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Rafael Fajardo

@pixelspline

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Designer, researcher, & educator at U. of Denver. Makes works that are actual & virtual, interactive & playful, smart & accessible.🇨🇴🇺🇸 he/they

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Before embarking on my road trip last week I went in to the letterpress studio at school to print an edition of ten of this composition. It is an expression of the history and future of creative technology at the University of Denver. Three are already claimed, one by @digitalcoleman and one by @magi182. The proof edition of two went to @billdepper and @tracereddell . The proof edition was printed on our Provisional Press. The First Edition of 10 was printed on our Stark Proof Press. The type is from Virgin Wood Type. The paper is vintage Radio Shack TRS-80 programmer planning paper. The ink is from @bluepress.ink using Mixing Black and a Pantone yellow that reads as orange (I can’t remember the number). The second image is from the proof edition that has me a different ink mix from the first edition. taken in Emergent Digital Practices by @pixelspline

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3 months ago

I’ve been working on a thing: “The Vicki Myhren Gallery is proud to present Code-X: Contemporary Chicanx Codices, curated by DU’s own Rafael Fajardo, Professor of Emergent Digital Practices. This exhibition brings together the artworks of more than a dozen Chicanx artists who reimagine the long tradition of the codex as a dynamic space for Chicanx storytelling. Ranging from painting and prints to comic books, zines, and video games, these artworks bridge the analog and digital. The artists mix the ancient, colonial, and modern to explore the complexities of contemporary life, including migration, Mestizaje, and cultural survival. Featuring many interactive artworks, this exhibition invites all visitors to play and engage with these innovative and thoughtful reworkings of the codex.
Featured Artists:
Anthony Aleman
Yreina Cervantez
Enrique Chagoya
Michael DeAnda (@mike.craft.games )
Adán De La Garza (@hard_barfs )
Carlos Fresquez
Eric Garcia (@elmacheteillustrated )
Dulce Ibarra
Alma Lopez
Cherish Marquez (@cherish.marquez )
Michael Menchaca (@michaelmenchaca )
Francisco Ortega
Sandy Rodriguez (@studio.sandyrodriguez )
Leo Salias
Miguel A. Tarango (@gatofelizmedia )
Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, January 9, 2025 from 5:00-7:00 PM.” I need to come back and tag everyone I missed. Grateful to Geoffrey, Lauren, and the grad student crew at Myhren Gallery. by @pixelspline

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2 years ago

Anderson Ranch Arts Center welcomes Latinx Visiting Artist Rafael Fajardo. Fajardo is an artist and educator who creates boundary-blurring videogames as his medium. His work has been shown in museums all over the world — and his research funded by @nsfgov #thenationalendowmentforthehumanities and @mtv ⁣
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Born in Colombia and migrated to the US with his parents, Rafael's work focuses on using videogames to explore social justice issues. In particular, his games seek to shed light on problems faced by immigrants, people of color, and other marginalized groups. ⁣
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By blurring the lines between game and reality, Rafael's work invites players to question their assumptions about the world around them. In doing so, he hopes to create a more just and inclusive society for all.⁣
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✨Learn more and follow:⁣ @pixelspline
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🆕 Join Latinx Visiting Artists Rafael Fajardo, Ricky Armendariz and Lillian Lara for the Artist’s Panel - Finding Your Voice: Culture and Community in Latinx Art on October 8, 2022, 4-5PM.⁣
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➡️ Attend on campus or via livestream.⁣
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✔️ Registration required. Head to our stories to find the direct link to register. ⁣
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#andersonranch #createchange #visitingartist #latinxartist #latinxart #videogameart taken in Anderson Ranch Arts Center by @pixelspline

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4 years ago

I am seeing folks who I’ve been sharing open-source options with for years stand up and get excited about this project. The familiar user interface that it promises must be a reassurance, a soothing of a discomfort and pain inherent in learning different ways to do things. I think there is also schadenfreude in the AI potentially eating Adobe. The “clean room” nomenclature in the clones is also worth interrogating. Reverse engineering often takes a “black box” approach, comparing inputs and outputs to and from a mystery container and matching them up with a new invention. This process hedges against claims of intellectual property theft. Is “clean room” a similar construct able to claim that provenance is clean and that the process is transformative? taken in Emergent Digital Practices by @pixelspline

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10 days ago

Last night’s community prints at Print Truth To Power at @shopatmatter : in anticipation of Indigenous Peoples Day we set the Guna word abya yala and looked up some of its English language translations. Abya yala is gaining traction in Latin America as a word to refer to the earth. @ren.geisler , Adam, and Aly helped make a small edition of these.
I also made another short edition of the Llantos Del Pueblo forme using the split fountain of colors mixed by @formyard.studio last week.
Brandon and Alison helped me letterspace proof another forme that isn’t ready to share. We all sharpened our skills and grew a little.
Nicholas and Curtis were taking a mental health day but evidence of their contributions are present in the background, literally and figuratively.
#letterpress taken in Shop at MATTER by @pixelspline

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10 days ago

Reverse chronology of this week’s proof of concept experiment. @rickgriffith asked for some punctuation not in his type collection. He asked if I could 3D print some that could interoperate with moveable wood type.

This is an extension of experiments I bagan last year. Besley* diagonal double brackets — guillemots? — rendered as SVG files, extruded to 4mm height, embedded within a 1mm base, exported as STL files, stretched beyond recognition in a slicer so as to be 18picas tall, 3D printed in PLA with default settings plus brim added for adhesion, brim trimmed, mounted to laminate of Masonite and particle board, trimmed on a glide saw, typeset by @formyard.studio with words he chose in 5line Franklin Gothic (from @virginwoodtype ) onto a galley, inked and proofed.

All to say it is a communal effort to explore and expand the expressive potential of the studio and print shop. @shopatmatter @matterdesign by @pixelspline

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17 days ago

Tonight at PTTP with @curtismakesthezines @themandino @formyard.studio and @rickgriffith taken in Shop at MATTER by @pixelspline

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24 days ago

Updated an interpretation of a futuring tool. I made a soft edged non-contiguous version of the “cone of possible futures” for a talk at @puce_ecuador at the invitation of @runamora — online — earlier this year. The original on which this is based clinically hard edged and platonically ideal in its visual rhetoric. I was asked to contemplate the future(s) of design in times of great uncertainty. by @pixelspline

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25 days ago

Rick knocked out this edition while I was on another press. Lauren was inking and eventually took over the printing with Aaron assisting. by @pixelspline

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a month ago

No one: What’s with the Ñ Rafael?
Me: We have to construct, to actively carve out or build the voice…
Curtis carved this tilde for me. Nicholas shared what he learned from carving the giant one two weeks ago. There are a few of these dreams in the shop. by @pixelspline

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a month ago

Paste up from back in the day. This one may be by Brian Smith when we were both undergrads at UT Austin. by @pixelspline

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a month ago

The enye gets highlighted in the USA from mid September to mid October. Our types are Anglo-centric and we have to construct tildes from apostrophes laying on their sides.

Shout out to Columbia Gorge Book Arts who crafted their font “Amplify” with accent marks for Spanish” taken in Shop at MATTER by @pixelspline

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a month ago