The Baggage of History and the Power of Words — Kelsey Elder
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 2021-02-01

Recorded during TypeCon2019: “Nice” in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The pedagogy related to the field of typography greatly evolved due to the fact, that in various degrees, it is a historical marker. This traditionally meant that as educators we could judge typographic work (from our students) in this way — a comparison (consciously or not) with historical, linear, cannons, and rules.

History is not static. Words have power.

This talk will focus on this baggage related to the pedagogy of typography and how it impacts the language of critique in our classrooms. It will track how the models of typographic critique have stagnated; while showing, concrete, speculative, alternative examples from my experiences teaching at public-mission schools.

As educators, let’s take a moment to seriously consider how our bark is not matching our bite around those buzzwords of ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’. How are we, inherently, exclusionary in the language used on syllabi, projects, lecturers, and critiques? How can we avoid placing ourselves as gate-keepers of what floats as ‘diverse’ or ‘inclusionary’? How can we pose more questions without answers, or with messy answers, to speculate an inclusive lexicon and models of typographic evaluation which are truly radical?