The artistic outcome of my PhD project ‘Things That Might Be True’ will showcase the Stemme Department and will exemplify how design can engage an audience. The Stemme Department is the new government department that I invented, and my project’s overarching organisation that materialised through a workshop, publications, installations, and a lecture evening.
In this chapter, I will present my trajectory to the final outcome and the way I processed the findings of my practical experiments, so they could be disseminated to the public. I explain how I improved the Stemme Department’s overarching identity, for the sake of cohesion and to clarify the connection between the various parts of the exhibition. This chapter also describes how I collaborated on the exhibition with others, and where the artistic result of my project will be presented (the Bergen Storsenter shopping centre and the Bergen Public Library).
Please note that I wrote this chapter ahead of the dissemination of my project’s artistic result. I have tried to carefully plan every part of the process, but things can of course still change.
I will present the artistic outcome of my PhD project from 5 to 8 March 2024, at Bergen Storsenter and the Bergen Public Library. I chose these two locations because of the Stemme Department’s role and tasks. As mentioned earlier, the department has three tasks:
(1) providing citizens with tools to explore their inner political voices,
(2) archiving the outcomes of these tools being used, and
(3) offering popular education.
To perform these tasks, the department has to be located somewhere that is open to the public, easily accessible, and inviting to a broad and diverse audience. Bergen Storsenter sees high numbers of visitors every day and is the library’s closest neighbour. Despite these two institutions’ geographic proximity, however, they have very different agendas. While the library carries out a task on behalf of the state, Bergen Storsenter's activities are trade and commerce. Still, both places welcome visitors from a broad spectrum of different ages, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities. Bergen Storsenter also serves as a bus station and meeting place. My project had a similarly broad audience; the only thing I was certain all participants had in common was their interest in exploring their inner political voice. By exhibiting my artistic result at two locations that are close by each other, the exhibition’s audience will be able to find its way to the Stemme Department from two directions—both physically and through the various ideas that will be presented in the exhibition.
Bergen Storsenter and the library are very different in terms of atmosphere, sound, movement, and visitors’ expectations. That is why I chose to disseminate the results of some sub-projects at one location, and other results at the other. At the library, I will use the main hall as an exhibition room for the Stemme Department's activities. In a side room off the main hall, I will organise a lecture evening. At Bergen Storsenter, I will exhibit my results right next to the main entrance. This space is relatively small, but open all the way up to the inner glass ceiling three floors up.
The Stemme Department will tie the entire exhibition together. The latter is a manifestation of the former, as it were, with Bergen Storsenter and the library a stage for the department to carry out its activities. The department’s visual identity will be clearly visible in the exhibition, from the project’s publications to the uniforms of the department’s employees (striped coats, shoes, and socks, plus black trousers and a white t-shirt).
I decided to use the Söhne typeface rather than Neue Haas Grotesk28as the department’s official typeface. The latter was designed by Max Miedinger and released in 1957 by Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Müller 2007, 33). The well-known typeface Helvetica is based on Neue Haas Grotesk, which itself was based on the Akzidenz Grotesk from the 1890s (Müller 2007, 23).
In 2019, Klim Type Foundry released an updated version of Akzidenz Grotesk called Söhne, designed by Kris Sowersby.28 The new version is a real workhorse: it is functional, robust, and flexible, and exudes confidence and clarity. A perfect fit for the Stemme Department, in other words.
I will organise a second round of the Inner Political Landscapes workshop at Bergen Storsenter, to give members of the public an opportunity to explore their inner political voice. The workshop primarily fulfils the first and second tasks of the Stemme Department: using collage and text as tools (1) for political introspection, and (2) archiving the outcomes of that process.
The new workshop largely follows the same procedure as the one in 2021 (see Chapter 4.4), with some changes. During the first workshop, participants got pre-made materials to create a collage. If they wanted to, they could write down their thoughts on the back of their collage. This time, there will be even more collage materials, so can create more diverse collages. Just like during the first workshop, an employee of the Stemme Department will go through an informational letter about the study with each participant. The participant will then be asked to sign a consent form. This time, I will use updated/improved versions of the informational letter and consent form.
To effectively convey the Stemme Department's activities and the exhibition’s context and components to the audience, I developed a manuscript during a workshop with my assistants Hedda Halvorsen and Linda Løvheim. I want to truly clarify the essence of the Stemme Department's work, the content of the Inner Political Landscapes workshop, and the things participants can get out of it. Halvorsen and Løvheim will serve as informants and facilitators during the workshop at the shopping centre, to make it a comprehensive and enriching experience for everyone involved. They will also part of the design as rhetorical users.
The exhibition area at Bergen Storsenter is narrow but tall—and the Stemme Department will take whatever space it is given. To make the most of the space and create the environment that the Inner Political Landscapes workshop requires, an installation was built. It is about 6 metres tall, with a 2.4 x 2.4 metre base.
The political confessional will contain the outcomes of the Political Confession workshop I conducted in November 2023 (see Chapter 4.5). The confessional will be exhibited at the library, to stimulate political engagement in citizens. It will feature the ten texts that were produced after the workshop (a direct link to the original participants), to spark political introspection. The booth’s texts were published by the Stemme Department and have their own ISBN number. They were first written in Swedish by psychologist Maria Pohl and then translated into Norwegian by myself and Mads Andersen and into English by Eva Corijn. In the exhibition, visitors will be able to sit in the booth to read the confessions, and take a copy with them if they like. The texts have been printed on loose sheets, folded and put into an envelope. The booth embodies the first and second tasks of the Stemme Department: creating tools (1) and archiving the outcomes of the use of these tools (2 – the printed texts/publication/installation).
I made some minor changes to the political confessional to prepare it for the upcoming exhibition. The wooden panels that previously served as a small table for the psychologist/confessor have been replaced with compartments, to display the ten texts. The design of these compartments is based on the design of Norway’s official voting booth, with some modifications.
The Voices publication will be displayed in the exhibition. It was printed at the Knust risograph printing studio in Nijmegen, Netherlands, which is run by Joyce Guley and Jan Dirk de Wilde. They are true craftspeople, who executed the printing and colour separations with great precision. I opted for Knust because I had faith the team would deliver a publication of the highest quality, and I wanted the participants’ contributions to be treated with the greatest care. I personally participated in the printing process at Knust, but only considered myself an assistant. I did use my skills as a graphic designer: making decisions about the publication’s paper, format, binding technique, and wrapping. Seventy copies of Voices were printed in early February 2024.
The final publication not only features the 28 contributions, but also one additional commissioned work. David Vogt, a postdoctoral fellow in Philosophy at the University of Bergen and commentator at local newspaper Bergen Tidende,29 wrote an introduction to Voices. His text is a contribution in and of itself, as it ties the publication together and situates it within a broader societal context. In appendix 9 you will find an English translation of the texts published in the Voices publication.
On Thursday 7 March, during the exhibition period, a series of talks will be held at the Bergen Public Library. Lecturers will include Azza Rajhi (Tunisia/France) and Benjamin Hickethier (Germany/Norway). Both practicing designers, they will introduce their practices to the public. Professor of Graphic Design Johanna Lewengaard (Sweden/Norway) will moderate the event. Everyone who participated in the ‘Things That Might Be True’ PhD project will be personally invited to the lecture evening, but the event will also be open to the general public. The evening is linked to the Stemme Department’s third task of creating public information (3) and will demonstrate how the department brings people together through public lectures. Arranging the event at the library felt fitting: my PhD project began at the library and will conclude there.
As I will present my artistic outcome, I will be playing various roles. Tharp and Tharp have listed the many roles that designers can perform in discursive projects like this:
Frequently, in addition to acting as playwright, set designer, prop maker, wardrobe designer, lighting designer, director, theater manager, usher, playbill copywriter and designer, concessions provider, and custodian, the discursive designer also acts as promoter and event organizer. She logistically needs to get the show in front of an audience of real people (2018, 189).
I can only agree with Tharp and Tharp: the above list matches my current reality. At the same time, I have to ensure everything is in place, securely fastened, and that everything functions at all times, but also make sure that the project is clearly communicated to an audience and that the project is communicated to all other involved parties.
Naturally, however, arranging an exhibition and major presentation is hard without collaborating with others. Tore Andersen, Catharina Rundberg, and employees of Bergen Storsenter and the Bergen Public Library have all been assisting me.
The installation at Bergen Storsenter is basically a scaffolding structure, adorned with cardboard tubes covered in striped fabric. The structure was made by scaffolding expert Tore Andersen. Together, we discussed countless sketches, with me presenting ideas that Andersen then turned into a feasible structure. Together, we also conducted on-site inspections. All fabrics for the workshop were sewn by Catharina Rundberg, who translated my ideas and designs into functional forms, based on sketches I drew and conversations we had. Both Bergen Storsenter and the Bergen Public Library have been very interested in and supportive of my project. My contact persons have been Odd Rune Bjørge (Director of Bergen Storsenter) and Charlotte Myrbråten (Event Coordinator at the library).
Lastly, I am planning a release party to coincide with the opening of the exhibition, to celebrate the publication of Voices and the release of the political confession texts. All those who participated in any of my sub-projects will be invited: the party will be an opportunity to thank everyone and show them the appreciation they truly deserve. Members of the public will be welcome too: they will play an equally important role in the Stemme Department.
In this chapter, I presented the final part of my project ‘Things That Might Be True’ and explained how the Stemme Department will soon meet its new audience. The last step of the process is currently taking place. What began as a question has materialised into a situation through props and sceno-graphy, re-encountering participants who answered that very first question. Their responses have been meticulously reimagined and will soon encounter a fresh audience. Perhaps this new audience will engage in political introspection. Perhaps I myself will delve deeper into new inquiries. My personal design process has become clearer through iterations, the development of workshops, and through meetings and conversations with participants, supervisors, colleagues, literature, objects, and conversations with my studio wall.
I listed everyone I collaborated with at this final stage to clarify my own role as a designer. I also provided an overview of the places where I will disseminate my results. My choice of venues may be somewhat unexpected; usually, artistic results are presented in more traditional exhibition spaces. But the locations I picked strengthen my project's multifaceted role: to propose new paths for citizens to encounter politics; to contribute to our understanding of how publics and communities are constructed to reflect on and engage in dialogue about the political self through design; and to explore the wonderland down the rabbit hole of political design, that is: political, political design.