Flat Circle
ART TYPOGRAPHY HAND-CRAFT
PUBLICATION DESIGN RESEARCH
EXPERIMENTAL
Flat Circle is a physical, interactive perpetual calendar and companion booklet that celebrates the groundbreaking periodical layouts of the anti-war, anti-art Dada movement of the 1910s–20s. Centered around the theme of cycles and recurrence, the circular calendar and book make the case for Dada’s constant relevance in the face of so-called “unprecedented” times.
BACKGROUND
Inspired by the modern idiom, “time is a flat circle”—an endless cycle dooming humanity to repeat the same horrors and revolutions over and over—Flat Circle is a perpetual calendar consisting of carefully researched type specimens from the highly political, typographically experimental, frankly weird periodicals published by anti-art Dadaists in the wake of World War I (courtesy of the University of Iowa’s International Dada Archive).
THE CALENDAR
Arranged in three concentric rings—one each for the weekday, month, and date—the calendar’s date is displayed through three windows. Any date can be shown by rotating each ring, but the viewer in for a delightfully annoying experience searching for the right date. The specimens are placed out of order, and plenty of them really have no business being on a calendar.
THE BOOK
The companion book catalogs the source material used in the calendar and gives supplementary context to illustrate the ongoing relevance of Dada in today’s global political climate.
The pages were trimmed into circles and rotate around a single hinge to further communicate the theme of cyclical motion.
