Libertaire Imaginaries

01 June 2023

publication

Libertaire Imaginaries is a set of two publications on the question of anarchist design. They are part of a project for my Master's thesis. The research is attempting to lay out the groundwork for the following questions:

How can we activate new emancipating libertaire imaginaries through graphic design?
How can we shape the anarchist/ic image in a way that eludes institutional appropriation?
How can we help prefigurative structures and experiments through visual communication?

The publications

Both pieces were created for and during the Design et Politique du Multiple Master course at Erg Brussels. The first compiles different striking visual elements I took out from several anarchist periodicals. It attemps to show the visual heritage of the movement, as well as highlight the need to focus on the image created through repetitive vocabulary. It's binded by printing on a set of A3 papers which are folded in 4 horizontally and put together like an accordion, or a detached leporello. The paper is thick, heavy and creamy, to allow spreading the pages on a flat surface more easily and highlight the historical aspect of the project. The no-glue no-stitch approach is made so that anyone can download the PDF and print it themselves and assemble a book that could be shown at an infokiosk as well as hold value as a nice object to keep.

The second is a booklet with three texts on the subject of my research written by Josh MacPhee, Jeffrey Swartz, and Jared Davidson. The text is not redacted, so as to allow the reader to see it in its integrity, but some sentences are highlighted by me during my reading. This allows the reader to be pulled in the material more easily, and to put forward my situated opinion through these texts, all the while without creating repetition or removing content. I also added a foreword to the publication, putting the questions that arose when I read these pieces center-stage.

Both books are created for not-for-profit and educational only purposes, and will be distributed freely as PDFs on this site (I'm still working on that portion.)