About

Cosmogrammatics is an experimental publishing platform for research at the intersections of art, design, the humanities and social science that engages with infrastructure as a speculative medium. We seek to emphasize the epistemological, political, and imaginary aspects of infrastructure through a focus on contemporary "cosmogrammatics", that is, standards, operating manuals, prototypes, models, architectural plans, diagrams, patents, policy documents, legal texts etc.

Cosmogrammatics is conceived as as an intermediary between field work and publishing—a repository for growing thoughts and a space for evolving discussions, initiating meaningful exchange beyond disciplinary boundaries. We consider multimodal narratives as a means to trace the often-messy intersections of epistemologies and ontologies as well as a mode of comprehending emerging cosmologies beyond the limits of language. Cosmogrammatics therefore encourages contributions based on formats that are not (yet) acknowledged by scientific journals: field notes, (visual) diaries, documentary photography, creative writing, audio recordings, and moving image.

Cosmogrammatics acknowledges research & publishing as a creative and collaborative process. The platform provides basic infrastructure for collectivity around a shared interest in infrastructure as a speculative medium. We aspire to learn together and through the process of publishing: all authors are asked to invite new contributors and take responsibility for editing the piece of the invitee. We do also accept pitches for "special issues"—a collection of contributions all speaking to a specific topic—or individual contributions by people who are not yet part of the network. If you would like to suggest a contribution, please be in touch via submission@cosmogrammatics.xyz, explain your idea in about 200 words, and include a document supposed to anchor your contribution (can be a diagram, an audio recording, a patent, a plan, a scenario, a short video, etc.). 

Accessibility was an important concern in the design of the website and continues to be so going forward. The website is based on open source and libre software, and has been designed to be accessible from as many devices and internet connections as possible. We welcome contributions in the language you feel most comfortable with and hope that the openness for non-traditional publication formats encourages less jargony pieces and discussions. If you use images, audio, moving image etc., please use alt text and consider it as a stylistic device (see the excellent guide ALT TEXT AS POETRY by Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan).

All contributions are licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cosmogrammatics was conceived by Michaela Büsse & Johannes Bruder in collaboration with Hackers & Designers (Anja Groten, Karl Moubarak & André Fincato). It originates in a panel organized by Johannes Bruder, Gökçe Günel, and Selena Savic held at the 4S/EASST conference in Prague, 2019. Our panelists and first contributors—Fadi Shayya, Megan Wiessner, and May Ee Wong—have accompanied the design process and tirelessly provided feedback to mock-ups and prototypes.

Cosmogrammatics was funded by the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures and the Critical Media Lab, FHNW Basel Academy of Art and Design.