LEFT: LINETO.COM was designed and developed by Jürg Lehni with Cornel Windlin. The website features a sophisticated font rendering engine that is fed with various sources of text and color. These sources are either written specifically for onsite display or automatically retrieved from daily newsfeeds. The Lineto projects “Lego font creator” and “Rubik maker” were created in 2000 as interactive type specimens; RIGHT: ANALOG INFORMATION is an installation piece. The only connection between the two computers is through integrated speakers and microphones. One computer reads a text with one of the default MAC OS synthesized voices; the other listens through a voice recognition software, writing the text. They go back and forth resulting in a poetry generation system that works like chinese whispers.
It’s a new phase for Jürg Lehni: The Zurich, Switzerland-based
designer just started a four-month stint working for Sony’s design
research lab in Tokyo. Up until now, he’s spent a good chunk of his
time on self-initiated projects—exploring the relationships among
design, technology, and communication. “I like systems and their
limitations,” he says. “I like exploring possibilities, thinking about
tools, and the way we use them.”
Thus far, Lehni has garnered a good deal of attention for his
inventions, which often recombine and misuse existing things to
create something new. One of his most notable projects is a graffiti
output device called Hektor. Picture a spray-paint can sitting in a
harness that’s connected to a motorized pulley system. A computer
calls the shots through an attached circuit board, telling the system
how to create a given design. Hektor’s wall-sized creations have
shown up everywhere from art installations to magazine covers.
Lehni controls Hektor using Scriptographer, a plug-in he created
for Adobe Illustrator that expands the software’s functions.
“I was looking for a way of creating a dirty printer, one that unifies
human imprecision with technology,” he says. “I wanted to change
the landscape of graphic design a little by replacing one element in
the desktop publishing chain.” In general, he looks for ways that
technology can increase, rather than limit, aesthetic possibilities.
While he’s been playing with computers since age 7, Lehni’s
formal training includes studying interactive design at Hyper-
Werk in Basel, Switzerland, and completing both bachelor and
master’s degrees at Ecole Cantonale D’Art de Lausanne (ECAL).
“Jürg is one of the pathfinders who will help us turn new technology
into new media,” says François Rappo, head of the Visual
Communication Department at ECAL. “He has a perfect capacity
to translate technology into visual design, as well as to understand
technology as design and meaning.” Now Lehni just has to decide
what the future holds: a focus on client work, artistic pursuits, or a
marriage of the two.
Michelle Taute
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