or nostalgia for a time when thought was free(er).

This was such a great thread…

Submissions for issue ten are all in and we’ve begun the long, but very exciting process of selecting, editing and designing. We’ve received a wide range of amazing submissions from over 40 people for the next issue, and its going to be a challenging task to weave it all together.

In order to do this we need some glue to hold things together, and I’m hoping you (whoever you may be) can help. So, a small request to tell us something beautiful. It could be a few words, a line a paragraph, a simple testimonial of an experience, person, object, etc. that you found beautiful. We’re not looking for anything overwrought, philosophical or “poetic”, just an honest description.

You can leave your response(s) in the comments below or send it to me by email. Looking forward to hearing from you…

PS. The fugue is still going too… sort of.

I was not speaking of marginality one wishes to lose, to give up, or surrender
as part of moving into the center
but rather as a site
one stays in, clings to even,
because it nourishes one’s capacity to resist.
It offers the possibilities of radical perspectives
from which to see and create,
to imagine alternatives,
new worlds.

–bell hooks

It feels like the end of an era. Last Saturday I spent the evening with Dave Widgington and co. at his beautiful bed and breakfast to celebrate Cumulus Press’ ten years of independent publishing. It was a great evening, with booze and conversation flowing freely, many friends and family members in attendance, two brilliant spoken word performances from Kalmunity Collective members, and a delicious cake adorned with the Cumulus logo in baby blue icing sugar.

The lively yet intimate event also signaled the end of Cumulus Press… Dave has decided to leave the publishing world behind and jump into a career of film making. And though I’m personally saddened by the loss of such a brilliant press, which dealt primarily in my own top two interests of politics and poetry (and recently, comix as well!), I wish him all the best and know that we’ll be seeing much more from him in the near future.

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The typographic fugue has been a central part of Four Minutes to Midnight since the start. Loosely based on the exquisite corpse surrealist technique, the idea is to collaboratively generate a body of text that acts as an abstract poetic dialogue/narrative that is featured in the issue while also determining its overall “texture” and structure. 

Please don’t be shy, inspire yourself from others, and add to the comments thread below. We’ll start from the last line from issue nine’s fugue:

“In the shape of a kiss, the agitation continues…”

Critical Engagement Thesis, 2002

In 2002, I wrote and designed this extended essay as part of my Graduate Certificate Degree at Concordia University. Taking cues from literary criticism and political economy, it addresses the interrelation of formal strategies in (graphic) design and their socio-cultural implications, casting a critical eye on design’s central role in fostering a harmful, commodity-based culture.

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Picture This! Posters of social movements in Québec
I was honoured to be asked by Dave Widgington of Cumulus Press to write a chapter introduction for his recently released collection of political posters. Dave and I have collaborated many times in the past, and in fact, the first time we met, during the Declarations design conference, the seeds for this book were sown when he met the guys at CRIP. Dave asked me for a personal, non-didactic, text that would communicate the “why” of independent poster making.

ARTISTS’ POSTERS: WE ARE EVERYWHERE

The Ads, They Are-a-Everywhere
Ten years ago, as a design student at Concordia University, my political and visual consciousness was burgeoning simultaneously in a politically heated educational environment. In class, I learned how to craft messages and images while studying their powerful impact within contemporary society. In the cafés and in the streets, I began to implicate myself into the world around me, learning about the countless issues that seemed to cause such pangs in my heart. I would walk by hoardings covered with posters calling for social change, and I would take down the dates and addresses to attend meetings and lectures where human rights violations, genocidal government policies, or the erasure of our public sphere were being discussed.

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The following is an observational “essay” featured in Issue 7 of four minutes to midnight:

SIMON DAVIES
During the orientation session at Post St. Joost in Breda, the Netherlands, my soon to be professor, Simon Davies mentioned to me in passing;

I think the antiquated notion of (graphic) design as problem solving should be buried and replaced with an understanding of design as a process of problem revealing.

I identified strongly with Simon’s words as I’ve never really thought of myself as a very good problem solver, but would still like to consider myself a competent designer. No doubt graphic design does solve some problems. But in the grand scheme of problems, differentiating products in the market and making a text more legible seem pretty trivial, and certainly not important enough to be the basis of a profession. This shouldn’t be seen to discount the important place of good (moral?) craft work within society, but the extension of the designer’s role as official “problem-solver” is based in an ideal of modernism, with design acting in the service of (the captains of) industry. Whose problems have we really been solving all these years?

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Originally published February 5 2003

Josh On is an interactive designer working at Futurefarmers and the author of the acclaimed theyrule.net, an interactive mapping application that reveals the interconnections between the CEOs of the US’s largest corporations. I’ve always been inspired by his work, and was pleased to have the opportunity to ask him a few questions on design and social responsibility.

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