ECHO is a comprehensive study in book form of the acoustic phenomenon of echo and its historical context. The analysis is rooted in typography and graphic elements, playing with both the “form” and the meaning of the word “echo” in both Western and East Asian contexts. By combining traditional and digital printing techniques as well as laser printing, ECHO particularly incorporates hand-printed letterpress works and vinyl. In doing so, the project not only explores the creative potential of the printed book but also examines how meaning can emerge within the two-dimensional space of the page and how acoustics can be translated into a graphic language. Reading thus becomes an active, sensorial experience — fully in line with the collective’s core intention: to investigate the intersections of sound, writing, and graphics, and to push the boundaries of traditional media. ECHO is assembled in a ring binder without a fixed sequence, giving each of the 80 copies in the edition its own unique character. ECHO was produced partly in Japan and in Bevagna (Italy) as a collaborative project between ebs and phono/graph. phono/graph is an artist collective founded in Osaka in 2011. Through experimental, cross-media work, it explores the interplay of sound, text, and graphics. Members include: Fujimoto Yukio, Kishimoto Rinko, Hayashi Aoi, Suzuki Hiroyoshi, Jo Kazuhiro, intext, Yagi Lyota, Nicole Schmid, and softpad.

Printed in Italy by La Tipografica Bevagna. Printed in Japan by Ichigaya Letterpress Factory, Shinkaichi Community Center for Arts and Interaction. Supported by DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion. Organizational support: Chikako Tatsuuma.