Vaibhav Singh.
"Bi-Scriptual: typography and graphic design with multiple script systems | Devanagari."
In Bi-Scriptual: typography and graphic design with multiple script systems, edited by B. Wittner, S. Thoma, and T. Hartmann.
Salenstein:
Niggli,
2018: 102-109.
Name | Vaibhav Singh |
Website | www.contextual-alternate.com |
Phone | |
Mailing Address |
Dept. of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading |
Degree | PhD in Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading, 2017 |
Second Degree | MA in Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading, 2011 |
Third Degree | MA in Industrial Design Centre Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, 2007 |
Professional Affiliation | British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Reading |
Second Professional Affiliation | Editor & Publisher, Contextual Alternate: journal of communication, technology, and history |
Research/Current Projects | My research interests revolve broadly around typographic history, printing, publishing, and textual communication, and in particular, aspects of design and technology for Indian languages and scripts. With a focus on the history of design processes and their broader sociopolitical contexts, my work aims to span interactions between makers and users across geographies, as well as across social groups. My research interests also extend to working practices and their transformation across technological change, transnational professional/commercial networks, and the dynamics of international collaboration in the development of design and technology across linguistic boundaries. I am currently pursuing a postdoctoral research project titled ‘Merchants of alphabets: networks of typographic design and technology in Indian language publishing, 1900–1950’. This project provides the first comprehensive scholarly assessment of the impact of typographic design and technology on the linguistic diversity of Indian publishing in the decades leading up to the country’s independence. It examines how creative and commercial networks that enabled the material production of text in India’s multilingual landscape played a critical role in establishing language and script preference, spurring the definition of regional priorities in printing and publishing. It situates typographic design – a critically under-researched area in publishing and book history – within the intellectual frameworks of nationalism, mass communication, and technological innovation that defined new positions of significance for indigenous languages in the country. |
Time Period Interests | 19th Century, 20th Century |
Area Interests | South Asia, East Asia |
Media Interests | Digital printmaking, Letterpress, Lithography |
CV |