Gert Dumbar (1940) is one of the most influential—and colourful—graphic designers in the postwar design field, both in the Netherlands and abroad. As a young partner in Tel Design, he designed one of the most iconic symbols in the Dutch public domain, the logo for the Dutch National Railways, NS, to which he has added countless designs for other clients with his own Studio Dumbar. Applauded or reviled, Studio Dumbar has left an indelible mark on Dutch and international visual culture.

Dum...

How can we break through a culture of mistrust? Suspicion regarding our fellow beings, the authorities and enterprises is growing, blamed on passing the buck and feelings of impotence. We seek remedies in regulations, contracts and procedures, assurances, audits and consultancy. As well as in good governance and transparency. But do they actually make for real trust? Is trust not always somewhat blind?

Trust: Building on Cultural Commons highlights the crucial role played by cultural commons...

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...

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 ...

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...

Imaginative Bodies contains a series of in-depth conversations with dancers and choreographers, composers, visual artists, Hip Hop artists, dramaturgs, a lighting designer and a puppeteer. The overall theme is defined by the body, both in relation to the place it takes in the artist's work, and in relation to wider debates on the body in philosophy, science, medicine, anthropology, and the arts. Depending on the affinities of the artist, a more specific theme has been defined for each dialogu...