Knowing that it could be risky to accept such a designer’s descriptions of his own works at face value, author Rick Poynor chose a more effective way to describe Jan van Toorn’s work: instead of describing its appearance or speculating about the rationale behind it, Poynor looks in detail at JvT’s reading list. The idea is simple: since JvT is highly concerned with cultural and political theories and immersed himself in the world of Brecht, Chomsky, Debord, Deleuze, Eco, Enzensberger Godard, Habermas, Marx and Schklovsky, studying these sources of inspiration reveals a lot about his development, and it is interesting to see how particular books manifest themselves later on in the actual work. Poynor points to crucial books that JvT has read and presents their main arguments at length. For example, the German poet and cultural critic Enzensberger and his idea of ‘repressive and emancipatory media’ had a profound influence on JvT’s later way of thinking about design.
Typotheque: Jan van Toorn, Critical Practice by Peter Biľak
The last sentence is of particular importance. I remember JvT probing me for how I would create an emancipatory expression. I imagine I was among the fellow experimenters. I thought at the time that he had already figured it out and was prompting me to figure it out on my own.