International symposium on typographic landscaping, University of Gothenburg, 17-18 June 2013

On 17-18 June, the University of Gothenburg will be hosting a symposium on 'Typographic Landscaping', funded by the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.  "The aim is to gather scholars from different fields and practitioners of (typo)graphic design for an open dialogue on cultural, political, economic and technological aspects of typography, in particular how it is used in the urban landscape in order to construct and contest identities, communities and power relations. The title of the symposium expresses the double ambition to approach the study of language to that of typography, and to develop the study of typographical aspects within linguistic/semiotic landscape research."

I will be presenting a paper at the symposium, entitled 'Typographic Parallax in Environmental Space: Real and unreal depth and transformation in temporal typography'

Made in Italy, Made in England? Talk for ADRI at Middlesex University

The discourse surrounding Italian design often invokes the notion, myth or unofficial brand of 'Made in Italy' as shorthand for indicating the quality and specialness of Italian design. This talk subjects 'Made in Italy' to closer interrogation. It challenges the production emphasis of 'made' with a consumption-oriented understanding of that word; in terms of meaning, products are as much 'made' through their consumption and mediation as they are through their manufacture. It also replace a focus on that which occurs 'in Italy' with a case-study analysis of what happens outside Italy (in England in this example) for better understanding the significance of Italian design. It does this through analysis of a variety of discourses from vanity publishing and press releases, to interviews with designers, manufacturers, retailers, commentators and consumers, and statistical information about sales and magazine circulation. This talk is based on Lees-Maffei's book, co-edited with Kjetil Fallan (University of Oslo), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design, which forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic in 2013.

More about the ADRI research seminar:
http://adri.mdx.ac.uk.contentcurator.net/?location_id=493 

More about the book, Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Made-Italy-Grace-Lees-Maffei/dp/0857853899/