Fillip

E.S.P.: Visible Language Workshop
May 23rd, 2019

RSVP here!

Fillip and Cineworks are pleased to announce the second screening in E.S.P., an ongoing film series looking at the relationship between film and speculative modes of visuality.

Join us Thursday, May 23 at 8pm at the Reliance Theatre, Emily Carr University of Art + Design (520 E 1st Ave), for a free screening of films produced out of MIT’s Visible Language Workshop. The night will be prefaced by a screening of pioneering Canadian media artist Elizabeth Vander Zaag’s film “Through the Holes” (1981) and conclude with a moderated Q & A with Vander Zaag and New York-based designer David Reinfurt.

Led by visionary director Muriel Cooper and embedded in the rich technological environment of MIT, the Visible Language Workshop (1973–94) was developed from an MIT course called “Messages and Means” that took a varied approach to design—particularly examining interactive design alongside photography, typesetting, platemaking, among other forms.

Recognized in computer and graphic design circles as one of the greatest designers of the 20th century, Cooper’s work within the VLW responded to a context in which an increasingly networked world required a reconfiguration of existing modes of visual representation. As Cooper explained, “the shift from a mechanical to an information society demands new communication processes, new visual and verbal languages, and new relationships of education, practice, and production.”

These films by the Visible Language Workshop and Elizabeth Vander Zaag evidence the new forms of visuality that emerged in the later 20th century through bold experimentation with graphic design, computer systems, and data imaging.

Entrance to this screening is free. An RSVP is requested but not required. Co-presented with Cineworks. Organized in collaboration with the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media.

E.S.P.: Visible Language Workshop is organized in conjunction A New Program for Graphic Design, a six-hour lecture performance by artist David Reinfurt on May 25 at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, presented by Fillip in collaboration with the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media.

Please note that the Emily Carr campus is fully accessible with gender neutral washrooms. Please contact us with venue accessibility inquires.

Films from the Visible Language Workshop appear courtesy of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies Special Collection, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT). “Through the Holes” appears courtesy of Video Out / VIVO Media Arts Centre.

Film Program

• Through the Holes
• Directed by Elizabeth Vander Zaag
• 1981 / DCP / 4 Min

• Spatial Data Management Systems
• Directed by William Donelson
• 1980 / DCP / 11 Min

• Research Topics in the Visible Language Workshop
• 1986 / DCP / 20 Min

• Muriel Cooper: TED 5 Talk
• 1994 / DCP / 33 Min

• Information Landscapes
• 1994 / DCP / 8 Min

About the Filmmakers
& Presenters

Muriel Cooper (1925–94) was a pioneering book designer, digital designer, researcher, and educator. She was the founding art director of the MIT Press and eventually oversaw the production of more than 500 books produced by the Press. Concentrating on the relationship between graphics and technology, she founded MIT’s Visible Language Workshop in 1973.

Elizabeth Vander Zaag has been working in video and computer arts since the 1970s. Based in Vancouver, Vander Zaag founded and coordinated Front Multimedia (1993–99) and has lectured and given many workshops across Canada and the United States since the 1980s. Vander Zaag’s fascination with technology, special effects and digital layering stem from her experience with cable television.

David Reinfurt is an independent graphic designer and writer based in New York City.

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