#james langdon

[grrl-gxm]

OK-RM: A Meaningful Order

[noosphe-re]

A Meaningful Order, OK-RM

[drawdownbooks]

NEW at Draw Down: Revue Faire no. 42, 43, 44, and 45 This anthology collection brings together four separate issues, including N° 44 — "A conundrum: the visual communication of neuroscience" by James Langdon

Neuroscience is a visual science. Our understanding of the brain’s biology originates in the beautiful and pioneering images of neurons and dendrites produced by Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi in the late nineteenth century. In recent decades neuroscience has embraced computational imaging. We have witnessed dynamic images of living brains produced by fMRI, and intricate, colorful representations of “neutral connectomics” that promise ultimately to reveal the ‘wiring diagram’ of the human brain. Such images are not merely the documentation of scientific work; they are themselves primary sites of research. The images are the science.

And yet the interaction of neuroscience with mainstream visual culture tends toward the simplistic and the amateurish. Science communication seems to regard graphic design and art direction skeptically, preferring to contextualize its technical images with a collage of cartoons, internet memes, and generic high-tech stock photography. The emerging neurotechnology industry, by contrast, adopts the visual language of corporate “big tech.” Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Neuralink project presents its experimental neural implant technology as if it were an innocent commercial appliance. These observations are urgent. Inevitably neuroscience will soon yield opportunities for technologically augmenting the human brain that could further entrench inequality and stratification in our society. This text is not a call for more friendly interdisciplinary collaboration between graphic design and neuroscience, but a pointed critical assessment of the visual literacy of one field from the perspective of another.

Published by Editions Empire Bilingual, in French and English

148 pages total, each issue separately bound, b&w and color images, 8.25 × 11.75 inches

ISBN: 979-1-09-599142-7

[qutequeersstuff]

The Day The Call Came

The routine is always the same, never changing and seemingly never-ending. Right now, James Langdon sits on his couch to eat his breakfast and turns on the TV. ln the middle of one of his bites, his house phone starts to ring, and he ignores it, having the machine pick it up. The phone ring continues to sound out throughout his living room before it ends. He sighs in relief since he does not want to talk to anybody today.

“Pick up son, we need to talk.”

Hearing that voice again caused him to wheeze and send his food down the wrong pipe. He starts to hit his chest and begins to cough so he could breathe again. Once he could his mind began to clear up. Why is she calling me after so long? He thought to himself. He still remembers every moment of the last time they spoke, he still remembers her screams and being pushed out the door into the pouring rain, his clothes becoming incredibly uncomfortable due to the moisture and sadly, he remembers the look of complete heartbreak on his father’s face that made him hesitate, yet he continued out onto the sidewalk to his car.. He shakes his head taking him out of that horrible memory. He picks up the phone and dials back. “Hello son” He slightly flinches expecting a cold tone in her voice but is surprised at the slight break that appears in the middle of it.

“Mom what’s wrong?” He questions with concern all throughout his voice taking him by complete surprise.

“Well,” She starts to say but sniffles before she can even finish the sentence. “Your father hasn’t been feeling well lately so we took him to the doctor…” Everything just fades away as he begins to think of the worst scenarios possible. The man who cheered him on when no one else did. Noticing that he has not talked in a while, his mother continues to speak but he is not listening so she hangs up. No goodbye. No, I love you. Why do I keep getting surprised by the way she treats me? He thought bitterly. He ignores this and tries to focus on the situation at hand.

Dreams and nightmares haunt his head all through the night, he wakes up in a cold sweat with no intention of closing his eyes again. The nightmare is still rolling in his head hours later. His father on his death bed and James is just there to watch his father suffer. James then shakes his head and gets up out of his bed, if his father really is extremely ill then he is going to spend every moment he can with his father. He leaves his home and gets in his car, trying to prepare himself.

Within 2 hours, James reaches the carefully decorated house. He reaches the door and knocks, almost immediately he sees his mother and is shock by her appearance, her clothes covered with stains and face appearing to have withered.

She smiles before bursting into tears and hugging him but having difficulty due to their height difference.

James slightly flinches but accepts the hug, nonetheless. He stares over his mother’s shoulder seeing clothes scattered all over the place and pill bottles strewn about on all surfaces of the living room. In the distance he hears the sound he dreaded the most.

“Where’s dad?” He questions whilst looking around for the room his father is in.. His mother nods her head knowing that there is nothing she could do to comfort him, taking him into the master bedroom where he supposes his dad is.

His worst nightmare has come true, he sees his number one supporter on his death bed. All he can do is stare before tears start to fall. What does he say to a man on his death bed? Does he reassure him that everything will be okay? He slowly approaches the bed, just now noticing the at-home nurse in a chair in the corner of the room.

“Leave him be sweetheart, he’s sleeping” The nurse warns. He nods his head and just stands at the edge of the bed watching his father sleep. Now that he thinks back to the last time he saw him, he did notice how his father was not as lively as he usually was. “Have you come to say your goodbyes James?”

He looked at Jessica, the nurse and nods saying, “I guess so” while looking at his mother. She never told him his father was this far gone, but accepts the fact that she lied to him, again. His mother looks away in shame because her own son is used to this. James looks away from his mother and back to his father and he smiles when he sees his eyes are open, he runs to the side of the bed and grabs his dad’s hand. “Hey dad, how are you feeling?” His father looks at him and smiles seeing his only son there. James noticed his father trying to take off the ventilator so he asks the nurse “Can he take that off?” while motioning to the ventilator. The nurse nodded and began to help him take it off. Once it was off, his father began to speak.

“Hello son, I’m fine, how are you?” His father said with the brightest smile on his face. James was a little shocked at the happiness in his dad’s voice. He looked towards his mother with eyes wide, but his mother just watched on with a sad smile on her face. He looks back at his father. “What are you doing here son? Did you come to visit your mother?” James continued to look at him and tried to figure what was wrong with his father when he came to the saddest realization and soon tears started to line his eyes. He turns his head towards his mother, and she nods in confirmation. He turns his head back to his father.

“Yeah, I’m here for mom, but I came to see you before we left.” James says with a smile on his face that is covering the pain he felt. “You know I love you, right?” His father nods and James starts to leave the room, he leans on the wall only to fall to the ground as the tears begin to flow. He starts to retreat into his head and wonders how long his dad has been like this. What am I supposed to do? Another heartbreaking thought popped into his head. Is he even still the same man who raised and supported me? He thought. James enters reality again and notices the tears flowing down his face and aggressively wipes them away. He looks back into his father’s room and sees he is asleep again with the ventilator on. He quickly looks away with tears starting to line his eyes again and begins to enter what used to be his safe place. His head. I am going to have to watch my father wither away. James thought wiping his tears. There is nothing I can do to stop this.

[hyphenpress]

against interdisciplinarity

“I think very few artists work— or, importantly, desire to work — in a way that is free of a context or premise to respond to. In the past three years I have interviewed a number of former students of the English designer and educator Norman Potter. I have heard many similar anecdotes that reflect an attitude that Potter apparently instilled in his students. They all go something like this: if you were working on a project — as a builder, for example — and you had the ability and tools to help your commissioner — with some plumbing, for example — then you would do so, naturally. Such improvisations probably constitute a vast majority of the everyday processes in any human activity. The fact that there is apparently no discourse on transdisciplinary practice in the building and plumbing trades tells me that certain art and design commentators are overlooking the ordinary realities of work in all but the most reductive practices.”

Source: Interview with James Langdon / Modes of Criticism

Photo taken from Models & Constructs: Margin Notes to a Design Culture by  Norman Potter. Hyphen Press, 1990.

[printed-n-bound]

A Play *

제목: 플레이 언어: 영어 발행처: 로마 퍼블리케이션, 암스테르담(Roma Publication, Amsterdam) 저자: 우타 아이젠라이히(Uta Eisenreich), 제임스 랭던(James Langdon) 디자인: 제임스 랭던 발행일: 2016년 6월 15일 ISBN: 9789491843600 페이지 수: 96페이지 크기: 110 x 180 mm 가격: €14

우타 아이젠라이히가 에바 마이어-켈러, 카트린 하너와 합작한 ‹테이블 위의 사물들› 퍼포먼스에 맞춰서 출간된 책이다. 두 명의 퍼포머는 거투르드 스타인이 1922년에 쓴 텍스트 「테이블 위에 누워 있는 사물들」(1922)을 악보처럼 사용하여 일상적인 사물의 컬렉션을 보여준다. 여기서 스타인의 사물들은 솥, 냄비, 국자 같은 것으로 수수께끼 같은 이야기 안에서 겸손한 자아와 캐릭터로 등장한다. 이 책은 스타인의 텍스트에서 출발하지만 시각적으로는 단순 기하학적인 문양에서 이야기를 구축하는 그래픽적 방식을 취한다. 이러한 형식은 독자에게 다음과 같은 질문을 던진다. 예컨대, “저는 커피 잔 받침인가요? 아니면 달인가요? 아니면 단지 동그랗게 인쇄된 잉크인가요?” 제임스 랭던이 디자인했다.

* <Roma 1-272> 설명 인용

* 사진 출처: 로마 퍼블리케이션 웹사이트

로마 퍼블리케이션 링크

[leopoldlenzgeiger]

Am 13. Dezember 2017 ist es wieder so weit: In der Aula der Fachbereich Gestaltung Darmstadt findet ein High Noon Special mit James Langdon (UK) statt.

Wann? 13. Dezember 2017 19 Uhr Wo? Fachbereich Gestaltung in der Aula Olbrichweg 8–10 64287 Darmstadt

[printed-n-bound]

Pugin’s Contrasts Rotated

제목: 회전된 푸진의 대비 언어: 영어 발행처: 베드퍼드 프레스, 런던(Bedford Press, London) 편집&디자인: 제임스 랭던 (James Langdon) 발행일: 2011년 11월 30일 ISBN: 978-31-907414-22-0 페이지 수: 32 크기: 148 x 210 mm 가격: £4.5

1836년 8월, A. W. N. 푸진은 《대비》를 출판했다. 이 책은 중세의 숭고한 건물들과 그에 상응하는 오늘날의 건물들 간의 병치를 통해 목하의 쇠퇴하는 취향을 보여준다. 푸진의 책은 종교적 중요도에 따른 심오한 작품으로서의 건축을 보여준다. 그 비교 분석은 고딕 건축을 찬미하고 퓨진 시대의 건축적 생산물들을 폄하한다.

푸진은 일련의 동판화들로 자신의 주장을 묘사했다. 그의 중세 건물들은 풍부한 세부 묘사, 정연한 행렬이나 고요한 숭배 속에서 전형적으로 보여지는 그 거주민들과 함께 구현된다. 흩어진 사람들이 거주하는 이 동시대적 등가물들은 얄팍하고 질이 낮은데, 이는 건축이 그 시대 가치의 실재적 구현으로서 그 거주자들의 생각에 직접적으로 작용한다는 푸진의 주장에 대한 예시가 된다.

자가 출판된 《대비》의 초판은 이 이미지들을 펼침면의 우측 페이지에 제본과 수직을 이루도록 회전된 쌍으로 수록하고 좌측 페이지는 (각각의 앞 판의 인쇄되지 않은 반전으로) 비워두었다. 그 다음 에디션들은 이 어설픈 페이지 구성을 신뢰했다. 이 포맷은 푸진의 주장에 대한 이항 반대와 이 열린 책의 레디메이드 이항 장치 간에 기이한 차이를 만들어낸다. 코덱스를 제본함으로써 중앙을 가르는 것은 《대비》를 위한 이상적 무대일 것이다.

오늘날의 이 출판물은 교정적인 제스쳐를 취한다. 1841년의 《대비》 2판에서 가져온 16쌍들 중 15쌍의 복사본들은 90도 회전되어 펼침면 상에 재생된다. 이 지면들은 푸진의 이항 어휘에 의해 틀지워진다. 두 개의 단어 목록은 《대비》에서 논의된 두 시기의 건축적 생산에 대한 설명에 사용된 것들이다. 이 작품은 일종의 역동적 전시 장소로서의 이 책에 관한 저자의 더 폭넓은 조사의 일부이다.

* 책 내용 중 일부 번역

* 이미지 출처: 매니스터프

AA 북숍 링크 / 매니스터프 링크