ed f

or

Bea

ub

ou

rg?

If n

ot,

wh

at w

ou

ld

you

rec

om

men

d?”

VD

A r

esp

on

ded

ver

y p

lain

ly:

no

log

o,

no

sym

bo

l. O

n t

his

po

int,

th

e w

inn

ers

did

n’t

dif

fer

mu

ch f

rom

th

e o

ther

co

mp

etit

ors

, w

ho

wer

e al

mo

st

un

anim

ou

s o

n t

his

su

bje

ct.

Alt

ho

ug

h t

he

issu

e o

f d

escr

ipti

ve s

ign

age

was

th

e o

rder

o

f th

e d

ay, co

nve

rgin

g w

ith

th

e ve

ry f

ash

ion

able

tre

nd

of

“envi

ron

men

tal d

esig

n,”

lo

go

s w

ere

in a

sta

te o

f cr

isis

. Ju

st s

ix y

ears

aft

er M

ay 1

96

8,

log

os

wer

e th

ou

gh

t

of

as a

mar

keti

ng

plo

y an

d v

iew

ed a

s id

eolo

gic

ally

co

nte

mp

tib

le,

tota

lly a

t o

dd

s

wit

h t

he

amb

itio

n o

f a

pu

blic

inst

itu

tio

n w

ith

a c

ult

ura

l mis

sio

n.

Eve

n w

hen

it c

ame

to

th

e im

age

of

com

pan

ies

wit

h b

usi

nes

s g

oal

s, t

he

no

tio

n o

f a

trad

emar

k w

as t

he

ob

ject

of

livel

y cr

itic

ism

. A

lrea

dy

in 1

967,

the

Am

eric

an d

esig

ner

Jay

Do

blin

had

ir

on

ical

ly e

mp

has

ized

th

at in

ord

er t

o le

arn

to

rea

d lo

go

s it

was

nec

essa

ry t

o k

now

36

at le

ast

30

00

dif

fere

nt

sig

ns

– a

task

as

com

ple

x, h

e p

oin

ted

ou

t, a

s fa

mili

ariz

ing

o

nes

elf

wit

h c

hin

ese

ideo

gra

ms.

Do

blin

, w

ho

had

fo

rmer

ly w

ork

ed w

ith

R

aym

on

d L

oew

y an

d c

o-f

ou

nd

ed (

wit

h V

ign

elli,

Eck

erst

rom

, an

d N

oo

rda)

th

e

des

ign

firm

Un

imar

k In

tern

atio

nal

tw

o y

ears

bef

ore

, kn

ew w

hat

he

was

tal

kin

g

abo

ut.

Ow

nin

g u

p t

o h

is o

wn

illit

erac

y in

th

e m

atte

r, h

e th

en r

iske

d t

he

pro

voca

tive

hyp

oth

esis

of

the

tota

l use

less

nes

s o

f su

ch s

ymb

ols

. To

tal w

aste

s o

f ti

me

and

m

on

ey –

ru

mo

r h

ad in

voic

es r

isin

g t

o $

100

,00

0 –

th

ey c

ou

ld e

ven

be

ob

stac

les

to

the

pre

stig

e o

f th

e en

terp

rise

s th

ey w

ere

mea

nt

to e

nh

ance

. c

on

clu

din

g h

is

ico

no

clas

tic

dia

trib

e, D

ob

lin s

ug

ges

ted

ab

and

on

ing

log

os

to t

hei

r fa

tal p

erve

rsit

y

and

ad

op

tin

g t

ypo

gra

phy

inst

ead

: “A

litt

le H

elve

tica

low

er c

ase

lett

erin

g c

an

get

th

e jo

b d

on

e.”

In t

hat

sp

irit

, C

her

may

eff

and

Gei

smar

had

ch

ose

n F

ran

klin

G

oth

ic f

or

New

Yo

rk’s

Mu

seu

m o

f M

od

ern

Art

. Th

is A

mer

ican

san

s se

rif

typ

efac

e

was

des

ign

ed a

t th

e b

egin

nin

g o

f th

e tw

enti

eth

cen

tury

, an

d it

s u

se in

wri

tin

g

the

mu

seu

m’s

nam

e su

ffice

d t

o g

uar

ante

e th

e m

use

um

’s v

isu

al id

enti

ty.

(T

he

con

trac

tio

ns

MO

MA

, an

d la

ter

Mo

MA

, ca

me

abo

ut

on

ly la

ter.

) Th

e so

luti

on

th

at V

DA

pro

po

sed

fo

llow

ed t

hat

tre

nd

bu

t w

ith

a t

ypef

ace

exp

ress

ly c

on

ceiv

ed

for

the

cen

tre.

• LI

NE

S 2

22

-22

4 a

fter

Cat

her

ine

de

Sm

et,

“Ab

ou

t O

ne

Str

iped

Rec

tan

gle

:

Jean

Wid

mer

an

d t

he

Cen

tre

Po

mp

ido

u L

og

o” [

see

“Lin

es 2

19-2

28

” ab

ove]

• LI

NE

S 2

26

-234

aft

er “

Cen

tre

Geo

rges

Po

mp

ido

u,”

last

mo

difi

ed O

cto

ber

5,

2

011

, h

ttp

://e

n.w

ikip

edia

.org

/wik

i/Cen

tre_

Geo

rges

_Po

mp

ido

u

• LI

NE

S 2

38

-241

aft

er A

nd

rew

Blu

m,

“Th

e M

od

ern’

s O

ther

Ren

ovat

ion”

[s

ee “

Lin

es 6

7-8

1”

abov

e]

• LI

NE

S 2

42

-25

3 a

fter

Jam

es T

. S

ob

y, le

tter

to

Alf

red

H.

Bar

r, J

r., 1

96

6,

Mo

MA

ar

chiv

e:

Dea

r H

elen

an

d A

lfre

d:

H

aven

’t y

ou

tw

o c

har

acte

rs g

ot

anyt

hin

g b

ette

r to

do

th

an s

pen

d a

n e

nti

re

sum

mer

hag

glin

g o

ver

the

pro

ble

m o

f w

het

her

th

e ab

bre

viat

ion

fo

r th

e M

use

um

of

Mo

der

n A

rt s

ho

uld

be

wri

tten

as

MO

MA

or

Mo

MA

?

I mu

st s

ay t

hat

in t

his

inst

ance

I th

ink

the

lad

y is

rig

ht.

In a

ll m

y 8

5 y

ears

in

the

mu

seu

m it

nev

er o

ccu

rred

to

me

to [

use

] a

low

er-c

ase

“o.”

It m

ay b

e co

rrec

t

bu

t it

giv

es m

e te

rrib

ly v

isu

al h

icco

ug

hs.

I ca

n o

nly

co

ncl

ud

e th

at t

he

esti

mab

le

A.H

. B

arr

is lo

sin

g h

is s

igh

t an

d m

ind

in G

reen

sbo

ro—

the

on

ly p

rair

ie t

own

in t

he

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

33

37

enti

re lu

sh S

tate

of

Ver

mo

nt.

I d

rove

th

rou

gh

th

ere

on

ce a

nd

we

had

a s

and

sto

rm

and

I le

ft h

asti

ly.

Sin

cere

ly,

Jam

es t

. S

ob

y

• LI

NE

S 2

57-2

61 a

fter

Nic

k R

elp

h,

“Exc

erp

ts f

rom

an

Un

fin

ish

ed S

crip

t”

[see

“Li

nes

167

-178”

abov

e]

• LI

NE

S 2

63

-266 a

fter

Wal

ly O

lins,

On

Bra

nd

(Lo

nd

on

: Th

ames

& H

ud

son

, 2

00

3),

p

p. 2

04

-5:

The

ph

rase

‘co

rpo

rate

iden

tity

’ se

ems

to h

ave

bee

n c

oin

ed s

om

etim

e in

th

e 19

50

s b

y W

alte

r M

arg

ulie

s, o

f th

e p

ion

eeri

ng

US

co

nsu

ltan

cy L

ipp

inco

tt &

Mar

gu

lies,

to

d

escr

ibe

the

acti

vity

in w

hic

h a

ll o

f th

e o

rgan

izat

ion’

s vi

sib

le m

anife

stat

ion

s ar

e d

esig

ned

to

cre

ate

a co

her

ent

corp

ora

te w

ho

le a

sso

ciat

ed w

ith

a s

pec

ific

them

e,

atti

tud

e o

r p

erso

nal

ity.

Th

e co

nce

pt

of

corp

ora

te id

enti

ty w

as o

f co

urs

e d

irec

tly

des

cen

ded

fro

m t

he

wo

rk c

arri

ed o

ut

by

the

AE

G a

nd

bef

ore

th

at t

he

gre

at n

ine-

teen

th-c

entu

ry r

ailw

ay c

om

pan

ies,

bu

t it

was

pre

sen

ted

dif

fere

ntl

y, m

uch

mo

re

com

mer

cial

ly. W

hen

he

wo

rked

fo

r In

tern

atio

nal

Har

vest

er a

nd

sim

ilar

hu

ge

com

pa-

nie

s, M

arg

ulie

s to

ok

des

ign

co

nsu

ltan

cy r

igh

t in

to t

he

corp

ora

te h

eart

lan

d.

Than

ks

par

tly

to p

eop

le li

ke h

im a

nd

als

o t

o a

ch

ang

ing

co

mm

erci

al c

limat

e in

th

e 19

60

s an

d m

ore

par

ticu

larl

y in

th

e 19

70s

and

‘80s

the

corp

ora

te id

enti

ty d

isci

plin

e to

ok

off

ar

ou

nd

th

e w

orl

d,

esp

ecia

lly in

th

e u

S,

follo

wed

clo

sely

by

Bri

tain

. Th

e tr

adit

ion

al

Eu

rop

ean

-bas

ed,

des

ign

er-l

ed id

enti

ty p

rog

ram

mes

wit

h a

vag

ue

and

hig

h-s

ou

nd

ing

b

ut

rath

er g

ener

aliz

ed p

urp

ose

mu

tate

d in

to s

yste

ms

that

co

uld

hel

p c

om

pan

ies

to

sell

them

selv

es a

nd

th

eir

pro

du

cts.

co

mp

ute

r co

mp

anie

s, a

uto

mo

bile

co

mp

anie

s,

airl

ines

, o

il co

mp

anie

s an

d t

hen

org

aniz

atio

ns

in fi

nan

cial

ser

vice

s b

egan

to

lear

n

that

th

ey c

ou

ld p

roje

ct a

cle

ar a

nd

dif

fere

nti

ated

idea

of

them

selv

es t

o a

ll o

f th

eir

aud

ien

ces,

fro

m s

har

eho

lder

s to

cu

sto

mer

s to

sta

ff,

by

usi

ng

vis

ual

iden

tity

sys

tem

s w

hic

h d

emo

nst

rate

d t

hei

r se

nse

of

pu

rpo

se o

r th

eir

visi

on

. A

t fi

rst

mu

ch o

f th

is

acti

vity

was

led

by

des

ign

ers

and

arc

hit

ects

. M

any

of

the

fam

ou

s n

ames

in t

he

fiel

d

at t

his

tim

e w

ere

them

selv

es d

esig

ner

s o

r fr

om

a d

esig

n b

ackg

rou

nd

. E

liot

Noy

es

in t

he

US

, w

ho

wo

rked

fo

r M

ob

il an

d IB

M,

was

a c

lass

ic h

igh

-min

ded

des

ign

er.

H

e le

d IB

M a

way

fro

m Q

uee

n A

nn

e re

pro

into

‘60

s m

od

ern

on

th

e b

asis

th

at m

od

ern

eq

uip

men

t h

ad t

o lo

ok

mo

der

n.

Flet

cher

, Fo

rbes

an

d G

ill,

a d

esig

n c

on

sult

ancy

th

at

mu

tate

d in

to t

he

hig

hly

su

cces

sfu

l Pen

tag

ram

par

tner

ship

, is

th

e cl

assi

c ex

amp

le

of

this

kin

d o

f b

usi

nes

s. A

s I w

rite

, h

app

ily it

sti

ll th

rive

s. B

ut

gra

du

ally

th

e m

oo

d

chan

ged

.

Par

tly

to c

op

e w

ith

th

e co

mp

lex

req

uir

emen

ts o

f th

eir

clie

nts

, p

artl

y in

an

eff

ort

to

lear

n t

o s

pea

k th

e sa

me

lan

gu

age,

an

d p

artl

y b

ecau

se t

hey

saw

an

op

po

rtu

nit

y

38

to g

et c

lose

r to

th

eir

clie

nts

on

a lo

ng

er t

erm

bas

is,

des

ign

co

nsu

ltan

cies

of

vari

ou

s ki

nd

s an

d le

vels

of

sop

his

tica

tio

n b

egan

to

em

plo

y m

arke

tin

g p

eop

le

wh

ose

bac

kgro

un

d w

as in

co

mm

erce

an

d in

du

stry

rat

her

th

an d

esig

n.

Thes

e n

ew

con

sult

ants

wo

rkin

g s

ide

by

sid

e w

ith

des

ign

ers,

wer

e ed

uca

ted

at

bu

sin

ess

sc

ho

ols

an

d h

ad M

BA

s. T

hey

co

uld

n’t

des

ign

bu

t th

ey c

ou

ld d

eal w

ith

th

eir

clie

nts

o

n e

nti

rely

eq

ual

ter

ms

bec

ause

th

ey c

ame

fro

m t

he

sam

e b

usi

nes

s b

ackg

rou

nd

. Th

ey h

ad t

he

sam

e d

isci

plin

es a

nd

att

itu

des

.

• LI

NE

S 2

68

-27

0 a

fter

Ric

har

d H

olli

s, G

rap

hic

Des

ign

: A

Con

cise

His

tory

(L

on

do

n:

Tham

es &

Hu

dso

n, 1

99

4),

p. 1

53

Ho

use

sty

le a

nd

co

rpo

rate

iden

tity

in F

ran

ce d

id n

ot

at t

his

tim

e at

trac

t as

mu

ch

ener

gy

as in

Am

eric

a, b

ut

Loew

y’s

Par

is o

ffice

had

bee

n a

ctiv

e si

nce

19

53.

In 1

96

3

the

ph

arm

aceu

tica

l firm

Ro

uss

el-U

claf

ad

op

ted

a L

oew

y sy

mb

ol n

ot

un

like

that

of

the

Ch

ase

Man

hat

tan

ban

k d

esig

ned

by

Ch

erm

ayef

f &

Gei

smar

. It

was

co

mp

ose

d o

f th

ree

iden

tica

l par

alle

llog

ram

s, a

rran

ged

sym

met

rica

lly w

ith

in a

n e

qu

ilate

ral t

rian

gle

, le

avin

g a

sim

ilar

equ

ilate

ral t

rian

gle

at

the

cen

tre

of

the

des

ign

. M

any

geo

met

rica

l im

ages

of

this

kin

d c

ou

ld b

e fo

un

d in

a r

ead

y-re

fere

nce

bo

ok,

Hor

nu

ng

’s H

and

boo

k

of D

esig

ns

and

Dev

ices

. R

atio

nal

izin

g t

he

cho

ice

of

such

sym

bo

ls b

ecam

e co

rpo

rate

id

enti

ty p

ract

ice.

Ro

uss

el-U

claf

’s is

typ

ical

: ‘I

nci

sive

, b

alan

ced

, o

pen

, it

s p

erso

nal

ity

do

es n

ot

rep

rese

nt

any

par

ticu

lar

spec

ializ

atio

n a

nd

allo

ws

the

gro

up

’s id

enti

ty

to e

xten

d b

eyo

nd

th

e co

nfi

nes

of

the

ph

arm

eceu

tica

l in

du

stry

.’

• LI

NE

S 2

74

-27

8 a

fter

Hal

a A

uji,

“In

Vis

ible

Ch

ang

es,”

un

pu

blis

hed

do

cum

ent,

2

00

6, p

. 8:

“Th

e M

od

ern”

bec

ame

“Mo

MA

” an

d it

s fi

rst

un

ified

vis

ual

iden

tity

ap

pea

red

, d

esig

ned

by

the

then

-new

ly e

stab

lish

ed C

her

may

eff

& G

eism

ar N

ew Y

ork

-bas

ed

stu

dio

. Wh

en h

ired

fo

r th

e jo

b in

19

64

, C

her

may

eff

& G

eism

ar w

ho

late

r d

esig

ned

n

um

ero

us

fam

iliar

co

rpo

rate

log

os,

incl

ud

ing

Am

eric

an A

irlin

es,

Xer

ox a

nd

M

ob

il am

on

g o

ther

s, h

ad b

een

ask

ed t

o c

reat

e “a

cle

an a

nd

str

aig

ht

forw

ard

ty

po

gra

ph

ic id

enti

ty t

hat

wo

uld

refl

ect

the

mu

seu

m’s

maj

or

ren

ovat

ion

.”

The

mu

seu

m’s

des

ire

for

dir

ectn

ess

and

sim

plic

ity

refl

ects

th

e S

wis

s M

od

ern

ist

infl

uen

ces

in A

mer

ican

des

ign

of

the

tim

e: a

n a

esth

etic

des

ign

lan

gu

age

po

pu

lar

fo

r it

s o

rgan

izat

ion

al q

ual

itie

s in

its

leg

ibili

ty a

nd

per

ceiv

ed r

atio

nal

ity.

• L

INE

S 2

80

-28

4 a

fter

An

dre

w B

lum

, “T

he

Mo

der

n’s

Oth

er R

enov

atio

n”

[see

“Li

nes

64

-77

” ab

ove]

“Id

en

tity

“

34

39

• LI

NE

S 2

86

-289,

afte

r “R

epo

rt t

o t

he

Mu

seu

m o

f M

od

ern

Art

,” N

ovem

ber

27

,

1963, M

oM

A a

rch

ive:

A. S

ymb

ol

It is

obvi

ou

s to

us

(an

d t

o t

he

Mu

seu

m)

that

un

less

a s

ymb

ol i

s tr

uly

ap

pro

pri

ate

to

the

Mu

seu

m, it

is b

ette

r n

ot

to h

ave

on

e. In

inve

stig

atin

g p

oss

ibili

ties

fo

r a

sym

bo

l, w

e tr

ied

a n

um

ber

of

dif

fere

nt

dir

ecti

on

s, n

on

e o

f w

hic

h le

d t

o a

ny

sati

sfac

tory

so

luti

on

s, p

erh

aps

bec

ause

th

ere

is n

o o

ne

sym

bo

l of

mo

der

n a

rt,

or

of

the

div

erse

ac

tivi

es o

f th

e M

use

um

. Th

eref

ore

we

hav

e co

ncl

ud

ed t

hat

it is

imp

oss

ible

fo

r th

e M

use

um

of

Mo

der

n A

rt t

o h

ave

a sy

mb

ol w

hic

h is

mea

nin

gfu

l. W

e al

so f

eel t

hat

th

e M

use

um

is in

no

po

siti

on

to

est

ablis

h a

sym

bo

l, w

het

her

mea

nin

gfu

l or

no

t.

The

amo

un

t o

f ex

po

sure

in t

he

esta

blis

hed

co

mm

un

icat

ion

s m

edia

in t

ho

se a

reas

o

uts

ide

the

Mu

seu

m’s

alr

ead

y ca

pti

ve a

ud

ien

ce is

ver

y lim

ited

. In

any

case

it is

q

ues

tio

nab

le in

ou

r o

pin

ion

, w

het

her

an

inst

itu

tio

n s

uch

as

the

Mu

seu

m o

f M

od

ern

A

rt s

ho

uld

, u

nd

er a

ny

circ

um

stan

ces,

hav

e a

sym

bo

l.

• LI

NE

S 2

93

-295 a

fter

Dan

iel B

oo

rsti

n,

The

Imag

e: A

Gu

ide

to P

seu

do-

Eve

nts

in A

mer

ica

(1962;

New

Yo

rk:

Vin

tag

e, 1

992),

p. 1

86

:

Wh

ile a

ll th

ese

use

s o

f th

e im

age

hav

e b

eco

me

mo

re im

po

rtan

t w

ith

eac

h d

ecad

e o

f th

e tw

enti

eth

cen

tury

, a

mo

re a

bst

ract

kin

d o

f im

age

is t

he

pec

ulia

r p

rod

uct

of

ou

r ag

e. It

s ty

ran

ny

is p

erva

sive

. A

n im

age

in t

his

sen

se is

no

t si

mp

ly a

tra

dem

ark,

a

des

ign

, a

slo

gan

, o

r an

eas

ily r

emem

ber

ed p

ictu

re.

It is

a s

tud

iou

sly

craf

ted

p

erso

nal

ity

pro

file

of

an in

div

idu

al,

inst

itu

tio

n,

corp

ora

tio

n,

pro

du

ct,

or

serv

ice.

It is

a

valu

e-ca

rica

ture

, sh

aped

in t

hre

e d

imen

sio

ns,

of

syn

thet

ic m

ater

ials

. S

uch

imag

es

in e

ver

incr

easi

ng

nu

mb

ers

hav

e b

een

fab

rica

ted

an

d r

e-in

forc

ed b

y th

e n

ew

tech

niq

ues

of

the

Gra

ph

ic R

evo

luti

on

.

• LI

NE

S 2

98

-305 a

fter

Dan

iel B

oo

rsti

n,

The

Imag

e: A

Gu

ide

to P

seu

do-

Eve

nts

in A

mer

ica

(19

62;

New

Yo

rk:

Vin

tag

e, 1

992),

pp

. 18

5-1

86

:

It w

as b

y el

abo

rate

des

ign

th

at t

he

cum

ber

som

e n

ame

“In

tern

atio

nal

Bu

sin

ess

Mac

hin

es C

orp

ora

tio

n” w

as m

ade

in t

he

pu

blic

min

d in

to “

IBM

.” T

his

is p

rob

ably

th

e m

ost

exp

ensi

ve a

nd

mo

st v

alu

able

ab

bre

viat

ion

in h

isto

ry.

Un

der

th

e cr

eati

ve

dir

ecti

on

of

Elio

t N

oyes

an

d a

des

ign

gro

up

co

nsi

stin

g o

f pau

l Ran

d,

ch

arle

s E

ames

, an

d G

eorg

e N

elso

n,

the

firm

dev

elo

ped

its

stre

amlin

ed t

rad

emar

k, t

o p

roje

ct a

“c

lean

, im

pre

ssiv

e” im

age.

Now

aday

s a

trad

emar

k is

sel

do

m a

sim

ple

by-

pro

du

ct o

f o

ther

act

ivit

ies.

It is

no

t m

erel

y th

e n

ame,

init

ials

, o

r si

gn

atu

re o

f th

e m

aker

or

own

er,

or

a h

allm

ark

assi

gn

ed b

y a

gu

ild.

usu

ally

it is

pro

du

ced

by

spec

ialis

ts.

40

• LI

NE

S 3

09

-311

aft

er D

anie

l Bo

ors

tin

, Th

e Im

age:

A G

uid

e to

Pse

ud

o-E

ven

ts

in A

mer

ica

(19

62

; N

ew Y

ork

: V

inta

ge,

19

92

), p

p. 1

86

-18

7:

Wh

en w

e u

se t

he

wo

rd “

imag

e” in

th

is n

ew s

ense

, w

e p

lain

ly c

on

fess

a d

isti

nct

ion

b

etw

een

wh

at w

e se

e an

d w

hat

is r

eally

th

ere,

an

d w

e ex

pre

ss o

ur

pre

ferr

ed

inte

rest

in w

hat

is t

o b

e se

en.

Thu

s an

imag

e is

a v

isib

le p

ub

lic “

per

son

alit

y” a

s d

isti

ng

uis

hed

fro

m a

n in

war

d p

riva

te “

char

acte

r.” “

pu

blic

” g

oes

wit

h “

imag

e”

as n

atu

rally

as

wit

h “

inte

rest

” o

r “o

pin

ion

.” T

he

over

shad

owin

g im

age,

we

read

ily

adm

it,

cove

rs u

p w

hat

ever

may

rea

lly b

e th

ere.

By

ou

r ve

ry u

se o

f th

e te

rm w

e

imp

ly t

hat

so

met

hin

g c

an b

e d

on

e to

it:

the

imag

e ca

n a

lway

s b

e m

ore

or

less

su

cces

sfu

lly s

ynth

esiz

ed,

do

cto

red

, re

pai

red

, re

furb

ish

ed,

and

imp

rove

d,

qu

ite

apar

t fr

om

(th

ou

gh

no

t en

tire

ly in

dep

end

ent

of)

th

e sp

on

tan

eou

s o

rig

inal

of

wh

ich

th

e im

age

is a

pu

blic

po

rtra

it.

• LI

NE

S 3

15-3

25

aft

er J

ose

f A

lber

s, d

escr

ipti

on

fo

r a

Bla

ck M

ou

nta

in C

olle

ge

leafl

et, 1

935

, ac

cess

ed O

cto

ber

11

, 2

011

, se

e: h

ttp

://w

ww

.bm

cpro

ject

.org

/P

UB

LIC

ATI

ON

S/1

934

-35

/em

ble

m.h

tm

• LI

NE

S 3

29

-331

aft

er “

Tate

,” la

st m

od

ified

Oct

ob

er 3

, 2

011

, h

ttp

://e

n.w

ikip

edia

.org

/w

iki/T

ate

• LI

NE

S 3

35

-337

aft

er “

Mu

seu

m o

f M

od

ern

Art

,” la

st m

od

ified

Sep

tem

ber

15

,

20

11,

htt

p:/

/en

.wik

iped

ia.o

rg/w

iki/M

use

um

_of_

Mo

der

n_A

rt

• LI

NE

S 3

39

-341

aft

er A

nd

rew

Blu

m,

“Th

e M

od

ern’

s O

ther

Ren

ovat

ion”

[s

ee “

Lin

es 6

4-7

7”

abov

e]

• LI

NE

S 3

45

-34

7 a

fter

Jo

han

nes

Itte

n, 1

916

, q

uo

ted

in F

ran

k W

hit

ford

, B

auh

aus

(Lo

nd

on

: Th

ames

& H

ud

son

, 19

84

), p

. 10

6:

Itte

n t

ho

ug

ht

it im

po

ssib

le t

o c

on

sid

er c

olo

ur

apar

t fr

om

fo

rm,

and

vic

e ve

rsa,

si

nce

on

e ca

nn

ot

exis

t w

ith

ou

t th

e o

ther

. A

sh

ort

ess

ay w

hic

h h

e w

rote

in 1

916

g

ives

th

e es

sen

ce o

f h

is t

heo

ry o

f co

lou

r an

d f

orm

.Th

e cl

ear

geo

met

ric

form

is t

he

on

e m

ost

eas

ily c

om

pre

hen

ded

an

d it

s b

asic

el

emen

ts a

re t

he

circ

le,

the

squ

are

and

th

e tr

ian

gle

. E

very

po

ssib

le f

orm

lies

d

orm

ant

in t

hes

e fo

rmal

ele

men

ts.

They

are

vis

ible

to

him

wh

o s

ees,

invi

sib

le

to h

im w

ho

do

es n

ot.

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

35

41

• LI

NE

S 3

47-3

49 a

fter

Ric

har

d H

olli

s, G

rap

hic

Des

ign

: A

Con

cise

His

tory

(L

on

do

n: Th

ames

& H

ud

son

, 1994),

p. 5

3:

Thes

e d

evel

op

men

ts,

fro

m E

xpre

ssio

nis

m t

owar

ds

fun

ctio

nal

ism

an

d f

rom

han

dcr

aft

tow

ard

s d

esig

n f

or

mac

hin

e p

rod

uct

ion

, ca

n b

e tr

aced

in t

he

chan

gin

g g

rap

hic

des

ign

at

th

e B

auh

aus,

th

e fa

mo

us

sch

oo

l of

arts

an

d c

raft

s, e

stab

lish

ed in

Wei

mar

in 1

919

. It

s fi

rst

lett

erh

ead

use

d t

he

typ

efac

e d

esig

ned

by

Beh

ren

s, M

ediä

val.

The

sch

oo

l’s fi

rst

emb

lem

was

like

a m

aso

n’s

mar

k, a

sp

read

-eag

led

fig

ure

car

ryin

g a

loft

a p

yram

id.

B

y 19

24 t

his

had

bee

n r

epla

ced

by

the

geo

met

rici

zed

pro

file

of

a h

ead

(ad

apte

d f

rom

a

mu

ch e

arlie

r d

esig

n b

y O

skar

Sch

lem

mer

, o

ne

of

the

staf

f),

wh

ich

co

uld

be

sim

ply

re

pro

du

ced

fro

m p

rin

ter’

s ‘r

ule

s’ –

str

ips

of

wo

od

or

met

al t

hat

pri

nte

d a

s so

lid li

nes

.

• LI

NE

S 3

51-3

62 a

fter

Jac

qu

es R

anci

ère,

“Th

e S

urf

ace

of

Des

ign”

in T

he

Fu

ture

of t

he

Imag

e (L

on

do

n:

Ver

so,

2007),

pp

. 92

-93:

In t

he

even

t, t

he

qu

esti

on

mig

ht

be

form

ula

ted

as

follo

ws:

wh

at r

esem

bla

nce

is

ther

e b

etw

een

Sté

ph

ane

Mal

larm

é, a

Fre

nch

po

et w

riti

ng

Un

cou

p d

e d

és ja

mai

s

n’ab

olir

a le

has

ard

in 1

897,

and

pet

er B

ehre

ns,

Ger

man

arc

hit

ect,

en

gin

eer

and

d

esig

ner

wh

o,

ten

yea

rs la

ter,

was

in c

har

ge

of

des

ign

ing

th

e p

rod

uct

s, a

dve

rts

and

ev

en b

uild

ing

s o

f th

e A

EG

(A

lleg

emei

ne

Ele

ktri

zitä

ts G

esel

lsch

aft)

? O

n t

he

face

of

it,

this

is a

stu

pid

qu

esti

on

. M

alla

rmé

is k

now

n a

s th

e au

tho

r o

f p

oem

s th

at b

ecam

e in

crea

sin

gly

rar

e, s

ho

rt a

nd

qu

inte

ssen

tial

as

his

po

etic

art

dev

elo

ped

. Th

e la

tter

is

gen

eral

ly e

pit

om

ized

by

a co

ntr

ast

bet

wee

n t

wo

sta

tes

of

lan

gu

age:

a c

rud

e st

ate

th

at s

erve

s fo

r co

mm

un

icat

ion

, d

escr

ipti

on

, in

stru

ctio

n,

and

hen

ce f

or

a u

se o

f sp

eech

an

alo

go

us

to t

he

circ

ula

tio

n o

f co

mm

od

itie

s an

d c

urr

ency

; an

d a

n e

ssen

tial

st

ate

that

‘tr

ansp

ose

s a

fact

of

nat

ure

into

its

virt

ual

vib

rato

ry d

isap

pea

ran

ce’

so

as

to r

evea

l th

e ‘p

ure

no

tio

n’.

W

hat

rel

atio

nsh

ip is

th

ere

bet

wee

n a

po

et t

hu

s d

efin

ed a

nd

Pet

er B

ehre

ns,

an

en

gin

eer

in t

he

serv

ice

of

a m

ajo

r b

ran

d p

rod

uci

ng

bu

lbs,

ket

tles

or

hea

ters

? U

nlik

e th

e p

oet

, B

ehre

ns

is in

volv

ed in

th

e m

ass

pro

du

ctio

n o

f u

tilit

aria

n e

qu

ipm

ent.

A

nd

he

is a

lso

th

e su

pp

ort

er o

f a

un

ified

, fu

nct

ion

alis

t vi

sio

n.

He

wan

ts e

very

thin

g

sub

mit

ted

to

th

e sa

me

pri

nci

ple

of

un

ity,

fro

m t

he

con

stru

ctio

n o

f w

ork

sho

ps

to

the

bra

nd

’s lo

go

gra

m a

nd

ad

vert

isin

g.

He

wan

ts t

o r

edu

ce t

he

ob

ject

s p

rod

uce

d

to a

cer

tain

nu

mb

er o

f ‘t

ypic

al’

form

s. W

hat

he

calls

‘im

par

tin

g s

tyle

’ to

his

firm

’s

ou

tpu

t as

sum

es t

he

app

licat

ion

of

a si

ng

le p

rin

cip

le t

o o

bje

cts

and

to

th

e ic

on

s th

at

off

er t

hem

to

th

e p

ub

lic:

stri

pp

ing

th

e o

bje

cts

and

th

eir

imag

es o

f an

y d

eco

rati

ve

pre

ttin

ess,

of

anyt

hin

g t

hat

an

swer

s to

th

e ro

uti

nes

of

bu

yers

or

selle

rs a

nd

th

eir

rath

er s

illy

dre

ams

of

luxu

ry a

nd

sen

sual

ple

asu

re.

Beh

ren

s w

ants

to

red

uce

ob

ject

s an

d ic

on

s to

ess

enti

al f

orm

s, g

eom

etri

cal m

oti

fs, an

d s

trea

mlin

ed c

urv

es.

Acc

ord

ing

to

th

is p

rin

cip

le,

he

wan

ts t

he

des

ign

of

ob

ject

s to

ap

pro

xim

ate

as c

lose

ly a

s p

oss

ible

to

th

eir

fun

ctio

n,

and

th

e d

esig

n o

f th

e ic

on

s th

at r

epre

sen

t th

em t

o a

pp

roxi

mat

e

42

as c

lose

ly a

s p

oss

ible

to

th

e in

form

atio

n t

hey

are

su

pp

ose

d t

o p

rovi

de

abo

ut

th

ose

ob

ject

s.

• LI

NE

S 3

66

-36

8 a

fter

Kar

l Kra

us,

191

2,

qu

ote

d in

Hal

Fo

ster

, D

esig

n a

nd

Cri

me

(Lo

nd

on

/New

Yo

rk:

Ver

so,

20

02

), p

p. 1

4-1

6:

Loo

s b

egan

his

bat

tle

wit

h A

rt N

ou

veau

a d

ecad

e b

efo

re “

Orn

amen

t an

d c

rim

e.”

A

po

inte

d a

ttac

k co

mes

in 1

90

0,

in t

he

form

of

an a

lleg

ori

cal s

kit

abo

ut

“a p

oo

r

littl

e ri

ch m

an”

wh

o c

om

mis

sio

ns

an A

rt N

ou

veau

des

ign

er t

o p

ut

“Art

in e

ach

an

d

ever

y th

ing

”:E

ach

ro

om

fo

rmed

a s

ymp

ho

ny

of

colo

rs,

com

ple

te in

itse

lf. W

alls

, w

all

cove

rin

gs,

fu

rnit

ure

, an

d m

ater

ials

wer

e m

ade

to h

arm

on

ize

in t

he

mo

st a

rtfu

l w

ays.

Eac

h h

ou

seh

old

item

had

its

own

sp

ecifi

c p

lace

an

d w

as in

teg

rate

d

wit

h t

he

oth

ers

in t

he

mo

st w

on

der

ful c

om

bin

atio

ns.

Th

e ar

chit

ect

has

fo

rgo

tten

no

thin

g,

abso

lute

ly n

oth

ing

. c

igar

ash

tray

s, c

utl

ery,

lig

ht

swit

ches

–

ever

yth

ing

, ev

eryt

hin

g w

as m

ade

by

him

.Th

is G

esam

tku

nst

wer

k d

oes

mo

re t

han

co

mb

ine

arch

itec

ture

, ar

t, a

nd

cra

ft;

it

co

mm

ing

les

sub

ject

an

d o

bje

ct:

“th

e in

div

idu

alit

y o

f th

e ow

ner

was

exp

ress

ed

in e

very

orn

amen

t, e

very

fo

rm,

ever

y n

ail.”

Fo

r th

e A

rt N

ou

veau

des

ign

er t

his

is

per

fect

ion

: “Y

ou

are

co

mp

lete

!” h

e ex

ult

s to

th

e ow

ner

. B

ut

the

own

er is

no

t so

su

re:

this

co

mp

leti

on

“ta

xed

[h

is]

bra

in.”

Rat

her

th

an a

san

ctu

ary

fro

m m

od

ern

str

ess,

h

is A

rt N

ou

veau

inte

rio

r is

an

oth

er e

xpre

ssio

n o

f it

: “T

he

hap

py

man

su

dd

enly

fel

t d

eep

ly,

dee

ply

un

hap

py

… h

e w

as p

recl

ud

ed f

rom

all

futu

re li

vin

g a

nd

str

ivin

g,

dev

elo

pin

g a

nd

des

irin

g.

He

tho

ug

ht,

th

is is

wh

at it

mea

ns

to le

arn

to

go

ab

ou

t

life

wit

h o

ne’

s ow

n c

orp

se.

Yes

ind

eed

. H

e is

fin

ish

ed.

He

is c

omp

lete

!”

For

the

Art

No

uve

au d

esig

ner

th

is c

om

ple

tio

n r

eun

ites

art

an

d li

fe,

and

all

sig

ns

o

f d

eath

are

ban

ish

ed.

For

Loo

s, o

n t

he

oth

er h

and

, th

is t

riu

mp

han

t ov

erco

min

g

of

limit

s is

a c

atas

tro

ph

ic lo

ss o

f th

e sa

me

– th

e lo

ss o

f o

bje

ctiv

e co

nst

rain

ts

req

uir

ed t

o d

efin

e an

y “f

utu

re li

vin

g a

nd

str

ivin

g,

dev

elo

pin

g a

nd

des

irin

g.”

Far

fro

m

a tr

ansc

end

ence

of

dea

th,

this

loss

of

fin

itu

de

is a

dea

th-i

n-l

ife,

as fi

gu

red

in t

he

ult

imat

e tr

op

e o

f in

dis

tin

ctio

n,

livin

g “

wit

h o

ne’

s ow

n c

orp

se.”

S

uch

is t

he

mal

aise

of

“th

e p

oo

r lit

tle

rich

man

”: r

ath

er t

han

a m

an o

f

qu

alit

ies,

he

is a

man

wit

ho

ut

them

(as

an

oth

er V

ien

nes

e sc

ou

rge,

th

e g

reat

n

ovel

ist

Ro

ber

t M

usi

l, w

ou

ld s

oo

n p

ut

it),

fo

r w

hat

he

lack

s, in

his

ver

y co

mp

leti

on

,

is d

iffe

ren

ce o

r d

isti

nct

ion

. In

a t

ypic

ally

pit

hy

stat

emen

t o

f 19

12 K

rau

s w

ou

ld

call

this

lack

of

dis

tin

ctio

n,

wh

ich

pre

clu

des

“al

l fu

ture

livi

ng

an

d s

triv

ing

,”

a la

ck o

f “r

un

nin

g-r

oo

m”:

Ad

olf

Lo

os

and

I –

he

liter

ally

an

d I

ling

uis

tica

lly –

hav

e d

on

e n

oth

ing

mo

re

than

sh

ow t

hat

th

ere

is a

dis

tin

ctio

n b

etw

een

an

urn

an

d a

ch

amb

er p

ot

and

it is

th

is d

isti

nct

ion

ab

ove

all t

hat

pro

vid

es c

ult

ure

wit

h r

un

nin

g-r

oo

m

[Sp

ielr

aum

]. T

he

oth

ers,

th

e p

osi

tive

on

es [

i.e.,

th

ose

wh

o f

ail t

o m

ake

the

“Id

en

tity

“

36

43

dis

tin

ctio

n],

are

div

ided

into

th

ose

wh

o u

se t

he

urn

as

a ch

amb

er p

ot

and

th

ose

wh

o u

se t

he

cham

ber

po

t as

an

urn

.H

ere

“th

ose

wh

o u

se t

he

urn

as

a ch

amb

er p

ot”

art

Art

No

uve

au d

esig

ner

s w

ho

wan

t to

infu

se a

rt (

the

urn

) in

to t

he

uti

litar

ian

ob

ject

(th

e ch

amb

er p

ot)

. Th

ose

wh

o d

o t

he

reve

rse

are

fun

ctio

nal

ist

mo

der

nis

ts w

ho

wan

t to

ele

vate

th

e u

tilit

aria

n o

bje

ct in

to a

rt.

(A f

ew y

ears

late

r M

arce

l Du

cham

p w

ou

ld t

rum

p b

oth

si

des

wit

h h

is d

ysfu

nct

ion

al u

rin

al,

Fou

nta

in,

pre

sen

ted

as

art,

bu

t th

at’s

an

oth

er

sto

ry.)

Fo

r K

rau

s th

e tw

o m

ista

kes

are

sym

met

rica

l – b

oth

co

nfu

se u

se-v

alu

e

and

art

-val

ue

– an

d b

oth

are

per

vers

e in

asm

uch

as

bo

th r

isk

a re

gre

ssiv

e in

dis

tin

ctio

n o

f th

ing

s: t

hey

fai

l to

see

th

at o

bje

ctiv

e lim

its

are

nec

essa

ry f

or

“t

he

run

nin

g-r

oo

m”

that

allo

ws

for

the

mak

ing

of

a lib

eral

kin

d o

f su

bje

ctiv

ity

an

d c

ult

ure

. Th

is is

why

Loo

s o

pp

ose

s n

ot

on

ly t

he

tota

l des

ign

of

Art

No

uve

au

bu

t al

so it

s w

anto

n s

ub

ject

ivis

m (

“in

div

idu

ally

exp

ress

ed in

eve

ry n

ail”

).

Nei

ther

Lo

os

no

r K

rau

s sa

ys a

nyt

hin

g a

bo

ut

a n

atu

ral “

esse

nce

” o

f ar

t, o

r an

ab

solu

te “

auto

no

my”

of

cult

ure

; th

e st

ake

is o

ne

of

“dis

tin

ctio

ns”

an

d “

run

nin

g

roo

m,”

of

pro

po

sed

dif

fere

nce

s an

d p

rovi

sio

nal

sp

aces

.

• LI

NE

S 3

72-3

74 a

fter

“A

co

eur

de

Par

is,

le ‘

Cen

tre

Bea

ub

ou

rg,’

” ac

cess

ed

Oct

ob

er 1

1, h

ttp

://w

ww

.cen

trep

om

pid

ou

.fr/

edu

cati

on

/res

sou

rces

/EN

S-a

rch

itec

ture

-C

entr

e-Po

mp

ido

u/a

u_c

oeu

r_d

e_p

aris

/p2.h

tm

• LI

NE

S 3

78

-381

aft

er “

The

His

tory

of

Tate

at

Mill

ban

k,”

acce

ssed

Oct

ob

er 1

0,

20

11,

htt

p://w

ww

.tat

e.o

rg.u

k/b

rita

in/b

uild

ing

/his

tory

.htm

• LI

NE

S 3

83

-385 a

fter

“S

earc

h R

esu

lts:

Tat

e H

isto

ry S

tati

on

arys

,” a

cces

sed

O

cto

ber

11, 20

11,

htt

p:/

/ww

w3.t

ate.

org

.uk/

rese

arch

/res

earc

hse

rvic

es/a

rch

ive/

show

case

/res

ult

s.js

p?t

hem

e=1&

ob

ject

=454

• LI

NE

S 3

87-3

95 a

fter

Dex

ter

Sin

iste

r, “

We

Wo

uld

Lik

e to

Sh

are

(So

me

No

tes

on

a

Po

ssib

le S

cho

ol B

adg

e),”

Not

es f

or a

n A

rt S

choo

l (N

ico

sia:

Dex

ter

Sin

iste

r, 2

00

6),

in

sid

e b

ack

cove

r; s

ee a

lso

htt

p:/

/ww

w.d

exte

rsin

iste

r.o

rg/li

bra

ry.h

tml?

id=

15:

Her

ald

ry is

a g

rap

hic

lan

gu

age

evo

lved

fro

m a

rou

nd

113

0 a

d t

o id

enti

fy f

amili

es,

stat

es a

nd

oth

er s

oci

al g

rou

ps.

Sp

ecifi

c vi

sual

fo

rms

yiel

d s

pec

ific

mea

nin

gs,

an

d t

hes

e fo

rms

may

be

com

bin

ed in

an

intr

icat

e sy

nta

x o

f m

ean

ing

an

d

rep

rese

nta

tio

n.

Any

her

ald

ic d

evic

e is

des

crib

ed b

y b

oth

a w

ritt

en d

escr

ipti

on

an

d

its

corr

esp

on

din

g g

rap

hic

fo

rm.

The

set

of

a p

rio

ri w

ritt

en in

stru

ctio

ns

is c

alle

d a

B

lazo

n –

to

giv

e it

fo

rm is

to

Em

bla

zon

.

44

In

ord

er t

o e

nsu

re t

hat

th

e p

ictu

res

dra

wn

fro

m t

he

des

crip

tio

ns

are

accu

rate

an

d r

easo

nab

ly a

like,

Bla

zon

s fo

llow

a s

tric

t se

t o

f ru

les

and

sh

are

a u

niq

ue

voca

bu

lary

. O

bje

cts,

su

ch a

s an

imal

s an

d s

hap

es,

are

calle

d c

har

ges

; co

lors

are

re

nam

ed,

such

as

Arg

ent

for

Silv

er o

r O

r fo

r G

old

; an

d d

ivis

ion

s ar

e d

escr

ibed

in

term

s su

ch a

s D

exte

r (“

rig

ht”

in L

atin

) an

d S

inis

ter

(“le

ft”)

.

A g

iven

her

ald

ic f

orm

may

be

dra

wn

in m

any

alte

rnat

ive

way

s, a

ll co

nsi

der

ed

equ

ival

ent,

just

as

the

lett

er “

A”

may

be

pri

nte

d in

a v

arie

ty o

f fo

nts

. Th

e sh

ape

o

f a

bad

ge,

fo

r ex

amp

le,

is im

mat

eria

l an

d d

iffe

ren

t ar

tist

s m

ay d

epic

t th

e sa

me

Bla

zon

in s

ligh

tly

dif

fere

nt

way

s.

The

Bla

zon

is a

fixe

d,

abst

ract

lite

rary

tra

nsl

atio

n o

f th

e o

pen

, re

pre

sen

tati

on

al

gra

ph

ic s

ymb

ol (

and

vic

e ve

rsa.

) U

sin

g a

lim

ited

bu

t p

reci

se v

oca

bu

lary

, fu

ll d

escr

ipti

on

s o

f sh

ield

s ra

ng

e in

co

mp

lexi

ty,

fro

m t

he

rela

tive

ly s

imp

le:

A

zure

, a

ben

d O

r

to t

he

rela

tive

ly c

om

ple

x:(P

arty

) p

er f

ess,

Ver

t an

d G

ule

s, a

boa

r’s

hea

d e

rase

d A

rgen

t, la

ng

ued

Gu

les,

hol

din

g in

his

mou

th t

he

shan

k- b

one

of a

dee

r p

rop

er,

in c

hie

f: a

nd

in

bas

e tw

o w

ing

s co

njo

ined

in lu

re r

ever

sed

Arg

ent.

Ab

ove

the

shie

ld is

pla

ced

an H

elm

befi

ttin

g h

is d

egre

e w

ith a

Man

tlin

g V

ert

dou

ble

d A

rgen

t, a

nd

on

a W

reat

h o

f th

e Li

veri

es is

set

for

Cre

st a

han

d p

rop

er h

old

ing

a C

eltic

cro

ss

pal

eway

s, O

r, a

nd

in a

n E

scro

l ove

r th

e sa

me

the

mot

to “

l’Au

dac

e”.

Tod

ay,

sch

oo

ls,

com

pan

ies

and

oth

er in

stit

uti

on

s m

ay o

bta

in o

ffici

ally

rec

og

niz

ed

form

s fr

om

her

ald

ic a

uth

ori

ties

, w

hic

h h

ave

the

forc

e o

f a

reg

iste

red

tra

dem

ark.

H

eral

dry

mig

ht

equ

ally

be

con

sid

ered

par

t o

f a

per

son

al o

r in

stit

uti

on

al h

erit

age,

as

wel

l as

as a

man

ifest

atio

n o

f ci

vic

and

/or

nat

ion

al p

rid

e. H

owev

er,

man

y u

sers

o

f m

od

ern

her

ald

ic d

esig

ns

do

no

t re

gis

ter

wit

h t

he

pro

per

au

tho

riti

es,

and

so

me

des

ign

ers

do

no

t fo

llow

th

e ru

les

of

her

ald

ic d

esig

n a

t al

l.

Bas

tard

s.

• LI

NE

S 3

99-4

01

aft

er G

eorg

e K

ub

ler,

Th

e S

hap

e of

Tim

e: R

emar

ks o

n t

he

His

tory

of T

hin

gs

(New

Hav

en:

Yale

Un

iver

sity

Pre

ss, 1

96

2),

p. 6

7:

Ret

urn

ing

now

to

th

e p

lace

of

inve

nti

on

in t

he

his

tory

of

thin

gs,

we

con

fro

nt

o

nce

ag

ain

th

e p

arad

ox w

hic

h a

rose

ear

lier

in t

his

dis

cuss

ion

. It

is t

he

par

adox

o

f g

ener

aliz

atio

n c

on

cern

ing

un

iqu

e ev

ents

. S

ince

no

tw

o t

hin

gs

or

even

ts c

an

occ

upy

the

sam

e co

ord

inat

es o

f sp

ace

and

tim

e, e

very

act

dif

fers

fro

m it

s p

red

eces

sors

an

d it

s su

cces

sors

. N

o t

wo

th

ing

s o

r ac

ts c

an b

e ac

cep

ted

as

id

enti

cal.

Eve

ry a

ct is

an

inve

nti

on

. Ye

t th

e en

tire

org

aniz

atio

n o

f th

ou

gh

t an

d

lan

gu

age

den

ies

this

sim

ple

affi

rmat

ion

of

no

n-i

den

tity

. We

can

gra

sp t

he

un

iver

se

on

ly b

y si

mp

lifyi

ng

it w

ith

idea

s o

f id

enti

ty b

y cl

asse

s, t

ypes

an

d c

ateg

ori

es a

nd

b

y re

arra

ng

ing

th

e in

fin

ite

con

tin

uat

ion

of

no

n-i

den

tica

l eve

nts

into

a fi

nit

e sy

stem

o

f si

mili

tud

es.

It is

in t

he

no

tio

n o

f b

ein

g t

hat

no

eve

nt

ever

rep

eats

, b

ut

it is

in t

he

AN

EW

SY

MB

OL

PR

OP

OS

ED

&

PR

OJE

CT

ED

IN

SID

E T

HIS

SP

AC

EIS

(LI

KE

EV

ER

Y L

OG

O)

ALL

SU

RFA

CE

: A

BU

BB

LE

B

LO

WN

AR

OU

ND

NO

TH

ING

INFL

ATE

D T

O B

UR

STIN

G P

OIN

T B

Y T

HE

LA

ZY

AS

SU

MP

TIO

N T

HA

TW

HA

T W

E L

OO

K L

IKE

IS

WH

O W

E A

RE

IN O

THE

R W

OR

DS

, “ID

EN

TIT

Y” =

IDE

NTI

TY

37

45

nat

ure

of

tho

ug

ht

that

we

un

der

stan

d e

ven

ts o

nly

by

the

iden

titi

es w

e im

agin

e

amo

ng

th

em.

• LI

NE

S 4

05-4

20 a

fter

“Par

is 1

882:

Ed

ou

ard

Man

et M

eets

Bas

s A

le,”

Wig

& P

en,

Jan

uar

y 10

, 20

11,

htt

p:/

/wig

pen

.blo

gsp

ot.

com

/20

11/0

1/e

do

uar

d-m

anet

-mee

ts-

bas

s-al

e.h

tml:

Su

re, w

e’re

th

e sa

me

spec

ies

as t

he

Ho

mo

sap

ien

s d

epic

ted

in p

re-2

0th

cen

tury

p

ain

tin

gs,

bu

t w

ho

has

n’t

felt

a d

isco

nn

ect

wh

en g

azin

g in

th

e ar

t w

orl

d’s

rea

r vi

ew

mir

ror

– a

chas

m s

epar

atin

g e

arlie

r cu

ltu

res

fro

m o

ur

own

? In

th

at,

tran

sfo

rmat

ion

s

in m

ater

ial c

ult

ure

des

erve

mu

ch o

f th

e cr

edit

. Wh

ich

is o

ne

go

od

rea

son

why

Ed

ou

ard

Man

et’s

A B

ar a

t Fo

lies-

Ber

gèr

e, p

ain

ted

a y

ear

bef

ore

his

dea

th in

18

83,

is

exc

epti

on

al.

Lo

ok

at t

he

cou

nte

r o

f th

e b

ar in

th

e ab

ove

pai

nti

ng

. yo

u’ll

see

two

bo

ttle

s o

f B

ass

pal

e A

le,

wit

h t

hei

r fa

mili

ar r

ed t

rian

gle

log

o.

It’s

a b

ran

d t

hat

man

y o

f u

s kn

ow

firs

t h

and

. S

eein

g it

in t

he

pai

nti

ng

co

nn

ects

us

in a

win

k w

ith

late

19

th c

entu

ry

pat

ron

s (m

any

of

them

per

hap

s B

riti

sh t

ou

rist

s) a

t Fo

lies-

Ber

gèr

ie.

All

at o

nce

, vi

a a

com

mer

cial

log

o,

we’

ve d

isco

vere

d a

bri

dg

e ov

er a

cu

ltu

ral c

has

m.

Ir

on

ical

ly, m

any

Am

eric

ans

hav

e to

ld m

e th

at t

hey

’ve

seen

th

e p

ain

tin

g b

ut

hav

en’t

no

tice

d t

he

bee

r. S

om

e o

f th

em a

re n

ot

bee

r d

rin

kers

. M

igh

t o

ther

s w

ho

are

, h

owev

er, b

e su

bje

ct t

o t

he

invi

sib

le g

orill

a tr

ap,

i.e.,

fai

ling

to

see

so

met

hin

g in

fro

nt

of

thei

r n

ose

s, b

ecau

se it

defi

es t

hei

r ex

pec

tati

on

s?

A B

ar a

t Fo

lies-

Ber

gèr

e m

ust

als

o b

e o

ur

lon

ges

t-ru

nn

ing

exa

mp

le (

alb

eit

inad

vert

ent)

of

pro

du

ct p

lace

men

t. M

arke

ters

at

Bas

s m

ust

exu

lt:

127

yea

rs o

f

exp

osu

re t

o th

e b

ran

d in

gal

leri

es a

nd

art

boo

ks –

th

at’s

a lo

t of

eye

bal

ls!

• LI

NE

S 4

24-4

25 a

fter

Dan

iel B

oo

rsti

n,

The

Imag

e: A

Gu

ide

to P

seu

do-

Eve

nts

in

Am

eric

a (1

962;

New

Yo

rk:

Vin

tag

e, 1

992)

p. 1

85:

A t

rad

emar

k (in

ten

ded

to

bec

om

e a

stan

dar

d f

or

jud

gin

g a

ll p

rod

uct

s o

f a

cert

ain

ki

nd

) is

a le

gal

ly p

rote

cted

set

of

lett

ers,

a p

ictu

re,

or

a d

esig

n,

iden

tify

ing

a p

arti

cula

r p

rod

uct

. B

ecau

se t

rad

emar

ks a

nd

man

y o

f th

e o

ther

imag

es fl

oo

din

g o

ur

exp

erie

nce

s ar

e, li

ke m

ost

oth

er p

seu

do

-eve

nts

, ex

pen

sive

to

pro

du

ce,

som

eon

e al

way

s h

as a

n

inte

rest

in d

isse

min

atin

g,

re-e

nfo

rcin

g,

and

exp

loit

ing

th

em.

Un

like

oth

er s

tan

dar

ds,

th

ey c

an b

e ow

ned

. To

kee

p t

hem

leg

ally

val

id a

s tr

adem

arks

, th

e ow

ner

mu

st

con

stan

tly

reas

sert

his

ow

ner

ship

.

• LI

NE

S 4

27-4

35,

afte

r “G

on

e Fi

shin

’,” T

he

Gen

tlem

an’s

Gu

ide

to C

ockt

ail

Con

vers

atio

n, A

pri

l 20,

20

10,

htt

p:/

/gg

tcc.

wo

rdp

ress

.co

m/c

ateg

ory

/co

ckta

ils:

46

Sh

ou

ld y

ou

hap

pen

to

fin

d y

ou

rsel

f at

th

e b

ar n

ext

to o

ne

of

the

inte

rest

ing

typ

es

you

ho

ped

yo

u m

igh

t fi

nd

, o

rder

a B

ass

Ale

, if

ava

ilab

le.

As

the

bar

ten

der

go

es o

ff t

o

get

it,

casu

ally

rem

ark:

“yo

u k

now

, n

orm

ally

I re

sist

bra

nd

ing

as

mu

ch a

s p

oss

ible

, b

ut

ever

y ti

me

I see

Bas

s, I

can’

t h

elp

bu

t w

ant

on

e. It

’s a

bit

like

th

e o

rig

inal

Lac

ost

e cr

oco

dile

.” N

ow,

if y

ou’

ve m

anag

ed t

o c

atch

yo

ur

nei

gh

bo

r’s

atte

nti

on

– a

nd

we

will

p

rete

nd

th

at y

ou

hav

e, y

ou

ch

arm

ing

fel

low

yo

u –

yo

u’ll

like

ly g

et a

n e

xcep

tio

nal

ly

con

fuse

d lo

ok

in r

etu

rn.

This

sh

ou

ld n

ot

surp

rise

yo

u.

Mo

st c

asu

al d

rin

kers

, an

d e

ven

so

me

very

ser

iou

s o

nes

, d

on’

t kn

ow t

hat

th

e R

ed T

rian

gle

wh

ich

ad

orn

s ev

ery

bo

ttle

o

f B

ass

Ale

is t

he

firs

t tr

adem

ark

ever

issu

ed in

th

e U

K.

In

fac

t, in

18

75

, w

hen

th

e Tr

ade

Mar

k R

egis

trat

ion

Act

bec

ame

law

, an

em

plo

yee

of

the

Bas

s b

rew

ing

co

mp

any

sto

od

on

lin

e al

l nig

ht

to m

ake

sure

th

at,

wh

en t

he

offi

ce o

pen

ed in

th

e m

orn

ing

, th

e R

ed T

rian

gle

wo

uld

be

the

firs

t o

n t

he

bo

oks

(c

lose

ly f

ollo

wed

by

a R

ed D

iam

on

d f

or

thei

r st

ron

g a

le).

Yo

u c

ou

ld p

oin

t to

eac

h t

ime

Ap

ple

rel

ease

s a

pro

du

ct f

or

som

eth

ing

of

a m

od

ern

an

alo

gu

e.

So

, if

th

e lo

ok

you

get

bac

k is

on

e o

f o

pen

pu

zzle

men

t, w

ith

a t

ou

ch o

f cu

rio

sity

, yo

u s

ho

uld

see

fit

to c

on

tin

ue:

“W

ell,

the

Red

Tri

ang

le y

ou

see

on

eve

r B

ass

bo

ttle

is

act

ual

ly t

he

firs

t tr

adem

ark

ever

issu

ed in

th

e U

K.

It w

as a

bit

of

a st

atu

s sy

mb

ol,

wh

ich

eve

n f

ou

nd

it’s

way

into

a n

um

ber

of

wo

rks

of

art.

I’d

gu

ess

that

, if

rap

per

s h

ad

exis

ted

bac

k th

en,

they

wo

uld

hav

e ex

tolle

d t

he

virt

ues

of

Bas

s ra

ther

th

an C

rist

al o

r pat

ron

.” If

yo

u’v

e m

ade

it t

his

far

an

d m

ain

tain

ed y

ou

r co

mp

atri

ots

att

enti

on

: w

ell

do

ne.

Ask

her

wh

at s

he’

s h

avin

g.

• LI

NE

S 4

39

-45

5 a

fter

Ph

ilip

Th

om

pso

n &

Pet

er D

aven

po

rt,

The

Dic

tion

ary

of V

isu

al

Lan

gu

age

(Lo

nd

on

: B

erg

stro

m &

Boy

le, 1

98

0)

p. 1

10:

Gen

eral

Sig

ns.

Th

e ci

rcle

, sq

uar

e, t

rian

gle

, c

RO

SS

, fo

rked

em

ble

m.

Thes

e ar

e si

gn

s w

hic

h t

og

eth

er f

orm

th

e b

asic

pla

stic

lan

gu

age.

Th

e ci

rcle

is t

he

trad

itio

nal

sym

bo

l o

f et

ern

ity

and

th

e h

eave

ns.

Th

e sq

uar

e re

pre

sen

ts t

he

wo

rld

an

d d

eno

tes

ord

er.

The

tria

ng

le is

a s

ymb

ol o

f g

ener

ativ

e p

ower

an

d s

pir

itu

al u

nit

y. T

he

cR

OS

S is

a

com

bin

atio

n o

f ac

tive

an

d p

assi

ve e

lem

ents

. Th

e fo

rked

em

ble

m (

Y),

a m

edie

val

sym

bo

l fo

r th

e tr

init

y, is

als

o a

n e

mb

lem

fo

r th

e p

ath

s o

f lif

e. A

lth

ou

gh

th

ese

bro

ad

inte

rpre

tati

on

s o

ccu

r in

man

y re

ligio

ns

and

cu

ltu

res

thro

ug

ho

ut

his

tory

, b

ecau

se o

f th

eir

form

al s

imp

licit

y th

ey c

an b

e in

vest

ed w

ith

infi

nit

e su

bje

ctiv

e m

ean

ing

s.

• LI

NE

S 4

59

-46

1 a

fter

Um

ber

to E

co,

The

Op

en W

ork

(Cam

bri

dg

e, M

ass.

: H

arva

rd,

198

0),

pp

. 14

-15

:

Hen

ce,

it is

no

t ov

eram

bit

iou

s to

det

ect

in t

he

po

etic

s o

f th

e “o

pen

” w

ork

– a

nd

ev

en le

ss s

o t

he

“wo

rk in

mov

emen

t” –

mo

re o

r le

ss s

pec

ific

over

ton

es o

f tr

end

s in

co

nte

mp

ora

ry s

cien

tifi

c th

ou

gh

t. F

or

exam

ple

, it

is a

cri

tica

l co

mm

on

pla

ce t

o r

efer

to

“Id

en

tity

“

38

47

the

spat

iote

mp

ora

l co

nti

nu

um

in o

rder

to

acc

ou

nt

for

the

stru

ctu

re o

f th

e u

niv

erse

in

Joyc

e’s

wo

rks.

Po

uss

eur

has

off

ered

a t

enta

tive

defi

nit

ion

of

his

mu

sica

l wo

rk w

hic

h

invo

lves

th

e te

rm “

fiel

d o

f p

oss

ibili

ties

.” In

fac

t, t

his

sh

ows

that

he

is p

rep

ared

to

b

orr

ow t

wo

ext

rem

ely

reve

alin

g t

ech

nic

al t

erm

s fr

om

co

nte

mp

ora

ry c

ult

ure

.

The

no

tio

n o

f “fi

eld

” is

pro

vid

ed b

y p

hys

ics

and

imp

lies

a re

vise

d v

isio

n o

f th

e cl

assi

c re

lati

on

ship

po

site

d b

etw

een

cau

se a

nd

eff

ect

as a

rig

id,

on

e-d

irec

tio

nal

sys

tem

: n

ow

a co

mp

lex

inte

rpla

y o

f m

oti

ve f

orc

es is

envi

sag

ed,

a co

nfi

gu

rati

on

of

po

ssib

le e

ven

ts,

a co

mp

lete

dyn

amis

m o

f st

ruct

ure

. Th

e n

oti

on

of

“po

ssib

ility

” is

a p

hilo

sop

hic

al

can

on

wh

ich

refl

ects

a w

ides

pre

ad t

end

ency

in c

on

tem

po

rary

sci

ence

; th

e d

isca

rdin

g

of

a st

atic

, sy

llog

isti

c vi

ew o

f o

rder

, an

d a

co

rres

po

nd

ing

dev

olu

tio

n o

f in

telle

ctu

al

auth

ori

ty t

o p

erso

nal

dec

isio

n,

cho

ice,

an

d s

oci

al c

on

text

.

• LI

NE

S 4

65-4

73 a

fter

Do

men

ick

Am

mir

ati,

“Str

uct

ure

, M

etap

ho

r, C

on

tem

po

rary

A

rt,”

Art

Lie

s N

o.

68 (

Sp

rin

g/S

um

mer

20

11),

cov

er:

Rec

entl

y I r

ead

Bru

no

Lat

ou

r’s

We

Hav

e N

ever

Bee

n M

oder

n,

fro

m 1

991

. I’d

go

tten

th

e se

nse

fro

m t

alki

ng

to

my

mo

re in

telle

ctu

ally

co

nsc

ien

tio

us

frie

nd

s th

at L

ato

ur

h

ad a

lot

to s

ay a

bo

ut

the

curr

ent

mo

men

t, w

hic

h f

eels

gen

eral

ly t

ran

siti

on

al;

in

par

ticu

lar,

in a

rt it

see

ms

an in

-bet

wee

n t

ime

des

cen

ded

aft

er t

he

eco

no

mic

co

llap

se, d

raw

ing

to

a c

lose

a p

erio

d d

om

inat

ed in

my

min

d b

y, o

n t

he

on

e h

and

, sa

lab

le n

eofo

rmal

ist

wo

rk (

how

ever

inte

llect

ual

ly ju

stifi

ed,

how

ever

imb

rica

ted

in

co

nsi

der

atio

ns

of

pro

cess

, h

owev

er g

oo

d)

and

, o

n t

he

oth

er,

atte

mp

ts t

o (

re)v

ivif

y p

olit

ical

act

ion

in a

rt (

incl

ud

ing

th

e o

bse

ssio

n w

ith

uto

pia

an

d t

he

ob

sess

ion

wit

h

ped

ago

gy)

. Th

e b

oo

k’s

aim

is t

o fi

nd

a w

ay b

eyo

nd

th

e im

pas

se t

hat

bec

ame

clea

r b

y th

e la

te 1

980s

/ear

ly ’

90s

bet

wee

n o

bvi

ou

sly

falt

erin

g m

od

ern

ity

and

a s

eem

ing

ly

dea

d-e

nd

po

stm

od

ern

ism

. G

iven

th

e p

assa

ge

of

twen

ty y

ears

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391. „Identity“

Diese dreiteilige Projektion, die einesteils wie ein Informationsfilm, andernteils wie ein minimalistischer Comic wirkt, verfolgt die Entwick-lung grafischer Identitäten über die letzten 150 Jahre. Insbesondere beleuchtet sie das angespannte Verhältnis, das sich zwischen Kultur und Wirtschaft entwickelte, als die Kunstinstitutionen zunehmend damit beschäftigt waren, sich ihr eigenes Image aufzubauen. Wie spiegeln neueste Änderungen in der gra-fischen Identität von Museen, Gale-rien und sogenannten alternativen Kunsträumen die Veränderungen in der institutionellen Politik und Strategie wider? „Identity“ arbeitet mit drei Fallstudien – dem Centre Pompidou in Paris, dem Museum of Modern Art in New York und der Tate Modern in London, um von diesem Ausgangspunkt zu einem umfas-senderen Bild zu gelangen.

„Identity“ wurde von Stefán Kalmar und Richard Birkett vom Artists Space in New York in Auftrag gegeben und dort erstmals 2012 gezeigt. Zur Projektion gehörte ein Booklet mit dem Transkript eines Soundtracks, der vollständig aus gefundenen Texten zusammengestellt war. Da das Material gekürzt, paraphrasiert oder vollständig überarbeitet wurde, enthält das Booklet ein umfassendes Inventar von originalen Quellen – deshalb befinden sich am rechten Seitenrand die Referenzzahlen der Zeilen. Dieses Quellenmaterial umfasst so viel an umgebenden Text, dass es möglich wird, den vollstän-digen Sinn des Originals wiederher-zustellen. Damit wird es zum zusätz-lichen Lesestoff – um nicht zu sagen zu einer Copyright-Apologie.

Bestandteile sind hier das Audio-Skript und Quellnotizen, der Schriftsatz aus dem Original-Booklet, das im Rahmen weiterer Installationen von „Identity“ mehrfach neu aufgelegt wurde, so im Tramway, Glasgow (2012), dem Festival d’Affiches, Chaumont (2013), which passed through MCA Denver (2013), The Power Plant, Toronto (2013), and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, MI (2014). sowie als Bestandteil der Gruppen-Wanderausstellung Postscript, Writing After Conceptual Art (2013). Dieselben Seiten stehen zum Download von www.servingli-brary.org zur Verfügung.

1. “Identity”

Part informational film, part minimalist cartoon, this three-screen projection tracks the development of graphic identities over the course of the last 150 years. In particular, it animates the fraught relationship between cultural and corporate spheres as art institutions become increasingly pre-occupied with their own image. How do recent changes in the graphic identities of museums, galleries and so-called alternative spaces reflect the shifting landscape of institution-al policy and strategy? “Identity” uses three case studies – the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and London’s Tate Modern – as coordi-nates from which to plot a broader landscape.

“Identity” was commissioned by Stefán Kalmar and Richard Birkett of Artists Space, New York, and first shown there in 2012. The projection was accompanied by a booklet with a transcript of the soundtrack, which is entirely compiled from found texts. As this material was liberally trun-cated, paraphrased, or entirely reworked, the booklet includes an exhaustive inventory of original sources – hence the reference line numbers in the script’s right-hand margin. This source material includes as much surrounding text as is neces-sary to reinstate the full sense of the doctored originals. As such, it also amounts to a pile of *further reading* – not to mention a de facto copyright apologia.

Included here are the audio script and source notes, typeset accord-ing to the original booklet, which has been republished alongside subsequent installations of 'Identity’ at Tramway, Glasgow (2012), the Festival d’Affiches, Chaumont (2013), and as part of the traveling group exhibition Postscript, Writing After Conceptual Art (2013), which passed through MCA Denver (2013), The Power Plant, Toronto (2013), and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, MI (2014). The same pages are also available to download from www.servinglibrary.org.

“Id

en

tity

“

2

41

* TRUE MIRROR *

The first poem was the title poem. 1

This time Corinne read it aloud, but she still didn't hear it.

She read it through a third time and heard some of it.

She read it through a fourth time, and heard all of it.

It was a poem containing the lines:

Not wasteland, but a great inverted forest

with all foliage underground

As though it might be best to look immediately for shelter,

Corinne had to put the book down.

At any moment the apartment building seemed liable to lose 10

Its balance and topple across Fifth Avenue into Central Park.

She waited.

Gradually the deluge of truth and beauty abated.

Then New Years Eve of 2007 came:

We celebrated it with friends at a party

Where everybody was asked to wear

Exactly what they wore exactly one year before.

But all at once it dawned on me that this

Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme;

Just this: not text, but texture; not the dream 20

But topsy-turvical coincidence,

Not flimsy nonsense, but a web of sense.

Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find

Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind

Of correlated pattern in the game,

Plexed artistry, and something of the same

Pleasure in it as they who played it found.

They were made with an idea of seeing

Two realms at once. "Two games, yours and

The verso, an additional waiting to be played 30

In another time, another space."

A mirrored world, an unheralded parallel present.

--

Tru

e M

irro

r

42

It's an odd masterpiece,

A celebration of the River Rouge auto plant,

Which had succeeded the Highland Park factory

As Ford's industrial headquarters,

Painted by a Communist

For the son of a Capitalist

The north and south walls are devoted

To nearly life-size scenes in which 40

The plant's grey gears, belts, racks and workbenches

Surge and swarm like some vast intestinal apparatus.

The workers within might be subsidiary organs

Or might be lunch

As the whole churns to excrete a stream of black Fords.

Five Tyres abandoned and Five Tyres remoulded.

Proof of the fact that a mechanical device can

Reproduce personality

And that Quality is merely

The distribution aspect of Quantity. 50

Journalists have conquered the book form;

Writing is now the tiny affair of the individual;

The customers have changed: television's aren't viewers,

but advertisers; publishing's not potential readers,

but distributors.

The result is rapid turnover,

the regime of the best seller

But there will always be

A parallel circuit, a black market.

Being new is, in fact, often understood as 60

A combination of being different

And being recently-produced.

We call a car a new car if this car is different from other cars,

and at the same time the latest, most recent model.

But to be new is by no means the same as being different.

The new is a difference without difference,

Or a difference beyond difference,

A difference which we are unable to recognise.

For Kierkegaard, therefore,

The only medium for a possible emergence of the new 70

Is the ordinary, the "non-different", the identical --

Not the other, but the same.

43

--

Around the same time,

He mailed fifty postcards to friends and acquaintances

Showing two Boettis hand in hand, like twin brothers,

Defining and simultaneously nullifying a fictitious symbol,

An opposition that is not negated but transformed.

The 'e' -- the 'and' -- which Boetti placed

Between his Christian name and his given,

Indicated the multiplicity within the self, 80

Was a symbol of the distinction and difference

Between his two personas,

As well as their reprocity, conjunction and interdependence,

Marking a plus-one as well as a division:

A paradox at his very heart.

It is a matter of outwardly reflecting contact-lenses,

Which blind the one who wears them.

The contact-zone is not a filter:

The reflection is print, the senses are linked up.

To upset my own eyes 90

From the reviews:

What worries many critics most is the fact

That art seems to be alive and well,

Not so much because of them

But in spite of them.

And what do you do?

You just SIT there.

This kind of problem might have been posed by anyone since

Piero della Francesco

And its solution can be precisely foreseen. 100

Anticipated by Joyce's repeated, sardonic reference to

Dublin as Doublin'

A city marinated in narrative, and inescapably bound up with

Narrative's capability for reflection and duplicity.

It's not just a palindrome in a literal sense,

But also a physical one.

You can actually put a mirror in the middle of it

And it still reads the same.

Tru

e M

irro

r

44

--

Every mathematician agrees that

Every mathematician must know some 110

Set theory.

We have proved, in other words, that

Nothing contains everything.

Or more spectacularly,

There is no universe

The World As It Is And The World As It Could Be

The World As It Is And The World As It Could Be

Tattarrattat!

A Sun on USA!

Weightless and without energy, 120

Shadows still convey information

But the shadow's location cannot be detected until the light,

Moving at its ponderous relativistic pace, arrives.

It's quite easy to conjure

A faster-than-light shadow

(Or in theory, at least):

Build a great klieg light,

A superstrong version

Of the ones at the Academy Awards.

Now paste a piece of black paper 130

Onto the klieg's glass

So there's a shadow in the middle of the beam.

Like the signal that summons Batman

We will mount our light in space and

Broadcast the Bat-call to the cosmos.

And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate

Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:

Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass

Hang all the furniture above the grass, 140

And how delightful when a fall of snow

Covered my glimpse of lawn and reached up so

As to make chair and bed exactly stand

Upon that snow, out in that crystal land!

45SOURCES

LINES 1–13 : J.D. Salinger, “The Inverted Forest”, Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1947

LINES 14–17 : Email from Raimundas Malašauskas, Friday June 15, 2007LINES 18–27 : Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, 1962

LINES 28–32 : Ryan Gander, Parallel Cards, 2006

LINES 33–45 : Rebecca Solnit, “Detroit Arcadia”, Harper’s Magazine, June 2007

Tru

e M

irro

r

46 LINE 46 : Richard Hamilton, Five Tyres abandoned, 1964, Five Tyres remoulded, 1971

LINES 47–50 : Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister,1947

LINES 51–59 : Gilles Deleuze, “L’abécédaire”, 1988

LINES 60–72 : Boris Groys paraphrasing Søren Kierkergaard, On The New, 2002

47LINES 73–85 : Bettina Funcke, “Urgency”, Continuous Project #8, 2007LINES 86–90 : Giuseppe Penone, “To Upset My Own Eyes”, Exhibition catalog for Trees Eyes Hairs Walls Vases, 1970

LINE 91 : Paul R. Halmos, Naive Set Theory, 1960LINES 92–95 : Alex Klein, “Critical Responses to the 2002 Whitney Biennial”, The Blow Up, 2002

LINES 96–97 : Michael Bracewell, “A Prose Kinema, Some notes for Pale Carnage”, Arnolfini, Bristol, 2007

LINES 98–100 : Richard Hamilton, Collected Words, 1982

Tru

e M

irro

r

48 LINES 101–104 : William J. Mitchell, “Electronic Doublin’’, Archis 2, 2002

LINES 105–108 : Ryan Gander, “Little Bastard”, Dot Dot Dot 12, 2006

LINES 109–115 : Paul R. Halmos, Naive Set Theory, 1960

LINES 116–117 : Stephan Willats, The World As It Is And The World As It Could Be, 2006

49LINE 118 : James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922LINE 119 : Ed Ruscha, A Sun on USA, 2002

LINES 120–135 : Margaret Wertheim, “The Shadow Goes”, New York Times Op-Ed, Wednesday June 20, 2007

LINES 136–143 : Vladimir Nabakov, Pale Fire, 1962

Tru

e M

irro

r

50

D/S070108

51

Starting from the 2008 Whitney Biennial press preview, Dexter Sinister plan to set up a temporary information office at the 7th Regiment Armory building. Over the following 3 weeks while the Armory operates as a shadow site for the exhibition, DS will issue a series of press releases through multiple distribution channels -- variously commissioning, designing, editing and releasing texts parallel to the regular biennial PR.

The press release is a form whose distribution aspect is already inscribed. Typically compressed into a series of literal sound-bites on a single sheet of paper, they are designed to be easily re-purposed -- copied, pasted, combined and inserted back into other media streams. By adopting this form, existing information pathways could provide a fluid channel for dispersing alternate and multiple points-of-view, both found and newly-commissioned. Where most press texts are written with an obvious vested interest -- just as any published text comes framed by the context of its publisher (whether it likes it or not) -- these releases will exist without an editorial umbrella, or at least one obtuse enough to resist contamination. Further, the specific nature of each contribution will precisely determine the form of its distribution channel. In other words, The message, plus its resultant form, multiplied by the channel of distribution, divided by the context of its reception, equals the substance of its communication. The forms could be equally commonplace (a group email or fax) or sophisticated (a private phone call or reactive concerto for muted trumpet.) Allowing the process of channeling to unfold over 3 weeks, the intention is to slow down the typically immediate consumption of the biennial project.

In addition, four small Armory projects are proposed in advance of the 3 week residence, to act as signals towards a reading of the activities to come. These are equally considered as “releases,” but already in place for the press preview. The signals are: 1. PUBLIC PHONES -- the 3 ground floor public phones rewired to carry live or pre-recorded texts, serving as one very local distribution channel; 2. TRUE MIRRORS -- custom-built True Mirrors installed in all publicly-accessible Armory restrooms; 3. KLIEG LIGHT -- a spotlight based on the description by Margaret Wertheim in her New York Times Op-Ed piece, June 20, 2007: It’s quite easy to conjure up a faster-than-light shadow, at least in theory. Build a great klieg light, a . . . version of the ones set up at the Academy Awards. Now paste a piece of black paper onto the klieg’s glass so there is a shadow in the middle of the beam, like the signal used to summon Batman . . . The key to our trick is to rotate the klieg . . . At a great enough distance from the source, our shadow . . . will go so fast it will exceed the speed of light. This pure signal can function as both sign and release -- a marker of the Armory’s location and its shadow relation to the Whitney Museum ten blocks away; and 4. PRIVATE ROOM (Commander’s room/Colonel’s dressing room) -- working from this hidden room for the duration, the visible Commander’s room door will remain locked, and the office accessible only by pressing the panel and releasing the door. DS are listed as occupying this space, but there should be no announcement of this as “hidden” or “secret.” The public may access the room by the panel, though again, the existence of this button should not be announced; the fact that the operation is out of sight is of little consequence, or at least without any explicit claim to performance.

It is critical to this proposal that the resources required to operate autonomously and efficiently are provided up-front. (Timing is everything with press releases, professionals assure us.) First, a budget for the upfront projects needs to be secured, as well as obvious contact resources including the biennial email, postal mail and broadcast-fax lists. Then, a separate operating budget should be arranged for the 3-week period that would cover writers’ (or, equally, performers’) fees, reproduction and distribution costs. On the conclusion of this 3 weeks, a close reader, collecting the accumulated press releases, may form a composite, alternate reading of the biennial. And perhaps more effectively, the echoes of these releases could continue to resonate through other media channels as the releases are re-released, circulated and distorted long after the show closes. The result may be a time-delayed shadow, or even refracted image, of the event rendered indistinct by its own circulation. And remember:

Quality is merely the distribution aspect of quantity.Quantity is merely the distribution aspect of quality. Tr

ue

Mir

ror

52

53SOURCES

LINES 1–13 : J.D. Salinger, “The Inverted Forest”, Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1947

LINES 14–17 : Email from Raimundas Malašauskas, Friday June 15, 2007LINES 18–27 : Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, 1962

LINES 28–32 : Ryan Gander, Parallel Cards, 2006

LINES 33–45 : Rebecca Solnit, “Detroit Arcadia”, Harper’s Magazine, June 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 4 MARCH 2008

As the first of a series of reflections on the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Dexter Sinister has staged a rotating spotlight near the entrance to the 7th Regiment Armory building (Park Avenue at 67th Street), marking the parallel site of the exhibition. This will be present during the opening nights of Tuesday 4 March and Wednesday 5 March only, operating from 7pm onwards.

Following the detailed proposal described by Margaret Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring in her New York Times Op-Ed piece of Wednesday 20 June 2007 (overleaf), this klieg light will cast a giant shadow into the New York City sky. To quote:

It’s quite easy to conjure A faster-than-light shadow (Or in theory, at least):Build a great klieg light,A superstrong versionOf the ones at the Academy Awards.Now paste a piece of black paper 130Onto the klieg’s glassSo there’s a shadow in the middle of the beam.

(In this case, the shadow image will be formed by the inverted Whitney graphic (above) adhered to the surface of the light.)

During the following three weeks (4 March – 23 March) while the Armory building operates as an auxillary location for the exhibition, Dexter Sinister will continue to produce and release a number of commissioned ‘texts’ by various co-operators in various media. Tr

ue

Mir

ror

54

55SOURCES

LINES 1–13 : J.D. Salinger, “The Inverted Forest”, Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1947

LINES 14–17 : Email from Raimundas Malašauskas, Friday June 15, 2007LINES 18–27 : Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, 1962

LINES 28–32 : Ryan Gander, Parallel Cards, 2006

LINES 33–45 : Rebecca Solnit, “Detroit Arcadia”, Harper’s Magazine, June 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 4 MARCH 2008

As the first of a series of reflections on the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Dexter Sinister has staged a rotating spotlight near the entrance to the Whitney Museum of Art (Madison Avenue at 75th Street), marking the parallel site of the exhibition. This will be present during the opening nights of Tuesday 4 March and Wednesday 5 March only, operating from 7pm onwards.

Following the detailed proposal described by Margaret Wertheim of the Institute for Figuring in her New York Times Op-Ed piece of Wednesday 20 June 2007 (overleaf), this klieg light will cast a giant shadow into the New York City sky. To quote:

It’s quite easy to conjure A faster-than-light shadow (Or in theory, at least):Build a great klieg light,A superstrong versionOf the ones at the Academy Awards.Now paste a piece of black paper 130Onto the klieg’s glassSo there’s a shadow in the middle of the beam.

(In this case, the shadow image will be formed by the inverted Whitney graphic (above) adhered to the surface of the light.)

During the following three weeks (4 March – 23 March) while the Armory building operates as an auxillary location for the exhibition, Dexter Sinister will continue to produce and release a number of commissioned ‘texts’ by various co-operators in various media. Tr

ue

Mir

ror

56

572. True Mirror

Dieses facettenreiche und umfas-sende Projekt begann mit dem Beitrag von Dexter Sinister zur Whitney Biennale von 2008. Der Name bezieht sich auf einen speziellen Spiegel, der im Gegensatz zur üblichen Rechts-Links-Spiegelverkehrtheit eine „wahre“ Spiegelung der Welt gewährleistet. Statt ein Spiegelbild zu produzieren, wirft der wahre Spiegel die Spiegelung dieses Spiegelbilds zurück und liefert damit das wahre Abbild, wie jemand von anderen ge-sehen wird. In den ersten drei Wochen der Biennale besetzten Dexter Sinister einen versteckten Raum hinter einer Wand in der Ausstellung und produ-zierten zusammen mit zahlreichen Mitarbeitern „Presseerklärungen“.

„Presseerklärungen“ war der Oberbegriff für eine Reihe unter-schiedlicher Reflexionen über die gerade laufende Ausstellung. Ziel war es, die Rezeption der Biennale zu erschweren oder zu verlangsamen, in-dem etwas produktiver „Lärm“ in die üblichen PR-Kanäle geschleust wurde. Jede Erklärung war ein Unikat, das über einen spezifischen Kanal verbrei-tet wurde, der dem jeweiligen Beitrag entsprach. Darunter fanden sich so vielfältige Formate wie Gerüchte, eine musikalische Komposition und ein höchst ungewöhnlicher singender Fahrstuhlführer. All diese wurden gleichzeitig auf www.sinisterdexter.org verfolgt, wo das Material online weiterhin verfügbar ist.

Die komplette Produktion wurde im Folgenden in ein einzelnes Behältnis-Format überführt: Ein bescheidenes Mikrofiche-Archiv mit 37 Symbolen, die für jeweils eine vollendete Presseerklärung des Projekts stehen. Hinzu kamen noch verschiedene ergänzende Kleinigkeiten und Stücke. Die Mikrofiche-Folien wurden als Hintergrund und Partitur für eine live aufgeführte „Dokumenten-Oper“ namens True Mirror Microfiche projiziert. Hier wurden die originalen Presseerklärungen zu einem neuen Ganzen zusammengestellt und von einer riesigen Truppe – darunter viele der ursprünglich Mitwirkenden von True Mirror – als Performance aufge-führt. Die Erstaufführung war am 25. November 2008 in The Kitchen in New York. Einige Monate später, am 30. Mai 2009, folgte eine „Spiegelbildversion“ am ICA in London.

Weitere Ableger umfassen ein Video, das Footage-Material von dem ICA-Event zusammenstellt, zwei Editionen eines Print-on-Demand-Buchs mit den jeweiligen Skripten der New Yorker und Londoner Performances sowie eine Vinyl-Schallplatte mit zwei der originalen Audio-Veröffentlichungen.Die folgenden drei Dokumente, deren Layout den Originalen entsprechen,

wurden im Vorfeld der drei wöchigen Live-Produktion produziert und veröffentlicht. Sie vermitteln ein Bild, welche Entwicklungen im Denken im Kontext der breit gestreuten Themen stattgefunden haben, die schließlich in True Mirror und seine nachfolgenden Weiterentwicklungen mündeten. Das erste ist ein langes „Gedicht“, das aus gefundenen Texten (und einigen Referenzbildern) collagiert wurde. Es verfolgt die Absicht, einige der frei flottie-renden Ideen über die möglichen Themen des Projekts zu sammeln und in diesem ungeformten Zustand den Kuratoren als Vorschlag zu unterbreiten. Das zweite ist ein etwas späterer Update desselben Gedankens: Es basiert auf einem Diagramm des Cybernetic-Gurus Claude Shannon und zeigt, wie Lärm Kommunikation erschwert. Im Vorfeld eines Meetings wurde es per Fax in das Büro der Biennale geschickt. Das dritte ist ein Brief, der dazu entworfen wurde, um eine Gruppe potenzieller Mitarbeiter zu überre-den, eine „Presseerklärung“ für das Projekt zu machen. Geschrieben werden musste vor Ort auf einer IBM-Kugelkopf-Schreibmaschine; dann musste der Text kopiert und von einer Postadresse in Dublin an etwa 40 Leute geschickt werden.

2. True Mirror

This multifarious, sprawling project started life as Dexter Sinister's contri-bution to the 2008 Whitney Biennial. It is named after a particular mirror that offers a ’true’ reflection of the world in place of the usual left/right inversion. Instead of a 'mirror image', the true mirror bounces back a mirror of that mirror image and so shows how you appear to other people. For the first three weeks of the Biennial, Dexter Sinister occupied a hidden room behind a wall in the exhibition and produced a series of ‘press releases’ together with a large constellation of collaborators .

’Press release’ was the nominal term for a series of diverse reflections on that year’s exhibition. The aim was to complicate or slow down the Biennial’s reception by adding a bit of productive *noise* into its usual PR channels. Each release was given a unique form, then distributed via a specific channel according to the contribution. They included formats as diverse as a rumour, a musical composition, and an unusually vocal elevator operator, all simultaneously tracked at www.sinisterdexter.org, where they remain online.

The entire production was subse-quently compressed into one single container format: a modest archival

microfiche containing 37 icons, each representing one of the project’s completed releases, plus a few supplementary bits and pieces. The fiche was projected as the backdrop and score for a live ‘documents opera’ called True Mirror Microfiche, in which the original releases were assembled into a new whole and performed by a large cast including many of True Mirror’s original con-tributors. This first took place at The Kitchen, New York, on 25 November 2008, followed a few months later by a ‘mirror-image’ version at the ICA, London, on 30 May 2009.

Further offshoots include a video compiled from footage at the ICA event; two editions of a print-on-demand book with the respective scripts of the New York and London performances; and a vinyl record with two of the original audio releases.

The first three documents on the previous pages, typeset according to the originals, were produced and distributed in advance of the live three-week production. They trace the development of thinking about and around the broad themes that fed into True Mirror and its subsequent incarnations. The first is a long ‘poem’ collaged from found texts (along with a set of reference images) in order to collect some free-ranging ideas about the project’s potential themes, and to propose such unformed thoughts to its curators. The second is a slightly later update of this line of thinking based on a diagram that shows how noise impedes communication by cybernetics guru Claude Shannon, which was sent by fax to the Biennial office in advance of a meeting. The third is a letter designed to coax a pool of potential collaborators to write a ‘press release’ for the project, written in situ on an IBM golfball type-writer then copied and sent to forty or so individuals from a Dublin postal address.

Also included here are [MICRO-FICHE?], and the first two near-identi-cal Press Releases distributed on the Biennial’s opening night. Each claims that a giant klieg spotlight will project skyward from one of the Biennial’s two venues (located about 10 blocks apart). The idea was thus designed to circulate via the immaterial channel of a rumour.

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21.6 XII Baltic Triennial

STagIng of Dexter Sinister’s The Last ShOt Clock, a two-sided incantation/talk written to conjure a party inadvertently missed one year ago

Precisely one year past at the 55th Venice Biennialas part of the joint Cypriot-Lithuanian pavilionWhich was titled big-O small-o, and equally small-o big-O,Depending on your point of view (depending on your point of view).

We were asked to participate ‘as honorary Lithuanians’By Raimundas Malašauskas, who assembled the whole showIn the Brutalist Palasport – a monumental sports hall witha central court for basketball flanked by rows of concrete bleachers.

Our idea was then to hijack the court’s two opposing scoreboardsand turn them into dual clocks (though you’d never see both at once).These clocks would count time not by means of normal decimal numbers,But using big-Os and small-os, that binary character set.

We sent along instructions to the scoreboard’s manufacturerTo burn a microchip that would alter its usual functionand reprogram the system to display this maladjusted time,Then we called it Work-in-Progress – in order to be continued …

Doors open 10:30 pmEvent begins 11 pm SHaRP

CaCVokiečių 2, Vilniuswww.cac.lt

SOLSTICE

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PREFaCE

The Last ShOt Clock is an incantation for two speakers, D and S, to be read from opposite ends of a space on the cusp of Summer Solstice, 20/21 June.

It is based on a pair of eccentric digital clocks made for the joint Lithuania/Cyprus pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennal. Back then, we had no real idea why we were making these clocks. They weren’t made in response to a particular invitation, nor did they otherwise serve any specific function; we simply had the urge to see them exist, and so insinuated ourselves into the show. Slowly, though, an initially free -floating idea assembled itself into a time -travelling talk and an exhibition-of-sorts, and this backwards narrative became a key theme of both.

For this inaugural iteration at CaC Vilnius in 2014, the space in question was a marble-paved outdoor courtyard on the institution’s first floor. We also installed 24 pieces of work, by ourselves and others on the interior walls surrounding this courtyard. These works (hung in groups of four according to the arrangement on page 14 here) loosely address the same broad themes. These artifactual footnotes to the main event then remained on the walls for the remainder of the summer.

The incantation begins with a piece of music played extremely loud in the empty courtyard at around 11pm. The courtyard is approaching darkness, lit only by the moon and the red LEDs of the two clocks hung opposite each other to mimic the scoreboards in the Venice Palasport. The track’s refrain: ‘There’s always work / In progress / You’re always in / Work in progress’. It plays on repeat for as long as it takes for an audience to gather.

Four more pieces of music punctuate the rest of the hour. Each one is introduced by an improvised (or at least non-scripted) description of the piece, along with reference to the fact that they all employ unorthodox time signatures – they are aural, abstract equivalents to both the stuff hanging on the walls, and the stories being recounted.

D and S install themselves each below one of the two clocks, then speak from that spot for the duration. The four naRRaTIVE parts are read by both – one immediately after the other, half a line at a time (e.g. D says: ‘Precisely one year past at the’. D repeats it. Then S says: ‘55th Venice Biennial’. D repeats it, and so on). This is intended to accentuate the meter and make sure nothing gets missed. In the script, the narrative parts are set in 16-line stanzas divided into 4 verses, with line breaks (/) and caesuras (|) to facilitate easier reading based on the rhythm and repetition.

although written to the same meter, the 16 anECDOTaL parts are set in paragraphs, the four verses divided by ‘control’ marks ( ) without further distinguishing the syllabic lines. The idea is to enunciate these parts according to the ebb and flow of meaning as opposed to the regular pulse of the meter. Each anecdote is a numbered ‘point’ counting down from 15 to 0 (in line with the clocks’ reverse hexadecimal sequence), and these are read out along with each part’s title. D and S alternately read the parts (as indicated by the letter in parentheses after each point’s heading).

Between these two forms of delivery, one emphasizing structure, the other substance, ideally the audience will apprehend an underlying pattern without becoming distracting from what’s being spoken; a sense that the evening is in the grip of a structure, but – as with the clocks – the precise nature of that structure is, for the time being, elusive.

Finally, there are two moments of ‘rupture’. The first occurs halfway through (before point 7): the clocks are stopped while D or S explains the workings of this particular clock system (again semi-improvised, unscripted). The second rupture occurs at the end: the clocks are halted again while one of us explains the composition of the piece of music about to be played in conclusion. Then they are set off again, now advancing in perfect sync with our ‘Theme from The Last ShOt Clock’ which plays for the final 17 minutes – until around 00:00.

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(‘Ya Wanner’ by The Fall, 2005, 05:02, on repeat)

Precisely one year past at the | 55th Venice Biennial /as part of the double Cyprus | -Lithuania pavilion /Which was titled big-O small-o, | and equally small-o big-O, /Depending on your point of view | (depending on your point of view).

We were asked to participate | ‘as honorary Lithuanians’ /By Raimundas Malašauskas, | who assembled the whole show /In the Brutalist Palasport | – a monumental sports hall with /a central court for basketball | flanked by rows of concrete bleachers.

Our idea was then to hijack | the court’s two opposing scoreboards /and turn them into dual clocks | (though you’d never see both at once). /These clocks would count time not by means | of normal decimal numbers, /But using big-Os and small-os, | that binary character set.

We sent along instructions | to the scoreboard’s manufacturer /To burn a microchip that would | alter its usual function /and reprogram the system to | display this maladjusted time, /Then we called it Work-in-Progress – | in order to be continued …

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POInT 15. PROgRaMMED aRT (D)

Just over 50 years ago, the artist Bruno Munari organized an exhibition for Milan firm Olivetti in their brand new Venice showroom, where in place of calculators was an exhibition of art that was produced by programming. The artworks were much like machines – made with motors, lights

and mirrors, moved by a set of instructions which is called the artwork’s ‘program’. all the work’s possible outcomes are easily calculated, but each particular moment cannot be known ahead of time. Munari’s own Tetracono is a typical example: a black plastic cube with four cones, all painted half-red, half-green; each spins at a different tempo to make a repeating pattern, which moves slowly from green to red on an eighteen minute cycle. Spin the cones and start the process, the work’s function comes in focus: colour changes before your eyes – as long as you pay attention. and so it serves as a model of the way that the world changes: a sunrise is not a picture, and the sky’s never simply ‘blue’.

POInT 14. THE CLOCK TOWER (S)

a tall building in San Marco in the middle of the city, Torre dell’Orologio dates from the 15th century. It was built to broadcast the time to the citizens of Venice so they could share a single clock and agree on what time it is. This tower has several faces, each with a different sort of clock. at the top sit two bronze figures who strike a bell on the hour. next, a row of four shifting tiles that turn through minutes and hours (minutes in arabic numbers and hours in Roman numerals). Then the largest clock is a ring split into 24 units marked along its rim by letters, each of which stands for an hour. a second ring sitting inside, and moving a bit more slowly, contains signs of the Zodiac that mark out the sun’s position.

Each example tells the same time with a different set of symbols, fixed forms that mark passing moments in many configurations. The way time is represented influences our sense of it – time provides the algorithm, but we must produce its meaning.

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POInT 13. VERSIOn COnTROL (D)

There’s a painting called The Last Shot, a large abstract landscape canvas that’s the final piece of work by the artist Kazys Varnelis. It’s a composition in greys, and painted on top of another (not that it’s so unusual for a painting to be repainted). Over lunch last year in new York, this is how the work was described by the curator to his friend – but they seemed to have their wires crossed. ‘Hey, I know Kazys Varnelis! I thought he was an architect …’. Seems both of them were right (and wrong): there were two – a father and son. neither of them realized this until quite a few hours later, so they carried on discussing this double, composite figure, half-painter and half-architect, a grey area – old and young. an intermediate person; not one Kazys or the other.

It’s an everyday instance of the problem of ‘version control’, a term from software programming that describes how changes are tracked. It records what happens to forms as they move through generations, a self-portrait of time itself – always the same, always different.

POInT 12. THE SHOT CLOCK (S)

You know the moment in the game: time is running out for your team; a player arcs the basketball from downtown as the buzzer sounds. Hold that image for a minute while we focus on the ‘shot clock’ – a recent invention that dates from back in the 1950s. Time used to count up as usual, then somebody crunched some numbers to make the game more exciting by adding a tighter deadline; he figured 80 points per game would best hold a crowd’s attention, and working backwards deduced that 24 seconds was the key. In the new game the clock counts down from 24 back to zero. Within this small window of time the team in possession must shoot – otherwise they forfeit the ball which goes back to their opponents. Then the stopwatch counter resets, which keeps the game moving forward. So the shot clock runs a tight loop, resetting over and over, keeping things constantly urgent, in a permanent state of stress. as both metronome and timer, this clock serves a twofold function – on one hand checking duration; on the other, forcing action.

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(‘In C’ by Terry Riley, 1964, 45:32, excerpt)

In Venice to install our clocks | by plugging that chip in the desk, /all that showed up on the scoreboards | were random abstractions of dots. /Seems the chip had been programmed to | run on another control desk / – Which the caretaker found downstairs | and got working right just-in-time.

Then, on our way to the party | thrown in the hall the next evening, /a friend we met insisted that | we’d only be wasting our time … /The party was already through … | we’d be better off going elsewhere. /It turned out none of this was true | – too late! we’d missed our own event.

This sounds like the narrative hinge | on which time travel tends to swing, /The adventure back to the past | to adjust a temporal loose end, /That decisive forking moment, | the dark matter, or the portal, /Which then shuffles the backstory | and influences the present.

Those clocks were made in advance of | any particular purpose, /But now we had good reason to | reverse-engineer an idea: /To somehow get to the party | that we’d accidentally missed, /By using these altered scoreboards | as a score for incantation.

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POInT 11. LEFT anD RIgHT (S)

a neuroscientist gave a talk a couple of Sundays ago on how we use spatial gestures and metaphors to relate time. Did you realize, for instance, ‘On Thursday’ is a metaphor? – or that when we point to the past it’s invariably on our left – ? The future, on the other hand, is invariably on our right. The reason why is straightforward: we read and write from left to right – a simple enough idea that we’ve come to take for granted. So what’s been read is left behind while what’s to come is right ahead.

The scientist then organized an experiment to learn more by subjecting English speakers to an hour of mirror writing, where letters go the other way (d looks like b, god becomes dog). Our brain adapts quickly to this. It’s plastic matter, after all. When the direction of writing was changed to run the opposite, their feeling of past and present was reversed in just the same way. Can it really be that easy to redirect the flow of time, writing from the back to the front, ending up at the beginning – !?

POInT 10. THE MODEL aIRPLanE (D)

On a trans-atlantic Concorde about 1978, the artist got up from his seat and threw a small model airplane made of very light balsa wood right down the center of the aisle, enabling him to say he’d launched the fastest aircraft in the world. Obviously never recorded and so potentially untrue, the airplane piece disappears when the anecdote’s no longer told. In this lighter-than-air idea, the medium is the rumour. Sometimes hearsay’s all it takes to propel a work into movement. That model plane in the real one exits normal time and space – a bit like being ‘outside yourself’, otherwise known as ‘ecstatic’. This heightened state in no way means outside of the present moment, but rather totally in it – forgetting all past and future. Orgasm is the classical, most ubiquitous example; another is hysteria – better, hysterical laughter. In which case, we can consider the model airplane’s line of flight as a prototype and apex of supernatural levity.

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POInT 9. SUPERPOSITIOn (S)

The coldest place in the cosmos is in a small computer firm called D-Wave, east of Vancouver, where a chip sits in a freezer. This microchip’s at the center of a new type of computer based not on binary logic but the oddball rules of quantums. One very weird aspect of which is known as ‘superposition’. That’s where a system can be in more than one state at the same time; moreover – and even stranger – in two different places at once (famously like Schrödinger’s cat, both dead and alive in the box).

Regular computers work with information contained in bits. ‘Bits’ stands for ‘binary digit’. Each bit can be zero or one. But quantum computers work with another unit called ‘qubit.’ It can be one or zero, too, and also both values at once. Qubits in superposition can become what’s called ‘entangled’, where something that happens to one also happens to the other, so information is tethered across two points in space and time. What happens in the here and now also affects a there and then.

POInT 8. POInT anD DURaTIOn (D)

The time now is 4:38, June 11th, 2014. Look at your watch, what does it say? Certainly it can’t be the same. These are specific points in time – no two can be identical. One ‘now’ when the words are written, and another when they’re spoken. There’s a certain Casio watch with a specially-doctored clock, its insides manipulated to change the display of its face. It still tells conventional time, but each number gets drawn slowly, snaking through the LCD screen from the left to the right hand side.

It’s designed so you can fine-tune the duration of this cycle to take from one to three seconds (in sync with your own inner clock). The watch is set correctly when it is only just legible, so the time reaches the reader at the limit of perception. In other words, you could say that this watch takes time to tell the time: a couple of seconds’ focus for a single discrete moment. But time is curious that way – at once both point and duration. and time is curious that way – at once both point and duration.

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(‘Clapping Music’ by Steve Reich, 1972, 05:20)

To repeat: these clocks at each end | are identically eccentric, /Re-programmed to behave outside | of our orthodox sense of time. /Rather than decimal digits | (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on) /Ours are based on a binary: / on or off, or big-O small-o.

The far left signal stands for eight, | the next for four, then two, then one. /So all big-Os stand for fifteen | (that’s eight plus four plus two plus one) /and all small-os stand for zero | (that’s none plus none plus none plus none) /With all combinations between | to make sixteen units in all.

(15) O O O O, (14) O O O o | (13) O O o O, (12) O O o o /(11) O o O O, (10) O o O o | (9) O o o O, (8) O o o o /(7) o O O O, (6) o O O o | (5) o O o O, (4) o O o o /(3) o o O O, (2) o o O o | (1) o o o O, (0) o o o o

By this point, are you focusing | on the structure or the meaning? /If anything, it’s more meta | the difference between the two. /It’s a bird’s-eye view, a gestalt, | part and parcel, one and the same. /and the binary past and present | can be thought in unison too.

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POInT 7. PaRaLLEL CaRDS (D)

a standard pack of playing cards with its hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades. If you look more closely you’ll see that it’s not that standard at all. We’re dealing with parallel sets – an inner and an outer one – of cards printed both front and back; a single deck, two different games. The joker who made this twin pack said recently that the impulse grew out of fascination with the notion of a ‘multiverse.’ He imagined endless equal, alternative realities, where each new decision implies infinite courses of action. He used to want cards with two backs for building up houses of cards (back when he thought the numbers side was purely for decoration). But now he wants cards with two fronts to visualize this multiverse and see what new games might emerge out of this anomalous pack. a bridge that helps you apprehend two parallel actions at once – your game and its doppelgänger played in a different time and space. What if you frowned in the mirror and your reflection laughed right back, or simply walked off to leave you staring at where you used to be?

POInT 6. THE EIFFEL TOWER (S)

It’s not unlike a story from more than a decade ago – David Copperfield live on stage in front of the Eiffel Tower. as the spectacle unfolded, giant curtains were hoisted up, surrounding the whole audience and blocking the Paris skyline. The magician then pressed on with his captivating performance, declaring at the finale that the Eiffel Tower had vanished. The curtains fell, and, sure enough, the monument had disappeared … then the crowd swung round to find it now towering right behind them.

This illusion had been achieved by means of a moving platform rotating imperceptibly underneath the feet of the crowd. It slowly turned them back to front over the course of the evening, so by the time of the climax they were facing the other way. This story is a bit too good to check its credibility. For art’s sake, it’s irrelevant whether sincere or deceitful. an idea need not be viable, it just needs ample energy. an idea need not be plausible, what counts is only that it moves.

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POInT 5. SUPREMaTISM (D)

Sisters is a timeless painting made by Kazimir Malevich that shows two ladies on a walk, so similar they could be twins, done in the late 1920s in textbook Impressionist style, but retroactively dated 1910 – 20 years before. The fake date had everyone fooled ’til the end of the century – proof of a transition in style that never actually happened. now that we know the actual date, the work is typically dismissed as a vain attempt to backdate consistency and completeness. But there’s another way to see the chief Suprematist’s gesture: those near-identical siblings aren’t two different people at all, but a single woman shown twice as she moves right to left through time, a primitive time-lapse image (like a nude descending some stairs). Malevich once wrote everything is infinite and therefore null. Suprematism added up to one big eternal zero. not ‘progressive,’ but out-of-time – outside normal chronology. Spanner in the cosmic counter, time’s gears prevented from turning.

POInT 4. THE JESUS PRaYER (S)

Franny glass was a new York girl lost in a spiritual crisis, who came across a modest book titled The Way of the Pilgrim. The pilgrim teaches disciples a chant known as ‘The Jesus Prayer’ – a personal invocation and channel to enlightenment. How it works is to repeat: Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me, Jesus Christ have mercy on me. Said long enough you come to speak the sentence on auto-repeat. Eventually the prayer becomes coordinated with the heart. The chanter chants unconsciously, dissolving any distinction between the meter of the prayer and the rhythm of the heartbeat. To Franny’s mind, the best part is you don’t need to believe at all – it’s a self-generating loop, a serpent eating its own tail. Between the meter of the prayer and the rhythm of the heartbeat, if repeated often enough, gradually you’ll get the message.

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(‘Fratres’ by arvo Pärt, 1977, 10:41, excerpt)

now: the score we’ve been speaking here | mirrors the logic of the clocks. /Each line has the same syllables | (up to and including this one), /Technically called ‘octameter’ | – eight beats per line, each with two feet. /and that equals sixteen pulses | … the same rhythm as our shot clocks.

among the many types of poems | and variations of technique, /Octameter is rarely used, | with one infamous exception: /Edgar allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’ | from the early eighteen-forties /(‘Once upon a midnight dreary, | while I pondered weak and weary …’)

Poe later noted his reasons | for writing his lines in sixteens /Came down to how it ebbed and flowed, | its mesmerizing quality. /He went on to describe its form | as also ‘acatalectic’ /Which means to purposefully drop | a beat from the end of a line.

no surprise that ‘catalectic’ | shares its root with ‘catalepsy’. /That’s a ‘seizure’ or a ‘grasping’, | ‘loss of contact with surroundings’. /In other words, a state of mind | well-primed to meddle the present, /and transport a willing body | to some former-occurred event.

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POInT 3. CaUSE anD EFFECT (S)

There’s this guy who traded options and so knows about the market, and its models used to predict prices, claims and contingencies (by noting all the possible scenarios that might occur and giving every likelihood a probability rating). But truly contingent events are something else altogether – beyond predictability, in a space that can’t be modeled. a curveball out of nowhere, like the appearance of a black swan – not even in the wildest dreams of possible situations. The reasons for such an event can only be known in its wake; cause and effect switch places so the effect produces its cause. Consequence begs explanation; the narrative’s worked out backwards. Less a theory, more a medium, its rules are written in realtime. The futures market works like this, unpredictable by nature. Traders don’t know what they’re doing and make it up in the moment. By getting inside the event and going along with the flow, the trick is somehow to twist time and make room for what’s yet to come.

POInT 2. SPELLS (D)

The one thing feared most of all in Stevenson’s Treasure Island is a simple graphic cipher, black ink on a paper circle – the terrible, dreaded Black Spot, a threat and a summons to death, the mere sight of which was enough to paralyze its receiver. The spot’s a simple instance of the workings of a common spell – a set of precise instructions, a sequence of words or glyphs, formulated to be invoked by reading, speaking or writing. The whole thing unfolds in your mind beyond the trappings of the world.

Point is, merely the suggestion of some other-worldly message is all it takes to instigate a process of transposition … to tune a mind to such a pitch that all it takes is a trigger … to loosen the grip of ‘realtime’ and set other modes in motion. The Fear, The Rapture – both achieved via heightened expectation, the nervous system set on edge, and a quickening of the heart. Some kind of chant (or doublespeak) meant to invoke an altered state. Some kind of chant (or doublespeak) to set off a certain pending.

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POInT 1. TUnIng FORKS (S)

Tuning forks produce the purest instance of a specific pitch. Hit the fork and it begins to resonate at a frequency, which depends on the exact length of the pair of parallel prongs (made of some resonant metal – for example, Sheffeld blue steel) Mid-19th century Paris, a machine sits in a workshop: two tuning forks, two small mirrors, a lens, a screen, and a light source. It’s all set up to visualize various types of vibrations – like the frequencies of two sounds, each tuned to a different tone. Let’s see how the setup functions. The light is focused through the lens. The beam hits mirrors that are tied onto the two prongs of each fork. When you strike the forks to vibrate, two sine waves appear on the wall, combined in a single figure that looks a bit like a pretzel. Some look like loops of cosmic string, others look just like plain circles. The shape depends on which two forks are made to resonate at once. Two forks in tune with each other, the same note an octave apart, make for a ‘perfect interval’ and draw the sign: ∞

POInT 0. TWO InFInITIES (D)

a certain mathematician who theorized sets and limits concluded there are several distinct types of infinity. It runs counter to common sense that they could be different sizes, but consider these two main types of endless series of numbers. The first kind of infinity is the one you’ve known since childhood: start at zero, then count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and the sequence goes on forever. The number we can’t ever reach is known as ‘infinity null’. The second version, by contrast, doesn’t go upwards but deeper. Take for starters zero and 1, find the number halfway between; now repeat this process using that new number as the endpoint. Find the midpoint and its midpoint … going further and further in.

You’ll soon realize there’s no end to this process of division. In between any two numbers lies another infinity. and stranger still, this second kind is even larger than the first. There’s more space in one of these gaps than any number of numbers. [Repeat last line 16 times.]

(Dexter Sinister, ‘Theme from The Last ShOt Clock’, 2014, 17:00)

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a few last gaps still need to be plugged.

To restate the crux and climax of The Last ShOt Clock : there are two types of infinity. One goes up and up – advancing. The other goes in and in – penetrating. This last stanza ends on the apparently nonsensical claim that the ‘deep’ version of infinity is a greater infinity than the ‘progressive’ one.

This last verse hangs on the implication that this infinity of *depth* is the best vehicle for attending that once-missed party. The stanza ends by extending into a chant, as the last line is repeated 16 times: ‘There’s more space in one of these gaps | than any number of numbers /’

What can’t be conveyed in the script (any typographic treatment only confuses the issue) is that these lines are delivered in the form of *a circular round*. This also repels description, but it’s worth a shOt.

D repeats the 16 lines without pause at a steady pace, while S reads the same lines slightly offset with each respective verse – first by a quarter, then by a half, then by three-quarters, then by a full measure. (D speaks the first line, then about ¼ of the way along S starts the same line, and they continue to recite the line offset by this split-second for the first 4 lines. at the start of the 5th line S shifts to begin his lines now ½ along D’s continued reading; at the start of the 9th line, he starts ¾ of the way along; and finally, at the start of the 13th line, he reads a full measure along.) This patterning means S and D read in tandem for three lines, with S speaking a last one alone.*

The circular round is a preemptive attempt to see what ‘one of these gaps’ sounds like – and so too, how it feels. The closing ‘Theme’ then aims at the same, only now using the more plastic matter of music.

So in the second and last rupture, with the clocks momentarily suspended, we explain the philosophy of this composition. It’s another translation of the clock system. This time, the four positions of big and small O’s each translate to a musical note: C, D, E, and F. To guarantee the purest pitch, these notes are sampled from tuning forks, then played over and over according to the pattern of the clocks. abiding the usual binary, a big O means ‘on’ (the fork hit, the note sounds) and a small o means ‘off’ (silence). So, as the clock displays ‘15’, or O O O O, all the notes are played, C, D, E, F,and left to resonate over each other. Considerably amplified, the pitches collide and generate a miscellany of sine waves. The waves can be felt as well as heard.

Counting backwards (as usual), as the clock displays ‘14’ or O O O o, all notes but the last are played: C, D, E, -, and left to resonate again. However, as tuning forks produce a long sustain, these new notes also resonate over the previous round’s – the ‘14’s over the ‘15’s – and yield even stranger vibrations. and so the theme continues according to this pattern, down through ‘1’ (o o o O), which means only the last note is played (-, -, -, F), and finally ‘0’ (o o o o), meaning a round of silence (-, -, -, -).

and then over again: the whole sequence of 16 cycles 16 times, and this somehow lasts 17 minutes. During which, the sound waves collide in increasingly erratic ways, and the collective ear starts to focus not on the notes themselves, but on what occurs between the notes.

at which point the whole thing appears to end.

– DS, December 2014

This reversible English/Lithuanian booklet is published on the occasion of Dexter Sinister’s Work-in-PrOgress / The Last StOp Clock, CaC Vilnius, 2014. The cover and following page originally formed the opposite sides of an a5 card that served as a dual caption list / invitation card to the exhibition/event.

The Last ShOt Clock was team-translated from English into Lithuanian by Renata Dubinskaitė, Virginija Januskeviciūtė, Eglė Kulbokaitė and asta Vaičiulytė, all of whom were among the audience during the incantation’s first delivery as well as being its first readers. although the parts written in verse have been translated as close to the original English meter as possible, and every attempt made to maintain the flow of the sentences in the parts written in paragraphs, both meter and meaning will inevitably have suffered.

With further thanks to aurime aleksandravičiūtė, Francesca Bertolotti, Liudvikas Buklys, Virginija Januskeviciūtė, Raimundas Malasauskas, Rūtenė Merkliopaitė, Robertas narkus, and Jonas Zakaitis.

* There’s always something that doesn’t quite compute; always another gap.

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OPEnIng of Work-in-PrOgress,an exhibition of work concerned with exiting regular modes of time arranged by Dexter Sinister

1. Kazimir Malevich, Sisters, 1910, oil on canvas. With thanks to Rūtenė Merkliopaitė and Perrine Bailleux.2. Bruno Munari, Tetracono, 1965, multiple. Each cone spins at a different speed, collectively transforming from green to red over 18 minutes. Private collection.3. alighiero e Boetti, Contatore, 1967, multiple, edition of 123. Private collection.4. giuseppe Penone, Progetto per Rovesciare i propri occhi (To reverse one’s eyes), 1970. Documentation of the action by the artist. (note: this work was removed from the exhibition at the request of archivio Penone.)

5. Clock system diagram, Jespersen, J., and Fitz-Randolf, J., From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, 1977, silkscreen on wall.6. Muriel Cooper, Self-portrait with Polaroid SX-70, c.1982, video imaged and printed at the Visible Language Workshop, MIT. Courtesy of Mass. College of art & Design.7. Stephen Willats, The World As It Is And The World As It Could Be, 2006, print on aluminium. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London.8. Kazys Varnelis, The Last Shot, 2007–2008, oil on canvas. Courtesy of national Museum of Lithuania.

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9. Photograph from the reverse of the instructions inside Ryan gander’s multiple, Parallel Cards, 2009 (a standard set of playing cards printed on both sides).

10. Dexter Sinister, Naive Set Theory, 2009, proof print.11. Dexter Sinister, Watch Scan 1200 dpi, 2010, postcard.12. Dexter Sinister after albrecht Dürer, Death and the Landsknecht, 1510, as reproduced on back cover of Bulletins of The Serving Library no. 1 (2011).

13. Dexter Sinister, MTDBT2F glyph, 2011, composite Risograph print of letters from the typeface Meta -The - Difference -Between -The -Two -Font.14. Raimundas Malašauskas, Photo Finish, 2011, hologram.15. Dexter Sinister and Erik Wysocan, Watch Wyoscan 0.5 Hz, 2013, reverse-engineered Casio digital watch by Halmos.16. Dexter Sinister, advertisement for Watch Wyoscan 0.5 Hz, 2013, digital print. Photograph by Jason Fulford.

17. Microchip used to re-program scoreboards at Palasport, Venice, Dexter Sinister’s contribution to ‘oO/Oo’, the Cypriot-Lithuanian pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennial.18. Dexter Sinister, Work-in-Progress, 2013. Installation shot at Palasport, Venice, by Robertas narkus.19. Dexter Sinister, Poster for an Infinite Solstice Event, 2013, 35 mm slide, light.20. True Mirror, made by True Mirror Co., 2014.

21. Dexter Sinister, poster for Letter & Spirit, 2014, silkscreen print. 22. Dexter Sinister, Letter & Spirit, 2014, a program that runs a script, 16'06".23. angie Keefer, Fountain, 2014. Commodity futures indexes, video, transparent holographic screen, motion aftereffect. When markets rise, water falls forward; when markets sink, the fall reverses. 24. Dexter Sinister, Work-in-Progress, 2014, a pair of LED clocks programmed to tell the time identical to scoreboards adjusted at Palasport, Venice, one year ago.

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753. The Last ShOt Clock

Kern dieses Projekts war ein Mikro-chip, der dazu programmiert wurde, ein Work-in-Progress umzunutzen. Dabei handelte es sich um zwei Anzeigetafeln am jeweiligen Ende eines Basketball-Feldes im Palasport in Venedig – der Beitrag von Dex-ter Sinister für den gemeinsamen Pavillon von Litauen und Zypern für die Biennale von Venedig 2013. Die Chips programmierten die für die digitale LED-Zeitangabe verantwort-liche Schnittstelle so um, dass sich die Uhranzeige in eine unorthodoxe geloopte Konfiguration aus kleinen und großen „O’s“ verwandelte. Darin steckte der Bezug zum reversiblen Titel des Pavillons – Oo oder oO.

Die Uhr basiert auf einem Hexadezi-mal-Zeitcode (16 Einheiten), der über einen binären Schnittstellen-Code (zwei Einheiten) läuft. Die Uhr enthält vier Ziffern, die von rechts nach links für 8, 4, 2 und 1 stehen. Jede von ihnen kann an (ein großes O) oder aus (ein kleines o) sein. Also zum Bei-spiel: OOOO = 8+4+2+1 = 15; oOoO = 0+4+0+1 = 5; oooO = 0+0+0+1 = 1 und so weiter.

Ein Jahr später wurden dieselben beiden Uhren für eine stärker konzer-tierte Arbeit verwendet. Zwei LED-Re-pliken wurden an jeweils ein Ende eines im Freien gelegenen Atriums im Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius gehängt. Dort waren sie Bestandteil einer größeren Ausstellung, die 2014 von Dexter Sinister organisiert wurde. Die Schau vereinte mehrere Arbei-ten von Dexter Sinister und anderen Künstlern und beschäftigte sich mit dem Thema der unorthodoxen Zeit. Die Uhren waren der Parallax-Fokus eines namensgebenden Talks für zwei Personen, der beschwörerische Züge trug und verschiedene Wege und Mittel zum Thema Zeit aus unter-schiedlichen Disziplinen verknüpfte. Die Beschwörungszeremonie ist für zwei Sprecher geschrieben (D und S), die in einer poetischen Metrik Anek-doten rezitieren, die den Mustern der Uhren entsprechen. Dazu gesellt sich eine Erzählung, die den Hintergrund aus Venedig beleuchtet. Die Perfor-mance wird durch einige zugehörige Musikstücke akzentuiert, darunter ein Schlussthema, das für vier Stimmga-beln orchestriert wurde, die ebenfalls auf dem exzentrischen System der Uhren basieren.

Wie der Talk belegte, bestand die Idee darin, ein gemeinsames Verständnis von *Zeitreise* herbeizuzitieren, um eine Party zu besuchen, die versehent-lich während der Eröffnung der Bien-nale in Venedig im Vorjahr verpasst worden war. Um den Einsatz nochmals zu erhöhen, sollte The Last ShOt Clock seinen Höhepunkt zur Sommersonnen-wende (am 21. Juni 2014) erreichen.

Es folgt eine Beschwörungszeremonie, die live am CAC Vilnius gelesen und zusammen mit einem Cover und einer Liste mit Arbeiten in der zugehörigen Ausstellung (anfangs die beiden Sei-ten der Einladungskarte) sowie einer erläuternden Einleitung und einem Schlusswort reproduziert wurde. Wie der Text beschreibt, entspricht das Layout des Skripts der poetischen Metrik der Beschwörungszeremonie (Oktameter). Es wurde ein halbes Jahr nach der Ausstellung vom CAC als Booklet im DIN-A5-Format mit 32 Sei-ten und einer litauischen Übersetzung publiziert.

3. The Last ShOt Clock

The seed of this project was a micro-chip programmed to repurpose Work-in-Progress, a pair of scoreboards at either end of a basketball court at Palasport, Venice, which was Dexter Sinister’s contribution to the joint Lithuania/Cyprus pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennial. The chips re-engi-neered the scoreboards’ digital LED time interface to display an unortho-dox clock based on a looping config-uration of upper- and lower-case ‘O’s and ‘o’s, in reference to the pavilion’s reversible title, Oo or oO.

The clock runs a hexadecimal-based (16 units) time via a binary-based (2 units) interface. The clock compris-es four digits, that from right to left represent 8, 4, 2, and 1, each of which can be on (a large O) or off (a small o). For example: OOOO = 8+4+2+1 = 15; oOoO = 0+4+0+1 = 5; oooO = 0+0+0+1 = 1, and so on.

A year later, the same twin clocks were put to more concerted work. Two dedicated LED replicas were hung at either end of an outdoor atrium at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius as part of a larger exhibition organized by Dexter Sinister in 2014. This show comprised a number of works by Dexter Sinister and others based on the same theme of unorthodox time. The clocks were the parallax focus of an eponymous, two-sided incantatory talk that assembles various ways and means of exiting regular modes of time drawn from different disciplines. The incantation is written for two speakers (D and S), who recite anec-dotes in a poetic meter that matches the clocks’ pattern, along with a parallel narrative that recounts their Venice backstory. The performance is punctuated by a few pieces of related music, including a closing theme scored for four tuning forks also based on the clocks’ eccentric system.

As is related in the talk, the idea was to summon a collective sense of *time travel* in order to attend a party in-advertently missed back in Venice on

the Biennial’s opening night one year before. In order to up the ante, The Last ShOt Clock was timed to climax at midnight on the cusp of summer solstice (June 21, 2014).

The previous pages carry is the incantation that was read live at CAC Vilnius, reproduced along with a cover page and list of works in the accompanying exhibition (initially two sides of an invitation card), plus an explanatory pre- and post-face. As the text explains, the script is typeset according to the incantation’s poetic meter (octameter). It was published by CAC as a 32-page A5 booklet along with a Lithuanian translation some six months after the show.

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This bulletin flows directly from “A Note on the Type” by Dexter Sinister, first published in The Curse of Bigness, Queens Museum of Art (2010), then as wall vinyl that comprised an exhibition called “The Plastic Arts,” Gallery 400 at University of Illinois, Chicago (2010), subsequently as a text in Dot Dot Dot 20 (2010), in vinyl for the exhibition “A Note on the Signs” at Artissima, Torino, Italy (2010), and the exhibition “A Note on the T” at Graphic Design Worlds, Milan, Italy (2011), as a text in Bulletins of the Serving Library #1, Afterall (2011), and in the forthcoming Graphic Design (History in the Making), Occasional Papers (2012).

The full caption for the image on p.158 is: Herbert Bayer, Research in the development of Universal Type, 1925. Black ink on paper, 11 3/4 x 23 5/8˝ (29.8 x 60 cm). Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of the artist. Photo: Imaging Department Oc President and Fellows of Harvard College. Oc 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Cover image: from The Hollows

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In the early 1980s, on the pages of academic design journal Visible Language, a classic thesis-antithesis-synthesis played out around the tech-nological and philosophical fine points of computer-assisted type design. Stanford professor Donald Knuth begins with his article, “The Concept of a Meta-font” (Winter 1981). Two years prior, Knuth had conceived and programmed MetaFont—a software that enabled users to generate unlimi ted numbers of fonts by controlling a limited set of parameters. The article is a performative account of his intervening attempts, using MetaFont to harness the essential “intelligence” of letterforms. In Knuth’s view, the way a single letter is drawn—an a priori A, say—presupposes and informs all other letters in the same font. This information can be isolated, turned into a set of instructions, and put to work computer-auto-mating the generation of new characters by filling in the features between two or more variables such as weight or slant.

Such intelligence is (and has always been) implicit in any typeface, but Knuth is out to omit all ambiguity and install a more definite system. He acknowledges that this preoccupation with designing meta-level instructions rather than the fonts themselves is typical of the contemporary inclination to view things “from the outside, at a more abstract level, with what we feel is a more mature understanding.” From this elevated vantage, MetaFont was set up to oversee “how the letters would change in different circumstances.”

A year later, fellow mathematician Douglas Hofstadter responded with his “MetaFont, Metamathematics, and Metaphysics” (Autumn 1982). While “charmed” by Knuth’s thesis, and admitting the bias of his own interests in artificial intelligence and aesthetic theory, Hofstadter proceeds to shoot down his colleague’s apparent claim that the shape of any given letterform is “mathematically containable.” To support his case, he invokes mathematician Kurt Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems, which assert that any account of a logically coherent system always contains one root-level instance that cannot itself be contained by that account. Hofstadter’s antithesis then usefully couches the debate in terms of “the letter of the law” versus “the spirit of the law,” a familiar antinomy that posits an absolute deference to a set of set rules against a consistent-yet-fluid set of principles. Our prevailing legal system is, of course, based on both: judges base their decisions on firmly established precedent, but also map

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uncharted territory by bringing the full range of their experience to bear on specific cases “in a remarkably fluid way.” In this manner, the law itself adapts.

Hofstadter argues that an accordingly *spirited* conception of type design would therefore renounce Knuth’s ur-A-FORM in favor of a yet-higher-level abstraction, an ur-A-ESSENCE; the fundamental difference being that Hofstadter’s notion of “intelligence”extends beyond a Platonic shape, allowing for the concept of *what constitutes an A* to change, too—beyond what we can reasonably conceive of this possibly being in the future. Each new instance of an A adds to our general understanding of this idea (and ideal), which is necessarily assembled backwards over time.

Hofstadter includes this illustration of two letters vying for the same “typographic niche,” to make himself clear:

Hofstadter, Douglas R., Meta-Font, Metamathematics, and Metaphysics: Comments on Donald Knuth's "The Concept of a Meta-Font" , Visible Language, 16:4 (1982:Autumn) p.309

Neatly enough, the following year a linguistics professor called Geoffrey Sampson drafted a brief response to Hofstadter’s response to Knuth, titled “Is Roman Type an Open-Ended Question?” (Autumn 1983), which, it turns out, is decidedly rhetorical. Sampson argues that Hofstadter’s hairsplitting unfairly and unnecessarily exaggerates Knuth’s claims to the point of warping both his meaning and intentions. There is enough metaphysical latitude, the linguist referees, to accommodate both points of view without recourse to the misery of analytical one-upmanship. Sampson’s synthesis of letter and spirit contends that it is perfectly reasonable to conceive of letterforms as both a closed system (Knuth’s A-shape) AND as an open-ended system (Hofstadter’s A-ness).

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Relatively speaking, it depends *what you’re after.*

. . .

The history of typography is marked by a persistent drive to rationalize. Following the invention of movable type in the mid-15th century, the Renaissance saw several attempts to prescribe the construction of the Roman alphabet: Fra Luca Pacioli’s alphabet of perfect relations, Albrecht Durer’s letters of mathematical instructions, and Geoffroy Tory’s humanistic rationalizations. These attempts were, however, essentially calligraphic exercises in determining “divine proportions;” the first to apply Enlightenment rationality to properly technical ends was the so-called Romain du Roi, or the “King’s Roman.” Commissioned by Louis XIV in Paris at the end of the 17th century, it was a typical Age of Reason project—the imposition of a mathematically-rigorous structure on forms that had, until now, developed organically, initially shaped by the human hand (calligraphy, inscriptions, woodcuts) and adapted according to the various demands and opportunities of the printing press and its attendant technologies. Designed by “a royal committee of philosophers and technologists” from the Academy of Sciences, the Romain du Roi was initially plotted on an orthogonal 48 x 48 grid, and a corollary “sloped Roman” italic variant derived by skewing the upright version.

The coordinates were first engraved as a set of instructions, then cut into punches to make metal type, which were to be used exclusively on official or state-approved materials. In this way, the King’s letters exerted state power like a great seal or particular signature.

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Such ratiocination was revived at the Bauhaus in the 1920s, in line with two of the school’s foundational principles set up to meet the demands of industrialization: the omission of ornament and the reduction to geometric elements. The most celebrated outcome was Herbert Bayer’s 1925 Universal Alphabet, a pared-down sans-serif comprised exclusively of lower-case characters. Bayer adapted the basic glyphs for typewriter and handwriting, experimented with phonetic alternatives, and proposed a wide family of variants, such as the condensed bold version drawn on this panel:

Alongside the basic character set (minus a presumably redundant o, but with alternatives to a and g, as well as two d’s that anticipate lighter weights), Bayer has further abstracted the tools he used to draw it: ruler, T-square, set square, compass and protractor. As such, the drawing captions itself, pointing to its point—that this is a project *intrinsically concerned with a particular mode of construction.* Around the same time, fellow Bauhausler Josef Albers followed similar principles to slightly different ends with his Stencil Alphabet. This, too, was a single-case font, now entirely configured from ten rudimentary shapes, also typically isolated and presented alongside the assembled letters. Drawn and photographed for exclusive use in the school’s own publications and publicity, these elemental Bauhaus fonts remained closeted explorations rather than properly industrial products. Neither was properly developed into a “working” typeface, mass-manufactured in metal for wider use. Outside the school, though, prominent Werk­bunder Paul Renner toned down the hard geometry with gentler, “huma-nist” sensibilities—more modulation, less harsh on the eye—to yield

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his commercially successful Futura. When it was issued in 1927, godfather of the nascent “New Typography,”Jan Tschichold , wrote that

it cannot be open to one person to create the letterform of our age, which is something that must be free of personal traces. It will be the work of several people, among whom one will probably find an engineer.

During the 1930s, British type designer Stanley Morison was in charge of Monotype, the most significant type foundry of the day. Morison was solicited by The Times., London’s principal newspaper, to take out a �1,000 full-page ad. Morison responded yes, as long he could typeset the page himself, because the newspaper’s existing design was in such a dire state. This conversation reportedly carried itself up the Times’ chain of command, prompting its director to invite Morison to oversee a complete overhaul of the paper’s typography. Morison accepted, again on one condition—that the paper abolish the use of full points after isolated proper nouns, which he (rightly) considered superfluous and a prime example of the sort of typographic depravity he intended to stamp out. The paper removed the offending punctuation, and Morison climbed aboard.

Newspaper typography is a particularly sensitive art. Minute adjustments have critical knock-on effects for the amount of news that can be issued —especially when multiplied by the massive circulation figures of The Times. In a 25-page memorandum, Morison concluded that the house typeface needed to be updated. What became Times New Roman, how-ever, was neither redrawn from scratch nor merely an amendment of the existing version, but rather *amalgamated* from a number of different typefaces made at various points over the previous 400 years. The mon-grel result was effectively collaged from past forms, so the lowercase e doesn’t exactly “match” the lowercase a—at least not according to the usual standards of typographic consistency. Up close, Times New Roman is full of such quirks.

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The design of letterforms usually manifests an individual designer’s aes the-tic impulse at a given point in time, but Times New Roman was the bastard offspring of MANY designers working ACROSS time, with Morison’s role something like that of producer, editor, or arranger. The most frequently repeated account of the type’s development suggests that Morison gave an existing type sample and some rough sketches to an assistant in the paper’s advertising department, who duly cobbled together the new font. Whatever the story, in a note on HIS type, Morison concluded, auspicious-ly enough: “Ordinary readers, for whom a type is what it does, will be pleased to leave them to analyze the spirit of the letter.”

French type designer Adrian Frutiger took the rational mapping of the Romain du Roi to another plateau with Univers, released by the foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1957. In line with the all-encompassing aspirations of mid-20th century Swiss design—locus of the so-called International Style—Univers was conceived as an unusually extended family of fonts. The standard palette of variants, traditionally limited to regular, italic, bold, and sometimes bold italic, was expanded sevenfold, yielding a total of 21 fonts to be cut at any given size. In the foundry’s publicity, the family was usually housed in a two-dimensional matrix: an X-axis charts relative WIDTH interspersed with POSITION (Frutiger’s term for slant), while the Y-axis charts relative WEIGHT. The family DNA is manifest in a few eccentricities, such as a square dot over the i and a double-barred lower-case a, while individual character sets are named according to their position in the matrix—55 for standard roman, 56 for standard oblique, 65 for medium roman, 66 for medium oblique, and so on.

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Univers’ matrix implies that the family could potentially procreate in any direction ad infinitum, and, in fact, the project has remained notably open since its inception. Frutiger himself reworked the typeface for digital release by Linotype in 1997, raising the total number of distinct character sets from the original 21 to 63. These included additions to both ends of the chart (Ultra Light and Extended Heavy), along with new monospace variants, requiring a third number to be added to the identifying code. In the wake of Univers’ popularity, further dimensions have since been introduced, including extended character sets such as Central European, and non-Latin alphabets such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Japanese. This globalization culminated in 2011 with Linotype rechristening the entire design “Univers Next.”

. . .

Towards the end of “The Concept of a Meta-font,” an admirably frank Knuth wonders: “The idea of a meta-font should now be clear. But what good is it?”

Hofstadter, for one, had an idea: “Never has an author had anything remotely like this power to control the final appearance of his or her work.” Indeed, seeing his own writing in print years earlier, Knuth had been so upset by the shoddy standards of early digital typesetting that he resolved to do it himself —not unlike Morison with his Times ad. It took longer than expected, but a decade later, Knuth had designed TeX, an automated typesetting system still in wide use today within academic publishing. MetaFont was initally developed as handmaiden to TeX, to generate the fonts to be used within the broader tasks of document markup and page assembly. However, as MetaFont developed as a project in its own right, its purpose was less immediately apparent. At the time of his Visible Language article at least, MetaFont appears to be more a case of hobbyist tinkering in search of an eventual application.

To be fair, Knuth does propose a few uses, all of which were already possible but certainly enhanced by the speed of computer processing. One is the ability to adjust the details of a particular font in line with the limits of a given output device—to make letters thinner or less intricate, for instance, so as to resist type “filling in” with either ink (on paper) or pixels

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(on low-resolution monitors). A second is the possibility of generating countless iterations of the same basic design with slight differences in order to compare and contrast. But a more surprising (and most emphatically-stated) third function of MetaFont, according to its creator, is to meet the “real need” of “mankind’s need for variety.” In other words, to create difference for the sake of difference.

And so the notion of developing MetaFont as an autonomous project rather than as one of TeX’s machine-parts appears to aim foremost at expanding the possibilities of literary expression—anticipating “greater freedom,” a “typeface of one’s own,” “multiple fonts to articulate multiple voices,” and so on. It’s worth recalling, though, that when Knuth invented TeX in order to better typeset his own pages, or Morison refurbished The Times, their impetus was fundamentally reactive, not constructive. They weren’t out to expand the possibilities for expression per se, only to reinstate standards that had been eroded—ones that had been established in the first place to articulate written language as clearly as possible, not to pile on the effects. As Knuth himself states, typefaces are more medium than message, to the extent that “A font should be sublime in its appearance but subliminal in its effect.” What he didn’t foresee (or at least worry over) is that mankind’s real need for variety would tend towards the wholesale takeoever of novelty as an end in itself.

. . .

In his 1928 book One­Way Street, the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin had already anticipated Knuth’s “power to control the final appearance of his or her work,” alluding to the artistic ends that an increased intimacy between writer and technology might foster. Specifi-cally, he predicted that the writer will start to compose his work with a typewriter instead of a pen when “the precision of typographic forms has entered directly into the conception of his books,” to the degree that “new systems with more variable typefaces might then be needed.”

By writing directly into a mechanical form rather than a manuscript (as we’re doing right now) the writer would be working closer to the nature of the multiplied result, and through an increasing awareness and gradual mastery of the form’s new limitations and possibilities *the writing itself

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would evolve;* the shorter the distance between the raw material of words and their processed output, the more entwined the content and form from the outset. This line of thinking was more famously expounded by Benjamin in his 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechani cal Reproduction,” which more broadly argues that an authentic, pertinent art is the result of engagement with the latest technological innovations.

Benjamin was an active Marxist, committed to the notion that the tech-nologies of manufacture—the “means of production”—ought to be owned by the people who operate them. In 1934’s “The Author as Producer,” instead of focusing on factories and workers, he attempts to pinpoint the nature of a *socially committed art.* Writing and the other arts, he writes, are grounded in social structures such as educational institutions and publishing networks, but rather than merely asking how an artist’s work stands in relation TO these structures, he queries how it stands IN them. He demands that artists refrain from merely adopting political “content,” propagating an ideological cause, and work instead to transform the root-level MEANS by which their work is produced and distributed. This “progressive” artistic approach INEVITABLY manifests a “correct” political tendency. The work practices in lieu of preaching.

Benjamin’s first case study in “The Author as Producer” is the Soviet writer Sergei Tretiakov, who lived and worked on an agricultural commune for extended periods before writing his experiences up into a novel . He is offered as an exemplary “operative writer,” implicating himself in the matter at hand, as opposed to the common hack who merely observes and “gives information.” Benjamin’s Exhibit A, though, is his immediate contemporary Bertolt Brecht, who subverted orthodox drama by way of his epic theatre’s celebrated “distancing effects”—leaving the lights on, renouncing expository narrative, presenting a series of objective “situ-ations” in order that the spectators draw their own conclusions. Via these and other manipulations of “technique,” Brecht transformed “the func-tional relation between the stage and the public, text and production, director and actor.”

Necessarily leading by his own and others’ example, then, Benjamin urges the artist to perpetually reconsider his role away from prevailing norms, job descriptions, professional standards, and outside expectations

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generally. What MIGHT the work of a constructively-minded “writer” constitute? Are the abilities to distill an opinion and turn a phrase adequately deployed via the regular mediums—newspaper columns, books, journals and pamphlets—or might they be more usefully channeled through writing, say, captions to photographs, or scripts to make films; or indeed by renouncing writing altogether and taking up photography instead? Hence the essay’s title is also its proposition: the writer (or artist) should be less a hemmed-in author than a free-ranging producer, closing the divide between her “intellectual” and “productive” activities.

. . .

In “A Note on the Type” (2010) we previously offered a history and extension of Knuth’s MetaFont project. Our appreciative “note” (more a love-letter written 30 years late) was then typeset in our own updated version of MetaFont—basically Knuth’s project rebooted for the PostScript generation and, following a throwaway remark by the late David Foster Wallace, rechristened Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-Two-Font. That “single” note has since been published in multiple contexts and formats—on screens, pages, and walls. While all conform to the same basic essay template, each new instance adds three bits of writing by other people, each typeset in unique, freshly-generated MTDBT2-fonts to demonstrate the software’s essential plasticity. These extra texts have alluded to various facets of the project—*repetition,* *habit,* or *the gray area between art and design,* for example—that have suggested themselves as it has rolled palimpsestuously along.

Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-Two-Font picked up where Knuth’s MetaFont left off. In fact, the only OSTENSIBLE difference between the two is that the new version was re-scripted in contemporary code to run on current computers. When typefaces are reduced to on/off bits of information, the typographic norms established by metal type (and carried over into photocomposition) are no longer bound to material necessity —they can be ignored and modified, and this is precisely what Knuth did. However, it was only with the advent and proliferation of PostScript in the early 1980s that typefaces became “device independent,” freed from their association with particular composing machines and their controlling companies. But beyond this nominal “language difference,” MTDBT2F

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remained more or less faithful to MetaFont’s founding principles—not least its wacko parameters borrowed from Knuth’s Computer Modern font, which include “SUPERNESS,” “CURLINESS,” and so on.

The ACTUAL difference between the two, on the other hand, is less easy to discern. One clue is the simple difference in time: what it meant to make it *then,* and what it means to make it *now.*

In his essay “On the New”(2002), Russian art theorist Boris Groys wrote:

Being new is, in fact, often understood as a combination of being different and being recently-produced. We call a car a NEW car if this car is different from other cars, and at the same time the latest, most recent model produced ... But as Kierkegaard pointed out, to be new is by no means the same as being different ... the new is a diffErENcE With-out diffErENcE, or a difference which we are unable to recognize because it is not related to any pre-given structural code.

He continues:

for Kierkegaard, therefore, the only medium for a possible emergence of the new is the ordinary, the “non-different,” the identical—not the othEr, but the SAME.

MTDBT2F is, more-or-less, the same as MetaFont, abiding the obvious fact that it swallows its predecessor. Although the result may look the same, it clearly can’t be, because in addition to the “productive” software, the new version embeds its “intellectual” backstory—a story which is not merely supplementary but absolutely essential. MTDBT2F is a tool to generate countless PostScript fonts, sure, but it is *at least equally* a tool to think around and about MetaFont.

This broader notion is already ingrained in that original Visible Language debate, again most keenly foreseen by Hofstadter, who wrote that one of the best things MetaFont might do is inspire readers to chase after the intelligence of an alphabet, and “yield new insights into the elusive ‘spirits’ that flit about so tantalizingly, hidden just behind those lovely shapes we call ‘letters.’” Hofstadter is still referencing fonts and computers here, but

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his sentiments can easily be read under what art critic Dieter Roelstraete recently called “the taunting of thought.” In fact, Walter Benjamin closed “The Author as Producer” with the following summary:

You may have noticed that the chain of thought whose conclusion we are approaching only presents the writer with a single demand, the demand of rEfLEctiNG, of thinking about his position in the process of production.

At least as much as MTDBT2F serves as a functioning typeface, or set of typefaces, then, it is also a red herring, a carrot, and a mirror. It is a nominal setup for a nominal subject to play out, typically moving in and out of focus, veering off into other fields, and trespassing on other topics. In this unruly manner, the font serves us (or anyone else) exactly as it serves language—as rubber cement, a bonding agent.

. . .

In “The Designer as Producer,” a quick riff on “The Author as Producer” from 2004, design critic Ellen Lupton writes that Benjamin “celebrated the proletarian ring of the word ‘production,’ and the word carries those conno tations into the current period,” offering us “a new crack at mater-ialism, a chance to reengage the physical aspects of our work.” To claim, or reclaim, the “tools of production” in the arts today, though, shouldn’t imply some form of engagement, or worse, REengagement, with heavy machinery, hand tools, hard materials, or the studio (art-equiva lent of the factory floor). More plausibly, it implies digital code.

Code resides in The Hollows, the curiously-named engine room of imma-terial media, domain of scripts and programs, that has been likened by design group Metahaven to the stock market crash: “surface without surface, the exposure of the naked infrastructure or root level system language which precedes surface itself, surface without its effects.”

Another recent essay titled after Benjamin and written by Boris Groys, “Religion in the Age of Digital Reproduction,” invokes the protagonists of The Matrix as being uniquely equipped to perceive the workings of The Hollows. While Neo and co. were able to read image files as code, the average spectator “does not have the magic pill ... that would allow him

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or her to enter the invisible digital space otherwise concealed behind the digital image.” And auspiciously enough, Groys also draws on our by-now-familiar terms, letter and spirit.

In updating Benjamin’s title, Groys signals the same basic investigation —of an existing phenomenon (this time religion rather than art) in a new milieu (digital rather than mechanical). Religious practice, he writes, has always involved the reproduction of institutionalized forms, but as Western religion has become increasingly personal and privatized, an unconditional “freedom of faith” has developed alongside traditional, conditional forms. Contemporary fundamentalist religion remains, by definition, grounded in the devout repetition of a fixed “letter”rather than a free “spirit” —material and external rather than essential and implied. This antinomy of “dead letter vs. living spirit” (which tallies easily enough with the legal one related by Hofstadter) informs all Western discourse on religion. On one hand, the typically “spirited” anti-fundamentalist account favors a living, powerful tradition capable of adapting its central message to different times and places, thus maintaining its vitality and relevance. Conversely, the ritualized repetition of the fundamentalist “letter”amounts to a kind of revolutionary stasis or violent rupture in the ever-changing order of things. Religious fundamentalism can thus be conceived as religion *after the death of the spirit:* letter and spirit are separated and polarized to the extent that the former no longer guarantees the latter. “A mate-rial difference is now JUST a difference,” Groys writes, “—there is no essence, no being, and no meaning underlying such a formal difference at a deeper level.”

While earlier media suited and so precipitated the circulation of conditio-nal religion (1:1 mechanically-reproduced texts and images dis seminated via orthodox channels), contemporary web-based media more closely approximate and so facilitate the unconditional—the wild dissemination of idiosyncratic views. And as digital reproduction supplants mechanical reproduction, the video image becomes the medium of choice. The cheap, anonymous, promiscuous character of digital information guarantees reproduction and dissemination more than any other historical medium. But what’s REALLY being duplicated is, of course, the image’s code —its invisible DNA.

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In the 1930s, Benjamin had reasonably assumed that future technologies would only continue to guarantee the resemblance between an original and its copy, but now the opposite is true: each manifestation of the original is actually *different,* because typically overridden and recalibrated according to each spectator’s local preferences (resolution, color calibra-tion, style sheets, etc.) while ONLY THE CODE REMAINS THE SAME. In Groys’ final analysis, spirit and letter are transposed from a meta-physical to a technological plane, where “spirit” is script, and each new visualization of that script is a corresponding “letter.” (Picture m4v’s, jpeg’s and mp3’s as angels “transmitting their divine command.”) By now the terms are confused to the point of inversion: the so-called “spirit” of digital code is fixed, while the so-called “letter” of its various manifestations is fluid. Consequently, forms—surfaces—are no longer tethered to definite meaning, no longer plausible, and so no longer to be trusted.

This is old news. However, as digital media become increasingly ubiqui-tous, templates increasingly homogenous and entrenched, the most likely place a “writer” might usefully “produce” today is in The Hollows. Hidden or invisible, and otherwise inaccessible to most, this is where we might conceivably reconnect spirit and letter, essence and identity —for “Ordinary readers, for whom a type is what it does.”

. . .

How to keep things moving?

MetaFont and MTDBT2F were both set up to generate an infinite number of individual typefaces by tweaking a few simple parameters at different points in time. But what if we make one of those parameters *time itself*?

First let’s transpose the extant ones onto a 3-D graph, running WEIGHT (a kind of bold) along the X-axis, SLANT (more or less italic) up the Y, and extending SUPERNESS (a kind of chutzpah) off into the Z beyond. We’ll ignore CURLINESS for the time being, but we do have to account for a fourth factor, PEN, best conceived as a digital “nib” that determines the line’s fundamental shape and angle at any given point.

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X

Y

Z

Now let’s send that point *constantly moving* through this imaginary cube. As it wanders randomly and aimlessly through the space, it trails a script that renders an alphabet whose form morphs according to its position relative to the other parameters—not forgetting the fact that the point-nib-pen itself is in perpetual flux. And, crucially, it never stops. The outcome might be usefully apprehended as the potentially endless matrix of Frutiger’s Univers, amalgamated over time like Morison’s Times New Roman, articulating itself in the manner of Bayer’s Geometric Alphabet, over the precise wireframe of Louis XIV’s Romain du Roi. Which amounts to a typographic oxymoron: a SINGLE typeface that’s simultaneously MANY typefaces and never stops moving.

Naming this shapeshifter is easy enough—just shunt another couple of box cars onto the end of the night train to arrive at (deep breath) Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-Two-Font-4-D, or MTDBT2F4D for short.

. . .

Writing in one place inevitably *performs* in another.

Here, for example, reflecting on Hofstadter’s and Morison’s and Groys’ various assimilations of the terms “letter” and “spirit” fosters a more robust, compound sense of their allegorical purpose. It produces a cosmopolitan thought. When grappling with ideas in one domain is brought to bear on another, those ideas are more firmly grasped and so more readily utilized somewhere else ... towards considering (say) the ways in which relative chauvinism and relative open-mindedness manifest themselves in daily life and work.

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Or, equally, writing the first small script when learning a new programming language, the sole purpose of which is to generate two words that mark the border between instruction & instance. Swaddled in asterisks and set without a full point, this text always reads:

**Hello world**

954. Letter & Spirit

Dies ist ein Essay in Form eines animierten Texts, der die Geschichte der Rationalisierung von Schriftarten verfolgt. Er schließt mit einem Verweis auf sich selbst als zeitgemäßes typisches Beispiel. Gesetzt ist er in einer Schrift, die Zeitgenossenschaft mit Typografie verbindet und Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-2-Font-4-D, oder MTDBT2F4D heißt.

Bereits 2010 entwickelten Dexter Sinister eine frühere Version dieser selben Schriftart. Dabei handelte es sich um ein Update eines Projekts aus den frühen 1970er-Jahren mit dem Namen MetaFont, das von dem Computerwissenschaftler Donald Knuth aus Stanford stammte. Dahinter steckte der Versuch, eine Schrift zu entwickeln, die nicht der üblichen Familie verwandter Zeichensätze (Roman, fett, kursiv etc.) entsprach, sondern eher als anpassungsfä-hige Parameter funktionierten, die so optimiert werden konnten, dass sie unzählige Variationen derselben Grundform produzieren konnten. Dexter Sinisters Update übernahm Knuths ursprüngliche Idee zusam-men mit seinen Original-Parametern. Daraus programmierten sie eine entsprechende Software für heutige Computer.

Diese erste, statische Version mit dem Namen Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-Two Font, oder MTDBT2F, wurde gleichzeitig in dem Essay „A Note on the Type“ dokumentiert und vorgestellt. Er wurde erstmals im Katalog zur Gruppenausstellung The Curse of Bigness im Queens Museum of Art, New York (2010) publiziert. Hier diente die Schrift auch dazu, die bestehende Beschilderung des Museums zu ersetzen. Der Essay, der unter www.servinglibrary.org zum Download zur Verfügung steht, wurde zwischenzeitlich mehrfach neu veröffentlicht und überarbeitet. Hinzu kamen neue Beispiele, um die Veränderbarkeit der Schrift zu demonstrieren – etwa als Wandvinyl in der Ausstellung The Plastic Arts in der Gallery 400 an der University of Illinois, Chicago (2010); als Text in Dot Dot Dot #20 (2010); als Vinyl für die Ausstellungen A Note on the Signs auf der Artissima in Turin (2010) und A Note on the T bei den Graphic Design Worlds, Mailand (2011); als Text in den Journalen Bulletins of The Serving Library #1 (2011), Afterall 27 (2011) und Art in America (2013) sowie in dem Buch Graphic Design (History in the Making), Occasional Papers (2013). MTDBT2F findet zudem für weitere Projekte Anwendung, etwa das zwei-mal jährlich erscheinenden Journal Bulletins of The Serving Library, das von Dexter Sinisters Stuart Bailey

und David Reinfurt zusammen mit der Autorin und Künstlerin Angie Keefer produziert wird.

Eine nachfolgende Version der Schrift, Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-2-Font-4-D, unternimmt den Versuch, der ursprünglichen Setzung von Knuth einen weiteren Parameter hinzuzufügen: *Zeit*. Das ergibt eine Schrift, die sich stets bewegt. Ein zweiter Essay, „Letter & Spirit“, der zunächst im Bulletins of The Serving Library #3 (2012) veröffentlicht wurde, basiert auf der Geschichte, wie sie detailliert in „A Note on the Time“ dargestellt wurde. Während der erste Essay sich jedoch auf die zur Diskussion stehende Schrift konzentrierte, in der er auch gesetzt war, beschränkt sich der zweite auf die Beständigkeit von Druck oder Pixeln. Deshalb entstand auch die Produktion einer animierten Version, die neu ediert und so ausgeführt wurde, um in der Öffentlichkeit projiziert zu werden. Präziser ließe sich die Animation deshalb als ein „Programm, das ein Skript betreibt“ beschreiben. Denn was der Betrachter wahrnimmt, ist eine Software, die in Echtzeit läuft. Wie sein statischer Vorläufer fand MTDBT2F4D in verschiedenen Kontexten Anwendung, beispiels-weise als Identität für die Kadist Art Foundation, die sich über einen Zeitraum von zehn Jahren allmählich verändert. Die erste Version von Letter & Spirit erschien als 35-mm-Film und wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit Jürg Lehni als Teil der Moving Picture Show in Chaumont in Frankreich (2012) produziert.

Wiederabgedruckt ist hier die origi-nale Langversion von Letter & Spirit, gesetzt in MTDBT2F, wie im Bulletins of The Serving Library #3 (2012). Diese Ausgabe des Bulletins diente auch als Katalog zur Gruppenaus-stellung Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language am MoMA in New York (2012). Die animierte MTDBT2F4D, die am Ende des Essays diskutiert wurde, wurde auch erstmals für die Wieder-gabe von „Trailer for the Exhibition Catalog“ verwendet, das als Dexter Sinisters Arbeit in der Ausstellung zu sehen war. Der Essay steht ebenfalls unter www.servinglibrary.org zum Download zur Verfügung.

4. Letter & Spirit

This is an essay in the form of an an-imated text that tracks the history of the rationalization of typefaces, then concludes by pointing to itself as a recent case in point. It is set in a font that adds temporality to typography called Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-2-Font-4-D, or MTDBT2F4D.

In 2010, Dexter Sinister developed an earlier version of the same typeface by updating a project from the late 1970s called MetaFont by Stanford computer scientist Donald Knuth. MetaFont was Knuth’s attempt to conceive a typeface not as the usual family of related fonts (roman, bold, italic, etc.), but rather as a set of adjustable parameters that could be tweaked to produce countless variations on the same skeleton form. Dexter Sinister’s update took Knuth’s original idea, along with his original parameters, and programmed a piece of equivalent software to run on current computers and yield indus-try-standard PostScript fonts.

This first, static version, called MTDBT2F, was simultaneously doc-umented and demonstrated in an essay called ‘A Note on the Type’. This was first published in the catalogue to the group exhibition The Curse of Bigness at the Queens Museum of Art, New York (2010), where the font was also used to replace the museum’s existing signage. The essay (available to download from www.servinglib-rary.org) has since been republished and reworked – incorporating new ’sample’ excerpts to demonstrate the font’s morphing ability – as wall vinyl that comprised an exhibition called The Plastic Arts, Gallery 400 at University of Illinois, Chicago (2010); as a text in Dot Dot Dot #20 (2010); in vinyl for the exhibitions A Note on the Signs at Artissima, Torino (2010), and A Note on the T at Graphic Design Worlds, Milan (2011); as a text in the journals Bulletins of The Serving Library #1 (2011), Afterall 27 (2011), and Art in America (2013), and in the book Graphic Design (History in the Making), Occasional Papers (2013). MTDBT2F is also used to typeset a wide variety of other projects, such as the biannual journal produced by Dexter Sinister’s Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt together with writer and artist Angie Keefer, Bulletins of The Serving Library.

The subsequent version of the font, Meta-The-Difference-Between-The-2-Font-4-D, attempts to add a new parameter to Knuth’s original set: *time*. This yields a typeface that is always moving. A second essay, ‘Letter & Spirit’, first published in Bulletins of The Serving Library #3, (2012), builds on the story detailed in ‘A Note on the Time’ from ‘a higher point of disinterest’. However, where the first essay effectively demon-strates itself by being set in the type-face under discussion, the second is relatively limited by the fixity of print or pixels; hence the production of an animated version, re-edited and rendered to be projected in public. In fact, the animation is more properly described as ‘a program that runs a script’, because what the viewer

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96 perceives is a piece of software running in realtime. Like it’s static forerunner, MTDBT2F4D has been applied in different contexts, including an identity for Kadist Art Foundation that shapeshifts slowly over a contracted ten-year period. A trial version of Letter & Spirit was rendered on 35mm film and produced in collaboration with Jürg Lehni as part of Moving Picture Show, Chaumont, France (2012).

Reprinted here is the original longform ver-sion of ‘Letter & Spirit’ typeset in MTDBT2F, as published in Bulletins of The Serving Library #3 (2012). This issue of Bulletins doubled as an catalogue-of-sorts for the group exhibition Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language at MoMA New York (2012), and the animated MTDBT2F4D discussed at the essay’s end was first used to render a ’Trailer for the Exhibition catalogue-of-sorts’, displayed as Dexter Sinister's work in the show. The essay is also available to down-load from www.servinglibrary.org.

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Gefördert durch / Funded by

Ausstellung / Exhibition

Dexter SinisterOn a Universal Serial Bus.*3. Oktober bis 22. November 2015

Initiiert von / Initiated byChris Fitzpatrick

Koordiniert von / Co-ordinated byNina Gscheider

Produziert von / Produced by Kunstverein München: Clara Brockhaus, Saim Demircan, Chris Fitzpatrick, Nina Gscheider, Ines Wiskemann

Installation / Installation Joseph Köttl und / and Team Pr.ojekteEIDOTECH GmbH

Identität / IdentityJulie Peeters, David Reinfurt, Johannes Schwartz

Kunstverein München e.V.Galeriestrasse 4 (Am Hofgarten)D – 80539 München

info@kunstverein-muenchen.de

Publikation / Publication

Publiziert von / Published byRoma Publications und / andKunstverein München e.V.

Herausgeber / EditorsDexter Sinister,Chris Fitzpatrick, Julie Peeters,

Autor / AuthorDexter Sinister (Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, David Reinfurt)

Übersetzungen / TranslationsMartina Fuchs, Leo Unglaub

Lektorat / Copy EditingSaim Demircan, Chris Fitzpatrick, Nina Gscheider, Ines Wiskemann

Konzept und Gestaltung / Concept and graphic design

Julie Peeters

Druck und Bindung /Printed and bound

Benedict Press, Münsterschwarzach

Edition / Edition750

Internationale Distribution / International distribution

Idea Books, Amsterdam

Webshop Roma Publicationsromapublications.org

Dexter Sinister und Kunstverein München bedankt sich bei dem Vorstand und den Mitgliedern / Dexter Sinister and Kunstverein München would like to thank the board, the members, Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey, Ruth Hoflich, Virginija Januskeviciute, Winke Noppen,

Roma Publication 2??ISBN ?

Kunstverein München Companion 2015-3

(c) 2015 Die Autoren / the authors, Roma Publications, Kunstverein München

Rückseite Umschlag / Back cover:Title (year), medium, dimensions. Courtesy of ?.

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Kunstverein München2 October – 22 November 2015

Roma publication 255

Dexter Sinister On a Universal Serial Bus.*

Kunstverein München