Welke indruk zouden toekomstige archeologen krijgen van onze tijd, als ze zouden graven op de plaatsen van onze huidige beschaving? Ze zouden eindeloze stortplaatsen vinden gevuld met de dingen die we hebben weggegooid: plastic en metalen objecten, nog smeulende hopen elektronica, synthetisch textiel, en andere dingen die niet binnen afzienbare tijd afbreekbaar zijn. Ze zouden de resten vinden van een tijdperk van ongebreidelde, onvergankelijke objecten.

Vandaag de dag draait ons economische ...

Mix & Stir, this book’s aim is an endeavour to understand art as being a panhuman phenomenon of all times and cultures; to steer away from the persistent Eurocentric/Western-centric viewpoint towards a transcultural and transnational interconnected model of exchange and processes of interculturalization. Mix & Stir wants to expand this landscape by bringing to the fore new, recalcitrant, queer, idiosyncratic practices and discourses, theories and topics, methods and concerns that open up wa...

How can art, science and institutional practices counteract the negative consequences of climate and ecological breakdown? How can these practices and ideas advance systemic change? Worlding Ecologies serves as an anthology of examples and wayward navigational tool, assembling eighteen authors exploring this question from their diverse backgrounds––as scientists, artists, philosophers, activists, theorists and curators––to rigorously approach urgent ecological challenges, including cl...

The everyday connotations of the original, the real, sincere, valid, historical or deep are well-known, and the opposite of the authentic may then be the superficial, false, not-what-it-seems, or just new. Nonetheless 'the real thing' is still a fruitful starting point to analyze changes in the post-digital society. Digital technology is embedded in almost every personal relationship, in labour conditions, and in aesthetic practices. What does this mean for the 'authentic'? To unfold the nuan...

Marjan Teeuwen (*1953, NL) creëert grootschalige architectonische installaties in gebouwen die na haar interventie worden ontmanteld. Ze sloopt en stript, grijpt in op de constructie en structuur en bouwt met het sloopmateriaal een nieuw artistiek beeld op. Op basis van deze installaties ontstaan autonome fotowerken. In haar werk gaat de constructieve kracht van bouwen hand in hand met de kracht van verwoesting en verval. Vloeren zijn scheef gezet of vallen loodrecht naar beneden; wanden zij...

Graphic Design Is (…) Not Innocent questions ingrained approaches, values and assumptions of graphic design in globalized societies. The publication aims to initiate a dialogue between designers, scholars, critics and commissioners, who investigate responsibilities, potentials, politics, limits and risks of designing visual communication. How innocent is graphic design? Whom is it addressing, whom is it in/excluding? What does it bring about? When defining the role and impact of visual comm...

The world today faces overwhelming ecological and social problems and the concern for material existence on earth is more pressing than ever. Making Matters spells out various roles that visual artists and designers play facing these issues. Collective action is necessary and inevitable.

Collective action often changes the artist’s identity and working habits: from individuality and autonomy to collectivity and collaboration, both locally and globally. These developments have given rise to ...

In cities around the world a new urban condition is spreading

rapidly: an ever-increasing push for ‘perfection’, efficiency

and control and the active eradication of any

aberration, friction or alternative. The smooth city with its

sanitized spaces and new technologies compresses urban

life into a seamless experience. While the demand for safe,

clean, and well-functioning urban environments is understandable,

the rise of the smooth city undermines the democratic

nature and emancipatory po...

Over the last few decades the term ‘bootlegging’—a practice once relegated to smugglers and copyright infringers—has become understood as a creative act. Debates about homage, appropriation, and theft that are common in the art world, are now being held in the spheres of corporate branding, social media, and the creative industry as a whole. Today, bootlegging has become fetishized as an aesthetic in and of itself, influencing everything from underground record labels to DIY T-shirts,...

Curating exhibitions and ‘art writing’ are closely related: both activities construct a meaningful narrative about artefacts and artists, both interact with a public, viewers/readers; both make space for the experience of art objects. For their work, curators and art writers tap the primary source: the living artist, their work and world. Both cherish a proximity to the maker, for it allows them to delve into artistic processes, consider things in a state of becoming. An essential tool fo...