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What music is currently on the Hyland turntable? 

Ah, that's an interesting one. This summer it's been decidedly retro (even more so than usual). For a while I've been caught in some strange dislocated pop-space (or Space Pop) between Julian Cope and Todd Rundgren. Thankfully, courtesy of a gift from Mr Harry Pearce, I'm now heading towards the folkier realms of Roy Harper. RH has a new collection out entitled Songs of Love and Loss. Usually I don't go in for compilations but this set which has been sensitively remixed holds together extremely well. Such quiet intensity. 

My persistent guilty pleasure is 'primal' country rock from the late sixties/early seventies and at the moment I'm playing the third Flying Burrito Brothers album (minus the errant genius of Gram Parsons). It includes a track entitled Colorado which sounds remarkably close to All The Young Dudes.

Finally, on a train trip between Bordeaux and Brussels last week, I repeat played Half Past France by John Cale; context is everything, I guess.

Read any good books lately? 

I've recently finished The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock which was great. On my recent trans-Europe express journey I started and finished Identity by Milan Kundera which I hated as much as a particularly bad existential French movie. I'm now on to The Book of Laughter and Forgetting which is much more to my taste.

How has your consumption of culture (music, art, TV) changed with the advent of the internet? 

I seem only to watch BBC4 on TV these days and I spend way too long on the sodding computer - not least in writing posts like this. It may be wishful thinking but at some point in the future the only surfing I wish to do, in the cultural sense, is the one that requires only a fibreglass board and the correct sea conditions. I may need to improve my swimming first. 

You have recently published a book on symbols, have you come across any other good design books? 

Actually, I'm kind of toying with the idea of buying your Unit Editions book on Total Design [Terrific idea, Angus. Ed.] Otherwise, no.

Movies - do you have time to keep up with cinema?

My wife and I are self-confessed Marvel fans so we'll see anything which involves an X-Man or Captain America.

What about galleries and exhibitions - anything caught your eye lately? 

Yes - most definitely. The last V&A exhibition, The Cult of Beauty, on the Victorian aesthetic movement. Luxurious, dreamy and languid to the point being soporific, this subject appeals to my periodic need to escape modernism and replace it with the romantic. Inspiring too, as it prompted me into pursuing a book idea I've being considering for some time around the themes of sensuality and fantasy in contemporary illustration.

www.pentagram.com

You exhibit your art work in galleries – what shows or exhibitions have you seen lately?

The one show that springs to mind was the Paul Graham retrospective at the Whitechapel this year. A very beautiful and poetic show that meandered it’s way through the gallery spaces. For so many years as a photographer he’d been quietly getting on with things, an outsider of sorts, so for him to finally be recognised, to be understood and celebrated was a big moment.

Another show I really enjoyed was joint affair by Scott King & Mathew Darbyshire at the Herald St Gallery. Two very different artists, two very different ways of working, coming together and it really worked. It was great. Herald St reminded me of what art should be all about. It took me half an hour to find the bloody place, the complete opposite of the Tate.

What are you reading?

Not much at the moment. I bought A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters by Taryn Simon a few weeks back which I’m dipping into every now and then. I read a lot, all day and every day, but I don’t read many books.

Have you been motivated to move your reading to iPad or Kindle?

Not really. I read the odd newspaper on my ipad but I would prefer one I can read in the bath.

What has caught your eye in the world of design?

The sheer pace of change at the moment is staggering with no one quite knowing what the hell is going on. If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re lying. So in that respect it’s perfect, no one is particularly comfortable and I don’t mean just financially. Every one is a little anxious which is where great stuff comes from. I’m really enjoying it. It’s a great time to be alive.

Do you watch TV? Listen to the radio?

I really love television. After a culturally stacked week I love nothing more than to sit down with the misses and watch two men beat the living daylights out of one another in The Ultimate Fighting Championships. Other favourites include When Sport Goes Bad, America’s Dumbest Criminals, Seconds From Disaster and When Women Kill. One of the most compelling documentaries I’ve seen recently was The Scheme which followed the lives and times of a handful of families from an estate in Kilmarnock, it was absolutely brilliant in it’s delivery. It reminded me of Ray’s a Laugh by Richard Billingham which is one of my favourite books of all time.

Does music play a part in your life? Records? Gigs? Making music?

We have music on all the time in the studio, so yes I guess it plays a big part in my life. I don’t go to too many gigs. The last three I’ve been to and really enjoyed were 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Royal Festival Hall with live score performed by Philharmonia Orchestra, Spiritualized at the Barbican which was pretty hardcore, and an altogether more soothing experience was Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Roundhouse. All three were brilliant!

After a busy week running the Browns' studio, how do you relax?

At the end of most weeks I find I’m bloody knackered. I’ve got a great local boozer which I tend to go to for a few pints of Guinness on a Friday evening, not that I’m set in my ways or anything. At weekends, to have no plans is a luxury. I get on the bike and see where it takes us, have some good food, read the newspapers, meet up with chums, play with the cats, water the plants, have a swim, and if I’m lucky go on my mates boat down the Thames.

Magazines, newspapers?

I love the newspapers. During the week it’s the Guardian. At weekends it’s as many as I can get my hands on, the good and the dreadful. The whole phone hacking thing happening at the moment is unbelievable; it’s all going to come tumbling down. I watched with great interest the body language of Rebekah Brooks whilst she sat in front of the House of Commons Select Committee and found myself really enjoying it. Fascinating.

Do you look at blogs? Are you a social media person?

I use the internet all the time but I vary rarely visit blogs. I’m not on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or any of them. I would rather stare at the sun than join the sewers of humanity.

jonathanellery.com

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You do a lot of exhibition design – seen any good ones recently? 

The Gabriel Orozco show at Tate Modern earlier this year is the best thing I've seen in many years. Not so much to do with the exhibition design as the artist's work itself, which I think is genius. His work proves he is in control of his madness: he always knows when and how to go too far with his work yet at the same time leaves me tantalized with works that stop short of the kind of resolution that I might've expected. Orozco can make works that are everyday-ordinary and magical at the same time.

I went to see the Joan Miró show at Tate Modern not expecting to be wowed by something so familiar but was pleasantly surprised. It was particularly interesting to see how in his early career his graphic style emerged out of his figurative works. Miró is an inspiration as a creative figure who kept on producing work of relevance for so very long and was still finding ways in his eighties to twist his art to communicate his deeply held political views. Couldn't be more different from the youthful firmament that is graphic design where, with a few exceptions, stars rise swiftly, burn fiercely and fall quickly.

Does music mean much to you? 

Not in itself. It never has for me very much. I can see what all the fuss is about but other stuff like design/art/photography (but mostly football!) has meant that I've not had much room left for it. I've had the occasional fling: 2-Tone Records – 1979, Lloyd Cole – 1984, The Durutti Column – 1987. I'm not a musical desert but my eclectic taste proves I'm not a real enthusiast and that I'm not at all discerning should already be plain. My yearly guide is the Mercury prize list. 

More than listening to music or following it, I'll dance to it given even half a chance. For me, there's nothing much better for in-the-moment abandon than going ape-shit to Fools Gold – the best dance track ever. So, in that spirit my recommendation has to go to a 5Rhythms dance session. I got invited to one unwittingly whilst on holiday in New Zealand a few years ago. 5Rhythms is all over the world. This one was held in a tiny village hall facing the Pacific and the basic premise of it was to move about to music in whatever way you liked without any inhibition whatsoever. Ignore all the new age hippy claptrap about it. (There is some hilarious stuff about 5Rhythms on YouTube). But treated purely as physical expression, a chance to let go, it was an amazing experience that left me in a completely other place. Just relieved that only two people who know me saw me do it and thankfully they are in New Zealand! I'm like many designers I suspect who regularly need to let go in order to keep sane. Find your local branch now.

What books have caught your attention of late? 

I've rediscovered an appetite for fiction. One I'd lost since the late 1980s. Rekindled to help me find something out about myself. There aren't many design books that have helped me do that. In Pulse, Julian Barnes has written a book of wonderfully perceptive and compassionate short stories about men, women and relationships. I enjoyed Ian McEwan's Solar which was hilarious and clever. Clever still though, in my mind, is one of the most intelligent people walking this planet: Zadie Smith. I'm reading On Beauty at present (not the one with the cover designed by A2/SW/HK unfortunately). She is such a fantastic writer! She has the ability to slow down time so you notice everything as richly as she does. So incredibly visual too – the way she takes you into a room by tracing shards of sunlight as they angle in from a window, and striking the floor, transfer your attention onto an apparently random object or onto another place. Brilliant. But then again I've not read anything like this in over 20 years. Someone else tell me if she is any good or not.

On the complete flipside of fiction is a book I came across early in 2010 by David Shields called Reality Hunger. It is a provocative book seeking out a new form of fiction writing and consists entirely of short quotes – many his own, many lifted. Shields is a man 'bored by the novel'. He likes things raw. This book was the spark that inspired a year long project called Real that was set for Communication Art & Design students at the Royal College of Art. The results of this project will be showing during London Design Festival week, 17-25 September, at Her House Gallery in Shoreditch.

Are you a newspaper reader? 

Only at the weekends. If I read dailies I'd never get anything done. I used to be late for school reading the Eastern Daily Press over my cornflakes. What the hell was I reading? These days I only read the Saturday Guardian. First stop always the sport section then I flick through the other sections quickly picking out bits to read later that I never get round to. By Sunday my partner Jane has just about finished with the Review section and I take the rest of the week to read that bit-by-bit. I like to read all the book reviews as it gives me the illusion that I'm well read.

My preferred mode of newspaper reading is to spend hours with the paper, usually when my daughter has gone to bed. I spend ages scouring all sections for something that really pulls me in but often nothing ever does and I go to bed with a head full of bits of information none of which amounts to anything at all.

I'm now a newspaper snob. The Guardian is so well designed and I know where to find everything. So when I read another paper it really is an unpleasant experience, chaotic by comparison. I'd compare it to going from a Mac to a PC.

What about blogs? 

I recently used a graphic design blog that is primarily for visual feasting, to select 10 graphic designers to commission on a poster design project for a client. Of the designers I chose to risk working with, eight of them I had never seen or even heard of before. This is remarkable and the wonder of the internet. So if anyone asks you who is doing great work out there, just say 'hang on a sec I'll just have a look'. Because every time you look it’s as if you see better stuff. That is how brimming with health, (talking now in only purely formal, virtuoso terms), graphic design is at present.

For other blogs that don't look as nice but often pack a lot more meaning and substance, check out John Thackara (formerly Doors of Perception) now on the Observers Room at Design Observer.

What has grabbed your attention in the design world lately? 

There isn't anything in the design world quite as dramatic and fascinating as what has been going on in everybody else's world lately. The years following the economic crash of 2008 were supposed to furnish us with the ideal moment in which to question the way the world is run. I share the disappointment of many others when I lament that it seems that there have been no genuinely new ideas to emerge out of this crisis. Back in 2008 UK national broadsheet leader writers, of the kind I read, were barely concealing their excitement beneath questions like 'are we witnessing the end of capitalism as we have known it this last one hundred years?'  Well, the answer to that one seems a resounding 'no'. So far.

I'm not now going to launch into some call-to-arms to designers since there is not much it seems we can do. We probably have more power as plain old citizens. What I am discomforted by however is the spaniel-like eagerness to please of the design industry in general, absent of any notable dissenters, as it rushes to help patch things up or batten hatches down or lavish spit and polish on the spurious PR campaign that claims all of us must pay for this mess. It’s at moments like this when you realise that the grand project called design has reached another milestone. Design really is embedded into the way the world is run and those executive spaniels really have succeeded in becoming part of the establishment. There are many more of us in the design industry who like to think of ourselves as a wee bit more radical than this.

Call us terriers? Trouble is I think we've lost our bite. We will have to bark a lot louder now than we used to in order to be heard over the deafening conservatism that is the design industry these days. Even if some of what we have seen in the distant past from designers at moments of crisis might merely have been posturing, just a little bit of that would be so much better than nothing. At least it will show we care.

Movies, TV, radio – can you recommend anything? 

Isn't the BBC just fantastic? We are so lucky to have it, we really are. Where else would they hand over an hour of peak-view programming to an academic who only makes films using old archive footage no one else will touch. Yes, you guessed, it’s the brilliant Adam Curtis and his recent three-part series about how the computers are taking over called All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. I only managed to see the first one and can't wait to see the others when they become available. Episode one shows how we placed computers in charge of global financial stability – oops!

The other film I can't wait to see is by another scholar. Robinson in Ruins by film essayist Patrick Keiller. In reviews, wouldn't you love to be called "a connoisseur of built dullardry"? My Guardian tells me that this film is about "the conundrum of the countryside". 

Not counting my daughter's DVDs, the only things I watch on TV these days is Glastonbury (more proof of my lack of musical taste) and football – especially so this year since my beloved Norwich have made it back into the top tier. 

www.nickbelldesign.co.uk

July 2011

What visual design is interesting you at the moment? 

I’m with Jon Wozencroft on this one. There’s just so much out there that it’s all a bit overwhelming. I do see work that I think is graphically striking and that reflects strong visual skills and the impression it leaves me with is that that are so many talented designers out there. So the rather sheepish answer is – lots of things and nothing in particular.

What design blogs are you looking at currently and do you still buy and read design magazines? 

My design blog list is split into two sections – ‘discussion’ and ‘visual’. The ‘discussion’ list includes the usual culprits – Design Observer, AIGA, Eye and so on. The ‘visual’ list is much more varied and includes an ever-growing list of design studios as well as the ‘compilation’ sites such as We Made This, Manystuff, It’s Nice That, Slanted, FFFFound etc. As for magazines the truthful answer is that although I do still occasionally buy design magazines they sit on my table for ages until perhaps, when I have time, I might actually read them. The mind is willing but the body is weak.

You are known as a politically engaged designer – what are you reading that feeds this interest? 

What has always interested me in relation to politics – or culture or design or most other things for that matter – is the ways in which our world views are moulded and influenced. How they formed and subsequently changed? The common belief that ideas come first and that it is the exchange of these that are responsible for our understanding and beliefs, overlooks and underestimates the ideological force of the forms and structures through which the world is presented to us, and through which we experience the world.

We think – and imagine – for the most part through prisms of perception. For example, language conditions not only the way that we are able to think about things but also the sorts of things we able to think about. It’s a reminder that the real carriers of ideology are forms and not their abstractable content. These thoughts have been reinforced recently through re-reading a book I first read 20 years ago. Published in 1973 ‘Tools for Conviviality’, by the philosopher, former Catholic priest and social critic Ivan Illich is not a book about political policies or histories or movements. It’s about how social institutions and systems, whether they produce tangible commodities like corn flakes or electricity, or intangible commodities such as education or knowledge – all of which Illich classifies as ‘tools’ – condition our world views. In Illich’s own words:

“Tools are intrinsic to social relationships. An individual relates himself in action to his society through the use of tools that he actively masters, or by which he is passively acted upon. To the degree that he masters his tools, he can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree that he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image.”

Any other reading material on the Howard bedside table?

A friend of mine once coined the term ‘the cult of simultaneousness’, a reference to the market-led compulsion in which to have cultural credibility it is not enough to simply read a book (see that film, listen to that music) – one must read it at the same time as everyone else is reading it for risk of being ‘out of step/tune/fashion’. Even though I know that I shouldn’t allow my attention to be directed by the sheer amount of stuff out there to read, see, visit, listen to, it still surprises me how easily it is to be unnerved by turning back down the path to have another look at something you already passed when everything around us tells us that to do so is to take ones eye off the moving target. This time, unlike the Illich book mentioned above, it’s something I missed the first time round. First published in 2003 ‘Between The Eyes: Essays On Photography And Politics’ is a series of thought-provoking texts by David Levi Strauss with an introduction by a favourite writer, John Berger. 

Are you a cinema goer/movie buff?  

Make a list of the least silent food you can think of: pork scratchings? crisps? toast perhaps? How about popcorn? Movie buff yes, cinema goer no. 

How is the Portuguese financial crises affecting culture? 

It’s taking to the streets and the web. Being twinned with Greece might once have held some appeal but in the current circumstances it’s pretty alarming. The ubiquitous ‘belt-tightening’ (aka the socialisation of debt) that political managers demand as a result of the crisis in the economic system (aka the privatisation of profit) means that state expenditure on culture, which was already less than 1% of total government expenditure is reduced to invisible proportions.

You live in Porto – what is the gallery and exhibition scene like there? 

Despite the demise on the institutional level things are pretty lively in Porto on the independent scene. Young people in particular are keen to express and organise themselves and there’s been a noticeable growth in art and design initiatives. My advice – come over and visit, you’ll be delighted.

You support FC Porto – are they any good? 

Ah, now we’re talking – a proper question at last. Well they’re better than say, Liverpool, or Tottenham, or Manchester City. Considering their budget, winning the Europa League this season (like they won the Champions not long ago) is tantamount to Norwich winning the Premier League. 

The recent and abrupt departure of André Villas-Boas to Chelsea though was a real smack in the face for Porto fans. We’re used to the idea that although we can form great players and managers, we can't keep them for more than about three years – an unpleasant reality in itself. What is so disappointing and depressing about Villas Boas is that we believed – and were actively led to believe – that here was a man who was a genuine Porto fan (which he probably is) and that he would be around for at the very least another season, and perhaps more. People from Porto are shocked because (thankfully) the idea still persists that it is not just what you do that matters but the way it is done. After all the talk about his dedication and love of the club he leaves at the very first opportunity without addressing any words whatsoever to Porto fans, not a single word. He practically ran to the airport. 

Porto has seven European titles, Chelsea have two. We begin the season with the European Super Cup against Barcelona and have every chance of doing very well in the Champions League, apart from winning most of the domestic titles again, and still it wasn’t enough for him. The depressing lesson is that ambition and commitment as concepts only have validity in personal and individual terms.

www.studioandrewhoward.com

July 2011

What are you reading currently?

I'm carefully studying a book called 'Books + Multiples' about Dieter Roth. This coinciding with (or creating) a new fantasy about creating dozens of 'home made' books at the same time.

Have any exhibitions impressed you recently?

The last really great show I saw was by Simon Periton and Alan Kane at Sadie Coles HQ, it was called 'The Asbo Mystery Play and other public works'. The title alone deserves an award. There is also a truly bonkers and fantastic new show by Jamie Reid called 'The Ragged Kingdom', organised by Isis Gallery at Londonnewcastle Depot, it's on until the 30th July... people must go.

You have associations with some interesting musicians – what music do you listen to for pleasure?

I've been struggling with music recently - tired of all my usual stuff - but my father-in-law just sent me this great CD box set called 'Swing tanzen verboten!', it's subtitled 'Swing Music and Nazi Propaganda Swing During World War II'... quite a catchy title, I'm sure it'll soon storm the charts.

Do you go to gigs? Have any stood out recently?

I haven't been to a gig for a while. The last brilliant gigs I saw were The Pre-New at The Lexington in Islington... and John Maus at The Serpentine... but both of those were last summer. I need some guidance with new music. I need a youthful mentor.

What about movies - are you a film fan?

I'm like either a very old senile person or a very young toddler when it comes to film - that is – I like to watch the same film over and over again; staring blankly at the screen. I go through phases of watching the same film three or four times in a week... the Film4 channel and their shamelessly repetitive programming are a great aid to me in this. I've watched 'Heat' three times in the last ten days. I like to think that I'm secretly plotting a new project that is somehow about 'Heat'... but really, I'm just staring at it.

What else has caught your attention recently – magazines, internet, TV, radio?

I have to confess that I haven't read it yet, but I really like the look of this magazine called P.E.A.R (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research)... I aim to buy some copies very soon. On TV, I'm an avid follower of The Apprentice - I can't wait for Jim to be sent packing. And since a few weeks back - when I was with you and Jamie Hobson at LCC and you both enthused about it - I've become an convert to 'Philosophy Bites' - the podcast that explains concepts that you didn't know you had any interest in - 'Vagueness' for example.

www.scottking.co.uk

July 2011

What art and design has caught your eye recently?

I have become really interested in methods, rather than finished results, and the way analogue has taken over electronic music at the moment. It’s always been there in design, but I am not talking about the playful use of non-computer media, it is a case of trying to find more analogue ways of creating digital imagery because the end result is completely different. This involves looking at things like early video synthesisers or image-makers. There is a parallel with the purity of the sound of an analogue synth. It has depth, and the 'electronic voltage' sound you don’t get in digital music making, and its also true of early image making with computers. They are of course digital, but the difficulty of doing anything on them created some very interesting results.

Your interest in music is well-known – you were even in a band, at one point – what's on the Barnbrook stereogram these days?

Well, I just VJ-ed with a long time favourite of mine John Foxx, he has been working with a musician called Benge, releasing the album Interplay under the name John Foxx and the Maths. In it they use mainly retro analogue electronic equipment. I spent three weeks listening non-stop to the six tracks I was VJ-ing to, so they are constantly inside my head even though the concert has passed! The other people I have been listening to recently for pleasure are Mary Ellen Bute, John Whitney, Hy Hirsh, Harry Smith, Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter... actually they are not musicians but people who have all pushed the boundaries of animation and its relationship with music. I recommend to anybody who is interested in motion graphics to take a look at these people.

In terms of pure music, as you can see from the above collaboration, I have really been following the early development of analogue synths. There is a great podcast called 'The Tone Generation' which is a great introduction. Also of course people like Wendy Carlos and Delia Derbyshire, are fascinating. I think one of my next purchases will be some Ghost Box albums. I absolutely love what they are doing. I would also advise people to listen to BBC Radio 6, there is some fantastically obscure music being played on there.

Seen any good live music recently?

Hmm... yes, although not so 'new'. I saw the reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry. He is 75 and put on a great show, including trying to set the stage alight – literally... he was trying to do it with a cigarette lighter, not quite sure why. I really love reggae. I wish I could be as relaxed in my approach to work. Unfortunately being a typographer and also extremely motivated politically, I cant be so easy going... bah!

What are you reading currently – books, magazines, journals, blogs?

I don’t tend to read magazines, newspapers or blogs, and I don’t have a TV. It might sound as if I haven’t got a clue about what is going on, but a lot of it is just a distraction from some of the fundamental questions of existence we all face in our lives. I also don’t like the way news is weighted always to the negative. You absorb that negative power yet you are usually powerless to do anything about the situation. I really think there should be more positive discussion in the News media about all the good things that people are doing to help each other every day so, all in all, I generally would rather do without it.

Books are central to my life. This form of the expression of the interior dialogue of a human being cannot be bettered. So [Kazuo] Ishiguro has become a favourite read, his novel The Unconsoled is a 500 page long, exhausting, frustrating, brilliant read. Before that I was obsessed by the graphic designer's favourite author JG Ballad. I think I read 10 of his books in a row. He is an incredible writer. He has this great knack of describing a possible future that lies just a few years ahead. He creates a pretty terrible world but it’s not 'fantastic' - in the normal sense of the word. It’s very believable if things go slightly the wrong way in society.

Been to any good exhibitions in the past year?

I love the Susan Hiller exhibition at Tate Britain, in London, especially her later work. She plays with recordings of languages that are no longer spoken; it’s a really melancholic mysterious piece. You sit in a darkened cinema and look at a black screen that shows only the subtitles of what is being said. On one of the screens there is no translation because nobody can now decipher the language being spoken. It’s a very strange moment. You are aware that this culture, with all its energy and ways of thinking, has now gone. The tonal variety of the language is also amazing. Other pieces in the exhibition are fantastic as well. It seems that some artists as they mature, produce work which connects them with some kind of spiritual energy and she definitely has that. I hope it is starting to come through in some of my work too, although I have a long way to go.

I don’t go to design exhibitions that much because they don’t inspire me to be creative. That may sound a bit strange – there are some great designers our there – but the things that influence me most are ideas outside graphic design that can be brought into it.

Any other cultural activities exciting you? I know you are a Luton Town FC supporter... how are they doing?

At this point Luton are possibly getting promoted, but they are very good at mucking things up, so who knows! I do love football for the immediacy and the concrete feeling that you either win or lose. It’s not something you get in art and design where things are so relative. So, for me, the 'absolute' aspect of football is a very different aspect of life to enjoy. I also love the theatrical side, the highs and lows of watching a game, the misery when we lose, the joy when we win (yes, I’m still talking about Luton Town, here.) However, there are a lot of negatives in football, not just the money aspect, but for a lot of people in contemporary society it has become the ‘meaning’ in their lives. There are better things in the world to care about. It should be a bit of light relief from the main things in life, not the sole reason for being (and let’s see if I can be so disconnected if Luton DO muck it up).

The two most interesting 'cultural' events for me (cultural in the sense that they affect every aspect of the way we live) over the past year are the death of Osama Bin Laden, and the furore around Wikileaks. They are both about authenticity and bring in questions of technology, public image and what we project onto people in power. Political impact aside, nobody can imagine what the cultural implications of these events will be, or how they are going to affect the direction of technology that we use every day? How artists are going to take and use the images and data we have been subjected to? It feels like new territory in many ways and both are going to shape the media for the next few years.

www.barnbrook.net

May 2011

What is exciting you currently in the world of graphic design?

I enjoy the fact that graphic designers – students or professionals – are more and more concerned about the creative process of research and ideas, rather than focusing only on forms. I also appreciate the dynamics of collaborative projects. Pluridisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity in projects are increasing. I love the idea of dialogues, exchanges and confrontations – I think that today this is true of a lot of disciplines such as graphic design, literature, architecture, publishing, photography, art, history. Graphic designers are asking questions about their practice and their work. They are taking a new look at themselves, they are reassessing their position, and their role within the society they work in.

You have a strong interest in experimental publishing - what or who has caught your eye recently in this area?

I would say that The Serving Library by David Reinfurt, Stuart Bailey and Angie Keefer, is a reference.

Are you a fan of cinema?

Yes, I am indeed a big consumer of cinema – art films, but also entertainment movies: the purpose is different but I watch both for pleasure.

What are you reading?

I am now reading a book by art historian Erwin Panofsky called Early Netherlandish Painting (1953): fascinating.

What blogs are you looking at currently?

Alain Finkiel Krautrock Blogspot for music.

Seen any good exhibitions lately?

I'm recently back from Madrid so I would say my visit to the Prado permanent collection: Jérôme Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Goya, Diego Vélasquez, Fra Angelico, Raphael... amazing.

www.manystuff.org

May 2011

What is exciting you currently in the world of magazines?

It’s easy to assume everything’s been done, that publishing is a waning industry, but the opposite is true. Every day the post brings me something new and exciting. The internet has encouraged people to express themselves and also made distribution easier.

There's a group of small independents that are reinventing traditional genres of publishing. Ride Journal (cycling), Carl’s Cars (cars), Fantastic Man (men's), Fire & Knives (food) are a few examples. And there's a general crossover between magazines, newspapers and books that is very interesting, with smaller titles wanting to make the most of print techniques to establish their physical presence and collectibility.

At the other end of the industry, Bloomberg Businessweek, art directed in NY by British designer Richard Turley is a highlight. His reinvigoration of the weekly business magazine is an intelligent mix of organised templates and spontaneous illustrative elements. They've published some great front covers recently – simple, strong and defiantly weekly rather than pretending to have the smoother finish of a monthly.

I’m also enjoying seeing how the editorial potential of the iPad is playing out.

You have a strong interest in experimental publishing, are there any particular publishers worth taking a look at?

There are plenty of individual publications out there, but also some interesting companies publishing more than one title. Amsterdam's TOP Publishing produces Fantastic Man and The Gentlewoman, as well as occasional gay mag Butt. Anorak is a beautiful kids magazine that has many spin offs – apps, books, etc – plus a soon-to-come grown up magazine. The Church of London are a unique editorial outfit, producing movie magazine Little White Lies and board culture title Huck.

What music is floating your boat at the moment?

Anything by Boards of Canada is good to write to, but I need more energy for design. I just rediscovered 45:33 by LCD Soundsystem for that. According to iTunes I’ve also listened a lot to Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma and Rome by Dangermouse & Daniele Luppi recently.

What books have you read lately that you would recommend?

Patti Smith’s Just Kids. All of David Mitchell's books, especially Cloud Atlas, though his latest The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was a slow starter but I really enjoyed it in the end. He lives in Japan and the story is based in there during the Dutch colonial era. The History of the World in 100 Objects series on R4 was always a weird thing for radio, so I looked to the book for illustration and deeper explanation. Sadly the book itself will never become one of the 100 objects, seemingly thrown together with little thought of adding anything.

Which blogs are you looking at currently?

A new idea from ex-C4 man Matt Locke. Ben Terrett always has intriguing asides on Noisy Decent Graphics. A new development is magazine designers hosting blogs about work in progress and reference material. Biz Week Graphics and Jo Cochrane

About magazines:
Gym Class magazine (also a great print magazine)
Coverjunkie.com
Magtastic Blogsplosion
Stack magazines

Seen any good exhibitions lately?

 The Wim Crouwel exhibition, not because of its links with Unit but because there aren't enough shows of graphic design in London, and its the best use of the Design Museum space to date. After endless shows where the huge space has been cut into corridors it was great to see it opened up. And I’m looking forward to the Little White Lies show that opens soon at Kemistry Gallery.

I have to add Adam Curtis's three-part BBC TV series All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Brilliant story-telling that avoids the easy pigeonholing of art/science/religion/finance by giving the reins over to a creative thinker and letting him run with his ideas. Computers! Self-determinism! The financial crash! Beautifully made, contentious and thought-provoking.

www.magculture.com

May 2011

What visual art impresses you at the moment?

Let's say I see, or notice, a thousand images in the course of any one day... It would be a fine thing if just one of them grabbed my attention long enough to want to look at it in depth. Which is not to say that there isn't some very good visual work being made – there is just so much of it. Which is most unfair on those who do have something original to say, visually... Such work gets drowned out not only by the non-stop nature of contemporary culture, it is a miracle if the viewer is able to pay attention for more than a nanosecond to something worth contemplating.

You see this clearly whenever you go to an exhibition of masterpieces/paintings/photographs. The visitor flashes past each canvas or C-print in the blink of an eye, so one has to conclude, human beings no longer know how to read images, they only know how to recognise whether or not they are to their taste before moving on to the next one.

But I haven't answered the question. I was pleased that John Stezaker got some recognition, recently, for the collage work he's been doing since the 1970s. And amongst the new generation of 'tumblr' photographers, Lena Scheynius is pretty good, whilst owing a debt to Marianne Muller. And occasionally I'll see some student work which is great, especially if they know what they are doing.  

Any books snagged your attention of late?

I'm an avid reader. To not have a book on the go is like running out of coffee for breakfast, I just have to go to the local shop to restock, immediately. Currently I'm finishing Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle for Britain, which is a collection of oral histories from the Imperial War Museum archive, just amazing... And there for the grace of God go we.

Last week I went to a design conference in Porto, a beautiful city which had very little to do with WW2, and coming back to Gatwick, I felt immediately the smog of complete bullshit which clouds this Glorious Land at the moment. What the hell happened? How did the UK end up in this collective torpor, following the amazing spirit and fortitude of 70 years ago?

The best new book I've read recently is Alan Warner's The Stars in the Bright Sky, which I won't even begin to try and describe. It's very difficult to write anything that one might term 'a state of the nation statement', whether that nation is the UK or Somalia, but Warner does it here, to hilarious and chilling effect. I didn't want it to end, and the way he ends it is genius.

You run the ‘audiovisual publishing company’ Touch which releases lots of interesting music. Are you able to listen to music for purely recreational purposes? If so, what's on the Wozencroft iPod?

Music for pleasure? Well if it wasn't, I'd pack up and retire right now, but I have to say as I get older I choose silence more often than I choose to put on a CD or a record, but I think that's an ecological necessity.

As for iPods, I cannot abide listening to music on the move. I have to listen to it, if I'm going to listen to it, and I'd much rather hear the sounds of the street and the environment as I go about my day. The funny thing is, I eagerly bought the first Walkman that came out – the ‘Stowaway’. This used to have a button you could press that let in external sounds while you were listening on headphones. The subsequent editions abandoned this feature – a great loss to the notion of sonic interaction. Having said that, the Sony WM-D6C Professional Walkman is/was a masterpiece of technology, far more progressive to the cause of music than the bloody iPod, which is a disaster. The Sony Professional was compact enough to smuggle into gigs, and without it we'd never have a record of how great some of the live bands of the 1980s sounded. My penchant was to record New Order in 1982 when they were at the height of their powers.

Today, I'm always on the lookout for something that plays me something I don't already know. I look at Boomkat, visit Rough Trade, Honest Jon’s, etc., always in the hope that I'll be blown away by some new record. It rarely happens... Is it me? So I'm also re-listening to the past with an ear to the present, and wondering if there will ever be such a thing again as the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1973, or Joy Division in February 1980. I still love the sound of music as a key pathway to other worlds; I just find most contemporary stuff, and the modes in which it is delivered, conservative in the extreme. If there’s one new record I’m impressed by it’s the new PJ Harvey recording, “Let England Shake”. This does seem to me to be an extraordinary fusion between commercial accessibility and difficult, often awkward content.

This is my litmus test for what we release on Touch... so my answer is that if our stuff doesn't rock my boat on a recreational level, it's back to the drawing board. I like very much the chemistry we have made between things that are sweet to the ear, and difficult to the brain, so I think of it like the best pop music, and feel that it's a sad thing that distribution systems marginalise us to the 'experimental' side of life. In the best of cultures, all work should be experimental in its own way - there once was a time when it was.

Been to any good exhibitions in the past year?

My two favourites – Miroslaw Balka at the Turbine Hall, and Jannis Kounellis at Ambika P3, both in London.

What is exciting you in the digital realm?

The idea of a revolution that will never happen, or put it this way – the idea of a revolution that ‘could’ happen if only people would stop obsessing that it had to be 'digital'.

I learn a lot by observing what’s possible with programming, and what people do when they experiment with code. However, all this does seem to be embedded with the same trajectory as the internal combustion engine… ie. The vehicle can only become faster, or smoother, more exciting to ride. Or it crashes.

Actually, one should be highly suspicious of ‘revolution’ as an event/horizon. We must first involve ‘re-evolution’ if there’s ever going to be change as such.

www.touchmusic.org.uk

May 2011