Linda Dounia Rebeiz is an artist and designer who investigates the philosophical and environmental implications of technocapitalism. She is inspired by science fiction, speculative design, solarpunk, and degrowth.
Her work mediates her memories as alternative truths and evidence of excluded ways of being and doing. It is formed through the dialogue (and tensions) between analogue and digital mediums.
In 2023, Linda was recognized on the TIMEAI100 list of most influential people in AI for her work on speculative archiving – building AI models that help us remember what we have lost.
TONGUES
Asemic Lettering
(2022)
Experimenting with asemic calligraphy and typography has always been a meditative practice. For 'Tongues', I wanted to explore if asemic text can be modelled, so I trained a GAN on hand-drawn ink asemic calligraphy inspired by 7 writing systems: Roman, Devanagari, Chinese, Japanese, Mende, Amharic, and Arabic.
I wanted to honour the rich legacy of asemic writing, whose origins can be traced to the earliest forms of writing (proto-writing) and later to Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic calligraphy. To create the GAN's inputs, I used calligraphy tools (brush, pens) as well as a random assortment of materials (dish sponges, fabrics, leaves, plastic bags, foraged sticks, etc.).
Asemic text, much like abstract art, celebrates spontaneity and a departure from conventional calligraphic tools or systems. The use of materials not typically intended for mark-making is present in both asemic text and abstract art.
This body of work was commissioned by Ledger as part of their Art on Stax release.