Alphabetic Interventions

This conference presentation, based on a forthcoming chapter in an edited collection, considers the value of the alphabet in a way that provokes thinking in domains beyond the textual. This will be explored through two typefaces designed by Adrian Frutiger: Univers (1957) and OCR-B (1968). Both are notable for their attention to the requirements of humans in response to the emergence of new kinds of machines for reading and writing, ranging from early phototypesetters to the first computers equipped with optical character recognition technology. The paper elaborates on recent feminist re-examinations of McLuhan, considering how the alphabet is emphasised within his writings as an initial phase in a process of mediation to which human beings will become fully subject. Frutiger’s designs respond to early developments in electronic text in a way that strengthens the alphabet as an example of a uniquely open, multiple, and adaptable system. This is because the alphabet is imprecise—it disregards the ideal of lossless transmission—in a way that is generative and closely intertwined with continuous human processes of shaping meaning.