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midnightiscoming-kasabian · 7 years ago

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Q&A: Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno Talks ‘For Crying Out Loud,’ Touring the U.S. and His Band’s Shape-Shifting Career

Kasabian is practically a household name among alternative rock fans in Britain. Hailing from Leicester (located just outside Birmingham), the band’s 2004 self-titled debut record sold more than a million copies at home and spawned four top 20 singles.

Since then, each successive studio release has entered the U.K. charts at No. 1. The four-piece has also won a Brit Award and routinely headlines the country’s biggest music festivals (including Reading and Leeds this past August).

Here in the States, the Tom Meighan-fronted band maintains a large cult following for its brash, electronic and dance-infused rock music that has often taken stylistic cues from the likes of Primal Scream and Happy Mondays.

The solid sixth album For Crying Out Loud, Kasabian’s first in three years, finds multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer/principal songwriter Serge Pizzorno getting more personal than usual. Meighan has said singing the Loud lyrics saved his life after an especially dark period.

There are sonic nods to LCD Soundsystem (“Are You Looking for Action?”), Prodigy (“Ill Ray-The King,” whose music video stars Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey), Ramones-meets-late ‘60s-Stones (the racing, distorted standout “Bless This Acid House”), The Beatles (closing, campfire-type singalong “Put Your Life on It”) and Spaghetti Western soundtracks (“The Party Never Ends”), not to mention some of the musicians’ usual humor (a surrealistic “You’re in Love with a Psycho”).

We recently caught up with Pizzorno to get an update on all things Kasabian following its brief North American tour of theaters.

Rock Cellar: You’ve admitted to being more excited about performing live lately. Why?

Serge Pizzorno: The creation, the process of making albums is my favorite thing. The performance side is always secondary. I figured, ‘you’re on stage more than you are in the studio.’ So, I just try to find a way of embracing it and making it interesting for me. Every night, I [attempt] some moves.

What kind of response have you gotten from fans about For Crying Out Loud?

Serge Pizzorno: It’s a shame more people don’t know about us, which is funny, because around the world, we’re massive. Here, no one’s heard any of the music. People that come to the shows feel blessed that they get to see us in such small venues. I like playing those little venues, by the way. They’re a lot of fun. Reminds you of when you start out. It’s not such a bad thing for bands to feel like that.

You handled the production reigns again, instead of having someone like Dan the Automator at the controls. At this point in your career, do you feel you have a firm handle on how Kasabian should sound?

Serge Pizzorno: To be honest, I have a clear vision and feel someone else would get in the way. I have an idea of exactly what I want. It’s not always worth it [to have a producer]. But moving forward, I definitely think I’ll work with someone on the next album.

Do you find it easier to work on the album in your home studio, where you can put ideas down at your leisure?

Serge Pizzorno: Exactly, and every album the bedroom gets a little bigger, which is fun. I feel most comfortable at home, but to create, I have to sort of go to the Himalayas and find a hut somewhere.

A couple songs were inspired by 1970s rockers like The Stooges and Ramones. Have you come to appreciate them more as you get older?

Serge Pizzorno: You know what? I’ve always been into them and loved their energy. As you get older, I suppose you realize that on the face of it, bands get a bad rap for being dumb or simple. You learn more about how clever and difficult it is.

People see them as straightforward things, but it’s like, ‘you’re missing the point.’ Those bands are supremely intelligent. The music press sold them short because they were so clever. The bands knew exactly what they were doing. Every decision they made was considered and chosen because that’s what they wanted to put out. I buzzed off that.

I thought, ‘let’s go down this road for that album.’

I’ll bet a lot of people were surprised by “Put Your Life on It,” the unabashed love song that closes the album.

Serge Pizzorno: I think people that have followed us from the first record can see the overview of the journey we’ve gone on, like, ‘Ah, it’s that album.’ We’ve made a stoner album, an alcohol album, the concept record. I look at the legacy bands leave behind. You see a career band make albums to supply the demand for hits and radio. Then there are other bands that leave a tale of their life. I think one’s kind of accepted there’s less experimentation and more straightforward melody and structure [here]. Next time will be completely different. I’m already starting to see what the next one is going to be like.

You’ve done projects with Noel Fielding of British comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh and you tend to leaven some Kasabian lyrics, such as on “Comeback Kid” and “Wasted,” with a bit of humor. Is adopting that tone more important than ever in these rancorous times?

Serge Pizzorno: In a way. I like songs that have comedy and I’m obsessed with standup. I’ve always loved lyricists that could make me laugh. In my head, I see the school bully or some big dude that’s trying to put you down. Growing up where I’m from, there were always some – what do you call them – jocks – in America? Kids like me that were into [painter] Basquiat and [poet] Dylan Thomas always got a bit of abuse. [‘Comeback Kid’] is about the idea of tearing that dude down and going, ‘I’m going to end you and put you in a bin bag.’

The 8 ½ minute long party jam “Are You Ready for Action?” really stands apart from everything else on the album. What is the story behind it?

Serge Pizzorno: Originally, I had a 3 ½ minute maximum for all the songs. At the end, I felt it should be like a Roxy Music song or those old Dub tapes back in the day, where they’d take a pop song and make an [extended effort] out of it. I got well into that and thought, ‘Everything else is so tight and considered and direct. To complete the album, we need a moment where you get taken away.’ In that context, it works because that musical break is really sweet.

You’re not involved with social media, but the band does have an official Instagram account. Who runs it?

Serge Pizzorno: We have a girl that deals with the photos, but all the content is directly from us. We could have been at the forefront of it, but we’re from a generation where the mystique of a band was normal. I really don’t want anyone to know anything. You don’t know anything about stars from the past. You know the myth, but you don’t really know anything about them. I don’t like what people have to give away of themselves to gain followers. It doesn’t interest me.

What’s ahead for the band after the current world tour?

Serge Pizzorno: I’ll probably go back into the studio and make more music.

www.rockcellarmagazine.com

#kasabian #interviews #interviews 2017 #rockcellar magazine 24.10.17

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turkiyeecom · 6 years ago

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Review: 'Project Runway' Finale Caps Off Christian Siriano's Great First Season - NPR

Christian Siriano watches over the work of Hester Sunshine on Project Runway. Barbara Nitke/Bravo hide caption toggle caption Barbara Nitke/Bravo Christian Siriano watches over the work of Hester Sunshine on Project Runway. Barbara Nitke/Bravo The 17th season of Project Runway concluded Thursday night, handing the win to Sebastian Grey. It was the show's first run without Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, who reigned while Runway ran on Bravo and then on Lifetime. Back on Bravo now, it features model Karlie Kloss in the host role, and designer (and former Project Runway winner) Christian Siriano in the mentor role. Not only did the season wind up being a strong argument that a show like this can continue with a new host, but it almost became an argument for changing hosts as the first, not the last, option for shows that have grown stale. I surprised myself with my affection for it, and certainly with my affection for Siriano, not my favorite back when he was a contestant. Kloss is still getting her feet under her, but she's been just fine at this job — at least as good as Klum was when she was new to it. She has a warm presence, friendly and supportive, and she seems very happy to be there. But the big surprise, at least to me, has been Christian Siriano. He's proved to be, while entirely different from the rightly beloved Tim Gunn, a funny and smart and honest mentor, one who brings the right amount of reality-show zazz while also making all kinds of sense. Success doesn't flatter everyone, but it's flattered him. When Siriano won the fourth season of the show back in 2008, he was the show's youngest winner at only 22 — and it showed. He could be impatient, full of himself and negative about work he didn't feel like doing for clients he didn't feel like serving. He was criticized for careless comments about drag queens and transgender people when he was first famous. After his victory, though, he vowed to get better, and then he worked and worked and worked. He kept making high-end fashion, but he also made shoes with Payless and a line for Lane Bryant, which kept his name in front of a large audience, not unlike the one he had on television. His clothes appeared on red carpets more and more, and he got a new wave of attention in 2016 when he made a gown for Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, who had complained that designers didn't want to dress her. He went on to dress eight women for the Emmys that fall, across a variety of ages, races, body types and styles.

After that, it seemed like he was inescapable at any high-end celebrity event, and he made some of the most admired looks appearing anywhere — including Billy Porter's stunning velvet tuxedo gown for the Oscars, which may well be the red-carpet look of the year. Even if he weren't a Runway alum, Siriano would have been a great candidate for this position based simply on the position he occupies in fashion right now. They'd have been lucky to get him. At the same time that they brought on this really strong fashion mentor who is as current as current gets, the producers cast contestants who were, for the most part, pleasant. There was very little interpersonal drama and a lot of focus on the development of the clothes (fashion writers Tom & Lorenzo have written well on this all season), and by the time we got to the end, the finalists — Sebastian Grey, Garo Sparo and Hester Sunshine — all seemed perfectly qualified and on friendly terms. It really did come down to whose collection worked out best. It could have been any of them. In the finale, Garo had a little too much trouble with execution, so he was set aside, and it came down to Sebastian and Hester, both of whom made very good final collections in their own styles. Sebastian makes more classic, elegant clothes, always impeccably made but not dull. The leather work in his final collection was distinctive and grand. Hester, on the other hand, finally seemed to get a handle on her "clown picnic" aesthetic, very playful and colorful, and put together a collection that didn't seem as gimmicky as some of her work during the season. She's also a brilliant stylist, using accessories maybe as well as anybody on the show ever has. She peaked at the right time, and she managed not to include some of the things she's gravitated toward that haven't worked (she got mostly over her love of sheer dresses with ugly pasties/bust cups, for instance). When Kloss and judges Nina Garcia and Brandon Maxwell talked about Sebastian and Hester, joined by guest judge Diane von Furstenberg, their debate made a lot of sense. Sebastian's line was more perfected. It was more cohesive. It was more of a complete idea. But Hester, they acknowledged, is very good at another element of selling clothes: being a personality who represents the brand well. This didn't come off as crass, as if she might win solely because she's more camera-friendly. It came off as realistic, in that she might win because she made a terrific collection and there's a unity of her persona and her clothes that help make a designer a star. Marketing is real; being good at it is real. They chose Sebastian as the winner, but the show hadn't positioned any "I'm going to riot if this person wins" options, as there sometimes have been in the past.

All of this — all of it — was part of a sense across the season that Project Runway had both become a better show than in recent years, one wildly more relevant to actual current fashion. Not only did it feature the newsmaking Siriano, but judge Brandon Maxwell is the one who designed Lady Gaga's multi-phase Met Gala outfit, probably the most talked-about look of the year from the most fussed-over celebrity fashion event of the year. Somehow, 16 seasons down, Project Runway leveled up. Don't get me wrong: Tim Gunn was a very good mentor. He was gentle, wise, encouraging. He approached mentoring like a teacher, which is what he was. But if anything can invigorate a show like this after 16 seasons, it's someone who does the job really differently, but also does it well. Siriano has a different vibe in the workroom, maybe a little more like a boss overseeing apprentices. He's bracingly honest in a way that can puncture notions that are better in theory than in practice; I laughed when a designer explained his plan to contour an outfit with zippers and Siriano said, "You're going to put a zipper right on the boob?" And the ego of his younger self has, perhaps with the help of his success, become less defensive and more confident, so that he enjoys gently teasing designers about situations where he tells them what they need to do and he turns out to be right — but he never seems mean about it, ever. He warns them off their bad ideas with a good-humored despair, often falling back on something like "you're killing me" when he's worried about their choices. It was such a delightful surprise to discover that changes I was initially worried about might be just what I needed to start loving the show again. It's good enough when a successful host change lets you continue to enjoy a show (as happened to me with The Great British Baking Show), but when it reinvigorates a show in which you've lost interest, that's something special. Tim and Heidi are working on a new project for Amazon — and I'll watch that, too. Still love 'em both! Still in their corner! But what a pleasure it's been to return to an old favorite that's given itself a lift. Read More Read the full article

#'Project #google #now #Review #shows #sites #today

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tiffanyfishleigh · 7 years ago

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20x20 Visual Essay Outcome:

27/10/17

INTRODUCTION

In this visual essay, I will introduce two international luxury fashion brands. One will be an emerging brand and the other an existing brand. You will get to explore both journeys from both brands in regards to their history and present day developments. Within this presentation I will also cover their marketing strategies, their customers, their unique selling point and their vision. This will tie in with points made on PESTLE and the porter 5 factors.

WHY MOSCHINO?

Moschino as we all know it today, is recognised for its unique, innovative style. The label overtook fashion headlines with its rebellious, surrealist take on the fashion industry and very quickly it became famous for its originality and its innovation in its campaigns on raising awareness on important social issues.

Moschino was never shy of a controversial statement and often made jokes at the industry's "fashion victims" who were also, in fact his customers. His use of imagination and creativity of using pop culture and visual puns has really enhanced the way we look at what luxury couture fashion is today.

HISTORY

The man behind the label was Franco Moschino. Franco was born on February 27, 1950 in Abbiategrasso, italy, and sadly died on September 18, 1994 in Milan, at the age of just 44 years old, due to an aid-related death.

Franco’s father wanted him to work in the family business, however he wanted to pursue his love for fine art and therefore ran away to Milan and enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti where he studied from 1968 to 1971, supplementing his student budget with design and illustration commissions for fashion houses and magazines. Once he graduated he became an illustrator for Versace.

The brand launched when Moschino eventually left his job as Gianni Versace to create his own signature brand in 1983. He founded his own company called Moonshadow, the same year he launched Moschino Couture. Then lines such as love moschino, cheap and chic and moschino jeans later came. From this Moschino became famous for his eccentric designs and his social awareness campaigns in the early 1990s.

MOODBOARD

Attached below. From this visual representation of Moschino's identity, you can see that it is very creative, its very bold, along with indications of bursts of colour and eccentric prints. The brand itself is very tongue-and-cheek. Moschino was never shy of a controversial statement and often made jokes at the industry's "fashion victims" who were also, in fact his customers.

Despite the humour portrayed throughout the majority of his work, Moschino was in fact a superb tailorer. His ability to produce flattering clothing always shone through.

JEREMY SCOTT

If fashion were a candy store, Jeremy Scott would be the wide-eyed, gape-mouthed kid standing smack-dab in the middle of it. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/jeremy-scott

Scott was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in a small farm house. He was full of imagination and fashion obsessed from a young age. Growing up Scott's sexual identity was difficult to convey, not so much for him but for others to around him, to understand and to just accept him. By looking different or seeing things in a different way, people approached it as a threat. Even to this day, as creative director for Moschino, which has always been an looked at as an “anarchist to fashion” brand anyway, Scott really brought a whole new energy to fashion culture using futuristic pop culture within the garments.

Scott describes himself not only as a designer but as an artist, a communicator, an icon. Ultimately he says he is a boy from a small farm with a big dream.

Before scott took on the role as creative director of the brand, Moschino lacked its youth and sense of humour. After Franco Moschino died the brand became more and more unnoticed, the pop cultural, humorous references began to fade, people were beginning to forget about the brand.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

The brand picks up so much attention from its crazy, outrageous collections.

Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna all gravitate towards Scott because of the bold statement.

However, since pulling it back in 2013, Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna all gravitate towards Scott because of the bold statement - the clothes are guaranteed to be noticed. The clothes are to represent people being very expressive, forward and fully free, which is very empowering. Many people feel uncomfortable because it's way out of their comfort zone, it's not the typical black and chic which people expect to see in the fashion industry. Scott states that still to this day there is no designer that's turning fashion on its head and playing with brand perception.

USP: Price points, products, mascot - figure, celebrity endorsements and their clientele.

Both Franco Moschino and Jeremy Scott were outsiders to the main stream fashion system, yet were still fashionable in a strange, unique way. By being so different causes a huge impact, whether that's negative or positive, either way it's being talked about and that's better than not being talked about at all.

BRAND PHILOSOPHY

Moschino’s concept offers an alternative to the traditional fashion system as we know it, revealing a creativity that is more interested in transforming what exists rather than being a follower of the forever changing trends, resulting in having its own fashion trend. The brand expresses a new way of creativity by finding new combination of stylistic elements that conveys its vision of a disenchanted future. Every single collection translates joy and uses a concept of a lighthearted exciting story line which is to represent the enthusiasm and desire to express the problems both within women and men through their everyday life. Even though the label expresses contemporary fashion elements, Moschino has always stood apart from the other luxury brands which gives it its own personal rendition of fashion today.

http://fashiongear.fibre2fashion.com/brand-story/moschino/brand-philosophy-values-inspirations.asp

Here is a few PESTLE points i'll let you all read.

Ill talk about the first one, so again talking about social media, with scotts heavy drug use 80s style collection - many people went against this as they thought it was influencing drugs and therefore the collection was taken out of luxury department stores. The brand gets a lot of negative articles written about Moschino, but as scott says better to be talked about then not talked about at all.

SWOT ANALYSIS

I created a swot analysis for moschino - mainly on what i know so far. looking at the strengths then, we know moschino has a very strong brand identity and uses innovation within its designs. Its weaknesses fall back on the people who speak negatively of the brand. Opportunities being new products and threats could be failure to keep up with its innovation.

______________________________________________________________________

MEET BRUTA.

This is the emerging brand i have chosen. A quick overview of bruta then. So its a London-based fashion label which was founded by Arthur Yates in 2015. The label swiftly attracted a number of influential stockists, including Liberty and Dover Street Market. Yates had no formal fashion training but an artist’s background, therefore built his collections around art, culture and traditional crafts.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

HISTORY

Arthur's career in fashion began in 2008, he was only a teenager when he launched his own manufacturing company which involved producing jersey and denim apparel for the British high-street retailers such as Topshop, River Island and Asos. After several years of supplying high street brands with fast fashion along with maintaining regular art shows to showcase his paintings and sculptures, Yates decided to create his very own fashion label that would bring those two worlds together.

CREATION/VISION

Here iv just gathered a few illustration of yates first a/w 15 lineup. The initial Inspiration for Bruta came from the simplicity and seasonless nature of Savile Row tailors. Yates took inspiration from the designs that were timeless rather than trend-focused. His own unique adaption in his collection was to combine shirting and pottery.

Using Savile Row as a start point, he decided to undercut tradition by creating sharply-cut, gender-fluid shirts with colourful bunched flowers, and stitched graphic motifs along the collars and sleeves.

THEIR CUSTOMER

Brutas customer reflects both a young man and woman, caught between the old western era before the technological revolution. They can fully appreciate art for what it is. Their sense of style is not trend focused, it is individual and meaningful to their personality. This customer is not shy of money and will spend well on good quality, hand made garments.

ONLINE PLATFORMS

From observing Bruta from a personal point of view, The brand still remains an outsider to the modernised world of fashion. Their main target audience are often remote and individualistic. It indulges into fashion absurdities of art, culture and humanity. Their aim is to target a youthful generation with a sense of diversity and creativity. A statement from yates reads:

“My idea of luxury is to be inclusive and democratic. With Bruta we try and make clothes at an affordable price to allow our youthful customer to indulge in our world!”

The brands unique selling points cover their social media and its stockists. Bruta’s website reveals very modern in the sense that it is bold and ‘straight to the point’. It captivates visual elements such as art directed photographs and videography. It holds a very obsolescent, classical film characteristic to its online platform. Along with its main website, Bruta has several social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, however from observing these platforms, their identity appears unpopular. Their instagram currently holds 5,671 followers with a number of 50 - 200 likes for each post. Again with their Facebook home page, only 419 people like the account, which seems to indicate a lack of marketing and promotion. Although, despite the muted online platforms; because Bruta have several stockists in department stores around the world, the brand will more likely get more recognition and popularity this way. Despite this brutas recognition comes from its stockists in department stores around the world.

POTER'S 5 FORCES

Below you can see that i have began to look at the porter 5 forces. So the first one then is the supplier power. You can see that wholesalers and stockists play a huge part in yates small business. There revenue is currently split 70 to 30 percent across wholesale and e-commerce.

In an interview, yates stated how he is not wanting the business to continue growing and have hundreds of agents on different territory. Hes says how he wants only few stores and the rest is online where they can contact their customers directly.

For s/s17 yates talked about launching new product categories starting with overcoats and leather goods, however once this collection was released it was once again based on shirts, this portrays untrustworthy in the eyes of customers and failure to innovate.

A small client base could impact on the business more, being if it was a stand alone store and needed support, however through stockists it just supplies to those department stores without facing backlash of the customers.

SWOT ANALYSIS

For brutas swot analysis iv just outlined the obvious from what I have discussed so far. So one of their strengths would be that they have several stockists based around the world. A weakness shows that the brand has only a small client base. An opportunity would be to work on their social media platforms and a threat could be that potential competitors could take over their existence.

COMPARE

In comparison then. We can see that both founders for mokino and bruta came from a fine art background, both with the same views on mainstream fast fashion. Both brands use creativity and express themselves through the power of their garments. Neither moskino or yates followed the rules of the fashion industry. And both brands also have a very selective clientele.

CONTRAST

In contrast to that then we have seen that bruta has no intrest in expanding on the business and is happy to continue stocking through wholesalers, whereas moskhino is an established brand world wide. Bruta lacks on their performance for their social media. And from moskhino you can see that jeremy scott has a huge celebrity fan base which automatically increases the brands social media from instagram.

CONCLUSION

So now that we have looked at the two brands. We can see their similarities in regards to their fine art backgrounds and their personality. Although they are similar in that respect their design processes and outcomes are completely different. Yates likes that Bruta is a small operated business that promotes itself through wholesalers, whereas Moschino is an established brand which uses the power of celebrity endorsements and social media to get its recognition.

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aaron-noodleman-blog · 8 years ago

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Legibility

When we hear mention of legibility, we think of clarity and how easily a thing can be read – can be made out. We think of something like Robin Kinross’ example of a test for legibility given in his book Modern Typography. In this example, two typefaces (Didot versus Garamond) are held next to each other and incrementally distanced from an impartial reader until one of the two typefaces can no longer be seen (22-23).

But legibility is not limited to this, nor are the tests of legibility always a matter of distance and discernibility. Kinross offers a helpful definition in chapter three, by which considerations for legibility might benefit: “…it was only when the general theoretical climate in psychology had changed that legibility could be accepted as the comprehension of meaning: not recognition, but reading” (32).

More than just recognition, legibility came to be understood as practice toward the best method for engaging a reader: “The project of legibility research raised the prospect of a typography that could do something more than be beautiful: it might be effective” (33). Thinking about legibility in these terms – in in providing a pleasurable and fruitful experience for the reader engaging with the work – gives us a wider range of creativity that is made clearer through the implication of hard standards. That is, being effective is a general enough idea to allow for all sorts of exciting experimentation, yet, at the same time, to the point enough, that the person striving for legibility must also work within clear bounds that structure his care and respect for the reader (Kinross 34).

In chapter three of Post-Digital Print, Alessandro Ludovico gives plenty of examples of how this careful creativity of legibility (fruitful pleasurable engagement with a text) can take place. There are probably many ways that we could think about legibility through Ludovico’s examples. I want to consider some conceptual as well as physical ideas that he provides.

Humor and imagination are a pair of conceptual pathways for improving legibility. Ludovico cites the “brilliant 2009April Fools’ Day announcement, explaining that the highly respected British newspaper, the Guardian, had decided to switch entirely to Twitter” (57). While the story was ultimately exposed as being false, the humor of the stunt also exposes certain anxieties – as humor often does – concerning the rapidly technologizing world. Instead of merely putting together an article of a what-if? formula, the designer in this case has made the imagined to look legibly real, also exposing the taken for granted authority of announcement with such a look.

Similarly, in chapter two, there is the example of the happy, though fake, special edition of the New York Times made by The Yes Men (51-53). In this case, legibility is configured through the imagination – wishful thinking even – of a group; while, at the same time, the imagination itself – again, wishful thinking – is made more legible. The possibility for such a happy day is better realized insofar as it is seen in material reality and bearing all the weight of the New York Times. This provides a clear example for how print can be a radical force for change, insofar as it can empower people to see a hoped for thought as legitimate.

Chapter two gives examples for affective legibility, or (say) holistic legibility – engaging the reader through more than just the eyes. I have in mind Fluxus and “‘Fluxus boxes’ filled with organized collections of games, concepts, plastic objects and miscellaneous printed materials” (39). Chapter three offers the example of “Marcus Weskamp’s online artwork Newsmap, a powerful visual representation of the news mediascape. Using data from Google News, the site’s mapping technique divides the screen into columns (topics) in which the size of each article’s headline is in direct proportion to its popularity” (65) This instance, while still considering legibility in a way that is focused on engaging the eyes, does so in a fresh way.

Returning to the idea that publication can make an imagination or idea legible, the article “Typeface as Programme,” touches on a similar thought: namely, that through technology’s making publication more accessible to the masses, more people are now able to see themselves as writers and publishers; hence, a new idea of the self is made more possible, more legible: “Democratisation is another important part of these developments. The sudden general availability of processes through computerisation has continued to increase the number of people who have access to and start engaging in them.”

Furthermore, the two online articles for this week deal with legibility as it relates with process, beauty, and perfection. In the “Prints and the Pauper,” we get short, though detailed, recounting of China’s painstaking printing process. Stylistically and aesthetically, this process would remain a standard-bearer for some time; however, the amount of time and effort needed in order to bring about the end product was so much that a different a kind of legibility threatened success: namely, the fact that something unwritten for all its requirements is illegible in that it does not exist yet. For this reason, Gutenberg’s press would outshine all contenders for printing. Though perhaps not as beautiful, it was, nevertheless, more than capable at making the baseline requirement for mass legibility – that is, having a lot of output.

Returning again to “Typeface as Programme,” we get the example of computer programmer and perfectionist, Donald Knuth: “When in 1977 due to financial restrictions the new edition of volume 2 (of The Art of Computer Programming) was to be reproduced with a new optical typesetting system rather than the already disappearing Monotype machines…he decided there was no point in continuing to write them since the finished products were just too painful to look at.” Complementary to Knuth’s work ethic toward a perfected visual presentation of his scientific content is the chart he provides in his book. The chart proceeds the table of contents and demonstrates how the reader should go about reading the book and completing its exercises, taking into account variables such as sleepiness and confusion. These considerations engage the concept of legibility on a more holistic level that, while more restrained or minimal, have a similar methodology to that of the earlier mentioned Fluxus boxes.

from The Art of Computer Programming, 1997 Addison-Wesley

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