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TheClinamen

I’ve just surfaced from a fascinating two days delivering a ‘Hidden London’ brief down a bunker. Unfortunately, couldn’t access Cold War holes, but thanks to Nick Catford of Subterranean Britannica, we got into ‘Paddock’— Churchill’s alternative cabinet war room. The brief is standard ‘unknown city’ fodder, a mix of complexity, psychogeography, visualisation and spatial contestation. There is a particular emphasis on the agglomerations and voids that constantly appear and disappear within the urban fabric. The unpredictable scrawls of inorganic and organic materials— ‘nutrient flows’ and intensifications: ‘Viruses, sensors, celebratories, rodents, myths, cars, phobias, electromagnetic waves, money, CCTV, pollutants, terrorists, tornadoes and ASBO’s’. It’s an approach that hopefully locates graphic design practice within a wider set of circuits, flows and structures.

Below is one particular gem, a beautiful example of De Landa’s ‘mineralization’— petrified typography. Calcium carbonate was beginning to form around wax crayon directions left by builders.

design | spatial practice

Comments

[Leif Garret]

Clearly this is precisely the sort of thing I like, as you no doubt would have realised.

One question.... what did it smell of?

I'm guessing it was a sort of damp smell of oil or something.

[Leif Garret]

Especially 'love' the organic font manipulation, obv. Think there's a whole project there for you mate, growing cultures on fonts, and seeing what the best bacteria is for a good clear typeface.

[Leif Garret]

And, by the way, if you do do that I want full, er, credit. Or something.