{"id":2631,"date":"2017-07-05T19:56:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T23:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/?p=2631"},"modified":"2017-09-01T19:13:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T23:13:02","slug":"presenting-reids-digital-designs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/presenting-reids-digital-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESENTING REID’S DIGITAL DESIGNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

“ROBERT\u00a0 R. REID: RE-READING (CLOSELY)”<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Special Guest Writer :\u00a0 David Bellman, Research Curator, <\/em><\/h6>\n
CAUSA <\/em>\/ Collective for Advanced and Unified Studies in the Visual Arts<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Designed by Robert R. Reid<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25a0\u00a0A point of contact and an action point activated: verbal-visual presence\/revivification of text (and tempo) through\u00a0listening and looking (localization in a\u00a0nexus of previously unrelated pattern and proposition).<\/p>\n

A\u00a0resulting field of force: TYPOGRAPHICAL TELETRANSPORTATION.<\/strong><\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

The term “typographical image” has been adopted as a descriptor for identifying the densely self-contained digital-experimental designs that Robert R. Reid has produced in close collaboration with CAUSA –for purposeful use within variable curatorial research projects (including the current, ground-breaking exhibition at McGill\u00a0 Library). And that carefully conceived nomenclature links, concisely\/expansively, to this lucid epigram by the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu:<\/p>\n

People cannot see themselves in running water. They see<\/em>
\n themselves in still water, for only stillness can see stillness.<\/em><\/p>\n

To further clarify a long-term, self-sustaining function for Reid’s rigorously committed USE OF THE AESTHETIC, an observation by Carl Sandburg can be\u00a0constructively evoked. He connects us to\u00a0Reid’s capacious creativity with a specific insight:<\/p>\n

The inexplicable is all around us. So is the incomprehensible.<\/em>
\n So is the unintelligible.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sandburg’s insights date from 1950 –one year after the publication of Reid’s\u00a0 first book (produced by him as founder of Canada’s first artisanal private press).\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u25a0 In 1962 Reid received an unexpected mark of recognition –becoming the first “designer” to receive a Canada Council “Senior Artist” award. At that stage in his career, he had already attained more than a\u00a0decade of experience as an active participant in Vancouver’s ALLIED ARTS movement (with its conspicuously co-operative community of architects, musicians, painters, book sellers,\u00a0 landscape\u00a0gardeners, product designers, poets, photographers, and advocates of experimental theatre). The uncompromising intelligence of his\u00a0forward-looking design practice confirmed a consistently radical commitment to the ameliorative radicality of an advancing (post-WW11) modernity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The scope of Reid’s project (which remains unchanged in his ninetieth year) can be vividly highlighted in relation to the critical erudition of George Poulet. That connoisseurial\u00a0voice concisely reminds us of an ARS UNA ethos by remarking:<\/p>\n

To know is a form of ubiquity. It has to do with being at one<\/em>
\n and the same time in the entirety of the knowable world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Poulet’s insights were published one year prior to Reid’s design award (a grant that allowed him to travel the globe). At the conclusion of his travels (in 1963), \u00a0he arrived in Montreal –to begin an immensely productive working relationship with\u00a0 McGill University and its Press. The dynamics of Reid’s continually experimental relationship with both City and Institution are encompassed by a cogent observation, iterated forty years ago by Marshall McLuhan. He notes:<\/p>\n

The world flipped around 1900. At that time Max Planck<\/em>
\n explained with quantum mechanics that matter isn’t<\/em>
\n continuous, that the material world has no connections,<\/em>
\n that it is made up of, and held together by, resonant<\/em>
\n interfaces. They marked the end of Newton, for whom<\/em>
\n everything was linked.<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert R. Reid’s work does not DECORATE the MATERIAL WORLD. Rather, it INFLECTS the PRESENT MOMENT with the prospect of POTENTIAL PRESENTIMENTS.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>We are pleased to be part of the multi -site exhibit on Robert Reid’s work on the occasion of this 90th birthday this year, thanks to David Bellman.<\/p>\n

Please come and visit the Rare Books and Special Collections, located on the 4th floor of the McLennan Library Building in order to enjoy these and further digital designs, part of the on-going\u00a0 Robert R. Reid Touch Table Exhibit<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“ROBERT\u00a0 R. REID: RE-READING (CLOSELY)” By Special Guest Writer :\u00a0 David Bellman, Research Curator, CAUSA \/ Collective for Advanced and Unified Studies in the Visual Arts   \u25a0\u00a0A point of contact and an action point activated: verbal-visual presence\/revivification of text … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2631"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2676,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions\/2676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/rbsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}