User:Thijshijsijsjss/Gossamery/16 case stories reimagining the practise of layout

• Read: May 2024
• Download it here from the bootleg library. I also have this publication in physical form.

This publication was given to me by Gijs de Heij after the 2024-04-04 Pen Plotting Party at OSP. I started reading it purely on the merit of him having given it to me in relation to this event I was part of, and because it is a pen plotted publication. So far, my explorations with plotters have not included a lot of text. Also, I am still a novice at graphic design. This publication should be exciting on both accounts.

[...] a way to use software as a tool to think with, as location for a dialogie about practise and tools.

The text On the Dataset's ruins poses that it is the dataset that determines the algorithms that needs to process it. Software has an obvious process of naturalisation (Leight Star). This publication's introduction text raises the question: how is our practise shaped (and maybe confined) by the tools we use? Are we, the algorithmic devices processing these tools, predetermined by our preset selection of tools? 16 case stories provides four 'axes of orientation' to develop digital tools. The following is taken from the publication directly:

• Digital Sensitivity: tools that combine digital, programmatic and computational possibilities with the sensitivity of a human designer.
• Process Aware: tools that are history-aware, have a memory and invite reflection and dialogue. Tools that make their processes explicit, make human-machine interactions available for questioning, and ultimately allow us to understand better how we relate to the world around us through software.
• Extended Dimensions: How can we think of layout as a practise of many dimensions, and go beyond the restrictions of a flat plane with horizontal lines and rectangles?
• Engage and disengage: [...] a binary state of digital objects [that] show how fixed and fluid elements might mix and blend into each other.