September 19, 2024
Digital Witness: Algorithmic Spaces for Typography and Language
Exhibition dates: November 14, 2024 through April 27, 2025
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 13, 5–8 p.m.
On view at HMCT Gallery. Admission is free and open to the public.
What does it mean to create when the relationship between humans and algorithms is constantly shifting?
The commercialization and distribution of personal computers and software beginning in the 1970s, paved the way for the significant advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence the world is currently experiencing. These algorithmic technologies have rapidly transformed the possibilities of typography, visual communication, and culture, both aesthetically and systematically.
An algorithm is a sequence of instructions or parameters that automate a process to create a generative system. Digital Witness: Algorithmic Spaces for Typography and Language is an exhibition that explores how collaborating with computers through algorithmic thinking and computational processes are influencing typography and language. The work featured in the exhibition highlights how creativity has evolved into a dialogue between humans and machines.
In conjunction with Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s concurrent exhibition, Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film, which examines the broader influence of image manipulation tools, this satellite section at the HMCT Gallery focuses on typographical generative processes. It is a space where the artists’ input and interaction with their tools of choice are as integral and unique as the visual output.
The exhibition features the work of Vera Van de Seyp, Martín Azambuja, Andrea Trabucco-Campos, Allison Parrish, Michael Schmitz, and Anne-Dauphine Borione (aka Daytona Mess).
Michael Schmitz’s genoTyp is a program developed 20 years ago that allows the computer to “breed” typefaces through a process that mimics biological genetic rules. Allison Parrish’s work utilizes machine learning to create computational poetry, addressing “the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet.” Vera Van de Seyp explores generative design tools, computational typography, and artificial intelligence to speculate where these might lead graphic designers and typographers. Artificial Typography by Andrea Trabucco-Campos and Martín Azambuja responds to the rapid integration of AI into mainstream culture via the introduction of AI engine Midjourney in 2023, exploring letterforms as if created by iconic modernist and classical artists. Anne-Dauphine Borione’s variable type experiments, created in the font design software Glyphs, incorporate code solutions from ChatGPT to realize complex yet precise ideas that shift in and out of legibility.
Digital Witness: Algorithmic Spaces for Typography and Language is presented in conjunction with Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film, on view at LACMA from November 24, 2024, through July 13, 2025.
Presented in connection with
This exhibition is organized by the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT) and made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Milken Family Foundation and ArtCenter College of Design.
Participating artists
Vera Van de Seyp
Martín Azambuja
Andrea Trabucco-Campos
Allison Parrish
Michael Schmitz
Anne-Dauphine Borione (aka Daytona Mess)
Location
HMCT Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design, South Campus
950 S. Raymond Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91105
Free parking is available at parking lot in front of building (Raymond and Glenarm)
HMCT Gallery Hours
Open daily 8 a.m.–10 p.m.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Website: hmctartcenter.org
Social media: @hmctartcenter
Email: hmct@artcenter.edu
About HMCT Gallery
The HMCT Gallery explores themes related to typography, graphic design, and language. Through its exhibitions, the gallery examines the evolution of typographic practices and how language shapes design and culture. As one of the cornerstones of the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography, the Gallery serves as an educational resource, providing a platform for professionals and students to engage with the principles shaping contemporary graphic design.
About Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT)
HMCT at ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 2015 in memory of Professor Leah Hoffmitz Milken, a renowned typographer, letterform designer, and esteemed faculty member at ArtCenter. HMCT is dedicated to every aspect of the typographic field. Created as a home and catalyst for the enhanced study of typography and letterform design, the Center serves as an educational forum, design laboratory, research center, and archive. As a meeting place for learning, discussion, and the exchange of ideas and skills, the HMCT presents workshops, special classes, symposia, lectures, exhibitions, and residency programs.
About ArtCenter
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
Contacts
Lavinia Lascaris
Associate Director, Design and Programming
Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT)
lavinia.lascaris@artcenter.edu
Ximena Amaya
Exhibition and Graphic Designer
Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT)
ximena.amaya@artcenter.edu
