Science

In crits it was suggested that I considered how a contemporary message could be applied with the ancient typographic stylings of the Abracadabra charm. I found this a great challenge because I did not want to claim that something I created had magical powers when I knew full well that it did not. It felt a lot more honest to re-create the Abracadabra charm objectively in the present and let people make up their own minds about the potential of magic, than to try and create my own magic.

I began considering how in the Roman Empire, people had faith in magic and a plethora of Gods, and questioned what I myself believe in. The only thing I have faith in is science, and I considered how the word 'Abracadabra' could be replaced in the typographic charm by something relating to science, to illustrate how science has replaced magic and religion (at least for me it has).

I thought about using the names of scientists or famous scientific apparatus, but they seemed too obvious. Since the Abracadabra charm had a degree of mystery to it, I wanted these new prints to retain a degree of uncertainty. I recalled a TED Talk I watched a while ago, given by the scientist and author David Deutsch, where he asked why scientific equations were not immortalised in public monuments (as they are responsible for far more than any moral person could be), and he gave an example using the 4 equations that describe the Proton – Proton Chain Reaction; the principal nuclear reaction in our Sun, and by consequence the equation that is responsible for all life on Earth. I decided to use this equation for my prints.

The equations were printed using letterpress in the typographic style of the Abracadabra charm, with explanations of each equation printed on the back (science is meant to clarify the world, but as I said earlier I wanted these prints to maintain a degree of mystery, so the description was relegated to the back). Above each equation is printed 'INVENTORI LUCIS SOLI INVICTO AUGUSTO', which is Latin for 'To the contriver of light, Sol Invictus Augustis [the Roman Sun God]'. This is a nod to the historical heritage of the Roman typographic charm that inspired the prints, and also makes a direct connection to the Sun in each print.