Graduation Show 2023
Photo by Jantien RoozenburgWhen trying to imagine what industrial design entails, it is important to look beyond consumer goods; to take into consideration the people involved in industries, the sites of extraction, the factories, the logistic infrastructures that enable the flow of goods into and out of contemporary lives.
Industrial design is a material practice; it is about the relation with and the transformation of materials. But even more so, it is a practice of ideas and narratives, of imagination and world-building. What we design and how we design it makes manifest certain worldviews. However, it is not a one-way process of translating thought into matter; design also shapes how we perceive ourselves, each other, and the world around us. As design theorist Anne Marie Willis points out, there is a double movement in design, where ‘we design our world, and our world designs us back – in short, design designs.’ [1] It therefore becomes important to ask ourselves how design is shaping our thoughts and beliefs. And how and by whom are these worldviews, just like their material counterparts, transported around time and space? How are industries dictating which side of a story should be packaged facing up?
For the past two years at the Master Industrial Design, we, the graduates, have grown together by reflecting on these questions collectively. At This Side UP, we invite you into this process to experience how – by playing, experimenting, observing, being curious, making room for humour, following intuitions, starting from the personal, being meticulous, questioning the conventional, looking at small details that are often overlooked, co-creating, letting materials tell stories, and thinking through making – we can influence each other generatively, and ensure that all of our best sides are facing up.
[1] Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds, Durham: Duke University Press, 2018, p 4.
We invite you to visit our graduation show from 30th of June until the 4th of July 2023 at KABK and see the work of Morris Bouwman, Manon Keesmaat, Ritvik Khushu, Yotam Sion, Chiara Veenstra, Loena Visser, Lisa Wisse and Taiyi Yu
Many thanks to:
Iris Hagel (production), Kevin Kessels (photography and video portraits), Jantien Roozenburg (curation), Zara Roelse (coordinaton and professional development & support), Maaike Roozenburg (department head)
Graduation Year Tutors: Cynthia Hathaway, Krijn Christiaansen, Thomas Vailly, Rosa te Velde, Yassine Salihine, Jon Stam, Jantien Roozenburg, Stefan Lang, Iris Hagel, Malin Dittmann