Phil Baber — graphic design, writing &c.

Recent and upcoming talks, performances, and exhibitions

‘With slights learned from others and an ear open to melodic analogies I have set down words as a musician pricks his score, not to be read in silence, but to trace in the air a pattern of sound that may sometimes, I hope, be pleasing. Unabashed boys and girls may enjoy them.’

October 2009 — Mont Analogue No.1, Theatre of Thought

‘He perceived all the strangeness there was in being observed by a word as if by a living being, and not simply by one word, but by all the words that were in that word, by all those that went with it and in turn contained other words, like a procession of angels opening out into the infinite to the very eye of the absolute.’

June 2009 — Cannon Magazine No.1

‘I wandered through the courtyards and galleries, on the ramparts and glacis, in the fortified and covered ways and along the watchman’s paths. It seemed to me I was inside someone’s head. This masterly, complicated and well-conceived construction of impregnable breastworks, bastions, salients and redoubts appeared to me like a petrified cast of the brain, and in these halls of stone, among the iron grilles and the chevaux de frise, I stumped along on my crutches, aggressive and vicious as a crippled thought inside the mind of man, thought in its solitude, thought in its liberty. Every opening on to the outside world is an embrasure for a cannon…’

June 2009 — The Growler / Brööl

‘Let us cross a great modern capital
with our ears more alert than our eyes
and we will get enjoyment from distinguishing the eddying of water, air and gas in metal pipes,
the grumbling noises that breathe and pulse with indisputable animility,
the palpitation of waves,
the coming and going of pistons,
the howl of mechanical saws,
the jolting of the tram on its rails,
the cracking of whips,
the flapping of curtains and flags.
We enjoy creating mental orchestrations of the crashing down of metal shop blinds,
slamming doors,
the hubbub and shuffle of crowds,
the variety of din from the stations,
railways,
iron foundries,
spinning mills,
printing works,
electric power stations,
and underground railways.’

May 2008 — Right Write Wright

‘The red book was on the table. The unread book was on the table. *The read book was on the table. A well read book lay on the shelf. That is a seldom seen occurence. *That is a seldom (often) seen occurence. *That is a well (often) unread book. *That is a seldom (often) tragic occurence. That is a well red book. The book remains to be read. *The book remains to be red. The book’s remains are red. *The book remains to be unread.’

April 2008 — REPRODUCED FROM THE BEST AVAILABLE COPY

FADE IN: Folds of blue velvet undulate ever so slowly. With titles. DISSOLVE TO:

April 2008 — I Am Sitting in a Room

‘I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now.’

March 2008 — Maria

‘I saw a doctor, a doctor. It was Anton Artaud. He was selected for the Royal Academy, no, that was Chekhov. This is the Russian Theatre, it’s 1962 or so, the moralist of the venial sin is here, resigning over Gorky. Doctor, a doctor. ‘The Seagull’ defends Zola and Dreyfus, it’s the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov is Godard. This is what I learned in school. This is what I thought: Artuad, Antonin.’

March 2008 — RO

‘One day there flashed through my mind the thought: how strange it is that there is nothing in the appearance of a written or printed word that gives the slightest hint of its meaning. Why should a word not be a picture? A new word, never seen before would then, like a painting seen for the first time, convey at least some of the meaning to the eye.

February 2008 — Fahrenheit 451

‘Never by day! Is it because the fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show?’

December 2007 — The Structure of Information

knowledge meaning mental stimulus pattern perception representation Morph eidos Plato (Aristotle) Theory of forms thought proposition concept message repetition message sender sender observation Communication theory information entropy Claude Shannon below Fisher information R.A. Fisher estimation theory likelihood function ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication’ information theory logarithm self information choice unit for measuring information bits J.W. Turkey algorithmic information theory program statistically random input organism (energy) nervous system abstract painting Entertainment Music performing arts amusement parks fiction DNA nucleotides Systems theory feedback knowledge knowledge management knowledge worker metadata context knowledge recommendations competitive advantage Marshall McLuhan media artifacts pheromones repetition Physical information 2003 J.D. Bekenstein physics Digital physics Maxwell’s Demon entropy energy logic gates quantum computers records management corporate memory semiotics Pragmatics Semantics Syntax lexicographic information costs Abstraction Accuracy and precision Classified information Complexity Complex adaptive system Complex system Cybernetics Data storage device Recording medium Exformation Free Information Infrastructure Freedom of information Gregory Bateson Infodynamics Information and communication technologies Information architecture Information broker Information continuum Information geometry Information ladder Information mapping Information overload Information processor Information sensitivity Information systems Information superhighway Informology Infornography Infosphere Lexicographic information cost Library science Meta-information in linguistics Philosophy of information Prediction Propaganda model Receiver operating characteristic Relevance Satisficing Shannon–Hartley theorem

November 2007 — 0619473114

‘Everything is changing proportions, angle, point of view. All things rush away, rush in again, accumulate, become scarce, laugh, insist, and grow exasperated. The products of the ends of the earth find their way on to a single plate or into a single dress. We feed on the sweat of gold with every meal, with every kiss. All things are artificial and real. The eyes. The hand. The immense fur coat of figures in which the banks sprawl and revel. The sexual fury of the factories. The wheel that goes around. The wing that glides. The voice that travels on a wire. The ear in a paper cone. Orientation. Rhythm. Life.’

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