Ockham Lecture with international guest Ziga Testen

In conjunction with Object Book Space, international guest Ziga Testen will present this Ockham Lecture exploring the intangible qualities that contribute to excellent book design.

Testen introduces his presentation: “In 2001, architect Rem Koolhaas wrote the essay Junkspace, in which he observed: “…as if space itself is invisible, all theory for the production of space is based on an obsessive preoccupation with its opposite: substance and objects, i.e., architecture. Architects could never explain space; Junkspace is our punishment for their mystifications. It is the resultant of the image-driven obsession with form.” While books don’t operate at the same scale as buildings and architecture, and their use is fundamentally different, there are similarities as well: they share a program, a content, a purpose, and even – as I will explore in my presentation – archetypes of typology and morphology. With the recent explosion of design automation –tools preloaded with readymade aesthetics and trends – Koolhaas’s critique feels increasingly prophetic, not just for architecture but for graphic design and many creative disciplines today. A design culture proliferates that is focused on newness, minor modulations and surface-level novelties – a design you notice for the sake of design and form itself, rather than for the object or content it serves.”

For this talk, Testen asks: what might be the equivalent of the architectural experience of space in graphic and book design? The opposite of 'design'? What is that elusive something that goes beyond a clever typeface or an eye-catching layout? What makes a book design more than just the sum of its parts? How do we experience a book and its content via or even in spite of its design? How does graphic design evoke – and sometimes create – meaning?

He admits it won’t be an attempt to answer these questions definitively in this talk, but through a series of recent projects, Testen will share how this search – for that intangible quality – preoccupies and shapes their own book design practice.

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Ziga Testen is the founder and creative director of their eponymous studio based in Melbourne. Testen is born in Slovenia and has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Ljubljana, holds a masters in curating at Konstfack University and has been a participant at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Since 2013 he has been living in Melbourne, Australia. He regularly contributes to the academic discourse as a critic and lecturer for academic institutions in Australia and overseas. He is currently running a studio at the Masters of Visual Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne. He also writes on and about graphic design and design history and has curated exhibitions and edited publications in the field.

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The Ockham Lecture series is an annual programme of lectures and panel discussions across different themes that critically engage with craft, design and architecture. This programme is supported by Objectspace's Lead Partner Ockham Residential.

Imagers:
Header: Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone, published by MCA Australia (Sydney) x Lenz Press (Milan), design by Ziga Testen and Stuart Geddes, 2024
Portrait: Ziga Testen, photograph by Tom Ross