After Neurath symposium: Day 1

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Date: 31 October 2006, 10:00 - 17:00 hrs

The first major event of the ‘After Neurath’ series is a public symposium discussing the history and contemporary relevance of the work of Otto Neurath.

Speakers on 31 October are: Frank Hartmann, Robin Kinross, Kristóf Nyíri, and Femke Snelting.

Programme overview

10:00 hrs
Arrival and introduction

11:00 hrs
Frank Hartmann – "The quest for an 'inclusive form of the icon' – analogue to digital visualisation"

12:00 hrs
Kristóf Nyíri – "The Isotype and its Precursors"

1:00 hrs
Lunch break

2:00 hrs
Robin Kinross – "Isotype work as design work"

3:00 hrs
Femke Snelting – "Corset / Skin / Skeleton"

4:00 hrs
Questions and discussion

Afterwards, there will be a dinner/buffet in the presence of the speakers.

More information about the speakers:

Frank Hartmann’s lecture is titled "The quest for an ‘inclusive form of the icon’ – analogue to digital visualization."
Frank Hartmann studied art history, sociology, journalism, and philosophy at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he earned his PhD in philosophy and completed a postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) in communication and media theory. He currently teaches media philosophy and multimedia journalism at the University of Vienna. In addition, he is active as a media consultant and writer, and is the author of several books on media philosophy.

Robin Kinross’s lecture is titled "Isotype work as design work."
Robin Kinross is an editor and writer. After studying at the Department of Typography, University of Reading, he wrote a dissertation on Otto Neurath and Isotype (1979). This led, among other things, to a collaboration with Rudolf Haller for an edition of Neurath's Gesammelte bildpädagogische Schriften (1991). In 1980, he founded the publishing house Hyphen Press, starting with a new edition of Norman Potter’s What is a Designer. Today, Hyphen Press publishes books on typography and design, including works by Fred Smeijers, Christopher Burke, Harry Carter, Gerrit Noordzij, Karel Martens, and Jost Hochuli. His own books include Modern Typography (1992, 2004), Anthony Froshaug (2000), and Unjustified Texts (2002).
www.hyphenpress.co.uk

Femke Snelting’s lecture is titled "Corset / Skin / Skeleton."
She will discuss the ways in which data, images, and software merge, and what this might mean for the design of information.
Femke Snelting is a graphic designer and artist working primarily on the internet. Together with the Brussels-based arts and media organization Constant, she develops projects at the intersection of feminism and free and open source software. Alongside Renee Turner and Riek Sijbring, she is part of De Geuzen (a foundation for multi-visual research). De Geuzen uses a variety of strategies, both online and offline, to explore female identity, critical resistance, representation, and narrative archiving.
www.geuzen.org

Kristóf Nyíri is Professor of Philosophy at the Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Nyíri will pay special attention to the organizational systems that preceded Isotype and greatly influenced Neurath’s work—such as the encyclopedic projects initiated during the Enlightenment, which aimed to organize knowledge scientifically through both words and images. We will see that such systems not only made a strong impression on Neurath but also continue to shape the way we read and understand information and knowledge systems today.