The coming weeks we’re gonna make some public appearances again for a few lectures and exhibitions during our Space-Time Tour 2025.

4 april • Tokyo, Japan
Our exhibition Sensorium Motorium in Print Gallery in Tokyo will open, introducing a new writing instrument: the fluxographer. And because Flux, our paradimensional typeface, won a TDC Tokyo award, it will be part of the TDC Tokyo exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery (ggg) in Tokyo this weekend. And on 5 April we’ll give a lecture at the TDCDAY in Tokyo, on Sunday 6 April at 18:00 everybody is welcome for some drinks at the Sunday Soiree at our exhibition in Print Gallery.
TDCDAY • Print Gallery

23 April • Amsterdam, the Netherlands
On Wednesday 23 April we’ll give a lecture called “How many days too early?” at the 56th installment of Letterspace in Amsterdam. Doors open at 19:00. Free entry, but RSVP.
letterspace.amsterdam

24 April • Hamburg, Germany
On Thursday 24 April we’ll give a lecture called “More to the letter” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany. Free entry, starts at 19:00 o’clock.
mkg-hamburg.de

26 April • Copenhagen, Denmark
On Saturday 26 April we’ll give a lecture called “Kaleidoscopic Entanglements Reflect Meaning” at the ATypI conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Tickets for the conference are required.
atypi.org

28 April • Stockholm, Sweden
On Monday afternoon 28 April we’ll give a lecture called “Paradimensional writing” at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. The lecture starts at 16:00 o’clock.
konstfack.se

01 May • Kolding, Denmark
On Thursday afternoon 1 May we’ll give a lecture called “Writing space in time” at the Kolding School of Design in Kolding, Denmark. The lecture starts at 15:00 o’clock.
designskolenkolding.dk

13 June • Trondheim, Norway
We’ll end our Space-Time Tour with a lecture at Friday evening the 13th of June at Grafill in Trondheim, Norway. Exact details be announced at this location soon.
grafill.no

Underware exhibition at Print Gallery Tokyo
April 2025

What if writing could be experienced not just visually, but physically and sonically, too? In Sensorium Motorium, Underware introduces a new kind of writing instrument – playful, experimental, and rooted in cybernetic theory.

In his essay Cybernetics of Epistemology, Austrian-American scientist Heinz von Foerster (1911 – 2002) introduces two foundational propositions for the acquisition of knowledge, grounded in the interplay between the sensorium (the system of conscious sensations) and the motorium (the regulated sequence of motion):
1. The meaning of the signals from the sensorium is determined by the motorium; and the meaning of the signals from the motorium is determined by the sensorium.
2. The laws of physics – the so-called “laws of nature” – can be described by us. But the laws of brain function – or, more broadly, the laws of biology – must be formulated in such a way that the act of writing them is itself derivable from them. In other words, they must be self-writing.

A few years earlier, von Foerster conducted the research project Mechanisms of the Perception of and Formation of Internal Representations of the Spatial Fourth Dimension (1971/72) with student Phyllis Arnold at the Biological Computer Laboratory in Illinois, USA. This experiment was motivated by the belief that dimensions higher than three could serve as an ideal means to separate newly assimilated information from past experiences. In doing so, participants might encounter a moment of pure understanding – understanding understanding, as von Foerster called it.

Sensorium Motorium
With Sensorium Motorium, Underware builds upon this historical body of research and connects it to the cultural domain of writing and sign-making. To explore this intersection, they developed a new, higher-dimensional writing instrument: the Fluxographer.

This multi-sensory grammatographic device enables the writing and experiencing of higher-dimensional signs through the simultaneous integration of haptic, auditory, and visual stimuli. More than a speculative tool, the Fluxographer offers a reflection on writing itself – how we write, how we read, and how the act of writing shapes perception and thought.

At the same time, it was also created with a playful spirit: an instrument designed to invite curiosity and joy. Something to explore, to try, to play with. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the Fluxographer – to write, to listen, to feel. The experience is as much intuitive and sensory as it is conceptual. Sensorium Motorium at Print Gallery Tokyo marks the world premiere of this new instrument.

The Fluxographer
The Fluxographer consists of a high-resolution touchpad device with a custom keyboard layout, the higher-dimensional typeface Flux (recipient of the TDC Tokyo Award 2025), an MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) synthesizer, and a bespoke tool that connects all three into one coherent, multi-sensory system. The Fluxographer captures users’ gestures with precision and renders them into higher-dimensional forms – both visual and sonic. The exhibition also features a series of unique A0 Fluxograms (created using the Fluxographer).

This is Underware’s second solo exhibition at Print Gallery in Tokyo. Parallel to Sensorium Motorium, their award-winning project Flux is also on view at the ginza graphic gallery in Tokyo.

About Underware
Underware is a pan-European design collective specializing in type and writing systems. Known for pushing the boundaries of typography, their work blends graphic design, linguistics, technology, and performance. With projects ranging from experimental typefaces to conceptual installations, Underware investigates the cultural, physical, and emotional dimensions of writing. Their work has been exhibited internationally and is part of several public and private collections.
underware.nl

About Print Gallery
Print Gallery Tokyo is an independent exhibition space dedicated to contemporary graphic design and visual culture. Known for its focused programming and intimate setting, the gallery offers a platform for experimental and conceptual projects that push the boundaries of print and typography. Its curatorial approach – bridging design, art, and research – has made it an important site for international designers and artists to engage with a thoughtful and design-savvy audience in Japan.
printgallerytokyo.com

Since a few years we’ve been designing and producing writing fonts, fonts which have their writing dynamics included in the font file. As these are something new in the industry, some people wonder what they are and how they function.

In May 2023, when we released the type family Scribo, we gave a lecture at the ATypI conference in Paris. Because the starting point for Scribo was to design the dynamics of handwriting, we took the opportunity of this lecture to explain what details are involved in the making of writing fonts. For example: new terminology is required once type is designed in time, because how fast is a “default” speed and is there a unit to describe this? There are a lot of conventions for relations in space (like kerning), but there is a need for similar terminology for relations in time (like tuning). This, and much more details, are explained in this lecture, which of course also includes live action writing for an empirical experience.

Often these lectures are only accessible for registered attendees, but we’re happy that a recording of this lecture is now available to anybody.

This autumn we’ll make a small tour across France, Germany and Switzerland with some lectures and workshops at educational institutes, festivals and symposiums. We’re looking forward to meet old but also lots of new friends, so hopefully we’ll see you on one of these occasions.

5 October — Nancy
Lecture “Beyond Unicode” at Atelier national de recherche typographique, Nancy France.

5-6 October — Nancy
Two-day workshop “Beyond Unicode” at Atelier national de recherche typographique, Nancy, France.

9 October — Strasbourg
Lecture “From Chirography to Grammatography” at Formats Festival in Strasbourg, France.

11 October — Zürich
Lecture “Deep Writing” at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, Switzerland.

13 October — Basel
Lecture “Is it U+2047?” at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel HGK, in Basel, Switzerland.

6-10 November – Geneva
Five-day typeworkshop “Signature moves” at HEAD, Geneva, Switzerland

15 November — Paris
Lecture “The coding hand, encoding the hand” at Font and Faces #10, Campus Fonderie de l’Image, Bagnolet, Paris, France.

18 November — Munich
Lecture “Look backward, write forward” at Dynamic Font Day, Munich Germany.

21 November — Stuttgart
Lecture “Vorwärts schreiben, rückwärts schauen” at Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany.

Although through writing someone can assert their existence, we are not publishing a book but instead will soon give two lectures around the theme “Scribo, ergo sum”. These lectures will take place on Friday 12 May 2023 in Paris at the ATypI conference, and on Saturday 13 May 2023 in Antwerp at the TypoCafé.

12 May 2023 — Paris
The first lecture in Paris is titled “Scribo, ergo sum” and trades on writing anno 2023, what new possibilities the combination of writing by hand and by computer offers, and also what new unexplored territory lies there, and we touch on a lack of terminology to describe that new territory.
atypi.org

13 May 2023 — Antwerp
The second lecture in Antwerp is one day later, and is logically titled “In retrospect: Scribo, ergo sum”. This will probably be our most topical lecture ever, as in it we look back at what we presented just one day earlier in Paris. We will try to already reflect cautiously at this event organised by Initiaal, alumni of the Plantin Institute of Typography.
initiaal.be

Saturday 15 Oct 2022 we’ll give a talk titled Rule of Three at the InScript festival, a 5-day festival on the overlap of typography and technology. As the organisation puts it: “The five-day festival will showcase portfolios and behind-the-scenes among top design practitioners working with artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities, dimensional typography, creative coding, physical computing, and innovative use of traditional craft.” All lectures will be streamed online, so you can follow this inaugural event from anywhere in the world. In case you want to be inspired by 30+ speakers in the world of contemporary experimental type, sign up at inscript.tf

▶ Rule of Three
Lecture by Underware at InScript
Saturday 15 October 2022
NY 11:30–12:10
Amsterdam 17:30–18:10
Shanghai 23:30–00:10

Register & watch online at inscript.tf

Instead of presenting our recent findings and points of views in a lecture, we’ve used the opportunity of giving a lecture to develop new findings and points of views in recent years. A satisfactory turnaround in approach. Contemporary technological developments not only affect the design process (not only of letters, but of any design process), but also have an impact on how letters are used, and what a letter is. A lecture is a good moment to reflect on this, by developing new thoughts, making new demos, sketching new ideas, or making new designs.

Coming Thursday 7 July 2022 we’ll give a lecture at the International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication in Thessaloniki, Greece. This time we’re gonna explore what’s inside the letter.
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Thursday 10 March 2022 we’ll give a lecture at the Printemps de la Typographie, organised by l’école Estienne in Paris. Those who can remember previous editions, that’s before the pandemic, will remember we gave a lecture a the last 2 editions of this one day seminar. As usual we only understand what we’re doing while we’re doing it, and we came to the conclusion that we’ve actually been telling one long story at the Printemps de la Typographie, started in 2019, continued in 2020, and we’re gonna finish that story in 2022 with the lecture ‘Homo Scriptus’. Therefore it would be a pleasure to see you coming Thursday in Paris at the final episode of our Pen Triptych. Other lectures by Emmanuël Souchier, Charles Gautier, Gabriele Cepulyte, Jean Alessandrini and Olivier Nineuil, Sophie Cure, Esther Szac & André Baldinger.

Tickets and more info here.

Coming Friday, 6 Nov, we’ll start something new. Inspired by our Berlin Triptych (2017-2019), a series of three lectures in which every lecture continued where the previous lecture had ended, we’re gonna start a new series of 3 joined lectures which tell one longer story. But where the Berlin Triptych (I, II, III) was focused on the subject of letters, this new triptych explores the pen.

The first part of this new triptych, named “The Pen”, will be presented this week in Mexico at the Tipografía México conference, and can be watched online for free. The second part (“The Wheel”) and third part (“Homo Scriptus”) of the triptych are still to be announced.

Fri 6 Nov. 2020
Underware lecture: The Pen
(The Pen Triptych part I)

🇲🇽 12:00 (CST) Mexico 😎
🗽 13:00 (EST) New York ☀️
🇪🇺 19:00 (CET) Berlin 🌧
🇮🇳 23:30 (IST) Mumbai 🌛
🇯🇵 03:00 (JST) Tokyo 🌚

Broadcasted for free
👉 tipografiamexico.com

15-minute introduction to grammatography

If you’ve never heard about grammatography, but if you are interested in writing, fonts, scripts, or typography, then this presentation about a new way of writing is for you.

This 15-minute introduction to grammatography was broadcast 25 Sept 2020 during the Typewknd-conference, and is now available for anybody to watch. The video is accompanied by a quick write-up for even better understanding of this new subject. For 🤯 check the complete case study Grammatography!

(ps. Original trailer here)