¶  FUSE 94

26-27 November 1994

Royal College of Art and Imperial College London

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 		¶  Fuse94 was the most anticipated design event in the UK this year; convened as a forum to put the work of Fuse magazine in perspective after ten issues. Fuse was established in 1991 by various luminaries around FontShop, including Neville Brody. It describes itself as "an interactive magazine that explores new ideas about typographic and visual language in the digital realm". Issues are themed and are made up of a disk with a number of experimental typefaces and posters developing the theme. The conference itself sought to "investigate the way new media create new mentalities" and to "promote an understanding of what is at stake... in the fast-changing world of digital communications".

           




 
¶  The main conference ran alongside FuseLab, a workshop aiming to "explore and challenge our ideas about the future role and form of visual language". The lab was to be held simultaneously in Montreal, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Vienna, the whole event connected up via - you guessed it - the Internet.

¶  The conference generated a lot of excitement with around 700 attending, including many students and delegates from abroad (the Internet is not yet a sufficiently compelling substitute for being there). The speakers' list was a roll-call of graphic designers and typographers who had come to prominence during the eighties including David Carson, Phil Baines, Tibor Kalmar, Tobias Frere Jones. The programme of events was exhausting, with the conference beginning at 9am and running over to 7pm

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 		on the second day, leaving little time to explore FuseLab or just discuss the sessions.

¶  The presentations showed a tremendous divergence in the designers' ability, desire and confidence in presenting their ideas. Phil Baines struck an analytical note as he tried to get to grips with the subject, asserting that 'the true test of a typeface is not in its existence but in its usefulness', where Ian Swift's work was stimulating in itself though added little with his remarks. Phil Bicker represents a social conscience in graphics but tends to plead for change rather than inspire it. Brody's talk was marked by its casualness, consisting mainly of a string of unlinked observations that led to no particular conclusion. He signed off by telling us that he would not take questions but put on his favourite CD and go out for a cigarette.

           




 
Tibor Kalman seems to have lost some of his sparkle since leaving New York for Rome to work on Colors; his presentation was based around the magazine but added little not already in the magazine except for a pulpit to expound on racial prejudice, AIDS and religion.

¶  Lucas de Groot introduced his new typeface 'Thesis' and discussed the typographical considerations involved in producing fonts for three styles (Serif, Sans and a hybrid) and eight weights; 'Thesis' looks set to join Meta and Scala in the typeface hit parade. Jeffrey Keedy attempted to explain post-modernism in graphics but fell into the verbal traps of his post-modernist subjects. In his presentation he showed an interactive 'typefinder' product that allowed the user to get a feel for the way a typeface would work - a great step on from the 'Hamburgerfonstiv'!

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 		On vernacular typefaces Keedy observed that they were an attempt by the current generation -- the first in recent history to be worse off than their parents -- to make fun of the older generation: if you can't be original then be ironic. This trick is number one in David Carson's book, but you can only get so far by breaking rules; perhaps in recognition of this he failed to appear for his talk (although he did lecture at Middlesex University on the same trip, arriving half-an-hour late and poking fun at the organisers for having the 'wrong' type of slide projector). Malcolm Garrett drew an analogy between the effect of the alternative culture of the punk era on the mainstream music business and the contemporary role of the multimedia 'underground'. He went on to give a demonstration of multimedia products despite claiming that it was very difficult to show 'interactive stuff' -- a point that he amply validated.

           




 
Peter Saville's presentation was honest, personal and unfussy -- and benefited from it. He claimed he was no longer happy simply working with type and was more interested in collaborating with copywriters. Given the avalanche of words we are buried under today this sounds like no bad thing. Cornel Windlin introduced himself as a 'humble graphic designer'; his work said more than he did, illustrating his uneasy relationship to his (native) Swiss typography and the contemporary emphasis on texture and irony. Letteror (Just van Rossum and Eric van Blokland) were the highlight of the afternoon, combining lack of pretension with the most inventive work, including a typeface made up of a matrix of squares that fell apart as it was letterspaced. Their work is exciting because it does not simply play with the textures of the digital world, but experiments with what the future of that world may be.

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 		Jon Wozencroft closed the conference, beginning by outlining the objectives of Fuse. His talk however became a stream on consciousness about corporations living in a fantasy world and trying to screw us up; the smog of publicity; and the quality of material designers have to work with. A disturbing video followed, focusing on video surveillance and the problems of being observed and restrictions on our freedom.

¶  While many speakers distinguished themselves, the conference as a whole lacked clarity about its objectives and had no mechanism for cohering discussion. All the speakers had their own definition of what Fuse was about, and this was not helped by the organisers' tendency to reinterpret the objectives of the conference.

           




 
On the first day Wozencroft stated that the event was specifically about experimental typography, yet in his closing talk he addressed a wider brief than any other speaker. Multimedia and the Internet -- hardly experimental subjects -- were referred to regularly, notably by Garrett and Brody.

¶  There was also a remarkable reluctance to try to draw conclusions from discussion. Keedy asserted this was undesirable and would reduce a complex discussion to sound-bites, while David Berlow (who chaired the second day) claimed that the existence of Fuse94 in itself was the mechanism by which clarification would be achieved.

¶  Rationalism, criticism, an objective reality, informed debate -- these are all unsexy concepts today.

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 		But without them you have to ask "why have a conference at all?". There are real issues to address in typography and design, and the dread phrase 'information superhighway' should be enough to stimulate thoughts about what some of them might be. If Fuse is not the forum to address these issues then fair enough, but it should not pretend otherwise, at the risk of disappointing its audience -- especially the many students in attendance who represent the next generation of designers. If Fuse wants its experimental label then it should adopt the forms of engagement used by contemporary artists. But, as Michael Rock argues in Eye (Winter 1994), even the Fuse experiment seems to have come full circle in its attempt to create "a new sensibility in visual expression... grounded in ideas, not just image" as it abandons the self-imposed constrictions of the alphabet.

           




 
¶  The number of people choosing to spend their weekend (and cash) at Fuse94 rather than staying at home -- or, increasingly, going to work -- was a testament to the continuing desire of designers to understand and challenge their situation. Citing Barbara Castle in his summing up Jon Wozencroft urged us to "always march in the direction of gunfire". Well here we are Jon. Unfortunately it is not clear if Fuse knows where the gunfire is coming from.

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