Space for Visual Research, Volume 2

The Space for Visual Research (SfVR) is a platform for experimental image production. Established as an extracurricular laboratory by Markus Weisbeck at the Bauhaus University Weimar back in 2013, it encourages graphic designers to explore alternative modes of making and expand their creative repertoire. 

Published by Spector Books, the research lab’s eponymous logbook Space for Visual Research is now about to be launched in its second edition. An extended version of its predecessor, it combines a new selection of science-inspired visual experiments with a comprehensive series of conversations, essays, and artist contributions. 

Connected by the common objective to open up new vistas in contemporary image making, creative practitioners such as Dirk Fleischmann, Amos Fricke, Ken Hollings, Casey Reas, Cybu Richli, and Martin Venezky provide insight into related perspectives in the educational, professional and broader socio-philosophical context.

Release dates
Berlin: Wednesday, November 8, 8:30pm at Pro qm, Almstadtstraße 48–50, Berlin

Tehran: 12th Homage to Morteza Momayez feat. a presentation of works of and a lecture by Markus Weisbeck & the SfVR, November 24–December 1, 2017 at Iranian Artists Forum, North Mousavi St., Taleqani Ave, Tehran

Editors-in-chief: Markus Weisbeck,
Anna Sinofzik, Adrian Palko
Graphic Design: Enno Pötschke

With contributions by: Christoph Blankenburg, Florian Bräunlich, Dirk Fleischmann, Matthias Dörfelt, Julieta Gil, Sophia Gräfe, Ken Hollings, Katharina Hüttler, Verena Kalser, Franzi Kohlhoff, Sascha Krischock, Philotheus Nisch, Michael Ott, Elisabeth Pichler, Casey Reas, Cybu Richli, Johannes Rinkenburger, Max Salzborn, Anna Sinofzik, Samuel Solazzo, Karl Schawelka, Mathias Schmitt, Anna Teuber, Jakob Treß, Martin Venezky, Moritz Wehrmann, Robin Weißenborn, Markus Weisbeck, and David Wicks.

Language: English
Format: hardcover, 248 pages, 22.5 cm × 32.0 cm
Edition: 1250

Publisher: Spector Books
www.spectorbooks.com
ISBN: 978-3-95905-168-2

© 2017
Bauhaus University Weimar
Faculty of Art and Design
Visual Communication
Supported by BTD Bauhaus Transferzentrum Design

Fresh from the press, Space for Visual Research Vol. 2 presents itself as a richly illustrated reference work for free-thinking creatives. Focusing on graphic compositions created beyond the restrictions of commercial application, the publication compiles a series of autonomous projects that explore design outside echo chambers and stifling blogospheres. Accompanied by detailed lab protocols, all featured experiments provide potential starting points for interpretation and further research. 

In the opening dialogue, SfVR founder Markus Weisbeck (Bauhaus University Weimar) discusses the role of visual research in contemporary design education with Martin Venezky (California College of the Arts, San Francisco), Cybu Richli (Zurich University of the Arts), and Casey Reas (University of California, Los Angeles). Despite different professional backgrounds, skill sets, methods, and motivations, the four educators are closely connected by the common ambition to open up new ways to think and make things. 

Illustrated excursions give glimpses into Martin Venezky’s Form Studio, a foundation course for graphic investigation established at CCA in the '90s, Cybu Richli’s Method: From Experiment to Application, a teaching technique that cultivates an experimental take on info graphics at the Zurich University of the Arts, and Casey Reas’ fruitful efforts to promote the creative potential of software amongst art and design students at UCLA. A visual contribution by Amos Fricke provides insight in the photographer’s subjective take on image production. A conceptual picture series by Dirk Fleischmann exemplifies the artists’ research-heavy approach.

As part of a diverse series of essays, media and culture scholar Sophia Gräfe investigates protocol as an essential element of each experimental procedure. Art historian Karl Schawelka traces the inspirational power of abstract form all the way from Leonardo’s stained walls to modern art and cognitive mechanisms of pattern recognition. London-based writer and broadcaster Ken Hollings examines how the cosmos fits into our worldly frame of reference and, providing a loose string of observations poised between philosophy and media archeology, reminds the visual researcher of valuable aspects that are all too easily missed.

Inspired by the SfVR’s readiness to tap foreign fields, culture editor Anna Sinofzik ventures out into the unknown, pointing towards the missing link between ALF, Blixa Bargeld, and the Bauhaus, as well as the potential upsides of the world’s downfall.