Monotype MIDI

This interview examines the creative research undertaken by Edwin Pickstone and Paul Maguire, in conversation with Frances Robertson. Edwin and Paul’s exploration of how ‘text events’ can become ‘sound events’ came from an initial starting point that considered the history of print technology and graphic design within circuits of knowledge and invention. Their collaboration started with the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), School of Design Research Cluster project The Visible Word , based in GSA’s Caseroom (Letterpress collection), and has run from June 2022. This interview offers a commentary on work in progress from June 2022 to the present. Since the Visible Word group exhibition in September 2023 their work has continued to develop independently, but it remains poised between the materials and processes of typography and sound composition, informed by both and developing new insights through cross-medium transcoding. There is ambition to realize an album of audio recordings made using the software tool created through the research partnership.