On Wednesday 5 June, we hosted a symposium that was convened by the editors of design journal Bricks from the Kiln with MAGMD tutor Bryony Quinn. The symposium was the first in what we hope will be a series of events working with guests who present ideas and works that may inform the practices and concerns of the MAGMD course. If you would like to propose an idea for an event, please get in touch.

The BFTK event covered a set of related ideas to do with translation, transmission and transposition within written and design practices, and featured a series of presentations that attended to the practical and the conceptual interpretations of those themes. The response from every speaker was necessarily diverse, from Sophie Collins, poet and translator, who delivered the opening paper building upon the her book Currently & Emotion (a touchstone text for the editors) that deals with the subjectivity of translation, to Florian Roithmayr who delivered a series of translated letters between the scientists and scholars who created a replica of the ceiling of the Altamira caves. Later, James Langdon performed his interpretation of transposition through a series of graphic interventions and causal gestures imbedded within spreads from a set of mountaineering monographs. Other presentations were delivered by Rebecca Collins, J.R. Carpenter, Karen Di Franco and James Bulley.

MAGMD graduate and guest tutor, Carlos Romo-Melgar, has collaborated with LCC graduate, John Philip Sage, to design the identity of 2019 Degree Shows at LCC. Read recent interview by Lucy Bourton

In Search of… (Digital, Virtual And Speculative) Realities
Design in Perspective

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14 March 2019

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Curation and words by Martin Stesko and Ferdinand Lu

REALITY
noun UK | riˈæl.ə.ti/ US | riˈæl.ə.t̬i/ 1. The state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. 2. A thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one’s mind. [en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/reality, Retrieved in May 2019]

As a concept, reality is often perceived as being more “desirable” an outcome than dreams or ideals. Yet, by definition, dreams and ideals grow into expressions reality. One could argue they cannot exist without one another. The relationship between reality and ideals was at the core of our “In Search of …” session, which aimed to investigate how reality as a concept had evolved in a contemporary society laced with virtual reality headsets and digital landscapes.

[Fig] Gonzalo describing the goals of the “Invisible Landscapes” exhibition series.

IN SEARCH OF…
TECHNOLOGICALLY-ENHANCED REALITIES

Our session began at the Royal Academy (RA) where Gonzalo Herrero Delicado introduced us to his work as the curator of Invisible Landscapes – a three-part series of exhibition organised by the RA’s architecture studio. The first two parts focused on Home and Environments with the final part, Imagination, concerning the influence virtual and physical spaces could have on one another. Different facets of reality were challenged by the four projects on display: how augmented reality software could be used to fabricate (rather than visualise) reality (Gilles Retsin Architecture), how ephemeral physical moments could be preserved as eternal digital maps (ScanLAB Projects), what dangers hyperproductivity in a digital-intensive work environment may pose humans in the future (Keiichi Matsuda) and, finally, what virtual spaces might look like should physical objects become embedded within them (Soft Bodies).

During the discussion with Gonzalo, he summarized intentions behind exhibition series as to speculate about the future defined by technology, where material and virtual/digital space merge together and the impact it could have on possible perception of the world in future. It appeared to him that there is a abundant potential of currently available technology to both critically and creatively interact with diminishing boundaries between virtual and physical spaces. Additionally, Gonzalo spoke about challenges posed by curatorial practice to get audience actively interact with exhibition artifacts.

[Fig] Still from Keiichi Matsuda’s merger (2018).

IN SEARCH OF…
DOMESTIC REALITIES

After the Royal Academy, we visited Home Futures at the Design Museum where we met curator Eszter Steierhoffer to discuss the intentions behind the planning of the exhibition. Eszter explained it was impossible to imagine the future without looking at the present – and to focus on the present without looking back into the past. The past discussed within the parameters of Home Futures is one where significant technological revolutions were taking place on a regular basis, resulting in a “20th Century of [individuals] having capability and having no idea what to do with it”. The result is a collection of highly imaginative and speculative artefacts questioning how far our society might evolve should those technological revolutions continue exponentially – yet the present day pales when compared to some future models of yesteryears, with technological integration occurring in less obvious (yet more intrusive) ways than expected : where past futures focused on imagining contemporary societies in highly futuristic landscapes, the present reality demonstrates a less advanced landscaped for a highly transformed society. The exhibition was cleverly categorised into six different ways of living : living with others, living smart, living on the move, living with less, living autonomously, or the idea of the domestic Arcadia. These categories allowed for the distillation of the definition of home into the key aspects individuals might associate with the most significant infrastructure of social reality.

Comparing today’s realities with visions presented in the exhibition, one might ask if we currently live in yesterday’s tomorrow and why it wasn’t realized. What these futuristic imaginings of twentieth century deconstructed and ignored was inherent human nature of home – a site of ritual and belonging, a sensory depository of memories, as Ezster mentioned during discussion. Reflecting on the core theme of our ‘In Search of…’ session, current merging of established concept of physical reality and digital/virtual reality needs to consider inherent human relationship with physical reality in order not to become yet another unrealised techno-utopian imagining of future.

[Fig] Satirical prototypes for headsets with functions similar to modern mobile devices, yet different from current phone designs. (Haus-Rucker-Co, Environment Transformers)

IN SEARCH OF…
OTHER REALITIES

To conclude our session, we studied a selection of objects that would open questions around the theme of reality left unexplored by both exhibitions visited.

— The first object we presented was FF Gaiden: Legacy by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy (2017), which challenged how 3-Dimensional video game maps could be subverted and repurposed to express critical narratives of global political importance.
— The second object we presented was Field Studio‘s portfolio of work, as we were intrigued by how reality-challenging designs and concepts could be harnessed to create concrete, commercial projects which offer real-world design solutions, as opposed to speculative projects.
— The final object we presented was the Janus VR Browser for its experimental way of mapping the world wide web : the browser has the ambition of visualising the web as a physical, 3-Dimensional space that users can walk through and explore as if they were physically experiencing it.

All objects studied aimed to further push the scope and boundaries of what we might expect reality to look like, both from a human perspective and from a designer’s perspective. We hoped that in doing so, the session’s participants would be motivated in challenging their own realities in new and innovative ways.

[Fig] Reviewing the session’s chosen objects

IN SEARCH OF…
SYNTHESIZED REALITIES

Our session’s focus on architecture and its relationship to reality and physical space was born from a desire to strengthen our understanding of what our future might look like. Both exhibitions offered contrasting glimpses of reality : while Invisible Landscapes presented a technologically-oriented vision of the future, using tools and materials currently in existence to rethink the ways in which we interact with environments, Home Futures offered different perspectives on domestic reality through prisms of idealism, practicality, fatalism or speculation. Invisible Landscapes was very much ingrained within the practical plausibility of reality that felt more focused on the idea of the near-future, where Home Futures (though exhibiting some practical projects) also explored the more optimistic or historical views of the home in a less immediate future. Both equally valid perspectives raise new questions, especially with regards to how the tools and methods presented in Invisible Landscapes might be used when applied to ideas of a more distant future (as exhibited in many of the pieces displayed in Home Futures).

In search of… Interactive Storytelling
Design in Perspective

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1 March 2019

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Curation and words by Laura Dirzyte and Bruna Osthoff
Images by Francisca Roseiro, Bruna Osthoff and Laura Dirzyte

OUTLINE

New possibilities provoked by digital platforms are empowering contemporary design practitioners to move towards creating inclusive narrative experiences. It is an exciting yet unfamiliar territory, thus, in preparation for In Search of… Interactive Storytelling we equipped ourselves with a key question – what methods can be used to encourage audiences to become collaborators rather than just spectators of a story? On 1st of March we embarked on a journey investigating how the use of emerging digital technologies and the element of audience participation can influence the experience of a narrative.

VISUAL EDITIONS
ANNA GERBER & BRITT IVERSEN

[fig] Britt Iversen and Anna Gerber, founders of Visual Editions in conversation with the group

[fig] The physical book format of We Kiss the Screens

We first met Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen, a lively duo from Visual Editions, who challenge the status quo of traditional publishing with Editions at Play. They look at a smartphone as a place and are curious how technology can help to write audiences into the story. Their newest project We Kiss the Screens is an example how a written narrative and interactive screen navigation can be woven together to deliver a multi-layered experience for the audience. The reader is given an opportunity to move between eight perspectives of the same story and design their own reading experience. These mobile books use simple HTML technology as Anna and Britt vouch for rethinking existing technologies through creative means. For them an important aspect of working with digital platform was the fact stories could be accessed by diverse audiences for free. Throughout the conversation the pair also emphasised the importance of collaboration in their practice. They develop each narrative together with writers, designers, illustrators as well as technical staff at Google Creative Labs in Sydney, all of whom have a voice in directing the reading experience. Before we parted our ways Anna and Britt encouraged us to go on board with ideas born out of a prompt “Wouldn’t it be great if…?” and see what adventure they might lead us.

EXPERIENCING INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING

The mission into the field of interactive storytelling continued with a group investigation of four design artefacts. They were carefully selected to instigate a debate on what possible forms ‘interaction’ could take.

We began with Fabulous Wonder.land, a virtual reality music video inspired by the National Theater’s musical wonder.land. Even though it requires a pair of cardboard VR glasses and a mobile app, the experience evokes new relationship between the audience and the performance as well as challenges people’s perception of what art and theatre could be. Despite limited elements of user interaction, VR experience efficiently combined sound and visual to create a sense of immersion. As a result video awakes the desire to interact with presented content.

[fig] The group exploring an interactive graphic novel The Boat

The Boat, an interactive graphic novel, was another example which tried to use sound to communicate the atmosphere of story. The Vietnamese refugee experience was based on the short story by Nam Le and produced by SBS where Matt Huynh’s drawings came to life vividly in a website format. Scrolling through the narrative, the user has a couple options to divert from the main plot, however, these side stories do not affect overall narrative. For this reason group concluded that The Boat is drifting towards an immersive experience rather than interactive one.

[fig] The interactive book Seed is designed to work using the technology available on a smartphone

Seed was a case study of how a website format can be creatively challenged. Written by Joanna Walsh and developed by Visual Editions studio together with Google Creative Labs Sydney, this book uses screen as a sprawling digitally-native canvas to steer individual through their own unique reading of the book. It is likely the book was designed as collection of individual chapters, thus, it allows to grasp content well either way you chose to read it. Group speculated how this book’s concept of non-linear reading could have informed We Kiss The Screens design, Visual Editions’ newest book introduced earlier in the day by Anna and Britt.

[fig] The book Masquerade by Kit Williams was an example of interactive narrative in traditional print medium

The book Masquerade by artist Kit Williams challenged the notion of interaction. It suggests that interactive experience does not have to be understood as the act of reading a narrative. The interactive narrative is built with the actions readers take as they go looking for the hidden golden hare.

MARSHMALLOW LASER FEAST
WE LIVE IN AN OCEAN OF AIR

[fig] People participating in We Live in an Ocean of Air experience

On the 15th of March the group met again at Saatchi gallery to visit the We live in an Ocean of Air virtual reality experience. This exhibition is a multi-sensory immersive installation created by Marshmallow Laser Feast. Advanced VR set with monitors tracking heart-rate, breathing and body movements enable the audience to experience the invisible symbiotic relationship between trees and humans. As people arrive in the exhibition hall, they immediately lower their voices and slow their steps as the huge screens at the back of the dark room capture attention. Audience begins to slowly match their breath to the rhythm of hypnotizing Sequoia tree visuals. Climbing the stairs out of the calming experience of Ocean of Air and into the bright and noisy Saatchi hall is like coming back into reality from a dream. The group discussed how Ocean of Air is mostly immersive but the way people get to modify some graphics with their bodies make it also interactive. Based on our previous experience with wonder.land VR experience, the immersive aspect of Marshmallow Laser Feast piece could be important in encouraging the interaction, creating a connection between these two processes.

INSIGHTS

In our journey through interactive narratives we kept finding references to immersive stories. Sense of immersion is important in bringing audience into a narrative and evoking desire to participate while interactivity is about actually giving audience a choice to affect the story. Furthermore, it was exciting to discover how practitioners today are not only exploring new technologies, like virtual reality, but are also pushing the boundaries of old ones, like smartphone screens and HTML sites. The technological advancements are opening new spaces for creative exploration that enables audience participation. The group observed that there are a lot of new possibilities in this new area and it is open for contribution as well as collaboration. One of the recurring comments was how other senses could be brought into the interactive experience, like touch and smell while use of sound could be pushed even further.

Time: 17.00
Date: Tuesday, 23 April
Location: MAGMD Studio D209, LCC
RSVP: The lecture is accessible to staff and students at LCC, UAL, but please email (p.bailey@lcc.arts.ac.uk) to confirm attendance.

What does it mean to rename an institution? Some thoughts on the potential of words, on thinking and working together, and on making books.

Hagen Verleger will share insights into ‘Margaret van Eyck,’ a collaborative research/art project at the intersection of institutional critique, feminist intervention, and the politics of (re-)naming, which he initiated during his time as artist-in-residence at Van Eyck, a Dutch post-academic institute for fine art, design, and reflection.

Upon arriving at the program, Hagen changed the academy’s name and the name of its workshops and facilities (‘labs’) by adding a female alternative to each of the all-male namesakes. This spatial design intervention led to an ongoing discussion at the institution and beyond, culminating in the official opening of Margaret van Eyck Academie with a series of presentations, performances, and readings.

Last year, Hagen edited and designed a two-volume publication (published by Peradam Press, NYC) documenting “Margaret van Eyck” and featuring a diverse group of artists, writers, and scholars that reflect on the topics within the project.

Hagen Verleger is an independent graphic designer, editor, researcher, and lecturer based in Berlin. His practice often revolves around editing and publishing, and is informed by a strong interest in the interrelation of fiction and reality. He is currently working towards a doctorate in the field of philosophy, media studies, and design history.