Ways of Writing is an artistic research project that looks into how designerly approaches might be used to explore and reflect upon the interconnections between language, writing and new digital technologies. The project is situated within the field of graphic design, but seeks to experiment with tools, methods and frameworks from other fields, such as interaction design, creative code, linguistics, machine learning and natural language processing.
As a point of departure, the project investigates different experimental gestures of writing through hands on explorations with machine learning algorithms. Using a set of design experiments as a framework, the project reflects upon several different themes. How might we approach highly technical and complex technologies through alternative perspectives and approaches? How might frameworks and methods within design help us reflect upon new digital tools for language and writing?
Eirunn Kvalnes is an Oslo based designer and a PhD research fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, at the department of Design. Her practice unfolds in the intersection between visual and digital design. She studied design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Aalto University in Helsinki. Working across different formats and media, and moving in between the analogue and digital, her work celebrates exploration and curiousity, rooted in an interest in language, materiality, writing, new digital technologies and typography.
In the presentation for ARF 2024, I will outline the theme, background and central ideas to the project. I will present the key aspects that the project engages with by showing the initial experiments and methods that the research has explored, and articulate some ideas for how I plan to move along with the project the coming months.