Graphic Lecture of the graphic designer and artist Anja Kaiser

The “Undisciplined Toolkit” speaks of forgotten and messy stories, introducing a wide range of unconventional surfaces and strategies to bridge the gap between autonomous and commissioned work. Tools shape the way we point and wipe, but they also reflect what we crush and what we tackle. This lecture explores the urge to push the boundaries of tools and move beyond purely pragmatic functions—touching on bureaucratic creativity, role-playing, and alternative narratives. To work undisciplined means to navigate chaos, drifting between knowledge and unknowing.

Since 2011, Anja Kaiser has been working independently, engaging in various collaborations with other graphic designers and programmers. Until March 2023, she held the interim Professorship for Typography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. In 2017, she received the INFORM Award from the Gallery of Contemporary Art Leipzig, recognizing conceptual design practices. In 2020, Le Signe – Centre National du Graphisme in Chaumont dedicated a comprehensive exhibition to her work. In 2021, together with Rebecca Stephany, she co-edited the Glossary of Undisciplined Design, published by Spector Books.

Anja Kaiser is a graphic designer and artist working across cultural and subcultural contexts. Her practice engages with the appropriation of resistant media and undisciplined methods. She explores alternative narratives and porous tools within graphic design. Her work investigates the thresholds between graphic design, art, and music. Since 2018, she has been responsible, together with Jim Kühnel, for the visual concept of the Rewire Festival. She also occasionally builds furniture—such as tables for the Study Rooms at the Bauhaus Dessau—or hosts sound art events as part of a collective.