interpretation of the world

what: brochure design
where: berlin and beyond
when: 2007

a brochure with texts for the global economic system. a low-budget production. we decided to invested most of the budget in colored paper and only print with one color. the entering pages are only photos taken from our archive complimented with captions, which were small random text snippets from texts. thru this we bridged the images with the long text and gave some productive irritation and an extended reading pattern for the recipient. the german book-art foundation gave this concept an acknowledgment.

view broschue online

“imaging dissent visited sandy kaltenborn, who runs the berlin based design studio image-shift. In this interview from 2008 sandy talks about design being politics and the other way around. unfortunately the interview is only available in german.” (source: www.imaging-dissent.net)

 

the microscope

what: booklet design
where: massachusetts (usa) and beyond
when: 2007

natascha sadr haghighian’s piece singing microscope was shown in the second half of a two-part exhibition at the MIT visual arts center in massachusetts. the exhibition explored the various ways that artists address the influence of technology on the senses. her installation featured an old microscope once used at mit. she replaced the eyepiece with a headphone speaker so at the point when the visitor expects to see something, he or she discovers a soundtrack. next to the microscope was a take-away brochure –which our studio designed together with the artist– of a conversation with the mit professor evelyn fox-keller. fox-keller’s work in the area of gender and science was the inspiration for haghighian’s piece. the installation is a reflexion around the « dead metaphor » (a metaphor which has lost the original imagery of its meaning owing to extensive, repetitive popular usage) in science and by extension in art and daily life.

view booklet online

more info at carol fletcher

posterland / bruxxels

what: ehibition participation
where: brussel
when: 2006

“posterland was an exhibition of posters by alejandro magallanes, teresa sdralevich, sandy kaltenborn (image-shift) and olivier wiame. four designers who struggle to let non commercial signs and visuals live in the public space. imported from berlin or mexico city, seen in brussels, their work is a declaration and a question mark.” (quote from rene wanner) the exhibition was curated by teresa sdralevich

teresa sdralevich

what: book design where: berlin when: 2007 for the exhibition project “the lost moment” we came up with quite a radical book concept: no design besides cover and the red sides of the book. we gave all participating artist a fixed grid / space to fill with their personal contribution, be it images, artwork or even text – all the same page layout. more info / curators website

istrike / mayday

what: poster series
where: berlin
when: 2008

this series of 7 posters (3+3+1) is raises the question of how to strike or pause in our working conditions – in a situation of precarity. how can we go on strike besides getting sick, drinking all night or just burning out? we felt that it was not enough to just share the drama of daily life work stress with our friends or partners in private settings. we wanted to put these questions into the streets, to inscribe them into the public discourses. stress, burnout, job related illness… these are not private issues. the political picket sign is superimposed on background images of daily life, both public (the subway) and private (the bedroom,) playing on the contradiction between of the picket sign (classical demonstration and expression of demands) and daily life (bed, street, transportation.) this is played against by the absurdity of the poster with an empty picket sign. the empty sign opens up the possibility of writing one’s own claims, questions, and anger… but also puts forth the idea that politics is not a “ready made product” but a participatory process. the 3 words below try to raise more questions about the contradictions of living in a market culture. for instance, the question about “solidarity:” how does this work together with career and competition? even though both happen all the time?

more on our mayday posters by john emerson

mayday 2007

what: poster series
where: berlin
when: 2007

“what does international workers’ day mean for the self-employed — for the designer or any other highly flexible working person today? or someone unemployed? how does someone self-employed go on strike? how do you fight for better working conditions?” once a celebration of spring and a commemoration of attacks on workers, euromayday is a modern reinvention of the may day tradition. the first mayday parade was held in milan in 2001 and has since spread across europe. in 2006, it grew into euromayday, a day of protests and actions to fight “precarization” of workers and discrimination against migrants in europe and beyond. new forms of precarity are a result of shifts in the modern workplace from permanent employment to temp work, freelance, and other instruments of “flexible labor.” this has resulted in an existence for workers without predictability or security, affecting both material and psychological welfare. in 2007 mayday berlin, a coalition of about 20 activist groups, organized the 2nd euromayday demonstration in berlin (as well as various events) in coordination with other euromayday coalition in europe (paris, milan, hamburg, brussels, …) under the (bumpy) claim “take back your life!” (…)

more on our mayday posters by john emerson

solo show

what: book design
where: berlin, bologna
when: 2008

the starting point of the solo show project was the meeting of natascha sadr haghighian (berlin-based artist) with uwe schwazer from mixedmedia (a company for artwork production and development) during the installation of an exhibition. on the invitation of the mambo (…) and based on her discussion with uwe, natascha decided to invent the fictional artist “robbie williams.” together with mixedmedia she conceptualised and produced an installation exhibit in 2008 in bologna. the companion book produced for the exhibit gives clues to the larger context. solo show is an invitation to explore the myth of the solo artist and examine the ways in which contemporary art is produced.

more info

afghan woman association

what: set of display posters
where: gemany
when: 2012

the afghan woman association was celebrating it´s 20 years anniversary. this small association of exile afghan woman are running several projects in support of afghan woman and children in afghanistan and pakistan. they operate schools, sewing schools, midwife projects, drilling wells, first aid stations and else – all of this 100% voluntarily and no money spend on any kind of bureaucracy. sandy kaltenborn´s mother (qamar kaltenborn) is an active member of this association and is in afghanistan many times a year. the troubled situation of afghanistan is therefore quite often present in the daily studio life.

for the anniversary in 2012 a big fund raising gala was held at the opera in köln (germany). for this we helped in producing the exhibition displays, which show the projects of the association. the slideshow photos show impressions of the work in afghanistan and pakistan, as well as some of the displays.

if you want to support the afghan woman association you can contact us.

afghan woman association

who´s crises?

what: poster series
where: berlin
when: 2009

may 1 / labour day – how can one communicate something meaningful, which is not caught up between union sausages or barricades in kreuzberg? we have tried it. a poster city-poster scrabble game. 12,000 posters carried the „financial crisis“ with an „?“ into the streets. additionally we designed the demonstration leaflets as masks.
for several years we designed the visual campaign for mayday in berlin. please have a look at our little history of mayday engagement though out the years 2007 -2010 on this new york based website „social design notes”.

social design notes

MERZ design school

what: teaching, lecture
where: stuttgart
when: 2009

together with the merz academy of design, art, and media in stuttgart we organized a workshop with design and visual art students to discuss the global economic crisis and its repercussions at a time when the crisis was omnipresent in the media. the discussions centered on questions such as: whose crisis is it? what are the images that currently accompany how the crisis is depicted in the media? can the depth of the crisis be represented in more concrete terms in images and words? what possibilities are there to visualize abstract economic processes? what is your own relation to the crisis? how and where can you “see” it? after discussions within the group, the students went out on the streets, spread and share those questions with people of their city. they collected interviews, quotes and images which they discussed arrange in a small magazine / newspaper.

merz design school

ENEMY PROTESTERS

what: book design
where: berlin
when: 2008

in the aftermath of one of the biggest police operations in heiligendam / germany during the G8 sumit in 2007, the republican lawyers association (RAV) published a documentation on the events. at the day of the summit, the RAV organized a network of lawyers (anwaltlicher notdienst/legal team) to protect basic democratic rights of demonstrators. for this engagement they received the “carl-of-ossietzky-medal” in 2008.

republican lawyers association

carl-of-ossietzky-medal

no media spree

what: campaign strategy, text work, flyers, stickers, posters and other printed matter
where: berlin
when: 2008

the initiative mediaspree versenken (sink mediaspree) was created in 2007 to protest against gentrification and the privatization of public space in the city. the investors’ plan was to build up the banks of the river spree between the former west berlin district of kreuzberg and the former east berlin district of friedrichshain. grassroots initiatives came together to alter the planning process under the slogan, “spree riverfront for all!” the campaign “mediaspree versenken” generated enough signatures for a local public referendum on the issue in 2008. after months of creative mobilizations and actions (from party demonstrations to a water blockade of the investors boat tour), a clear majority (87%) supported the alternative proposals put forth by the initiative.

initiative mediaspree versenken

memefest workshop

what: workshop, lecture
where: nijmegen
when: 2011

image-shift was invited as a mentor at the 2011 memefest workshop „mapping socially responsive communication“ in nijmegen (netherlands). beside us there were other great international mentors in the team such as: tony credland (cactus network), shoaib nabi (professor at aue in sharjah), alain bieber (rebel art), jason grant (inkahoots), paul hartmann (memefest brasil) and of course oliver vodep (memefest).participans of the workshop were also quite an international crowd: anja groten (netherlands), darija medic (yugoslavia), karin grigoryan (armenia), tamara djordjević (yugoslavia), mathieu tremblin (france), niloufar tajeri (germany), gal kirn (slovenija), scott townsend (usa), christian zoellner (germany), paolo cirio (italy), alana hunt (australia), jody boehnert (uk) , vladimir turner (czech republic), monika klobčar (slovenija), simon perčič (slovenija), gavin grindon (uk), sarah dugan (canada), giada totaro (italy), jovana cvetićan (yugoslavia), group_5 (uae).

comment by the workshop organizers oliver, dejan, vida, and rok: indeed it was magic. and radical. memefest „mapping socially responsive communication“ workshop brought together almost thirty fantastic thinkers, educators, designers, artists, activists, students, researchers, proffesionals and above all: good people from arround the world together for eight days of dialogue, work, inspiration and fun. we all came to beautifull nijmegen’s oddstream festival and spent together eight intense days of hard working rock n roll. – the many different social backgrounds, cultural references, and personal characters created a dynamic of productive conflict and close dialogue. (read more)

in 2013 we received the message that shoaib nabi has died. we are very sad. his death is a loss for the international engaged design community. (read more)

memefest

ALIGNMENTS OF NEOREALISM

what: book design
where: köln
when: 2009

just another book (…) with a lot of typesetting …

link to publisher

read part of the book (german)

back to the present

what: poster design
where: berlin
when: 2008

in the context of the 58. berlinale (berlins film festival) unions and activists adressed the poor working conditions of the berlinale employees and people who work in the film buisness in general.

berlin – in eigener regie!

what: book design
where: berlin
when: 2007

the book discusses how self-directed and community-oriented living can contribute to sustainable urban development in berlin.

as soon as …

what: book design
where: berlin
when: 2005

a book on several projects of the artist elke marhöfer. “dear artist, your art becomes a form of activism committed to tricking the so-called ‘natural’ flows of consumption and historical progress by messing with its normalized rhythm. making the corpse talk. your interventions: songs, texts, posters, shared diets, spatial operations and public monuments are assembled like antibodies and experiment with the transmissibility of culture and its potential for serving collective needs over the pseudo-needs spawned by consumerism. by joining others in collaboration, you’ve become a medium against the notion of the producer. forgetting how ‘to make’ in order to better learn how ‘to practice’. practicing to be alive together. against the deathblows of advanced capitalism, ‘to practice’ becomes ‘to struggle’. what does the art world do with this?” (carissa rodriguez)

elke marhöfer

i love to you / sharjah

what: booklet, CD design
where: sharjah (UAE)
when: 2007

a sound project at the sharjah biennial by the group e-xplo (heimo lattner, erin mcgonigle und rene gabri). the artists recorded songs of immigrant workers in their native language and places speakers though out the city. this project was made in light of the dismal lack of rights of migrant workers in the united arab emirates. unions, almost all types of strikes and any political activity is prohibited. nearly 99 percent of the workforce in the private sector are foreigners who can be deported immediately.

more info on the biennial website

unitednationsplaza

what: folder, poster
where: berlin
when: 2007

unitednationsplaza was a project curated by several artists. for one year the project was stationed in berlin and functioned in part as a school. the artists natascha sadr haghighian, ines schaber and the critic and curator anselm franke organised in this context, a weeklong seminar titled, who’s there? — an interrogation in the dark in october 2007. their seminar attempted to negotiate the possibilities of the political and the artistic in a state of a general mental and social blackout. the seminar involved guest presenters from different cultural fields.

labournet.tv

what: website, flyer
where: berlin
when: 2011

for labournet.tv we designd flyers and the website. read the mission statement by the labournet.tv team:labournet.tv is a living audiovisual archive of the labour movement. we consider ourselves part of a movement with the aim of fundamentally changing social relations. the internet is our means to promote an exchange of experiences, a process of learning from past struggles, and solidarity. for this purpose, present-day and historical films from all continents are collected. our focus is on the situation of the workers, their (self-) organization, labour disputes and working conditions, and ideas for social alternatives. labournet.tv also produces its own contributions concerning current events, in order to make visible current struggles and the perspective of the working population. films that take the workers’ perspective, and give them a platform to speak, convey important experiences. labournet.tv will collect these films, which so far can only be found with difficulties, e.g. on commercial video platforms or in inaccessible archives, and make them available for free.