Dialogue

Over the summer break I spoke with Paul Bailey (Bailey, 2023)—a design researcher—and Osman Bari (Bari, 2023)—an MAGCD graduate—about my work, their work, what it means to be working with publications, ethics of gleaning, holiday plans, and more.

These two dialogues were on opposite sides of a summer in which I had lots of time to think about my practice and positions, but in actuality I spent little time actively doing so. I think this ended up being a positive as it let ideas move and develop in my subconscious, and by the time I spoke with Osman my interest had shifted from focusing on physicality (and publications specifically) towards focusing on the gleaning aspect of my work, without me even really noticing.

The discussion first discussion, with Paul, felt much more formal; it was the first time I had spoken to him, and my only other exposure to him was when he gave a lecture, which made me approach the dialogue with a preconceived hierarchy. Whereas with Osman it became more of a looser chat between friends, which allowed for a more winding conversation. Each was interesting in their own ways.

Speaking to Paul just as year one was coming to a close was interesting as my projects were so recent I was more easily able to recall my thinking behind certain decisions; however I didn’t have the space away from the projects to be able to reflect on them like I can do now.

One of the most interesting discussions with Paul was the distinction between what was meant by permanent. I had meant that publications freeze the work in its current state when published, and while there can be new editions the older physical versions still exist. This is in contrast to digital and online content which often changes and updates with no warning and way to go back. If you bought a copy of yesterday’s newspaper you’ll still have it today, but if you want to look at BBC News’ website from yesterday it’s impossible without external tools.

Another good conversation happened around the physicality of a page. We often think of pages as flat and 2D, but in fact a page in a book is a 3D object with sides as well as the main face. Paul spoke about one of his projects exploring this, where he scanned the side edges of images he had cut from printed pages, which gave me some ideas for ways I could examine this topic and hopefully I’ll be able to experiment with these ideas during Unit 2.

In my discussion with Osman we spoke not only about our respective work but also about the structure of GCD and how it can affect the kind of work produced, he was very open about how his project shifted throughout his time on MAGCD. And I noticed when looking back at his blog that there is a noticeable shift between years one and two, which reassured me that I’m not locked in to exactly what I’ve already explored.

Hopefully I’ll be able to continue a dialogue with both Paul and Osman, and that I’ll also be able to more freely dialogue about my work in the future.

Bailey, P. (2023). Interviewed by Dom Grant. 7 June, Microsoft Teams.
Bari, O. (2023). Interviewed by Dom Grant. 21 September, in person.