Alexis Bratu

“Killing rhythms” is a concept introduced by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney in their 2013 book The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. They describe it as a normative and systematic temporal structure of capitalist, settler-colonial society—one that enforces productivity, discipline, and exclusion.

Based on this concept, my group and I decided to examine systems that we believe reinforce similar patterns. Each of us identified a system that excludes people with disabilities or those who face struggles.

For my contribution to this group, I identified two different systems that operate within the framework of killing rhythms, as described by Moten and Harney.

First, I examined the corporate workspace, where disabilities are often overlooked. Fast-paced corporate environments fail to account for employees who may struggle with meeting targets or handling intricate workloads under strict time constraints. To address this, I proposed a system that would allow individuals to express when they are struggling with their workload.

Second, I explored creative fields, which, while similar to corporate environments, present an additional challenge: the demand for rapid yet innovative output. While meeting deadlines is already difficult for many, individuals with disabilities may face even greater obstacles in reaching creative expectations. As a potential intervention, I considered how identifying and working with alternative rhythms could make creative workspaces more inclusive.

After discussing our ideas as a group, we ultimately decided to pursue my classmate’s idea of portraying capitalism through autoplay. We felt this concept effectively represented the killing rhythm system.

For this project, each of us was tasked with generating two ideas for interventions. One of my ideas was to create a browser plug-in that would help users limit their intake of autoplay content. Its goal was to remind individuals that they have the agency to stop consuming media, rather than being drawn into an endless cycle of passive viewing.

To refine this idea, I spoke to my friends and peers about their own media consumption habits and how autoplay affects their daily lives. Through these discussions, we realized that users are more likely to ignore pop-ups that resemble the platform’s original design, as they tend to blend into the interface. This insight led me to consider creating pop-ups that break the expected visual pattern, introducing randomness to keep viewers more engaged and aware of their consumption.

Another aspect we discussed was the tone of these pop-ups. While a fully professional tone was an option, we also considered incorporating a variety of tones—some playful, some direct—to better capture users’ attention and prompt them to reflect on their viewing habits.

For this project, each of us created roughly seven pop-ups, which we then compiled into a short film simulating how the plug-in would work. We incorporated all our ideas into this film and presented it to the class on Tuesday.

Following the feedback of my tutor and peers, my team and me decided to create a few more pieces of media that would accompany this project. I took it upon myself to create a faux bank statement that would be sent to individuals in order to bring awareness to their screen use.

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Harris, T. (2016) ‘How technology hijacks people’s minds’, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3

Zhou, M. (2016) Fragmented time. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/45820185/Fragmented-Time

Newport, C. (2019) Digital minimalism: Choosing a focused life in a noisy world. New York: Portfolio.

Song, Yehwan (2024) ‘(Whose) World (How) Wide Web’, Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2X0OJIrwNH/?igsh=QkFmeF92WWNBaw%3D%3D&img_index=1

McLuhan, M., Fiore, Q. (1967) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, Berkeley: Gingko Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-vNiFct6b-L5ucJEa

Gerbaudo, P. (2012) ‘Introduction’ Tweets and the Streets. London: Pluto Press. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/reader.action?docID=3386687&ppg=1

Abdurraqib, H. (2023) ‘The hollow allure of Spotify Wrapped’, The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/the-hollow-allure-of-spotify-wrapped

The A11Y Project (2022) ‘Never use auto-play’, The A11Y Project. Available at: https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/never-use-auto-play/

DRAFT 1

My chosen piece was a printed vase illustration by Andrea Lauren (@inkprintrepeat on IG). Lauren specializes in linocut printing and especially in working with jigsaw printing. 

Technically, linocutting did not present itself as a challenge, it used fairly straightforward methods of carving and while it did take an adjustment to holding and handling the tools I was quickly able to familiarise myself with it. The biggest technical challenge I found was not being able to control the carving fully without sacrificing the loyalty to the original piece. Another challenge of the medium was the fact that I was only able to source a few primary colours of the printing inks that are typically used with it. While I was confident that I could mix them to match, I had not anticipated how hard getting an even mix would be. 

From my observation, many linocut artists seem to favour folk imagery as well as classical motifs, oftentimes it seems apparent they are trying to emulate the image of woodcuts or the feel of older prints. 

To the benefit of the medium, it seems to be used often to create empowering and accessible prints, many times created from a diy spirit.

DRAFT 2

After reading the snippet of Raymond Queneau’s “Exercises in style”, I was intrigued by the playfulness and the difference presented by the few chapters available. While maintaining some parameters and constraints, his work clearly flourishes under this enforced rulebook. By retelling a simple anecdote in 99 different styles, it highlights the malleability of language, the role of form in shaping meaning, and the humor in experimentation. 

Queneau’s example sits to show that language is a medium that can be shaped, chiseled and expanded, which intrigued me as a concept. While the medium I had chosen was of a less literal manner, I was interested in putting into practice the similar mindset of creation through constraint. 

Initially it was daunting to try to consider different ways of experimenting with my iterations. Even though lino printing is a medium that encourages experimentation within some limits, I was struggling with imagining or thinking up methods of hacking the medium in a way that had not been done before or shown to me by my own printing books. One of which being  Andrea Lauren’s own book, Block Print

Using my previously established medium, I devised to experiment in different materials while maintaining the same ink and stamp, which will act as a control element and my own established constraint. 

I was aware that conceptually, the message I was choosing to translate through my print was as important as the print itself, so I took the time to consider what I wanted to evoke through my print. It seemed natural for me to create a piece that represented my identity. I chose to depict a Romanian immigrant within a crowd of people, her face neutral as to be altered by the methods I intended using. I maintained my approach playful, my workspace was my floor, scattered on a plastic cover were my supplies, my ink spread on paper, some towels on the side to dab my inked pads when they needed cleaning. 

My materials were sourced from what I had around my house. Thick cardstock and mixed media paper were my first victims of experimentation. My first course of action was to print as I had been instructed, moderately wiping the ink off and pressing the paper on top with even pressure, but as I continued creating prints I changed up the pattern, opting to either use too little or too much ink to observe the effects caused.

 Following that up with using tracing paper and fabric to print. I found the tracing paper created an interesting effect, as the paper buckled and warped due to the wetness of the ink. The fabric has an equally surprising effect, bleeding through the material and folding within the carved out portions, the fabric prints picking up way more ink that the normal paper prints. 

An unexpected effect was the creation of prints on ‘scrap’ pieces and fabric, where I had carelessly put down the blocks in need to not stain my carpet. These prints created a textured and quite freeing print, the image unencumbered by my control. These created the most intriguing imagery.

Overall this step of the experimentation helped me better understand the process of lino printing and how this can be hacked and changed to create new and interesting visuals.

DRAFT 3

I began this project slightly unsure, freshly back from my holidays I didn’t know what I wanted to approach as my medium of iteration. I was torn between forms and artists I wanted to follow. With the help of my tutors and colleagues I finally decided I would take up lino printing. I had often marvelled at such projects and it seemed very satisfying to carve away at a block.

For my referential step of this project, I decided to recreate a piece by Andrea Lauren (@inkprintrepeat on IG) of a printed greek vase. I was fortunate that Andrea Lauren also authored an instructional book on lino printing, which gave me a starting point in understanding supplies and the process.

For my own iterations I wanted to create a piece that would be created out of separate pieces of lino which gave me the opportunity to switch the pieces.

After drying I have compiled the pieces in a GIF to be better seen. I have experimented with several materials and methods of printing. I used fabric, tracing paper, cardstock and crocheted pieces which created an interesting texture. Using the fabric I also tried a method of blotting the block with the material insead of printing it on facing up, which created a ghostly shadow print. I also tried overinking my block and staping that on which created thick outlines and undefined lines. I also stamped my block in the ink, creating an impression in the ink.

View post on imgur.com

Working on draft three I decided to change my approach to printing. Instead of carefully creating a template for myself to crave I decided to carve directly on the lino trying my best to mirror words and write backwards. I printed this on both tracing and cardstock as well as replicatingg my previous method of stamping my block within a thick ink layer.

At the feedback of my colleagues I decided that my final draft will be printed on fabric using an overinking technique and layered with some graphic elements similar to my original print.

View post on imgur.com

Following the advice of my tutor and peers, I bound the pieces into an A4 book sitched together in a Japanese Stab Stitch.

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Lauren, Andrea. Block Print: Everything You Need to Know for Printing with Lino Blocks, Rubber Blocks, Foam Sheets, and Stamp Sets (New York: Watson-Guptill, 2016).

Marshall, Sam. Linocut: A Creative Guide to Making Beautiful Prints (London: Pavilion Books, 2022).

Crawhall, Joseph. Quaint Cuts in the Chapbook Style (New York: Dover Publications, 1974).

Queneau, Raymond. Exercises in Style. Translated by Barbara Wright. 1947. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1990.

Bawden, Edward. A Book of Cuts. 1978. London: Studio Vista.

The Glossary of words and concepts of importance to the text

Order of Things, Preface from An Archaeology of the Human Sciences

by M. Foucault

Key words: culture, epistemes, knowledge,, taxonomies, human sciences, historical, Classical Age, modernity, sciences, fiction

All of these words were extracted as I reflected upon the text in consideration of my own research into cataloguing. While reading many of these words were confusing to me, I knew of their general meaning but found myself confused by their use in text, so looking up the definition opened up another rabbithole of researching and understanding the core of the text and the goal of my work.

• Aphasiac: a person suffering from a disorder that affects the ability to communicate, affected by or relating to difficulties in speaking, understanding speech, reading, or writing due to a disorder of the central nervous system

• Borges: as in Jorge Louis Borges, Argentinian short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator contributing to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, influencing the magic realist movement 

• Chimera: a thing which is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve, taken from the Greek fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail

• Classical Age: period of European history characterised by the flourishing Roman and Greek civilisations of the Mediterranean, highlighting a peak of European colonisation

• Culture: social and traditional behaviours and ideas of a particular group of people

• Delineation: the action of describing or portraying something precisely, of indicating the exact position of a boundary

• (Chinese) Encyclopedia: book written with the intention of expanding and explaining upon a specific language (in this case Chinese)

• Episteme: the body of ideas that determine the knowledge that is intellectually certain at any particular time 

• Fabula: a traditional story told through word of mouth

• Historical: of or concerning history or past events, relating to things that occurred before

• Human Sciences: a branch of study which deals with people or their actions, including the social sciences and the humanities, as contrasted with the natural sciences or physical sciences

• Incongruous: not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something

• Modernity: a modern way of thinking, working, contemporariness

• Priori: knowledge that requires no evidence, considered to be true without being based on previous experience or observation

• Tabula: a plate or frame on which a title or inscription is carved

• Taxonomy: the branch of science concerned with classification, a scheme of classification

• Utopia: an imagined/conceptual world in which everything is perfect

The definitions are taken from a collection of sources including the Oxford Languages, Merriam-Webster, Wikitionary, Collins Dictionary as well as my own knowledge of words and their meaning. This gossary can be further expanded as one proceeds in reading the text past the preface and engaging the core content.

Through my research I encountered over and over a method that I did not consider: memory. Faced with a stagnant space, I engaged with it in a way that challenged how I previously viewed the Contact Lens Room at my part time job. While regarded by many as a space of transience and of little interest, I took the time to sit with it and discover its charm, similar to George Perec’s ‘The Street’ and ‘The Neighbourhood’ from his work Species of Spaces and Other Places (1974). Perec examines the ordinary, unnoticed aspects of urban life, which inspired me to follow a similar theme in my work. In The Street, Georges Perec uses observation as a method of capturing memory—by writing down every small detail of the street, he preserves its essence in a way that otherwise might be forgotten. This use of memory as a way of partaking in not only documenting but encouraging your mind to recollect a space was very enlightening to me, as I found my mind naturally filled in gaps with information it assumed instead of recalled. The contact lens room, much like the street in Perec’s work, is a place of unnoticed significance, where people pass through, but few stop to reflect on its role in their daily lives.

As for the process of my investigation, I was inspired by Agnès Varda’s ‘The Gleaners and I’ (2000) to approach my space from an observational point of view. Varda’s documentary, The Gleaners and I, follows the lives of modern-day gleaners, people who collect discarded food, often in fields or on city streets. Through her lens, Varda turns these acts of gleaning into a meditation on human survival, poverty, and resilience. Varda does this by interviewing and observing the gleaners as the work, which inspired me to take a similar approach. As my space cannot speak, I decided to observe the space as I sat in it and interview people who did the same, my coworkers. Due to the fact these interviews were short and oftentimes during our shift, I was unable to write them down, this is where my memory as a method comes in. 

Both Varda and Perec use detailed observation to show how much meaning can be found in the ordinary. The tone of both works—thoughtful and reflective—invites the audience to slow down and reconsider the details of their own lives. Similarly, my research on memories of unimportant places mirrors the way both texts highlight the beauty in things we might otherwise dismiss. Unimportant places, like an empty street or an underused room, hold memories we might forget if we don’t take the time to notice them. These places are important because they carry moments of our lives, even if they seem trivial at first glance. Just as the gleaners in Varda’s film find sustenance in discarded items, we can find meaning in spaces that seem to have no value.