THE COMMUNITY PRESS
The work The Community Press investigates the role of graphic design, public communication and written language in relation to urgent political and environmental challenges. I do this by placing the project in a speculative scenario where I let self-made primitive graphic tools visualize and mediate the story. The DIY printing press is designed and built with easily accessible materials like birch wood and scrap metal, and the custom designed typeface is made in 12 cicero end grain hard maple wood. The result is the concept of a ”community press” where the format is a hybrid of an installation of a working printing workshop, a printing performance and a participatory workshop.
Visitors are encouraged to contribute with texts in a form of co-speculation, that are later typeset, printed and hung during the exhibition. The work addresses everyday life and communication in speculative low-tech societies, without access to electricity or modern technology. How would society change? What would need to be communicated, to whom and where, what would it say and what might it look like? It also raises questions about the likelihood that we would need to experience such a thing in our lifetime, and highlights the fact that similar conditions already exist to some extent in other parts of the world.
The Community Press has been awarded Gurmund & Neuberghs Scholarship for Artistic Education, STA100 for Typographic Excellence and Young Swedish Design 2024.