Yesterday, I sent out all copies of CW-PUB-001: Field Notes on Productive Friction. I've decided that it's going to be the first zine in a three-part series, and I'm currently thinking that the second one will be entitled CW-PUB-002: Interfaces of Refusal.
…At a 1962 conference at the Museum of Modern Art, conservative art critic Hilton Kramer denounced Pop Art as “indistinguishable from advertising art” because “Pop Art does not tell us what it feels like to be living through the present moment of civilization. Its social effect is simply to reconcile us to a world of commodities, banalities and vulgarities.” But perhaps the content of graphic design is exactly that: an evocation of “what it feels like to be living through the present moment of civilization,” with all its “commodities, banalities and vulgarities.” How else can we discuss the content of a typeface or why the typography of a surfing magazine suddenly becomes relevant? Or how a series of made-up or ‘self-initiated’ posters—already a medium of dubious functionality— can end up on the wall of a major design museum? Work must be saying something, which is different than being about something.
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You have to get everything correct before it goes off to get printed. My usual publishing flow involves an "oh shit" moment soon after hitting 'publish' but, because I usually publish on the web, I can fix it. Not so with printed matter.
…Last night, having watched the Champions League final, I spent an enjoyable couple of hours trawling Are.na for links and other resources relevant to my upcoming zine: Field Notes on Productive Friction:
