Alphabet Synthesis Machine by Golan Levin

The culmination of several years of collaboration between Golan Levin, Jonathan Feinberg, and Cassidy Curtis, Alphabet Synthesis Machine was an online interactive artwork commissioned by PBS and Art21.org. The platform enabled users to design and evolve potential writing systems for fictional civilizations. Users could create abstract alphabets with the software, which could be downloaded as TrueType fonts and added to a comprehensive archive of user-generated content. The project explored the edges of familiarity and chaos, as well as language and gesture.

Levin spoke to me about the project and its impact on his future work, including the asemic writing in his Art Blocks Curated release, Cytographia:

“I’ve had an interest for a long time in nonsense alphabet systems. There’s a talk I gave at Resonate Festival 2013, where I introduce why asemic writing is interesting to me. In 2001, I did a project that was actually the culmination of several years of research with Cassidy Curtis and Jonathan Feinberg called the Alphabet Synthesis Machine, which allowed you to use a genetic algorithm to synthesize your own nonsense writing system. The great Italian artist designer Bruno Munari also had a wonderful script of an uncontacted civilization and plenty of people have done similar work as well.”