OVERVIEW

Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems brings together invented and fictional writing systems with linguistics and typography. The project includes an exhibition featuring 21 projects, a pop-up display of books, and a series of online talks and in-person events. This website documents the components of the project and serves as a growing archive of research and projects related to the theme.

MORE ABOUT THE THEME

With a history spanning more than five millennia, the practice of writing serves as a testament to the enduring human impulse to record, preserve, and transmit information across time and space. Writing systems—sets of standardized symbols and rules used to convey language visually—can carry within them a culture’s history, traditions, and collective knowledge, making them powerful vessels of cultural preservation and expression. Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems explores the craft of inventing and designing writing systems that—unlike those that have evolved organically over generations of collective usage—were carefully created at distinct points in time with intention and purpose. Quasi approaches this practice as a speculative process and an exercise of discovery to uncover new quasi-realities within our systems of communication, revealing a fascination with otherness where mythology and utopia are recurring themes. Through this exploration, Quasi contributes to an ongoing dialog about playing with language to foster linguistic diversity that can reshape our collective narrative. 

The diagram below places the writing systems presented in the exhibition along two axes: The horizontal axis explores a spectrum from systems designed to establish an independent, structured internal logic with clear rules to those created through a more intuitive process or for use in a more flexible, experimental way. The vertical axis reflects the intended usage, ranging from systems created for private use to those created for, or adopted by, larger groups. The filled circles represent projects included in the exhibition, while the outlined circles depict additional fictional scripts added for context. You can click on the filled circles to navigate to the project page.

Quasi was organized by Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT) and conceptualized by Lavinia Lascaris and Ximena Amaya. It took place during the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024 in Pasadena, California.