The digital trash can that we fill and empty, that’s it. The bomb that signals a system error, the clock that runs while your computer is working, always it… In 1982, Susan Kare, a graduate of Fine Arts, is called to Apple by Andy Hertzfeld, developer of the Macintosh with Steve Jobs. His mission ? Create a set of symbols that will allow the human being to communicate with the machine. How to translate “cut” (a pair of scissors), “paste” (a pointing index finger), “print vertically or horizontally” (a lying animal, the dog cow, half-cow, half-dog, gives the orientation of the paper)…
Susan Kare is inspired by hieroglyphs, sign language and the highway code, but also by the caricaturist Honoré Daumier or the pop art sculptures of Claes Oldenburg. She draws in a squared notebook where each box represents a pixel. “ It’s like mosaic or cross-stitch embroidery », notes Joseph Belletante. Susan Kare’s icons still permeate our culture, well beyond our computer screens. The Mac that smiles when it turns on is the ancestor of the emoji with which we sprinkle our digital conversations today.
Susan Kare explains the Macintosh interface in 1984
“ Beyond the creations of Susan Kare, whom we have given pride of place, we offer a reflection on this notion, from Byzantine icons to those, more contemporary, of the Ukrainian artist Oksana Chatchko, who co-founded the Femen and committed suicide in 2018. . » The exhibition also presents the “zouzoukwa” (Ivorian emojis) of the young graphic designer O’Plérou Grebet or even wildlife policeinspired by the animal kingdom, invented by Alice Savoie, co-curator of the exhibition, which also looks back on the history of women in the graphic arts since the 1920s.
“Icons by Susan Kare”at the Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication, 13, rue de la Poulaillerie, Lyon 2and. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Until September 18.
Icons created by Susan Kare
The good addresses of Joseph Belletante
A weird bookshop
“Very close to the museum, I like wandering around the Bal des ardents. An arch of books marks the entrance to this always surprising bookstore. It’s an Ali Baba’s cave where you lose track of time: esotericism, black metal, situationism, strange eroticism… marginal and radical thoughts are honored there. My last purchase: the cinephile sum of Jean-Baptiste Thoret, How green was my valley (Magnani Editions). »
The Ardent Ball17, rue Neuve, Lyon 1er.
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