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London life slowly starts taking its new shape, although it still goes by many titles. Critical design, service design, design research, interaction design, descriptions vary and so does the job. I'm currently combining freelance work with initiating my own projects and collaborations. As a freelancer, I work on service design, interaction design and other design projects. It feels as if I'm applying my way of working and thinking at the RCA to the things I was doing before. It's nice to work on real stuff and I can't wait to dive into a bigger project somewhere.
The self initiated work comes with more freedom to explore the themes and directions that I'm curious and passionate about. There's some little and very enjoyable collaborations with the synthetic biology department at Imperial College, there's a secret project that's incredible good fun and I recently returned from Stavanger, where I participated in a biotech art workshop with Oron Catts and Jens Hauser. The workshop has been an amazing experience; getting hands on with some of the technologies I've been researching and speculating about, reflecting on my projects from a different perspective, overall offering plenty starting points for new work ...
I'm in Montreal, participating in an extremely exciting workshop called Design Engaged, (big thanks to the brilliant people organising it, who made this possible for me).
After that, I'll be in New York for a few days, giving a lecture to Natalie's class at NYU and enjoying the city. Let me know if you're around and we can hook up?
(photo by Pietel)
'My City = My Body' is on the move! The graduation project I did at the Royal College of Art was part of Touching The City at London Festival of Architecture on Saturday 12th of July. Coming Tuesday, I will present it at the next Protein Forum.
In the mean time, I'm recovering from that RollerCoaster of Art and scanning the horizon for the next interesting projects to get involved in.
"My City = My Body" is the title of my graduation project, currently on show in the Royal College of Art. It explores how future technologies, specifically biotechnology, might influence our everyday interactions with and in the city. See the full project here.
Feel free to contact me if you require high-res images for publication.
SHOWTIME!
Thursday 26 June: 11am – 8pm
Friday 27 June: 11am – 8pm
Saturday 28 June: 11am – 8pm
Sunday 29 June: 11am – 8pm
Monday 30 June: 11am – 8pm
Tuesday 1 July: 11am – 4pm
Wednesday 2 July: 11am – 8pm
Thursday 3 July: 11am – 8pm
CLOSED to the public on Friday 4 July
Saturday 5 July: 11am – 2pm
Come and visit the Design Interactions graduation show at the Royal College of Art (SW7 2EU). Let me know if you're planning on dropping by and I'll make sure I'm there to show you around. You won't be disappointed, it's an amazing exhibition!
Many weeks without an update, that could be either because nothing happened or because too much is happening. In a way, it's a strange combination of both. I'm still having a lot of fun with my graduation project "My City = My Body", in which I try to explore possible implications of biotechnologies in an urban society. It sounds huge. It is huge. It therefore consists of three smaller projects: a project about local tapwater and enjoying pharmaceutical pollution, a project about a new superhero who embodies the dreams and anxieties around biotechnologies and a project on synthetic biology.
For that last project, I'm in touch with Vincent Rouilly, a tutor at the synthetic biology course in Imperial College. He's kind and patient enough to explain me the basics of synthetic biology, to show me around a lab and hook me up with students. Since he's also really interested in the work we're doing at the RCA, I'm organising a small exhibition of a few students' and alumni's work at an upcoming conference on synthetic biology . Like the Lancaster experience, it promises to be an interesting confrontation of our projects and their research.
Tower Hamlets' Unregulated ZoneOn the 4th and the 5th of February, a few recent RCA graduates and students went up to Lancaster together with Fiona Raby to run a workshop at the Institute for Advanced Studies. The workshop was part of the 'New Sciences of Protection: Designing Safe Living' research programme and it was an experimental confrontation between social scientists and designers. Starting point was the graduation projects work of James, Jess, Jon, Michael, Michiko, Tanya and a little bit of my graduation project-in-progress, all situated in the 2018 Tower Hamlets unregulated zone. It was up to the scientists to enter this speculative space and give feedback as experts in their particular field and from that, we designed new possible initiatives and institutes. Out of these multidisciplinary teams, a future bio-identity, an animal surveillance system, and a new currency was born.
For both parties, it was an incredible insightful process to realise how their worlds speak total different languages and yet can still inspire and challenge each other. The breakthrough happened during 'the toaster session' where a quick design session was meant to explore and push the ways an object can hold values, resulting in the quote of the week: "There's nothing as abstract as a decontextualised toaster."
Dames and Heren, our course is having a work-in-progress-show, together with the Design Products and Architecture courses. It will be an interesting combination of weirdness-in-progress and very tired people. The private view is on Monday 28 January, from 6.30-9pm, print the invite and come along!
As promised, a brief update about last summer. I did a two months internship at Demos, a London based thinktank. In that time, I worked on the Bristol Urban Beachproject and did initial research for two future projects. The first one on human enhancement and bio-engineering in relation to our future sex-lives, the other one on mapping and 'spatial knowledge networks'. Although at first a little strange to work as a designer in a thinktank, I had an amazing and invaluable time, learning a lot from participating in research, writing and organising events.
I also owe a big thanks to Marcel Kampman from Texelse Boys, Interactive / Media / Design and Fabrique, because he got me in touch with the people of Dutch magazine 'Creatie', who did a short interview with me. Look at the interview here (pdf download), it might be good to practice your Dutch.
So what are you doing now, meneer Van Balen? Are you still in school? Or are you sipping pina colada out of a coconut on some tropical beach? Well, let me tell you, because it's interesting and fun.
This summer, I will be working for Demos, a London based thinktank for 'everyday democracy'. Demos is convinced that people need to reconnect their individual everyday lives with the 'common good'. And through their research and publications, they try to also convince policy-makers, companies, and public service providers in many areas. [do take a look at their website where all those reports are freely available in pdf-format]
Imagine a vibrant place, filled with smart people working on interesting projects and you will understand why I declined that pina colada. I will be doing research for Science and Innovation projects and for the Self Build Cities programme. Through all of that, I'm hoping to figure out how design fits in this bigger context of change.
