The Information Epic

Really interesting longread here on the work of Alexander Kluge, who I haven’t heard of before – an “information epic” –

These chapters are further divided into titled sections and subsections, the latter of which are typically prose passages of no more than a page or two in length. More heterogeneous than the word “stories” implies, the subsections are comprised of anecdotes, vignettes, reports, descriptions, lists, interview-like bits of unattributed dialogue, or diary entries boxed off from the rest of the text with a thin black line. While most of them are written in the third person, some are narrated in the first person by fictional characters, historical personages or Kluge himself. Interspersed between them are slogans and quotations in different font sizes and a wealth of visual media, including photographs; reproductions of paintings, drawings and posters; various kinds of maps; film and television stills; and, now that the technology has become available, QR codes. The organising principle is literary montage – and in terms of both form and content, the line separating Kluge’s work for the page from his work for the screen has been porous.

In that section alone are a lot of things I’ve attempted to do in the past, to little avail. It makes me want to return to those ideas, and to read Kluge.

The Arabic Design Archive:

Some of the images therein suggest to me a partial root for the work of Ganzeer. I’ll have to ask him one day. This is a link to his excellent newsletter.