An Unidentified Graphic Object Ponders Academic Experimentation
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Covers of the graphic object: experimentation as norm |
The IEA launches this month a truly unique publication, not identifiable with any of the printed material usually put out by academic institutions. The publication does not and will not have a name, and its forthcoming “editions” – if one may call future reemergences of the initiative by this name – will not follow any regular editorial schedule or obey a definite rigid content profile found in most publications.
The unique character of this publication ranks it among the many other elements that are part the ongoing effort of the Institute to disseminate ideas and discussions of the activities of its groups and scholars. In this sense, the editorial flagship of the IEA is the quarterly journal “Estudos Avançados,” launched in 1987 and currently in the 81st edition, now with both print and digital (SciELO) versions, followed over time by print and digital editions of books, notebooks and other informative media.
The graphic object now being launched also heralds a unique treatment for contents originally published in the Institute’s website (www.iea.usp.br), establishing a two-way street where the digital and the non-digital may interact and complement each other.
The core content of this first “edition” are accounts of the main debates and conferences held in 2013 by the Institute, as well as interviews with visiting professors. The highlight, including from the graphic point of view, are texts with the ideas of the speakers who participated in the two meetings that discussed the nature and consequences of the events of June 2013, when the streets of major Brazilian cities were flooded with protesters. It should be noted that the IEA hosted the first public debate among intellectuals of such events, on June 21, just four days after the big demonstration that overtook the Largo da Batata, in São Paulo.
As an innovative publishing proposal, the prospectus/brochure could not but attempt to reflect, in some way and without aspiring to originality, Mayakovski’s maxim: “Without revolutionary form there is no revolutionary art.” One could also say that Gisela Mota and Joana Figueiredo, responsible for the graphic project, were guided by an intrinsic norm of graphic design (albeit one that is often transgressed by insecure people or by those who are conditioned by the commercial standards of the trade), namely, that the only rule is that there are no rules.
This novel publication seeks to reflect the spirit of the IEA as a singular academic institution, dedicated to questioning both the choice of subjects and the ideas, methods and conclusions of scientific, humanistic, cultural and artistic debates propagated in the traditional academic milieu.
It is not known when the IEA’S next graphic object will be “published,” but it will certainly be different, both in content and in format, from the one now being launched. After all, pre-conditioned experimentation is not experimentation, but merely innovative mannerism.
More information on the publication can be requested at the address ieacomunica@usp.br.