Inkijk # 18: EGBG

Martijn Engelbregt’s design for the Inkijk was wordless but, nevertheless, did manage to relate to the ‘announcements’ that one encounters on the streets. The Inkijk’s house was encircled with and thus completely hidden by a ‘construction site fence’. In this way the house was not only temporarily stripped of its exhibiting function, it also became a type of underground venue for the announcements of random ‘speakers’. Indeed the graffiti and illegal posting of bills that the fence attracted were repainted with new layers colors a number of times.

Graphic artist Martijn Engelbregt is the founder of the EGBG (Engelbregt Gegevens Beheer Groep / Engelbregt Information Management Group), reflecting his interest in all kinds of personal details. In order to obtain these he makes up polls and forms that are not only aimed at collecting the desired information but also become a subject in themselves. An example of this is his Tegenscript (Anti Script), a list of questions to fire back at telemarketers who use their own ‘telescripts’. In this way Engelbregt can collect information on the telemarketers (e.g. ‘Do you do this work on a full-time basis?’, ‘Do you have problems responding to futile questions that are posed by complete strangers over the phone?’). The Anti Script-user is hereby equipped with a powerful weapon that can change the course of the conversation. The meticulous but not always equally clear language of bureaucracy forms an important part of Engelbregt’s work. With minimum disruption, he knows how to create confusion while, simultaneously, exposing the distortedness of this language.