Chiara Petru & Alice Whittick (eds.): The Belly, The Blue and The Barter

“The Belly, The Blue and The Barter” is a publication born at the intersection of design and revolutionary politics. Departing from traditional economic theory and academic writing, the book takes a creative turn to redefine post-capitalist desire as a bodily experience. Here desire is approached as a physical and inborn tendency to pursue what is not yet visible nor charted, which reveals delicate ways of encountering an economy-in-common. Through the pages, desire unfolds into an erotic exploration and an infantile remembrance, questioning the role of heteronormativity and body politics in the stubborn preservation of capitalistic models. In order to orientate our bodies towards post-capitalistic landscapes, we put our focus on the relationship between the body and the object – the spatial dimension of design forges the way we can physically (and socially) turn towards the Other, as well as towards ourselves. “The Belly, The Blue and The Barter” counts 5 short pieces of creative writing and a visual essay compiled with the contribution of invited practitioners, manifesting as a political playground for grown-ups. A series of coloured filters is offered to support dyslexic readers, but also to encourage different visual experiences of the project – blue for an erotic reading, yellow for an infantile one.

This book was hand bound and litho printed in black, blue and silver ink by the editors with the support of  Tony Yard, Scott House and Rahel Zoller at London College of Communication in July 2021. The bookmarks were kindly supplied by Habercrafts, Lyndons Art and Graphics Ltd, and custom cut during production. The editors’ note was printed separately with risograph on Ivory Plike and folded into the publication as an insert.

The dust jacket functions as a protective layer over the book cover in Royal Blue Plike; please remove the layer to feel the texture once the book is placed in your own environment.

 

Title: The Belly, The Blue and The Barter
Publisher: Self published, 2021
Co-directors and editors: Chiara Petru and Alice Whittick
Creative writing: Chiara Petru
Contributors:  Karolina Alvekrans, Paul Bailey, Adam Basanta, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Aladin Borioli, Emma Bouraba, Oisin Byrne, Daniella Chukwuezi, Daniel Felstead, Adam Gibbons, Pau Geis, Fabienne Hess, Samuel Jackson, Justyna Kabala, Tara Langford, Phoebe Lee, Maria Lissoni, Iain Mckell, Floriane Misslin, C-Jaye Newton, Misha Notley, Maria Paradinas, Luca Pascali, Emma Sproat, Rebecca Stringer, Batia Suter, Yuan Zhu
Graphic Design: Alice Whittick
Format: Softcover
Size: 16.54 x 11.6 cm, 113 pages
Edition: 100 copies