Teresa Rudolf Teresa Rudolf

What's the story behind your web cover design for Het Nieuwe Instituut Online?

I created a ruler - a classic tool - that I adjusted to the recent global policies of distancing. With a total length of 1.5 metres (the distance to keep as recommended by most governments), it includes various units that have become particularly relevant lately. All of them derive from the human body: the intimate sphere (60cm), the private sphere (120cm), the foot (3 feet is the WHO's recommended distance), the step, cubit and arm's length. Moving in public space these days has become a new kind of ballet: you're anticipating the movements of others; you wait for people to pass you. Public buildings have been restructured into one-way streets. Overnight, an entirely new culture of signage has popped up.

Here in Germany, another image - one of people queueing outside shops - even embodies a kind of time travel, carrying a blurred memory of the time of East Germany's economic crises. It seems like a preposterous anachronism - especially when found in the western part of the country. A recent photograph shows a Chinese schoolboy wearing a hat with four pencils attached pointing to the four directions. A kind of orbital body extension to remind the child of his new private zone. It's said the intimate sphere of a person covers a radius of 40 to 60 cm. I often wish I had a similar circular construction to the Chinese boy's, as people are getting too close.

Nowadays in many cities space - especially private space - is a luxury. The infrastructure of the Munich public transport system was not intended for the number of people using it today. As key figures in anthropometrical systems, Ernst Neufert and Le Corbusier have shaped the space of architectural reality for the last century. All of a sudden, the achievements of modern civilisation appear as a negative of their intention. For the first time, I feel I'm experiencing that 'systems' are not valid forever.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

I'm mostly drawn towards a conceptual approach, so I'm interested in structure. I'll start every new project with a long word list in text edit rather than start sketching. I like adapting narrative strategies to visual content.

Is the coronavirus pandemic changing the way you work? 

As time stands still in cultural institutions, many have started digital replacement programmes. Which is okay - for a while. For now, it's not remarkably different to work from home. In the end, though, design is a social discipline by nature, with the purpose of creating community.

Teresa Rudolf lives and works in Munich and Leipzig. After studying art history and graphic design at HGB Leipzig and Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, she graduated from Maureen Mooren's System-Design class (HGB Leipzig). Since then, she's been working independently as part of Leipzig-based collective Spector Bureau and has taught at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle. As a part of the curatorial team of Kunstverein Leipzig, she is currently co-creating the 2020 annual programme, K-V Enzyklopädie, devoted to the huge field of 'knowledge' in its various forms.