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text mirte meeus

photoboudewijn bollmann

let us all concentrate on the

things that truly matter

interview / index 1

bert meijer on science and society

His mother said he could go and study anywhere, as long as it was in Groningen, not too far away. When he was a young boy he had no specific interest in chemistry, but he was interested in science in general. He could just as easily have been a physicist, he says. But he became a chemist, and a good one, too. At the University of Technology in Eindhoven his ideas come to life. Literally so. Bert Meijer is a people-person, and anything but a self-important scientist. But he is passionate.

p. 6 p. 7 interview / index 1 - bert meijerinterview / index 1 - bert meijer

How are chemistry and our lives interrelated?

Chemistry is everywhere. You cannot imagine what life would be like today if my field of study had not evolved the way it has. Without drugs, the average life expectancy would have been much lower. In this context, chemistry is constantly making contributions to our lives. Colourful clothing, the way we know it today, would not have existed without chemical processes. Within my field of study everything is made up out of molecules. And there is the snag, because they are everywhere, and therefore they are not really anywhere because everyone is used to having them around. What bothers me is that when people think of chemistry, they think of messy things and explosions. Whereas there is no other field of study that has allowed us to live in such a clean world.

Not only is Bert a man of the world, he is a social creature as well. An outward-looking observer of the world. Moreover, he is a person who asks questions. Where do we come from? Does the universe ever end? And if it does, how is this possible?

What keeps you lying awake at night?

Two things. I will lie wondering if we could produce a primitive cell in a laboratory and how I would go about it. And I lie awake thinking about the energy problem. It is obvious that the way we are living on this earth with six billion people simply does not work . Not the way we are doing things now. There is too much CO2 in the air, we are burning up too much oil… In fact, we are doing everything in unsustainable ways. And this needs to change. Thankfully there are many people who are convinced that things need to change, but how they should change, well, that is easier said than done.

There are people who argue that there would be just as much CO2 in the air if there were no people on the planet.

I am not saying that we are the culprits, but we have never burnt up as much oil as we are doing right now. But this is only one aspect. In a general sense you can see that our way of living is not sustainable. I think that if you are truly worried about your children’s children it is simply not possible to go on like this, and not work collectively at tackling the problems lying ahead. Because these problems reach a great deal further than having to cut your holidays a day short, or an item of clothing not looking as good on you. These are luxury problems. What I find the most annoying is that as a society, on top of these luxury problems, we are also making cuts in the education of our children. Can we not at least give them the knowledge they will need to solve the problems facing them in thirty years’ time?

Quite a few ideas…

We have just discovered something new. I spend a lot of time thinking about a new type of particle we have developed. It is folded in a unique way, just like a protein. My gut feeling tells me we could do so much with this. I think I could very well use it to build catalysts. I mean, you could turn them into neat, functional little factories. What I would love to do most is to build one of those factories that you would feed with sunlight,

How do you arrive at decisions?

A while ago, when I turned fifty, I went travelling through Australia. I needed to think about whether I was on the right track, to consider if I needed to change. I needed time to think. Why do I do the things I do? Are they useful? Some people thought I needed time to think about my marriage (laughs). But it did not have anything to do with that. I wondered: is what I keep saying right? I started reading. My conclusion was that I needed to change some things, but I did not need to change professions.

He likes to put things in perspective. To think about the things that truly matter. This man’s head is not occupied exclusively with science. But he is devastated when something fails.

What place should science take in our society?

I think it is a shame that we as scientists have been unable to make it clear to the public what possibilities we have at our disposal to solve future problems. We are all so preoccupied with the problems of today, tomorrow, and the day after. This is quite painful to me. As a society we are completely preoccupied with our holidays, which is really quite short-sighted, isn’t it? In any case, I believe we should try harder to inform each other honestly of the problems we face in our society. Science plays an important role here. We have a country full of intelligent people, and yet the whole of the Netherlands is up in arms when the Toppers-act does not win the Eurovision song contest. With all due respect, but those are not songs, are they? Please let us all concentrate on the things that truly matter. I think it would leave us with a lot more spare time to do fun things, too.

Any idea where we will be in ten years’ time?

In ten years? The next step? If I knew, I would start working on it straight away. Some of the things facing us now, will still be facing us in ten years’ time. In regenerative medicine, for instance, we have been busy reproducing bits of organs in real tissue. When ‘reproduced’ organs can no longer be distinguished from ‘real’ organs, this will bring about an enormous progression. But the developments in nano-technology are also succeeding each other rapidly.

and then oil would come out, but this would be incredibly difficult. We will have to research this new thing step by step, and even then I am not sure it will work. But I firmly believe in its potential. I find it difficult to do the most important things first. I do a lot of things by relying on feeling. When you work on so many new things you cannot substantiate everything. Emotion is an important factor.

Ratio versus emotion. Relying on feelings, is this something a scientist is allowed to do?

My feeling tells me that I have a thing with this new particle, something special. If I knew exactly why this particle was going to be ground-breaking to my research, many more people would start working on it. With some things, you do not know beforehand exactly where they will lead, because you have not yet discovered what you cannot do with them. But I am well aware of the things that have been done and what the problems have been with other particles. You cannot know everything precisely, and you do not have to.

Many people think that scientists work entirely from their ratio.

Ratio and the subconscious. What exactly the role of the subconscious is… With me, ratio and the subconscious blend into each other. I think that inspiration and surprise, for example, are just as important as ‘knowing’.

Where do you get your inspiration?

From anything and everything. If I were to think too long about my sources of inspiration it would turn into some romanticised story. Sometimes an idea will come to you when you are working under pressure of time. I will need to have an idea by nine o’clock, and as I ride my bicycle to the TU (University of Technology), suddenly the coin will drop. Sometimes I will think about it for the longest time, and sometimes I will hear others talking, and it will make me think: ‘but isn’t it something different altogether?’. It is beyond you. Hardly anyone ever gets an idea out of the blue. You are standing on the shoulders of giants, constantly discussing your ideas with others, and suddenly you will make that connection. I trust my feeling.

The discussion surrounding the improvement of the human performance through medical or genetic intervention is an important one to Bert. John Harris (who works at Manchester University and is the author of Enhancing Evolution) thinks it is our moral duty to enhance people’s health. Genetic intervention can help accelerate the evolution of mankind. Before Bert had heard John Harris’ argument, he had his own thoughts about embryo selection and related issues. Now, he sees things quite differently.

How do you feel about the relationship between technology and ethics?

Before I had heard Harris speak about accelerating the evolutionary process through genetic manipulation I thought: What is ethically justified and what is not? I had my own thoughts about embryo selection. How far can you go? After I had heard his argument I thought: This man is simply right. He gave a good example about vaccination in children. If there are vaccinations available, and you would not vaccinate children, you would find this unethical. If you know there are groups of children in other places across the world who do not get these vaccinations, should you then stop vaccinating the other children? The fact that there are groups of people who do not have access to certain sources is a problem that has always been around. We cannot stop progress ; we cannot stop knowledge from increasing. The big problem is that the world is full of selfish people who will only think of themselves. But when problems come too close… The ultimate form of regenerative medicine would be if we had an organ ready at a laboratory somewhere as soon as some part of you stopped functioning. If you were to create complete humans for their spare parts, like in the film ‘The Island’, that would be unacceptable. This discussion is a very important one to help us determine our limits. It should be held with every nuance.

Is this discussion held about other organisms, besides human tissue?

Lately I have been having discussions about the genetic modification of corn. Of course, there is a danger to this, but we must also realise that in Africa, millions of people are dying because of a lack of food, which is also unethical. If we could grow food that would need, for instance, only limited amounts of water, because it had been genetically modified, then why not do it?

A selfish person will limit his fellow human beings. Man is a wolf to mankind?

Most people have a selfish disposition. I have it too, to some extent. Scientifically there is nothing wrong with the storage of CO2 in the ground. Still, I would not be too excited if they were to do it right underneath my home. So I understand. It is not a bad thing if we are worried for ourselves, as long as we make sure we educate our children well. Our future problems are so complicated that we will need great numbers of well-educated people to solve them. Which is why I am passionate about my job as a teacher and about transferring the available knowledge to the next generation.

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text rob van kaam & mirte meeus

photoboudewijn bollmann

interview / index 2

frank veenstra on culture and music

anyone who istalented has the

obligation to sharetheir talent

It was the boy who lived next door to him who inspired Frank Veenstra to always carry a list in his trouser pocket of musicians he still needs to check out. He was crazy about music and passed the bug on to Frank when he was thirteen. Ever since then he has been unable to go without it. Frank breathes music.

p. 10 p. 11

Has music been a constant factor in your life?

Music has been like a connecting thread throughout my life. Although my interest broadened when I went to music college. I am the sort of person who regularly visits a museum, sees films, and reads literature. So in a cultural sense I have quite a broad range of interests, and in music as well. Contemporary classical music and twentieth century music on the one hand, and on the other hand alternative pop, Indie music. Those are the two I am most fond of, and the combinations of these types of music I find especially interesting. The distinction between classical music and pop music is totally irrelevant, genre distinctions are beside the point for me.

The term ‘classical’ refers to times gone by.

I think the average person would see it this way. But people are still writing so-called classical music every day. Like in pop music, there are many different styles and forms of classical music.

It is striking to see that the music created today is often, even when it is considered innovative, a crossover between different genres. Do you think we will see the birth of a completely new sound, a new genre?

There will always be original minds who will think of something new that will make people go ‘this is new to me’. Modernism was new, post-modernism was new; what are we going to see next? I am not convinced there will ever be any new music that will actually bring about that shock of being new . Of course in the fifties Rock ‘n Roll was a completely new thing. I do not see anything like that happening again. I think the musical cross-fertilisations will determine the musical landscape. Mainly because people today grow up with classical music and pop music and a hundred more different music genres.

What role should music play in our daily lives?

A really important one of course. Research has even proved that you become a more sociable person if you regularly practice or play music, and that it will have positive effects on your body. Music has so many functions. It can be pure entertainment, it can broaden your horizon and enrich your mind. People often expect a programmer to say: ‘Ah, this is good for you, it will be spiritually enriching,’ and things like that. Well, this may of course be true, but it can also be entertaining, fun.

Is music a 24-hour occupation for you?

Yes, it is also a hobby for me. I have a band, I just wrote another hit single this morning. (laughs)

Over breakfast?

I get up every day and start playing the guitar.

Really? To see if you can create something?

Oh yes, I am always working on a few songs, it is a biological need.’

Programmer becomes musician?

I do not know. I never felt like, when I hit thirty, I want to do this, or in five years’ time I want to do that. I have always been a person who has followed his intuition. I have always been passionate and ambitious, but things have always come onto my path. It is still always a search, always; life is like that, and this is what makes it great for me: that you keep discovering things and that this is how you find your answers.

What have been the important questions on your search?

Love, and beauty, these to me have probably been the main subjects. Everything you do, you should do it with love.’Frank Veenstra is a philosophical thinker who is very strict with himself. Take every step with love. Make the difference in your own world. Frank worries about how we treat each other and nature. Things could be so much better.

Have you ever been afraid of the future?

No, I haven’t. Fear is the worst driver. It is the thing that causes people to finish each other off, fear of the unknown or of what is different. Which is part of my work as well; I want to introduce people to new things. This is something that has been deeply engrained in me. I am always curious about things I do not know. Which is not normal, I know. Most people instead want to do the things they already know or that are accepted.

By experimenting yourself, you try to get other people…

…to feel tempted, and look beyond their own preferences and their own experiences.

Sort of a pioneering role?

Yes, I enjoy pioneering, getting doors to open. I also do it, for example, by working with other European concert halls. By doing so we can get the bigger names to come to Eindhoven.

After studying in Utrecht, Frank went to work in Enschede first, and then came to Eindhoven. And not without a reason. The cultural climate is favourable here, the way Frank sees it. Here, you are allowed to try out new things.

What would be a good breeding ground for creativity?

In my view there should be breaks in activity, where there is room to develop things . As soon as a town becomes too fixed, people will be rather more focused on each other. They will try to hook up with certain trends, because those are the hip things to do. Eindhoven offers enough space for people to play, which makes it easier for original minds to come forward and set to work. In ten years’ time this may have changed. People have a tendency to limit themselves; it is one of the shortcomings of mankind. Wanting to do everything themselves and being able to say: ‘this is my thing’.

On the other hand, you are allowed to claim something that you have created, aren’t you?

Oh certainly. You should stad for the things you do and you should be proud of them, but you should also be able to share your pride. Anyone who is talented is has the obligation to share their talent.

Does this mean that things like MySpace and YouTube are good developments?

I think they are. I regularly check these sites, looking for inspiration or new discoveries. But I always like to listen to the entire CD; you cannot get at the artist’s personality until you do.

You have to be open to it and give an artist a real chance. And this is the great thing about art as well, that it is often a victory over yourself. You will take something in that you had never before thought possible, you never dreamed you would appreciate anything like it. It does not necessarily have to be beautiful either. Something banal or hideous can also give you a wonderful artistic experience. You have to work hard to understand art. Most people are not really prepared to put in the elbow grease in this respect, they just want to watch the one thousandth episode of Deal or No Deal.

A concert is the best sensation there is, it beats listening to a CD. You will have a unique experience of the artist, because the next day, the concert will be different. Even a CD that is not great will come to life when you hear and see the artist performing it. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to feel this way.

Is this a recent development or is it part of a bigger trend?

In music, too, there is a cyclical movement. The number of concerts visited varies, it fluctuates. One moment people are looking for small-scale acts , and the next moment they prefer bigger, more popular artists.

Where in this cycle are we now?

I think we are moving back towards the smaller acts. It comes back in all forms of music. In classical music there is a greater demand for tonal music. If you were writing tonal music ten years ago, no one would have taken you seriously; now, it is a common phenomenon. The fluctuations have become less violent in the course of time, the peaks seem not as high and the lows seem less deep.

When do you say something is a work of high quality?

That is difficult to determine. As George Braque put it: ‘There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.’ I think this is very true. The question, ‘what exactly is it that moves me,’ is beyond the ratio. What is quite important on the other hand, is that it is real and original. It does not have to be innovative, but what is important is that it has some uniqueness.

Do you strive for this uniqueness in your own life?

In everything. It happens without my doing anything about it, because I am in this state of mind.

Should music be timeless?

I once had a discussion about this with Spinvis. About permanent value. He thinks this is nonsense; things can just be beautiful at this point in time. I agree with this, but of course, sublime works of art will last a few centuries. Even though I am not sure if this would be the ultimate achievement.

interview / index 2 - frank veenstrainterview / index 2 - frank veenstra

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textfreek lomme

photoboudewijn bollmann

interview / index 3

we need immigrants far more than we

will ever understand

charles esche on man, foreignness, and imagination

As the director of the Van Abbemuseum, it is Charles Esche’s job to connect us and them. As a person, Charles mediates between locals and internationals and between people in power and those on the margins of society. As a foreigner living in Eindhoven, he balances between our world (how we behave), and his world (how he acts). We expect him to introduce imagination, the tool of art, as a form of cultural mediation.

p. 14 p. 15

Being an expat yourself, how would you estimate our current civilization appreciates the expat?

Well, if you speak about civilization, you immediately speak of a western civilization that has always dealt with immigrants from all over the world. However, our notion of civilization has become rather fixed. It has been given a clear set of values, and those values have come under strain since we have been faced with the consequences of globalism for example. I think it is hard for people in Western societies to understand and accept the consequences of trends such as globalism because it asks for a real change in our self-perception. The power to determine what happened in the world was in Western hands, from, arguably, the Renaissance until quite recently, perhaps 1945, perhaps around the oil crisis, perhaps 1989. The expat or immigrant now comes into a country or a culture that is less secure in its own worldview , in its own rightness, and their presence exposes the urgency of this pressure. It disturbs what seems to be a calm situation. But, to be dramatic, if you consider Auschwitz as the death of Western European culture, then we are living as zombies now. The civilization we try to keep up is then a zombie civilization, a life after death and that is probably much more apparent to someone with one foot outside the culture than with their whole body inside. The problem we have as a culture is then, do we want to try to live out our zombie existence in comfort and leave it to the next generation to deal with the consequences, or can we resurrect ourselves and define anew what we stand for and to ask other people from around the world to join? I think the latter is possible but it remains challenging. For instance, if you ask ‘what is Dutchness?’, people will reject that question or they will say vague and kind of meaningless things like ‘tolerance’, or that they are an individual instead of a Dutch person. No one will define it for fear of limiting it, so Dutchness becomes a kind of secret to the immigrant, which can only be guessed at. It is similar in European countries but maybe a bit more tangible here. What this civilization, this culture, actually is remains in a sort of limbo, not defined but not renewed either.

How do you relate to this, being formally foreign in Eindhoven?

For a foreigner it is sometimes difficult to adapt since no one will tell you what the culture expects. As an expat I can learn by doing, which is often quite fun and amusing, but means I have to do something wrong and have someone tell me it was wrong in order to learn. It is in an odd way the kindness and tolerance that makes it more difficult, or at least slower, than in a more determined cultural environment.

So, if we declare a cultural need for more expats, we state a need for people breaking the rules?

The fact that there are no outspoken rules also makes it difficult for people to be open to someone who is breaking them. One, because of uncertainty, two, because they are not even sure themselves if this person has actually broken the rules. For example Geert Wilders’ judgement of someone breaking the rules will differ considerably from the way Rob van Gijsel, our mayor, would judge them. This means that individualization has made it difficult for immigrants to know what the rules are, whether you can break them or not. But it also makes it

difficult for someone protecting the rules to know what they are protecting. In the end, it is not so much the breaking of the rules but the view on the rules from another standpoint. What is valuable here is critical thinking and the possibility to reflect on what we do and why we do it. From that point of view, expats or immigrants have a great deal to offer a host community.

The notion of the expat seems quite restrictive, because it says ‘this is you and this is me’ in a very plain, formal way. But this ‘me’ is highly vague when it is used in such an abstract way. Likewise, the ‘you’ can be just as vague.

Definitions like these are always given in the negative. You only know who you are by defining the other. Therefore the expat, or ‘allochtoon’ in Dutch, provides a way of defining Dutchness within Dutch culture. I would add that all Western European countries have this problem. We are not unique in this, but we have our own unique way of living with this problem. The ‘you not being me’ is the only way that defines the expat: ‘you’re not us’. The only way out of this is to look for another larger identity like European or human. We seemed to want to try that after 1945, but now it goes back to national forms of identification. A project like Be(com)ing Dutch in the museum sought to contribute to investigating why that has occurred.

So we need expats as our negative, as a mirror of ourselves?

I think we need the outside , however much it is also present inside the country. We need immigrants far more than we will ever understand. The culture needs the foreign in order to remain a culture and not to disappear as some kind of historic heritage . The only way to introduce newness is through encounters with the foreign on the formal, social, aesthetic, and other levels. We have done so historically through trade, colonialism and the way the avant-garde incorporated other aesthetic traditions; this is how we have constantly renewed our culture. That is why our civilization, in a way, died in Auschwitz – because that ideology wanted to make everybody the same. The only hope for civilization is for outside factors to come and renew it. But this is a difficult thing in a culture that is rich enough to protect itself from change if it decides that it wants to do that. Western culture is not yet so destroyed that

it can simply be taken over, but it is not desperate and critical enough yet to renew itself from within. So we have arrived at a very crucial moment in time.

How can we engage with this on a more personal level? You, for example, are very closely engaged with local factors, but simultaneously, you seem to be a global citizen? How do you see your role?

Honestly, I think you just carry it through as lived experience. I am not sure you cope with it on an emotional level. One of the problems with a position like mine is how to say no. This is a luxury problem that seems almost a bit embarrassing for me to say. So, I do not know if I am merely surviving while thinking I am just self-propelled. Tomorrow I am going to the biennale in Venice. Why? Well, if I am being honest because somebody has organised the trip and I don’t want to waste it. Of course, it is a professional obligation and an opportunity to promote the museum in the world. In fact, we will announce a new collaboration with Barcelona and Ljubljana museums there. We need to generate such an international environment from out of Eindhoven and ensure the cultural elite know where we are aiming. But on the personal level, I feel sometimes just carried along by the growth in worldwide cultural events. When I feel happiest is when I can go back to places and develop lasting relationships with artists or museums for Eindhoven – such projects as the Middle East meetings, or working with Detroit and Chicago. That’s when the travelling makes sense.

You deal with hundreds of people, work with dozens of organizations and have initiated a great number of new networks, stretching in numerous directions, as the museum website shows. To what extent does this reflect the person Charles Esche?

The fact that the museum is moving more in the direction of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, is clearly something that I have brought. This is something new. The museum used to focus primarily on the Northwest of Europe and North America. And the focus on socially engaged practices is something I introduced. To try and, hopefully, position the museum as a public space with debates like the ‘Zwarte

Piet’ (a blackfaced helper of Saint Nicolas), the Festicumex Festival, and like the recent conference we had with Sanja Ivekovic. These were moments when you could sense that the museum was making a difference that the museum was offering something that was not or could not be offered elsewhere. In addition, those projects focused on something specifically from Eindhoven: an exhibition or cultural phenomenon here. So, these attempts at making art connect with a wider range of discussions within society are our way of understanding this powerful relationship between art and life. The questions that we ask ourselves in this discussion relate to something that goes beyond the development of art. They relate to the development of our society. I hope that there is a certain significance as to what I do in this regard – that it can show a way of working that others can develop further.’

What would you consider fruitful networks for Eindhoven?

A network is what we make of it . In the art field, it doesn’t function to produce work in the studio and wait for it to be discovered. That gives far too much power to the middlemen and destroys the independent action of artists. The museum should be seen as a gateway to an international network for people here in the city – a network that does not only include artists but connects to other fields, disciplines and knowledge centres. For artists, the museum is not really a place to hang your painting; it is a place where you can meet people. I want to offer people access to the networks I have and to share with theirs. That is what the idea of Your Space was and is – a place where meeting and exchange can happen at other levels. You know as well as I that we need to work on this further but it also requires commitment from people in the city to engage. I sometimes think the sense that the subsidized sector is only getting smaller results in a kind of cynicism about new developments. If more people need to compete for a smaller pot of money, then each will get less. It is a kind of zero sum game in which initiatives are dangerous. That is why I like initiatives like yours or Luc Sponsorlee that generate stuff and try to do things for themselves. They avoid the passivity that relying on state funds can generate. This is something we deal with every day in the museum, but networks can be a way to flatten relationships like this and give people a new sense of useful, if always relative, autonomy.

Your tone just turned quite angry, can you explain what caused it?

It is more passion than anger I hope. I think artists in the Netherlands have in a way been force-fed with subsidies and that has limited their room for action. I am not for reducing subsidies, but more for making them conditional and related to certain basic social objectives, because I believe art is a part of the social matrix. The real autonomous artist is one who has fought for his or her autonomy in the face of subsidies and patrons, not one who simply demands it of the supporters. That’s too easy. I also think that the stress on artistic autonomy in the educational system leads to extreme individualization of the art field with each artist striving for his or her own interest. To be honest, I think we need to connect to each other more across disciplines and specialisms. Art could make a change in society . After all, only together could we change the world for the better!

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interview / index 4

life around the corner is where

we can be of influence

anne mieke eggenkamp on generations and design

As a child Anne Mieke would help her mother with her work as a dressmaker. She was fascinated with laying out the pattern sheets and tracing the patterns. Her father ran a factory. Entrepreneurship is in Anne Mieke’s genes. She studied at the Arnhem art school and then plotted out her own course. From playing business women with her friends as a child, to business director of the Design Academy Eindhoven.

text ingrid swinkels & mirte meeus

photo boudewijn bollmann

p. 18 p. 19

What role does your background in graphic design play now?

People see a job such as business director very much as a… position. That is not at all the way I see it. I actually think that what I am doing now has a great deal to do with designing. It is about making strategic plans, about building on something. These are processes in which you have a role to play and that you direct and where you must convince others that this is the right direction. But you also literally shape it, you literally determine the content of what it should be.

What makes something catch people’s eyes? When is an object a striking thing? What is the designer’s way of seeing things, and how does design from Eindhoven stand out among other design? Questions that have been asked a dozen times at least, but still we wanted to hear from Anne Mieke how she sees things.

If it is something I do not immediately understand, it strikes me. Something that stands out from the context in which it has been placed, I am sensitive to that. But it is about the message as well. I am more easily tempted by content than by exterior. What makes a thing stand out is not something that is fixed, no, this is the interesting thing. When you are a designer you become sensitive to the way things are or appear, it is a combination between the two hemispheres. It is quite an intuitive thing, and then at some point, analysis or ratio steps back in again. This interaction between intuition and ratio works quick as a flash. It is not something you do consciously, it presents itself. People say that music is the quickest thing to stir the senses. You do not need to be very ‘knowledgeable’ about it, it either touches you, or it does not. With visual things, all kinds of things get in the way; conventions, taste, you name it. As a designer you have to open up your senses. All designers are good observers. The thing you recognise in the work of our students is their conceptualism, which is a completely vague concept, but what it actually says is that the design question, or the initial question which is often behind a product or a service or whatever, that it has been thought through, and that it is a question that is not just of interest to the designer, but which is recognised by others as well. So the design is never a simple formal solution along the lines of ‘right, now let me design a new mug’. That is not what Eindhoven stands for. Eindhoven is: ‘well, the assignment is: what are the constituents of drinking behaviour and how can we reduce waste?’ These are much further reaching questions with which we actually want to challenge students to do something and to take the assignment and interpret it in their own ways. This is what Eindhoven is. It is not the shortest, quickest, or best way, but it is an organic process that will meander towards a solution . Dutch Design is linked so strongly with Eindhoven because the leading designers came from Eindhoven when the phrase was coined in the nineties. This is still resonating in the outside world. Actually, Dutch graphic design has been of a very high standard for the past seventy years, but it was never called Dutch Design. It has been forced into a framework that is too narrow, so that we should be asking ourselves: should we change the connotation of the term? Or do we need a new term?

What are the striking trends in the design world in 2009?

Trends get picked up by people who are sensitive to trends. And this is what makes our school quite special; this is where trends

become visible. The best time is when we have our graduations, then we get to see what the current generation is working on. The generation we currently have in our school consists of children who have been raised in digitalism from the start . When they were born, the computer was already there. There are enormous differences in behaviour between the generations. The interesting thing is that they use a computer or a device in a completely different way from me; I am a child of the sixties. Seeing this, and allowing it into a school is of the essence; not to become stuck in some old thing, but anticipating. One of the trends happening now is not that students turn away from this, but that they develop a huge craving for mechanisms alongside it, alongside the digital and the electronic, a desire for the mechanical. For the past few years we have seen a need to create things that are readable, tangible. Simply by sticking a plug into a socket or things with wind-up systems: mechanisms. This is a very funny movement. A second trend that we have been seeing is an incredible love of the material. A few years ago things were more about form, but this is now shifting towards the material. The feel of things, the way things look, where they come from, how they were made. The sensitive and tactile sides. A third movement is the handicraft, the process of creation. An attention to the way the product is manufactured and a love of creating .

What do you philosophise about?

We are all crippled by problems halfway across the globe. It makes us think: ‘what on earth could we do about that?’ But life around the corner, this is where we can be of influence. We determine the way our own public spaces look. The entrance to your building, for instance. Even though you may not own it, and even though you may share it, the point is to agree with each other anyway about what it should look like. The little things. Everyday life is what is on my mind.

How do you apply this in your own life?

By being more critical about these things, even when I am in other places. Talking to people and asking them why they do certain things. I was once given a tremendous belt in the face while I was waiting at a red light. There was a jeep next to me with the widows open, and this man tossed a drink can out into

the street right in front of me. I never even thought about it, I just picked up the can, flung it back into his car and said ‘We don’t just toss things out onto the street around here.’ He got out of his car and <bam>. I really do not think of myself as a starry-eyed idealist, but this laziness is so annoying! I travel on the silence zone in the train at least three times a week, and at least once every week I have to tell someone ‘This is a silence zone.’ And then they will want to start a discussion on what is silence… then I take a deep breath and say: ‘Well, I think there are a few things in life about which there can simply be no discussion: silence is silence.’

What are your favourite places, besides the train?

I love being in Amsterdam, I love riding my bike around that town. I like being in a stimulating environment. But what I love most is being completely disconnected; no phones, no references to the present. In an environment that combines a view, water, plants, and that is in contact with the horizon. When I go away on vacation I will look for such places and as soon as I get into my car, everything will just fall away. I do not need my computer, my phone, I do not need any of it.

Where do you find your answers?

I find my answers in nature, but also in a growing awareness of the things going on inside my head and my heart. This is also because of my age. As you get older, you get this sense that you have less and less time left to do the things that are meaningful. I find my answers through regular meditation.

So on the one hand you look for stimuli in the city, and on the other hand you find peace in nature. Is there any interaction between the stimuli and the peace?

I need both the stimuli and the peace every day. If I cannot disconnect in nature, then I will disconnect by closing my eyes. I could sit in the bathroom here for three minutes and I will have transported myself completely into a different state of mind. I have had this all my life, come to think of it, but I started it after I had had an accident with my motorcycle and ended up in hospital. My head was too full and I realised something had to change. I can handle a lot, but it is not healthy. As a child I would draw, and withdraw to my room; now I do it differently.

I get up earlier to be able to meditate. For someone else it may work to get on a treadmill and run, for my husband rowing on the river Amstel every day does the trick. I do not preach meditation, but it works for me because it is disconnected from the stimuli I want so much and from all the things I want to see, taste, be present at, and experience. You simply cannot handle all of it as a human being. In order to be able to do all the other things and to translate them, I need peace.

What is the most meaningful thing for you?

I think education is the most meaningful thing in life, because it enables you to transfer onto others the way you see things, your experience of things in life. This is a transfer of knowledge, but mostly the passing on of experience. If only people knew how happy this can make you. I really think it is an undervalued and an underpaid profession. The salaries in our education I think are scandalously low. When you see how much it matters. 95 percent of the students leaving our school, and that is quite a few, end up in good places in the world. With both feet firmly on the ground, they take up their places in society and they will find their way whatever path they choose. And whether or not they turn out as good designers is not even that important to me. But they do know what this world is about and they are able to do something with it. They are able to contribute, they can think of something that might make the world just a little bit better.

How are we to find Eindhoven among the rest of the world?

Eindhoven does not always realise that a great number of people know this school, without even knowing where exactly Eindhoven is. It has been a very conscious choice to add the word Eindhoven to the name Design Academy. It states our pride of being Dutch and expresses that we want to commit ourselves to the identity of this place. Furthermore it seems as if Eindhoven is exclusively about design, but technology is certainly something that is characteristic of the region, too. What Philips has done for Eindhoven is phenomenal. It is a shame really that this is not treated with more respect. It is such a great story, and one that is known all over the world. But now it seems to be exclusively about the humble light bulb; I think it is a shame.

How do you put things in perspective?

I think I am a person who loves their profession very much and practices it with passion. I hope I can make a small difference. But I am equally fond of humour. How important is it actually, the things we do? I sometimes feel like saying ‘What is the actual point to all this?’ Our ego gets in the way for all of us, doesn’t it? And none of us want it to; I sometimes long to have no ego. But do you let it direct you, do you accept it, or do you perhaps have to laugh at it sometimes? When I am in company I will sometimes think: ‘What is this all about?’. Outside art education I will very often be the only woman and then I will see myself in this male dominated world. My father is no longer with us, but then I can hear him roar with laughter; ‘Would you look at my daughter sitting there!’

interview / index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp interview / index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp

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text maud van der poel & mirte

meeusphoto

boudewijn bollmann

interview / index 5

hans robertus on electronics and alliances

we are getting better at realising that

a product is part of a bigger system

He is the director of the Dutch Design Week, works as a Senior Director Research, Development & Innovation at Phillips Design, and as a spearhead for the Creative Conversion Factory he works on innovative projects on the cutting edge between technology and design. Hans Robertus is always on the go.

p. 22 p. 23

Where did your fascination with your profession originate?

At the Eindhoven Academy for Industrial Design. It was situated in the Hemelrijken area of the Woensel district at the time. A few wooden sheds, is all it was. I vividly remember the talk I had as a young student with Wim Gilles, who was the director of the academy at the time, and a man who has meant so much for our profession. That conversation has been such an inspiration. It is this type of talk that drives me, even today.

Do you see yourself as a designer?

I have designed things with a great deal of passion and I still take pride in one or two of my designs. But I soon had to acknowledge that within a large-sized studio such as the one where I work, only a few designers are truly unique. This is genuinely humbling. Now I am not afraid even to say that I am not a designer after all. My talents lie in the organisation around it.

How does the design world today differ from the design world 20 years ago?

A lot has changed in the design process, not just in the Netherlands, but world wide. As a designer you used to get a very specific assignment. Everything would be predetermined; your target group, market, colour, budget. Within this framework we had to come up with something, we were not called in until the very end of the production process. You would design a few models and then the call would come. ‘The colour on the first model, the back end from the second, and well, we really want the third model, because that was the one my wife liked best.’ Of course this is highly charged, but that was the gist of it. There came a day when we had reached a kind of saturation point in the design process. We could not add any more functions to the product. We had to start finding out why people would appreciate certain products and services, and decline certain others.

How do designers work now?

The major design departments in the world today employ whole battalions of behavioural scientists. Anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists. They will chart the main movements in society and analyse cultural changes. The designers can feed on this information and are employed from the start of the production process. This is an enrichment; it yields products that are much more strongly embedded in society. We are getting better at realising that a product is part of a bigger system. Take, for instance, your telephone: it not only connects you to other people, but also with systems around your home, at work, and in the car. Today’s designers are aware of these mutual connections.

The fact that the city of Eindhoven has a specific profile is obvious. Still, Hans feels that it should place more emphasis on industrial design.

The term Dutch Design is often associated with products for which the designer himself is the brand; think of people like

Marcel Wanders, Maarten Baas, Piet Hein Eek and Marlies Dekkers. This is author driven design. On the other hand there is a design approach that is driven by industrial processes, which we call industrial design. In neither of these cases do the designers feel a general need to design something specifically aimed at the Dutch, but rather, they see the whole world as a possible outlet. What makes it Dutch is the way in which the designers work. Departing from the Dutch mentality and culture we have apparently created a favourable climate to do so. Both the author driven design and the industrial design are of good quality. It is just that industrial designers tend not to seek so much publicity, and this is why we do not know as much about it.

What are the characteristics of this climate?

We want to work within the bandwidth, but we like to explore the boundaries. We are used to finding a consensus. The amount of hierarchy in our society has diminished dramatically over the past decades. Changes in the way we treat one another have changed the design process. The differences between men and women, for instance, have become smaller. And our mentality makes our end products well thought through. I think this is what enables us to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world.

Hans wants to contribute to the design of concepts, which he does through his work for the Creative Conversion Factory (CCF). Great ideas that have become stranded, get a chance at CCF.

What is the Creative Conversion Factory, and what is it for?

The Creative Conversion Factory is a meeting point where inventors, manufacturers, and investors can transform promising technological ideas into viable products. Brilliant ideas can sometimes arise in the wrong place or at the wrong time. They do not fit within the corporate strategy, or their

inventor is unable to find the right partner to turn it into a market-worthy product. We think this is a great shame. The Creative Conversion Factory offers these ideas a chance by allowing several parties and different expertises to look in on the process from an early stage. I am surrounded by people who are on all kinds of committees, who write all kinds of reports and create all kinds of vision statements, but not enough concrete things are happening, basically. Things are not progressing beyond the stages of ideas, planning, and drawing. I think it is a great challenge to give these concepts a tangible form. We are succeeding quite nicely at doing so within the CCF, which I am currently spearheading. Eindhoven should become a trial ground for experiments on the axis of technology and design , involving the city’s inhabitants and users directly in the development of products and services that will improve the quality of life in the city. For instance Philips’ Shoplab. This highly futuristic shop is situated on the High Tech Campus and is part of Philips Research. In this ‘laboratory’ all kinds of new technologies are used and tested that are aimed at making the shopping experience more enjoyable. We have tried to find ways of relocating this type of experimental installations to ‘real’ environments, and we have succeeded. I think the idea of using Eindhoven more as a ‘living lab’ ties in very well with the region’s DNA.

He briefly hesitated before accepting the directorship of the Dutch Design Week, but it soon seemed a logical step. The synergy between his different functions eventually tipped the balance for Hans. As a founding member of the board at the Design Platform Eindhoven, he has witnessed the development of the event from up close. And he has something to add to it.

What is your paradigm for the Dutch Design Week?

My predecessor John Lippinkhof has created a strong platform for the Dutch Design Week over the past seven years. What

we have is something wonderful and pure , and we should not alter it. But so far it has been very much an exhibition. In my humble opinion we have not tried hard enough to sell the products. We have not made enough of an effort to link it up to what it was intended for: for companies to do something with them. I would like to see us succeeding in strengthening the link with the market by making it clear to smaller and mid-size businesses how design is fundamental to their businesses. The Dutch Design Week showcases some wonderful ideas. These ideas have to be able to land somewhere. Ultimately the designs should reach their target groups. This is why it is important to have some people with a technological background or a background in business looking in over our shoulders. In this respect the Hightech Campus has sought a connection with the Dutch Design Week. They expect a great deal – and I think rightly so – from the cutting edge between technology and design. Boffins and designers should start finding each other at an early stage. The dreamers are sticking together for too long.

And what about the future, how does he see it? Hans explains how designers are becoming less and less restricted by fixed forms. Anything is possible.

Technology in the future, what will it look like?

Electronics are becoming smaller and smaller; they are even becoming invisible. In this sense you might say that technology is ‘disappearing’. This is an interesting development. The designer is no longer stuck with the box that will have to contain the electronics. He can come up with different forms of expression, which raises the next interesting question. Because, how will you operate a radio when you no longer need the box with the controls? If it is possible for a T-shirt to be a telephone, what else can we come up with? What we need now is people with a broad view. I strongly believe in companies increasingly working together in clusters. Stefano Marzano has said ‘Nowadays Da Vinci is an Alliance,’ and I wholeheartedly agree. And I believe in the collaboration between creative minds and boffins. When these two groups find each other at an early stage, it leads to some interesting alliances.

What kind of alliances should we be thinking of?

Of combined business services. How can we combine the logistics of a waste disposal company with the services provided by an undertaker’s? Imagine surfing to an undertaker’s website; you will be easily impressed with what they offer. They will make all the arrangements for you when things go wrong. Anything you can think of. But there is one thing they have not thought of. They have not thought of what people want done with the possessions that are left behind after the family have taken away their dearest things. Anything left will have to be cleared out. This is a service that a waste disposal company could provide. It is about bringing businesses into contact with one another, even if they basically have nothing to do with each other. The entire infrastructure is already there, so it could be a great match. The symbiosis of these processes can come a long way, I guarantee you.

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text remco de blaaij

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dutchness becomes a kind of secret

‘Be(com)ing Dutch’ was a two-year project developed both within the Eindhoven Van Abbemuseum and outside it. It consisted of debates, reading groups, artist’s projects, exhibitions, courses, various forms of collective participation and production. As a self-initiated assignment, Be(com)ing Dutch questioned cultural identity and certain normative ‘national’ values that form the basis of our culture. Dutchness as a collective secret under scrutiny.

becomingdutch

lead from index 3 - charles esche

‘Being Dutch’, what precisely is this? What determines our cultural identity? We will often lapse into intellectual debate upon hearing these kinds of questions. The Van Abbemuseum decided to take the helm and set up a two-year project: Be(com)ing Dutch. During these two years, the museum tried to determine if we could use art to find alternative ways of thinking about contemporary society. During the project, the Van Abbe strived to capture the existing ideas about our cultural identity and to come to a better understanding of how groups are created. How do in-crowds and out-crowds come about? What determines whether you are a Dutch person or (narrowly) not?

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The Dutch identity is beyond our grasp. It is a grey area with room for multiple interpretations. The unwritten rules are informal, yet functional, and are passed on from one person to the next. Sharing this knowledge can take place in different ways. The technological term ‘open source’ is one example. In an ‘open source’, people exchange subjects and ideas as sources, to enable independent development outside the boundaries of rights and obligations. Such technological developments have moved on into the economic and socio-political realms, as well as that of visual art. What does the exchange of knowledge in the arts look like in the 21st century?

During Be(com)ing Dutch various artists articulated their knowledge. There was Ahmet Ögüt, for instance, a Turkish artist, with his video-installation Three Spots (2007). Amsterdam communicates its Amsterdam identity through city branding, among other things. One of the expressions as part of this city branding is I Amsterdam. Ahmet Ögüt placed the letters in a different order and formed different words with them. With Read the Masks (2008), Petra Bauer and Annette Krauss familiarised their audiences with the colonial history and racist structure that lie at the heart of the ‘Sinterklaas’ (Saint Nicolas) celebration. The phenomenon of ‘Zwarte Piet’ (blackfaced helper of Saint Nicolas) has led to different protests in the past. With their work of art, the artistic duo tried to see if they could rekindle the discussion on this Dutch celebration. In the end, the project created a lot of fuss. Mission accomplished. Wendelien van Oldenburgh exhibited her work No False Echoes (2008). She confronted us with a history we thought we knew, or that we had forgotten. Her new performance of an old educational and activist text from the Dutch East Indies revealed the source of our colonial past and of the traces it has left across the Netherlands and the former Indies.

dutchness is a kind of secret

tintin wulia(re)collection of

togetherness2008

photo: peter cox

p. 25surasi kusolwong

feetball rietveld table2008

ecstasylightwall2008

‘treat each human friend by thinking that’

2008photo: peter cox

dutchness becomes a kind of secret

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petra bauer & annette kraussread the masks. tradition is not given2008 photo: peter cox

dutchness becomes a kind of secret

michael blum be(com)ing dutch 2008 photo: peter cox

Michael Blum’s Be(com)ing Dutch (2008) outlined a scenario for the future in his work, in which the United States would no longer occupy a dominant position in world issues. The US have stopped getting involved in world affairs and ceased all aid to Israel. The Palestinian population is steadily growing and ultimately, the Israeli Jews have no option but to leave the Holy Land. 4,500 refugees arrive in the Netherlands by boat. After a lengthy discussion, they are offered shelter in several public buildings, and the Van Abbemuseum offers a temporary home to 113 Israeli refugees in its bell tower.

Many of the artists exhibiting in Be(com)ing Dutch had a mixed background of different nationalities, plus religious, social, and economic aspects. They created a barrel load of knowledge for others to tap into. The artists probably did not have this knowledge themselves beforehand; it probably needed to be activated by others first, through discussions, questions, and creation. The sharing of knowledge is essential to the process, because knowledge can only grow through sharing, and transform from a static load into something more dynamic. An exhibition like Be(com)ing Dutch presents the end result of such a knowledge exchange. This makes Be(com)ing Dutch a valuable exhibition project and a valuable social project, in which a group of people made an ultimate attempt at sharing knowledge. It appeals to our exotic desire for each other. Moreover, it makes us curious for the other. Trying to bring a collective identity to the surface can be a result, but whatever the result, it has been a great pursuit.

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originalminds

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reportage

lead from index 2 - frank veenstra

first sketch-ups

pig 05049christien meindertsma

The first idea, the first thought, the first outline. The start of an idea is a fascinating moment in the design process. How does a design, a building, or a work of art begin? How do designers, architects, and artists transfer the beginning onto paper? What does the starting point look like? Well, like this.

original minds

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open air cutlerymaarten baptist

no screw no glue seriesjoost van bleiswijk

original minds

vesteda towerjo coenen

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a restless chairacterpepe heykoop

original minds

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classic cabinet in scrap woodpiet hein eek

soft teapotkiki van eijk

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nextnature

lead from index 1 - bert meijer

we cannotstop progress

We live in a technological world. We are surrounded by technology, we play with it, and we are dependent upon it. Technology not only shapes our everyday living environment, we are also using more and more technological enhancements in order to improve our performance and to make our environment smarter. Technological development is the ideal on which our highly modern society thrives. But what are all these technologies doing to us? The technological evolution of man and his environment is a source of inspiration for both scientists and artists.

textties van de

werff

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Technological Evolution

The story of man’s technological evolution starts with the active hunter-gatherer who decided to no longer let himself be sent off into the woods, but instead started concentrating on the cultivation of land. After this agricultural revolution, around 30,000 years later, came the industrial revolution when machines started taking over a lot of the work that had been done by people. By now, according to many, we have entered a new phase in our (r)evolution: that of information technology. The end point so far in the wealthy West, the office worker who remains seated all day, is already leading a largely virtual life. Microsoft’s uniform desktop is the everyday outlook on the world for millions of people. We are almost communicating more through email and social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace than we are chatting in real time. In the years to come, information technologies will advance even further into our lives. Companies such as Philips and NXP are working on the development of ‘smart’ technologies that can be integrated unseen into our everyday habitat. ‘Ambient intelligent technologies’ should be able to make our decisions for us, for instance the refrigerator that registers when we run out of milk and then orders new milk from the supermarket. Using so-called RFID-chips – the internet of things – any object can be magically turned into an information carrier. They are currently used, for example, to store information on our passports. But before long, computers will be literally able to read our entire material environment.

Next Nature

At the heart of this technological evolution lies our notion of nature. Since the invention of the stone axe, people have been bending nature to their will. From around 1800, this cultivation or controlling of nature has been happening so fast that we have now come to be almost completely surrounded by technology. According to artist and researcher Koert van Mensvoort the concepts of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ have switched places. Van Mensvoort, whose activities include working at the University of Technology in Eindhoven’s Industrial Design faculty, believes that we should thoroughly adjust the notion of nature. ‘Real’ nature – or, as Van Mensvoort calls it: old nature – as the part of the world that existed before there were people, and the part that people have not tried to control, is rare. The Netherlands, made from water, does not even have any nature in this sense. What we

see as nature, is in fact a manufactured version of what we think old nature looked like. So old nature has become culture. What is left, Van Mensfoort calls Next Nature. Next Nature is exactly the opposite of cultivated nature. By contrast, Next Nature is culture that has become nature: culturally emerged nature. When certain cultural products and processes become so complex and incontrollable, they obtain an autonomous and ‘nature-like’ character. According to Koert van Mensvoort we

can then only understand these autonomous cultural processes and systems with the forces we used to ascribe to nature. The global economic system is an example of Next Nature, and so are mobile phones and our increasingly virtual lives. The technological environment we have created ourselves is therefore our new nature.

‘There may even come a moment that our connection with an industrially manufactured coke bottle may be richer and more mythical than our relation with a genetically analyzed and manipulated rabbit in the woods.’ Koert van MensvoortThe average person only has a limited understanding of a computer or a mobile phone. The technologies we surround

ourselves with have become so complex that we can hardly comprehend them; they become magical. Whereas Max Weber interpreted the modernisation process long ago as the ‘demystification’ of the world, we are on the verge of entering a new magical world according to Van Mensvoort. New technologies are offering unknown possibilities. But man is not stranded helplessly on the sidelines. Koert van Mensvoort: ‘We are beginning to understand that nature is dynamic and that it is changing along with us.’ This means we are able to change the nature surrounding us as well. In the first place, we can start by making the ‘natural’ powers of our technological environment visible. On his website nextnature.net, Van Mensvoort as an artist, with several kindred spirits, shows us beautiful and everyday examples of Next Nature. And he has set up a department within the University of Technology’s Industrial Design faculty to explore how we can create products for Next Nature. Technologies must become more humane, according to Van Mensvoort. One example is to have the ‘magical’ and the organic come back in everyday technologies, such as a project on ‘bioluminescence’ in lighting.

We are beginning to understand that nature

is dynamic and that it is changing

along With us

We cannot stop progress

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Smart Environments, Smart People?

Apart from his environment, man himself is technologically upgraded as well in Next Nature. By 2003 the world wide Human Genome Project had uncovered all human genes in the DNA of the human organism. Meanwhile, all over the world research has begun to try and change, remove, or improve certain human characteristics. Scientists are working on slowing down the aging process of our cells so that we can effortlessly reach the age of 150. During all this, neurologists, cognitive scientists and geneticists have been working on regenerative medicine and cognitive enhancements. Through tissue engineering they can grow body parts in laboratories. And why wait until something is broken before we fix it? Cosmetic surgery is no longer something extraordinary; the next step is to crank up the performance of our brain through cognitive enhancements in the shape of brain stimuli or pills. Brain implants to restore part of the hearing system in deaf people already exist. The Australian cognitive scientist Allan Snyder claims that by using ‘trans-cranial magnetic stimulation’ of certain brain areas he can give people temporary savant skills: a specific hyper-human brilliance as in some people with autism. Are we slowly turning into cyborgs?

The Dutch artist Floris Kaayk exposes the unexpected consequences of biotechnologies in his fictional documentary Matalosis Maligna. Kaayk has mechanical prostheses lead to a morbid growth of metal in the body, changing people almost automatically into stumbling, grinding cyborgs. As long as they function well, these cyborgs are not even such a bad idea, according to transhumanists, a motley crew of enthusiastic scientists. Fusions between man and machine (cyborgs) are simply the next step in our evolutionary process. Many of the transhumanists, like John Harris and Hans Moravec, believe that we as a human race have an obligation to rid the world of as much suffering as possible through the technological perfection of mankind. Genetic manipulation to avoid future diseases, and brain stimulation to become smarter or to eliminate bad character traits are possibilities we should use. Who knows, we may find more efficient human forms, who will not die of old age or suffer from destructive forces such as sexual lust. Transhumanists believe that mankind will be the first organism in the evolutionary process to be able to create its own evolutionary successors.

We redesign the World using

smart technologies

We cannot stop progress

p. 42 p. 43

The Ideal Of Technological Advancement

The view of these transhumanists sounds like science fiction, like a utopian dream. Still, even though a society full of robots may be far off, the technologies that can make these developments possible already exist. Aside from this, some people point out that we humans are already cyborgs. Not only are we using all kinds of technological aids (from glasses to prostheses and implants), we have also long since started outsourcing our brain activities. According to philosopher Walter Ong we have externalised our memory through the invention of writing. Because of the invention of the book, people in the Middle Ages no longer needed to memorise stories to be able to pass them on. This transformed the cognitive structure of man: instead of memorising information, selecting and analysing it became the core of our thinking. From an evolutionary perspective this was a clever way to become smarter despite ourselves: because in spite of man’s evolution from hunter-gatherer into modern man, our cranial capacity has stayed the same. By now, the average Saturday newspaper contains more information than a person in the 17th century would have had to process in their entire life. The Dutch cyber-philosopher Jos de Mul, in his book Cyberspace Odyssee, states that information technologies such as the internet are doing something similar to what the book did during the Middle Ages. Only this time we are not only outsourcing our cognitive structure of analytical thought, but we are externalising our entire thought process. Google (as well as new semantic search engines such as Wolfram Alpha) will select and analyse our information for us. And soon, technologies such as ambient intelligent technology and RFID-chips will be drawing their own conclusions about these analyses, especially for us. This will then no doubt free up space in our heads for new skills. Therefore De Mul expects our future new cognitive skills to lie in complex multitasking and visualising thought processes. Man makes technology, technology makes man.

Technological progress has become technological evolution. We have created a new technological habitat, where we redesign the world using smart technologies. Because these new technologies enter our world step by step and nestle there in all-encompassing ways, we automatically grow accustomed to them, and some of them even take on the substance of Next Nature. We rarely realise that technologies can change our behaviour and our ideas. It is up to artists and scientists to use their creativity in researching what it means to be human in these revolutionary times. According to the British philosopher John Gray, the idea of technological progress is a secularised version of the Christian thought that has dominated Western thinking for centuries. We are still secretly hoping that one day, mankind will be saved from worldly misery, only this time our saviour is not God, but Technology. Who will save who, eventually, and from what?

WWW.DUTCHINVERTUALS.NL

advertisementWe cannot stop progress

p. 44 p. 45

we have been facedwith the consequencesof globalism

bjørnandreassen

lead from index 3 - charles esche

National boundaries have lost their significance as far as the movement of goods and services is concerned. Globalisation has changed the world, and nobody remembers what it was like before. Our lives are dictated by the chances and possibilities that globalisation creates. We are connected with each other through globalisation and it involves our entire lives and all our daily activities. It finalises and shapes our society.

The evolution of globalism started from the urban centres that form the hub of our societies. Because globalisation is limited only by the size of the globe, the earth being its maximum range, it is trying to find new terrains into which it can expand. Sooner or later, it will encounter landscapes and rural areas. It will be quick to take over our cultural landscapes and our hinterlands. See the possibilities and beauty in both worlds fusing together, and our fear and aversion will change for the better.

page 45article

imagesbjØrn

andreassen

shop - restaurant - gallery

via varese 1, milano

www.verger.it

advertisement

p. 46 p. 47

an organic process that will meander towards a solution

tomás gabzdilthe honeycomb vase

made by bees

photo: raoul kramer

page 47visual

reportage

lead from index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp

Works of art can spring from a wide range of sources. Some designers are fascinated by organic processes and take inspiration from nature. Take these images. The designers have found creative ways of integrating nature into their designs. Proving once more the undeniable truth that an image can say more than a thousand words. See how they make your flesh creep.

selectedworks

libertiny placed a mould inside a hive and lured 40,000 bees into building a vase-shaped honeycomb around it. fragile, imprecise and butterscotch-luminous, it is a metaphor for the life cycle of bees pollinating flowers

and a celebration of the frail coexistence of man and nature. The piece is part of the permanent collection of the museum of modern arts in new York.

Libertiny

p. 48 p. 49

Nacho Carbonell

in this era, where we are saturated with information at a frenetic pace, nacho has wanted to create a refuge to escape to and digest this rave in which we are submerged. it provides a moment of peace with yourself, with others, or between people. The material is recycled paper generated by the excess information our society produces. The paper is separated according to colour before creating the paste. This allows us to recycle not only the paper but also the ink on it. once the paste is ready, it is applied over an iron frame covered with differently textured chicken wire.

depending on the pattern of this wire a unique paper texture appears. in this first edition there are three different pieces. The first is the ‘one man chair’, which incites personal thinking. ‘The bench’ represents the crowds in daily life and the cocoon attached to it is the door to an escape. The third chair is called ‘The lovers chair’ and it aims to confront the two sides of behaviour: private and public. it explores different ways of communication and becomes a connecting tunnel.

Atelier NL

in line with a tradition that lived in makkum until well into the 19th century, in which the presence of local raw materials was a first condition for manufacturing, royal tichelaar makkum introduces a straightforward pottery service by atelier nl. The project drawn from clay by lonny van ryswyck and nadine sterk (atelier nl) started by digging up, shaping, and baking clay from different locations across the netherlands. They

created a beautiful series of plates and bowls in different colours and structures, showing the local identity of the area where the clay had been found. Their ideas neatly tied into the wishes of royal tichelaar makkum and they started a collaboration to translate these into products. The result is a pottery service made from six different local dutch clays.

an organic process that will meander towards a solution

nacho carbonell the bench

made of recycled paper

nacho carbonell the lovers chair

made of recycled paper

atelier nlclay service

made of clay from different locations in the netherlands

p. 50 p. 51

p. 52 p. 53

p. 54 p. 55

The starting point was the notion that many products - and fashion related products in particular - use very ‘expensive’ materials such as silver, gold, leather, rich textiles etc, which are then meticulously and painstakingly manufactured. The use of these materials ensures that the eventual product automatically looks beautiful to the majority of people. in other words: people appear to be significantly less critical on the actual beauty of these products because of the overwhelming richness of the materials. The materials are often very durable and expensive.

The use of these durable materials is rather strange when you realise that many of these (fashion related) products are made for one fashion season, which does not last very long at all. would it be possible to make products out of very inexpensive, easily available materials and create something beautiful out of them?

an organic process that will meander towards a solution

Greetje van Helmond

sugar is able to grow crystals under certain conditions. The aim was to see if it were possible, under controlled conditions, to make these crystals grow into something that would be considered jewellery, without actually using any gems or expensive stones. a nice side effect is that each item is unique, because the growing process can only be controlled to a certain extent. how do people deal with the knowledge that a piece of ‘ jewellery’ only has a limited lifespan. They will be very conscious and careful of wearing it, because they know they can only wear it a couple of times before it starts to deteriorate. perhaps you could compare it to buying flowers: the knowledge that they will be gone after a while makes people appreciate them more while they are still there.

The pieces are produced by lowering a thread or a framework into a highly saturated sugar solution. The crystals will form around it and the growing process begins. The length of time you leave the thread in will determine the size of the crystals.

greetje van helmondunsustainable

made of sugar

p. 56 p. 57

p. 58 p. 59 an organic process that will meander towards a solution

Sonja Bäumel

an exploration of the boundaries between design, art and science, to create multidisciplinary works out of information generated from the design field and laboratory research. The aim is to create new ways of using and appreciating the microcosm around us. The research is documented in collaboration with biologists, in order to visualise and aesthetically transform the information. The unknown becomes knowable. what fascinates me most is the human skin, the layer between the inside and the outside.

a second skin can be found on our skin. it is a layer full of life, which serves as a membrane for exchange. This body membrane is made from the same substance as the world. The human body does not end with its

skin, but it expands invisibly into space. The hidden membrane is something between our body and our environment. we can enter this invisible micro level with a microscope; we enter the micro world and enlarge it. what happens if we make the micro world of the human body perceivable? sonja confronts people with the fact that our body hosts millions of bacteria and that a balanced perception of the body is closely linked to a balanced perception of the self.

The designer’s vision is to start using the invisible layer, to use the knowledge each individual’s population of skin bacteria harbours, in order to be able to transform it into a visible, functional, flexible membrane. she believes that this new clothing on our skin could change our interaction with the environment and have a healthy benefit for humans. her project confronts scientific data and methods with design in order to find a balance between individual identity and the local surroundings. by doing so, sonja wants to create a new, second, living layer on our bodies, based on the interaction between individuals and their surroundings.

day 8 day 22

p. 60 p. 61an organic process that will meander towards a solution

(in)visible membrane

sonja bäumel

made of bacteriaand fabric

text anouck vrouwe

imageuniversity of technology eindhovenillustration

jelena peeters

i spend a lot of time thinking about a new tYpe of particle

bertmeijer

Here is a story: it does not take much to upset the human body. All a woman has to do to avoid becoming pregnant is to take as little as 30 micrograms of additional hormones every day – a microgram is a millionth of a gram. Here is another story: the human body is remarkably stable. It can go without food for days, if it has to. It overcomes diseases, replaces worn-out cells, and can live for decades without any problem even if you torture the body with alcohol or long distance running. It is fascinating. How the organs collaborate; substances created in one part of the body are transported to another part, where they are then used. How a string of DNA inside a cell is zipped apart, so that a copy can be made of the recipe for a protein that is stored there. All these chemical processes that link up, and are precisely tuned in to one another.

lead from index 1 - bert meijer

page 63article

p. 63p. 62

p. 64 p. 65

The body, or even one single cell, is beyond our comprehension. It is so complex; a vast network of mechanisms that are all linked up. What characterises a complex system – whether it is the economy, the internet, or our bodies – is that a change in one place within the network can reverberate through to other areas. One small change – a few micrograms of hormones – can develop into a huge effect. The reverse is also possible; the network is able to catch changes, cushion them, so that we do not die if we go without food for a day.

Chemist Bert Meijer wants to build such complex systems in his laboratory. Not cells, because they already exist, but molecule factories, invisible to the naked eye, which will produce substances the world could use. He would like to use them in the production of fuels and medicine. Perhaps he could use them to grow human tissue or to convert CO2 into sugars using sunlight, the way plants do. For now, these are futuristic dreams. But in his mind, Meijer has mapped out a road to make these dreams come true.

Chemistry can be seen as a language. The atoms would be the letters, molecules the words. In this equation the human body, or even the single cell, is not a sentence, no paragraph or chapter in a book, but a library. In Meijer’s laboratory, people are working on the interaction between molecules. In other words: on sentences. Short, simple sentences.

In 1828, the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler created urea – the substance our liver forms when it breaks down proteins. This was a remarkable experiment: scientists had believed it

impossible to create substances in a laboratory that were present in biological organisms. They had believed that a life force was needed for the creation of such molecules. Wöhlers urea proved them wrong. It was the beginning of organic chemistry, the research and creation of substances from living nature.

The building blocks of organic molecules turned out to be surprisingly simple. Four atoms, four building blocks. With only a handful of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon, you can create almost anything. Meijer: ‘This is our Meccano set.’

Hydrogen is a light element; the other three are heavy ones. All four like to attach themselves to other atoms. Meijer: ‘They feel happy doing this. Hydrogen feels happiest with one attachment, oxygen wants two, nitrogen three, and carbon four. So when two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom meet up, the oxygen atom will nestle in the middle with a hydrogen atom on each side. These three together form a water molecule – it is as simple as that.’

At the laboratory, there is a molecule catalogue from a chemical company. The book lists tens of thousands of molecules. The substance Wöhler created, urea, is also built using the Meccano set: one hydrogen atom, two nitrogen, and four hydrogen. The substances that are easy to produce are cheaper; the difficult molecules are expensive.

Chemists are able to create all these molecules; chemistry has achieved this in less than two centuries. Meijer: ‘These are our words.’ There are some long words, such as the plastics fibre polyethylene. A word made up of millions of letters, although rather simple and dull; something like ‘blablabla’. Penicillin is shorter, but a more complex word to make: it consists of 41 atoms, among which 18 light hydrogen atoms. Millions and millions of molecules have been made so far - we could not imagine our world without them anymore.

Aside from molecules, chemists have also created countless new materials and drugs these past two centuries. If atoms are letters, and molecules are sentences, then these are books. Through trial and error, chemistry has learnt to write these books. Meijer: ‘But we really do not understand how these books come about, how the words string together into sentences, the sentences into paragraphs, the paragraphs into chapters.’ And he will not take this for granted. Meijer wants to be able to write his own stories. He wants to understand the interaction between molecules, so that he will be able to manipulate the processes on the sentence level. Self-management is the key word. In the same way as birds can form a big swarm without any outside direction, molecules will find each other if you bring them together in the right circumstances. They will stick together, to let go again a little later. They will arrange themselves and form new connections. This can lead to small production units, molecule factories,

which will forge new molecules. The chemist only controls the circumstances, he takes care that the right building blocks are there, that there is plenty of energy.

It is a difficult job. So far, the systems that Meijer’s team has built have been simple. For instance, the researchers have created a system in which little molecule ladders grow. If they add a little salt, the ladder will grow. If they dilute the mixture, the process will stop. It is a short sentence, easy to understand.

Their latest experiments have become more complex, with more molecules reacting to one another. A tentative short paragraph. ‘Here we are touching on systems that are so complex that we can no longer make a good prediction of the effects of a change.’ The way a pharmacist is unable to tell beforehand precisely which side effects a new drug will have, so Meijer is unable to tell what will happen within his complex systems. Perhaps they will create substances that no-one expects. Just over the edge from what we can understand, that is where the thrill is. This is where the scientist works, until he understands. Then he will be able to take the next step. And on, until he will have written a book.

the netWork is able

to catch changes,

cushion them, so that We do

not die if We go Without food for a

day

I spend a lot of time thinking about a new type of article

p. 66 p. 67

textrob van leeuwen

wonderfuland pure

Anyone looking for the band Mark No Limits on the YouTube video website will find a languid little song called ‘Syngja Sama Lag’. It is one of the first musical feats by Teitur Lassen (32), dating around fifteen years back. ‘Compared to my work now it is not worth mentioning,’ he himself says of his first musical adventure. Lassen was in the band from the age of fifteen, after having first picked up the guitar two years earlier. ‘The others in the band were a lot older than me, but I still had to teach them how to play their instruments. I was already writing all the songs myself.’

teitur’s musical comment

page 67interview

lead from index 4 - hans robertus

Lassen was born on the Faeroe Islands, an autonomous state within the kingdom of Denmark. There, up to the age of seventeen, he would sometimes play for three hours on a single day with Mark No Limits, to audiences of around 600. ‘But they would always be the same 600 people,’ Lassen says laughing aloud. After one year at college, he gave up his studies to devote himself to music fulltime. ‘I was only working two hours a week, just to make sure I had as many hours as possible to write songs. All I wanted was to make music.’

Since then, a lot has changed for Lassen, who today creates music under his given name, Teitur. Towards the end of his teenage years he left his native country to go to Denmark, a first step in his round the world trip that has still not finished today. He lived in Rome and in London; he has made four studio albums since 2003, including one in his native language; he was the opening act for artists such as Radiohead, John Mayer, Aimee Mann, and Rufus Wainwright; and worked with a wide range of artists, including singer-songwriter Ane Brun.

wonderful and pure

p. 68 p. 69

The Phase of Fascination

During all this time he was a songwriter first, and then a musician. His pop songs are subdued, usually based around a piano or a guitar, and they often touch on folk music. Each song tells a personal story, because the majority of Teitur’s songs are written in the first person singular. ‘Often from the point of view of very lonely people, all with different backgrounds. This first person is not always me, but there will often be something in it that I have experienced. I can only sing about subjects that touch me.’

Over the years, Teitur has grown as a songwriter, he agrees. ‘After a while you start to know what you want. When you start out you are just messing about. I always call this phase the phase of fascination. When you believe that the sounds, the possibilities and the feelings are all new. As you get older, you do not exactly lose that feeling, your fascination will always be the driving force, but you learn to deal with it in a more pragmatic way. You are no longer as impressed with your own talent.’

Sharing Experiences

His talent may have ripened today, but you can still find it on YouTube. The singer-songwriter is currently in the middle of his preparations for new shows on the Confessions Tour, for which he is working with the New York composer Nico Muhly, who has created arrangements for such acts as Björk and Antony Hegarty (the one with The Johnsons). The Muziekcentrum Frits Philips has asked Teitur and Muhly to write music to accompany video clips that people can upload to YouTube. The results will be performed on stage with the Holland Baroque Society. The musicians first worked together during the 2008 Cross-Linx festival.

Teitur explains: ‘The idea was to add a modern twist to baroque. And what is the most modern thing at this time? Talking about personal things, by putting them online. In doing so, people make a confession to anyone who wants to see or hear it.’ In this project, too, fascination is what drives Teitur: a fascination with new technology. ‘People are still discovering the possibilities. Everyone has their own reasons to share their personal experiences online with others. Sometimes it is simply their youth and rashness, for others, it is pure selfishness. This is the beauty of it. They share it and offer me an opportunity to gain access to their clip. Even from the reactions on YouTube you can tell something about them, they each offer a different approach to a subject. It shows people the way they are.’

Meanwhile you can watch and listen to the first clips with their musical scores on YouTube. One shows the view from a moving car; the other is about a coffee creamer artist. The clips ripple along quietly, monotonously, their musical accompaniment

almost leaning towards the classical. Atmosphere is more important in this project than the search for the ideal pop song, says Teitur. ‘We write the music with the image as our starting point, which makes the end result sound totally different from my solo material. The restrictions to this form of writing music are completely different. The videos are impressions, they revolve around a feeling, mostly. This means I am not bound by the standard method of song writing, where you would depart from an intro, a verse and a chorus.’

Looking for Confirmation

During the first phase (on the eve of Cross-Linx 2008), Teitur and Muhly mainly wrote together on a virtual level, by exchanging documents through the internet, whereas for the next series of concerts, they actually worked together most of the time. Muhly, for instance, recently stayed with Teitur for a while. The videos are selected at random, they are all home

movies and some may even be filmed on a mobile phone. ‘As long as the image is strong. We watch the video from a distance and add a musical comment, which creates a new point of view that you can place alongside the other reactions that people write underneath the videos on YouTube.’

And so, the Scandinavian helps random uploaders from across the globe to a few additional minutes of fame (a little less than the fifteen once predicted by Andy Warhol). But, according to the artist, that is not what this is about: ‘I do not think these people are looking for fame. They just want to come into contact with other people and they want some confirmation that what they are doing is good. In this sense, adults are just like children who have made a drawing and want to show the results to everyone. The desire to convey something you have created is very natural. Of course it is also the very thing I am doing myself, with my music.’

wonderful and pure

your fascination Will alWays

be the driVing force

a place where

meetLEARN

,

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p. 70 p. 71

text mirte meeus

we need the outside

governorsisland

Jerry van Eyck studied Industrial Design, at the department of Man and Public Space of the Design Academy Eindhoven. After graduation, his working life could actually begin. He started his own company, which was eventually integrated into Adriaan Geuze’s West 8. Last year he set up a New York office for West 8, to work on such projects as the design of the Governors Island Park, right below Manhattan. His student days seem long forgotten, but they are still close to him.

lead from index 3 - charles esche

page 71article

historical images of gorvernors island

library of congress

p. 72 p. 73

‘I see my years in Eindhoven as a very positive time. It is not true that you apply everything you learnt in school once you start working. It is the shaping of your personality and the way of thinking that stay with you most. Concerning the creative process, it is important that you are able to transform an idea from a given context into a new concept, and then into a concrete design. This is true for all the scale levels within the profession of designer and probably outside it as well: acting, making music; it is about being able to translate. After graduating I have gradually moved up a few scales; from designing objects and products for outside spaces to designing these outside spaces themselves. In landscape architecture you design on the largest scale. This automatically means that the context is extensive and all-encompassing, and that your commissions will often come from composite parties. So suddenly, something like local politics will be something you have to study, because it will influence your design, especially in the United States.’

Deserted Island

In the bustle of the big city there is an ongoing need for green spaces, tranquillity, and relaxation. When the US Coast Guard left Governors Island behind, the state of New York decided to gauge with President Clinton if this piece of New York could become theirs. And it could, provided that they would develop a plan for the island. West 8 assembled a team of designers after having won a closed international design contest to come up with a plan for the mysterious island, situated in New York Harbor. So, what exactly went on there? And what does West 8 plan to do with it? Jerry van Eyck: ‘Governors Island will be an important park for

New York. It has an extensive history, like the neighbouring Ellis Island and Liberty Island. Of course, here in New York there are a number of famous parks already, such as Central Park and Bryant Park. But the Governors Island Park will be different, if

only because it is an island. This means it has a totally different context than the other parks in the city, surrounded as it is by water. We are going to strengthen the park’s unique identity, and add another layer. Ecology meets history meets attraction.’

What went on there…

The trees on Governors Island determined the island’s first name. The hickory, oak and chestnut trees inspired the Native Americans of Manhattan to call it ‘Nut Island’. Its location made the island a perfect fishing camp, and many residents of the area used it as such. The Dutchman Wouter Van Twiller purchased the island in June of 1637 from the Native Americans for two axe heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails. Van

Twiller purchased the Island for his private use, but the Dutch government soon confiscated it.

Then came the English. In 1664 New Amsterdam became New York. The island, that had been left behind unmanned, was also repossessed by the English. After some struggling between the Netherlands and England over the next ten years, the English finally regained possession of the island. Its new purpose was to house the royal governors, which became the occasion for

we need the outside

ecology meets

history meets

attraction

west 8rogers marvel

architects diller scofidio + renfro

quennell rothschild smwm

west 8 is striving to create a green haven

p. 74 p. 75

west 8rogers marvel

architects diller scofidio & renfro

quennell rothschild smwm

there will be a 360 degree vista across the bay

we need the outside

p. 76 p. 77

the island’s current name. The island’s strategic location gave it its military purpose. In the end it served as a military base for both the English and the Americans for 200 years. But the battle was not yet over. In 1776 the island fell to the British, as did Long Island. After the revolution, Governors Island fell back into the hands of the Americans. Initially they did not use it for some time, but the island soon proved useful as a military base. The Americans stationed their troops here and stored their supplies. In 2002 George W. Bush declared that the island would be sold to the State of New York for a symbolic sum.

A Use For Governors Island

So the island has served mainly as a base for the army and subsequently for the US Coast Guard. Two of its fortresses have received the status of monument, and the management of the island itself is with the National Park Service. Over the centuries, buildings have been constructed on the island. All of these buildings are functional; taking up residence on the island is not allowed. West 8 has had no problem thinking of a new use for the island, as aside from some historic buildings on the island’s north side, all structures will be torn down. But they are going to be recycling the debris, which they will use to create a sloping landscape. This means no casinos, lunar parks or high rises, but a park. They are striving to create a green haven.

‘From Brooklyn or Manhattan you can reach the island in ten minutes. During the ferry across you are completely freed from the city and you are surrounded by nature. Again, in this sense, there is no comparison with the other parks in New York City. The park on Governors Island could perhaps best be compared to the national parks across America. We therefore want to create a natural identity for the park, in the bay of the city, complete with its micro-topography and a ‘vertical landscape’.

We want to create four high hills, by re-using, among other things, the debris from the buildings that are going to be torn down. This vertical landscape will add a new dimension to the design, and not just in a literal sense. After all, it will form one of a series of spaces or habitats in the park. Other spaces within the park design will include for example botanic woods, flower gardens, water gardens with wetland-vegetation, and

a Grand Promenade. We will alternate between open areas and closed off spaces. This sequence will give the park a multidimensional character. How we came across the idea of creating these high hills? Again, it was the context of the island that brought us to it. From the buildings currently there, the tallest being about ten stories high, you have an unbelievably impressive view. You have a 360 degree vista across the bay. To our minds, a vertical landscape is very important. From the hilltops you will be able to stare ahead for hours and to let your mind wander round the past and present of this magical place. But of course these hills will not just be there to climb; you could also pass between them, or through them, for example, and they will be covered in a specific vegetation you will not see anywhere else in the

park. And furthermore, together they will give Governors Island its own skyline, as a pendant to Manhattan’s, so to speak!’

The Bicycle Plan

The design by West 8 is also striking because of a plan for the provision of free bicycles suggested by the designers, which is based on the White Bike Plan in the Dutch national park the Hoge Veluwe. A hundred bicycles will be available on the island, and through a network of cycling paths you will be able to ride anywhere in the park.

West 8 has even designed a wooden bicycle for this plan. Jerry van Eyck: ‘See, my years at the academy for Industrial Design do come in handy after all! The wooden bike will make the experience of the park and the island into something personal and democratic at the same time. Actually, it will be a piece of rolling park furniture that you get to care for and control.’

to our minds,

a Vertical landscape

is Very important

we need the outside

west 8rogers marvel

architects diller scofidio

& renfro

quennell rothschild

smwm

p. 78 p. 79

text wies van kats

page 79interview

the waY we are living on this earth with six billion people simplY does not work club

of rome

Roosevelt launched a programme for economic recovery in the nineteen thirties, the New Deal. It kept America from sinking down deeper into the Great Depression. Wouter van Dieren is writing a New Green Deal. A turning point for the financial crisis, and the start of a new economy in which the environment and sustainability count.

lead from index 1 - bert meijer

Wouter van Dieren is a scientist, counselor, author, television producer, painter, and an environmental guru. Since the seventies, he has been branded an environmentalist, ‘a thing the media enjoy doing.’ However, demonstrations and activism are not his style. With his company ‘the Institute for Environment and Systems Analysis’ (IMSA) he wants to build bridges between the environment and the corporate world instead. He is not afraid of intervening in politics. He describes himself, regardless of his incredible track record, with a brief, ‘I am an environmental scientist. That is my profession, as it has been for more than forty years.’ His fascination with nature was part of his upbringing. His father was an engineer at Philips in Eindhoven, the place where Van Dieren was born and raised. In his early teenage years, he would often vacation on the Dutch island of Terschelling. It was not his father who inspired him, but his uncle Wouter, after whom Van Dieren was

named. His uncle wrote one of the first ecological dissertations in the Netherlands, in 1934. Still, Van Dieren chose not to study biology, but social psychology. He started working in television and joined the broadcasting company NCRV as a producer. There he came under the spell of the environment. ‘The biologist Rachel Carson wrote her book Silent Spring around that time, about the environmental problems. We could see that something crazy was going on. We started making television programmes on the environment. And they became a big hit.’

In 1972 the report ‘The Limits to Growth’ appeared, written by the Club of Rome, an international think tank of scientists. The Rome report was supposed to bring about a significant reaction. So he copied the report, adding a comment that under no circumstance was this report to be published. The media threw themselves at it. The report sparked the discussion on the limits

the way we are living on this earth with six billion people simply does not work

p. 80 p. 81

to growth. A shockwave moved across the world. The report made predictions about exhaustion and shortages that are set to begin manifesting themselves between 2020 and 2050. The main issues were the unchecked growth of the population and industrial expansion, the exhaustion of natural resources, the destruction of nature, and food shortages.

The Club of Rome has not been able to top the effects of their publication ‘The Limits to Growth’. Recently, an Australian university researched the numbers and the equations. The outcomes were virtually identical. The think tank of leading scientists still exists; a few times a year they still convene. At the end of October Wouter van Dieren will host the annual conference on climate, energy, and economic recovery. More than 750 people involved from all over the world will get together. Their aim will be to sign a Declaration of Amsterdam that will spread the message to use the financial crisis as a turning point towards a sustainable economy. This manifesto is aimed at Copenhagen where, at the end of 2009, the climate summit will be held.

Flash capital, Global Casino and economic autism; these are some strong words Van Dieren uses to refer to the emptiness of the current economic system. He was writing about it as long as twenty years ago. And he is just as passionate about it now as he was then. His life is completely devoted to the environment. After so many years you could almost call it the work of a missionary, but Wouter van Dieren does not preach. He incites instead. Adding fuel to the fire when people’s attention starts slipping. Moreover, he has remained an optimist throughout the years. ‘We have achieved so much. When we were working on wind energy in a very small group in the seventies, we could hardly do anything, we were not allowed. Now, years later, we create over seven thousand megawatts of wind energy in Europe. In the seventies there were no university departments in our field, no professional literature, no laws, no treaties. In the sixties, the environment cost nothing. People contaminated it without restrictions. Now there are billions invested in the environment. We have legislation; the public is aware; the corporate world is alert. There are research groups for environment and sustainability at universities. Many small steps add up to one big step.’

However, it is a profit and loss account. ‘There is the deforestation in South America and Southeast Asia. In order to keep up with our current level of consumption, we would need two planets worth of resources. The old economy is driven by casino capitalism and market ideologists. But our national measure, the Gross National Product, is also a misleading instrument. It measures the number of goods and services produced, including everything that can be considered spillage, destruction, waste, accidents and malaise. These should not be marked as profits or growth, but as losses.’ There are already alternatives for the Gross National Product, such as the

Human Development Index (HDI) or the Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). They only need to be imposed. ‘The financial crisis is the sign pointing us towards change. The crisis offers opportunities to have an economy blossoming in accordance with what the planet can take. The parties on the market cannot get there by themselves, but should decide in consultation with governments and the financial sector what is needed.’

The New Green deal is not a doom scenario. ‘Environmental issues have created a great number of jobs. People are eager to survive. As they look towards their future, they want to live in a beautiful environment. The New Green Deal points out that changes in behaviour, fiscal measures, legislation and measures

can make the world more sustainable, more peaceful, and happier. Isn’t this an appealing proposition?’ Most of the technologies that could help already exist. ‘Imagine supplying Africa with solar panels. You would have enough energy in one fell swoop to light the entire continent. Look at LED lighting. It saves about 80% compared with its conventional competition. Even so, the LED lamp is still not our standard. Climate change is very expensive, but the cost is not relevant. In the next ten years, the investments will yield a return. We will see results in the end. And another thing that is so great about these solar panels; the sun will never run out. If we tackle all public lighting, and collectively switch to LED, we will make an enormous social profit. Climate change is dramatic; the braking distance is incredibly long. It takes three hundred years before the effects of the measures become visible. A sustainable economy costs a lot of money, but it will cost us even more if we do not do anything. The main issue is that we are using up our natural resources, the environment, the oil and gas reserves. Wherever you can combat this, and combine it with the fight against the crisis, you make a profit. Take for example the stock of old housing, these old homes are as leaky as

sieves. If you fit them with solar panels you create an energy producing stock of homes. It does not increase the deficit and you have a constant production of energy.’

‘In 2050 we will have a choice of different kinds of energy,’ Wouter van Dieren predicts. ‘There are two forces. One is a creative force and the other a destructive force. Which one of the two will dominate is hard to predict. But destruction breeds renovation, and renovation breeds emancipation and enlightenment. I am an optimist and an intellectual pessimist. I believe new techniques will be developed and investment funds will renovate the world. We are already putting people who have felled protected trees behind bars. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable. This is why I have so much fun in my job. I do not expect praise. It is no sacrifice. Everywhere around me I can see the positive effects.’

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in order to keep up our

current consumption

We Would need tWo

planets

wouter van dieren (eindhoven, 1941)

environmental scientist, president at imsa amsterdam, an independent consulting agency and think tank for sustainability and innovation. he was the co-founder of several environmental institutes and organisations and was one of the pioneers of the dutch environmental movement. he is a member of the club of rome, the world academy for art and science and holds around forty different international positions. he has written 13 books (the first was ‘eten van moeder aarde’ (food from mother earth) and the latest ‘de new deal’ (the new deal)) and hundreds of publications. he won the gold rachel carson medal in 2006, when he also received an honorary title, the

order of orange-nassau.

the way we are living on this earth with six billion people simply does not work

p. 82 p. 83

text stephanie rompa

illustrationhouse of origin

looking for small- scale acts

house of origin

Cucumbers straight as an arrow, shiny red bell peppers, pale veal and delicate, juicy sausages at very affordable prices. What more could we want? These are but a few of the many joys the modern food industry has brought us. That there is something fishy about today’s food production has been a known fact for years. The small-scale organic farms that are springing up all around us seem to offer a good alternative. But are these farms and their products everything we expect them to be? And will they prove to be a craze, or is the authentic and traditional food industry the future?

Originally, everything seemed peachy; food was safe, plentiful, and cheap, and we never saw or heard the millions of pigs we had in the Netherlands. However, since a few years, we have been worried. Our once so efficient, technologically advanced and hidden food industry suddenly seems less than ideal. To the horror of fierce protesters, gene technology was introduced in vegetable cultivation towards the late nineties. Critical TV-programmes such as the Keuringsdienst van Waarde (a pun on the name of the Dutch Food Inspection Department) and

movements such as Slowfood and the Partij voor de Dieren (a political party with a strong emphasis on animal welfare) point out the excesses and the consequences of intensive cattle farming. The dark and shady images of slaughterhouses and cattle farms where efficiency is the magic word have shocked us. Animals live in poor circumstances on overgrown farms and Wakker Dier, the foundation for animal welfare, laments the chicken as the most tortured piece of meat.

lead from index 2 - frank veenstra

page 83article

looking for small-scale acts

p. 84 p. 85

As a result of the abuses we are confronted with cattle diseases on a large scale such as BSE, swine fever and bird flu. In 1997 and 1998, the preventive culling of around 10 million pigs in 1268 pig farms yielded horrific images. And the food this industry produces does not live up to our expectations either. Meat is made heavier and therefore more expensive by adding moisture; steaks turn out to be ‘glued’ to give them a perfectly rounded appearance. The meat from BSE-infected cows is a health hazard and was removed from the shelves. In vegetable cultivation, the long-term consequences of genetic modification are as of yet unknown. The supermarkets’ range of produce is getting increasingly narrower, and vegetables that were on the menu in the Netherlands as little as 50 years ago, such as parsnips and salsify, have been forgotten. We have lost our cultural heritage and become estranged from the food we eat.

Small-scale farms that breed and cultivate in animal-friendly and environmentally friendly ways seem to offer an alternative. In the past couple of years, farming has seen a revival. It has been romanticised by the hit TV programme Boer zoekt Vrouw that presents the ups and downs of farmers’ love lives against the open and carefree background of country life. Popular chefs like Jamie Oliver promote cooking with honest and pure products; El Bulli’s molecular cooking seems passé. We want to return to our origins; what did we use to eat, what is really tasty, and where is it from? The fish on our plates should be recognizable as fish, not technologically ripped apart. We make conscious choices; ‘quality before quantity’ is the new motto. The advantages of small-scale, authentic food production are legion. The most important one of all: organic food has more flavour, tastes better, and is healthier. Organic vegetable cultivation and cattle breeding are more animal-friendly and environmentally friendly. The small-scale farmers offer variation in our food supply by cultivating other vegetables besides our daily aubergines and courgettes and returning our ‘forgotten vegetables’ to our tables. More importantly, they remember and tell the stories belonging to the products, to save them from being lost.

It is a perfect image: a farm set among green pastures where the cows are grazing peacefully. The farmer and his wife milk their cows sitting on wooden stools and using metal buckets. During the season, they sell their homegrown vegetables and homemade jams on the market. But in the Netherlands such

house of origin is fascinated with pure and authentic food. where does our food come from? when house of origin started studying the food industry, they were shocked. They were shocked by the way our food is produced, and they were shocked by the things you will find in our food. marriet and simone, both graduates from the design academy eindhoven, decided to do something about it, to change the romantic image that clings to the things we eat. They have gotten rid of the illusion that our food consists solely of honest products. The cookbook raapsteeltje helps us realise that we have forgotten about so many products, and it provides traditional dutch recipes. because this, too, is something house of origin tells us; they tell us what wonderful things we can do with food, and how tasty it can be.

house of origin realises that there is a down side to our food, and believes that people should realise this, too. if we think about what exactly we are consuming,we will better appreciate honest food. This is what house of origin is looking for. They help people understand that food is more than just a product. since January 2008 house of origin has been around. after the success of cookbook raapsteeltje, they started focusing on food design. They want to tell people where their food is from, what kind of emotions food can evoke, and increase their awareness about the food they eat. They do so by placing the product at the centre of their designs. all of their designs have been created with professionalism and possess true and wonderful character. house of origin present their food concepts at such events and design fairs as the salone del mobile in milan.

House Of Origin

the look and taste

of pure, real food

are not alWays

What Weexpect of

them

house of origin dinner for the teachers

of design academy eindhoven

2008

p. 80house of origin

brave hendrik2008

looking for small-scale acts

p. 86 p. 87

small-scale farms are highly exceptional. In 2001, the profits from organic meat only amounted to a small percentage of the total. The organic foods industry cannot meet the demand for food in the Netherlands, let alone on a global level. It would require too much farming land and pastures, the process would be too labour intensive, and the costs too high.

Aside from all this, there are down sides, too, to the small-scale farms and the products they yield. The cucumbers are curved and show some brown spots here and there, and the tomatoes do not have as much shine as the shop-bought ones. There are chewy bits in the sausage and it is not as juicy as we are used to. So the look and taste of pure, real food are not always what we expect from them. And the organic way of producing food can sometimes stick in our gizzards, too. The organic trend demands that the consumer knows where his daily cut of meat comes from, where it originated. However, this proves to be very confrontational. On organic farms, just as in intensive cattle breeding, animals end up as victims. Perhaps they will have had a life of more freedom and comfort preceding their demise, but a cow only becomes a sirloin steak through slaughter. The bio-industry has relieved us of this realisation for years. Machines have done the dirty business for us. We do not see, hear, or smell the pigs, and we need not know anything about the killing of animals. Meat production has become sanitised. Authenticity is not always such a romantic thing, as it turns out.

The future of the authentic farms is uncertain. We have yet to find out if the penchant towards an organic way of producing food and pure, honest products will be a mere craze. At the moment only a very small proportion of our food comes from small-scale farms. It is obvious that these farms will not be able to meet the full demand. In addition, their future is uncertain because of the wide gap that has arisen between our food and us. The cultivation of vegetables and cattle breeding have been done for us. 50 years ago, the average Dutch family would have some chickens or even a pig they would slaughter for the holidays. Now people prefer to eat boneless meat so as not to have to see where it comes from. Children associate fish with the fish fingers promoted by Captain Iglo and not with scales and a fish tail. On the other hand, grown-ups are irritated when children think milk comes from a factory, while the idea that milk comes from pastures is highly outdated. We have grown used to the ‘perfection’ of the modern food industry. And when push comes to shove we do not even really want to know where our food comes from. If we want to give authentic farms any real chance of survival, we will have to go back to the ‘true’ basics, i.e., the imperfections of nature and homegrown vegetables.

house of originopening la città mobile2008

machines haVe done the dirty business for us

looking for small-scale acts

p. 88 p. 89

the evolutionarY process

barthess

The gradual progressive development of living organisms adds up to form ‘the evolutionary process’. The growth of organisms is the result of factors such as natural selection. The debate about accelerating the evolutionary process has been going on for a while. Are people allowed to interfere or not? Bart Hess interferes with nature in a unique way. Lending evolution a helping hand. In previous projects, his help has consisted of such feats as creating futuristic interpretations of skins. You can see just how free Bart’s interpretations are on the next three spreads.

page 88visual

reportage

lead from index 1 - bert meijer

p. 90 p. 91

p. 92 p. 93 the evolutionary process

p. 94 p. 95

textties van de

werff

that shock of being new

In 1956 Philips commissioned the famous architect Le Corbusier to build a pavilion for the world fair in Brussels. Le Corbusier decided not to design another corporate exhibit, but told Philips he would create an ‘electronic poem’ about the technological development of mankind. This resulted in a sensational work of art that combined light, sound, film and architecture into an unprecedented multi-media spectacle. More than fifty years after the exhibit, Le Poème Électronique is praised everywhere. The piece that exploded has been virtually rebuilt in 3D, and its reconstruction is reconsidered. But what would a Le Poème Électronique of our times look like? In Eindhoven, several artists have joined forces in the new research lab BALTAN Laboratories to research the relationship between new media and architecture once more. From Poème Électronique to Poème Numérique.

poÈmenumÉriQue: a utopia inthe making

page 94article

lead from index 2 - frank veenstra

The Thinking Space Of An Experience

In the inner room of the futuristic pavilion at the World Fair, five hundred visitors are waiting anxiously for what is to come. As an introductory text is projected on the wall, they hear buzzing sounds oscillating left and right from hidden speakers. A doll representing a naked woman up in the pavilion’s roof lights up as ultraviolet lights flash across the sloping side walls. People are startled by the strange electronic notes rolling towards them out of the depths of the pavilion. Abstract light patterns, and graphic images and pictures of apes, birds, skeletons, explosions, machines, and babies alternate while the sound composition appears to keep moving along the walls of the tent-like structure. After eight minutes, the lights dim, and all is quiet. Still mesmerised the people start shuffling towards the exit to make way for the next group of interested visitors to the world fair.

Le Poème Électronique tells the story of mankind and its pursuit of harmony in an increasingly more technological society. In the mid-1950’s, technology was a source of hope, inspiration, and optimism. At home, families were glued to the radio or black-and-white television; on the streets the first affordable cars were driving by; and the Russians were launching the first satellite, Sputnik. At Philips’ Natuurkundige Laboratorium (Natlab) people were developing an actual colour television, and sound pioneers like Dick Raaijmakers (aka Kid Baltan) and Tom Dissevelt experimented with the first electronic music. It was during this period that the composer Egar Varèse spent a few months in Eindhoven to work on Le Poème Électronique with technicians from Natlab. Around fifty years later, a new research lab has arisen here, not a stone’s throw away from the old Natlab. BALTAN Laboratories, an anagram of Natlab, is the first step towards a new media lab. The internationally operating artists Geert Mul, Lucas van der Velden, and Gideon Kiers (Telcosystems), and the architect Marc Maurer (Maurer United Architects) are working on a new research project at BALTAN, named Poème Numérique. Poème Numérique is not a simple repeat of the old Le Poème Électronique. Lucas van der Velden (Telcosystems): ‘I think that the 1958 Poème Électronique, as an audiovisual space or experience, really appeals to the imagination. A hybrid construction of media and architecture such as this is an interesting space to think beyond our present thinking.’ The question that occupies baltan is what a contemporary or future integration of sound, image, and architecture could look like.

Poème Numérique: A Utopia In The Making

The current mythologisation around Le Poème Électronique demonstrates that the interdisciplinary multi-media work of art was way ahead of its time. At the presentation of Le

Poème Électronique visitors were bombarded with images and sounds: with the help of around 200 speakers the sound moved along the pavilion’s sloping walls, and the geographical images also seemed to disappear into the rafters. Le Corbusier’s hyperbolic pavilion was built especially for the multi-media spectacle taking place inside it. And the inside of the pavilion was shaped like a stomach, according to Le Corbusier because ‘visitors should be consumed with all the impressions’. The artists at BALTAN have translated these characteristics of Le Poème Électronique into abstractions for their own research. And so, the Poème Numérique rests on the ideas of immersion, navigation and hybrid architecture. In practice BALTAN builds upon research projects that Telcosystems, Geert Mul, and Maurer United Architects (MUA) started in 2009. It is a living research, says Geert Mul: ‘All three of us conduct research, and the time will come when these researches have to come closer. The whole set-up of the lab is that we do not want to construct things in a contrived way, but that we want to work more from practice, and to see how things can grow closer.’ More specifically, the research consists of creating different prototypes and case studies, that should eventually lead to a utopian vision of Poème Numérique in 2010. Two examples of such prototypes are Telcosystems’ 12_Series and the case studies by Maurer United Architects.

Telcosystems’ 12_Series is a generative multi-channel computer installation. It is a kind of audiovisual horizon made up of twelve image and sound units. Lucas van der Velden: ‘With 12-series we want to let a number of individual machines make their own decisions in consultation with the other machines surrounding them. We call this audiovisual evolution. The idea is to use evolutionary principles in a composition machine.’ The aim is for the machines to share the composition, and so to start leading a life of their own. With this installation, that premiered last April at

the Wood Street Galleries in Pittsburgh (USA), Telcosystems explores forms of immersive environments and audiovisual three-dimensionality. They are experience-machines and experience-spaces.

As an architect, Marc Maurer of Maurer United Architects uses a different approach. In twelve case studies he sketches visions of a utopian media pavilion of the future. In his third case study, Maurer created a ‘screen-character’: a rectangular architectural figure consisting of gigantic monitors. The robot-like structure, with a male and a female façade, could function as a totem: people cannot go in there, but on the outside they can see projected images on its many screens. His latest case study is a mobile pavilion with a light installation on the outside. Inside this round pavilion there are two sets of stands facing each other, with a tall screen in the middle. The screen could display two different shows to both audiences. Marc Maurer: ‘They are about melting media and architecture together. We are living in a digital age. So far I have mainly been using the 90⁰ angle as a starting point for designing a spatial representation of the digital realm. Apart from this I don’t know how it will turn out. Something that can be executed, yes, but you really shouldn’t be able to imagine it.’

that shock of being new

Visitors should be consumed

With all the impressions

p. 96 p. 97

le corbusierle poème electronique1956

marc maurerutopian media pavilioen of the future

p. 98 p. 99

BALTAN Goes Natlab

During their research into these prototypes for Poème Numérique the artist develop different methods and tools. Geert Mul, for instance, is working on the BALTAN Tracker: a simple infrared tracking/detection system for movements that uses a thermographic camera. He has already used this combination of hardware and software in various interactive installations where the visitors’ locations have influenced the projections, such as ‘Horizons’ (2008), ‘Echolocation’ (2009) and ‘Loading Ready Run’ (2009, with Maurer United Architects). Telcosystems is developing a sync 3D multi-channel AV-playback system, that artists, museums, galleries, creative sectors and businesses could use. So Poème Numérique is not only a research into the relationship between new media and architecture, but also an exploration of form and function of a future media lab. According to managing director Angela Plohman the aim is for BALTAN to become a kind of open-lab, a centre for knowledge and a platform where artists and technologists meet, and where they can share tools and methodologies.

Poème Numérique builds on the most famous work of art in Eindhoven’s history in a very exciting way. Just as Le Corbusier used Philips’ latest technology for his utopian view of the future (in which man strives for a harmonious co-existence with his technological environment), the artists at BALTAN are using the latest technology of our times as a starting point for their Poème Numérique. How this will eventually result in a utopian synthesis of new media and architecture remains to be seen for now – for the artists at BALTAN as well.

geert mulecholocation

that shock of being new

p. 100 p. 101

an attention to the waY the product is manufactured and a love of creating

Nerds, they are, veggie nerds. It is not that they are all about being all natural. They are not eco-freaks, they do not go along with the sustainability trend, or trends in food design. They are purely interested in aesthetics. They reveal the beauty in everyday things by placing nature in a different context. With RAW COLOR, Daniera ter Haar and Christoph Brach renew our awareness of the beauty a product possesses.

lead from index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp

text jill lauret

imagesraw color

page 101article

raw color no. 3 the visual structure of vegetables

raw color

p. 102 p. 103

The things an article in a magazine can make us do… During a visit to the bank in 2003, where he went to pay the rent on his student apartment, the German Christoph Brach read an article on the Design Academy Eindhoven in the bank’s corporate magazine. His interest was sparked; he went to the open day, enrolled, and started his education. And there, in the Man and Identity department, he met Daniera ter Haar. They immediately clicked. Side by side in their studio measuring 30 m2, they each worked on their own graduation project. Then they were asked to take part together in the exhibition NAT – designing nature, at MU, in October 2007. And so the romantic duo continued together as a design duo. All of this while a few doors further down, inside the same building, their graduation show was still in full swing.

Fascinated With Colour

‘Of course we were happy to accept the invitation from NAT, but we had no idea as to what we were going to do,’ says Daniera. ‘We share a fascination with colour, so it had to be something that involved colour. Our very first starting point was an image we saw in our mind’s eye: how pretty it would be if we could completely decolourize a beetroot. It would result in a beetroot as white as chalk. But how would we go about it? Stick in a tube and suck out all the colour? This soon proved impossible. So we turned to bleaching vegetables, which was pretty, very pretty. But it completely devastated the vegetables, they would just fall apart. Our first experiment had failed.’

Extracting Colour

In stead of bleaching them, they started exploring ways of extracting the colour from the vegetables. ‘Juicing, pressing, squashing them.’ It worked well, but, what to do with the juices, they wondered. ‘Using fabrics as a material was not an option, because we really wanted to be able to shape the product. We felt the tug of our passion for graphic design and so we soon realised we preferred using paper. We first tried to process the juices, by mixing them with soap, alcohol, white spirit, salt. The

floor of our student digs was littered with trays full of mixtures and colours, strips and dishes. We were like mad professors in a laboratory.’ But this method clashed with the nature of the project: because of the additives the juices were no longer completely natural. ‘This is why we started processing the paper instead. We would seal up parts with wood glue and varnish. The idea was that the paper would not colour in these processed areas, and that it would where we had left it untreated. It worked, but it was highly unnatural. It dried up very fast, when we wanted the juices to flow instead, to remain fluid, to move.’

100% jUICE

They found the solution in a fibre which is screen-printed onto coated paper, so that only the fibre takes on the colour. ‘This way we can determine very precisely where the juice can and cannot go. By shaping the fibres in a specific way we create channels for the juices to flow. Christoph came up with a kind of sponge filter on the end of a tube,’ Daniera explains, ‘which forces the juices into these channels. In this 100% JUICE installation the colour will trickle down, in about two hours, through the fibres. It is a wonderful, natural process; you can watch the poster grow.’ It is also an individual process: every stream will run differently, every juice has its own colour tones. This makes every poster different. Each poster is a 2D product made from a 3D object.

Colour Spectrum

Their installation was exhibited at the Modefabriek. There, Platform 21 asked them to participate in the exhibition Cooking and Constructing 2008. Christoph: ‘They gave us a small work space there, a kind of kitchen, where we set to work during the exhibit: our studio for two months. We went all the way with our joint experimenting, because we wanted to take new steps. We wanted to test other vegetables aside from the carrot and the beetroot. So, off we would go to the greengrocer’s, returning with bags and bags of vegetables. We would try and try. Juicing, filtering, mixing... We created a colour spectrum as broad as we could make it. Then we developed our own coding system.’

An attention to the way the product is manufactured and a love of creating

100% juiceby shaping the fibres in a specific way, channels for the juices to flow were created

raw color no. 1a visual research about vegetables and their powerful color

p. 104 p. 105

raw color no. 3 the visual structure

of vegetables

p. 106 p. 107

raw color no. 2 trying to apply some

of the strongest pigment in juice

cartridges

p. 108 p. 109

raw color no. 2 the inkjet created

unique stripe patterns

p. 110 p. 111

the first new projects. People will have certain expectations, because they will know you as ‘those two who work with vegetable juices’. Of course we take along everything we have learnt, but we do not want to copy ourselves. Colours and materials are our true passions. They help us define our framework, which helps us focus. No-one is going to ask us to design a vacuum cleaner all of a sudden. It would not fit in with who we are.’

End Goal

RAW COLOR is a continuous process. Sometimes it will be halted for a few months. Then, if they are asked to participate in a project, they will continue. It is a project that could go on indefinitely: visiting new regions and countries, studying new techniques and new methods… Daniera: ‘We have to force ourselves, however, to define what we want to do. This is why we are working towards an end goal: to publish RAW COLOR in a book. A perfect way of adding a deeper layer to the project and of charting the process; a way of compiling our research and of showing the visual beauty. We did not have an end goal when we started out, which may even have been for the best, otherwise we would never have come as far as we have. The process, the research, the work was a goal in itself.’

Industrial Applications

Of course they are interested in working out industrial applications. There is a real demand as well, according to Christoph: ‘People are very eager to make it into something tangible. We will hear mothers calling out: ‘Oh, I want a t-shirt for my son.’ Or people will ask us if they can buy the paint, but we do not feel a need for that. For us, the research into these applications is more important than the applications themselves.’ For instance, they have tested material for a fashion label in Milan. They were thrilled to do the research itself, but they really want to stick to designing, not producing.

The Dreamer and The Go-getter

The two of them complement each other. They take turns in different phases and functions. Daniera: ‘Sometimes I will have to pull Christoph down from the clouds, sometimes he will need to give me a reality check. We hardly think about it, it is an intuitive thing. I will be doing something, and he will see it, get something from a cupboard, and continue it. We collect images and things we like, completely at random. Then we start filtering them: this goes with that, these form a unity. This is how we bring out the inner parts of our minds, and concrete ideas can come to the surface. Our antennae will have done their job.’

The Beauty of Everyday Things

The duo’s work makes you realise once more the great beauty in everyday things. Daniera: ‘Almost every day you will eat vegetables. But do you realise how wonderful the colours are? Look, we really do not claim to be the ones who discovered the beautiful colours in vegetables. No, we want to expose this beauty. By representing the everyday in a different context we want to create awareness. Using our own system and research.’

Printable Ink

During Platform 21 the duo also started working with printable ink. ‘We filled the cartridges with juice and we actually succeeded in printing with them. But unfortunately, the print head would get clogged up after only a few prints, which meant we had to keep cleaning it in between. But still, we did succeed,’ Daniera beams. ‘The effect is really remarkable, the colours are fantastically intense. They are vibrant and they flow into each other. To get as close to CMYK as we could we used red cabbage (C), beetroot (M) and pumpkin (Y). The most intense discovery we made was that the colours of the juices are almost identical to the colours of the ink. You can hardly tell the difference. Our process showed us that CMYK is actually already present in nature.’

Pulp to Powder

They next took their caravan to the Salone Del Mobile in Milan. And during this trip, too, they continued their research. Christoph: ‘We would always be left with some waste from our vegetables, a pulp. We used to throw it out, but it never felt right. So we slow-dried it in small ovens. After grinding it we were left with a powder, which you can then mix with water. It is very interesting to see what this does to the colours. This is a technique we definitely want to explore further.’

Soft Screen Prints

During the Elle Wonen Design week in Amsterdam they had a hotel room at the Lloyd at their disposal. ‘We started making screen prints there. We created six layers. One black layer with pre-printed ink became the grid. We used it to design posters that looked like the colour theory cards you used to see. They contained information about where the vegetables are from, which countries, et cetera. It is wonderful to see how the colours became very different through the screen printing, very soft.’

Structural Study v. Colour Study

The duo is hard to categorize. They use a multitude of disciplines instead. ‘Graphic design, photography, and material. We use these to define our work,’ Christoph explains. ‘It becomes clear from our study of structures: an aesthetic research into the graphic properties of the vegetables. We dissected them and photographed them in different ways, and the results were beautiful. At first we did each vegetable separately, to explore how the different shades and layers in the vegetable affect the colour of the juice. A cabbage for example becomes much whiter towards the core, the outside is darker. And we also did a separate photographic reproduction of the colour mixtures.’

Trademark

Meanwhile they have made their mark, created their own signature. ‘People recognise our work. RAW COLOR is our means of communication, to demonstrate who we are. It has become our trademark. It has brought us new commissions,’ Daniera says. But this was not intentional. It started as a challenge they were happy to pick up, quite simply a great project to work on. ‘It was quite thrilling and scary to accept

raw color no. 1 vegetables are dismantled and purified to their visual essence

An attention to the way the product is manufactured and a love of creating

p. 112 p. 113

textwies van kats

art could make a change in societY

art meets architecture

lead from index 3 - charles esche

A versatile architect and an artist in one. And the creator of Happy Street: his ideal world for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. A world in which art is part of everyday life. Where the factory and the home stand side by side. Where the motorway runs through the front garden. A city full of life and laughter.

Young Körmeling would love to go on adventures in his hut constructions. He would build them with as much ingenuity as he could. If at all possible, he would also make them watertight. This was why he chose to get his education at the University of Techonology, department of Architecture, Building and Planning. But with his head brimming with ideas, Körmeling felt more at home in the rebellious and free-spirited life of an artist. At the same time, this was his way of voicing his criticism of the faint-heartedness and narrow-mindedness in an overly structured society. In an advert, he announced his battle:

URBAN PLANNERS! Working for the council in one of the 700 municipalities in the Netherlands, even those of you hiding in Land Affairs, I am convinced I am better than you! I challenge you to a direct design duel with me, on my porch in Eindhoven. Sunday 22 March 1992.

Artist or architect, he is not bothered. Most of the time, people talk about art in too high-flown a tone, he believes. He himself speaks without wasting words, and sometimes he will be so direct he takes you by surprise. The name of a book presenting his collected works, for instance, is ‘A Good Book’ (2002).

page 113case study

Art could make a change in society

john körmelingdrive-in ferris wheel2000a socialised a122001

p. 114 p. 115

A book that does not waste any space and starts with the main issue: his work. Or take his Drive-in Wheel (1999), a Ferris wheel for cars in Utrecht. The concept is simple, but genius: park your car on the Ferris wheel and enjoy the view. You could have thought of it yourself, but you did not. Körmeling did. Why should a city plan be flat? Körmeling probably does not even wonder. Because to him, this is not a hard fact. He approaches his commissions with a critical yet open view. The Japanese town of Matsunoyama was mainly known for its hot springs. So, he sent his plan for the town 25 metres up in the air. The residents could climb up into their own city. With Körmeling, anything is possible. As long as it is practical and makes you feel good. Always departing from the idea that if you build something, you must make it better than it was before.

He prefers the building styles of the twenties, fifties, and sixties, when cars were not yet approached as problems, and life, work, and traffic still formed a unity. Ever since the introduction of autistic new housing estates, we have lost track, according to Körmeling. He calls it the ‘Yes-but-no-style’. ‘A city with maximum accessibility, but free of cars. High-rises with a small-town look. We will have a TVG, but one that stops at every town.’ Everything in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly more faint-hearted, according to Körmeling. He refers to the increasingly closed-off public spaces in new housing estates. A city that turns away from the road will become a ghost town. We live in residential areas with restricted access to traffic, we work on a mind-numbing industrial estate and we shop in city centres no car can reach anymore. It is a shame, says Körmeling, because these functions belong together instead. A city should develop from its crossroads, and every place in the city should have connections to through roads. In his plans called ‘Smart Roads’ from 1994 and ‘A Socialized A12’ from 2001 he has clearly mapped out his views. ‘Broaden highway and open it to all sorts of traffic. Fast-moving vehicles in the middle, slow ones at the sides. Enter and exit anywhere. Where intersections are required, centre lanes rise, outer lanes continue at ground level. Slow-moving traffic includes animals and plants.’

He lives in an easily accessible place himself. With a home office, which is important, says Körmeling, because it saves on commuting. He is unhappy with the closed down factories on Strijp S, for example. He would rather have seen houses, roads, schools, and other amenities built alongside them, while the factories were still doing their jobs. His solution is simple and serves different purposes: ‘you rent out the houses, to students, for example. So they have their cheap housing, and can work at the factory on weekends. The trains and buses would be less crowded.’ A truism that typifies Körmeling. He exposes seemingly complex situations in his work and comes up with unorthodox proposals. He was asked, for instance, to build a reception desk for the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam (1993). His solution: no reception desk. He did put in a ticket machine, and a coffee-wine-cake machine in the foyer. For the Zocherpark in Utrecht he was asked to design a

bridge in 1991. His solution: no bridge. His explanation was that sometimes it is better not to build a bridge.

But Körmeling is also a big fan of carnivals. Or, as he sees it: parties. He made a sketch for the fastest guided tour in the Netherlands for the Centraal Museum Utrecht in 1992; a rollercoaster right across the museum. The light object with neon letters HAHA HIHI (1991) at Schiphol airport. The little fluorescent pink house that serves as a back entrance to the Van Abbemuseum boasting the inviting sign ‘Echt iets voor u’ (totally your thing). All parties.

Art and technique will always find each other somewhere in Körmeling’s work. In 2006, therefore, he received the Witteveen + Bos award for Art and Technique for his complete body of work. According to the jury, he repeatedly allows technique to step off the beaten track. In addition, he manages to question engineering practices in critical and humorous ways. His broad and unconventional view is his trademark. With space, and

how to deal with it, playing a decisive role. In 2000, he won the David Roëll Award for Visual Art; in 2004, the Tokyo Design Award, and he has won many other awards and design contests. Before he started winning major awards himself, Körmeling thought up an award: the Johnny Terwijl Prijs (Johnny Meanwhile Award, 1991). To be awarded to someone who creates a space. He was not thinking

specifically of a literal space, but more of a free space, such as a street musician creates. Meanwhile, according to him, is the most spacious word, a word that opens up possibilities. Meanwhile offers freedom, space. It is a word without an ending.

Happy Street is also a form of meanwhile. You could walk endlessly on this red rollercoaster, swinging 25 metres up into the air. While you walk, you can see different homes portraying the diversity in Dutch architecture. Homes in silos, homes with through lounges, but also a design by Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren, the Rietveld Schröderhuis and the Amsterdam Cineac by Jan Duiker. Diversity on the outside as well as the inside. Because inside, you will come across technology and innovations on the crossroads of inspirational artistic expressions, for art belongs with Better City, Better Life. After all, both provide insight into and chances for improvement.

Carnival, fun, humour, space, his practical views and his love of the architecture from the nineteen twenties, fifties, and sixties; they all come back in his exhibition. Including old plans, or elaborations of these. Happy Street is his reaction to contemporary urban planning. Home, work, and life together on a rollercoaster.

the yes-but-no

style

Art could make a change in society

p. 116 p. 117

happy street

a red rollercoaster. carnival, fun, humour, space, john’s practical views and love of architecture all come back in this exhibition

Art could make a change in society

p. 118 p. 119

text remco van de

craats

a network is what we make of it

space isthe place

lead from index 3 - charles esche

I am sitting here on a terrace in Berlin. People are following me, fascinated by my every movement. As if it were not quite normal to busy yourself with pen and paper. I am a regular visitor to Berlin, incidentally. It is a city bursting with recent history and dynamics. A city that seems to have been reborn after the tumbling of the wall. It is fascinating to see the amount of energy this has released, and what it will do to a city. Berlin is redefining itself. Not many cities have this opportunity.

I have always been intrigued by urban culture and development. Cities will develop in unique ways; they are founded on complex networks both visible and invisible. Some cities will develop faster than others. Many cities are static entities, encapsulated by their history. It seems that those cities that do not dwell on the past have the future. What a city needs is dynamism, traffic, and the import as well as export of people and culture. Today there is more movement than ever, fanned by the arrival of the digital age. We have become hyper-dynamic. There are no more limitations to either the opportunities for transport or communication.

page 119article

A network is what we make of it

p. 120 p. 121 The internet has come to play an important role in the expansion of people’s networks and the communication between people. And the development in communications technology has yielded new forms of dynamism. People have become quicker at finding jobs or partners in another city or another country, and are more readily prepared to move and to settle in a new place in order to achieve them. This new form of dynamism is a great determiner for the way in which cities will develop. We are no longer tied to one place; we operate increasingly from the basis of our networks. Maybe the city of the future will no longer be physically inhabited. Eindhoven, too, the place where I live, is having to deal with this new dynamism. If I consider my circle of friends, a lot of them have left Eindhoven over the past few years, looking for an environment that would offer them some opportunity. Looking for space, love, or better career opportunities. I have often considered leaving this place myself, but there is something about Eindhoven that has me spellbound.

Like Berlin, Eindhoven is redefining itself. I detect the same positive energy here and there. There is still room for the hyper-dynamics I mentioned earlier. It is a fine place to work from, as long as your outlook is directed outwards.

With the death of Michael Jackson we have seen the demise of the ‘superstar’ setting in. Successful individuals have become the personifications of networks. The real innovation has lately been coming from collaborations, platform-oriented thinking, and open source structures. Collaborations between people who live miles apart, working together on a single project. I am convinced that we will see a great deal happening in this area. As a designer, I am highly interested in the way we deal with complexity. How does it influence our lives, our environments; and what can we achieve through it? Moreover, how

does it influence creative processes? Designers have long since had to relinquish some of the responsibility for projects. It has simply become impossible to master all the techniques. This would only be possible if you were to devote yourself completely to a style or a technique, as a monk would. Although this can be a challenge or even perhaps an escape for some, I personally see a greater challenge in getting over what you can achieve as an individual. The old masters had to travel for months to visit the land of the classics and learn, increase their knowledge, and find inspiration. Today we learn from the internet. But we are missing out on the experience of travelling, which is a deterioration as well. The danger of a uniform global style and global trends is lurking. This, too, is the result of a new type of dynamism.

Four years ago, we started Edhv as a design agency. Our motto is: ‘We don’t specialize in anything,’ because we believe in a broad, multi-disciplinary approach. Something in which our creative network plays a pivotal role. This network, consisting of designers, photographers, illustrators, copywriters, architects, etc., allows us to focus entirely on the content of a project. Based on content we will assemble a team for each project, which hardly ever fails to lead to fresh and refined results. The world has become closer because of digital networks. We get our trainees from all over the world. It seems bizarre

maybe the city of

the future Will no

longer be physically inhabited

A network is what we make of it

p. 122 p. 123

everybodybik van der polrotterdamthe netherlands

understandsgary brewersydneyaustralia

understandingrens muisrotterdamthe netherlands

thatluuk paulussengoirlethe netherlands

influencesries stravercatena di villorbaitaly

behaviourthijs van beijsterveldtmelbourneaustralia

marshallstefan sagmeisternew yorkunited states

mc luhanroeland ottenrotterdamthe netherlands

experienceelina kellermanberlingermany

yetkasper kuijperskarlskronazweden

faretsuko nomurahyogo-kenjapan

italbert folchbarcelonaspain

morekathrin lugbauerwienaustria

isyoriteindhoventhe netherlands

thanantoine audiau & manuel waroszparisfrance

experienceharun dogantokyo japan

hebabette heerenliverpoolunited kingdom

ratherleon nikoosimaitaklondonunited kingdom

thanfrancesca sinisimilanoitaly

p. 124 p. 125

p. 126 p. 127

p. 128 p. 129

p. 130 p. 131

etropolisthis network

is an online platform where

creative people can find each

other

that anyone on the other side of the globe would be prepared to get on an aeroplane for a traineeship with a design agency in Eindhoven. The exchange of cultural views alone inspires me to no end, and it proves once more that our agency is not bound to a single city. In order to allow a network to function well you have to revitalise it and create a platform in which anyone can participate. There has been a surge in the rise of social networks over the past few years. Still, there are but few examples of creative networks that will allow us to work on a worldwide scale.

In order to project the fact that as a design agency we are no longer bound to one city, we have started creating magazines in different cities. We will take the entire team to a different city and contact other, like-minded designers. Together we will create a magazine in three days. This is basically impossible, which is why it is a great opportunity to learn. With the first issue, for instance, we just could not reach agreement. Eight designers, eight opinions. Our egos got in the way of the creative process. And this, perhaps, was the most important learning experience. If you want to succeed as a group, you have to allow each other some space. The good thing about the magazine is that you travel around as a designer. You step outside your comfort zone. Working together to achieve something, creating a product not knowing how it will turn out - what does this teach you? An experience such as this makes you realise that the question ‘what looks great and what does not’ is irrelevant when you strive for innovation; that, as a designer, you have an ego that you must learn to control; and that the process is more important than the end result. To me, these are key ingredients to come to innovation. In addition, it gives me a better insight into other people’s work. Innovation comes before skill. Skill is easily recognisable, whereas innovation is not. It is hard to find a person who creates. When you strive for innovation, you must be open to them.

Virtual networks will strengthen globalisation in design. Another project that demonstrates this trend is Wordwide. The idea was to involve a worldwide network of designers in the visualisation of a quote, in this case, a quote by none other than Marshall McLuhan. We wrote the quote out by hand, and then had it cut out in foam. We then sent the words, freed from their context, to all kinds of designers both from within and outside our own network, with a note asking them if they would place the word in a new context. We asked them to photograph the results and e-mail the photographs to us. After three weeks, we had all the words back in their new worldwide context.

It was a fascinating experiment with an extraordinary result. Designing on a global scale.

In order to allow creativity to function well you need a neutral environment. Only in a neutral environment will creativity stand out well. We at Edhv have been building on such a

network for a while: Etropolis. This network is an online platform where creative people can find each other. Perhaps even in the virtual city of the future. What makes this network special is that it is aimed at creativity in general, and not at dividing them into pillars or main categories such as design, art, or architecture. Another feature is that is visualises networks, so you can see the relationships between the participants based on virtual magnetic fields. The aims of Etropolis include connecting talent and creating new opportunities. Nothing is far away from us anymore.

designing on a

global scale

A network is what we make of it

p. 132 p. 133

there should be breaks in activitY, where there is room to develop things

gionatagatto

Today’s world cities are experiencing demographic changes with increased local populations. This demographic change includes the increase of different cultural backgrounds as well as the increased presence of foreigners in specific urban areas. The presence of numerous multi-ethnic groups often contributes to the constitution of neighbourhoods and quarters by introducing variegation in the local identity. In urban areas where different cultures are used to cohabitation, collaboration and communication contributes to new communities. As a consequence, these communities very often become more active, present, and autonomous in these territories.

lead from index 2 - frank veenstra

page 132case study

cultural rootsurban areas where different cultures

cohabitate

there should be breaks in activity, where there is room to develop things

imagesgionata gatto

p. 134 p. 135

agmat, indonesiaindonesian lettucesuitable for soups and noodles

carmelita, surinamsurinam peppers called‘madam janet’ or ‘adjema’

juan, chilechilian tomatoes

hassan, moroccomoroccoan tomatoes

hammos, moroccoafrican cucumber

sevki kardeniz, turkey turkish naneturkish tereturkish roka

juan's wife, chilichilian beans

there should be breaks in activity, where there is room to develop things

p. 136 p. 137

Cultural Roots uses the concept of food as a sign of cultural identity. In fact, every person has their own taste and preferences in choo sing which seeds to plant. But the most interesting thing about food concerns the aspect of personality, since everyone involved in this type of activity projects their personality through gardening: not only the seeds, but also the way of planting, the irriga tion system, or the presence of scarecrows. Consequently the actions of sharing and exchanging food can make these differences very present and visible, bringing people and cultures together in a very positive and stimulating manner.

The design of the project involves the metaphor of a suitcase as a symbol of cultural background. We are all used to saying that wherever we move, we bring with us our backpack of culture, background, our bag of experiences. The design compresses this picture and transforms the product into a movable suitcase, filled with soil, in which a family can grow their own fruit and vegetables on each side. Each suitcase allows space to grow about thirty-six different plants, which can grow vertically. The materials we use are natural insulation panels that are usually applied inside walls. They are all flame-proof and they retain a high level of humidity, which is very good for plants and fruit trees. The suitcase design also allows people to move them about, with the possibility to get closer to somebody or choose a different spot for the cultivation.

Unloved, abandoned, or transit spaces offer excellent opportunities for the introduction of this project to the inhabitants. People can transform these unused spaces into areas completely dedicated to socialization, where they can cultivate their own vegetable garden while meeting new neighbours and creating new relationships.

cultural rootseach suitcase allows space to grow about thirty-six different plants

there should be breaks in activity, where there is room to develop things

p. 138 p. 139

children who have been raised in digitalism from the start

lead from index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp

lisa klappe page 139visual

reportage

www.industrialdesign.tue.nl

Creating intelligent systems, products and related services

advertisement

p. 140 p. 141

p. 142 p. 143

p. 144 p. 145

p. 146 p. 147

less securein its own worldview

text maud van der

poelillustration

alexia boiteau

crossing cultural

boundaries

page 147interview

lead from index 3 - charles esche

Living and working in a different place in the world than where you come from can be tricky. Suddenly, certainties turn out to be uncertainties. The obvious is no longer obvious. A new culture can turn your world on its head. Zach en Chris moved to a different place to work there as expats. Zach is an American who moved to the Netherlands; Chris is a Dutchman who moved to America. The Netherlands and America are both Western countries, which is why we do not expect to have to adapt to too many things. However, nothing could be further from the truth. There will often be significant dissimilarities among Western cultures, too, which become noticeable in the little everyday things. The two men explain what they miss, how things differ from home, and what they have found striking.

less secure in its own worldview

p. 148 p. 149

Now that George Bush is no longer president, he – as an American in Europe – can stop being ashamed of his country. This is all he will say about politics. Yes, he is originally from swing state Ohio. During the last election campaign you could have a coffee with McCain one week, and with Obama the next. But it is still a sensitive issue: he is used to keeping his political preferences, democrat or republican, to himself. Asking him in what year he was born is another typical example of Dutch impertinence. But, since we are in the Netherlands, he is willing to answer the question: 1971.

For nearly two years now, Zach Taylor has been in the Netherlands. They arrived in November; a family with two young children. Because they were well-prepared they knew that the country where they would be living during the next few years was flat and very densely populated. And yet the journey from Schiphol to Eindhoven mostly revealed meadow after meadow, which was a pleasant surprise. Certainly for people who, like them, come from a region where the cities seem to string themselves together. So their first conclusion was: the Dutch have dealt well with their space. Their second conclusion: the Netherlands is a country of appointments. Spontaneously popping by at someone’s house is not something people are used to, and even at the hospital’s emergency room they will ask you if you have an appointment.

Their neighbours came to introduce themselves with a bunch of flowers and politely enquired if it was an appropriate time. They enjoyed the flowers, but things stayed quiet after that… It was not until he invited them for their youngest daughter’s birthday party that their contact intensified. He can explain it: the Netherlands is a small country. Family and good friends will live close by. The need to bond with your immediate surroundings is not as strong as it is in the vast US, where relatives will often live great distances away. They immediately bought bicycles. The nice and sturdy type. With saddle bags and seats on the back for the children. They will leave the car at home as much as possible and both of them cycle to work. Very Dutch, you would think. And yet it is immediately obvious that they are not, for example that time when they went to the zoo on their bikes. It was a sunny day, but still a little breezy. The children were all wrapped up in their bike seats, wearing their sunglasses and hats. Unmistakeably American, according to their next door neighbour. Like in America, they breakfast on cereals. Granola. Even though the choice in the Netherlands is seriously limited. And what are you supposed to do when you want to treat your friends to home-made chocolate chip cookies? Chocolate chips (the Dutch hagelslag, chocolate sprinkles, are unacceptable as a substitute!) are foreign to the Dutch: what a loss. As are poppy seeds. How are they supposed to bake one of those delicious lemon poppy seed cakes over here? It turned out that their American cook books were of little value in the Netherlands, and it has taken quite a bit of time and creativity to fill in the blanks. Where could they find their favourite condiments and dressings? The ethnic section at Albert Heijn XL does stock their

favourite barbecue sauce, hooray! And they have started mixing their own delicious horseradish cocktail sauce. The Dutch cheese makes up for some of the losses. They prefer matured. The other day when they went on holiday to the States, they took an extra suitcase with them carrying a fourteen kilo farmhouse cheese. It offered plenty of space for poppy seeds on the return journey...

You are in the Netherlands, in Europe, which means you will want to see as much of it as possible. They travel from one place of interest to the next, both in the Netherlands and abroad. He is surprised to find that there is not a Dutch person in his extended circle who has been to the Keukenhof, on the Kinderdijk, or to the Anne Frank House… And cliché as they may be, the bollenvelden around Lisse, acres and acres of coloured rows of tulips, possess an exceptional beauty. Vast fields stretching out in red, yellow, purple, and orange. They know a route from Haarlem to Leyden; they will take their bicycles on the back of the car. It is beautiful there. The Dutch take long vacations.

Three, four weeks in summer is perfectly normal. Plus two more in winter. If they are allowed to extend these with

ouderschapsverlof, the extended leave for Dutch new parents, they will easily be off work for six weeks. To him, this sounds more like a sabbatical. The average American will have a week off during the year. And even then they will have daily conference calls with the

office. It is rather liberating to see that over here the attitude towards taking time off for

your holidays is more relaxed.

And in other areas too it has become obvious to him that the Dutch work ethics differ from the American. Both he and his wife have full-time jobs, something which is seen as perfectly normal in America, where part-time contracts are far from accepted. Here this is notably different; his wife especially has received comments about her full-time job. She should spend more time with her children… He puts them aside as an obvious cultural difference. The Dutch have a reputation for being direct. But what strikes him by contrast is the constant tendency to seek consensus, which stands in the way when a clear decision is needed. There are no direct confrontations. Whereas he is used to telling it like it is. When it comes to business, that is. But the Dutch, even in the workplace, will speak openly about matters that are seen as too private in his homeland.

He feels privileged: he and his family get to see some of the world’s cultural heritage. Change will act as a stimulus and will teach you things. And not until now, when he sees his native country from a distance, has he seen more clearly where its strength lies. The cliché of the melting pot is true: there is not a country in the world where so many ethnic groups live together. Of course there may be problems at times, but everyone is very much integrated. In Europe this is notably and visibly different.

Next year they will have to make the decision: stay here, or go home. It is a discussion they are already unable to decide. If they decide to go home he will miss the cycling lanes. It is a cyclist’s paradise here with these wide orange-coloured lanes. And the real Sundays. In the Netherlands they still have real Sundays.

They live in Cary, on 307 Kettlebridge Drive. Chris van Eekelen and his wife Liesbeth. Theirs is an open-planned, leafy residential area. The houses, in mock Victorian architecture, are spacious, especially by Dutch standards. The windows have wooden shutters and the garage offers space for at least two cars. His job, in the Research Triangle Park, is only a twenty kilometre drive. When they sit out on their porch at night they can hear cicadas singing, tree frogs, and crickets. The North Carolina climate is sultry and humid. The tobacco plantations used to be here. Now there are woods: maples, magnolias, American oak, and pines. Autumn is the photogenic season. Indian Summer. His first conclusion: America is the superlative of everything in the Netherlands. The homes are more spacious, the trees are taller, nature is louder, the bugs are bigger. The supermarkets are huge, the cars enormous. He sees these extremities in every area. Even when it rains, it rains so much harder than what he was used to in the Netherlands. Bigger, more, more exuberant. This is what America is to him. This country takes its space.

He would come here often for his work, but living here is quite something different. They had planned to completely immerse themselves. And they have; they have built an extensive circle of friends and acquaintances. In the Netherlands the image prevails of the shallow American. A prejudice, he believes. Although he admits they have been lucky. In a large urban area he is sure people would be a great deal more stand-offish. In the first week of their being here, everyone in their neighbourhood came by with cakes and bottles of wine. After two weeks the neighbours organised a drinks party on a Sunday afternoon. Especially for them, so that they could meet some people. He explored his new surroundings by bicycle. Car drivers reacted notably irritated. They were constantly honking their horns, indicating their heads: they thought he was doing something unsafe and that he should at least wear a helmet. There is a large park close by, he now knows, where there are some cycle paths. So now they do as the Americans do: they load their bikes onto the car, and unload them there for a recreational tour. The same thing goes for walking. The pavement does not even run all the way. In this country, you move around exclusively by car.

Soon people were tentatively asking him if he was a member of any church. They accepted his ‘non-practicing’ status with a friendly smile, but they insist on inviting him along for a service at ‘their church’. Religion has turned out to be deeply rooted in society, which surprised him: he is surrounded by scientists, people who believe in cause and effect, and would normally only rely on that which has been proven. There are many charitable events. Most often these are initiated by one of the churches. There are regular fundraisers at work, where they will collect food packages for the poor. He has noticed that people give generously. And we are not talking about just a packet of rice or a pound of sugar. People spend their holidays – of which they do not usually have a great many – taking the whole caboodle to its destination by truck.

He finds the atmosphere at work a little more hierarchical and detached than what he was used to in the Netherlands. Staff expect clear orders. As for himself, he is more direct. He seeks out the dialogue and is not afraid to show his vulnerabilities, which is appreciated. Perhaps because he is Dutch.

He tries to see as much as he can of his surroundings. It is only a three hours’ drive to the mountains. Three hours in the opposite direction and they are by the sea, which is a bit like the Dutch Wadden Sea coast. They like to visit cities such as Washington, New York, or Charleston. But they need not always go far: there is an open air theatre in Cary which they like to visit. The people around him enjoy fishing in their spare time. Off to the coast and then out to sea in a ship. Hunting is also popular, as are wild water rafting and, for those of a less adventurous inclination, playing golf.

North Carolina is a relatively conservative state, he knows. A subject such as politics is a sensitive issue. It will lead to

differences of opinion and discussions; which is something they do not like. Nudity is another

taboo. A two-year old girl without a bikini top in a public swimming pool: completely

unthinkable. Having your toddler running around stark naked in your back garden: unheard of. In the three years he has been living here he has never heard anyone say

the word ‘toilet’. When people come to your house for the first time, you leave the door

to your toilet open so that everyone can see where it is… having to ask where it is would

be embarrassing. To counter this, it is completely normal to just dive into the host’s or hostess’ refrigerator… The better he has gotten to know the Americans, the less he is able to place this puritanical attitude. Sex, for instance, can be a subject people are willing to discuss, and they will joke about it, too. Although the jokes never become rude. He finds this quite pleasant. Another pleasant feature: the service oriented nature of Americans. He will only have to stop for a moment when he is at the supermarket, and someone will come dashing towards him to help. Passers-by will ask him if he needs their help, staff will ask him if he may be looking for something. By default, service is delivered with attention and a generous smile; he thought it was exaggerated at first, but now he has come to appreciate it.

After three years in the US, life has taken on a different rhythm all by itself. They spend a lot of time outdoors. And, certainly in the warmest months, they get up extremely early; he wants to have mowed his lawn by seven in the morning. There is nothing from the Netherlands that he misses. In the morning he makes a honey-baked ham sandwich, and they will try out all the local specialties. His wife has learnt to make the most fabulous American desserts. The roasting tin which they have used to bake their Thanksgiving turkey these past few years will have to stay behind. It will not fit inside a Dutch oven. They will soon be going back to the Netherlands. It has been good. He has expanded his world. The edges have been taken off his prejudices. They have opened up the shutters.

chris van eekelencary, north carolina

zach tayloreindhoven, noord-brabant

less secure in its own worldview

p. 150 p. 151

experiments on the axis of technologY and design

glowfestival

page 151visual

reportage

lead from index 1 - hans robertus

In the South of the Netherlands you will find Eindhoven, the ‘city of lights’. This industrial town acts as a backdrop to the annual GLOW festival. Like moths to a flame people are attracted to this exhibition of light art. During GLOW, Eindhoven demonstrates how the combination of media and technology can lead to magical three-dimensional works of art. Eindhoven experiences a metamorphosis during the festival. In 2008, designers from home and abroad created the artworks and design applications. This year the festival will take place once more, and for the duration of two weeks, the term ‘city of light’ will gain a new meaning. During these two weeks, the term will come to denote a colourful, tasteful, and artful event: GLOW.

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Bol

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p. 152 p. 153

p. 154 p. 155 experiments on the axis of technology and design

jan van munster2007photo : claus langer

p. 152/153miriam giessler& hubert sandmanncapsulephoto : claus langer

p. 156 p. 157

p. 158 p. 159

p. 160 p. 161 experiments on the axis of technology and design

tatzu oozu2008photo : claus langer

p. 156-159kurt laurenz theinert& axel hanfreich2008photo : claus langer

p. 162/163dar luz2008 photo: jos lammers

p. 162 p. 163

p. 164 p. 165lead from index 3 - charles esche

not to disappear as some kind of historic heritage

illustrationalexia

boiteau

page 164lecturis printing is

the artillery of thought

p. 166 p. 167

p. 168 p. 169

p. 170 p. 171 Our ego gets in the way lead from index 4 - anne mieke eggenkamp

our ego gets in the waY

page 170colophon colophon

anne mieke eggenkampindex

designacademy.nl

charles escheindex

vanabbemusuem.nl

charlotte aalgraphic designcharlotteaal.nldaan melis

initiator

marieke goossensmarketing manager

marieke@edhv.nl

wendy lubberdingtranslator

wendytranslates.com

remco van de craatscreative director, publisher

remco@edhv.nl

eric de haasart director, editorial consultant, concept

eric@thebrokenheadlines.org

lenneke heerengraphic design, concept

lenneke@edhv.nl

mirte meeuseditor-in-chief, magazine management

mirte@edhv.nl

hans robertusindex

dutchdesignweek.nl

bert meijerindex

mst.chem.tue.nl

frank veenstraindex

muziekcentrum.nl

Lead team

Interviewees

jerry van eyckwest8.nl

chris van eekelenchris.van.eekelen@philips.com

zach taylor

wouter van dierenclubofrome.nl teitur

teitur.com

gemeente eindhoveneindhoven.eu lecturis

lecturis.com

van abbemuseumvanabbemuseum.nl

high tech campushightechcampus.nl

Partners

boudewijn bollmanntwistedstreets.nl

remco de blaaijrdeblaaij@gmail.com

rob van kaamrobheid.nl

freek lommefreeklomme.com

ingrid swinkelsingrid.swinkels@designacademy.nl

jill lauretjilllauret.nl

ties van de werffexperties.nl

stephanie rompastephanie_rompa@live.nl

wies van katssowieso-online.nl

anouck vrouweanouckvrouwe.nl

maud van der poeltekstzuid.nl

koert van mensvoortkoert.com

rob van leeuwenrob@kindamuzik.net

lisa klappelisaklappe.com

claus langerclauslanger.de

jelena peetersjelenapeeters@gmail.com

tinne van loonavenue53.com

christien meindertsmachristienmeindertsma.com

studio libertinystudiolibertiny.com

vera verberneveraverberne.nl

atelier nlateliernl.com

raw colorrawcolor.nl

john körmelingjohnkormeling.nl

nacho carbonellnachocarbonell.com

baltan laboratoriesbaltanlaboratories.org

pepe heykooppepeheykoop.nl

patrick meispatrickmeis.nl

geert scheepersvonskip.com

bjørn andreassenbjornandreassen.nl

joost van bleiswijkprojectjoost.com

maarten baptistjoine.nl

house of originhouseoforigin.nl

bart hessbarthess.nl

kiki van eijkkikiworld.nl

alexia boiteaualexiaboiteau.com

greetje van helmondgreetjevanhelmond.com

piet hein eekpietheineek.nl

jos lammersjoslammers.com

wendy plompwnd.nu

sonja bäumelsonja.baeumel@gmx.at

jo coenenjocoenen.com

gionata gattogionatagatto.blogspot.com

Contributing editors

Contributing artists

Cover photo

bart hess

Printing

lecturis, eindhovenThe netherlands

Publisher

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The editors of lead magazine have been careful to contact all copyright holders of the images used. if you claim ownership of any of the images presented here and have not been properly identified, please contact lead magazine and we will be happy to make a formal acknowledgement in a future issue.

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This work is a subject to copyright. all rights are reserved whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in databases. nothing from this issue may be reproduced or copied without the written permission of the publisher.

issn 1879-1581

copyright © 2009lead eindhoven, The netherlands