This limited edition risograph zine contains six poems drawn from written materials generated through a number of Engineering Fictions workshops over the summer of 2019, as part of my IRC Postdoctoral research with the Building City Dashboards team at Maynooth University.

Each Engineering Fictions workshop offered people (academic researchers, artists, librarians) a chance to reflect on and fictionalise their experiences of the intersecting fields and interests of ‘smart city’ systems and infrastructures, and the attendant social, environmental and political issues that press back upon their function, form and deployment. The humble ‘dashboard’ — that taken-for-granted interface between humans, data-sets and desires — became the springboard for each workshop.

In 2020, I began to edit words and sentences gleaned from one of the workshops (fuzzy personas) into sonnet form. These words were generated through a number of writing prompts and exercises during the workshop, in particular a re-imagining of a persona worksheet from UX by incorporating character development strategies from fiction writer, Margaret Atwood. The sonnet is a form that has been practiced for over 750 years in the Italian language, and at least 450 years in English. I find it a fascinating form to work with, for its history, its subversive possibilities, its tidy reassurance. Poet Lainey Brown says that the sonnet is “a controlled measure of sound and space within which one can do anything” (see her Daily Sonnets). I believe her.

The constraints and affordances of the sonnet form gives me permission and boundary all at once. It is a privilege to work with the words of others, and I love the thought that these ‘little songs’ of a smart city dashboards might be heard and sung.

Data Sonnets will be available to buy from the Temple Bar Gallery & Studio’s Artists Book Fair. All proceeds will go towards the charity Children Not Numbers. See below for details about this year’s theme, programme and curator.

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios presents the fourteenth edition of Dublin Art Book Fair (DABF), Ireland’s leading art book fair, taking place in the Gallery over ten days.

A centre for the artist book, DABF is a focal point to artists, designers, writers, and collectives to make, sell, and platform their publications. It champions creative, small and independent publishers; Irish and international. This year, DABF has a record number of successful artist book submissions. With over 275 artist books at this year’s fair, it demonstrates the possibilities of the book as a form for art that continues to surprise. 

In 2024, DABF Guest Curator Adrian Duncan presents his theme Fictions: The makings of other worlds; he offers ways to explore the theme through a selection of nominated books and a series of talks with invited guests.

Duncan’s curated programme considers different ways stories can be told; the images, spaces, objects, figures, feelings that emerge while doing so; and the sorts of truths they propose. He opens the Fair with a walk-through of his selected books and a reflection on his chosen theme. Duncan introduces Possible Truths, a conversation between acclaimed journalists and writers Peter Geoghegan and Susan McKay to discuss technology, truth-making, and journalistic storytelling. Artist Sean Lynch and Adrian Duncan explore—through a series of objects—the fascinating relationships between reality and fiction in Lynch’s practice. Duncan’s final event invites poet and fabulist Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe to explore the ways single words can create narrative direction, sense, shape and form within poetry.

In addition to the Curator’s Talks, DABF24 presents an extended programme of talks, tours, workshops, readings, book launches, and a commissioned artwork to offer further ways to engage with the artist book. Emma Hurson and Ava Chapman explore the queer archive with a collaborative zine-making workshop. TBG+S Studio Artist Tara Carroll, accompanied by members of the project Arts and Pilgrimage, invites participants to the publication launch of Seeking Solace. Writer Ingrid Lyons discusses ‘the grain of things’ with artists Liliane Puthod and Ella Bertilsson, reflecting on storytelling, inner worlds and material culture in artistic practices. Discover tabletop and counter-publishing in a workshop with .pdfmagazine. Ruth Hallinan from the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) presents a selection of artist books from the archive’s collection of over 1400 publications. TBG+S Studio Artist Clodagh Emoe closes the Fair with a two-part book launch of A L T A R, with talks and readings from Donal Lally, Catherine Marshall, Jessica Foley, and Mick Wilson.

TBG+S Studio Artist Ella Bertilsson’s artwork THE MOLE FLIPPED THE SUNSHINE SWITCHis a fabricated landscape commissioned for DABF24. It uses sets and props which have appeared in the artist’s previous artworks and explores dreamlike states, symbolic imagery and invented narratives.

The Artists’ Fundraiser returns this year raising funds for Médecins Sans Frontières in aid of Palestine and Lebanon as the immense suffering intensifies with the escalation of the crisis. Seven artworks have generously been donated by Clodagh Emoe, Brian Fay, Fergus Feehily, Jesse Jones, Atsushi Kaga, Aileen Murphy, and Kathy Tynan. The raffle opens online 19 November and the works will be on view in the Atrium for the duration of DABF. 

Adrian Duncan is an Irish artist, writer and an editor with PVA Books. His latest novel The Geometer Lobachevsky was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2023. His next novel, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth will be published in January 2025 with Tuskar Rock Press. His films have screened at IFFR, Karlovy Vary IFF, HotDocs, and IDFA, among others. His forthcoming film on Fascist-era architecture in Italy is called Latina, Latina. This was an Arts Council Reel-Art-funded project and is due in early 2025.