Designing Atonal Rhythms

An examination and rationalisation of the typographic and philosophical decisions undertaken when designing the approach to the new philosophy/art/wild sciences journal Zetesis (ARTicle Press/BIAD).

Abstract: Design is the paradigmatic space of encounter between form and function, rationality and sensuality, objectivity and subjectivity. To design a book or a journal which includes text and image, without privileging one over the other, or without relinquishing any of those concerns requires an especially subtle choreography between all these attributes, in addition to re-staging research as an expression of risk. One could say every design is ‘an event’, one which allows each aspect to play its part and for each to be acknowledged and seen as important. As the chains of equivalence and points of divergence between and amongst these aspects is not always exposed or evident, these remarks are intended as an exposé of the process and decisions undertaken in the course of the design at hand. This is especially important when working on a brief as complex as that of Zetesis, which, by its very conceptualisation and content, intends to expose the cruelty of the classical canon.