Type and media
Typography is a vast field of research, some of it tantalizingly untilled.
Potential areas of study range from close readings of its formal, traditional and cultural significance to explorations of the expressive and experimental aspects of its use. Textual content and the form this content takes are inseparable. In many ways typography, linguistics and writing have a relationship similar to that of body, mind and soul and overlooking this relationship can lead to misunderstanding or misuse.
It is important to realise that form can have its own ideological content. The deep roots of typography are inextricably entwined with the history of our cultural and ideological evolution. Type can be created, it can be handled as an object, looked at as an image, or experienced as a symbol and vector of meaning and feeling. Type can be political and persuasive. And yet, its influence on information and understanding goes largely unnoticed. Therefore, we move, in this lab, towards a semiotics of typography.
Our goal in this lab is, therefore, to study typography as a medium and as a research tool. We aim to explore both its uses and the impact of its uses, in the context of (information) politics, culture, and the seemingly unlimited spectrum of communication arts.
We will study the role played by typography in the manipulation or direction of thought and learning, exploring and mapping the complexities of its connection to knowledge and its distribution, and utilizing our discoveries to enhance and clarify projects that include letters and images.
Dóra Ísleifsdóttir, professor of Visual communication & Programme director of MA in Design, is supervisor of the Type and Media research lab.
Material & Process
Volcano erupts, lava turns to stone, stone to sand, sand filters and layers into the ground — cycle repeats itself. Material and process are bound together in an endless loop of interaction.
This research lab focuses on material and its transformations in the local context. Specific material cycles will be looked at and how man's interventions come into those cycles bringing value and meaning. In this regard it is important to research and analyse what key resources are available within each context ranging from specific local energy issues to pinpointing local crafts/technologies in relation to cultural heritage etc.
For the time being the lab will focus on Iceland as its prime context for research. Specific local material cycles have been chosen for research for the upcoming school year.
Garðar Eyjólfsson, product designer & Program director for Product design, is supervisor of the Material & Process research lab.
Photographic studies
Photography is an instantly-recognizable medium which can be utilized to document and gather information, but also to communicate ideas, to work with memories, identity, and the image of individuals or groups. Photographs can change our ideas about the world, our understanding of a given society and our experience of ourselves and our environment .
In this lab our intention is to study photography as a research tool and as a medium. To explore and show how photographs can be used to analyze the different strands in (our) culture, as well as creating new visions and opportunities to contemplate society.
Among subject matters in the lab is enquiry into the potential photography has to condition memories, expand a persons’ sense of her surroundings, and map the intricate relations between individual experiences and documentation thereof. Participants in the lab have also been working on projects focusing on how photographs are linked to ideas about mortality and immortality, and how photographs are used to deal with grief and trauma.
Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir, cultural theorist & Director of studies in Design theory, is supervisor of the Photographic Studies research lab.
Visual communication and identity
The main task of this research lab is to get an overview by archiving the visual heritage found in crafts and graphic design in Iceland — its history and context. This applies to all found visual representations such as illustrations, ornaments and patterns, symbols and signs, runic alphabets and letterforms from manuscripts and woodcarving as well as printed material from the 12th century onwards. There will be an emphasis on forms in printed matter but tracing its roots to manuscripts will be essential as well.
There was an increasing use of images due to the industrial revolution, developments in printing technology and the formation of villages and towns in Iceland late in 19th century and early 20th century. In this lab we will research the birth of the visual identity of Iceland as a republic. We will study the roots of Icelandic nationalism such as the origin and development of the coats of arms for the republic and how these ideas collapse after WW2 and modernism and internationalism succeeds.
The tasks are endless and can easily be adapted to individual interests in the field. Interests such as type and letterforms, packaging, symbolism, calendars, sacred geometry, political propaganda, gender issues, book design etc.
Guðmundur Oddur Magnússon, aka Goddur, professor of Visual communication, is supervisor of the Visual communication research lab.
Spatial Studies
The spatial morphology of the built environment is unique to every society. The articulation of space creates a framework for society and influences the daily life of all citizens, be it the protection of the privacy of the home and smaller scale private space or the larger scale of the city and landscape.
Different premises underpin how man-made environment has developed and been formulated in each place and these depend on social as well as environmental circumstances; on the one hand, aesthetic, social, political and economic factors and on the other hand, geographical and climatic factors. These all influence how we make decisions about the formation of the environment and furthermore, how we address the formation and development of new spatial organisation in society.
In Research Lab Spatial Studies, space is explored in different scale and orders of magnitude of man-made environment and nature and researched in the context of social activity and place. Modern, past and future spatial models and social systems are explored critically in order to create new understanding of the context of knowledge and place.
The subjects of Research Lab Spatial Studies are wide-ranging and there is an opportunity to place spatial thinking in the context of pressing contemporary subjects. Students are offered the opportunity become connected to research and development projects that ask questions about the formation of man-made environment, such as the interdisciplinary development project of Vatnavinir on the development of health-related tourism with an emphasis on the utilisation of natural warm springs.
Sigrún Birgisdóttir, architect and Dean of Department of Design and Architecture, is supervisor of the Spatial Studies research lab.