🍇 10/27. Paul Soulellis: Queer Publishing
7.00 – 8.30pm | All Sections
Guest Lecture Zoom Link
All cohort guest presentation & Q&A


Paul Soulellis is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. His practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a focus on queer methodologies and network culture. He is founder/director of Queer.Archive.Work, an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports artists, writers, and activists with access to space, tools, and other resources for queer publishing. He is also Department Head and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Rhode Island School of Design. https://soulellis.com/writing/post-documenta/index.html

💬 Group Discussion

8.50–9.10 | All Class
Discussion led by Shinee.

Add a question from What is Queer Typography? before WE, 10/27 @ 12pm ET:
Name
Discussion question
Shinee Wang
When you look at a typography, are you interpreting it from its meaning, style, or the overall context? For example, when you look at those works on Soulellis website, how do you consider it a queer acting? Is it the typography itself, or the meaning presented from it, or the overall context. 
Soulellis mentions old terms that used to identify people reflects the limitation. I have also heard that identity is a concept that creates limitation in people. Do you agree with that?
Tina Li
When you are looking at typography, will you pay more attention to reading content or the overall typography style to give you the feeling? If the content explanation is important, can we weaken the fixed typesetting method,  think about user‘s reading wont,typesetting create more interesting types of typesetting. 
Many people say that "identity" restricts human development, do you agree? Should artists jump out of "identity restrictions"?
Dong Xia
‘When I asked the question on twitter recently—what is queer type—the responses were all over the place, which I expected. Several folks replied with stylistic ideas, type that’s been dressed up to carry a rainbow, or adorned in a particular way.’ When we are designing some specific themes, such as designing for McDonald's, we think of hamburger; for queer type we think of rainbow. Is there any way for us to jump out of this fixed way of thinking and come up some unique but relevant designs?
Ruolin Fu
Imagine a situation: give you some materials, and ask you to to make a work by using them with a specific topic “identity”, or just let you to make anything you want with same materials, without a given topic. Will that make a difference?  It seems that designers always like to talk about their identities and make some work to express themselves, but how a person’s identity have an influence on them potentially? Also which one do you think is more important on your work, personality or identity?
Mark Huang
Do you think it is beneficial to have your own self-identity that influences your work? Creating unique work that can only be conceptualized through you own experiences. Or is it a limitation when your style conflicts with the current design trends of society? (as your work can’t connect with the majority)
Tegwen McKenzie
Soulellis references a quotation from Johanna Burton that struck me interesting: “gender is an act one does, rather than a thing one is.”

Do you agree? This quotation helped me to view the concept of gender fluidity from a new perspective, which formerly felt like too foreign or abstract an idea to comprehend. As studies in queer theory and gender studies evolve, can you imagine a future where children are born genderless? Do you think this is plausible, probably, or even possible future? 
Yining Zhu
How do you think your self-identity normally influences your work? Have you tried to restrain your identity in a project or just let it take over? If so how did that turn out and are you satisfied with the result? 
Karan Chowdhary
Does the typeface really matter in such contexts where it's all about the words being said? It's not necessary that the people who've made an impact through queer typography are trained designers.
Vern Liu
We’ve learned so many typographic rules during in school, typographic choices in relation to the message they serve to deliver are very important. However, when we try to find our personal voices in design, we try to turn off all the rules and discover styles that reflect our identities or voices. is the  "Perfect typography" always means predicting an idealized reading experience and perfect in typographic rules, how do we balance the importance of both?
Thao Tran
Many artists feel the force to define their identity. While it is obvious that the importance of self-identity affects one's sense of where they belong to, would it be possible that artists feel boxed in with the identity they chose? Same for typography, one typeface can carry a lot of meanings to its own and to other people. Would assigning a meaning to typography can represent a whole community?
Jess Chen
Queer typography is a very interesting and new word to me, after I went through your website, I discovered a whole new world queer as in art world. Although queer theory is very insightful in the criticism of a series of international relations concepts, its large-scale implementation will seriously disrupt many laws and daily social activities based on dual gender, such as bathrooms. If a person’s gender is fluid and should not be defined, then what criteria should the bathroom use to determine which room a person should go to? If it is divided according to the physical sex, isn't this discrimination against the transgender group?
Samantha Laite
Do you think how you define yourself and self identify will always contribute to the work you produce? Can you design something without personal influence and identity within the work? Is it true design without your own personal identity interwoven into the work? Is it possible to create your own identification through design or will it now in our social/internet age always be related to work done prior? 
Grace Yang
  • Have you ever doubt the identity that once you thought defines you?
  • Soulellis mentioned works that challenge the typography sovereignty by “experiment with non-hierarchical, non-linear typographic practices that prioritize the collective”. How can we use design to help people unlearn things that are adopted from a capitalism society?

Peer Review

9.10 – 9.40pm | Small Group Meetings

Notes from the Field as:
a catalog. a post. a dictionary. an index. a performance. a newspaper. a stack. a conversation. a feed. an archive. a photo journal. a circulation. a newspaper. a zine. a compendium. a map. a podcast. a script.

In your paired teams, present your Project 3 initial entry and concept. Provide written feedback to each other based on the following discussion questions in Slack tonight.


Content
  • What is the team’s approach for selecting and curating content for the notebook? 
  • What other content from this semester (guest lectures, discussion questions, readings, films, student projects) would be supportive to this idea?