The book Do You Speak Flower? by author and curator Alexandra Midal was published on the occasion of the 28th Biennial of Design, BIO28 Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower?, which takes place from November 21, 2024, to April 6, 2025. The exhibition is on view at the Museum of Architecture and Design and Galerija ISIS, and at the Mala galerija Banke Slovenije until January 4, 2025.
Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? explores a field at the intersection of flowers and steganography. Steganography describes the practice of concealing secret information within an image, message or physical object to avoid detection. From a technical point of view, steganography has the particularity of being invisible, unlike cryptography, which consists of encrypting information in order to conceal it and therefore points to the existence of a message to be decrypted. More simply, cryptography hides the meaning whereas steganography hides the very existence of a secret.
Through a number of case studies at the crossroads of design, art and architecture, often flirting with popular culture, this essay surveys the range of concealment practices employed by designers and artists, but above all by dissidents, revolutionaries and various kinds of agitators who want to communicate in secret without attracting suspicion. More specifically, it explores the unsuspected tactics of concealment that can lurk beneath the delicate, romantic language of floriography.
Author: Alexandra Midal
Publisher: Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) For the publisher: Maja Vardjan, director
and Les presses du réel, Dijon, France For the publisher: Franck Gautherot, director
Translation and editing: Patrick (Boris) Kremer
Copy editing: Nuša Zupanc
Graphic design: Rafaela Dražić
Typographies: Akzir, Satpo
The book is available in Slovene and English.
You can buy the book in MAO Museum Shop and in MAO Online Shop >>.
