Polymutation
- Typographic Interpretations of Autoimmunity / Autoimmune Poetry
Author
Editor
Location, Date
Staatliche Akademie der bildenden Künste, Stuttgart, BW, Germany, 01 August 2023
Keywords
Poetical Inquiry, AR, Poetry, Typography
Text
Strong yet subtle, these experiments in poster, book and animated form are the results of a collaboration between Klasse Lucy Roberts, ABK Type Lab (Stefanie Schwarz) and Austrian artist and researcher Barb Macek. Macek’s work explores the relationship of art to science – and most particularly the way text and image can change public perceptions of chronic disease. Forming part of her research project Autoimmunity and Anthropological Difference, Macek’s poems are based on conversations with people affected by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Dermatomyositis, and also draw on her own experience having an autoimmune disease. Autoimmunity means that the immune system directs its activities against the body's own tissue cells. The term autoimmune disease is used in the case of tissue damage as a consequence of autoimmune processes. Why these dynamics occur is still an unresolved question within the biomedical model, explains Barb Macek. She describes her writings as poetic polymutations – poly meaning ‘many’ and ‘mutation’ meaning the changing of a structure to result in a variant form. In them, she plays with language and layout, often employing computer algorithms to mirror the alien and random nature of the disease. Members of Klasse Lucy Roberts were invited to select one poem in German and one in English and asked to use typography, lettering, type design and layout to increase a general reader’s understanding of autoimmune disease. Free to represent whole or part of each poem, all responses use black only and are static, with some accompanied by an animated response.
Language, Format, Material, Edition
German, English
Activity List
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- Barbara Macek - Project Partner
- Schwarz, Stefanie - Project Partner
- Roberts, Lucy - Project Lead
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Associated Media Files
Image#1