Kobi: Dear Martin, Thank you very much for interviewing me for your FVS website. I would like to begin with a brief explanation of the project, which I believe will address your question. The project began in 2019 as part of my master’s thesis and explores experimental typography, examining the intersection of function versus aesthetics and content versus form. This pseudo-scientific study operates on the speculative premise that Hebrew letters possess a molecular structure, investigating how this assumption can be applied to the alphabet and language. The research consists of a series of structured experiments—a system of ‘games’ in which I define the rules, set the game board, and determine the players. Each test presents the outcomes of these experiments. Over the past five years, I have continued to refine and expand the research. The book serves as a comprehensive summary of the work conducted so far. Beyond the book, the project also includes animated and interactive investigations, which can be explored on the dedicated website. The website allows me to further develop new ideas and extend the scope of my research.

I first encountered the term molecular typography while casually browsing the internet. My search led me to a short video titled Understanding Molecular Typography, which documented a lecture by the American designer and artist Woody Leslie. In the lecture, Leslie presents a book by philologist and scholar H.F. Henderson, who argues that the letters of the Latin alphabet are based on a molecular structure—each letter composed of a combination of several atoms. Henderson suggests that future research in other languages would yield additional atoms or new insights, potentially catalyzing a revolution in this field. Later, I discovered that Understanding Molecular Typography was an artistic project, a fabrication of Leslie’s imagination. Nevertheless, I became captivated by the speculative process of envisioning a Hebrew alphabet composed of similar yet distinct ‘atoms.’ As a starting point, I positioned myself as a future researcher uncovering molecular discoveries within the Hebrew alphabet.

Sure, the molecular principles are straightforward: a limited number of atoms, or basic shapes, connect to one another through electromagnetic attraction, forming all the letters of the alphabet. Leslie based his study on the Futura typeface (1927), designed by Paul Renner, and broke it down into seven atoms. In my laboratory, I chose to work with the Va’ad typeface (2005), which I developed based on letters designed by Ze’ev Raban (1890–1970), one of the pioneers of Israeli art in the mid-20th century. The Va’ad typeface was deconstructed into six variously sized atoms, designed on the basis of a square grid and tagged with the Latin letters: square=D, horizontal rectangle=E, short vertical rectangle=J, long vertical rectangle=I, parallelogram tilted to the right=K, and parallelogram tilted to the left=V. Each letter in the Latin and Hebrew alphabets is composed of combinations of two to eleven atoms. The combinations of atoms that make up the letters are arranged as though composing a chemical formula. In this way, the first Hebrew letter, Aleph — composed of four squares, a short vertical rectangle, a parallelogram tilted to the right, and a parallelogram tilted to the left — is represented by the formula: D4JKV. Each atom is surrounded by a fixed electric charge that causes an electromagnetic interaction. The combination of atoms into letters parallels the combination of letters into words. The atoms are 3D units, and their combination forms letters or 3D signs.

Well, as mentioned, this is an imaginative, speculative, pseudo-scientific project—I do not actually believe that letters are composed of atoms. However, it is clear that the design of any typographic system must be based on fixed patterns, a structured methodology, and a grid.

Again, any typographic system that has undergone a design process is, of course, based on a structured methodology. Regarding my laboratory, I would be very interested in the future to explore how the molecular principles could be applied to the Arabic script as well. From the same speculative starting point—as a “future researcher”—it might be necessary to “discover” additional atoms that could be used to construct the Arabic alphabet. Unfortunately, I neither speak nor read Arabic, so I assume this endeavor would require collaboration with an Arabic-speaking designer.

In the current political climate, and particularly given the complexities in Israel today, I find it important to emphasize that this project does not engage with issues of politics or conflict. Rather, it seeks to foster dialogue between languages and cultures, highlighting commonalities rather than divisions. By illustrating that all languages are built upon the same fundamental atoms and share a common DNA, the project underscores our inherent sameness beyond differences of religion, race, or gender.

My research has been deeply influenced by the creative activity and self-imposed writing constraints formulated by the members of the OuLiPo group — a circle of mostly French writers, poets, and mathematicians founded in 1960. The group’s purpose was to create new literary structures and models by imposing various constraints or algorithms. ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’ or, in the words of group member Georges Perec, it functions as ‘a machine for stories.’ Existing literary forms, such as the lipogram and palindrome, as well as new forms invented by the group, were largely based on mathematical equations. This reliance on constraint initially appeared to be a spectacular tool, but in fact, it stemmed from the belief that linguistic constraints liberate consciousness and give rise to new and original ideas.

The use of linguistic templates such as the anagram, palindrome, and pangram accelerates a form’s capacity to add to verbal content, camouflage it, and act as crude visual matter. My own tests have examined the formal, aesthetic, and symmetrical appearance of letters and words, in the spirit of post-structuralist interpretation, which views the text as a weave of interrelated signs in an expanding network of meanings. Derrida himself noted the etymological connection between ‘text’ and ‘texture,’ conceiving of a text whose materiality resembles that of a cloth. Another source of inspiration was the Symbolist poets of the 19th century, including Arthur Rimbaud, who sought to apply rules to madness and ascribe colors to letters, and Stéphane Mallarmé, whose poem A Throw of Dice Will Never Abolish Chance (1897) promoted the use of unique typography and a visual approach to writing.

Photographers:
Yair Meyuhas and Slanted Publishers

Get Kobis book here:
https://www.slanted.de/product/molecular-typography-laboratory/

Visit is lab here:
https://www.themtlab.com/