Kickoff Critical Making research project

The newly launched NWO funded research project ‘Bridging art, design and technology through Critical Making’ aims to interrogate Critical Making by experimentally applying it to a broad range of artistic practices. The project will investigate to what extent Critical Making can serve as a comprehensive concept for design, technology, education and activism intersecting with critical contemporary art practices and artistic research. The consortium received a half million euros grant for the project from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the research programme Smart Culture – Art and Culture.

About the consortium

In this project, main applicant Prof. Dr. Janneke Wesseling (Leiden University) and co-applicant Dr. Florian Cramer (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences) have joined forces with Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (researcher and programme developer Digital Culture at Het Nieuwe Instituut), Lucas Evers (leading Waag Society’s Open Wetlab and Open Design Lab) and Marie-José Sondeijker (director of West Den Haag). In addition, designer, researcher and Hackers & Designers co-founder Anja Groten and media artist, researcher and educator Shailoh Phillips have recently joined the team as PhD candidate and junior researcher respectively. Candidates for two other positions will be recruited in early 2018.

Programme

The consortium will organize a series of Critical Making workshops with art and design students and teachers in several Dutch art schools, including Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam and the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. Furthermore, various public presentations, a national and an international symposium will be organized. At the end of the project, the project outcomes will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed, open access, hybrid paper and electronic book. If you would like to stay informed about these developments and the programme, please send an email to info@phdarts.eu or visit the project website at www.criticalmaking.nl.