Superstructure,

March 16 2018, RMIT Design Hub Melbourne VIC, Australia 1,2 ,3 ,4 & 5 Experimental Jetset – Superstructure

The city is a discourse, and this Parallel to the exhibition, a broadsheet De Stijl, and Bauhaus – expanding the city, ultimately, it was the city characters what he does for a living. discourse is actually a language: newspaper has been published, the scope of Constructivism that manifested itself in the graphic “I study reification,” he answers. The the city speaks to its inhabitants, created in collaboration with local even further. language of Constructivism. girl then assumes he must be working as we speak to our city… practitioners – providing possible links “with big books, and a huge table between the exhibition in general, and 1.2 (EJ) cluttered with papers” – to which the – Roland Barthes, ‘Semiology and the more specific context of Melbourne. The city is the ultimate modernist Debordian protagonist replies: “No, I Urbanism’ (1967) platform – it’s not surprising therefore walk… I mostly walk.” The implication We hope the exhibition serves as that Constructivism had a vested The Situationist City is clear – streets are meant to be read, an invitation for further research – interest in the urban environment. and to drift is to study. Superstructure and, if nothing else, as a place to As the poet and playwright Vladimir Subversive Cartography dwell poetically. Mayakovsky declared, in 1917: “the Diagrammatic Nihilism Since the city was seen as the main If the notion of modernism should ever streets are our brushes, the squares Proto-psycho-geographies text, it also meant it could be annotated. be encapsulated in just one sentence, a Experimental Jetset our palettes.” Within the Constructivist Bitter topo/typologies And thus, the streets were inscribed good contender would be that famous imagination, the city became a Monochromic Schematics with footnotes – in the form of graffitied line by Marx and Engels: “If humans language machine, a spatial poem, a Disinfographics slogans, subversive posters, and are made by their environment, this The Constructivist City constant source of graphic agitation Labyrinthic Urbanism political pamphlets. environment has to be made human.” and propaganda. Through a system Already in 1953, Debord famously If there is one common denominator Paper Architecture of para-architectural structures 2.1 painted Ne Travaillez Jamais on a wall that seems to connect that wide range Scale-model (newspaper kiosks, typographic Out of the ashes of the great near the Rue de Seine – and in that of disparate views and conflicting Maquette Modularity pavilions, pop-activist billboards, movements of the early 20th century same year, Dutch photographer Ed van movements otherwise known as Bauhaus Bolshevism speaker’s tribunes), the city was turned (Bauhaus, Dada, Surrealism), a new der Elsken took pictures of Lettrists in ‘modernism’, it surely is the acute Flatland Futurism into a three-dimensional manifesto – generation of painters and poets the streets of Paris, their baggy clothes awareness that we are shaped by Utopian Geometry language as a place to dwell in. emerged. Embittered by WWII, and filled with proto-punk slogans. our surroundings, coupled with a highly critical of past avant-gardes, deep desire to shape those 1.1 The Section for Artistic Labor (the this new breed of modernists pushed This apparatus of spatial footnotes surroundings ourselves. Modernism is often described as a revolutionary Soviet committee an agenda that was meaner, leaner, grew to new heights during the monolithic, singular entity – in our view, responsible for inviting artists and and far more aggressive than student riots of 1968, when Paris was Following that line of thinking, it makes it is far from that. Modernism is designers to develop these new previous efforts. completely filled with Situationist- sense to interpret the city as the ultimate a multitude of languages, dialects and forms of street-furniture) was actually In France, a theoretical street gang inspired slogans, political graffiti, platform of modernism – the metropolis accents – a maelstrom of opposing, headed by a poet rather than an called the Lettrists splintered in two typographic posters, and billboards as the quintessential human-made clashing voices. Manifestos, architect, which might explain the factions, one headed by the poet turned into barricades. In the French environment, a forest made of walls movements, tendencies, schools, strong focus on typography within Isidore Isou, another centered on the journal Utopie (1967–1978), Jean and words. And needless to say, the groups, and splinter groups. Fictions, these projects. But even the more filmmaker Guy Debord. Baudrillard described this brief notion of the city as an extension of factions, fractions, and fragments. massive architectural proposals (such In Denmark, the CoBrA-affiliated moment (of ‘applied situationism’) language plays an important part within It’s a storm blowing, spiralling us as Vladimir Tatlin’s titanic Monument painter Asger Jorn founded the as follows: this concept of urban modernity. After forward, propelling us right through to the Third International, 1919–1920) International Movement for an all, what better way to create a human history – from the invention of the were treated as platforms to distribute Imaginist Bauhaus (MIBI). And back in Walls and words, screen-printed environment than to create a linguistic printing press up until now. (To speak language – after all, Tatlin’s tower was Amsterdam, another CoBrA-member, posters and hand-made flyers, environment? Language lives inside us with Walter Benjamin: “this storm is meant as a gigantic radio transmitter, artist Constant Nieuwenhuijs, turned were the true revolutionary media – so our most modernist urge might be what we call progress”). the giant spiralling structure designed his attention to architecture and in May 1968. The streets where to try to reverse this situation, by living to broadcast live speeches, straight urbanism – an interest that would speech started and was exchanged: inside language. Within this messy modernist from the Comintern. lead to his long-running New Babylon everything that is an immediate continuum, the beginning of the 20th project (1956–1974). inscription, given and exchanged. To speak with Heidegger: “poetically, century occupies an iconic position. Even factories were re-imagined as Speech and response, moving in the man dwells.” Our cities are poems, our From the rubble of violent wars, intense devices for communication – in this When these groups eventually ran same time and in the same place, words are buildings. revolutions, grave disasters, and times regard, we should mention composer into each other (during a tumultuous reciprocal and antagonistic. of deep crises, small groups of artists Arseny Avraamov’s Symphony of conference in Alba, in the summer of This relationship, between language and designers somehow managed Factory Sirens (1922), a musical 1956), the resulting collective named 2.3 and the city, is one of the main themes to develop new aesthetic languages, performance that included actual itself the Situationist International (SI). While the graphic language of the of Superstructure – an exhibition that is trying to envision (with equal parts industrial sirens and smoking Situationists manifested itself simultaneously a 20-year retrospective optimism and pessimism) possible chimneys Through a strategic process of in the city, the notion of the city of our work, and an installation in which ways out of the ruins. purges, expulsions and exclusions, simultaneously appeared in the we address the very notion of the city as 1.3 the leadership of this platform fell graphic language of the Situationists a platform for language. Among these groups, we find the Most of these para-architectural more and more into the hands of Guy – in the form of cartographic maps, Constructivists: a loose subculture structures remained unbuilt – like Debord, who streamlined the SI into diagrams and collages. By focusing on four (sub-)cultural of artists, designers and writers, the October Revolution itself, an ultra-political, ultra-theoretical movements that have greatly informed mainly working in the the scale-models, drawings and fighting unit. Militantly iconoclastic, the Guy Debord and Asger Jorn shared a our practice (Constructivism, (and other parts of Eastern Europe), collages never fulfilled their utopian movement dedicated itself to Marxist- fascination for the schematic language the Situationist International, the roughly between 1917 and 1927 – in potential. Tatlin’s tower, a true icon of inspired attacks on the ‘Society of the of subway maps and street plans – a Provo movement, and the Post- other words, during that unique, Constructivism, was never erected Spectacle’ (a model of current society language that perfectly lent itself for Punk continuum), we have tried to utopian moment between the – although the existing scale-model in which everything is reduced to mere détournement, that typical Situationist explore some of the ways in which Russian Revolution and the rise of can be regarded as an impressive forms of representation). It seems method of visual appropriation. the languages of these movements Stalin. Names often associated with piece of para-architecture in itself. only fitting that the twelve issues of manifested themselves in the city, Constructivism are Kazimir Malevich, Looking at historical photos of this the movement’s journal (published An iconic example of the Situationist just as the city manifested itself in Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, oversized maquette being paraded between 1958 and 1969) came use of diagrams can be found in the languages of these movements. Lyubov Popova, Vladimir Mayakovsky, through Moscow, one feels the wrapped in minimalist metallic Debord’s The Naked City (1957), a and Vladimir Tatlin – but this list merely borders (between technical drawing, covers – each issue polished like an psycho-geographic, cut-up, fold- Accordingly, the installation is scratches the surface. scale-model, street-furniture, para- individual bullet. out map of Paris. This fragmented, constructed as a city in itself – architecture, and actual architecture) subjective piece of cartography an abstract representation of a In the same way that Constructivism simply melting into thin air. Models turn 2.2 criticised the very notion of objective fragmented metropolis, in which was one of the many movements into buildings, buildings into models Within the Situationist mindset, the city representation, while hinting at new these different movements exist at within the maelstrom of modernism, – reality becomes a graphic collage, a was meant to be treated as language ways to experience our material the same time, not unlike overlapping the whole notion of Constructivism manifesto of dreams unfulfilled (or at – through a daily routine of aimless environment – a perfect illustration of districts or zones. itself was a whirlpool of contrasting least, not-yet-fulfilled). drifting (a method described as the the subversive relationship between ideas and positions. Several groups, dérive), the urban environment was to printed matter and the city. Colour-coded for the sake of clarity, sub-groups, academies, institutes, Having said that, it might be wrong be read, analysed (and criticised) as a the discussed models are envisioned journals, and individuals were in to regard these unbuilt structures text, as a piece of prose or poetry. (EJ) as four quarters: The Constructivist constant dialogue with each other, as ‘unrealized’. As the Australian Roland Barthes (in Semiology and City (1917–), The Situationist City in a passionate struggle for utopia. academic Mary Gough suggested Urbanism, 1967) and Michel de (1956–), The Provotarian City (1965–) Productivism, Suprematism, Cubo- (in a recent essay on Gustav Klutsis’ Certeau (in The Practice of Everyday The Provotarian City and The Post-Punk City (1977–). Futurism, Cosmism, LEF, Agit-Prop, fantastic ‘Screen/Tribune/Radio/ Life, 1980) both characterised the Prolet-Kult, Zaum, OBMOKhU, Orator/Kiosk’ drawings), a case specific relationship between the city Poetic Sloganeering In Project Room 2, a large time-based INKhUK, VKhUTEMAS, UNOVIS – the can be made that these para- and the wanderer as a dialogue, a Open Language Machines piece has been installed, concentrating biotope of Constructivism reads as architectural proposals were indeed discourse, or a form of speech. It was Blown-up Information Networks more on the retrospective part of an ongoing, magical spell of mystical realised – through the printing press. the Situationists who explored this Mass-Media Magick the exhibition. ‘-isms’, occult abbreviations and By being circulated through books territory before them. Accompanied by a site-specific esoteric acronyms. and magazines, these sketches and 3.1 soundtrack composed by Ian collages gained a material dimension This notion, of the city as a text to be In short, Provo was an Amsterdam Svenonius, this fifteen-channel Added to this, Constructivism also that can easily rival that of actual (close-)read, is most clearly illustrated anarchist movement that existed for projection displays a selection of overlapped and connected (through architecture. in the memorable paragraph from just two years (1965–1967), although work created between 1997–2018, initiatives such as the Constructivist Michele Bernstein’s Situationist novel its existence resonated for years to not unlike a giant ‘assembly line’ of International) with movements and As the Constructivists tried to All The King’s Horses (1960), in which come, in the Netherlands and abroad. scanned images. schools such as Dada, Futurism, realise their graphic language in a young girl asks one of the main Through printed matter, conceptual Superstructure, 1,2 ,3 ,4 & 5

activism and speculative political (a movement so dedicated to the time axis – but obviously, it left traces original Dada Manifesto (1918): “To be experiences in Europe and America proposals (the White Plans), the exploration of the city as a platform in everything that happened a Dadaist means being a businessman to reflect on graphic design practice Provo movement forever shaped for graphic signs) used, as their main afterwards, its echoes travelling far or a politician, rather than an artist.” here and on what we mean when we the modernist landscape. Part art signature, a graphic sign representing beyond 1977, and far beyond the Or, as Public Image Ltd. would talk about ‘culture’ in Australia. Lisa movement and part political party, the city. English-speaking world. proclaim, some 65 years later (in the Grocott recalls her years spent as a Provo was a loose-knit collective, ambivalently-titled ‘This is Not a Love member of an influential Melbourne- consisting of individuals with very The sign of the apple, also known as the In many ways, Punk can be seen as Song’, 1983): “Big business is very wise based graphic design studio – a different ambitions: subversive ‘gnot sign’, was conceived around 1962 a scale-model of modernism itself / I’m crossing over into free enterprise.” period that shaped her practice as agendas, artistic motives, utopian by pre-Provo pioneers Bart Huges and – an arena of both constructive and The sleeve of PiL’s Live in Tokyo (1983) a progressive educator in the years ideas, concrete plans. Between 1965 Robert Jasper Grootveld, when they destructive forces. Punk covers the full seems to perfectly encapsulate this since. Jenny Grigg explores the idea of and 1967, these motives and agendas were looking for a sign to symbolise spectrum, from the applied utopianism urgent sense of ambiguity. John Lydon materialism within graphic design, and briefly overlapped, creating a unique the notion of Amsterdam as the magic of ‘Do-It-Yourself’ to the dystopian is photographed against a spectacular, the importance of material inquiry in her and singular movement. A movement center of the world. nihilism of ‘No Future’ – and everything Pop-Art-like Tokyo backdrop, the PiL practice. Beaziyt Worcou looks at the that liquidated itself in 1967, during a Originally, the sign encapsulated a in-between. logo on his t-shirt flawlessly blending flag as a form of politicised publishing, self-declared act of ‘auto-provocation’. whole range of possible meanings: This spectrum widens even further in with the brightly coloured neon signs and describes key examples in which from a third eye to a fetus, from a skull in the case of Post-Punk, when on the Shibuya buildings; the graphic cultural and organisational values and Right after the liquidation of Provo, to a butthole. In 1965, when the sign the original movement language of Post-Punk, brutally ideas have been made public as flags. some of the main figures remained was adopted by the Provo movement, explodes and splinters into dozens of inserting itself into the corporate Warren Taylor walks the sticky carpet active in various post-Provo groups. its meaning was narrowed down to sub-sub-sub-cultures. Synth-Pop, cityscape – and vice versa. to explore post-punk graphic art in One of these activists was Rob the idea of the apple as a rendering Two-Tone Ska, Mod Revivalism, Melbourne, and the impact of punk’s Stolk (1946–2001), who played an of Amsterdam – an abstract map of Psychobilly, New Romanticism, (EJ) do-it-yourself approach on art and important role in the early Dutch the city, in which the circular outline No Wave, Noise Industrialism, Oi publishing in this city. squatters’ scene (Woningburo represents the canals, the short stem Workerism, US Hardcore – the list de Kraker, 1968), in Aktiegroep (or stalk) symbolises the Amstel river, goes on and on. The Kiosk Experimental Jetset: Superstructure Nieuwmarkt (the action committee and the dot depicts the Spui (the is an exhibition that explores how that successfully protested against Amsterdam square where most of the 4.2 Superstructure in Melbourne graphic design shapes our cities and the demolition of the Amsterdam Provo-related happenings took place). This pluralism within Punk (and communities through the broader Nieuwmarkt district, 1967–1976), and certainly within Post-Punk) might 5.1 lenses of creative, social and political in the Maagdenhuisbezetting (the From then on, the gnot sign became the explain why it’s near impossible to concerns. By sharing an insight into the student occupation of the University of unofficial logo of the Provo movement, single out one specific way in which the Working closely with Experimental work and thinking of these Melbourne- Amsterdam, 1969). appearing frequently in print and on graphic language of punk manifested Jetset, we have invited nine based practitioners, we hope to also walls. In a sense, it is the perfect mark itself in the city. Melbourne-based graphic designers draw out new insights into Melbourne’s Stolk’s activism forced him to become for Provo: a psycho-geographical and educators to contribute to design culture. a printer – since mainstream printers micro-map, grounding the Provo Of course, one could always point to Superstructure. Together, we have to handle the subversive (and movement firmly in the material graffiti – that great unifier, connecting produced a newspaper that connects Superstructure curatorium sometimes illegal) Provo material, surroundings of Amsterdam. all movements and subcultures, from the ideas explored in the exhibition to Brad Haylock, Kate Rhodes, Fleur Stolk had no other option than to print antiquity to the present. the issues affecting graphic design in Watson (RMIT University); Megan these publications himself. And it was Another architectural motif within the Melbourne. The Melbourne-based Patty (National Gallery of Victoria) exactly Stolk’s conceptual use of the language of Provo is the brick-wall- Another link between Punk and the practitioners have been asked to mine printing press that played a crucial role pattern. A clear example can be seen city might be the specific, architectural their archives and studios to produce Newspaper contributors in the relationship between Provo and in the first few issues of the Provo way in which fashion was utilized by an illustrated text. We have asked them Paul Marcus Fuog, Stuart Geddes, the city. journal, which came wrapped in brick- Punks. Through the use of badges, to variously reflect on: the importance Jenny Grigg, Lisa Grocott, Hope patterned covers (the handwritten patches, spikes and studs, clothes of research to graphic design practice; Lumsden-Barry, Warren Taylor, 3.2 word ‘Provo’ appearing as graffiti on were transformed into kiosk-like, para- the significance of dialogue in a Žiga Testen, Michaela Webb, At the heart of Provo is the triangle a wall). architectural structures. (In his essay graphic design studio; and the role Beaziyt Worcou between the city, the movement, and ’New Brutalists / New Romantics’, Mark that exhibition-making might play in the printing press. By turning printed matter into walls, Owens does a brilliant job mapping extending our understandings of what walls were turned into printed matter – out the similarities between Post-Punk graphic design can be and do. These Structure and Counter-Structure Magazines were distributed in the both equally valid as platforms textures and Brutalist surfaces). themes will also be opened up through streets, posters were pasted to the for language. a series of free public conversations Experimental Jetset walls, performances (‘happenings’) 4.3 taking place at RMIT Design Hub. Structure and Counter-Structure, 2018 took place on public squares (and (EJ) For now, we’d like to focus on the fifteen-channel video, loop around specific statues), mystical notion of the ‘Ballardian’, to provide The newspaper has been designed slogans were being chanted (such as yet another possible link between by Experimental Jetset to paste In Project Room 2, a selection of a repeated mantra of “ugh, ugh, ugh”), The Post-Punk City Post-Punk aesthetics and the urban up on a kiosk, to create a gathering work is shown as a large, fifteen- and pamphlets were handed out to environment. As many critics (such as space to discuss and debate graphic channel projection. unsuspecting bystanders. Dystopian Ambivalence Simon Reynolds, in Rip it Up and Start design practice and discourse today. Fictional Corporations Again) have already pointed out, much The kiosk is an archetypal form of Randomly scanned items (all designed Protesters filled the roads with smoke Lost Formats Post-Punk imagery can be traced ephemeral, civic architecture. Located between 1997 and 2018) are moving signals (according to Dutch beat Ballardian Architecture back to dystopian themes originally on the Design Hub’s ‘bridge’ between across one wall of the hallway, in writer Jan Wolkers, “one of the oldest Dark Modernism developed by British sci-fi writer Project Room 1 and Project Room 2, a continuous scroll, not unlike an languages in the world”), while empty J.G. Ballard (1930–2009). High-rise this particular kiosk floats like an island industrial assembly line. banners and white bikes were being 4.1 alienation, subway armies, highway off from the main cityscape, physically carried around during ludic marches. When it comes to dating the exact wastelands, concrete jungles – these separate but visually linking the two The projection is accompanied by Through these graphic gestures and period in which Punk took place, there motifs play an important role in both the spaces. It creates a ‘fifth zone’ that a soundtrack created by musician poetic spells, the city turned into a are two possible approaches. graphics and lyrics of Synth-Pop, Two- complements Experimental Jetset’s Ian Svenonius (operating under his magic center for applied utopianism. Tone and New Wave bands alike. exploration of four movements or city moniker, Escape-ism) – a sequential There is the long-view: Punk as an quarters, and it represents a symbolic suite of looped tracks, composed Meanwhile, the (illegal) printing press continuous condition, an ongoing Most importantly, what Post-Punk bridge between the Amsterdam and specifically for this exhibition. of Provo had to be constantly moved, mentality – a narrative without ending shares with Ballard is a sense of Melbourne contexts. from one location to another, because (‘Punk’s Not Dead’, and will never die), ‘critical ambivalence’. Despite his Based on a fictional grassroots there was always the danger of with roots stretching far back in history dystopian visions, Ballard actually Here we find contributions from Paul movement for ‘Alphabet Reform’, confiscation. In that sense, the printing (Jon Savage, in his Punk Etymology, loved modernity – his attitude towards Marcus Fuog, who details his studio’s it’s a soundtrack that starts with a press itself was on a constant dérive traces the word back to 1946; while modern architecture was one of morbid strategy of ‘Unit of Measure’ – a simple, murmured discussion about letters, through the city, echoing the way Greil Marcus, in Lipstick Traces, fascination, both affirmative and interventionist study that brings a slowly merging into music – going the Provos themselves were drifting reconnects Punk to the esoteric skeptical at the same time. The same new perspective to understanding through various stages of discontent, through the streets of Amsterdam – a protestant sects of the 16th century). sense of ambiguity can be found in the public space. Hope Lumsden- discourse, and folk expression. perfect illustration of the symbiotic Post-Punk attitude towards corporate Barry interrogates the sometimes relationship between the city and the Next to that, there’s the ‘big bang’ culture. Avoiding the traditional rock insular nature of Melbourne’s design (EJ) printing press. model: Punk as a short, sharp shock formats, many Post-Punk bands re- community and the importance of – a movement that only lasted for a modelled themselves as corporations, criticality in exhibition culture to break In the case of Provo, it can even be few weeks (or perhaps even just a few organisations, industrial operations open new ground for debate. Žiga Alphabet Reform argued that the city itself became a days, or hours, or seconds) during (think of groups like Public Image Testen and Stuart Geddes interview printing press. Through graphic and that sweltering English heatwave of Ltd., Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Heaven 17, influential but under-recognised Escape-ism poetic strategies, Provo turned the city 1977 (the so-called ‘Summer of Hate’), and Throbbing Gristle). In an attempt designers whose work has informed (Ian Svenonius) into a place where ideas were enlarged, transforming everything that took to beat at its own game, contemporary practice – in these Alphabet Reform, 2018 multiplied and reproduced. In other place afterwards into ‘Post-’ (and these bands appropriated boardroom intimate but revealing conversations, sound composition, loop words, through Provo, the city revealed everything that happened beforehand strategies, simultaneously embracing they explore the pervasiveness of itself as a device for reproducing ideas into ‘Proto-’). and attacking corporate culture. modernism and its divergent yet Personnel – a metaphorical printing press. sustained presence on graphic design Ian Svenonius as Escape-ism Surely, there’s truth in both models. From a modernist perspective, this in Australia. Michaela Webb also Alphabet Reform workshop voices: 3.3 Punk might have been a singular ‘corporate turn’ seems perfectly in undertakes her research in an interview Ariana Papademetropoulos, Zumi, It seems only natural that Provo instant, linked to a very specific space/ tune with that famous line from the format, mining her colleagues’ Alexandra Cabral Superstructure, utopia /dystopia

City, The Provotarian City and The Post-Punk City – with each quarter

h dedicated to a particular movement, CONS a specific moment in history. c The next question we had to ask ourselves was how to connect our

e own practice with these four historical movements. After all, the exhibition t TRUCT had to include a retrospective

- component as well – a selection of our own work. And we certainly i wouldn’t want to let the two layers (the research project and the retrospective

POST h IVISM part) serve as too literal (or too direct) illustrations of each other. Ideally, the two parts would relate to each other in a loose, dialogue-like way – but how to PUNK achieve that? In an attempt to come up with a possible solution, we went back to the original four movements and identified a couple of sub-themes (or sub-sub-themes) within them (undercurrents such as ‘paper architecture’, ’subversive cartography’, ‘poetic sloganeering’, ‘corporate dystopianism’, etc.) – and these motifs then served as devices (even if only for ourselves) to locate possible connections between our work and these movements. In other words – the links we suggest, between our work and these movements, are based on themes dystopian utopian rather than on forms. And even then, we certainly wouldn’t dare to suggest that our work exists on the same level as these historical pieces – in the exhibition, we display our work on the back of the panels, literally as added footnotes to these larger cultural narratives.

C: Can you describe the process h of working with Ian Svenonius on the soundscape you developed

c for Superstructure? How does the SITUA inclusion of sound art provide an added dimension to the body of work? e PROVO

t EJ: We have known Ian Svenonius for quite a long time – in fact, the first TIO - time we saw him perform was in 1992 with his band Nation of Ulysses – at an Amsterdam venue, Korsakoff. From

w the start, we were fans – not only of his music, but also of his writing. The sleeve notes he wrote (and still writes) NISM o are amazing – part pop-art poetry, part l political manifesto, part rock criticism, In conversation with Experimental city of Amsterdam – and, in particular, (each in their own way) have served Although we later discarded this part surrealist, agitprop. Jetset’s Danny van den Dungen, the way Provo employed the city as a as inspiration to our practice and to ultra-simplistic way of interpreting Marieke Stolk and Erwin Brinkers, platform for language. investigate (although in a subjective the movements (the realities of these In 2000, we first asked him to write Superstructure curators Brad Haylock, and perhaps even intuitive manner) the movements were way more complex, an essay for us – at that time we were Megan Patty, Kate Rhodes and Fleur In 2016, we turned these insights various ways in which the languages of more layered and more ambiguous guest editors of issue 57 of Emigre Watson explore the making of the into Provo Station: Models for a these movements manifest in the city – than this schematic model suggests), Magazine, an American typography exhibition and the studio’s ambitions Provotarian City, a solo exhibition at and simultaneously, to look at the ways the diagram helped us to envision journal, and Ian very generously and intent for the show, marking the the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in which the city manifests itself in the the exhibition as a city consisting of contributed a piece. A couple of years first major retrospective of the work (GfZK) in Leipzig. In that exhibition, languages of these movements. four quarters. later, we showed one of Ian’s texts to of Experimental Jetset in the world. we tried to transform the linguistic Stuart Bailey, editor of Dot Dot Dot – and performative strategies of Provo The four movements we eventually We like the various meanings of the an influential graphic design magazine Curatorium: The exhibition design into architectural scale-models, as chose to work with – Constructivism, word ‘quarter’ (literally, ‘a fourth’). On at the time – and Stuart decided to you’ve created is integral to the an attempt to trace the contours of a the Situationist International, the the one hand, it’s a word that refers to publish the text, with an introduction content itself and is conceived as an utopian Provotarian city – a city based Provo movement and the Post-Punk an area of the city (such as the Parisian written by us. interconnected series of ‘cityscapes’ on ludic, graphic and poetic principles. Continuum – are all historical moments ‘Quartier Latin’, the neighbourhood – how have you developed the that have influenced our practice as that played such an important role in Fast-forward to 2015, we invited Ian relationship between the works/space/ When, a year later, we were invited graphic designers – but we also felt movements such as existentialism, to write an essay for our monograph viewer to communicate the ideas by RMIT and NGV to develop a show that these four movements somehow lettrism, etc.) – while on the other hand, (Statement and Counter-Statement: within the show? of our own work, we immediately formed four pieces of the same puzzle, it refers to a period of 15 minutes: a Notes on Experimental Jetset, decided to somewhat broaden the which was another important reason dial divided in four. So that’s how we published by Roma Publications), Experimental Jetset: To answer this retrospective scope and took the for us to focus on these movements. envision our exhibition – as a city, which again resulted in a brilliant question, we first have to go back to opportunity to turn the exhibition into consisting of four (partly overlapping) text. Shortly after that, Ian asked us 2011 and 2012, when we curated a a personal research project, returning In some respects, these movements areas. But perhaps also as a clock- to design a sleeve for his solo album couple of exhibitions on the subject of once again to some of the themes we oppose each other; in other respects face, divided into four periods. It’s (Introduction to Escape-Ism, 2017, Provo, an Amsterdam-based anarchist had explored in our earlier exhibitions they seem to mirror each other, or an installation that unfolds itself both Merge Records) and we are currently group that existed between 1965 on Provo, in particular the way in even overlap. In fact, in the early spatially and temporally. working on a sleeve for his second and 1967. While doing the research which the city can be envisioned as stages of our research, we created a solo album. surrounding those exhibitions, we a platform for language. (somewhat oversimplified) diagram, And that’s how we eventually arrived became more and more interested So, for the Melbourne exhibition, we in which we placed the four at the concept of an installation divided To make a long story short (and to in the relationship between the Provo thought it would be interesting to focus movements alongside the axes of into four (colour-coded) quarters – The answer the actual question): a while movement, the printing press and the on four (sub-)cultural movements that technology and utopianism. Constructivist City, The Situationist ago, we were mailing back and Superstructure, low-tech / hi-tech

forth, discussing the sleeve of Ian’s EJ: Indeed, we feel strongly linked telephone books. In fact, the city in is usually to somehow subvert this Image credits upcoming album – when, in a moment to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie – we which both Erwin and Danny were diagrammatic language, to turn it into of unexpected clarity, we asked him studied there between 1993 and 1997 born (Rotterdam) boasted a logotype something more elastic – to create Utopian/Dystopian, High-Tech/Low- if he would be interested in making and taught there between 2000 and designed by Total Design. In that some friction within the authoritative Tech, Experimental Jetset, 2017 a soundtrack for a film piece in our 2013. However, we cannot take any sense, we were literally born under the framework. In short, this whole exhibition [Project Room 2]. credits for the way in which the graphic sign of late-Modernism. (Except for diagrammatic (and anti-diagrammatic) Ian was immediately enthusiastic and, design students exhibit their work Marieke, who was born in Amsterdam, undercurrent in our work would have after exchanging all kinds of ideas and – if anything, it is the Gerrit Rietveld under the sign of Provo – but that’s escaped our attention if it wasn’t plans, he eventually came up with a Academie that has influenced us. another story). for Superstructure. fantastic concept: a sequential suite of looped tracks, based on this fictional One thing it’s important to understand And because of that, we have always What do we want the visitor to ‘get’ grassroots movement for ‘Alphabet about the Gerrit Rietveld Academie regarded this late-Modernist language from the exhibition? That’s a hard Reform’. It is the perfect companion is that it is more or less rooted in as our mother tongue, as our folk question – we never think about ‘the to our film – it really emphasises the movements such as Bauhaus and art. It’s the only language we feel audience’ in such absolute terms. But more deconstructivist (and perhaps De Stijl. In fact, the architect of the qualified to use – not in a ‘functionalist’ what we do hope to get across (not even destructive) tendencies within building, Gerrit Rietveld, was once or ‘objective’ way, as designers like only through Superstructure, but our work. (in his younger years) a full-fledged Crouwel originally intended it (as if through our work in general) is a member of De Stijl – and although this is actually possible), but instead certain sense of ‘materialism’ – the A lot of critics regard our work as Rietveld had removed himself in a highly subjective, intuitive, almost feeling that we are shaped by our functionalist, utilitarian, affirmative, somewhat from some of his earlier emotional way. We see the legacy of material surroundings and that positivist, rational – which we always ideas by the time he designed the late-Modernism most of all as a poetic we have to actively shape these consider a complete misreading of school, we like to think that the one. It’s a language we somehow surroundings in return. Ultimately, our practice. We are glad that Ian spirit of De Stijl is very much alive retrieved from memory and now use people like you and me create our recognises the fact that our work in the building. to tell our own stories with. environment, and so, people like you also has negativist, disruptive and and me can change it. It’s perhaps destabilising dimensions – that our In other words – the Gerrit Rietveld It’s also a way for us to come to terms a certain awareness of dialectical practice is based both on construction Academie was, during the time we with the dismantling of our cultural materialism we are after – a going- and deconstruction. The whole notion studied there, pretty much dedicated and social infrastructure. Being born back-and-forth between making of ‘Alphabet Reform’ fits perfectly to the synthesis of all arts (and perhaps in the late 60s and early 70s, we and being made. within this context. even more importantly, the synthesis feel we experienced the last days of art and the every day). In a practical of social democracy – right before And the Modern city is the perfect My idea is that, since your work deals sense, this meant that there was no the neo-liberal turn, right before the platform to observe this process of with the disassembly of language, distinction made between the arts whole process of privatisation. And shaping and being shaped – after all, the theme of the soundtrack could – there was no hierarchical division. somehow, we feel that our graphic we are building cities, while cities are be ‘Alphabet Reform’ – starting with Painting wasn’t seen as a ‘higher’ language, with all its references to the building us. So it’s certainly a sort of a murmured discussion about letters, art than fashion design, for example. social-democratic structuralism of materialism we are trying to reveal and then emerging as music (or a The school was completely open and our childhood, and to the Post-Punk here – but a materialism of the ecstatic, semblance of music) by the end, going transparent, without any real borders memories of our teenage years, is exhilarating, accelerating kind. through various stages of discontent, between the departments. Of course, perhaps a way for us to deal with this Concrete poetry in motion. That’s a discourse, folk expression, etc. But there were separate departments sense of loss, this feeling of failure. bit of the feeling we would like to it will be subtle, almost ambient… (graphic design, photography, get across. – Ian Svenonius. architecture, etc.), but the boundaries In this total neo-liberal environment in were fluid. The first year was a which we now live, and in which we C: On account of the critical and C: The subcultures you identify shared year (the Vorkurs, modelled also participate (we’re certainly no conceptual moves that recur through throughout the exhibition could be after the Bauhaus) for students of all saints), we still hope that our work your practice, you have a very ‘read’ from a different perspective departments, creating a sweet sense can keep a certain memory alive. The recognisable visual language. How do within an Australian context – is of flux. spirit of collectivism, encapsulated you balance your own interests and there a different type of mediation in aesthetics, in graphic design, in inquiries with the needs of your clients required when talking about the And as far as we know, this is still ink – like a genie in a lamp, waiting and their audiences? Provo movement to an audience the case. to be awakened. in Melbourne rather than to one in EJ: Again, we don’t really think about Europe or do you feel the themes So we think it’s only logical for a C: Has the process of conceiving and audiences and clients in such absolute are universal? student from the Academie to not designing Superstructure provided terms. The way we see it – we have consider graphic design as a two- any new insights while reflecting a certain practice, an ongoing body EJ: Although the chosen subcultures dimensional, ‘flat’ practice – but upon your collective body of work? of work, and this practice brings us seem to be historically rooted in the instead, to consider a book to be part What would you most like audiences in all kinds of unexpected situations European continent, it is safe to say of an installation, to consider a poster to experience? and contexts. And the only way we that the dominant discourse around to be a prop in a performance, to can react to these ever-changing these movements takes place in a consider architecture as a language, EJ: In the cityscape installation, circumstances is through our own decidedly ‘Anglo-academic’ sphere: to consider fashion as a form of we show a selection of our work language, our own viewpoint – our across universities in the UK, the cinema, etc. that we categorised according to a own tone of voice. There is no other US, Canada and Australia. In fact, number of themes, or rather sub- possibility for us – we can only be we consider many texts written by And these are indeed principles that themes, distilled from the four main ourselves and our own language is Australian scholars important to we also hope to transmit through our movements. Forcing ourselves to look our only tool. our research, such as Mary Gough, teaching – and through our practice at our own work through the lens of McKenzie Wark. as a whole. In fact, Superstructure, these sub-themes (categories such In an earlier interview (2013), we as an installation, is one big attempt as ‘poetic sloganeering’, ‘subversive expressed it like this: In that sense, as non-English speakers to confuse the boundaries between cartography’, etc.), we came across (or at least, non-native-English printed matter and spatial architecture some connections within our work We realise that a small group of people speakers) and, as design workers – to suggest that pages are walls and, that hadn’t previously occurred to us (a very tiny circle of graphic designers with no university background, we walls are pages. – so in a sense we did gain some new aware of our work) might recognise a can only approach this discourse as insights into our work. certain tone of voice, a specific accent, the autodidactic outsiders that we C: Your work often evokes formal all throughout our body of work. But ultimately are. In that way, we feel that strategies of late-Modernist graphic To give a concrete example – while this dialect is not something we are we represent our own ideal audience design. What do you understand to doing research on the Situationist ashamed of. It’s our natural voice, our – we are learning about these be the significance of this approach International, it became clear to us authentic way of talking. We’re not like movements while putting together in a contemporary context? And how that Guy Debord and Asger Jorn actors who need a wig and a funny the exhibition and we hope this sense do you understand your audiences’ were obsessed with maps, city voice for every different role. We’re of learning is somehow transmitted relationship to the history you evoke? plans, diagrams, charts, schematic more the type of actors who use their through the installation. representations. But instead of own faces and their own voices – but EJ: We always felt that our personal using this diagrammatic language in still know how to perform. C: Design education is another key graphic language owes a lot to the a scientific, ‘objective’ fashion, aspect to your practice, primarily at cultural landscape in which we Debord and Jorn used this medium But that doesn’t mean that our the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, grew up – the social-democratic in much more intuitive, dissident and language is fixed or static – in fact, in Amsterdam, where we witnessed structuralism of the Netherlands in poetic ways. the same way that we use our graphic some incredible examples, from the 70s, which was largely shaped by language to shape certain situations, graduating students exhibiting late-Modernist designers such as Going through our own work, we came these situations also shape our graphic design. In your roles as Wim Crouwel, Ben Bos, Jurriaan across a very similar fascination for graphic language. We always carry our educators, do you reflect on the Schrofer, etc. diagrams and charts and, just like previous projects with us, in one way exhibition-making process with Debord and Jorn, the way in which we or another – we are constantly being emerging designers? Everything around us was designed in employ this diagrammatic language influenced by our shared experiences. Do you think designers need to know that particular structuralist language in our own work is seldom systematic In a sense, we are being shaped as how to exhibit their own work? – the school atlases, the stamps, the and almost never rational. Our goal much as we are shaping. 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Introduction to the exhibition Curatorium Public Programs Melbourne-based designers Stuart Acknowledgements Brad Haylock, Kate Rhodes, Fleur Geddes, Jenny Grigg and Beaziyt Experimental Jetset – Superstructure is Watson (RMIT University); Megan Experimental Jetset – Worcou reveal insights garnered Experimental Jetset – Superstructure the first major exhibition of Amsterdam- Patty (National Gallery of Victoria) Superstructure explores the from research into and through is conceived and designed by based, internationally celebrated relationship between graphic graphic design, discussing its value Experimental Jetset, The Netherlands. graphic design studio Experimental language and the city and presents to studio practice. Jetset in Australia. RMIT Design Hub team the first major survey exhibition of Presented by RMIT Design Hub Curators: Kate Rhodes, Fleur Watson Amsterdam-based graphic design in collaboration with the National Curated and designed for Australian Creative producer: Nella Themelios studio Experimental Jetset in Australia. Why talk about graphic design? Gallery of Victoria. audiences, this exhibition is both a Technical production coordinator: Join the RMIT Design Hub team for Wednesday 28 March retrospective of the work of the practice Erik North a series of public programs that 12.30 – 1.30pm – founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Technical assistant: Timothy McLeod explore the exhibition’s ideas and Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 RMIT DESIGN HUB Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Exhibition assistant: Layla Cluer themes along with contributions by Dungen – and a large-scale installation Technical crew: Gavin Bell, Robert local graphic design practitioners Reflecting on current and past studio in which they explore the relationship Jordan, Simon Maisch, Jessica and researchers. leadership experience, Paul Marcus between graphic language and the city. Wood Fuog, Lisa Grocott and Michaela All events are free and take place Webb consider the significance of Responding to RMIT Design Hub’s at RMIT Design Hub. conversations, people and places Curatorium: Megan Patty (National mission to present creative, practice- Biography Bookings recommended: for graphic design studio practice. Gallery of Victoria); Brad Haylock, led research and design process, rmitdesignhub.eventbrite.com, Kate Rhodes, Fleur Watson (RMIT Experimental Jetset has identified key Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam- designhub.rmit.edu.au University). sub-cultural movements that have based graphic design studio founded for further details. Why curate and exhibit graphic inspired their own studio practice. As in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers design? RMIT Design Hub team a result, the exhibition is conceived and Danny van den Dungen. Wednesday 11 April Curators: Kate Rhodes, Fleur Watson as a journey through four quarters of Floor talk with Experimental Jetset: 12.30 – 1.30pm Creative producer: Nella Themelios an imaginary city that represents four Focusing on printed matter and Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 Technical production coordinator: conditions: The Constructivist City, site-specific installations, EJ have Dungen and Marieke Stolk Erik North The Situationist City, The Provotarian worked on projects for a wide variety of Friday 16 March Looking at developments in curatorial Technical assistant: Timothy McLeod City and The Post-Punk City. These institutes, including Stedelijk Museum 12.30pm – 1.30pm practice and the archive, Hope Exhibition assistant: Layla Cluer moments in time have been layered Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Dutch Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 Lumsden-Barry, Žiga Testen and with existing and newly created works, Post Group and Whitney Museum of Warren Taylor examine the importance RMIT Design Hub including film, collage, posters, prints American Art. Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den of exhibition-making as a way to RMIT Design Hub is a progressive and installations. Dungen and Marieke Stolk from engage with graphic design history educational environment. It Experimental Jetset taught at the Experimental Jetset discuss their and to inform future practice. houses a community of architects, RMIT Design Hub invited nine Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) practice, and the ideas explored designers, curators and students Melbourne-based graphic designers between 2000 and 2013, and currently in Superstructure. for collaborative, interdisciplinary to co-produce a newspaper with tutor at Werkplaats Typografie Making Superstructure design research and education within Experimental Jetset, with the intention (Arnhem). Wednesday 18 April a purpose-built building that also of connecting the ideas explored in Mode and Mode 4 launch 12.30 – 1.30pm includes RMIT University’s School the exhibition with the local design In 2007, the Museum of Modern Art and reading Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 of Architecture and Design and the community. Contributors include (New York) acquired a substantial Saturday 17 March RMIT Design Archives. The Project Paul Marcus Fuog, Stuart Geddes, selection of work by Experimental 12.30pm – 1.30pm This program unpacks the ‘making’ Rooms at Design Hub exhibit creative, Jenny Grigg, Lisa Grocott, Hope Jetset. Other institutes that have Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 of Superstructure in conversation practice-led research and are open Lumsden-Barry, Warren Taylor, Žiga collected EJ material include Stedelijk with the exhibition’s curators and to everyone. Exhibitions at Design Testen, Michaela Webb and Beaziyt Museum Amsterdam, San Francisco Issue four of Mode and Mode contains the Design Hub production team. Hub visualise, perform and share Worcou. The themes explored in Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), a reprint of the lookbook Here, we peel back the layers of the research ideas and make new the newspapers form the basis of Art Institute of , Museum publication Friction / Parade 99, by show – from conceiving the concept, research connections. a program of public events, giving für Gestaltung, Centre National des fashion designers Keupr/van Bentm the early development of the content visitors a direct look into graphic design Arts Plastiques and Cooper Hewitt and Experimental Jetset. To launch and design, through to its physical Location practice and discourse today. Smithsonian Design Museum. the publication, Matthew Linde and production. Corner Victoria and Swanston Streets, Laura Gardner will read excerpts from Carlton, 3053 Experimental Jetset – Superstructure In 2015, Roma Publications the new issue. is conceived and designed by (Amsterdam) published Statement Disclaimer Opening hours Experimental Jetset, the Netherlands. and Counter-Statement – RMIT University has made every Tuesday–Friday, 10am – 5pm Notes on Experimental Jetset, a Why research graphic design? effort to trace copyright holders Saturday, 12 – 5pm Presented by RMIT Design Hub in monograph featuring essays by Wednesday 21 March and provide correct crediting and Closed Sunday, Monday and collaboration with the National Gallery Linda van Deursen, Mark Owens 12.30 – 1.30pm acknowledgements in consultation Public Holidays of Victoria. and Ian Svenonius. Level 2, Project Rooms 1 & 2 with the providers of the exhibition. Admission is free Supe Sup Su S 2018