Joe Gilmore—a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer working in the fields of computer music, video and algorithmic art—is founder of Qubik, a type-focused design studio in London. As part of their Open Field residency, ROLU asked Joe Gilmore to make a risograph print to commemorate the Attention as Place contributors, available to visitors while supplies last. Read a little bit about it below:

How did you come to know ROLU?

As far as I remember I first met Matt from ROLU through my image blog  Void(). ROLU’s blog is one of the blogs I check every day and I think there is a mutual admiration between us  and also there’s a lot of similarity in our interests (performance and  conceptual art of the 70s, design, architecture etc.). I am constantly  discovering artists and their works through ROLU’s blog, it’s a constant source of inspiration for me.

Matt and I have been exchanging emails for a while (we’ve never met in person), quite a few were about synchronicity between our blogs, things we discovered and posted around the same time. And also about other connections such as people we knew or had worked with, such as Mary Manning and Tauba Auerbach.

My print for Open Field is a typographic response to ROLU’s residency.

How do you understand their relationship between their work, their blog, and their collaborators?

I think each informs the other. I think the relationship between their work, blog and collaborators encapsulates in a really thoughtful way the idea that as creatives we are part of a huge tradition which stretches not only far back in time but across spatial boundaries in the world in present time. We are not only the work we produce but the things we look at and listen to and absorb. I think their work is a celebration of that.

Tell me about the print.

The name ‘ROLU’ is set in Walt, one of the four styles of Lÿno, a new typeface by Radim Peško and Karl Nawrot. I was drawn to the playful geometric topologies suggested by the letterforms. Also, I liked the idea that one could mix-up the activities, so making as thinking; attention as place; and participation as performance could just as well be:

making                      place
attention                  performance
participation           thinking

or:

thinking                   attention
place                        participation
performance         making

Joseph Beuys once made the point that “thinking is form” and I think this relates to what ROLU are doing in this residency. He also could have said “form is thinking” of course.

As Part of ROLU‘s  two week Open Field residency  they produced/distributed this reader to add to the larger “collage” they (and the public) are working on. Alex DeArmond, the designer describes it as “a companion to the residency project – writings that either inspire or react to what they’re doing. Plus interviews with them where they talk about their work. Plus some quotes. And some images of the works they are addressing.  That’s all. Nothin fancy.” To fit as much information as possible, the main reader was offset printed on cheap newsprint while the supplement was printed on my Risograph stencil printer I keep in my bedroom over one scorching evening. I am really surpised how well the interplay of the colors between the two are working.

The bulk of the reader contains a series of interviews both of the artists and of people they admire. Matt Olson of ROLU has this to say about interviews:

“first of all, i love interviews.  they are, for me, the best way to learn.  i don’t like writing that is refined, academic or focused in the way that writing usually tends to become.  it’s too clear and specific which, for me is just not possible… everything is blurry and changing all the time in my world. the vernacular people use when they talk seems more painterly and there’s room for mistakes and misinterpretations and thus growth.  every time i explain to someone what we’re doing it’s always different but, it’s always true too.  i think throwing fragments together in a way that feels right at a given moment is, in a sense, more accurately reflective of our state of mind and work than a really linear or clear writing about it could be… the fact that who we associate with often says as much about who we are as we ever could… so we trust that whoever we’re interested in will be a part of the story in an accurate way. i am a huge collector of quotes.  i feel like that is what i am made of.  fragments of other people that i have incorporated in to my own version of reality. eventually i think of them as my own ideas but, they really aren’t.  the quotes from other people being the same for them… fragments of other people’s ideas that they have absorbed.  it seems like we are becoming each other and this approach feels like a way of expressing that… make sense?”

Stop by Walker Open Field to make, learn, help ROLU, and be sure to snag a copy of the reader. It is beautiful, insightful and free!

The ROLU residency at this year’s Open Field involves in a number of collaborations, many which feature artist/designer editions: publications, wearables, objects, and furniture.

Artist/designer Peter Nencini, formerly profiled and interviewed here, has been engaged in a year-long collaboration with ROLU, the first result being a series of embroidered totes for Dream Shop on Rhiannon Silver’s Intelligent Clashing. In Rhiannon’s words, the shop is a “snap-shot of a current community of artists/makers/designers who operate and communicate online.” The Nencini collaboration will culminate in a collection of interactive stitched fabric chair covers. ROLU’s Matt Olson explains, “we’ve both been interested in Franz Erhard Walther’s use of fabric as a catalyst for an action…Peter has also been working on a series of films about the misuse of our chairs.”

Nencini writes, “I’m using readymade bags in 12oz cotton canvas available colours. Down the line, the intention is to design and make the structure from scratch but I do also like exponentially adding worth through handwerk, to such a staple. A significant step is to have pre-punctured stitch holes so that I—as a stitch novice—could do it. It also bonds the project with the boxes and other pieces which owe a good deal to Friedrich Froebel’s ‘Gifts and Occupations‘ lineage through to the Bauhaus’ preliminary exercises…

Above:

1) Froebel’s Gifts of Kindergarten No. 7 (paper parquetry)  2) Franz Erhard Walther

Above: Nencini’s stitch schematics. Stunning.

In order to create the giant tapestry that was the centerpiece of Goshka Macuga: It Broke from Within, the artist, curator Bart Ryan, and I (staff photographer Cameron Wittig) headed up north to the Lost 40 to shoot the forest scene. Being an avid traveler of the state, I was excited and perplexed to learn of this mysterious new locale. Imagine – information about my own backyard found a circuitous way to me via a London-based, Polish-born,  contemporary artist-in-residence at the Walker. After getting to know Goshka on this trip, I quickly realized it was a testament to her depth of vision and ability to investigate the surroundings of a scene. It is this skill that contributed to her earning a nomination for the Turner Prize.

The little known story of the Lost 40 is one of those all-too-good-to-be-true mishaps, complete with characters named Josiah trudging through marshy forests with floppy hats and suspenders. Who knows what really went down out there on that day in 1882. Perhaps they ran short of tobacco and decided to get back to Grand Rapids early. X-ing out 40 acres in a few seconds enabled them to cut a few hours off the work day in a pencil stroke. maybe there were inter-personal disagreements among the surveyors. Maybe they were just not very good at their job.

Whatever the reason, luckily we still have the trees. It gave us an opportunity to get away from the studio and into the north woods.

Dinner at the Eagle Nest Lodge, Deer River MN

It was hunting season so our registrar Joe King was absolutely emphatic that we had to wear bright orange caps while we were out in the woods shooting. Goshka took it a step further by going orange head to toe.

KISS jumpsuit!

Here is the composited photo that was used for the tapestry:

It was comprised of 6-7 shots taken with a Leaf Aptus II 7 (33 megapixel per capture) on a Hasselbald ELD with a 65mm lens. And stitched together using the photomerge function in Photoshop.

And here is the completed tapestry installed in the Burnet gallery:

Click here to read more about the creation of the tapestry.

Click here to read more about the project and related publication.