CBCP is collaborating with Typodiversity, an open, participatory event series combining talks and workshops on the intersection of research and practice in typography and type design. Our agenda raises issues of agency, resource, representation, and inclusion in the development of environments for authoring, design, and distribution. We aim to place informed, representative narratives at the heart of discourse.
We intend that each event adapts to the environment in which it is held, shaped by the team and hosting location. There are two conditions for Typodiversity events: 1) that they are run with as little expenditure as possible, taking advantage of institutional resources; and 2) that the recorded content of the talks and workshops will be openly and freely accessible.
We prioritise a hybrid online format to minimise the impact of travel and attendance costs, visa hurdles, legal limitations, and time zone differences. While we recognise that English functions as a shared language for global scholarship and exchange, we aim to actively support other languages as an alternative. To achieve this, we ask presenters to provide a video of their presentation in advance, so that subtitles can be added: English presentations will have subtitles in the relevant second language of the event, and vice versa. We are starting this initiative with only one pair of languages to gain experience of time and effort required, and aim to extend to more languages as we grow. To facilitate real-time Q&A sessions and open conversation rooms, we aim to provide interpreters for real-time translation.
The first event will take place at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading (UK), on the 3rd & 4th November 2023, on the theme of “exploring the Arabic script world.” Talks, speakers and workshops will be announced shortly. Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates and to stay connected.