J. Dakota Brown
Typography and Automation from the Linotype to A.I.
Recently, the design press has been abuzz with speculations about a coming wave of technological “disruption.” Will algorithms and smart machines sap our skills, cheapen our work, or even eliminate it altogether? Or will they open up new platforms for creative social engagement? Such questions, as unprecedented as they may seem, have in fact been central to the typographical tradition. As a craft born in the mass-production mechanism of the printing press, typography has always been implicated in automation — raising thorny questions about industrial innovation, economic growth, and the dignity of work. In this rapid-fire history of nearly 150 years of changing techniques and technologies, Dakota will offer a broader perspective on the present and future of typographical practice.
About J. Dakota Brown
In 2000, J. Dakota Brown graduated from NC State University’s College of Design and was awarded a student medallion from the AIGA. He has lived in Chicago ever since, designing books and journals, pursuing two graduate degrees, and teaching on the history and theory of art, design, and labor. In 2019 he published two pamphlets, The Power of Design as a Dream of Autonomy (The Green Lantern Press) and Typography, Automation, and the Division of Labor (Other Forms Books). Both publications drew on his dissertation research in Northwestern University’s Rhetoric and Public Culture program. Dakota successfully defended his dissertation last spring; he currently teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.