A few weeks ago I attended an Intel Remastered workshop at the Design Museum. In short the Remastered project is “a new generation of artists and designers reimagine the masterpiece, using technology to create new visual experiences.” You can find details of all the final projects at the Remastered site.
DIY Digital Type was the third Intel Remastered workshop and the focus was a hands on approach to digital type, exploring the development of typographic communication through technology.
We started off the workshop with a brief history of technology in typography. A few interesting facts came up. I didn’t know the term “Mind your Ps and Qs” comes from advice to printers’ apprentices to avoid confusing the backward-facing lowercase Ps and Qs when setting type.
We were then shown some contemporary typographic examples. ‘Hello World.’ by Valentin Ruhry still on view at ACFNY, is a great, example of creating typographic communication through technology.
“The switches turn on and off representing the simplicity of the technology and the binary number system’s two-binary digits 0 and 1. The illuminated message is a nod to the “Hello World” computer program, one of the earliest programs that prints out “Hello World” on the computer screen.” (via Triangulation)
We then started to take a look at conductive ink and basic electric circuits. It reminded me a bit of GSCE physics and we were even quizzed on working out the resistance of a resistor. The principle of the workshop was simple. Create a typographic circuit using conductive ink and then connect a battery and LED to complete the circuit. We were given a very strong smelling conductive ink, paint brushes, a battery, LEDs, paper and also some alphabet templates and we set to work, bringing back memories of Friday afternoon art lessons at school. After about half hour or so of making circuits, we were shown how to make typography interactive with some basic Arduino electronics.
Interactivity can be as simple as using an infrared sensor to switch an LED on or off but using this as a basis you can create some more complex interactive installations. Using Open Frameworks, an open source toolkit for creative coding and Arduino, Midnight Toastie reimagined Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’.
“We are using the electronic lights to figure the stars. They will map the viewer’s position, by following the movements indicated by a webcam, so the position of the viewer determines whether the stars are ‘shining’ or not.”
Overall it was an inspiring and educational afternoon and with technology advancing all the time, typographic communication can only get more exciting.
