It’s 2090, and intelligent technologies have advanced to a point where the practice of reading has become obsolete. Writing itself has become a forgotten memory of the past, while the only texts produced in the world remain illegible, mechanical scribblings made by machines.
As originally proposed by media theorist Marshall McLuhan in 1962, the theory of post-literacy stands eerily true in present-day context as attention spans decrease steadily and texts circulate within algorithm-driven echo chambers. While mainstream media continues to shift to the cloud, the typographic condition is undergoing a transformative shift.
mary magdalene is a prototype for an asemic writing robot situated in such a world. As part of an ongoing thesis work, the research takes on a media archaeological approach to visual communication design. Through a speculative reframing of the archaic tradition of writing against a rapidly developing technological landscape, mary magdalene offers a glimpse into the study of what a future textual practice might look like.
Veronika Valtonen is an artist and designer based in Helsinki and Berlin. Her practice is focused on the textuality and interpretability of found forms, drawing on methods of asemic writing and apophenia. By seeking new narratives through typographic remnants, her works interrogate the technonatural relationships of the present world through the telling of future histories. She is currently undertaking her thesis research in Visual Communication Design with a focus on generative textual practices, computation and non-narrativity.