top of page

Random Mutation series 2004-2024

The Random Mutations series, originally called Counterblast as a nod to Marshall McLuhan's 1969 book of the same name, is a visual exploration of the hidden spaces within communication, where meaning and intent begin to break down, become vague, misconstrued, or misinterpreted altogether. The work occupies that uncertain middle ground between information and abstraction.

Each piece begins with a word or phrase, typically used as the title, which is then manipulated graphically—altering the type manually, subtracting from it, adding to it, breaking it apart—until the original language becomes illegible. What remains is something between image and information: fragments of letters, counters, broken serifs, and other remnants that begin to form a new visual language of their own.

Sometimes the resulting forms resemble outlined, topographic maps—a kind of "typo-topography." Other times they take on an almost architectural quality. The original message gradually disappears, but its fragments remain, offering a partial message that becomes the new visual language or dialogue within the work.

In that sense, the process is both destructive and generative: language is broken down in order to discover what might exist beyond it. Language from the negation of language. Babel / babble / b Ab... L

Shop prints - chrisferebeestudio.com

Calligraphobia_RM1.jpg

Ascender/Descender, typographic-glitch video, extension of the Random Mutations series, 2004/2024. | music: chris ferebee / styrofoam mansions, 2024

bottom of page