Die Scham in der Petrischale
Die Scham in der Petrischale – ein Sammelband zur Annäherung (“Shame in the petri dish – an anthology for approaching the topic”) is a book was developed, designed and published by Clara Birkmann in the summer semester of 2024 as part of the Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design at the Faculty of Design at TH Nürnberg, Germany. From the designer’s Instagram post, translated:
Shame observed, examined, described, packaged in 4 essays from 10 perspectives on 8 themes across 120 pages. The focus was on shame as a social instrument of power, together with its companions such as origin, sexuality, affiliation, and convention.
As part of this examination Clara collected four essays from four different authors and asked people to contribute their own lyrical confrontation on the theme of shame. Additionally she added eight lyrical fragments of her own and developed a photo series with motives of places and associations to shame.
The result is a collection of approaches to a topic that still faces a lot of stigma and silencing in order to understand the mechanisms of shame and find a way to work with it.
The book is typeset in Softcore by Tekio and Diatype Mono by ABC Dinamo. Additional display fonts used throughout the book are Nirvana by Altiplano and Trattatello (an alias of P22 Operina) by James Grieshaber.
The included essays are:
• An abridged version of Scham by Lea Schneider, published in the Edition Poeticon of Verlagshaus Berlin
• “Die Scham des Seins” by Marina Garcès, from Durch die Augen der Lernenden published by Turia + Kant
• “Hüterin und Zerstörerin menschlichen Selbstgefühls” by Peter Conzen, from Scham – 100 Gründe rot zu werden published by Wallstein Verlag
• “Keimen” by Laura Späth, from about shame published by &töchter
Lyrical contributions by Minh Voll, Geneva Späth, Nadine Zenker, Anna Hofmann, Carlotta Kiefhaber, Ivana Marija Hope, Curry Eirich, Maja Grass, Elias Hüppauff, and Clara Birkmann.
