Lecture: Circular Reasons
Date: 23 April 2026; 19:00 o’clock
Location: St Bride Foundation, London & online via Zoom

Lecture description
In today’s world of Unicode standards and QWERTY keyboards, the uniform approach to text can create the impression that writing is fixed: that letters are static, that typography is a fully developed discipline, and that the work of type designers will remain fundamentally unchanged in the decades to come. This associative lecture on writing, language and letters invites to question the dominant, rational, constructed narrative. If history, too, is a constructed narrative, then perhaps it need not only be written, but can also be assembled.

What follows is not a straight line. Through a series of uninhibited thought experiments, this lecture explores whether not just the history of writing, but maybe also its future, can be ambivalent en multiplied. While doing so, it proposes design as a form of historiography and asks how alternative perspectives can shape our understanding of letterforms, of language and of typographic practices. After all, if a circle is round because it is a circle, where does it actually begin?

About Underware
The European design collective Underware focuses on designing letters from a formalistic and formative perspective. Their practice manifests itself in design, performance, publication, education and installations. In this lecture, they attempt to offer a different perspective on their own work by placing it in a different context each time.

→ Tickets

What does the future of writing look like? The design collective Underware poses this question in the exhibition Sensorium Motorium, which will be on display in Amsterdam in November 2025. The focus is on the Fluxographer, a 7-dimensional writing instrument that turns writing into a sensory experience.

Writing is so much more than just putting letters on paper. With this project, Underware builds on ideas developed by scientist Heinz von Foerster, who researched the connection between perception and movement in the 1970s. Knowledge does not arise solely in the mind, but rather in the interaction between the senses and actions. Von Foerster experimented with higher dimensions, just as Underware developed a new writing instrument that makes use of higher dimensions. The Fluxographer invites visitors to play with language and experience that writing can be physical, musical and visual at the same time.

A future writing
Sami Kortemäki, one of the initiators: “Major technological changes in the 1960s forced designers to present new visions of the role of text in society. Wim Crouwel’s New Alphabet is an example of this, a statement that text should no longer be readable by humans but first and foremost by computers. The current technological changes are at least as urgent, and designers must once again reflect on this by developing their own vision. The future does not just happen to us; we can realise it ourselves.”

Means of communication have been radically transformed over the past 30 years, and there is no indication that this development will stagnate any time soon. At a time when artificial intelligence and digital communication are changing the way we write, Sensorium Motorium shows that the future of language can also look different: playful and challenging.

Exhibition Sensorium Motorium
15–30 Nov 2025, sat & sun 13:00–17:00 o’clock
Opening: Friday 14 Nov 2025, 17:00 (doors open 16:30, RSVP)
Address: Weerdruk gallery, Entrepotdok 42A, 1018 AD Amsterdam

== NL ==

Hoe ziet de toekomst van schrijven er uit? Het ontwerpcollectief Underware stelt die vraag in de tentoonstelling Sensorium Motorium die in november 2025 in Amsterdam te zien is. Centraal staat de Fluxographer, een 7-dimensionaal schrijfinstrument dat van schrijven een zintuiglijke ervaring maakt.

Schrijven is zoveel meer dan alleen wat letters op papier. Met dit project bouwt Underware voort op ideeën van wetenschapper Heinz von Foerster, die in de jaren zeventig onderzocht hoe waarneming en beweging verbonden zijn. Kennis ontstaat niet alleen in het hoofd, maar juist in de wisselwerking tussen zintuigen en handelingen. Von Foerster experimenteerde daarvoor met hogere dimensies, net zoals Underware een nieuw schrijfinstrument ontwikkelde dat gebruik maakt van hogere dimensies. De Fluxographer nodigt bezoekers uit om te spelen met taal, en te ervaren dat schrijven zowel iets lichamelijks, muzikaals en beeldend tegelijk kan zijn.

Een toekomstig schrijven
Sami Kortemäki, een van de initiatiefnemers: “Grote technologische veranderingen in de jaren 60 dwongen ontwerpers om nieuwe visies te presenteren welke rol tekst in een maatschappij inneemt. New Alphabet van Wim Crouwel is daarvan een voorbeeld, een statement dat tekst niet langer voor mensen maar eerst voor computers leesbaar moest zijn. De huidige technologische veranderingen zijn minstens zo urgent, ontwerpers moeten ook nu weer hierop reflecteren door hun eigen visie te ontwikkelen. De toekomst overkomt ons niet zomaar, die kunnen we zelf realiseren.”

Communicatiemiddelen zijn de afgelopen 30 jaar radicaal getransformeerd, en niets wijst er op dat deze ontwikkeling binnenkort stagneert. In een tijd waarin kunstmatige intelligentie en digitale communicatie ons schrijven veranderen, laat Sensorium Motorium zien dat de toekomst van taal er ook anders uit kan zien: speels en uitdagend.

Tentoonstelling Sensorium Motorium
15–30 Nov 2025, zat & zon 13:00–17:00 uur
Opening: vrijdag 14 Nov 2025, 17:00 (deur open 16:30, RSVP)
Adres: Weerdruk galerie, Entrepotdok 42A, 1018 AD Amsterdam

This week we’re gonna have a lecture at Type & Faces in London. Our talk “It’s about time” is about time, which will not be a surprise. What do we do with our time? What is time anyway? Isn’t time everything? If you would have time, what would you do? Do you take time seriously? Can you include “time” into your work, or do you do that only in your own time? Or into your own letters? The act of writing always happens in time, so what if type designers include time? It’s about time we talk about time.

A many-sided evening with other talks by Shaqa Bovand, William Montrose & Ignacio Casco. Join us if you’re around!

Type & Faces
9 Oct 2025, 18:15 o’clock
30-36 Pritchard’s Road, London
▶ typeandfaces.com

This lecture is part of a small trip with some workshops and lectures:

06-07 Oct: Typeworkshop “Progressive abstraction of writing systems” at Central Saint Martins, London
08 Oct: Lecture “One-sided love is also love” at the University of Reading, dept. Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading
09 Oct: Lecture “It’s about time” at Type & Faces, London
14 Oct: Lecture “The Paradimensional Pen” at Central Saint Martins, London
16 Oct: Lecture at Sint-Lucas School of Arts, Ghent

The coming weeks we’re gonna make some public appearances again for a few lectures and exhibitions during our Space-Time Tour 2025.

4 april • Tokyo, Japan
Our exhibition Sensorium Motorium in Print Gallery in Tokyo will open, introducing a new writing instrument: the fluxographer. And because Flux, our paradimensional typeface, won a TDC Tokyo award, it will be part of the TDC Tokyo exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery (ggg) in Tokyo this weekend. And on 5 April we’ll give a lecture at the TDCDAY in Tokyo, on Sunday 6 April at 18:00 everybody is welcome for some drinks at the Sunday Soiree at our exhibition in Print Gallery.
TDCDAY • Print Gallery

23 April • Amsterdam, the Netherlands
On Wednesday 23 April we’ll give a lecture called “How many days too early?” at the 56th installment of Letterspace in Amsterdam. Doors open at 19:00. Free entry, but RSVP.
letterspace.amsterdam

24 April • Hamburg, Germany
On Thursday 24 April we’ll give a lecture called “More to the letter” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany. Free entry, starts at 19:00 o’clock.
mkg-hamburg.de

25 April • Copenhagen, Denmark
On Friday 25 April we’ll give a lecture called “Kaleidoscopic Entanglements Reflect Meaning in Type” at the ATypI conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Tickets for the conference are required.
atypi.org

28 April • Stockholm, Sweden
On Monday afternoon 28 April we’ll give a lecture called “Paradimensional writing” at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. The lecture starts at 16:00 o’clock.
konstfack.se

01 May • Kolding, Denmark
On Thursday afternoon 1 May we’ll give a lecture called “Writing space in time” at the Kolding School of Design in Kolding, Denmark. The lecture starts at 15:00 o’clock.
designskolenkolding.dk

12 June • Trondheim, Norway
We’ll end our Space-Time Tour with a lecture at Thursday afternoon the 12th of June (17:30 o’clock) at Grafill in Trondheim, Norway. Please join us for our lecture “In how many dimensions can we work, watch or write?”. Tickets & details
grafill.no

Underware exhibition at Print Gallery Tokyo
April 2025

What if writing could be experienced not just visually, but physically and sonically, too? In Sensorium Motorium, Underware introduces a new kind of writing instrument – playful, experimental, and rooted in cybernetic theory.

In his essay Cybernetics of Epistemology, Austrian-American scientist Heinz von Foerster (1911 – 2002) introduces two foundational propositions for the acquisition of knowledge, grounded in the interplay between the sensorium (the system of conscious sensations) and the motorium (the regulated sequence of motion):
1. The meaning of the signals from the sensorium is determined by the motorium; and the meaning of the signals from the motorium is determined by the sensorium.
2. The laws of physics – the so-called “laws of nature” – can be described by us. But the laws of brain function – or, more broadly, the laws of biology – must be formulated in such a way that the act of writing them is itself derivable from them. In other words, they must be self-writing.

A few years earlier, von Foerster conducted the research project Mechanisms of the Perception of and Formation of Internal Representations of the Spatial Fourth Dimension (1971/72) with student Phyllis Arnold at the Biological Computer Laboratory in Illinois, USA. This experiment was motivated by the belief that dimensions higher than three could serve as an ideal means to separate newly assimilated information from past experiences. In doing so, participants might encounter a moment of pure understanding – understanding understanding, as von Foerster called it.

Sensorium Motorium
With Sensorium Motorium, Underware builds upon this historical body of research and connects it to the cultural domain of writing and sign-making. To explore this intersection, they developed a new, higher-dimensional writing instrument: the Fluxographer.

This multi-sensory grammatographic device enables the writing and experiencing of higher-dimensional signs through the simultaneous integration of haptic, auditory, and visual stimuli. More than a speculative tool, the Fluxographer offers a reflection on writing itself – how we write, how we read, and how the act of writing shapes perception and thought.

At the same time, it was also created with a playful spirit: an instrument designed to invite curiosity and joy. Something to explore, to try, to play with. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the Fluxographer – to write, to listen, to feel. The experience is as much intuitive and sensory as it is conceptual. Sensorium Motorium at Print Gallery Tokyo marks the world premiere of this new instrument.

The Fluxographer
The Fluxographer consists of a high-resolution touchpad device with a custom keyboard layout, the higher-dimensional typeface Flux (recipient of the TDC Tokyo Award 2025), an MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) synthesizer, and a bespoke tool that connects all three into one coherent, multi-sensory system. The Fluxographer captures users’ gestures with precision and renders them into higher-dimensional forms – both visual and sonic. The exhibition also features a series of unique A0 Fluxograms (created using the Fluxographer).

This is Underware’s second solo exhibition at Print Gallery in Tokyo. Parallel to Sensorium Motorium, their award-winning project Flux is also on view at the ginza graphic gallery in Tokyo.

About Underware
Underware is a pan-European design collective specializing in type and writing systems. Known for pushing the boundaries of typography, their work blends graphic design, linguistics, technology, and performance. With projects ranging from experimental typefaces to conceptual installations, Underware investigates the cultural, physical, and emotional dimensions of writing. Their work has been exhibited internationally and is part of several public and private collections.
underware.nl

About Print Gallery
Print Gallery Tokyo is an independent exhibition space dedicated to contemporary graphic design and visual culture. Known for its focused programming and intimate setting, the gallery offers a platform for experimental and conceptual projects that push the boundaries of print and typography. Its curatorial approach – bridging design, art, and research – has made it an important site for international designers and artists to engage with a thoughtful and design-savvy audience in Japan.
printgallerytokyo.com

Since a few years we’ve been designing and producing writing fonts, fonts which have their writing dynamics included in the font file. As these are something new in the industry, some people wonder what they are and how they function.

In May 2023, when we released the type family Scribo, we gave a lecture at the ATypI conference in Paris. Because the starting point for Scribo was to design the dynamics of handwriting, we took the opportunity of this lecture to explain what details are involved in the making of writing fonts. For example: new terminology is required once type is designed in time, because how fast is a “default” speed and is there a unit to describe this? There are a lot of conventions for relations in space (like kerning), but there is a need for similar terminology for relations in time (like tuning). This, and much more details, are explained in this lecture, which of course also includes live action writing for an empirical experience.

Often these lectures are only accessible for registered attendees, but we’re happy that a recording of this lecture is now available to anybody.

This autumn we’ll make a small tour across France, Germany and Switzerland with some lectures and workshops at educational institutes, festivals and symposiums. We’re looking forward to meet old but also lots of new friends, so hopefully we’ll see you on one of these occasions.

5 October — Nancy
Lecture “Beyond Unicode” at Atelier national de recherche typographique, Nancy France.

5-6 October — Nancy
Two-day workshop “Beyond Unicode” at Atelier national de recherche typographique, Nancy, France.

9 October — Strasbourg
Lecture “From Chirography to Grammatography” at Formats Festival in Strasbourg, France.

11 October — Zürich
Lecture “Deep Writing” at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, Switzerland.

13 October — Basel
Lecture “Is it U+2047?” at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel HGK, in Basel, Switzerland.

6-10 November – Geneva
Five-day typeworkshop “Signature moves” at HEAD, Geneva, Switzerland

15 November — Paris
Lecture “The coding hand, encoding the hand” at Font and Faces #10, Campus Fonderie de l’Image, Bagnolet, Paris, France.

18 November — Munich
Lecture “Look backward, write forward” at Dynamic Font Day, Munich Germany.

21 November — Stuttgart
Lecture “Vorwärts schreiben, rückwärts schauen” at Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany.

Although through writing someone can assert their existence, we are not publishing a book but instead will soon give two lectures around the theme “Scribo, ergo sum”. These lectures will take place on Friday 12 May 2023 in Paris at the ATypI conference, and on Saturday 13 May 2023 in Antwerp at the TypoCafé.

12 May 2023 — Paris
The first lecture in Paris is titled “Scribo, ergo sum” and trades on writing anno 2023, what new possibilities the combination of writing by hand and by computer offers, and also what new unexplored territory lies there, and we touch on a lack of terminology to describe that new territory.
atypi.org

13 May 2023 — Antwerp
The second lecture in Antwerp is one day later, and is logically titled “In retrospect: Scribo, ergo sum”. This will probably be our most topical lecture ever, as in it we look back at what we presented just one day earlier in Paris. We will try to already reflect cautiously at this event organised by Initiaal, alumni of the Plantin Institute of Typography.
initiaal.be

Saturday 15 Oct 2022 we’ll give a talk titled Rule of Three at the InScript festival, a 5-day festival on the overlap of typography and technology. As the organisation puts it: “The five-day festival will showcase portfolios and behind-the-scenes among top design practitioners working with artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities, dimensional typography, creative coding, physical computing, and innovative use of traditional craft.” All lectures will be streamed online, so you can follow this inaugural event from anywhere in the world. In case you want to be inspired by 30+ speakers in the world of contemporary experimental type, sign up at inscript.tf

▶ Rule of Three
Lecture by Underware at InScript
Saturday 15 October 2022
NY 11:30–12:10
Amsterdam 17:30–18:10
Shanghai 23:30–00:10

Register & watch online at inscript.tf

Instead of presenting our recent findings and points of views in a lecture, we’ve used the opportunity of giving a lecture to develop new findings and points of views in recent years. A satisfactory turnaround in approach. Contemporary technological developments not only affect the design process (not only of letters, but of any design process), but also have an impact on how letters are used, and what a letter is. A lecture is a good moment to reflect on this, by developing new thoughts, making new demos, sketching new ideas, or making new designs.

Coming Thursday 7 July 2022 we’ll give a lecture at the International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication in Thessaloniki, Greece. This time we’re gonna explore what’s inside the letter.
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