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What do We See When We See?
Images, Power, and Perception in the Age of Artificial Intelligence From Optics to Algorithms The current fascination and fear surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, often portray it as an unprecedented rupture. Yet, a deeper historical and epistemological view reveals that AI is not an alien force but a continuation—indeed, an intensification—of older visual…
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A Dog That Shits Critique Instead of Barking
The creation of Mario Klingemann’s A.I.C.C.A. (Artificially Intelligent Critical Canine) in 2023 presents a striking opportunity to speculate on the futures of publishing. This robotic dog, designed to critique artworks by collaborating with an AI language model, invites a wry meditation on the status of critique, the legacy of conceptual art, and the enduring bond…
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When the World Stops Singing: Prophetic Dreams in the Dark
The Noon of Shadows On April 28, 2025, a strange darkness fell across Portugal and Spain.Although the sun still stood high, the infrastructures that held up the modern world faltered. Lights died, networks froze, and cities, stripped of their orchestras of signals and commands, stood silent. In those hours, the Iberian Peninsula became a threshold…
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Mutations of the Visible: A Future Archaeology of Publishing
Introduction What if publishing, far from being a stable industry of books and journals, were instead a fleeting adaptation—an evolutionary gesture that changes as humanity itself mutates? What if the future of publishing had less to do with innovations in digital media and more to do with the transformation of human perception, memory, and imagination?…
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Publishing Silence: Toward an Ethics of Editorial Quiet
“True silence is the rest of the mind.” — Max Picard In a world increasingly saturated with language, content, and noise, the question is no longer how to speak, but how to remain silent without disappearing. Silence, when understood not as absence but as presence, might offer one of the most radical editorial gestures of…
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Publishing in the Wake of Things
At a time when planetary systems are under strain—from environmental degradation to information overload—publishing finds itself at a crossroads. The challenges we face are not only ecological, but also epistemic and material: how do we produce and share knowledge without further exhausting the world? In this context, the future of publishing cannot be reduced to…
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The Studio as Material Node: Toward a Sustainable Infrastructure for Hybrid Publishing
The contemporary design studio operates within shifting conditions that challenge its historical foundations. No longer simply a workshop of form-making or visual communication, the studio is increasingly drawn into complex entanglements—technological, ecological, social—that demand critical reflection and adaptive practice. It becomes a site of situated inquiry: a space where infrastructures are made visible, where hybridities…
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Other Worlds of Publishing: Holding Space for the Not-Yet
In a world marked by disintegration, collapse, and radical shifts in meaning, the act of publishing has emerged not merely as a dissemination of information but as a profound philosophical, technological, and anthropological gesture — one that holds the potential to shape realities, forge solidarities, and sketch the outlines of futures not yet realized. Publishing,…
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Publishing Futures: Design, Food, and the Rituals of Making Public
Transition design, as outlined by Irwin, Kossoff, Tonkinwise, and Scupelli (2015), offers a framework that aligns with the urgency of publishing practices oriented toward systemic and cultural shifts. They argue that “design must evolve from problem-solving to problem-framing, from short-term solutions to long-term transitions” (p. 6). This essay approaches publishing through the lens of transition…
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Critique as Commodity: The Contradictions of Critical Design Publishing
On the paradoxes of resistance, co-optation, and the aesthetics of dissent In recent years, the field of design has experienced a notable shift—a swelling chorus of critical voices emerging from within its own ranks. Designers have turned to publishing not only as a mode of self-expression, but as a method of critique: books, zines, panels,…
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Publishing Futures * By Luís Alegre 