Artists' book.
The
Speed-i-Jet, a mobile pen-printer manufactured by
Reiner (Germany), is a device built around an industrial inkjet cartridge / printing head. With its clumsy user interface and 30 character maximum capacity, this charming parasitical product prompted the discussion of possible uses for such a device. Together with the curatorial staff of the institution, daily news headlines were selected and transferred onto the devices. Holding and moving the device like a pen, visitors could experience the writing of texts to which the author is ambiguous.
The headlines were collected during
Things to Say at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, 2009.
Jürg Lehni (born 1978 in Lucerne, lives and works in London)
is an independent
designer, developer and artist. His self-initiated work originates from reflections about tools, the computer and the way we work with and adapt to technology.
Over the past years he worked on a family of projects that are all linked through these topics. Most of these projects were collaborations with people from other backgrounds (Graphic designers, artists, typgoraphers and engineers).
Alex Rich (born 1977 in Caerphilly, lives and works in London) approaches
design from a multi-disciplinary perspective. As a member of the jury that judged
Jürg Lehni's
ECAL degree show in 2002, and seeing one of Lehni's drawing machines at work, Rich—a deft observer of accidental meaning—opened a discussion with the designer about the machine's historical and cultural context. Alex Rich viewed the work as, “the translation of imagery from mind to machine to wall," and suggested assembling, for an exhibition, compilations with similar writing and drawing machines.
