'Design is premeditated action'

Tucker Viemeister

Towards the survival of the type: communicative and cultural memory, the problems of forgetting and the mnemonic energies of activist typographies
ICTVC 2013 Dr. Paul Wilson School of Design University of Leeds May 2013 texpw@leeds.ac.uk @textpw

Preamble
for Con Shields (1919-2913)

How many men in that one photograph? A line, composed of bodies snaked, huddling into view. An unspecific location, landscape not giving many clues. Where they congregate they're seen to stand under a banner. Dark fabric, held between two poles. White letters, two words. They appear the same. Their dress. Not a uniform. Dark coats. Three-quarter length. Caps on head. All flat. Some with thin scarves. Eyes, gaunt. Two words. A crusade? The impact of their action. Their walk. Their action.

How many men in that one photograph? A line, composed of bodies snaked, huddling into view. An unspecific location, landscape not giving many clues. Where they bunch they're standing under a banner. Light fabric, held between two poles. Dark letters, two words. The men appear the same. Their dress. Not a uniform. Dark coats. Short, some three-quarter length. Caps on head. All flat. Some with thin scarves or sashes. Eyes, gaunt. Two words. Thirteen letters A crusade? The impact of their action. Their walk.

Introduction

Alistair Fuad-Lukes notion of an 'activist object'

these objects are carriers of memory - both as functional protest devices and, quite rarely, they transcend their everyday context and are elevated to a status beyond their individual or specific point of protest they become 'cultural memory' - formed, distinguished and charged by context such memory is that which we use to make sense of the world

Contention#1

Typography carries [communicative] and can create [cultural] memory. Typography facilitates activism, itself a form of deliberate (often) aggressive remembering or memorialisation. It is often employed to play a significant role in the processes of making memory and is used explicitly in the social construction of history and its' narratives.

Writing and memory, typography and memory

typography is anti-memory, against memory & encourages laziness i. Communicative memory local, individual, frequent and, often, informal defined by an idea of the local that might be better considered as personal or autobiographical linked to one's position within or formed by community ii. Cultural memory essential to "the survival of the type (sic)" associated with functional necessities, habitualised customs and forms of communal socialisation operates on a level beyond the everyday - being objective and at a distance [from the individual] defined as being dependent upon particular points or markers (what Assman terms 'figures of time'), within collectivised or shared experience

"In Assmanns terms, cultural memory is intrinsically related to power and tradition. Hence it covers a much longer period of time in comparison with communicative memory."
Lucas Bietti

Activities, locations and interests: work makes words

Design and activism are words carrying a similar burden. They are conjured in the mind and transport our thinking in diverse ways; they are malleable, easily borrowed and corruptible
Alistair Fuad-Luuke

Activist speech, typographies of protest and structures of feeling

"...speech that appeals to a change of culture surges forth from the untrained world or from those who had been assumed to be irresponsible [a] contestatory interrogation, aiming at this public institution that is language and that unveils the fragility of its foundations.
Michel de Certeau

So far: i. Designed words are regularly agents in the production of both cultural and communicative memory, in particular when allied to organised, vocal and public activist intent ii. Activism, driven by a cause requiring response and leading to some kind of action, often seeks to bring about change through forms of intentional remembrance iii. Such instances of design-as-cultural-memory can mark out moments in a history of organised activism iv. One concern for externalised memory centres around a role for writing which disempowers the reader and, in the process, discourages memory v. Typographic communication, in the service of a production of memory, can have measurable cultural impact and might often live on beyond an issue or when a cause has ceased to be considered worthy of reaction vi. Typography has a significant role to play in the construction of [activist] communicative memory - where the incidental, accidental and, often, throwaway practises of the non-designer have created work which has lasting impact upon an activism (re)located within the self

What does an active [or activist] visual language against forgetting actually look like?

Design can disturb current narratives. Design can rupture the present with counternarratives. Design can contribute to reformist approaches. It has the ability to catalyse societal transformations.
Alistair Fuad Luake

I AM NOT HAPPY

i.The impact of any activist design, in particular typography as a carrier of communicative memory ii.The facility for typographic design to distill a range of popular feeling

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17 April 2013

17 April 2013

Conclusions

we can map typographic design practise onto Assmans conceptualisations of memory [communicative and cultural] we can identify an array of typographies which might align to each, and theres room to discuss these in a wider theoretical context there are particular qualities which are specifically tied to ideas and ideals of not-forgetting and ways in which memory can be made through both the production or making and the keeping or documenting of typographics

Within the sample we can identify two types or forms of mnemonic energy used within the typographic signs on display: one thats invested primarily in a combination of message and form, where angry words might be packaged angrily another where, combined, they look to create a plethora of typographic form and - pictured together - make manifest a congregational mosaic of associated voices and their particular forms of expression

In what sense is it mnemonic?

assists [with memory] and aids a variety of acts of remembrance marking a moment in time and demanding to be remembered

Cultural memory is essential to us, and a preservation of aspects of what it might mean to be human - our traditions, our celebrations, our reassurances. Typographys paratextual functions and unique capabilities [in the case of activist typographics] imbue it with a social emotion, one that carries the qualities from communicative memory and enacts memory in other ways. Such practises - allied to an ever-growing social purpose or need - might, in fact, be most useful for the survival of this type.

Communicative memory, here, unpicks cultural memory

challenges its orthodoxies not passive - active in terms of establishing and maintaining a critical position and in terms of being against forgetting by marking out moment of cultural memory and attacking or critiquing them, activist typographic communicative memory launches itself against an idea which is constructed and perpetuated as cultural memory