Molecular Typography
A new book by Kobi Franco titled "Molecular Typography Laboratory" makes the argument that "the characters of the Hebrew and Latin alphabets possess a molecular structure."
What Franco means by this is that letters are made up of a small number of basic shapes or "atoms." Each letter-atom has positive and negative poles. These poles attract and repel other letter-atoms in such a way as to form all the Hebrew and Latin letters. So the letters themselves are molecules made up of smaller atoms. As he puts it:
Franco freely admits that molecular typography is "an experimental, pseudo-scientific study"
In fact, Franco didn't originate the idea. He picked up on the concept from artist Woody Leslie, who in turn attributed it to a linguist named H.F. Henderson. But I'm not sure if Henderson is real or was invented by Leslie.
In other words, molecular typography is an art project. But the degree to which both Franco and Leslie have developed the concept is impressive.
More info: PRINT magazine, Ugly Duckling Presse
What Franco means by this is that letters are made up of a small number of basic shapes or "atoms." Each letter-atom has positive and negative poles. These poles attract and repel other letter-atoms in such a way as to form all the Hebrew and Latin letters. So the letters themselves are molecules made up of smaller atoms. As he puts it:
Each letter in the Latin and Hebrew alphabets is composed of combinations of two to 11 atoms. The combinations of atoms that make up the letters are arranged as though composing a chemical formula. In this way, the first Hebrew letter, Aleph—composed of four squares, a short vertical rectangle, a parallelogram tilted to the right, and a parallelogram tilted to the left—is represented by the formula D4JKV. Each atom is surrounded by a fixed electric charge that causes an electromagnetic interaction. The combination of atoms into letters parallels the combination of letters into words. The atoms are 3D units, and their combination forms letters or 3D signs.
Franco freely admits that molecular typography is "an experimental, pseudo-scientific study"
In fact, Franco didn't originate the idea. He picked up on the concept from artist Woody Leslie, who in turn attributed it to a linguist named H.F. Henderson. But I'm not sure if Henderson is real or was invented by Leslie.
In other words, molecular typography is an art project. But the degree to which both Franco and Leslie have developed the concept is impressive.
More info: PRINT magazine, Ugly Duckling Presse
Comments
Now we need an AI to figure out ions of which elements to substitute for each 'shape' so the letters are stable molecules. Then we need to synthesize those molecules and build them into a linear crystal. Then we step back and see what we've created, embracing the "we knew we could, we didn't ask if we should" mentality.
Whatever the result looks like and/or how it acts/reacts would fuel philosophical debate for centuries.
(In case it isn't obvious, I'm clearly in the "mess around and find out" school of experimentation.
Whatever the result looks like and/or how it acts/reacts would fuel philosophical debate for centuries.
(In case it isn't obvious, I'm clearly in the "mess around and find out" school of experimentation.
Posted by Phideaux on 02/20/25 at 01:13 PM
Category: Art | Languages | Parody