Spotted in Best Buy in Montreal today.

After six months’ work, I thought my audio recording of Jack London’s (1908) novel The Iron Heel was finished. Then I tried to publish it online. Ugh. Anyway, the good folks at Librivox came to the rescue, and after a lot of re-editing and tidying up of files, I’m thrilled to say my project is now polished and published online. Thanks Dii and Elli!

My latest project is to record an audiobook version of Jack London’s 1908 novel The Iron Heel. I was looking around for something new to do (this being my sabbatical) and came across a competition inviting people to record themselves reading science fiction books that are in the public domain. London’s book is a lively read, not lacking in controversy, and startlingly relevant even (perhaps especially) today. I’m already at Chapter Two and enjoying the process immensely.

A short, digitally rotoscoped animation about some unexpected visitors to our yard in Northampton, Massachusetts, back in 2002. Starring my son Max. (Completed 13/10/09.)

Glorious lettering and typography from Exporail, the railway museum just outside Montréal.

This is one of the highlights of what seemed like a very long teaching year. And now it’s time for a sabbatical. Phew.

Letter to the Editor:

Reading the most recent issue of Sight & Sound (‘Seeing the Light’, April ’09) made me wonder if your magazine shouldn’t be renamed Movies & Men. Your article ‘Talking Shop’ features thirteen (white) cinematographers, only one of whom is a woman. Representative? Perhaps not. Your list of Contributors features fifteen names – all of them men. ‘Features’ includes the work of nine writers – all men – focusing on six male subjects. Of the eight pieces in the ‘Rushes’ section, only two are written by women. After a brief bid for gender equality in the Reviews section, it’s business as usual for ‘DVD features’ (three male writers, reviewing the film work of four other men), ‘Books’ (three men reviewing three male authors, focusing specifically on the work of two men). ‘Letters’? All five contributors are men.

Let’s hope editor Nick James will be ‘Seeing the Light’ sooner rather than later.

Sincerely,

Matt Soar

In October we began planning out the complete redevelopment of the Korsakow System, a software application for creating database narratives. Korsakow was originally created by Florian Thalhofer in 2000. The timelapse video, above, shows Florian hard at work in the CINERG office in downtown Montréal, creating an elaborate paper prototype of the new version. Reprogramming began in mid-November; we hope to have a new version ready to launch in Spring 2009.

Today I read an article on Design Observer by Michael Bierut all about the Ernst Bettler story that appeared some years ago in dotdotdot. The ‘Bettler affair’ was a key part of my PhD dissertation, which I finished in 2002. The dissertation, which I hope is reasonably accessible, addresses the politics of graphic design practice and design activism in North America. (I also interviewed a bunch of designers about First Things First 2000, which was very topical at the time.) The plan was to turn the dissertation into a book, but other (good) things happened instead. Here, then, for the very first time, I present my dissertation.

Interviews include: Michael Bierut, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, Marlene McCarty, Stefan Sagmeister, Gunnar Swanson, and Teal Triggs. If you want to cut straight to my take on the meanings of the Bettler affair, it begins on page 134 of the pdf.

Update (16/6/09). The pdf download now includes the appendices images. Erp. (Thanks Deb!)